Not only for the wise

Advantages: A joyful celebreation of life
Disadvantages: It ends...

...decades after it was made), and noting the semen on a man's moustache (it does make sense in the narrative, honest!) admits she was never sure if come should be spelt "come" or "cum". Ultimately Wise Children succeeds because it celebrates life, in this case especially a romantically (but never lachrymose) skewed music hall, carnival, cockney existence (things that would normally arouse my antipathy in fiction), also because it reminds you of the possibility of language and the reason why you read average books, because there is the possibility of discovering such exquisite moments of literature as this. Wise Children seems to me to be the perfect synthesis of her works, of her later, more mature style, also of the surreal nature of her earlier works, of the provocations of The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman (a personal...

No_name 19.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Wise Children - Angela Carter

Wise children read this book (run out of puns)

Advantages: Funny, scandalous, happy ending
Disadvantages: Structure leaves a lot to be desired - you might get lost

...I bought this book '3 for £1' from a charity shop having only vaguely heard of Angela Carter, but when faced with a bunch of books I have no idea how to choose from, I usually go for the prettiest cover, or the author with the nicest name. In this case, having found 2 books, and faced with a shelf of unknown authors, I went with the one who shared a name with my mother. Awh. The Author Wise Children was Angela Carter's last novel before she died of cancer, aged 51. It is full of references to the works of Shakespeare that surrounded her childhood, introduced by her mother, and the Hollywood films her father took her to see. She was born in 1940 and during the war lived with her grandmother in Yorkshire who introduced her to the feminism that pervades many of her books. The Bloody Chamber, for example, is one of her...

sakura42 16.08.2006 · Read review
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Review of Wise Children - Angela Carter

Not yet a Wise Woman

Advantages: Smells great, really hydrating, smoothes skin.
Disadvantages: Expensive, heavy.

...As a consultant with The Body Shop At Home I get to try out lots of different products, well how can I tell people if I think a product is any god or not and talk about it with any certainty if I haven't?! Well that is my excuse anyway. As a consultant I have to keep my kit up together and try and make more sales by getting customers interested, a good way of doing this is by letting them try the product they are interested in for themselves. To enable customers to use some of the products I am now able to buy samples of a few products and so have. I purchased several of the different samples on offer after doing a large party. One of these samples was a pack of 20 Wise Woman Day Cream samples. I have tried the cleanser and eye creams which were in my kit when I first received it and I always show these at parties (unless the guests...

nursie_nursie 11.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Body Shop Wise Woman Regenerating Day Cream

Never Made It As A Wise Man

Advantages: Good solid modern heavy rock; some memorable songs
Disadvantages: Some not-so-memorable songs

...WARNING. This album, despite not carrying a Parental Advisory sticker, features language and themes not suitable for the average children?s party ? and so does this opinion. Please don?t read it if you are easily offended. Christ. That?s what I thought when I saw Chad Kroeger, Nickelback?s long-haired front man and one-time Starbucks barista on MTV the other week. Not as a short prayer of protection against the band?s sound, but in recognition of his visual similarity to the classic portrayal of Nazareth?s most famous resident of past times ? take a look at http://www.nickelback.com if you?re unfamiliar with Kroeger?s features and judge for yourself. As it turns out, Nickelback were the band whose name Mrs. TT had been trying to remember the past couple of days. She?d heard them on the radio and had taken a liking to Kroeger...

TallTone 15.02.2002 (09.10.2002) · Read review
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Review of Silver Side Up - Nickelback

The $3 million Man

Advantages: Excellent acting, powerful story
Disadvantages: Dated now

...and powerful way. I thought that they portrayed the suffering of an autistic savant person very well and did not make the character out to be stupid or less of a man than he was. I thought that Dustin Hoffman who played Raymond did an amazing job and I am so glad that he won an Oscar for his performance. He managed to make me feel a whole different range of emotions, one minute I was feeling sorry for him as he was unable to take being out of his routine and the next minute I would be laughing at him for some silly story he was telling Charles. He really did the role justice and had me believing that he really was a sufferer. Tom Cruise played the role of Charles and at the beginning of the film I did not warm to his character as he was quite arrogant but after about half an hour I did start to warm to him and I liked how he managed to portray...

sewbizzie 15.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Rain Man (DVD)

