Entertaining, but severely lacking
581403
This book provides some mild entertainment value, but it is far from a comprehensive guide. There are so many striking omissions both in specific quotes and in films themselves.  At the same time, there is included a  multitude of useless and unmemorable quotations. The only redeeming quality  of this "dictionary" is as a source of random nostalgia. It might  provide amusement at a party on Oscar night, but it is not to be mistaken  for a reference book.
1532763
A fun read if you've got nothing else, but there is much better out there.
2202405
This is one of the most engaging titles I've seen in years.  I was looking forward to a clash of East v. West, of the legal v. the spiritual, all leavened by a large dash of humor.
Instead I found a entertaining, but  ultimately disappointing book.  The plot is sort of an Indian "Maltese  Falcon," only this time, "the stuff that dreams are made of"  is a statuette of the Hindu god Shiva.  Our hero, a London barrister  (smart! good-looking!), is off to India (where he grew up) to dig up leads,  and, eventually, romance.
The description of the Western guests and  Eastern hosts--all suspects!-- and the atmospheric hotel from which the  statuette was purportedly stolen is wonderful escapism. The guests parody  varying attitudes towards the East (variously appalled, shocked,  intoxicated, patrician):  Enjoy these characters and their sense-satiating  hotel with a long cool summertime drink.
But the plot, and most of the  characters, proceed without sufficient development or surprise to match the  promise of the earlier narrative.  And when it all ends (in a Perry  Mason-like long confessional), one wishes that the book had taken a  different, perhaps more whimsical direction.
Being a  short novel, it is  probably worth your time to read it, if only for an introduction to Rumer  Godden, and as an antidote to summer's gasoline-soaked barbeques and  blaring baseball games.
(I look forward to reading other books by this  renowned author.)
3138069
Push is a fantasy/sci-fi action/adventure tale about a world in which psychics of various varieties exist. There are Watchers who can see the future, telekenetic Movers, healing Stitchers, mind-controlling Pushers and a host of others. A US government agency called The Division seeks to control these psychics and harness their powers for its own ends. The Division has developed program to develop a drug that radically enhances psychic powers, but unfortunately kills almost all of its test subjects, until one girl, a mind-controlling Pusher, survives the process. She escapes, along with a sample of the drug, and The Division begins an all-out manhunt to bring her and the drug back.

While this is all a somewhat promising scenario, Push suffers from fundamental flaws in storytelling, flaws that unfortunately afflict many effects-heavy action pictures. There is shallow character development, a confusing and complicated story, awkward dialogue and gaping plot holes you could drive a truck through. There are some entertaining set pieces and Dakota Fanning is always good, even in the borderline annoying teenager she plays here. At the end of the day though, the characters are weakly rendered and there is a confusing and illogical flow to the way events play out. Frustrating for a film that could have been much better, considering the interesting backdrop they created.

This is a rental at best. I can't recommend purchasing it.
1797388
I read through most of this, skimming toward the end.  I was drawn in by each new "chapter," but after a while I got sick of the tease.  All of the chapters were essentially the very beginning of what could be an amazing story.  They ended abruptly, leaving me wanting more, all the while frustrated that there was no real story line.  I can see that these were heartfelt stories, but they're incomplete and at times poorly edited.  If you're bored, and able to get this for free, I say why not.  It's a pleasant diversion.  However, if you're expecting to really be entertained or for there to be any sort of resolution, avoid this book.
4479125
There are some good ideas in this retelling of "The Goose Girl", particularly the way it's used to examine notions of power, privilege, and justice - along both class and gender lines.  That being said, I had three fairly significant problems with the story.

1) It fails to make any sense of the crazy dream-logic present in the fairy tale.  Admittedly, it's hard to square a dead talking horse's head AND a magical wind AND a maid/identity thief AND a goose boy with a hair fetish... but other versions have done so.  Layering in additional elements, like Red Hawk, the snatchers, Kestrin's magic, and the Lady, only serves to clutter matters without adding anything of real value.

