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Showing posts from April, 2020

All The Bright Places | Film Review

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Hey Guys x I've owned the book of this film for a while (though haven't read it yet), so when the trailer for the film came out, I was immediately interested. Violet (Elle Fanning) meets Finch (Justice Smith) when she is at her lowest, standing on the edge of a bridge. From this moment on, these two are in each other's lives. But while Finch brings out the best in Violet, she can never quite figure out where he goes when he's absent. And as they become deeply entangled into each other's lives, they discover that not everyone can be saved. I really enjoyed this movie. These are two characters that you immediately warm to, even when you know nothing about either of them. It's so easy to become attached to them and their story. Even if you know absolutely nothing about this film, there are some serious and tense undertones all the way through that hint to the audience that this isn't your usual YA romance. And in the wake of so many romance books ge...

Book Review #72: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

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Hey Guys x I had heard about this book quite a few times by a few different people before I got the chance to read it. But by the time I received it as a Christmas present, I was really excited about it! Queenie Jenkins is having a hard time. She is on a break (just a break) from her boyfriend, she can't concentrate at work, she hates being at home, and her grandmother's house is even worse! But as Queenie delves deeper into why she's so unhappy, she discovers that maybe the unresolved issues in her past will stop her from having a happy future. I feel like I was supposed to love this book. It's a character that I feel close to on a basic level, based on the fact that we are both black Caribbean women living in South London, and there are so many things that she says in the novel that I completely understand based on where I live and have been brought up. For example, there's a scene in the book where Queenie has therapy, and when she described where she was...

47 Meters Down: Uncaged | Film Review

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Hey Guys x I watched the first movie, '47 Meters Down', when it first came out and I really enjoyed it, so when I heard that they were making another one I was keen to see it. Step-Sisters Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and Sasha (Corrine Foxx) and their two friends decide to defy their parents' orders and go diving into unexplored depths. But when the girls find themselves trapped in an underground cave with only a shark for company, their fun adventure becomes a fight for survival. I didn't think I'd like this movie as much as the first one, but I didn't know how much I'd dislike it. For a start, this was not a sequel to the first film in any way, other than the fact that there was a shark in both, in which case it could also be a sequel to Jaws. When you know the main plot, no one cares about the back story. This isn't a story where you need to know any of these characters to enjoy yourself, and there's not one point where you actually care abo...

Midsommar | Film Review

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Hey Guys x This film has been talked about a lot since it first came out, but I never had a particularly strong desire to see it. All I'd heard about it was people saying it was either really great, really disturbing, or both. However, it is now on Amazon Prime, so I thought I'd give it a try to see if it was as good as so many people think it is. Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) travel with Christian's friends to Sweden for a Midsummer festival that takes place every 90 years. But when the group arrive, they discover the violent, horrifying truth behind the festival. I'm in two minds about this film. On the one hand, the way it was spoken about led me to believe that it would be amazing, which it wasn't to me. But on the other hand, it definitely wasn't bad either. The beginning of the film is completely separate from everything that happens after the group get to Sweden. For a long time at the beginning, you have no idea...

Polaroid | Film Review

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Hey Guys x This is another film that was recommended to me on Netflix. I really liked the initial premise, even though it kind of sounded like it would be cheesy rather than scary. So I thought I'd see what it was all about. When Bird (Kathryn Prescott) finds an old Polaroid camera, she starts using it to take pictures of her friends. But when her friends start dying in horrific ways, Bird discovers that the camera she found has a tragic history. I did not expect to like this film as much as I did. I actually ended up watching it twice, which I never normally do. I remember owning a 'Goosbumps' book with pretty much the same premise when I was young, and even the cover of that book terrified me, so I think that in general this is a concept that really works for me. It's the kind of film where it's completely driven by the plot, so while you don't even find out that much about the characters in the film, for the most part, you don't really need to...

Book Review #71: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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Hey Guys x I was given this book, along with 'The Hunting Party' (by the same author) by a friend who works in publishing. Because I was given them at the same time, I didn't really think about the order that they were written in, and instead read 'The Guest List' first. A wedding takes place on a remote Island. In a place so isolated, it takes a while for anyone to discover the body. But when histories are brought to the forefront, and relationships are tested in ways that no one could have ever expected, everybody is a suspect. I loved this book. I'm not a quick reader at all, and I read this book in about 5 days because I literally could not bear to put it down, I had to know what was going to happen. To begin with, I loved the concept. I really like the whole Murder Mystery genre, so I knew that the book would be enjoyable before I even started to read it. But from the start it took me completely by surprise. One thing that really surprised me ...

Coffee and Kareem | Film Review

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Hey Guys x This is a Netflix original movie that came out on Saturday, and I put it on knowing absolutely nothing about it other than the fact that it starred Ed Helms and Taraji P Henson, two actors that I love. Officer James Coffee (Ed Hemls) is in love with his girlfriend Vanessa (Taraji P Henson). But where Vanessa goes, her 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) follows. During a bonding experience, Coffee and Kareem accidentally uncover a criminal plot that leaves them running for their lives. Can this unlikely duo work together when it's most important? At the beginning, I thought I liked this movie. Then I kept watching, and my opinion drastically changed. The premise is basic and has been done more than once. Because of this, the film lives or dies based on its characters, its actors and the script. The fact that it stars Ed Helms (who also produced it) is an indication that, at the very least, it won't be bad... or so you'd think. It start...

Countdown | Film Review

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Hey Guys x I saw the poster for this movie in a cinema (back when we were allowed out!) but I never saw any trailers or heard anything about it, so when I had the opportunity to watch it, I wasn't that interested at all. I barely knew what it was about. After hearing about an app that accurately predicts when you'll die, Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) downloads it to prove everyone wrong. But when the app tells her that she has three days left to live, Quinn sets out save herself, whatever it takes. As mentioned, I didn't know anything about the movie, so I didn't expect to love it as much as I did! For a start, it's a really interesting concept. If you've seen the film, you'll know that it feels a bit like a Final Destination movie, but the fact that it's all built around an app updates the entire premise. The problem with building a film like this around an app is that it instantly becomes unrealistic based on the fact that it would be so easy to n...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Film Review

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Hey Guys x I can't remember when I first heard about this film. But it had been on my 'To Watch' list for so long that by the time it actually came out on the Sky Premiere channel, I had forgotten it existed. But because of the unique name, I recognised it and watched it as soon as I could. Sisters Constance (Alexandra Daddario) and Merricat (Taissa Farmiga) live with their uncle Julian (Crispin Glover) on their family estate, in a town where one incident has made them social pariahs. But a visit from their cousin Charles (Sebastian Stan) changes the lives of these sisters forever. Now, I went into this film not expecting a huge amount, because I didn't really know too much about it other than an interesting eerie trailer. However, I ended up being really disappointed by it. The first thing I want to say, though, is that the best thing about the film was the acting. Every actor clearly threw everything they had at their characters, and the acting was the only ...