Film Review - Grown Ups

Right, it's actually been a week since I saw this film, so bear with me while my memory tries to catch up - so much has happened since then...like sleep.

The above film follows 5 childhood friends who are reunited at the funeral of their once beloved basketball coach. It is a heartwarming film about life, love and learning new things about yourself.

The film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider as the 5 friends and Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph and Joyce Van Patten play their wives.

For the funeral, Adam Sandler's character, Lenny, has paid out for a lake house for them all to stay in. All the friends, wives and kids have their own eccentricities, from Lenny's children not knowing what a CRT Television was and are so spoiled that they text their nanny when they want something. Eric's 4 year old is still being breast fed. Rob has a thing for the older woman, shown plainly in his choice of wife. Marcus is free and single, but completely immature and Kurt is a house husband constantly demeaned by his mother in law.

This time away from their normal lives allows them to have fun and remember what it was like to be young. The family's have their ups and downs and finally reach breaking point near the end of the film, with a lovely happy resolution to end with.

I enjoyed the film, it was easy to watch, with no thinking necessary and sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax and have a good laugh. There are many funny moments to be had with lots of silly fun. Probably one of Adam Sandler's better films.

6 out of 10

Assignment 4 - The results

Hello again

I got my feedback for assignment 4 and got another Grade B - I use the word another not in a bad way, just purely in a descriptive way as it is another B - I now have 3 B's, but I'm happy with that, a B is good :-)

I do feel I got better feedback for this assignment, or rather more constructive feedback and here it is verbatim:

(1) Letter to Easy Living

If this was just the straightforward ‘pat on the back’ type letter it first appears to be, it would probably go into a very large pile, since most magazines get many more of this type than they can actually use. However, you’ve also used the letter to refer back to a previously published article – and this creates the very feedback and response that letters pages need for their life blood.

(1) Letter to Sainsbury’s Magazine

Much the same comments go for this letter – although you are also making the point that their policies have helped you as an individual, so you are personalising the comment. This might encourage other readers/customers to write similar letters – thus continuing that process of feedback etc.

(3) Letter to Writing Magazine

The fact that this was printed as the star letter says it all, really – doesn’t it? This is the way to write letters that get printed. Now all you have to do is to concentrate your efforts where cash or prizes are offered in exchange.

(4) Article for Prima magazine

You’ve done your research well here, identifying a specific magazine, its main core of interest and typical readership. Using this information, you have been able to produce an article which is directly geared to those criteria.

I’m often dubious about these ‘do-it-yourself’ craft articles, since many of them either end up looking cheap and tacky, totally impractical or are so fiddly and time-consuming that no-one is ever going to bother trying them out. Here however, you’ve come up with a reasonably simple method of making an attractive-looking, practical gift which would probably be appreciated by many new mums. The step by step photographs are a definite bonus – but you’re probably right about shooting them again with a plain background.

It all sounds very positive, I just need to sort out those photo's for the article and get it sent off and hopefully it'll be a first acceptance! One can only hope - for if there's no optimism, it'll show in the writing and it'll never get accepted. So having hope is good, but also a good dollop of realism helps, so I'm always hopeful an article will get published but I don't 'expect' it. Perhaps if I had received my prize from my star letter I'd be able to find more markets to write for :-p I've won a prize and I want it now lol - how very selfish of me lol.

Anyway, onwards and upwards to assignment 5 - after this I'll be halfway through the non-fiction section and that much close to getting to the fiction bit! keep going, keep plodding on, I'll get there in the end. nd to my surprise I've actually already started on an idea for this assignment, so maybe there won't be a moaning blog looking for inspiration. I just have to find the right angle...

DVD Review - The Strangers

Hello

My first DVD review! Ooooh. I was invited around to my friend Sian's house to watch this as she wasn't sure if she'd be too creeped out to watch it alone :-)

The film stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman and very few other people. It's mostly filmed on the one location - a secluded house and the surrounding wooded area. It is apparently 'inspired by a true story'.

Kristen and James arrive home at 4am to the secluded house (always a necessity for a horror movie), after having attended a friend's wedding. Both are upset and emotional after having a disagreement about their relationship. James calls his friend, leaving a message, asking to be picked up later in the morning.

Soon though they hear a loud knock on the door and open it to find a young woman just standing there, who eventually asks for someone who doesn't live there. They send her away but as must be done in a creepy film, she hangs around staring at the house. The chills and menacing further increase throughout the film by the masked terrorisers.

The film isn't quite what I expected but there were a few good jumps. It was quite an odd film I think, but I did like it overall, but I can also see why some people may find it a little boring. There isn't an awful lot of action. I probably wouldn't class it as a horror film, maybe more of a chiller.

