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Chloe (778 KP) rated Empire of Storms in Books

May 26, 2021  
Empire of Storms
Empire of Storms
Sarah J. Maas | 2016 | Children
8
9.4 (22 Ratings)
Book Rating
Stories back! (1 more)
Fantasy
Rowan (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
It's back, I'm so glad I carried on with the series after the Queen of Shadows. The story in this one is excellent and I love how everything ties together. So much fantasy!

I still HATE Rowan, he's so sappy and I hate the romance scenes with him involved. I don't know why but this character writing is wrong for his history and experience.

Plus I think the blood oath is just a farce at this point, used for a plot hole and show how powerful Caleana is but we know that from other things
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Chickens Come Home (1931) in Movies

Mar 20, 2019 (Updated Mar 20, 2019)  
Chickens Come Home (1931)
Chickens Come Home (1931)
1931 | Comedy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Slightly atypical Laurel and Hardy short, presumably because it's a remake of a silent non-L&H film. This explains why Stan and Ollie play successful businessmen looking to get into politics rather than the usual perennially useless goons, why it feels more like a farce than usual, and why the boys spend a lot of the film apart.

That said, there are some quite good bits: Ollie's glances to the camera are first class, and there are some epic double-takes from Jimmy Finlayson as Ollie's butler. It is undeniably funny, but you do get a sense of a film not quite making best use of its strongest assets.
  
Nine Perfect Strangers
Nine Perfect Strangers
Liane Moriarty | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
6
6.9 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Liane Moriarty’s Australian backdrop is ‘Tranquillum House’, a remote health retreat that promises total transformation. Each of the nine strangers has some reason for attempting to unload some mental baggage and relaxing away from the modern world. They relinquish their mobile phones and laptops, cutting themselves off from the outside. A different kind of therapy is administered by the austere manager and what unravels is an unusual twist on Moriarty’s narrative, yet it’s totally entertaining. There’s a level of chaos and farce, mixed with darker elements that make this a compelling read. Not at all like the famous, ‘Big, Little Lies’ but more ‘Truly, Madly, Guilty’ in its delivery. Available in hardback now, paperback in April 2019.
  
First Name: Carmen (1983)
First Name: Carmen (1983)
1983 | Crime, Drama, Music
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"""What else do I like? A Godard film called Prenom Carmen, which sounds like I’m just saying that to be cool, but it’s actually one of my favorite films. I think it’s the best Godard film. It’s like his version of Carmen the opera, one of his films from the eighties. In terms of just pure filmmaking and manipulating an audience, it kind of starts out as a farce, as a complete, stupid farce, with this bank robbery; but it’s really, really…Godardian, with kind of a stupid humor that’s so random. Only he could make it, mixed up with these kinds of philosophical elements. It starts out with one of these bank robbers, these students, and she starts to sleep with one of the guards; she’s having sex with him in the bank, and he pretends to arrest her and they run away together. And he wants to be part of her gang. It’s all so completely ridiculous. And then suddenly, halfway through, it turns into the most heartbreaking, serious thing that you’ve ever seen — out of nowhere! — and you’re suddenly so attached to these characters, which you weren’t before, because it seemed like a stupid student film. They have this secondary story where they have a string quartet playing the soundtrack which runs in the other story, but they film them during rehearsal, just doing really close up things with them playing cello and stuff, and it’s about the relationship with the conductor and this girl, the cellist — and it’s completely random to the film, but it’s incredible."""

Source
  
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Micky Barnard (542 KP) rated Nine Perfect Strangers in Books

Jan 26, 2019 (Updated Jan 26, 2019)  
Nine Perfect Strangers
Nine Perfect Strangers
Liane Moriarty | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
2
6.9 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ridiculous story
I want a medal for reaching the end of this triple marathon of an audio book that I basically hated. This was a tale of the ridiculous, a kind of farce in the play-sense and something that lacked real meat to the story. I cannot even re-synopsis briefly, because the irritation is strong.

