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Awix (3310 KP) rated Cats (2019) in Movies

Dec 24, 2019

Cats (2019)

2019 | Musical

3.8

(16 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Here's where I wrinkle my nose up at the Smashbomb scoring system - Cats isn't so much 'shoddy' as - well, it's such a particularly strange film that it's actually quite hard to tell whether it's any good or not. My instinct is to say not: a selection of character actors, comedians and musical theatre stars are CGI'd into human-animal hybrids like something out of The Island of Dr Moreau and hoof and yowl their way through a selection of TS Eliot's comic poems set to music. The plot does a good impression of being absolute gibberish, as the singing cat-people compete to get sent off to the bit of the sky that radio waves bounce off where they will receive a new life, while Idris Elba schemes to rig the contest. It's just weird.

Alternatively, this is a quasi-Lovecraftian surreal Arabesque which, fatally, fails to consider the difference between presentational and representational performance modes inherent in the transference of a narrative between theatrical and cinematic contexts. (i.e., people dressed as singing cats in a theatre can be beautiful and moving; people CGI'd into singing cats in a big-budget movie is more disturbing than anything else.) Jennifer Hudson's maximum-Streep, maximum-volume onslaught on 'Memory' made me want to hide under my seat.

Kudos

Merissa (12971 KP) rated Shadow of Deception (The Kazumi Chronicles #1) in Books

Dec 17, 2018

There is so much that goes on in this book, but that is not a bad thing. In fact, even when it had finished, I still needed more!!

You get a prologue with a young child, then it skips forward ten years and she is the sole survivor of a plane crash. You don't know how or why, and you stay with "Gabi" as she tries to figure out who she is and where she belongs. She is taken to a secret location where there is a specialised group of people called Sarcomeres.

I won't go into the story any further as I hate giving away spoilers. Suffice it to say, I loved every word. It is full of action and intrigue, with snippets of memory surfacing occasionally. There is certainly more than enough to keep your attention! With a hint of romance between Finn and Gabi/Kazumi as well, this is a well-rounded story with full-bodied and believable characters.

This is certainly an author I will be following and I really hope that she brings out more books in general, but specifically with this world and characters. Highly recommended.

* I received this book from Xpresso Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

Kudos

Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Pigeon English in Books

Jul 2, 2019

Pigeon English

Stephen Kelman, Gbolahan Obisesan | 2015 | Children, Young Adult (YA)

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

It is funnt and tragic (0 more)

Nothing (0 more)

This is a great first novel

This is a must read. Written in first person and from the point of view of Harry, an eleven year old boy (If my memory serves me well) is the most intelligent and convincing narration I have come across. The novel is funny yet disturbing and the reader is told of the young boys own world but through the innocence of a (not quite mature enough to understand the world) boy. Present tense with analepsis allows the reader into the distance between his old life and his new life. Kelman's terrific talent of show not tell, and the young protagonists inexperience creates a sense of irony, as the adult reader see's what the child is too young to notice himself.
I am not going to go into the plot as I feel that this is something I do not want to spoil but believe me, Kelman's characters are fully fleshed out and the world they live in as real as any run down council estate in the UK. This novel surprised me, made me laugh and brought me to tears and has left a tiny book shaped hole in my heart. Well done Stephen Kelman

Kudos

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated American Ultra (2015) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

American Ultra (2015)

2015 | Action, Comedy

5.3

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Jesse Eisenberg plays a “stoned” cold killer without a memory in the new action comedy American Ultra. But when the pompous government weasel played by Topher Grace decides to eliminate the asset, Stoner Eisenberg finds himself running for his life and yet relying on secret spy skills he didn’t know he had. Think Jason Borne meets Pineapple Express. Only with way more low budget action and far less stoner humor. Which is a shame because American Ultra doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. If it would have made a commitment to either the action or the stoner comedy, we would could have and a solid movie in either direction, but instead we just get, meh.

That isn’t to say the film is bad. I went in with low expectations and enjoyed myself. It has some chuckles but they are few and far between. Kristen Stewart seems right at home with her performance of Eisenberg’s girlfriend who is caught up in the ride and helps him along the way. While Jesse Eisenberg and Topher Grace are not menacing and their action sequences seem stiff and awkward. However this film makes it clear that it doesn’t take itself seriously and thus if you just go along with the ride you may enjoy it.