The Road

Advantages: Note-perfect performances, hauntingly real setting
Disadvantages: One very slightly unconvincing element involving Charlize Theron

...Destroying the world can be an expensive business, and no-one knows this better than Roland Emmerich who has chosen to annihilate the human race many times. He sent aliens after us using $75 million, ("Independence Day") froze us for $125 million, ("The Day After Tomorrow") and most recently drowned us splashing $200 million. ("2012") But it's unfair to place all the blame on Emmerich since our planet has gone through several asteroid/zombie/predator/ape/robot/biochemical/nuc lear attacks. But John Hillcoat's "The Road" shows that spending less can achieve the exact level of fear and terror if not more. The cause of this mass destruction is never explained and the audience is never encouraged to care. The point is everything has died. No plants or animals have existed for the past few years. It's only the humans who have survived...

goldenbat666 02.06.2010 · Read review
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Review of The Road

A Bleak and desolate Road

Advantages: An excellent adaptation of McCarthy's Novel
Disadvantages: Grim, depressing - will leave you numb

...Cormac McCarthy has been hailed as America's greatest novelist and one I knew very little about before reading his Pulitzer prize winning novel, The Road. At times some of his descriptions are grim and extremely violent. His writing style is unusual as he doesn't use traditional punctuation and his vocabulary is obscure. The characters in his novels are solitary outsiders and the world he describes is one of coldness; very dark with not much life; a post apocalyptic world. This world is portrayed in John Hillcoat's movie of the same name. From the beginning we are introduced to a grey, bleak, stinking world that has had every bit of life sucked out of it. It's like the start of some eye disease that puts immense pressure on the optic nerve, decreasing vision, stealing colours and brightness, making the world hazy and unclear. But in...

Praski 22.04.2010 · Read review
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Review of The Road

* Lily's Pictures *

Advantages: Fantastic
Disadvantages: NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...I really enjoyed Paige Toon's previous chick-flick books (Lucy In The Sky and Johnny Be Good) , and so I was really looking forward to her next novel ; Pictures Of Lily. So you can imagine how happy I was when the book was finally released. Pictures Of Lily is the fourth fictional novel from ex Heat magazine employee Paige Toon. The book is available to buy from Amazon for a price of £4.18 which I think is fairly reasonable value considering that the book is quite recent. Lily has lived in Australia ever since she was sixteen when she moved there with her mother. Lily fell in love with a guy twelve years older than her , who happened to have a girlfriend in England. Ten years on , Lily is in love with a guy who wants to marry her , and she has moved on. Or has she ? What will happen when someone turns up from the past? Read Pictures...

xdonzx 29.07.2010 · Read review
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Review of Pictures Of Lily - Paige Toon

The Road is long...........and grey.........and miserable........

Advantages: Powerful, the two main actors; good direction
Disadvantages: Dull and depressing, so make sure you're in the right mood

...The Road is a very desolate and slow moving film that takes a look at a fictional post-apocalyptic society in which mere survival is your biggest challenge. Viggo Mortensen is very good as the father who must nurture his young son and look after him, preparing him for the worst at the same time as keeping the light shining inside. It's a hard film to watch, but very well made. I hadn't read anything about this when I first sat down to watch it. I got the impression, from the main front picture of Mortensen and his on screen son, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, that it wasn't going to be a feel good film, and probably had something to do with having to walk a hell of a lot; but beyond that I knew nothing. Aside from brief flashbacks through dreams or memories of Mortensen, we're never completely told what happened, although a great fire...

pmcds 13.08.2010 · Read review
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Review of The Road

Pictures of Lily

Advantages: a great read
Disadvantages: none

...Paige Toon seems to have taken the chick lit world by storm in the last couple of years, and no wonder, her books are immensely readable and once you start there really is no putting them down! ?Pictures of Lily? is Paige?s fourth book and has been very eagerly awaited by her fans, not least because she has been promising updates on our favourite characters from her other books. The eponymous Lily is a twenty-six year old temp who lives and works in Sydney, Australia. The book begins with Lily being proposed to by her boyfriend Richard. Lily loves Richard and is happy living with him. She should be thrilled to be marrying him but she has never got over losing her first love at the age of sixteen. Can she marry Richard when she knows that part of her heart will never be his? ?Pictures of Lily? is set in Adelaide and Sydney. I enjoyed...

princesslaura 18.07.2010 · Read review
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Review of Pictures Of Lily - Paige Toon

Picture this!

