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Case 39 (2010)
Case 39 (2010)
2010 | Horror, Mystery
7
7.0 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Emily - a social worker - is assigned to a young girl called lily due to suspected neglect. She goes to the family's House who appear to be very strange, the girl doesn't speak and the father refuses to speak directly to Emily and instead glares at her which she finds very unsettling. She reports this back to her boss who just brushes it off.
The next day Emily is able to speak to lily alone, who tells her that she overheard her parents talking about sending her to hell. Emily makes it her mission to try and save lily from her parents, and gives her her phone number telling her to call if ever she gets scared. Sure enough Lily calls her that evening asking for help before passing out. Emily racess to her house only to find lily's parents doing the most unspeakable thing to her (I won't say what it was but it definitely shocked me to the core). Thankfully lily's parents are arrested and lily is put into Foster care, eventually Emily decides to take lily into her own care until they can find her a permanent Foster family.
Things seem to be going well, until a 10 year old boy kills his parents after receiving a mysterious phone call from Emily's House with a man's voice.......... It isn't long before we discover that something is off with lily and it isn't good. This child is in fact pure evil!
Before this movie I wasn't sure if I could imagine Renee zellwegger in a more serious role than Bridget Jones but I was wrong, she played this role brilliantly and the role of lily was spot on as well, that girl was proper creepy. For a 2009 movie, some scenes did look rather dated. For example the scene at the beach didn't look very believable. The movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested though, right to the end.
  
The Mist (2007)
The Mist (2007)
2007 | Horror
The creatures (2 more)
The feud
The ending
When walking into The Mist, I was hopeful and skeptical at the same time.

I knew director Frank Darabont could product a great film as he did with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Even being comfortable with Stephen King material was a plus. However, I just thought another lame creature feature with no real development or point and just a lot of senseless gore.


I could not have been more wrong.


The visual effects, creatures and scares in this film are definitely A+ for sure, but what makes the film work without a doubt is the fantastic screenplay.


When people start dying, it doesn't really matter unless you care about them first as people and get invested in their circumstance and fate. Once the townspeople are trapped by the mist in the grocery store, some of their true personalities start to emerge as the tension builds.


Much has been written about the ending whether plausible, not necessary, too much of a coincidence or just right. In the day of carbon copy, nonoriginal storytelling, I would definitely reward a film that takes risks vs. one that doesn't.


The risks in this film pay off big time.



  
PD
Present Danger
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I got to page 206 then decided to stop reading the book; I had to face it, I wasn't enjoying it overly much. At over the halfway point, the story neither had much romance nor suspense to keep me reading, and really, I wasn't attached to any of the characters and didn't care what happened, I might as well stop while I'm ahead. I also had a hard time reading this because Aunie and Lola had their accents phonetically spelled for the reader, so it could repeatedly be beaten into the reader's head that one character is apparently from Scarlett O'Hara's Atlanta (and not present-day Atlanta) and the other hails from Jamaica; I get it, they have accents, move on. One other thing, the descriptions of Aunie's perfect and petite looks became nauseating, and low-and-behold, she doesn't see what the big deal is! Puh-lease! I rather have a heroine vain than oblivious. Aunie was such a Mary Sue I could gag. I was disappointed that the Pacific Northwest didn't play into the book much, or at least as far as I read. Oh well. The author is going to have to do a better job to keep me reading another book of hers.
  
I saw the movie for this book before I read it. When I saw the movie, I didn't realize it was a book. I wasn't reading as much back in those days. But I received the sequel, How Hard Can It Be? so I decided to read I Don't Know How She Does It. As a working mother I thought that I would be able to relate to Kate Reddy in this book. Even though I don't have a corporate job, trying to find enough hours in the day to fit in time to do for yourself, your job and your family seems nearly impossible. But I couldn't find the connection in this book. While the book as a whole was good, I didn't find myself invested in it. I wanted to know what was going to happen, but I didn't really care.

I think part of my issue is that I kept thinking the book was set in the United States and then having to transfer myself back to the UK. This is why you never watch the movie first. It gives you a false sense of hope. I don't know if I would have felt any differently about the book if I hadn't seen the movie, though.
  
Bob Ross: The Happy Painter (2011)
Bob Ross: The Happy Painter (2011)
2011 | Biography, Documentary
Bob makes everyone happy!
I found this documentary on the Bob Ross phenomenon on Amazon Prime and it is worth checking out.

It tells you a lot of Bob's childhood, his relationships with his parents, children and wives and his rise to fame doing what he loved best, painting. His passion was demonstrating the "wet on wet" technique he learned at a young age and teaching it to others. He argued anyone could learn to paint quickly and easily using the techniques he was teaching.

The documentary shows some of his appearances on other TV programs of the time like Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, John Rivers and Phil Donahue. It also talks about his love of animals and how he used to treat and care for them.

One of the points mentioned I thought was interesting was only about 3% of the viewing audience tuned in and actually painted along with Bob. The vast majority just tuned in because they enjoyed his calming voice, big hair and his colorful vernacular.

What a great talent Bob Ross was and he died way too young. I still watch his show almost every night before I go to bed as it is a great way to end the day.

  
Show all 3 comments.
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Andy K (10826 KP) Jul 10, 2019

Sure no prob!

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ClareR (6256 KP) Jul 10, 2019

My eldest son is constantly drawing and painting, and found videos of Bob Ross on YouTube. I put the blame squarely at the door of Bob Ross for the state of my sons clothes and bedroom furniture - covered in oil paints!!! Kept him quiet and out of trouble for a while though I suppose 🤷🏼‍♀️😂 If I'm feeling brave during the school summer holidays, I’ll point him towards this if he’s at a loose end!! Oh, and I’ve ‘hidden’ the oil paints 🤫

    NCLEX Stanford Review

    NCLEX Stanford Review

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    Pass NCLEX after 1 day of study! Guaranteed! NCLEX Stanford Review , by Linda Stanford, RN, MSN, is...