The Visit at Redbox!

Credit: imdb.com

     The Visit is about two kids who go to visit their grandparents, whom they've never met before. They did it to give their mother a break after their father left. The mother had a falling out with her parents a long time ago and her kids never met them until now. For a wide release film, this movie had a relatively low budget of 5 million dollars. It comes from Blumhouse Productions and they have been making a lot of decent horror films. It also comes from M. Night Shyamalan, who's a good director, but some of his movies are hit and miss.

     This movie made all of its money back and then some. It doesn't have any special effects, but it still manages to come across as a back-to-basics horror film. When you watch it, you think that the grandmother is possessed or something, but this movie has a twist ending that will bother you. Becca and her little brother, Tyler take a train to visit their grandparents, while their mother goes on a cruise with a guy she likes. The children hope she will enjoy and start to feel happy again after their father left them.

     Becca decides to turn this into an opportunity to film her grandparents, learn about them and make amends between them and her mother. Becca comes across as a hipster director/filmmaker and Tyler is an annoying little brother who raps. Don't let this stop you from watching the movie, though. It's the grandparents who really shine. They come across as a bit withdrawn and it's written off as they're elderly and don't know their grandchildren. The grandfather tells the children that they go to bed at 9:30 p.m. He later tells them that they should stay in their rooms at 9:30 p.m. They notice both grandparents are increasingly acting strange and Becca tries to rationalize it. After talking to their mother via webcam, the mother tries to rationalize it until she finds out something terrible.

This movie is filmed like Paranormal Activity. It has the kids recording and holding cameras and it tells you what day they are on for their one week visit with their grandparents. It's not scary like typical horror movies. It's more scary if this really happened and because of the way the actors build up the suspense. Although, it does have some kind of scary moments. You might even yell at your screen and tell the kids to stop opening the door at night. It's a pretty decent horror movie. 6/10

Japan Crate!

     A Japan Crate is a monthly subscription box, where you receive Japanese candy, snacks and possibly drinks. There are 3 crates: the mini for $12/month, the original for $25/month and the premium for $30/month. You get free U.S. shipping and pay a fee for international shipping. You also have to pay taxes. You can get a discount if you are a brand new customer. They also have tiers of how to pay for the crates. You can pay month-to-month or you can pay 3, 6 and 12-month plans. You would pay all of the amount now, but you would save more money the longer the plan is. They also have Doki Doki Crates, which is great if you like Japanese toys and branded products. I will be focusing on the original Japan Crate for this review. I'm doing this review for free in case anyone wanted to know more about Japan Crate.

     The original crate is a 1 pound crate that has 8 to 10 items and is guaranteed a DIY kit. The DIY kit is something you make and eat or drink. The crates shipped out a bit late, so they threw in 3 mini green tea KitKat's. I'm not a big green tea person, but these were not intense with the green tea flavor. They tasted like white chocolate KitKat's  with a light green tea hit in the background. The purple and white candy in the picture looked and chewed like gum, but it was taffy that also tasted great. If you get a Japan Crate, don't freak out thinking that they forgot to ship your stuff. They usually have to ship out a lot of stuff and they will email you when your crate does ship.

     I received Nabisco Chip Star Potato Chips, which looked and tasted like plain Pringles, even though they were seaweed and salt-flavored. Every crate gives you random things to try and you might not like all of them, but you won't know until you try them. The chips in the above picture in the bottom right are the Chip Star Potato Chips and they were also well packaged. I only had a couple of broken ones and it wasn't a lot of crumbs. I had to get my friend to eat them before I told her they were seaweed-flavored. Some people freak out and you might have to get them to try something before they say no just off of what they think it will taste like. 

     The super lemon candy were pretty much lemon warheads. They started off sour and became sweet. I liked them, but I couldn't eat a whole pack of them, so I gave some away. I did enjoy everything I had, but there was one thing that got me. In the above picture with the blue bag and the ice cream on it, that was one of the DIY kits I received. It was supposed to make some type of foamy apple cider-tasting "ice cream". It wasn't really ice cream because you never put it in the freezer, but it did come with ice cream cones. I didn't like it because it didn't taste good and the foam looked like and was the consistency of saliva. I know that sounds gross, but that's just the experience I had with it. Sorry. It happens. You don't like everything. Back to the yummy stuff.

     These 2 products were great. I received gum in flavors of cola, cider and grape. Japan does a really good job of making candy that tastes like cola. It's in the background, sugary and has a nice flavor to it without the carbonation. The gum lasts and you can blow bubbles if you want. Japan also does a really good job when it comes to gummy candy. They aren't soft chews like Trolli gummy candy, but they are easy to chew. They also have a good combination of sour and sweet and have great flavors.

     I saved the best for last, chocolate. I live in a hot climate, so I was glad it didn't melt. If it did melt, I still would have put it in the freezer. The chocolate across the bottom is chocolate with colored wafer balls on top. It tasted great like a Nestle Crunch almost. The chocolate was also shaped into different things like bears, hearts and cones. The picture across the top was my other DIY kit. It had little chocolate candy balls that you use to make a design. You melt the other chocolate, mold it and refrigerate or freeze it and eat it. There is nothing bad that can be said about these.