2) It fails to develop its good ideas in a meaningful way.  There's a lot of tell and not so much show happening when it comes to the workings of the city and its government.  Yes, the justice system is corrupt, and violence against women is dreadful, but it's all so two-dimensionally oppressive that at one point I was expecting Valka to outright declare, "Let them eat apple cakes!"  Alyrra's response is lacking some fire, too.  As a victim herself, it would be nice to see her finding the inner strength to act as a champion to the people, instead of wringing her hands over things ad nauseum.

3) It fails to deliver a credible bad guy.  Valka's too petty and self-centered to be much of a threat to Alyrra; a mistake, since someone who'd order an innocent horse slaughtered, out of dinner-party envy, could be a villainess you really love to hate.  As it stands, she's just another mean girl.  And as for the Lady, ostensibly the Big Bad of the story... ugh.  She disappears for most of the book - never a good plan on the part of the writer - and when she reappears, it's a pretty lackluster showdown.  For one of those soulless Fair Folk, she sure develops a conscience awfully fast.  (Maybe it's the exposure to Alyrra's vaguely Abrahamic religion - also never fleshed out in any meaningful way.)

Overall, the story felt like it needed to go back into the oven for a while longer: not terrible, just... not great.
3298411
I showed this to a group of people without bothering to pre-screen it first because, you know--Star Wars Lego, always fantastic, right? Well, I can only hope this is a low point in the series, because the magic is not there this time. Families were walking out in less than an hour. Almost nobody stayed till the end.

It's not horrible.  There are still some laughs, and quite a lot of smiles. There are also a whole lot of forced, lame, weak jokes and rehashed jokes from previous offerings. Maybe they have new writers on the job, maybe they are finally running out of juice, or maybe the subject matter was just too ambitious this time, locking them into a framework where they had to come up with jokes to fit the ultra-familiar, often-parodied original story instead of following their own zany path. Most of the really entertaining moments appear in the trailer.

Anyway, as you probably know, this is the retelling of the original saga by C3PO, from the droids' point of view. He starts by telling the prequel series story to the victorious rebels on Endor. Then R2D2 is kidnapped by a mysterious figure, in an attempt to provide the film with an overarching weak plot, and C3PO wanders around trying to find and rescue Artoo while telling the rest of the saga to various passers-by.

I enjoyed the better moments and the few really funny lines. I liked the reappearance of one of Star Wars's lesser and forgotten Imperial villains.  Pointless shoe-horning-in of Disney's 'Star Wars Rebels' characters, complete with little fanboy to tell us how TOTALLY AWESOMELY AMAZINGLY COOL they are, just in case we haven't come to that conclusion ourselves yet, was pointless. At the same time, there was nothing but the very slightest, almost undetectable nod to The Force Awakens.  (Come on.  It's C3PO after the original trilogy. A red arm joke was BEGGING to be made. I could come up with six without even trying.)

Anyway, I won't say not to watch it. If you haven't seen the others yet, you will probably find it mildly entertaining without comparing it to the previous standard. But get it from the library or something. It isn't worth putting money into unless you insist on owning a complete Star Wars Lego collection. And then go watch Padawan Menace (and its on-disc extras), Empire Strikes Out, The Yoda Chronicles and The New Yoda Chronicles, and you will see the glory that is supposed to be Lego Star Wars.
1387253
Although this game is fun many aspects feel extremely lackluster.
This review is divided into sections:

Plot:
The plot is that 4 gemulets need to be returned to Jeff the Gnome King (or CEO as it's incredibly unclear whether he's a reigning monarch, or the manager at a company) or the Gnome forest will die (there's some pretty funny jokes about this happening and the game is thankfully self aware, at how generic this plot is).
One thing that's disappointing is the diverse collection of characters, have NO ROLE in the plot or the rest of the game. You just end up wishing they'd had written some actual interesting plot incorporating characters and locations from the show, but nope!

Writing:
This game has pretty funny dialogue, although you'll likely be irritated by the slow scrolling text. Overall it's good though.

Characters:
Nearly all characters from the show have NO ROLE in this game whatsoever. Even for side-quests. This is pretty disappointing. Also despite the date this was released, Ford is nowhere to be seen.

