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The Man Who Saw Everything
The Man Who Saw Everything
Deborah Levy | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What can I say about The Man Who Saw Everything? Firstly, I enjoyed reading it. It certainly wasn’t predictable, and I had no idea how the book was going to go in either half. As I read on to the second half, it began to become a little clearer as to why that was, exactly. There is a reason why the main character, Saul Adler, slips around in time. And I can’t tell you why, because to do so will give away the whole book!

This is a book where time, sexuality and personality are all malleable and difficult to pin down - all at the same time. You don’t know what’s real, and what’s in the imagination. Past and present are portrayed not just in the ages of the main character, but also in the former East and West Germany and the old and new (post-Brexit) Europe.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly explain this - even if I tried. I do know, however, that I really liked it.
  
Waterworld (1995)
Waterworld (1995)
1995 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The movie that all-but-sank Kevin Costner's career
In the early to mid 90s, Kevin Costner was riding high in Hollywood.

Then he had the one-two misfore of this (at one point, the most expensive flop ever made, I believe) and 'The Postman'.

Both are set in a post-apocalyptic future: here, one where the world has flooded 'due to the melting of the ice shelves' (don't even), with 'dry land' now virtually a myth and where gangs of bikers roam the outlands on custom-built vehicles in search of fuel ...

Sorry, sorry, that's Mad Max.

But you can definitely see the similarities: swap the bikers for jet ski's, replace the loner character played by Mel Gibson for one played by with Kevin Costner and you're virtually there!

Add a bit of Dennis Hopper to completely ham it up, a soupcon of mystery around The Mariner and his mutation, and a search for the mysterious Dryland and there you have it ...

Not as bad as it's made out to be, but nor is it brilliant by any stretch of the imagination
  
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
1980 | Action, Drama
Charming (1 more)
Enjoyable
Acting (3 more)
Aged Badly
Story
Clichés
Absolutely terrible, but somehow good!
This is probably one of the most difficult reviews I've written. I mainly bought this film because I wanted to watch the sequel, Return to the Blue Lagoon (I'm a big fan of Milla Jovovich).

I'm going to start with the negatives, as somehow this film has very few redeeming features.

Brook Shields (to be fair, only 14 at the time), and Christopher Atkins are absolutely awful actors at this early stage in their careers.

The story is highly predictable for the most part, it's very much the typical "stranded on a desert island" film, with somehow every single cliché included, apart from the ending (which remains somewhat ambiguous), and the scenes featuring the two learning about their bodies as they hit puberty.

Despite all this, the film is really enjoyable! It's not a good film by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow it has a certain charm and innocence that will keep you watching, and want to watch it again.

Overall, definitely worth a watch :)

Enjoy everyone!
  
    Sweet Home Stories

    Sweet Home Stories

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    Wake up and get ready! There are lots of things to do in Sweet Home Stories! A fun and safe...

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ClareR (5711 KP) rated Paris Adrift in Books

Feb 6, 2018  
Paris Adrift
Paris Adrift
E. J. Swift | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Time travel in Paris.
A group of people who can travel through time decide to send two people back: a chronometrist and an incumbent. These two people will help to influence another incumbent in Paris 2017, and set off a chain of events that will save the world. Each 'anomaly' (which is what incumbents use to travel though time) has its very own incumbent, who is the only person capable of using it as a door in time.
Hallie's anomaly is in the cellar of a bar (Millie's) in Paris. Long story short, she meets the chronometrist, uses the anomaly and hops through time a bit, using her trips to change history.
I really enjoyed this. There was clearly a reasonable amount of research into the times that she went back to, and a lot of imagination went in to the times she travelled forwards to. I liked Hallie and her crazy, bohemian friends. I especially liked how it showed that small things can influence the big things in society.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this great book!
  
The Thing (2011)
The Thing (2011)
2011 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
An unnecessary prequel
The problem with most prequels is they feel the need to overexplain things that aren't necessary. A certain amount of ambiguity is good for a film, and often allows the watcher to come up with their own theories. And this is the main problem with this prequel - did we need to know exactly what happened to the Norwegian team? No not really, as we saw enough in the original to use our imagination. So this prequel for me was entirely unnecessary.

It also didn't help that the plot was for the most part very similar to the original, which begs the question why make something so similar? The creature designs etc were very good, creepy and pretty scary and very in keeping with the original, but they completely ruined it with the horrendous cgi. Why they didn't stick with physical effects I'll never know, as it made the creature just look shoddy. The ending is potentially also a bit of a plot hole as it then doesn't tie in to the original.

There are a few things in this that could've been improved, but even with that, it'd still be an unnecessary prequel.
  
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Andy K (10821 KP) Jul 28, 2018

I was very disappointed in this as I am such a massive fan of the original.

Furyborn: Empirium Trilogy Book 1
Furyborn: Empirium Trilogy Book 1
Claire Legrand | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
9
8.3 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Epic fantasy
I absolutely loved reading Furyborn by Clare Legrand. This was one of the best fantasy novels that I have read so far this year and I'm so happy that this is going to be a series, I cannot wait for book two. The cover art is gorgeous and completely drew me in to want to learn more about what this story was about. For the most part I really enjoyed all of the characters especially Simon and Eliana, and I can't wait to see what is going to happen with their part of the story. All of the characters are so well developed and the author has such an amazing imagination in creating this world. The only thing that I didn't love about this book was the way it went back and forth between Rielle and Eliana's stories, it was at times a little hard to follow and in my opinion would have made much more sense to have the book broken up into a part one and part two instead. Overall, I would definitely recommend and I will be continuing this series when book two comes out.