Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2607)

Content

Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Sylvia Scarlett (1935) in Movies

Jan 4, 2019

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

1935 | Classics, Comedy, Drama

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Surprised it Wasn't Better

I was hoping my first review of 2019 would be for a quality film, but you can’t win ‘em all. Sylvia Scarlett is awful and that is putting it nicely. The plot: a young woman pretends to be a boy to travel with her con artist father and trick people into giving them money.

Acting: 4

Beginning: 2

Characters: 7
On paper the characters aren’t horrible even if the acting is shoddy. A woman, pretending to be a young boy. A con artist. A pair of jewel smugglers. Together, they’re an interesting group. It’s a wonder the storyline wasn’t more intriguing. Although there is a wide variety of characters they’re pretty flat for the most part making it hard to get emotionally invested.

Cinematography/Visuals: 2

Conflict: 7

Genre: 7
As hard as this movie was to watch at times, I’ve seen worse. I try to have a bit of leniency for older films because they don’t have half the knowledge we have now when it comes to movies. Today’s films have no excuses to be terrible yet they still are. Not saying director George Cukor is completely devoid of blame, but I’m willing to cut a bit of slack here.

Memorability: 7

Pace: 2

Plot: 0

Resolution: 6
Expected and a bit predictable, but at the very least it fit with the overall storyline. It didn’t enhance the film in anyway, but it also didn’t do any further damage.

Overall: 44
Sylvia Scarlett was pretty painful to sit through. I felt like I was being kidnapped because the movie spent most of its time trying to force me to feel something that just wasn’t there. It surprises me that a movie with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant was such a dud. Like I said, you can’t win ‘em all.

Kudos

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Republic (The Emperor's Edge, Book 8) in Books

Mar 11, 2020

I've had this book on my Kindle for a long time now. It was a gift from the author after signing up to her newsletter when she'd first released it, for fans of the Emperor's Edge series. And I was a big fan, steaming through all seven (really long) books, following the adventures of Amaranthe and Sicarius - and begging them to get together!

This one starts a few months after the events of Forged in Blood I & II, following just Amaranthe and Sicarius as they travel to a tropical island in a submarine, only things aren't as drama free as they were hoping and they get chased by the islanders after being recognised from a wanted poster of Sicarius. They quickly come up with one of their famous spur-of-the-moment plans and manage to evade them all and escape back to their submarine. Once back on board they get a summons from the newly appointed leader so they head home.

Back home, a giant carnivorous plant has started to grow in the cities harbour and is causing mayhem, growing rapidly and seeming to have a mind of its own. It doesn't like being cut, releasing a black mist with horrible consequences. Also back home, we meet up with old friends like Sespian and Maldynado and it feels like old times with the gang back together.

It was quite easy falling back into this series, though admittedly I couldn't remember half the cast apart from Amaranthe and her gang.

One thing I had forgotten about this was the use of unusual words to replace more boring ones such as 'verisimilitude' instead of...inspection, I guess is its easiest translation? It's a good job my Kindle has a built in dictionary or I'd have been stumped reading half of this book.