I liked the end of the film and found the reasoning behind their attack very interesting...but you'll have to watch it for yourself to find out...

I'd give this film a 5.5 out of 10

Sent it in

Yay, another assignment done and dusted! woo! It took ages for it to actually get through though cos the email is about 11MB!! This is due to having pictures as part of the article, which will very much help but I'll need to find a way to make them smaller. I managed to do that a little bit by just hitting the compress pictures button in Word but they need to be smaller again i think but without actually losing the quality - so if anyone can help with that, I'll be very grateful.
I've already recruited one very kind friend, Mel, to a slightly different cause and I've asked her to remove the backgrounds from the nappy cake because at the moment you can see my bedroom floor on some and out the kitchen window (and you can see the washing! lol) on others. Mel assures me this is easy and should get it done in super quick time - go Mel. But so I could just get my assingment handed in, I've sent my tutor the unedited ones - with the explanation that I'm currently editing them lol :)

Anyway I really should get straight onto assignment 5 as I need to pick up the speed a bit as the course does have a limited life and granted it's a 4 year life but i'm already almost a year through and only completed 4 assignments so that's not the best really.

Anyway I'll be back on to say how I got on...wish me luck!!
x

Film Review - Dinner for Schmucks

I went to see this film last night which starred Steve Carell as Barry and Paul Rudd as Tim.
The basic premise is that Tim is looking to get a promotion within the company he works for and looks like it could happen but first he has to attend a 'dinner for winners' event at his boss' house. It's explained to Tim that they each must bring along an idiot as a guest and there is a trophy for the best idiot. This doesn't really sit well with Tim but he agrees for the sake of his career...now to find an idiot though.

And he literally crashes into one when he knocks over Barry, who had bent down to save a dead mouse. Barry is one of those people that you hope you'll never know and by the end of this 10 minute meeting, he is showing Tim an album of all his dead mice diorama projects. You can almost see the lightbulb light up above Tim's head - he's found his idiot.

However, things go from bad to worse in their short and turbulent relationship from the moment of meeting, to finally going to the dinner, only the following evening - who knew so much could happen in one day? Incidents range from Barry getting the wrong night for dinner to him mistaking Tim's girlfriend, Julia, for a one night stand, Darla, Tim had had before he even met Julia, to inviting the psychotic, obsessed Darla to a very important client meeting and asking her to pose as Julia.

I personally found the film funny and it kept me smiling throughout. Yes it's silly fun and won't appeal to everyone, but it does also have a few sad moments and overall I felt it was an endearing movie. May I say I never want a friend like Barry.

I'll give the film a...oooh I'm not really sure actually...erm...6.5 out of 10

Success for my brother too :)

My brother Stephen has been writing children's stories about the adventures of Harold the Platypus and his friends. Harold is a very "real" teddy bear platypus and Stephen's inspiration was drawn from him.

He has written a few different stories - from memory - Harold and the Mermaid, Harold on safari, a Christmas one and Harold in Space is currently under construction. The stories are very sweet and I think, made even more endearing by the fact that they are filled with drawings done by children.

Now Mandy, his wife and 'agent' has been sending his books far and widfe to publishers and self publishing companies. Now there has been no word from a lot these places as of yet - especially those sent to America and Australia, but they have signed a contract with self publishing company Authorhouse, who will help them to sell these books and they will even be on Amazon in a couple of month's time, just in time for the Christmas rush! :-) So this is a very exciting time for both Stephen and Mandy and I wish them every success with it.

I know Mandy has also contacted Phoenix Yard publishers, a contact I provided after having read a blog post from Maureen, so thank you very much for that and they hope to hear something soon.
Good luck for the future and may it be Harold-shaped

A mini success!

Yay! One of the reader's letters I have done for my Assignment 4 has been published, and not only that, it was the Star Letter too!

I didn't know until my copy of the Writing Magazine landed on my doorstep today and I opened it and had a quick glance at the letters, not really expecting anything, but there my name was! Got such a great rush seeing my name in print :) I know it's only a reader's letter and people who aren't even attempting to become a writer can get a letter published, but I'm very pleased anyway - and it's in the Writing Magazine and the only people who will read that are trying to become writers so I'm happy it was in that magazine.

Plus, I also won a prize as it was the star letter which is a copy of the 2010 Writer's Market - ok so not a cash prize, but I don't care, I won something and the whole point of it anyway was about the writing. Also, the book is actually quite expensive and will hopefully aid me in getting more things published :)

Yay, I'm very happy, woo!