Advantages: Easy to play, endless fun, clear images
Disadvantages: None

...Picture Pairs is a classic game that I used to love playing with my brother when I was a child, but it wasn't until very recently that I started to play the game with Harry. We were staying with my parents for a little while, and my mum decided to get Harry some games to play with her. I wasn't sure what was suitable for his age (3.5 years), but she picked up this game, Picture Pairs, and Animal Snap. We got them home and Harry was eager to get stuck in, and so were we actually, and would you believe it's now his favourite game we have to play at least once a day! It's a game that can be played in so many ways, and is always fun for younger children to play. It is sometimes called Memory pairs but it's still the same principle and the same game. This particular version is made and sold in Early Learning Centre stores, and comes in...

mummy2harry 28.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Early Learning Centre Picture Pairs

ELC Picture Pairs

Advantages: fun, enourages memory development
Disadvantages: none

...I love the early centre for buying toys and games. Although they can be more expensive than some of the other toy shops their toys are always of very good quality and will last well. We bought the picture pair?s game for my son a couple of years ago but I have noticed that it is still selling on the ELC website for the same price, £6.00. The box that we have is just a cardboard box with a flip lid. On the front are pictures of some of the cards which you will be playing with. Inside the box there are 54 cards which are in pairs. The cards are made of thick card and are still in perfect condition and we have played this game many times. On the cards you will find pictures of things like monkeys, footballs, fish, cats and other every day things. They are usually bright and grab your attention. To play the game you need to...

louisechackett 05.08.2010 · Read review
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Review of Early Learning Centre Picture Pairs

Picture This

Advantages: easy to use for all ages
Disadvantages: words presented in kanji and kana mixed, but not just using kana, scenes are of a Western city

...I have to admit that I bought this book with some trepidation. I have encountered a lot of picture dictionaries in my time, and even as a child I can recall being disappointed with the low quality. Many seemed to be geared towards toddlers, a sort of "what is this" point and see the word in English sort of mentality. I find English only picture dictionaries a bit suspect, therefore, but with two children aged 6 and 8 learning Japanese, I thought perhaps a bilingual picture dictionary might aid in their vocabulary acquisition. As it was, it seemed that every five seconds I was being asked, "What is this in Japanese?" (Actually, my eldest points at something and asks, "Nani (what [is this])?" So I reckoned that if I got a picture dictionary that showed the common scenes and had the English word, followed by the Japanese word, it might make...

Shroud 16.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Let's Learn Japanese Picture Dictionary - Marlene Goodman

The Road is long..........

Advantages: Powerful, a construction that works when it shouldn't; sheer ability
Disadvantages: A few questionable moments

...Arguably the most speculated about album The Beatles produced, Abbey Road is 'that' one with the Fab Four walking across a zebra crossing. Much is made of the cover art, whether it signifies a rift, or the order they walk across means something. There have even been speculations about things in the background, and the real Paul McCartney being dead. Interesting - to me, it's just a great music album. Ignoring the album cover, instantly recognisable and interesting though it is, the music inside came at a time when the band were on the verge of splitting up. Indeed, this was their last studio production together, albeit not their last released. Let It Be was the last official Beatles album, but it was recorded before this one. Perhaps the most noticeable thing about this album, to me, is the diversity within the musical styles. They...

pmcds 06.07.2010 · Read review
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Review of Abbey Road - Beatles (The)

More Like Revelation Road

Advantages: Excellent acting and on screen chemistry, surprise ending
Disadvantages: None

...FILM ONLY REVIEW Frank and April meet at a party in the 1950?s and they instantly hit it off. Frank talks about what he wants from life and how he does not want to end up in a boring job and only working to pay the bills like his father did. He also talks about returning to Paris as he loves the city. We move to a few years later when Frank and April are now married and have 2 children. Frank is unfortunately working in a boring job and only doing so to pay for the lovely house he has bought in Revolutionary Road for his wife and children. He has a long commute every day and it is getting him down. They seem happily married to all their neighbours and are very popular as they bring a new and exciting youth to the town and street they live in . April is trying to make is as an actor but her play is a disaster and she takes this out...

sewbizzie 28.04.2010 · Read review
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Review of Revolutionary Road (DVD)