Enemies:
The enemy collection is unforgivable. There are (drumroll please) FIVE enemy types in the ENTIRE GAME.
This is not counting bosses as they're included in the enemy log. You'll be very irritated that creatures from the show like the Multi-bear, the Manotaurs, or even Bill Cipher have NO ROLE whatsoever.
Yeah, you never get to fight Bill Cipher, and his only mention is very brief and contributes nothing. You always fight the same boss, precisely the same way.
Most enemies (all but one) derive nothing from the show, which is quite disappointing.

Gameplay/Levels:
EVERY SINGLE LEVEL IS ITEM RETRIVAL, THEN BOSS FIGHT! It never changes! This get's as old as it sounds.
Gameplay is just your generic side-scroller nothing special. You can switch between Dipper and Mabel, but it barely affects things.
Dipper has the size-changing flashlight but all it does is let you into secret rooms. Yeah, you can't even use it at will. Mabel has her grappling hook, but it too can't be used at will.

Quests:
The quests are extremely lackluster. Every single one is item retrieval! And worse yet, you get nothing for completing them except a check mark in your quest log, some moderately amusing dialogue, and a few extra hours in your play-time counter, from the time you spent finding the items unfairly hidden (this game LOVES walk-through walls)!
Yeah, that's right! You're NOT rewarded for completing the quests.
Take Wendy's quest for example, you'd expect to get an Axe, maybe a special move to access secret areas or at least clear enemies faster, or at least some money (which by the way, you CAN'T use to buy consumables as this game has none even though it would've been perfect for the Mystery Shack to be a shop) not NOTHING.
I honestly think these copy-pasted quests are only present to shoe-horn in characters from the show, who contribute nothing by the way.

Animation/Music:
The animation and music are both extremely good, though it is sad how little we get to hear the opening theme, but overall the music enhances the mood of various levels quite well.
It's also annoying that when something crazy happens in a scripted sequence, characters don't visually react in the slightest!

Overall:
This game is fun, but it's incredibly obvious that it was made because someone wanted more money, not that something loved and respected the mythos of Gravity Falls. Most Gravity Falls fans, will cringe at the misrepresentation of the source material, too. I'd say 5.5/10
3640812
Was this story fast-paced?  Yes.  Was it fun to read?  Well, there was much to make fun of.
It is not a super hero book, btw.
Plot holes:
1, everyone uses British words (lifts, petrol, centre) but pretend they are from all over the world (China, US, Australia, and Norway)
2, Axel doesn't use his powers when he could:
*He walks around enemy bases and doesn't have a constant shield.
*He can use air to blast through walls but keeps trying to go through doors and a maze of corridors.
*He cannot affect the robots with magic and decides to punch them to death.  Why not pick up rocks with magic and throw them at the robots?
*He can fly mach 2 but cannot catch a bad guy when running across a beach.  Uh, hello?  What happened to flying really fast?
*He has to travel 100 feet underwater and nearly dies of drowning, but he can control air!  Why not bring some air with him as he swam?
3, The kids paid 20,000 fake dollars for a convertible.  Don't those cost more, like, $50,000?
4, Distances:
*They are in a truck in NY City and head south.  "We must be headed to South Carolina, because there's a military base there."  There are lots of military bases between NY and SC!  The truck drives for half a day, and they arrive in SC.  It takes longer than half a day to drive that far!  (My family has done that.  Also, why Charleston?  It's mostly a Navy training school, right?)
*Axel flies from Florida to NY in less than an hour.  Actually, he says, "A few minutes later" he could see NYC, but I'll pretend it was longer.  Shouldn't it have taken more like three hours at mach 2?  No, I haven't done the math.  It just doesn't sound right.
4, characters change their minds to the point of insanity.
*two boys  decide to fight their way free of the base, and they say, "these are the good guys, we shouldn't fight them," and surrender.
*Twelve is crazy, but he's an alien.
*Axel's like, "I can't trust anyone!" but he does.  Then he won't trust Brodie but does trust this random scientist who lures him to a cavern by himself.

