One Piece: Gold (Review)

The Straw Hat pirates are hitting the big screen once again in an all-new high-flying adventure! The popular series that has captivated fans all over the world unfolds a new saga in the highly anticipated movie, One Piece Film: Gold. The glittering Gran Tesoro, a city of entertainment beyond the laws of the government, is a sanctuary for the world's most infamous pirates, Marines, and filthy rich millionaires. Drawn by dreams of hitting the jackpot, Captain Luffy and his crew sail straight for the gold. But behind the gilded curtains lies a powerful king whose deep pockets and deeper ambitions spell disaster for the Straw Hats and the New World alike.

One Piece: Gold fits the title because this movie is pure gold and definitely one of the best One Piece films to date. The film follows The Straw Hat Pirates gang travel to Gran Tesoro to win some cash and gold and take part in the entertainment. This place is a pirate sanctuary uninhabited by rules and regulations that other areas in the One Piece world are use too. While Luffy and the gang are racking up the wins at the Casino they encountered Tesoro himself. He has his own plans agenda for Luffy and gang and offers up a challenge. The challenge is if Luffy can win the challenges set Tesoro will ten times the winnings. Of course this all sounds too good to be true as Luffy and the gang find out Tesoro has something up his sleeve.  For the sake of spoilers I won't go too much into the plot. I would say out of all the One Piece films this one is my favorite. The film is just beautiful to look at from the use of 3D backgrounds to clever use of colors of the environments and characters. Tesoro is also a great antagonist. Like a lot of One Piece villains he has enough layers for you to connect with him. He's charismatic, cunning but also  a force to be reckon with. One Piece villains always have a likable quality to them, for Tesoro his charisma is something I think fans will gravitate towards.

It wouldn't be One Piece without action and this film does not disappoint. The action is at it's best. Once again I won't spoil the battles but with the use of CGI backgrounds and the music played it brings a level of intensity the other movies seem to lack. This movie has a sense of high stakes and using the theme of a casino it makes it more unprecedented at what is at stakes for Luffy and the gang. Fans will not be disappointed at the amazing set pieces that the team put together. Finally the voice acting was seen in the English dub and the cast once again knocks it out of the park. The cast brings energy, humor and even some high stakes emotion moments with their performances. My favorite performance is Tesoro he his so great as an antagonist and the performance shows what a great character he is.

Final Grade 4.5/5 Stars: One Piece: Gold is the One Piece movie to check out. The film has humor, action and a very entertaining villain. The visuals are beautiful with us getting a glimpse of the biggest ships in the One Piece universe. If you're fan this is a must see. If you're just getting into the franchise this a good kickstarter. 

One Piece: Gold is coming to USA click here for theatre listings. 

Collateral Beauty Review

Written By Sean Tucker

Hey O&G fan, last night we attended the world premiere of Collateral Beauty at the Jazz Theater Lincoln Center NYC. Cast, Press and Guest came out to see what could be a Oscar season nomination. As always a brief description of the movie:

Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

REVIEW

Ok let's begin with Howard (Will Smith). The movie opens with Howard giving a speech to his employees with his usual smile and self confidence, fast forward to 3 years later and now he's a broken shell of a man. His friends and business partners think he's finally lost his mind from grief due to the loss of his only child. The business is failing and his partners fear that he won't sell his shares in order to save it, so they hire 3 actors to play (Love, Time and Death) the three entities he's been writing letters to in hopes to prove to the other board members he's actually a bit crazy.

The movie is meant to be a tear jerker and it is. Critics have slammed it saying its trying to be Manchester by the Bay, But for the average moviegoer, who doesn’t care about being manipulated into a sobbing, sloppy flesh-bag of tears, they will enjoy Collateral Beauty. Will Smith is his usual suave self and for me he played the role great. Whit (Ed Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet), and Simon (Michael Peña,) were a pretty good supporting cast, Although for me, I felt they were all about themselves until they learned their own lessons about Love, Time and Death.

Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore and Helen Mirren, respectively, ( personifications of Love, Time, and Death ) were played very well ( especially Mirren ) I think they were the saving grace of the movie. The movie does drag a bit and has some moments where you wanna scream "alright already, move on"

Collateral Beauty isn’t exactly a great movie as noted, but it was very entertaining and the All about the Tears kind of movie it promised to be. I'm giving the movie 3 1/2 stars.

Lenni Reviews: "Spell Cat" by Tara Lain

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated for 18+

Professor Killian Barth teaches the history of witchcraft and has a unique perspective on the matter considering he is indeed a witch. He is the most powerful male witch to come along in generations.  Keeping his identity a secret from regular humans, he catches the eye of the quantum physics professor; Blane Genneau. Their attraction is instant but Killian is being forced to marry another witch, Lavender, in order to save the witch race by pumping out magical children. But not only is Killian gay, Lavender is in love with someone else, and Killian finds the magnetism between him and Blane is too strong to resist. There's also the added rub that if a witch sleeps with a human, it will drain the witch's power away. Can Killian find a way to not only be with the one he loves but overcome prejudice against humans, find a way to save his race, and convince a man of science to believe magic is real?

First off, I have to point out that Lain made Lavender a likable character. It's so easy to fall into that trope of one of the people in the forced marriage being a complete horror to make the main character look even more put upon. But Lavender is a kind, sweet person and even tries to help Killian whenever she can. That was very refreshing.

While this book was decently written and cute, sometimes it felt a little contrived. It has this fanfiction like quality to it where everyone is too perfect, too pretty, and sex literally tears the skies apart it's so good. I mean, geez, nobody even had an interesting mole or tattoo... I also would have liked to see the fantasy elements explored more. I know that they're technically supposed to take a back seat to the romance but there are some interesting concepts here that I felt were glossed over to get the couple where they needed to be. But I do give this book credit for turning a couple tropes on their heads, having some fun characters and steamy romance scenes. 3 out of 5.

