The Dutchess of Padua
8.0
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'The Duchess of Padua' is a five-act play by Oscar Wilde which was originally written for American...
The Art Therapy Colouring Book
10.0
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Readers can start to relax with this sophisticated anti-stress colouring, doodling and drawing book....
What About Me?: Seeing Yourself the Way God Sees You
5.5
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A tween girl's guide to finding self-worth through God. Bestselling author Vicki Courtney knows...
Religion devotional christian tween teen
The Shadow Queen
8.0
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‘A dangerous word, perhaps, for a woman. Power.’ From her first clandestine marriage, Joan of...
Historical Fiction
The Kominsky Method
8.0
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He may be in his twilight years, but aging acting coach Sandy Kominsky isn't ready to ride off into...
Charlotte (184 KP) rated The Scrotum Toad in Books
Jun 22, 2023
Set against an African back drop, with descriptions of pure beauty and wonder, The Scrotum Toad pulls you into a story that can outshine any soap opera. Full of quirky, fun characters each with their own special personality traits and levels of intelligence and luck (how on earth Stanley has made it as far in life as he has is beyond me)
Each character does have endearing qualities, I'll be honest though, it took me a little while to warm up to Tangle but that's definitely down to having to rearrange my way of thinking. She's quite the inspiration.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Magical Creatures Colouring Book: Magical Creatures Colouring Book
Warner Bros. and HarperCollins Publishers
7.0
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Colour your way on a magical adventure as you step on to the streets of New York in 1926, and meet...
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Maleficent (2014) in Movies
Oct 19, 2019 (Updated Oct 25, 2019)
When I think back to watching Sleeping Beauty as a child, Maleficent is the main aspect that sticks out.
A being of seemingly pure evil, who would curse a baby just because.
This live action re telling of Sleeping Beauty shifts the focus to Maleficent almost exclusively, and explores an untold backstory that gives the character a whole different aspect.
And I reckon it's done pretty well.
Angelina Jolie is obviously having fun playing the strong fairy Queen, who turns to the dark side after she's done over by King Stefan, and she plays both the sympathetic and evil parts of Maleficent with style, with sprinkles of dark humour here and there for good measure.
Stefan is played by Sharlto Copley, who I loved im both District 9, and Elysium, so it's interesting to see him do something different here.
Aurora is more of a side character this time around, but Elle Fanning does a good job of fitting in when the narrative calls for it.
The film looks great for the most part. The more colourful palette of The Moors is lovely and feels suitably magical, and the darkness of the thorned forest plays well with a more gothic athstetic, and it's all backed up by a terrific score (courtesy of James Newton Howard).
The CGI is still pretty passable considering the film is now 5 years old, only becoming more obvious in the flying scenes.
The only things I didn't like about Maleficent, was mainly the three fairy godmothers. I know that Disney need to fill a certain quota of silly humour, but they became quickly annoying and actually quite out of place with the rest of the film.
Some of the dialogue is quite cheesy (especially when Maleficent performs the curse on Aurora) but little things like this are to be expected from a Disney fairytale.
All in all, Maleficent is great fun, and pretty good twist to a well established classic story.
Made: A Book of Style, Food and Fitness
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Millie Mackintosh may have always looked like she had the perfect model shape, but a few years ago...