     Every crate is different, so you might like the one you get this month and hate the one you get next month. Overall, I enjoyed this crate. If you love or want to try Japanese candy, then this is a good subscription service to try. If you're worried about cost or not getting the crate you want, you can get a discount as a new subscriber, try the mini crate for less money, check the Japan Crate past crates page or look at un-boxing videos for Japan Crates. It will let you know more about it and help you make a decision. It's always mostly candy, but you can get other types of products. It's a surprise every time. I saw one crate had dried squid. Drinks usually come in the premium crates, but Japan Crate occasionally has special crates on the side such as a lucky crate. It had 3 drinks, candy, gum and a savory snack and everybody got a different combination of those things. If you want to try it, go for it and it also makes a great gift as well! 

Deadpool!

Credit: foxmovies.com

     Yes, Deadpool is a great movie. The End. I'm kidding. You want to know more about it. If you know about Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds has all of his mannerisms down and is the best person to play him. The movie is a lot like the comic books and the video game with a few minor changes. If you've never seen or heard of Deadpool, this is a good introduction movie. If you know Deadpool, you'll like it, but it may not be the greatest movie you've ever seen in life. My friend saw it and was upset about it because it was a very big background story type of movie. I had to tell her that this is for people who don't know enough about Deadpool and the next movie will be the one you love.

     I did like Deadpool, but there were some minor things that could have made it better. *Spoilers* Deadpool has a girlfriend. She's his perfect other half and I liked her, but Deadpool is supposed to always chase after women and maybe men that he can never really get. The whole movie was about him feeling he was too ugly to see his girlfriend and she was okay with him in the end. He won't chase after people or hit his peak weirdness because he's kind of in or will be in a stable relationship.

     The backstory was a little long because it was throughout the whole movie. I get that they had to introduce him to people that don't know about him, but you might feel like you missed out on cool action sequences because the backstory took up all the space. You'll get good jokes, cool action and lots of crazy, but the backstory is most of the movie and getting revenge/saving his girlfriend is the rest of the movie. This doesn't mean you will hate it. You will be satisfied. Deadpool's very funny, goofy and says things before he realizes they came out wrong.

     It has an R-rating for a reason. There is nudity, cursing, lots of violence and Deadpool's really enjoying and hyping all of this up. Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are awesome as people who want Deadpool to join the X-Men and kind of be a hero. It's weird though, because Deadpool keeps telling you that he is not a hero, but he's kind of doing hero stuff in this movie. He also has a blind roommate that I was hoping wouldn't put up with his mouth. I was hoping that she would be his equal match. She is, but in a different way. She hits him with a crass comment here or there, but nothing that counters what he says. It's not super noticeable, but I was hoping she would have had great comebacks for him to keep him on his toes.

     Deadpool also didn't have that cool narrating voice in the back of his head. In the movie, he talks outloud to himself and to the camera/audience, but in the game, it's a different voice/personality. It works great in the movie the way they did it, but I thought it would be cool to see.

     There also wasn't a huge fight scene at the end against the main villains. The villains are also throughout the movie, but most of the fight scenes are against people to find the villain and with the backstory taking up most of the time, there wasn't a big epic fight scene against Ajax. I do like that they didn't drag the movie out trying to show too much. None of the things I've mentioned are hang-ups for the movie. It's still very Deadpool and an awesome movie. It has opened the floodgates for more anti-hero and R-rated comic book movies. Deadpool is set up well and he hypes you up to getting a second Deadpool movie with Cable in it. For diehards, you will like or love this movie, because Deadpool is perfect in it. The funny moments are extremely funny and the action is great. It makes up for the story line. The story line is good, but will be even better for Deadpool 2. What movies are you waiting to see? Comment below. Rating: 7/10

Z-Nation on Netflix!

Credit: Wikipedia

     The first two seasons of Z-Nation are on Netflix and you should not compare it to The Walking Dead in any way shape or form. Z-Nation can be seen on Netflix or Syfy and it's more comedy than horror. You'll either think it's funny, stupid or both. I like it because it's funny and still has action in it. The first season is about these doctors who gets prisoners to volunteer to be subjects without them fully knowing what's going on. The doctors are having vaccines tested on them to see if a cure can be made for the zombie apocalypse. Everyone, except a guy named Murphy, turns into a zombie or dies and right when the doctors see Murphy survive, the zombie outbreak hits them. Z-Nation is about a group of random people tasked with having to deliver Murphy to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in California to see if they can make a cure.

Credit: Z-Nation Wikia

     The first season has military people tasked with transporting Murphy and, eventually, the group is led by Lt. Roberta Warren. She is strong-willed, a great fighter and the only person who can tame Murphy. Murphy is not just a possible vaccine, though. He's also a mostly jerk/occasionally nice person who experiences certain side effects and keeps escaping. His skin changes colors and he has mind control over certain zombies. Other group members are: Addy, who's good at getting Z's with a bat covered in barbed wire, Doc, who's good at fighting, caring and being a doctor, even though he was a psychiatrist and 10K, the youngest member of the group, who's a good sharpshooter and wants to get 10,000 Z's, hence the name, 10K. There are other members and people the group encounters, here and there, but this is the main group.

You'll see a lot of crazy things as the group goes through different states and on different side missions. You'll see a zombie baby, possible aliens, a cartel, fast zombies and the list goes on and on. This is a show you will either love or hate. It's on Syfy and they make goofy horror stuff all of the time. It's over-the-top all the way through, so watch a few episodes before you come to your decision of if you really like it or not. Season 2 is even crazier and I liked it just as much if not more. 7/10