Lenni Reviews: "Deadlight Jack" by Mark Onspaugh

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Jimmy Kalmaku and George Watters may seem like any other old retirees, but they are both supernatural heroes who saved the world. When George’s grandson vanishes while on vacation in the Louisiana bayou, both men must use their abilities to the utmost in order to defeat the terrifying Deadlight Jack.

This book is like Murder She Wrote or Columbo except with demons and old men using magic. George and Jimmy's rapport is a pleasure to read. You can tell they're old friends and are just the best. About 10% George says the line: "The only pickups I'm gonna be making are of pretty girls who like jazz and want to go dancing with the area's black Astaire."

"Too cute!!"

I found myself chuckling and smiling whenever they talked. I did find it amusing how people kept mistaking them for a gay couple (especially considering how much gay smut romance I read...) and that joke is thankfully not overused. It would have been really easy to use that gag to DEATH but Onspaugh kept it at the level such things should be in real life; not that big a deal.

Deadlight Jack is legitimately horrifying; so when the actual plot gets going it's tense and exciting. The humor is still there but you feel that impending danger. The ending may have been a little deus ex machina but you're having so much fun, it's acceptable. I can tell so much love was put in this book. This is George and Jimmy's second adventure (I plan to read the first just for fun) and the epilogue makes noise about a possible third. I sure hope that's true because I am totally on board. 4.7 out of 5.

Lenni Reviews: "Syndicates Pawns" by Davila LeBlanc

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

The crew of the Jinxed Thirteenth is sent on a rescue mission to retrieve the only survivor of an abandoned space station. What they find is Jessie Madison in cryo-sleep; and she has been there for several millennia. Awakening to a world that's completely unknown to her, Jessie struggles to learn new languages and face the loss of her husband. Meanwhile, a crew criminals lead by Domiant, sets out to capture the ship and Jessie as valuable cargo. Captain Morwyn and his crew must beat back Domiant and his dangerous underlings in order to protect Jessie and her unborn child from being sold or worse.

This book is like a combination of Event Horizon and Firefly in that the story takes place mostly on one ship and the crews on both sides are made up of very different species with all sorts of different abilities and specialties that struggle to get along and work together. They work well together and the world building and action sequences are written very well, there are so many characters with not enough development to properly tell them apart. I found myself getting confused as to who was who very easily. Except for Jessie; who stood out really well but mostly because she is truly a fish out of water. While this book is the second in a series, it stands well enough on it's own. For muddled characterization but an exciting story, I give this a 3.5 out of 5.

Lenni Reviews: "Oria’s Gambit" by Jeffe Kennedy

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

With her kingdom, Bara, captured by the Destrye, Oria gambles on a marriage with the conquering leader; Lonen. Since Bara is ruled by magic, the highly powerful and sensitive Oria takes a huge risk in marrying Lonen since he cannot use magic and Bara has never had a non-magic using ruler. The main reason for this gamble is Oria's cruel and despotic brother, Yar; who may likely begin another war despite the peace her kingdom has just attained.

Having not read the first part, there is enough here to make you understand there was a brutal war and that our main pair would like to spare their respective kingdoms any further bloodshed. Oria and Lonen are well developed enough and the writing is competent enough for you to get emotionally invested enough to want them to succeed. But the book does spend a great deal of time meandering around Lonen and Oria's obvious attraction to one another and their hope to overcome Oria's inability to even touch Lonen without her magic causing her pain. The pacing lost it's sense of urgency when the book spends so much time on the romance. The love story didn't distract from the major fantasy elements but once Yar came back into the picture, I felt the characters should have spent less time making gooily eyes and more time getting ready.

Don't get me wrong; Lonen and Oria have good chemistry and the overall story kept me interested enough to not only finish it but to want to know what happens in the next installment. If you like fantasy in your romance, this isn't a bad offering despite being pretty short and ending on a cliffhanger. 3.7 out of 5.

Jinsei (Life Consulting) The Complete Series Review

Yuki Akamatsu desperately needs to work on his social interactions—at least according to the 2nd Newspaper Club president. And by that, she means getting him a girlfriend! After a barrage of personal insults, she assigns him to work the Life Counseling section of the paper. Yuki has no idea what this really means for him until he meets the three cuties responsible for providing advice. Rino Endo specializes in the sciences, Fumi Kujo covers humanities, while Ikumi Suzuki handles the world of sports—and snacks! Unfortunately, these three girls cannot agree on anything. Which means Yuki has to keep them on track and guide them to the answers that will help their classmates in need. Can he survive the onslaught of their boisterous personalities and compromising positions a plenty? There’s only so much a teenage boy can take!h

Lenni Reviews: "Goodnight Batcave" by Dave Croatto and Tom Richmond

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

In this parody of Goodnight Moon, Batman is lounging in his cave when some bad guys show up. He beats them up, then goes to bed. The whole rogue's gallery is there and the character design calls back to the Batman: The Animated Series character designs.

This book is clever and funny. The joke works better if you're familiar with Goodnight moon and I read this to my kid (who loves comics) and she laughed and did want a copy of her own.

For a book put out by MAD Magazine, it's pretty kid friendly. The art is in their typical style but there's nothing in it I would feel hesitant to show a kid who is already familiar with comics. There's a justifiable amount of violence (superheroes don't tend to cuddle the villains to jail) and I think this will give both kids and adults a few good chuckles. I read this on my Kindle but I think this is worth a hardcover purchase if you love Batman and love MAD. 4.5 out of 5.