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Night School (2018)
Night School (2018)
2018 | Comedy
Story: Night School starts when high school dropout Teddy (Hart) sees his future go up in smoke right after proposing to his beautiful successful girlfriend Lisa (Echikunwoke) seeing his job vanish and his future employment needing a GED, this forces Teddy to return to high school for a night school.

The former class enemy is now the principal Stewart (Killam) and doesn’t want Teddy in the class, he must prove to the teacher Carrie (Haddish) that he wants to study, while keeping his struggles a secret from Lisa, which sees him becoming friends with the rest of the class to pass.

Thoughts on Night School

Characters – Teddy has been working in sales working off each pay check to look like he has been living a better life, he has a successful beautiful girlfriend, his life changes when he career goes up in smoke and his failure to complete high school is holding him back in searching for a new job. He tries night school, which sees him needing to challenge himself instead of trying to get through quickly. Carrie is a teacher of the night school, she doesn’t take anything from any student, though she is committed to helping people learn. Even if her methods might finally get through to Teddy. Mackenzie and Jaylen are two of the members of the class that are trying to get their education too, with their own stories.

Performances – Kevin Hart does fall back into his normal routine where he tries to throw more of his comedy into a role, rather than showing us a real character, with real problems that should be taken a lot more seriously. Tiffany Haddish continues to show she is great at the fast-taking jokes, but this doesn’t work for the character. The supporting performance are all mostly comedians trying to get their jokes out too.

Story – The story follows a high school dropout that needs to get his GED so he can find a new job to continue living his life of luxury and keep his girlfriend, only this becomes more difficult than he could ever imagine. This is a poorly used story which could address a much bigger issue in education, where the students can suffer with learning disabilities and not get the help needed, it seems to focus on making a joke out of trying to better yourself instead of using the real issues that are meant to be giving these people more of a chance in the future. Even though it might not use this in the final part of the film, it also tries to paint the idea that you could only have a beautiful partner if you are successful. By showing education being a joke for Teddy it doesn’t help anybody that has ever struggled with education before and in the end this does just feel like a stand up routine instead of an actual story.

Comedy – If you want to see fast flowing jokes which feels more like a stand-up routine so if you like that you will get on with this film.

Settings – The film does use the high school settings to show where the learning was coming from and the low paying job that Teddy must take just to make ends meet.


Scene of the Movie – Graduation.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The comedy.

Final Thoughts – This is a comedy that just misses on the fact the story should be taken a lot more seriously, sadly this could have elevated this film to a new level.

Overall: Unfunny comedy.
  
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated Dangerous Women in Books

Aug 31, 2021  
Dangerous Women
Dangerous Women
Hope Adams | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book had me in its grip form start to finish - there was so much going on right from the beginning: the woman who tricked her way on board, the murder, the relationships between the women, the relationships between the women and the matron (who was the most in-matronly matron I could have EVER imagined!), and the relationship between the matron and the ships captain.

The dialogue between the women seemed authentic to me. These convicts came from all parts of the British Isles: London, the West Country, Scotland, Ireland. What connected them though, was their crimes all appeared to be the result of their sex and poverty. They were all working class women who had acted out of desperation, and it was really interesting to hear their stories.

I know this is a work of fiction, but the Rajah did exist, as does the quilt that the women were working on. The quilt is now on display in the National Gallery of Australia. I googled it - it’s beautiful. How anyone could have produced it whilst on a ship in the ocean, I have no idea 🤢

The conditions on board must have been appalling. At the start, the Matron instructs the women to scrub their quarters, but they would have been cramped, their toilet was below decks (buckets), and seasickness along with poor food would have made quite some heady aroma! They may have been convicts, but I was impressed by their stoicism in these circumstances.

I felt that I learnt an awful lot whilst reading this, as well as being thoroughly entertained - it’s a fabulous book!
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Survivors in TV

Mar 9, 2018  
Survivors
Survivors
1975 | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
8
6.4 (16 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Terry Nation's apocalyptic drama-adventure series came out of the same mid-70s interest in self-sufficiency that produced The Good Life, but also clearly owes a debt to George R Stewart's 1949 novel Earth Abides. A man-made virus devastates civilisation forcing the few who survive to rebuild; over the course of three series the programme deals with individual responses to the catastrophe, the characters coming together to build a community, and then an attempt to reconstruct something like a nation.

Many changes on both sides of the camera mean that Survivors is an inconsistent show, with nearly everyone agreeing the best episodes are all in the first season. This is not to say the first season is perfect or the others are not worth watching (though there are a few dud episodes). The best episodes are ones which mix character-based drama and big ideas - the capital punishment-themed Law and Order, in which the members of the community must decide what to do with one of their number they believe to be a murderer, is a particular highlight. Series anticipates Nation's Blake's 7 in the way a supporting character ends up as the de facto lead, in both cases a ruthless pragmatist becoming a very unconventional hero.


Criticisms that the show is middle class are somewhat justified; members of the working class are either comic relief or shotgun-toting menaces (trade unionists are also depicted as a menace). The low budget of the later episodes (most of which were made on VT rather than film) also shows. The second season can be a bit dull but the others are seldom less than interesting, and occasionally extremely good.