Insecure Writer’s Support Group; Movie Reviews – Minions, Spiderhead, Maverick; and July Movie Preview

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the July 6 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane Burton!

July question - If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?

I have a couple I would select, but my heart goes back to Shannara. I grew up on those novels, fell in love with fantasy because of the series. Give me the magic of that book world.

The IWSG Goodreads Book Club July picks are –

Reaching For Normal (Bloo Moose #1) by Jemi Fraser

Magic at Midnight by Ronel Janse van Vuuren

Awaken: A Love Story by Elizabeth Mueller, our new IWSG Admin!
What good is "perfect" without love?
There is no crime in the Balance. No aging. No death. Living on the outskirts of society, Daemos escapes his prison with dark secrets that threaten the Balance. Because of this evidence, his life is forfeit. N'reena is drawn to him and the impossible happens--she falls for him. Lives are at stake, especially their own! Can she keep him a secret, or will the Balance destroy them?
Find it on Kindle Vella
You can also watch the author read the first episode on YouTube

And we need co-hosts for August 3, September 7, and October 5! Please let me know if you can help any of those dates.

Movie Reviews

Minions: The Rise of Gru
Picking up where the last Minion movie left off, this film boasts quite the list of voice actors: Steve Carell (as Gru), Taraji P Henson, Jean-Claude Can Damme, Michelle Yeoh, Dolph Lundgren, Lucy Lawless, Danny Trejo, Alan Arkin, Julie Andrews, and Pierre Coffin – the director of all other Minion/Despicable Me movies but this one.
If you’ve enjoyed the last four movies, you’ll enjoy this one. Nothing deep, just a lot of Minions being silly. And really, that’s about all I expect from a Minion movie.
Several nods to character we see later in the Despicable Me series.
Quite a few laughs and a lot of shenanigans from the Minions, but as always, their hearts are in the right place.
Recommended.

Spiderhead
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, and Mark Paguio. In exchange for a shorter sentence, convicts volunteer for drug experiments at a hidden facility.
This one was much better than anticipated. A mix of drama and thriller, the strength of the movie lies in its actors’ ability to keep you watching. What is the purpose of these drugs? How will this all end?
Hemsworth is the director of the facility and is both charming and unnerving. Teller (also in Top Gun: Maverick) is the criminal you really find yourself rooting for despite his past and what he does when on the drugs.
On NetFlix, I’d definitely recommend it.

Top Gun: Maverick
Picking up thirty-plus years later, it stars Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller, with a short, special appearance by Val Kilmer.
Similar to the first film in many ways. This time Maverick is wooing Connelly’s character, training the team for an impossible mission, and dealing with an estranged relationship with Goose’s son, played by Teller.
The flying sequences are amazing, really placing you in the cockpit. You get carried up in the story, emotionally involved.
Unfortunately, I know way too much about the military and planes, and my eyes rolled many, many times. The mission is one that could be solved a hundred different ways and much more effectively than sending the pilots on a near suicide mission. So, the complete lack of realism kind of blew it for me.
I was never a big fan of the first one, but it was fun to watch once. Recommended for fans of the first one, of which there are apparently many of you!

July Movie Preview

Here are the theatrical releases for July. Descriptions courtesy of the IMDB. Snark provided by me.

8 –

Thor: Love and Thunder
Director Taika Waititi
Stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bakle, Taika Waititi
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.
And Sweet Child ‘O Mine will be permanently stuck in your head going into this film…

15 –

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Directors Mark Koetsier, Rob Minkoff, Chris Bailey
Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Samuel L. Jackson, Mel Brooks, Michael Cera
Hank, a loveable dog with a head full of dreams about becoming a samurai, sets off in search of his destiny.
I saw this for free as a kid. It was called Hong Kong Phooey.

22 –

Nope
Director: Jordan Peele
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Steven Yeun
The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
Yep! Maybe. I don’t know…

29 –

The Reef: Stalked
Director: Andrew Traucki
Stars: Teressa Liane, Ann Truong, Tim Ross, Kate Lister, Saskia Archer
After her sister's murder, Nic, her younger sister and two friends seek solace through a Pacific island kayaking adventure. Hours into the trip the women are stalked by a shark and must band together, face their fears and save each other.
Are they 47 Meters Down in The Shallows and pursued by The Meg, or are they Shark Bait in the Deep Blue Sea with the Swamp Shark…?

