Dust: An Elysian Tail
Games and Entertainment
App
"This is one of the best games I've played on iOS this year." 5/5 - Touch Arcade The award-winning,...
Navmii GPS World: Offline Navigation and Traffic
Navigation and Travel
App
Navmii World is the world’s leading navigation app for drivers, giving you free access to maps and...
FUT 18 DRAFT by PacyBits
Sports and Games
9.0
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App
The new FUT 18 Draft Simulator by PacyBits is here, and our best game has gotten even better. ...
iBrowser Free - a perfect internet web browser with multi tabs and full screen
Social Networking and Utilities
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►►► 2,000+ Ratings from users in the world!!! ►►► 6+ Years support!!! ►►► Support...
Jurassic World™: The Game
Games and Entertainment
App
Return to Isla Nublar with the creators of the smash hit Jurassic Park™ Builder for your next...
Ross (3284 KP) rated The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) in Movies
Nov 5, 2018 (Updated Nov 5, 2018)
Here Disney have taken some liberties as Clara's brother and sister take the roles and names of her mother's siblings in the original, and for no apparent reason the film based on the Russian ballet that was based on the French adaptation of the German fairy tale, is set in London. I can only assume this was to up the Festive quotient, but seems a very odd choice, despite keeping a number of the German themes.
Keira Knightley is very irritating, doing an ear-piercing impression of Queenie from Blackadder.
Neither of the actors playing Clara or the Nutcracker are very good or likeable and you find yourself bored and starting to root for Mother Ginger just to end it.
The film is too long, and drags in large parts, and all three of my kids were restless for a lot of it. And there was a definite lack of large-scale special effects, some impressive scenes but audiences expect spectacles (not 3D glasses, I mean big scenes!) these days and those were lacking.
The most enjoyable scene was the use of ballet to get Clara up to date with the world she found herself in, being quite respectful to the medium it was adapting (though I can't say how authentic it was!).
Fasting the Mind: Spiritual Exercises for Psychic Detox
Book
Stop planning, stop comparing, stop competing, stop thinking, and just breathe deeply for a minute...
From German Cavalry Officer to Reconnaissance Pilot: The World War I History, Memories, and Photographs of Leonhard Rempe, 1914-1921
Book
Twentyoneyearold Leonhard Rempe volunteered to serve Germany in 1914. By the time World War One...
Shorefall picks up around three years after the events of Foundryside, when a small crew stand up against the mighty, powerful families of the city, stop their evil plotting and strike out on their own. They have set up their own, independent scriving house, making magical machinery, and helping others to do the same. A bit like BrewDog, but without the financially dubious shareholder arrangements.
In this world, magic comes in the form of scriving - bending reality to make objects behave in a certain way (persuading a door it cannot open without a specific person being present, convincing an arrow it is falling, so must accelerate accordingly, albeit in a straight line, etc). Most of the book's plot and action centre around this, and it becomes quite draining, and a stretch at times. I forgave the first book quite a lot in this regard, because it was world-building, but this much world-building in a second book seems wrong. And the mechanics of it are so much like coding that that is all you can think of. At times it is like watching an episode of 24, but instead of following Jack Bauer's thrilling escapades, you are watching Chloe coding a macro to speed up her timesheets while being vaguely aware that something exciting is happening.
The book starts very strongly, we are in the company of Sancia and Orso as they appear to be down on their luck and having to sell their work to make ends meet. Cue: exciting espionage scenes as Sancia sneaks off to steal.
Sadly, this opening chapter in which we had no idea what was happening was the best one. So many times throughout the book the crew were on some mission or other for some reason, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what or why, and nor did I particularly care. The plot just seemed to be in a backseat with the world-building driving with no sat-nav. And so was character development, as all the main characters just completely plateaud and didn't change in the slightest.
In short, I found the book very dull and drawn out and the second half was a real chore.
New Collected Poems
Tomas Transtromer and Robin Fulton
Book Watch
Winner of 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation Tomas...
Poetry