The powers are too powerful.  Danny gets mind control AND can move metal?  There are way too many things these kids can do, and they don't.

A couple scenes jumped around.  Like, a bad guy shoots a scientist, and Axel tries to stop the bleeding, but what happened to that bad guy?  He doesn't try to kill Axel until two scenes later.  He could have shot him when he shot the scientist instead of just not getting mentioned again.  Does he leave or stand there watching Axel not save the scientist as she gives him important secrets?  The book doesn't tell us!
Another scene had Axel shot (and did the bullet just graze him or lodge in his side?  We only know it won't kill him and that it is a "flesh wound," which, after Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is not very specific), and then he's running around, and then he doesn't feel well, and there's lots of blood.  He passes out for a day, gets stitches, jumps around some more, is exploded, and runs around some more.  There is no recovery time!!  This is a pet peeve of mine.  Yes, I have, like, a dozen.

BUT, I did finish the book.  Some of that is because I enjoy highlighting plot holes (ha!), but it is also because this book has a fun voice.  The book was short with lots of action and explosions and not too many characters.
2218364
I must say that I looked forward to this movie more than it deserved. The premise, as promised by the trailers, was intriguing and promised to be very entertaining. The animation was superb, making physically impossible feats seem quite reasonable, even probable.

The problem is, so much time was spent on the look of the movie, the story line ended up getting the short end of the stick. So much was crowded into each sequence that the film ended up seeming like a series of loosely connected vignettes. The producers should have opted to make two films, with the last three sequences being a separate sequel. That would have allowed for more character development, and more screen time for the dog, clearly the smartest one in the film.
2947481
While there is certainly a lot to like about Amplified, the book fails to offer something new, interesting, or valuable to the genre.

Despite the personal quirks that make Jasmine a successful protagonist, her personal situation is one giant clich. Privileged daughter of a rich but distant, critical, and disapproving father decides to throw her amazing opportunities to the wolves in order to pursue a dream that seems frivolous and impossible. While there is a slight twist in the story involving Jasmine's mother, the overused plot device is not appreciated.

Jasmine's naive character and extreme self-consciousness are outweighed only by her determination to not give in to her father's expectations, essentially equating her with a petulant three year old who refuses to eat her vegetables just because someone told her to.

This affects the rest of the novel greatly, as it is difficult to feel compassion for a protagonist who is stubborn simply for the sake of being stubborn. In other words, rather than feeling she is justified for her actions, the reader is forced to view Jasmine's actions as reactions to what is expected of her by others around her.

The plot of Amplified revolves on Jasmine's ability to assimilate into the life she thought she wanted. There is a great pace to this story, with plenty of tension created between Jasmine and the other characters. On the surface, Amplified is a very successful YA contemporary novel: it is entertaining, contains a clear-cut message, and provides memorable characters.

However, where Amplified fails is in its ability to merge all of these elements together in a way that is not plagued by clich and predictability. Because the premise for the entire novel is a clich, the book seems to be doomed from the start.

Despite these rather large pitfalls, the book is carefully written, which prevents it from receiving a far lower rating than it does here.

A note on the setting of the novel: Amplified portrays Santa Cruz in a very balanced, but almost caricatured version of itself.

I grew up just a half hour from Santa Cruz and spent a large portion of my time there. I have ridden the unnamed rollercoaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk that frightens Jasmine to death in the beginning of the novel, the Giant Dipper, and let me tell you: that rollercoaster is just not scary. Even for a ten year old.

Yes, there are a lot of weirdos in Santa Cruz. A lot of eccentric, tattooed musician-types, surfer hippie dudes, and everything in between. But not everyone there is like that, which is what Amplified seems to portray in descriptions of the locals.