What book world would you live in? Can you co-host the IWSG? See any of the movies? And what films are you seeing this month?
Enjoy your July! After next week, I will be mostly offline for the month but return August 3 for the next IWSG day.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group, June Movie Preview, Death Love and Robots Review, and What to Watch

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the June 1 posting of the IWSG are SE White, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguire, Joylene Nowell Butler, and Jacqui Murray!

June 1 question - When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing to the end? If have not started the writing yet, why do you think that is and what do you think could help you find your groove and start?

I might slow down, but I’m rather determined, so I just power through. I let the story simmer a bit and usually I figure it out. And by simmer, I just let it slide to the back burner and allow ideas to come and go, but I don’t dwell on it or let it drive me nuts. That won’t help a thing.

The IWSG has launched a new program - IWSG In-Person Writing Groups.
We have the basics set up and you can register your group under the IWSG banner right now. But watch for more as we expand this option!

Ninja News

Sunday was the last stop of the CassaDark tour with Armed With a Book!

Looking for something to watch?

Mystery Science Theater 3000’s next season is rocking over at the Gizmoplex, their own platform. Season pass gets you access to a ton of back shows of MST3K as well as the new season.

Season four of Stranger Things dropped last week! You can binge all seven episodes now.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is several episodes into its first season. This one harkens back to the very first Star Trek series from the sixties in tone and feel. (Although my wife still wonders why everyone on the bridge is a woman…)

And Obi-Wan Kenobi just kicked off.

Love, Death, and Robots Series Review

Season three ushers in some stunning animation. And be warned, a lot of gore. Some of the highlights:
Bad Traveling – A ship’s crew must meet the demands of a giant, man-eating crab in their hold. Animated people are good, animated gore best.
The Very Pulse of the Machine – One of the few cell animated (and the only one with no gore), this excellent piece is trippy and would fit right into the Heavy Metal universe.
Night of the Mini Dead – Computer animated miniature train sets invaded by zombies. Get past the first scene (which is just wrong!) and this is the funniest of the bunch.
Swarm – Great animation, this one begins introspective and ends pure horror. (And thus the gore.)
In the Vaulted Halls Entombed – The military meets Cthulhu, this one is great and boasts stunning animation.

Jibaro – Deaf Spanish knight meets Puerto Rican siren. Great story and the absolutely most amazing animation you will ever see. The water is stunning. Closest to real I have ever seen – dying to know how they did it.
This series is definitely recommended if you can handle the gore!

June Movie Preview

Here are the theatrical releases for June. Descriptions courtesy of the IMDB. Snark provided by me.

10 –

Jurassic World Domination
Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live--and hunt--alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures in a new Era.
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Stars: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill
Fossil fuel is bad – bring on the electric dinosaur!


17 –

Spiderhead
In the near future, convicts are offered the chance to volunteer as medical subjects to shorten their sentence. One such subject for a new drug capable of generating feelings of love begins questioning the reality of his emotions.
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Miles Teller, Chris Hemsworth, Jurnee Smollett, Nathan Jones
Does whatever a Spiderhead can!

Lightyear
The story of Buzz Lightyear and his adventures to infinity and beyond.
Director: Angus MacLane
Stars: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Dale Soules, Taika Waititi
A movie about a child’s toy that isn’t a toy but a real astronaut on another world who inspires a toy based on a guy we should know nothing about…what?!

What do you do when the going gets tough? Interested in an IWSG In-Person Group? Watching any new series? Seen Death Love and Robots? Seeing any movies this month?
If you get a chance, visit Armed With a Book!
Enjoy June - see you July 6 for the next IWSG post.

CassaDark Tour Ends and New Releases

The last stop of the CassaDark tour on May 29, Sunday - Armed With a Book!

New Releases!!

Spine Tingling by Elizabeth S. Craig
The Village Library Mysteries | Book 7
Unintended snooping can mean getting into someone's bad books.
Links to purchase o all platforms can be found here.

Fool’s Iron by Melissa Maygrove
The way to a man's heart is through his ego.
The way to a woman's heart is through her child.
Find it on Amazon

Chaos in the Jungle and Other Stories by Rachna Chhabria
Enter a forest, a garden, a meadow, a field, and a classroom, where the birds, insects and animals are all too human.
Find it on Amazon

Visit Armed With a Book on Sunday and I will see you Wednesday, June 1 for Insecure Writer’s Support Group day!

