Film Review: Bridge Of Spies

Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Austin Stowell

Run-time: 2h 21m

Plot:

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

(Source: IMDb- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3682448/)

I think the movie started out brilliantly. It started with the scene that made you wonder what was happening, so you were hooked from the first moment.

The movie was a serious one, but the well-timed jokes were excellent. At first, I expected it to be a dramatic-sort of movie - much like many others, where the would base the story around the war or certain events of the war, but this concentrated more on the "technical" side of the war; things that happened in the background. It took me a moment to realise that since the movie was inspired/based on true events, it couldn't have (and shouldn't have) been over-dramatic. This was one of the reasons why I thought that the movie felt very real (you realise that things from your history books are ACTUAL things that have happened).

I especially love when they make movies or shows showing under-appreciated events or people during the war times because in history lessons, you never actually learn about them apart from the events that we usually hear about. When you see success stories (or even failed stories, for that matter) during these times, it makes you realise that these are ACTUAL people and ACTUAL events.

Though the movie seemed quite long, it was really shot well and Tom Hanks, once again, played his role incredibly! (I'm not biased towards Tom Hanks, okay! :3)

-Shifa

We went in to the cinema expecting a brilliant film because of such a killer cast (not to be biased, but especially Tom Hanks!). But what we got was so much more!

I absolutely loved this film and I think it's so important because it addresses some very necessary, important and basic humanity requirements. I already knew halfway through the film that it was going to be an incredible one. 

Furthermore, I really like war movies/books because we have studied about it (the World Wars and the Cold War) in school and so, it's close to my heart. Also, this film was like Goodnight Mister Tom (novel by Michelle Magorian) in the sense that it was set in the war time, but didn't actually revolve around it all that heavily, and this made me like the movie even more. 

Lastly, I don't even have to mention this, but the acting was absolutely brilliant. I must however mention one point: they didn't give us a feel of Russian/German lawyers and their side of the story.

All in all, a brilliantly shot film. 

-Safa

Rating: 10/10

Film Review: The Last Witch Hunter

(Source: Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Witch_Hunter)

Starring: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie

Run-time: 1h 46m

Plot:
The last witch hunter is all that stands between humanity and the combined forces of the most horrifying witches in history.
(Source: IMDb - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1618442/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

The movie was shot well and there was a pretty impressive ensemble of the cast. However, the movie was just drenched in clichés and was extremely predictable right from the main character's personality and personal loss, down to the "surprise" betrayal.

The CGI was pretty great and, of course, Vin Diesel and Michael Caine were lovely, but unfortunately neither Caine nor Diesel's cool factor mask the enormous bright red gash of clichés that were bleeding throughout the movie. 

Rating- 5/10

Collective Summer Book Haul!

During the summer holidays (and even before that!) we had ordered so many books from Amazon.in and had them delivered to our address in India. So, while we were holidaying in India, we were able to receive/collect them; it was glorious to see such a huge stack of books piling up on our shelf! So, this is a collective book haul post of the books we bought from the beginning of the year up until September (and still counting :p). But we didn't stop with just books that we had ordered, we also had to go and buy some more! So, here is a post deicated to ALL the books we've brought back from India (from this Summer Holiday):

March-April (2015)

Book Details:

(Top to Bottom):

1. The Thirteenth Tale- Diane Setterfield
2. Elizabeth Is Missing- Emma Healey
3. Shatter Me- Tahereh Mafi
4. Second Life- SJ Watson
5. The Girl On the Train- Paula Hawkins

June (2015)

Book Details:

(Top to Bottom):

1. 365 Days Of Wonder- R.J. Palacio
2. The Sandman- Lars Kepler
3. Strangers On A Train- Patricia Highsmith
4. Naked- Kevin Brooks
5. Thirteen- Tom Hoyle
6. Muder Most Unladylike- Robin Stevens
7. Rooftoppers- Katherine Rundell
8. One Step Too Far- Tina Seskis
9. All The Bright Places- Jennifer Niven

July-August

Book Details:

(Anti-Clockwise from the top):

1. The Mysterious Benedict Society (Box-Set)- Trenton Lee Stewart
2. Death Note- Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
3. Room- Emma Donoghue
4. Prince Of Fools- Mark Lawrence
5. I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend- Core Harrison
6. Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend- Cora Harrison
7. Pretties- Scott Westerfeld
8. Uglies- Scott Westerfeld
9. Frankenstein (Book 3): Dead Or Alive- Dean Koontz
10. Here, There Be Dragons- James A. Owen
11. The Wonder Journal- R.J. Palacio
12. The Divergent Trilogy- Veronica Roth

