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Dare to Dream
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Dare to Dream</i> isn't so much as horrifying as to a novel aimed at a younger audience rather than the upper teens running amok from book to book behind Bookwyrming Thoughts (and of course, their own blogs). Simply put: Ella will butcher this, Lupe will make this sprout unicorns, Rundus will dissect this in a manner as seriously as possible, and Sophia might do a combination of blandly blunt dissection while trying to sprout at least one unicorn so no one (hopefully) will get a headache in the process.

But of course, the very last reviewer might be exaggerating a little. She may also be hitting the truth button at the exact same time she decided to press the "write a review in the third person" button.

In this ever so "blandly blunt dissection" of a mini-review, <i>Dare to Dream</i> is essentially divided into two parts: the first part is before the apocalypse, and the second part is the aftermath. It is really just a book that has a main character with a broken family, cries often (well, she is fourteen), and finding her place in the world – all while receiving dreams of the end of the world in the same way nightly and finding out it's in connection to the demise of Stonehenge. Oh, and it is also a day by day play of events that feels more proper in a sleeptastic documentary.

Basically, it's just tales of family drama from a fourteen-year-old British schoolgirl. The whole apocalypse thing? It might as well be a subplot until you get to the second part, where the primary purpose is surviving it day by day. But the point is, middle school Sophia might like this better than high school senior Sophia, who actually likes the whole Stonehenge aspect.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/chibi-views-dare-to-dream-by-carys-jones-and-red-queen-by-victoria-aveyard/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
    Sliders

    Sliders

    7.7 (24 Ratings) Rate It

    TV Show

    The show follows a group of people, called "Sliders", as they travel ("sliding") between different...

Team America: World Police (2004)
Team America: World Police (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Drama
AMERICA! F**K YEAH!
The theme’s lyrics sum up this movie as well as any could have. Made in the midst of the War On Terror in 2004, a satire was needed and who better to provide one than the satirical genius’ Trey Parker and Matt Stone, best known for South Park. On the surface, this looks like a straight forward bawdy adult puppet parody, taking the mickey out of Bruckheimer’s blockbusters, Thunderbirds and the reputation being acquired by the U.S. over the past 30 years but reaching boiling point over the last decade, certainly in a post 9/11 world.But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

This is looking into every major aspect of the above, such as chauvinism, the political interference and undue, and sometimes dangerous influence of celebrities, summed up here with the Film Actor’s Guild (or F.A.G.) with a host of major film stars ripped off, notably upsetting Sean Penn.

The infamous puppet sex scene, which is nothing more than a poke, pardon the pun, at the puppetry employed in the film.But there’s so much more such as the excellent selection of bespoke songs, such as “Only A Woman” for the sex scene, “End Of An Act” as our hero leaves the group to wallow in self-pity to the song with features verse after verse nothing more than slagging off Michael Bay’s, Pearl Harbor and Ben Afleck! But for a film with criticises these blockbusters, it understands them too well to be truly nasty about them.

The entire film IS a well made Bruckheimer film, even recruiting one of his regular composers, Harry Gregson-Williams, to be in at the last-minute, to compose a great score, but why do this if they hated it so much? They don’t; they love these films and the affection for the genre is clear, making their digs enjoyable and not hurtful… There’s even a contradiction with the political tract as one hand this would seem to be an anti-American tome where Team America blow up every city and landmark imaginable in order to protect the world from the destruction of the Terrorists… Get it?

On the other, the song entitled “Freedom Isn’t Free” would seem to suggest that we should all do our part, even though this number ends with the line, “Freedom cost a buck o’five…” But then after all the political and social satire, and the spoofing of Hollywood’s gung-ho films, it’s just a fun film.When the terrorist’s come from Derka Derkastan, the tone is clear. This is like a pair of boys playing “War On Terror” with a collection of action figures.

They’re clearly laughing hysterically as they write, produce and direct this film like two teenagers, as they create the highly insensitive language of the terrorists, use elements from films such as Star Wars and James Bond, certainly as for Kim Jong-il, is nobody safe, well not after offending the North Korean leader, but in all fairness, this is really just Eric Cartman from South Park.But in the end, this is the perfect satire, with a blend of real world political and social commentary, great spoofing but when all’s said and done, this has a great sense if humour, though at times, somewhat bawdy. This is brilliant and one of, if not the best comedy of the past decade, and one of the greatest satires of all time. And, no, I don’t believe that I’m over stating that…
  
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AT (1676 KP) Feb 20, 2019

Lol This movie is hilarious on so many levels. You just have to be able to stomach the particular type of humor. I loved it!

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Kaz (232 KP) rated Inkheart in Books

Jul 8, 2019  
Inkheart
Inkheart
Cornelia Funke | 2003 | Children
6
7.6 (38 Ratings)
Book Rating
The idea of the book, characters (0 more)
Everything was too drawn out, lack of drive in the plot (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
I read this novel for the Smashbomb book club and, even though the premise is good, it missed the mark for me.

The characters were very well crafted, I particularly liked Dustfinger, because he's a complex mixture of good and evil. The interaction between the characters was very good.

The problem for me, was the plot. The idea of book characters coming to life in the real world, sounded really appealing. When I started reading this, I expected it conjure up the magic I experienced when I read stories as a child. What I found was, that the plot of this book revolved around the characters going to a location, being captured, escaping and being recaptured and taken back to where they were before. This meant that.even though this was over 500 pages, I felt this book completely lacked drive.

I liked the message of reading books being magical, but I felt like this idea was integrated into the story in a forced way. By the end it felt like it was preaching a little bit in my opinion.

I also didn't like some of the decisions the characters made. It took a long time for any kind of resolution to happen and even then, the plan they carried out, felt a bit feeble and slightly rushed.

I wanted to love this, but unfortunately, it was just an ok read for me.
  
Shrek Forever After (2010)
Shrek Forever After (2010)
2010 | Action, Animation, Comedy
9
7.0 (26 Ratings)
Movie Rating
After spending years scaring villagers with his evil roar, then rescuing princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a dragon, and saving his in-laws’ kingdom, Shrek (Mike Meyers) feels his adventuresome days are over. This doesn’t sit well with him and he finds himself growing somewhat weary of his day-to-day life of a loving husband and father of three. He longs to be a “real” ogre again.

Enter Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), who tricks Shrek into signing a contract with him, giving up a day of his life to be a real ogre again. Shrek finds himself back in Far Far Away, but this time it’s an alternate universe, one where ogres are hunted. In this alternate world, Shrek soon learns after meeting up with Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Fiona, that they have never met before.

Shrek realizes that the only way to fix things is to make Princess Fiona fall in love with him, and recruits Donkey and Puss in Boots to help him. Along the way Shrek faces many challenges in the world where Rumpelstiltskin rules and witches thwart his every effort, but in the end (as all fairy tales should, of course) love conquers all.

With nonstop laughs from the get go, this movie will not disappoint. The 3D effects were impressive, added a great depth to the movie, and really brought it to life. Although this is the fourth movie in the franchise, I was impressed with this one most of all. It has a heartfelt storyline that can capture an audience of all ages, making it a wonderful conclusion to the Shrek series.

4.5 out of 5
  
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Vicki Gleave D'Aunay (12 KP) Aug 8, 2019

Another great shrek film