Film Review: Dheepan

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

Starring: Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby

Run-Time: 1h 55m

Plot:
Dheepan is a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.

(Source: IMDb- http://m.imdb.com/title/tt4082068/)


The trailer (of this movie) was very interesting, intense and capturing. However, it was a bit misleading with the storyline.
The acting was really something; the movie flowed really well and the whole affair was a quite engrossing. But, towards the climax, I was confused why the events unfolded in the way that they did and it was also unclear on how the protagonists, despite the circumstances, were able to settle. 
In all, the movie was a interesting but quite heavy, and not really my cup of tea. 

Rating: 5.5/10

Film Review: The 5th Wave

(Source: Moviepilot.com- http://moviepilot.com/posts/3544372)

Starring: Chloe Grace-Mortez, Nick Robinson, Alex Roe

Run-Time: 1h 25m

Plot:

Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother.

(source: IMDb- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2304933/)

Characters not as I imagined (as usual) but irregardless of their looks, even their attitudes weren't right. Some characters weren't even introduced properly and so there is quite a lot of confusion. Sentiment of a lot of things was lost; emotions were diluted.

The scenes were changed too much and that just alters the dynamics- of well, everything!- and makes it the same old thing. Also, when they change/shorten the scenes, they end up missing out vital parts, which creates many plot-holes and errors.

One thing that really peeved me off was how some important revelations in the story were revealed in the most nonchalant way.I felt like the whole movie was a Wikipedia summary (of the book). Extremely disappointed. 

((Apologies if this seems like a half-hearted attempt at a review, but I was not impressed))

Rating- 4/10

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!