Unapologetic Reviews

I wasn't very keen on watching this movie, but as is apparent from my previous reviews, I tend to keep an open mind. There were other movies I wasn't very excited about, and I liked them. The reason why I watched this movie? Alex Skarsgard. Yeah, he's beautiful, and I love his voice, so I decided to check this one out. I also saw that a lot of my online book friends loved the book version. Well, let me just say that I hope the book is better.

Read on...

This book took me a little over two weeks to read, but it felt longer. I didn't enjoy it much. It wasn't completely terrible, but I found it a bit boring.

The story takes place in 2013, actually, so it's a bit strange in that way, since it was written in 2009. You only realise how many things can happen in 4 years when reading something like this. It happens in a super-mall, which actually didn't sound so bad. It's an environment that I know well, since I work above a mall, and spend a lot of time there, sometimes just to get out of the office. However, the story itself just didn't entertain me so much. It was obvious what was going on at about 10% into the story, so that took the mystery out. Then it was all just people dashing about, some minor characters getting killed, and I just wanted to get to the end already. It was just too simplistic.

I also missed the Doctor having someone to properly explain things to. This takes place at the point of his life when he had lost Donna, and was trying to travel alone. As usual, he did have a temporary companion, but there just wasn't a lot of interaction with her. The Doctor was the Doctor, but I couldn't feel him, I couldn't connect to him.

The author also threw at us a host of temporary characters that got quickly killed off after learning a few things about them. In the show this happens sometimes, and it works, but in this book it just felt random, and like he was a filler writer. That's a term that I use for writers who need to write a certain length, and obviously run out of good ideas before meeting that requirement, so they start to put in random stuff to make the word count.

Overall, not a terrible little book, but if it wasn't a Doctor Who story, I probably would have put it down before finishing. The end didn't hold any surprises for me, and the resolution wasn't so brilliant as it should have been. Maybe he got out of the groove of writing Doctor Who, since his last book for the fandom came out in the 90s.

I've been anticipating this movie for some time. From the previews it looked fun, sci-fi, action, the good stuff. I'm happy to report that it was real sci-fi, had a lot of funny moments, and the action was great.

Read on...

Besides superhero movies, the latest trend seems to be fairy tale retelling. Maleficent tells the story of Sleeping Beauty from the evil fairy's perspective. Even just reading that, it's obvious that she's not as evil here as she was in the original story.

I like these sorts of retellings. The "evil" characters become three dimensional, instead of just the two dimensions that we used to get. Most of the time in real life people have their reasons for doing what they do. Also, sometimes the real villain is not the one you would first pick out to be. Without spoiling too much, I liked her reasons for doing what she did, and I also liked the way they resolved it.

Read on...

It's a sad news, but I'm glad that she lived a long life. It was terrible that she lost Bogie so young though. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman. Partly why I decided years ago that if I have a daughter, her name will be Lauren Vivien.

My favourite scene with her will always be this one. She's sensual without being in your face sexy, and her husky voice fits the line beautifully. She was truly amazing. No wonder Bogie divorced his wife ASAP.

I'm going to print this, and hang it somewhere. 

I'm shocked that he died, but I'm also shocked that he died at 63. I know several actors and actresses that died at 63. It's getting weird.

A lot of things happened in this book, and I'm kind of at a loss trying to gather it all in my head. The end of the previous book made some of the events in this one obvious. What I wasn't prepared for was what happened in the middle, and towards the end. In a way, this could be called a "bridge book" in the series. It's not very focused, because it has the events that take the reader from the previous book, to what happens in the last book. I often see this in book series with 6 books. They are really two trilogies, with the first three books having one story, and the second three having the sequel story. Therefore, this book felt a bit incomplete, and I had to move onto the next one right away. Good thing they are all out.

At this point in the series, there aren't really many new characters, it's mostly the old ones doing more things. However, we do see some new minor ones that push the story along, though their appearance is in part sought out, and at other parts make sense in the world.