September (2015)

Book Details:

(Anti-Clockwise from the top):

1. Les Misérables- Victor Hugo
2. Goosebumps~Most Wanted (Special Edition): Zombie Halloween (#1)- R.L. Stine
3. Goosebumps~Most Wanted: Planet Of The Lawn Gnomes (#1)- R.L. Stine
4. Tell Me No Lies- Malorie Blackman
5. Diary Of A Wimpy Vampire- Tim Collins
6. Labyrinth- Kate Mosse
7. Superman: Last Son Of Krypton- Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Adam Kubert & Gary Frank
8. Superman: Secret Origin- Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal
9. The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien
10. Fortunately, The Milk- Neil Gaiman
11. Confessions Of Georgia Nicolson (Book 10): "Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?"- Louise Rennison
12. Confessions Of Georgia Nicolson (Book 8): "Luuurve Is A Many Trousered Thing"- Louise Rennison
13. Thora- Gillian Johnson
14. Kiss- Jacqueline Wilson
15. The Worry Website- Jacqueline Wilson

So, totally, we lugged 41 books back to Dubai, and we CANNOT wait to read all of them! We just hope we can resist buying anymore books till we finish these off... but we can't make any promises!

Have you guys read any of these? Or do you wants us to do a book review of any particular one? Please do let us know in the comments!

You can even have a look at our Youtube video for a better look at the covers, here:

https://youtu.be/RQ1Vz8WYIXM

We hope that this post was helpful to you and wish you a wonderful morning/afternoon/evening!

Salam | Peace!

Book Review: The Bunker Diary ~Kevin Brooks

This book is about a boy named Linus who is kidnapped and put into a bunker with a few other people. Linus keeps a diary of what happens in the bunker and we live it through his perspective.

We bought this book towards the end of last year and the first person to read it was me (Safa). I finished reading the book in a few days because it was written in a very intriguing and thrilling manner. however, the ending of the book really shocked me and I was pretty much crushed; the book was constantly on my mind and it really did make me feel a little depressed.

The next person who got trapped into the net (despite many warnings from me) was Shifa. She also thoroughly enjoyed the writing style of the book and she finished the book in a few hours (which was one sitting)! But, then, she also understood the gravity of my words, but by then it was too late. *Dramatic music*

We're very sorry to any Kevin Brooks fans and the Carnegie Medal committee, but we don't recommend this book.

On our Rate-O-Meter, we rate this as:

Highly NOT Recommended.

If you have any thoughts or answers to the questions:
-Why was this book written?
-What was the meaning of this book?
-Why did such events occur?
Please, we urge you- with the utmost urgency- to let us know in the comments below.

If you would like to buy this book (to prank someone or despite our aforementioned cautions, please do so at your own risk!), you can click here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/146775420X?keywords=the%20bunker%20diary&qid=1443651115&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

You can also check out our review on YouTube, here:

https://youtu.be/MCb1sjgqhRE

We're sorry for such a sad review, but we wish you a day that is filled with happiness and ice cream!

Salam|Peace!

Comic Book Haul!

I'm sure all of you know Comic Con (or at least have heard of such a thing!). And just like the ones held in San Diego and New York, the UAE has one known as the Middle East Film and Comic Con (or MEFCC, for short!).

Both of us have been meaning to buy and read comic for a very long time now. And we got the chance to fulfil our wishes during MEFCC 2015!

So, at MEFCC, we were just wandering around and we found a comic book stall called High Grade Comics.We were just going through the boxes of comics, when we found several comics that were being sold at clearance prices! We found comics for $2 and $3! Therefore, we decided to grab as many as we could!

Here is a list of all the comics we got (although we were not able to get all the books in a sequence, we managed to get some books in a series):
Iron Man:
The Invincible Iron Man:
(Heroes Return) Avalanche! (#2)
The Invincible Iron Man (#3)
The Revenge of the Mandarin- Part 1 & 2 [from a 2 part series] (#9, #10)
Marvel Annual:
Atlantis Attacks

Thor:
The Mighty Thor:
The Thor War- Part 2, 3 & 4 [from a 4 part series] (#439, #440, #441)
Tales of Asgard (#1)

Fantastic Four:
Atlantis Rising

Vision and the Scarlet Witch:
Night of the Living Druid! (#1)

Spider-Man:
The Sensational Spider-Man:
The Sensational Spider-Man (#1)
The Amazing Spider-Man:
The Official Marvel Index to the Amazing Spider-Man (#5)

Firestorm:
The Fury of Firestorm:
The Nuclear Man- Squeeze Play! (#18)

Superman:
Annual Superman- To Tame A Titan (#1)

Others:
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up:
Spider-Man and Wolverine (#1)

Marvel Age Annual:
From the Marvel Universe to the New Universe

(Heroes Return) The Avengers:
Rough Cut (#1)


That's all the Superhero comics we got! But aside from that, we also spotted some cool other comics. Here they are:

Team Muhafiz is about a group of teenagers from different religious and racial backgrounds, and together they fight against daily evils! (We were quite excited to read this!!)