For those looking for a very entertaining and quick surface-read, Amplified is a great choice. But for readers who need less clich and more meaning, their time will be better spent with another book.
4654637
I liked the movie very much--it was very entertaining.  However, they tried to put so much material into it that it really lacked some of the plot development it needed to carry through all of the points within it.  There was so much here that it would have made more sense to turn it into a full-fledged season of a TV show or a longer mini-series at least.  I don't want to get into spoilers, so I will simply say there are definite breaking points throughout that could have been developed into full-fledged features on their own.  I would be interested in seeing this same idea in an expanded format.
805325
This book suffers from a good idea with not-so-good execution.  The only way I was able to finish it was to imagine famous actors playing the parts and hear the dialogue in their voices, even if those actors didn't make any sense for the parts I gave them. For example, Jensen Ackles is not Japanese, but Dean Winchester works very well as Tom; and Christopher Walken is not a big muscly dude, but he is hilarious as Charlie Pink-Eye, and I highly recommend reading his lines in Walken's voice.

The biggest problem was the main character.  Benny is annoying. He's lazy and childish in the beginning, and he has spurts of maturing throughout the book, but sometimes he backslides (and it's not always clear why), and you roll your eyes.  How he could grow up in a tiny town and not know what his brother, whom he lives with, does for a living is far-fetched, as is the characterization of the town itself being so awkwardly fearful.  Tom explains these things to Benny; Benny says these things are dumb; and the reader agrees.

But again, I like the idea. I like having to wrap my mind around zombies still being people, at least in the memories of those who loved them. I like the Wild West feel of the all-but-vanquished world.  It just gets a little too dramatic and a little too unrealistic.

For a zombie book though, there isn't a terrible amount of gore, and there is only a little swearing (I think one of the big bad guys even says "friggin'" at one point), so it seems to be aimed at a younger, junior-high-ish audience.  But it doesn't quite fit that crossover young-adult-to-adult audience, so I probably wouldn't recommend it for anyone older than high school.
92231
I read this book and found it to be highly entertaining. The book structure and narrative is cohesive and the mystery is rather gripping. It is fun to uncover the secrets the book slowly unravels.

So, why have I only given it three stars? It is because of the characters. The characters in this story fall completely flat. The characters behave and act like broad archetypes and are shallow at best. They do not react to their situations in ways that any human being would react to in a believable way. Where they should be terrified and surprised, these caricatures behave startled and nonplussed. They are like broad brush strokes creating a distorted shell of a picture rather than anything specific. I can't really give any examples without spoiling key scenes of the story, which makes this review difficult to comprehend.

This is such a shame because the nature of the story is gripping and the mystery is fun. It is a shame that the characters really brought it down. But if you are the sort of reader who just wants a fun tale and can overlook these sorts of things, I would say that you absolutely should give this a read.
1004141
The fist of God has a decent story, with a little too much super-agent antics, featuring an agent in Iraq that has everything going for him a little too smoothly to be realistic.

The story invloving the secret weapon is in fact almost non-fictional, since anybody who knows the story of Gerald Bull will pretty much be able to guess what the weapon and how it would be used right from the start.

The main problem for me, as usual with Forsyth, is that the characters are virtually non-existent, and there is zero characterization (how do they even look like?!) Another problem is that most characters seem to be mindless drones that can't figure out what the reader has long ago. They are supposed to be intelligence officers, but really can't figure out 1+1.

The strong point is the research, and an impressive (although superficial) account of espionage, the structure and workings of various intelligence and control bodies during the Gulf war, and the description of coalition military might, all of which would greatly satisfy readers who enjoy this sort of fiction.

The writing is workmanlike, and lacking the wit, humor and intelligence of Le Carre's. Still, a strong novel.
1316079
The series up to this point has been pretty entertaining, and though I was disappointed by this entry, I will probably still go for one more to see if the author can get back to what worked well...  The problems with Knights Magi are pretty severe, there are some major plotlines that aren't internally consistent, and I wish that wasn't the only issue.  The female characters are caricatures, props for Tyndal and Rondal to argue over and about.  Previous entries in this series have told a good story, developed characters and the world, and generally been pretty decent fiction, make you look forward to the next book kind of stuff... this entry tells three stories poorly, and makes you want to close it and put it out of it's misery.
3545732
the title of this review says it all pretty much.  This movie had a lot of potential.  Don't get me wrong, it did have some extremely funny scenes, and the special features aren't terrible, but it could definitely could have been better.