Reviews: The Northman and Doctor Strange, A to Z Challenge Favorites, and New Releases

This Wednesday, I’m visiting Shannon Lawrence!

Movie Reviews

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

Dr. Stephen Strange casts a forbidden spell that opens the doorway to the multiverse, including alternate versions of himself, whose threat to humanity is too great for the combined forces of Strange, Wong, and Wanda Maximoff.
This is how the movie is being billed. This is not the movie at all!
Without giving anything away, it’s another solid if a bit underwhelming entry into the Marvel Universe.
I was a bit disappointed with the main villain. (No spoilers.) And for whatever reason, I just wasn’t as fully invested as I was in other Marvel films.
Sam Raimi directorial style lends itself well to this horror-tinged Marvel entry. He throws in a lot of Evil Dead references.
There are a ton of surprise guests that relate back to the Disney+ television shows. And even more than that. (And one Sam Raimi regular that will make you smile.)
There were not enough multiverses. They flash through dozens on the first venture, but there are only two they dwell in.
Overall I liked it, and everyone did a great job in their roles, but I didn’t love it.
Recommended for fans and for fun.

The Northman

An action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder.
This is the original Hamlet, based on a Norse story. (Shakespeare wrote his Hamlet after reading this story.) Alexander Skarsgård is Hamlet, Nicole Kidman his mother, Claes Bang his murderous uncle, Ethan Hawke his father, and Anya Taylor-Joy is Olga, his love.
If you know the works of director Eggers, you know this is going to be a bit strange. Go into it thinking art house meets action film.
Skarsgård is perfect as Hamlet. A hulking Viking figure. On a noble quest that goes horribly awry.
It really had the feel of an epic Viking tale. From the haunting soundtrack, the strange musical interludes, and the incredible cinematography. And a special mention to some of the camera shots which I have no idea how the director got them.
This is a film for anyone who is in the mood for something different, something other than the standard Hollywood fare.
If the above review hasn’t scared you away, then I highly recommend it.

A to Z Challenge

Those of you who participated in the A to Z Challenge, did you have fun? I participated the first year and for many years afterwards as an admin, but I know it would overwhelm me now. Life changes.

There were some fun themes though. In case you missed them, here are some I enjoyed. (Being the geek that I am.)

Diedre Knight’s posts focused on design, namely unique designs of buildings around the world. Every day was fascinating. Most of the places I’d never heard of but would love to visit someday.

J.S. Pailly did a series on Our Place in Space. In his words - I’ll be taking you on a partly imaginative and highly optimistic tour of humanity’s future in outer space. And it was a fun and educational adventure.

P.T. Dilloway posted his collection of action figures, which is impressive considering he covered every letter! Since I’m a DC guy, some of the Marvel character he posted were new to me.

Carrie-Anne paid homage to famous people from Ukraine, really giving in depth history into their lives. Amazing the talent that came from that area.

And Challenge founder Arlee Bird posted about his remaining vinyl collection. Want a trip back to the 60’s and 70’s? Check it out and thank him for starting the A to Z Challenge.

New Releases and More

Particular Passages 2: East Wing
Featuring The Killing Tree by Shannon Lawrence

15 Stories 15 Authors
Down another forgotten hallway lie more unexplored rooms.
Each room contains another world waiting to be discovered.
Some are wonderful and beautiful, others are dark and terrible.
You won't know which until you step inside.
So take a deep breath, and open the door...

Find it on Amazon

The Omen of Crows Nest by Cathrina Constantine

No blood. No body. No murder.
That's what the police found after Penelope spun her bizarre tale. In a hysterical state, she said her father was butchered and eaten by a mob of birds ~ in her bedroom.
They claim she's crazy.
That she suffers from delusions.
Penelope is dead set on proving them wrong.
After being institutionalized for eight months, Penelope is out and more determined than ever to find answers to her so-called hallucinations. With her father's untimely disappearance, she's convinced her family is hiding something sinister.

Find it on Amazon

And finally, the IWSG was asked to do a podcast and Diane Wolfe represented us. Check it out!
Voice America

Have you seen either movie and what did you think? What were some of your favorite themes during the A to Z Challenge? Picking up new books?

Be sure to visit Shannon Lawrence on Wednesday!

My final tour stop will be Friday, May 27 at Armed With a Book. Outside of that, I’ll see you June 1 for the next IWSG!