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    GazziliScience

    GazziliScience

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    --GazziliScience has arrived! The GazziliWorld approach to fusing learning and fun for Preschoolers...

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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Star Trek - Nemesis (2002) in Movies

Sep 28, 2021  
Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)
Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)
2002 | Action, Sci-Fi
6
6.0 (21 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
This film should have worked. They had four years to work up the film: the biggest gap between movies in the series to date. The sets and special effects deployed are a notable improvement on “Insurrection” and are, at times, very impressive. It’s a movie that has personal angst for Picard; an epic space battle; and the death of a major character. And a young Tom Hardy turns in a memorable performance, belying what was to come: it’s interesting that this is only Hardy’s third feature (following his debut in “Black Hawk Down” just the year before!). It’s also a full NINE years before he won the BAFTA Rising Star award!

And yet it’s just not very engaging: I find myself fiddling with my phone while its on, which is never a good sign. Gone are any of the comic asides that have tended to lighten the mood of these films: this is dark and plot-heavy throughout. It’s even got a ‘mind-rape’ scene that is quite disturbing.

Naturally, the Enterprise insurance premium has taken another hammering by the end of the film. You can just imagine the discussion back in space dock… “no mate…” – sucking air in through his front teeth “…that whole front bumper’s gonna have to be replaced, and that’ll cost you a pretty packet”!

Combined with poor marketing and fierce competition (the film opening in the same month as “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”), this ended up with the worse financial performance of any of the Trek movies (in terms of budget to return ratio). And it killed the franchise. The only option was to be a full reboot: something that was to take another seven years to happen.
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Dinner Lady Detectives in Books

Oct 24, 2021  
The Dinner Lady Detectives
The Dinner Lady Detectives
Hannah Hendy | 2021 | Crime, Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is, in my humble opinion, a very successful debut and definitely a series that I am looking forward to keeping up with. It is described as "a delightful, quintessentially British cosy mystery" and that's exactly what you get.

Margery and Clementine are dinner ladies, or to give them their official title 'Education Centre Nourishment Consultants' (really? is that what they're called now?!?!?!), and they are an absolute blast. Their relationship absolutely shines through from start to finish, it's beautiful and very authentic feeling.

Margery and Clementine smell a rat when one of their colleagues is found dead in the walk-in freezer of the school kitchen and so begins their unorthodox investigation into her death which results in all manner of escapades. There are some very funny moments (the suspended school ceiling being a particular highlight for me 🤣🤣) amongst a great and engaging plot with excellent characters throughout.

I raced through this book desperate to find out what happened and how it was all going to come together and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest and I am pleased to read on the publisher website that they have acquired the rights to a three-book deal. I think someone needs to snap this up and make a television series - I can so see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as Margery and Clem, in fact, that's who I was seeing in my head as I was reading it!

Highly recommended for those of you who want a break from all the doom, gloom and violence in many crime fiction books and who don't mind a bit of dark humour.

Thank you so much Canelo and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Hidden Village (Wartime Holland Book 1) [Audiobook] in Books

Jan 16, 2022  
The Hidden Village (Wartime Holland Book 1) [Audiobook]
The Hidden Village (Wartime Holland Book 1) [Audiobook]
Imogen Matthews | 2022 | History & Politics
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is an engaging and compelling story of what life was like in a small village in Holland during World War II. It is a fictional story but is based on real events.

There is a palpable sense of tension throughout; you really get a sense of the fear amongst a village population trying to keep their fellow human beings, who just happen to be Jewish and the odd downed airman, safe from the clutches of the Nazis whilst putting their own lives and the lives of their families at significant risk.

The story is told through the eyes of various villages of different ages and of Dutch and Jewish perspectives. This really helps to provide a full picture of what life was like for each of the individuals at this horrendous time; the bravery of them all astounds me. Amongst all this, is a look into "normal" life and the trials and tribulations of trying to survive in occupied and war-torn Holland.

The story moves on at a fairly good pace. I listened to the audio version of this book and realised that I was on tenterhooks all the time knowing that something could happen at any moment but not knowing what. I must applaud the narrator; there are quite a few characters, male and female, young and old, but she did a great job.

If I have one gripe it's that I felt it ended rather suddenly and, I feel, left some things unfinished - maybe there is a Book 2 to come? If so, I would be interested in reading/listening to find out more.

My thanks must go to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.