We were looking for Miss Paige Hartman (whom we saw in last year's MEFCC) because we wanted to get her comic, "Blades of Hope". But unfortunately, she didn't attend this year. However, her colleague, Mr Sohaib Awan, was there and he gave us the free preview of his comic Jinnrise (pictured above). But, sadly, his books were also sold out, so we only got this.

This book we actually got from last year's Comic Con. It's about this Muslim lady who gets into an accident and wakes up thinking that she is a Superhero! It was a real laugh, and we wanted to get the second part of this, but we weren't able to find the author.

Last year, by a chance encounter, Shifa said "let's go see Despop Art!", and we did. And we are so glad that we did because we got to meet the very funny and kind Mr Des Taylor! He was such a lovely man and we even attended a workshop that he was holding. It was really great!! This year, when we went up to his stall, he had remembered us, and that really touched us. He even told us that he had a tiny scene in the Avengers; Age of Ultron movie (which we kept our eyes peeled for!). So, we are very excited for his comic "Scarlett Couture" (pictured above is a signed poster).

That's about it! Please let us know which comics you like and which ones you would recommend us to buy!

You can also check out our video on YouTube, here:

http://youtu.be/kt9mtzEoV0A

We hope you enjoyed reading this, and we wish you a lovely day!

Salam|Peace!

WHSmith and Post-Crossing Purchases!

Recently, we went to The Dubai Mall to redeem our WHSmith voucher. Along with that, we spotted a sale at Gallery One and had to stop and look at (and of course, buy!) the things. Here are the books and post-crossing things that we bought:

Books from WHSmith:

I Am The Messenger ~ Marcus Zusak

We actually picked this up because we read The Book Thief and we loved it to bits.

This story is about Ed Kennedy, a young man who lives a pretty bleak life. But one day, he accidentally stops a bank robbery. After this things in his life start to change, and the story sees who is the person behind Ed's mission.

Goodnight Mister Tom ~ Michelle Magorian

Set in the Second World War, the story revolves around a young boy who is evacuated off to the countryside to be taken care of (away from the danger of the war). He is taken good care of by a kind gentleman named Tom Oakley. However, after a while, his cruel mother brings him back to London, and we don't know if he will ever see Mr Tom again.

The Boy Who Fell To Earth ~ Kathy Lette

We are expecting lots of tears after we read this book!

This is the story of Lucy and her autistic son, Merlin. We will be taken on a roller coaster ride of Lucy and Merlin's life, as Merlin becomes 10 years old and Lucy starts getting back into the dating game.

The Girl With All The Gifts ~ M. R. Carey

When we read the blurb, both of us got chills, so we are just going to let you read the original synopsis:

"Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while tow of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh".

So, we are very excited to read all of those books, and we're probably going to be doing a review on all these books some time in the future!

Post-Crossing Things from Gallery One:

Notecards Featuring Places in Jumeirah

These are pretty cards (like any normal birthday or greeting card), which have different landmarks of Jumeirah on them, where you can inscribe your message on the inside and post it!

3D Build-up Mosque Cards

These are very simple and cute Do-It-Yourself build-up mosques. You can write a message on the back and post it, and the recipient can build up the model and enjoy your cool card and message!

Jigsaw Puzzle Cards

This we are very excited about: they are a postcard but double as a jigsaw puzzle! All you have to do is write a message on the back, break it up, post it and the receiver will assemble the puzzle and will be pleasantly surprised to see a message!

Long/Panoramic Cards

These beauties are longer than normal postcards by around 9 centimetres. We got these because they were gorgeous and usually they cost around Dhs 10-20, but during this sale, only Dhs 3!

Seahorse Notebook

We got this adorable notebook for our cousin. The pattern is so simple yet so please to the eye. We love it!

If you guys have an suggestions, ideas or questions, please let us know in the comments!