The Imperfect Man

Advantages: Mildly diverting
Disadvantages: Unoriginal fluff

...stereotype, is still good for a few laughs) and Jean's would-be suitor Lenny, full-time baker and Styx (lame US soft rock band) obsessive. Apart from Lance's bitching, the dialogue is almost quip free, running on accepted homilies (everything has two sides) and pseudo-philosophical musings on the nature of women from Ben. It's a shame the main would-be boyfriends are seriously under-written, existing solely to prop up the self esteem of the two female leads. However, it is refreshing to see a teen flick where the adolescent lead shares screen-time almost equally with her mother. But you have to be willing to accept the fact that the writers think that all women need a man to validate their existence. The majority of the comedy is situational but far from original, with the biggest laugh coming from a "Say Anything" parody that has Lenny climbing...

afy9mab 14.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Perfect Man

Say no to this Yes Man

Advantages: It ends eventually
Disadvantages: The crude scenes, swearing

...I've just had the misfortune of watching Yes Man, and you can probably guess that I was really disappointed. Synopsis Carl is a bank clerk in charge of approving or denying loans most of which he denies. After separating from his wife, he has withdrawn into his shell and no longer enjoys the company of his friends. In short he's turned into a grumpy old man, that is until he runs into an old friend whilst he's eating his lunch. His friends tells him of a seminar that's coming up in a few days, which gas changed his life for the better. The concept is simple, you can improve your life by saying 'yes'. And that's what Carl decides to do, but it's not as easy as it sounds, there are somethings you just want to say no to, the trouble is bad things happen when Carl says no. Cast Jim Carrey as Carl Allen Zooey...

Fiver29 15.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Yes Man

Wise Children by Angela Carter

Advantages: A Colourful, vibrant, rich novel
Disadvantages: the author's lack of moral conduct

...Angela Carter's Wise Children is the life story of show businesses Chance Sisters. Dora Chance, twin sister of Nora, narrates throughout the story. She tells their colourful life tale upon the commencement of the twin's seventy- fifth birthdays. The story is set mainly in England. The twins spend a great deal of their lives based at their childhood home in Brixton, South London. I think Angela Chance has chosen this setting to exaggerate and highlight the twin's illegitimacy. The North and South divide of social London were very clear at the time of the books setting. The "Right side of the tracks is the North and the wrong side, the South. There is to be no overlapping of borders, as the sides are very definitely separated by the river. At the time of the twin's births, there was a huge stigma attached to being illegitimate...

BeckieWolf 27.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Wise Children - Angela Carter

Jim Carrey, the man who like to say yes?

Advantages: Quirky, endearing performances. Restrained Carrey
Disadvantages: Random gross-out moments are misplaced.

...Carl is a man who doesn't say "yes" to much. As a result he has managed to be rejected for promotion and has become isolated from friends as he lets them down time after time. Endless DVD nights on his own are commonplace and his life becomes more tragic by the minute. However, a chance meeting with an old friend may well change all that as Carl is about to become the man who likes to say yes! "Yes Man" is massively different from what I was expecting. The concept is almost a verbatim copy of Jim Carrey's previous film "Liar Liar" and I was expecting more of the same. However, refreshingly this is a more subtle affair from that rubber-faced slapstick comedy. A gentile romantic-comedy, "Yes Man" contains a surprisingly subdued Carrey and is better for it. Carl's self-loathing and pity is clear from the outset and this makes him...

Shortsharpshock 15.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Yes Man

Demolition Man Film Review

Advantages: Characters, Action, Humour
Disadvantages: It's Dumb

...It's the year 2032. Los Angeles, now called San Angeles, is free from violent crimes and sexual contact between human beings. In fact, anything that you would deem a risk to human health at this point in time -- alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, spicy foods -- has been eliminated from society. It's a characterless, law-abiding world. Enter the "Demolition Man", John Spartan (Stallone), and his blonde-haired arch enemy, Simon Phoenix (Snipes), to reap havoc -- '90s style! In retrospect, they're the perfect men for the job. Spartan accidentally killed thirty hostages by blowing up a building when pursuing violent psychopath Phoenix in 1996. Phoenix is imprisoned for his crimes, but escapes forty years later and attempts to overhaul the new world order with his violent methods -- mainly for his own amusement. Spartan is cryogenically frozen...

andycarrington 28.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Demolition Man (DVD)