The main characters don't change much at this point. Okay, one does, but I'm keeping this spoiler free, so you'll just have to find out for yourself. Let me say that our two girls are still best friends, still help each other, and the revelations in the previous book still motivate their actions. In a way Lissa is even a better friend than she ever was before.

It is hard to talk about this book in detail, without giving too much away. At this point the series is kind of like a familiar chair that I can sit into, in a world that I understand, with people I know. Sure, it's not Harry Potter. I won't be seeking out fanfiction. However, I'll be sad to see it end, and will have the book hang-over, which I'm dreading already. I suppose the good thing at this point is that I'm not feeling cheated, I don't think this book is worse than the previous ones, I'm enjoying the story. I have seen people get further in a series and feel cheated that a book didn't live up to the standard they have come to expect. Maybe those were kinda force sequels, written because there was money to be made, not because the story could still go on. This book isn't like that. Every book in the series in fact has felt as a needed continuation of what the author had been building so far. I just hope that the next book will bring about a satisfying ending to the series, marking that the author knew when to stop.

I started watching this drama not sure if it would be work, romance or comedy. It's a bit all three of them, but most of it is actually a comedy. The breast jokes would be a bit too much if it wasn't.

The story itself revolves around a "Kabe Onna" (Wall Woman). She's a woman with very small breasts. She's the type who is bothered by it, but won't wear extreme push-up bras to compensate. While breasts are a central theme in the story, it's more about what she goes through with work, her love life, her family, and the people with whom she interacts. The story does lack a focus, and most of the time I was wondering where they were going with it. It felt more like a jumble of short stories with the same characters than a coherent thing. There were some other funny moments though, aside from the breast jokes.

Read on...

Read on...

This book is so far a lot more action-packed than the previous ones. I also can't tell what's going to happen next, so it's exciting. I am going a bit more slowly with this one though, but that's because I'm busy working out when I'm not working. I was also on a holiday, but I didn't read a lot. I'm more intent on getting muscles now than finishing the book. :D

Like Rene Descartes (1596-1650), you believe in mind over matter. You believe in the power of the mind to heal your body, lead you through hard times, and puzzle out the world's mysteries. You're a deep thinker who feels that anything is possible.

Test is here

This time, I have to go with nothing. I've never read a book taking place during the great war. In fact, I generally avoid novels that take place during real wars. I even avoid movies / TV shows / etc. Why? For the most part, I know who wins. Second, these books are always sad and depressing. I have my life for the sad and depressing thing to be in my life, so when I read a book I want something a bit more cheerful. I don't mind fictional wars so much. On the one hand, there the war is actually exciting, since even when the obvious party wins, there's always the how. It also has the comfort of none of that having actually happened, so I don't have to think of that having been an actual person's life. If I want to think about the awfulness of an actual person's life, I have my grandparents for that, who actually lived through both world wars right in the middle of it. Or just look at my country's map, and I'll see the awfulness of it all, since we were on the losing side and lost 2/3 of our territory in WWI.

The only thing that could come close to me reading something that takes place during WWI was this series, which has several seasons during it: 

They were sad and depressing episodes more often than not, but by then I was invested in the characters, and couldn't stop watching. However, I did go more slowly than the previous seasons, and took frequent breaks. Especially when I was crying too much.

I'm just going to go with the most obvious one here. Like I said before, I generally avoid reading novels with too much food because I'm always dieting. Food shows are okay, I generally get good tips for cooking from them.

This book I read in Hungarian when I was little. I think I re-read it a few times. I read it in English in high school. We had a class where we had an American teacher. There really wasn't much of a structure to the class, it was basically left up to the American person to do whatever. The point of it was to practice English with a native. It's not a common practice in Hungarian school, but I went to a bilingual high school. So one day he showed up with a stack of books, and it was this one. I was so happy to read it in English! Most of my classmates didn't even know it. I may re-read the book again, even though I don't eat any sweets anymore. Yeah, really, none at all.