If you would like to buy the books, you can click here:

I Am The Messenger:

http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Messenger-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375836675/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435409401&sr=1-1&keywords=i+am+the+messenger

Goodnight Mister Tom:

http://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Mister-Tom-Michelle-Magorian/dp/0141353848/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435409432&sr=1-3&keywords=goodnight+mister+tom

The Boy Who Fell To Earth:

http://www.amazon.com/Fell-Earth-Lette-Kathy-Paperback/dp/B00IIARMCI/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435409599&sr=1-2&keywords=the+boy+who+fell+to+earth

The Girl With All The Gifts:

http://www.amazon.com/Girl-All-Gifts-M-Carey/dp/0316334758/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435409381&sr=1-1&keywords=the+girl+with+all+the+gifts

If you would like to check out Gallery One's website, you can click here:

https://www.g-1.com/

You can also watch our video on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/hpcqw_aYSBg

We hope this post was helpful for you :)
See you later!
Salam | Peace

Book Recommendation: Does My Head Look Big In This? ~Randa Abdel-Fattah

This book is set in Australia and revolves around a teenager named Amal. She decides to wear the hijab (the headscarf) before the start of Year 11. We are taken on a journey of how she copes with criticisms and hardships regarding her hijab and her general high school year.

We saw this book at a Book Fair (held in Sharjah), and the thing that actually caught our attention was the cover- with its depiction of a hijabi girl- because we hadn't seen such a book anywhere, and we've been wanting to read a novel like this. Not only that, the blurb was very humorous and, so, we bought it. 

What we especially enjoyed about the book was that it was very relatable as a teenager (and not just as a Muslim) and the writing style was light and easy to read.

We would recommend this book to any teenager, regardless of whether you wear the hijab or not, or even if you are simply looking for a good book to read.

On our Rate-O-Meter, we rate this as:

Highly Recommended!

If you have any books that you would like to recommend to us, or would like us to review, please let us know in the comments below.

If you would like to buy this book, you can click here:

http://www.amazon.com/Does-Head-Look-Big-This/dp/043992233X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434293367&sr=1-1&keywords=does+my+head+look+big+in+this

You can also check out our review on YouTube, here:

https://youtu.be/cKDtXkeEwsQ

We hope this post was helpful to you, and we wish you a lovely day!

Salam|Peace!

Book Recommendation: Keigo Higashino's books! | PeopleOnTheMoon

Hey guys! So this post is a short review and recommendation of three of Mr. Keigo Higashino's books!

Currently, only four (or as we know) books of his have been translated into English, and we were able to get the books! We started off with Devotion of Suspect X, and later, ordered the other three books - Malice, Salvation of a Saint and Naoko. We still haven't received our Naoko, but when it comes, we will be overjoyed, haha!

To start off, we want to give you a short synopsis of the book without giving too much away (meaning, we don't want to describe everything, so even the obvious details will be a mystery to you - unless you've read the synopsis/summary on other websites).

Devotion of Suspect X - This book is about a mother and her daughter, who become involved in a murder, and their neighbour, who helps them discard of the evidence and avoid police suspicion on them. 

The amazing thing about this book is that it's already obvious who has done what, but there's a twist and you'll get confused because you'll be wondering if you missed something or if you're reading the right book or not! (If that makes any sense, haha!)

Malice - This is about a famous novelist who is murdered in his house, and is found by his best friend and wife, who have strong alibis. So who is the killer?

This book was again so amazing because you'll start imagining so many things just by what you're given - but in the end, you'll find out that everything is not what it seems to be!

Salvation of a Saint - This book is about a man who is poisoned to death in his home, and the police become suspicious of his wife. The only problem is, how could his wife have poisoned him when she was in a totally different city?

Although the murderer is not clearly stated in the book, you have an idea about who has committed the crime. But the best part is figuring out why or how.

Overall, the books are really simple to read (as they are translated), and each has a different concept. If you're looking for a good thriller book, go for these! They're really worth it.

We ordered our books from Amazon.in, but the links to the Amazon.com pages are given! 

 The Devotion of Suspect X: http://www.amazon.com/Keigo-Higashino-Devotion-Suspect-29/dp/B00HTK2S4U/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422181091&sr=1-9&keywords=devotion+of+suspect+x

- Malice: http://www.amazon.com/Malice/dp/1408705850/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=0154HM942W0CJ9D97GZW

- Salvation of A Saint: http://www.amazon.com/Salvation-Saint-Higashino-Keigo-Paperback/dp/B00IJ0490A/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422181029&sr=1-11&keywords=salvation+of+a+saint

If you have any questions or have any comments (on how we can improve our book reviewing skills, hahaha!), we would greatly appreciate it!

You can even check out our Youtube video on this!

http://youtu.be/T98KjerMppk

See you later, Salam|Peace!