The characters were mostly annoying, the story line was ridiculous to the power of 10 and the pace went from boring plodding to high, over-the-top drama.

Narration was a bit of an issue when you have 9 povs and one narrator but that wasn't the reason for my dislike.

I have enjoyed this author before, so if this is your first time reading Liane Moriarty, give this one a miss and pick another.
  
Riders of Justice (2020)
Riders of Justice (2020)
2020 | Action, Comedy, Drama
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Danish revenge thriller. A veteran soldier teams up with a gang of geeks to find the man responsible for his wife's death. Looks like yet another attempt at something like a Liam Neeson movie, but this is much defter and funnier, and more emotionally articulate.

Great performance from Mikkelson, playing the straight man as he is surrounded by comic performances from his various sidekicks - but this is a serious film about grief and how the world works and how people attempt to make sense of this. The director manages to slide the film from farce to thriller to drama without any of the changes in tone jarring in the slightest, even if the plot is a bit reliant on the occasional contrivance. Lots of fun but also undeniably moving.
  
This was my first book by this author, as well as being the first in her Carlisle Family series.

Although enjoyable, it's not a story I would be likely to pick up again. Early on in the book, the hero sees the heroine meet her mother in a restaurant - historical blunder there, as that type of establishment didn't exisit in that period.

I did like the hero, but felt that the ending was unsatisfactory. There were plenty of loose threads to tie up, but I felt it could have been handled better; I wanted to revel in the satisfaction of the villain and villainess getting their comeuppance but didn't quite get that, and the reunion of the hero and heroine pretty much decended into farce! It was too much.

Enjoyable enough, but I'm not tempted enough to pick up the sequel.
  
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
2000 | Action, Animation, Comedy
10
8.1 (14 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The songs (4 more)
The Characters
The design
The message
No unnecessary sequel!
Catchy, heartfelt, and whimsical... suck it Disney!
Tulio and Muigel are a couple of con artists who need to make a hasty escape. Some shenanigans insue, and the pair find themselves far away from home, looking for the fabled city of gold, So Dorado.
They are mistaken for Aztec gods and must keep up their farce in order to leave with some gold, and their heads.
It comments on the way some cultures are explored by explorers and in its subtle way, teaches us to open out minds and eyes to the ways of others.
A beautiful tale of fun and friendship, the humour is great for kids, with some adult jokes in there to keep the parents entertained too.
One of DreamWorks great animated films, it is a must for all ages.
  
Ooh... You Are Awful (1972)
Ooh... You Are Awful (1972)
1972 | Comedy
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
More lowest-common-denominator farce from the British film industry of yore. A con man who specialises in disguises, trying to locate the big score he and his dead partner made, must track down a group of women each of whom has vital clues to its whereabouts tattooed on her backside, while being pursued by the Mafia and London gangsters.

Nearly as horrendous as it sounds: some of these films make late-period Carry Ons look quite sophisticated. The plot takes a long time to get going and doesn't end up reaching anywhere worth the trip, despite the presence of various familiar faces from film and TV of the period. Has a weird sort of innocence to it despite all the smut, and Emery is a good enough comic to raise a few laughs even from material as thin and questionable as this. But, in general, oh dear.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Booksmart (2019) in Movies

May 20, 2019 (Updated May 20, 2019)  
 Booksmart (2019)
Booksmart (2019)
2019 | Comedy
Olivia Wilde's directorial debut is a frantic, absurd, very funny farce. Two diligent high-schoolers are appalled to discover their more-laid back peers have got into colleges just as good as theirs, and resolve to make up for years of focused hard work by having a wild night of partying before they graduate.

The relentless pace of the film and the hit-rate of its stream of gags is hugely impressive; the film manages to make jokes at the expense of many aspects of modern life without seeming cynical or negative. However, the depiction of friendship is affecting, the emotional beats of the film are genuinely moving, and it's genuinely refreshing to see a film with such an upbeat vibe to it and a cast of characters who are all likeable. Anyone who has been a teenager will be able to relate to this; one of the funniest films of the year so far.