Desert Places Book Review

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: Minotaur Books

The book kept the reader on the edge of their seat on every page they read and would be enjoyed by crime lovers.

It is mid may at Andrew Thomas’s lake house property he is close to finishing his latest book; the house is located 15 miles north of Charlotte.

Andrew Thomas is a famous author, 2 of his books have been adapted into movies, and he was engaged to a woman called Karen but now he lives alone, he also has his own agent named Cynthia Mathis, his best friend Walter Lancing lives across the lake from Andrew but they can see each other’s houses, the only family member Andrew keeps in contact with is his mother Jeanette, Andrew’s farther passed away and Andrew hasn’t heard from his brother in 13 years.

Andrew has nearly finished his latest book when he receives a letter saying

There is a body buried on your property, covered in your blood. The unfortunate young lady's name is Rita Jones. In her jeans pocket you'll find a slip of paper with a phone number on it. You have one day to call that number. If I have not heard from you by 8:00 p.m. tomorrow (5/17), the Charlotte Police Department will receive an anonymous phone call. I'll tell them where Rita Jones is buried on Andrew Thomas's lakefront property, how he killed her, and where the murder weapon can be found in his house. I hope for your sake I don't have to make that call. I strongly advise against going to the police, as I am always watching you.

At first he thinks it’s just harmless fan mail but he couldn’t be any more wrong. Andrew surcomes to temptation and desire so he goes out in search of the body, he finds the note in the pocket of the victim on one side of the paper is a phone number and on the other “you are the only flower of meditation in the wilderness”. Andrew calls the phone number and after the fourth ring someone answers, “You had blood work done by Dr Xu. They misplaced a vial.” “I stole that vial some is on Rita Jones’s white T-shirt the rest is on the others”.

4 stars out of 5

Japans Tsunami

On March 11^th 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 devastated Japan. The earthquake lasted about 3-5 minutes. On March 9^th 2011 four foreshocks were reported, the magnitude of these was quite high as well (6.0, 6.1, 6.1 and 7.2). The total number of aftershocks reported was 401. People believe that Honshu Island moved 2.4 meters also Japan’s time changed by 1.8microseconds due to the strength of the earthquake. Sendai was one of the worst hit cities, the residents of Sendai only had 8-10 minutes to evacuate before the tsunami struck. On April 7^th 2011 there was another aftershock with a magnitude of 7.1 this caused the number of houses without power to rise from about 159,000 to more than 3.2 million.

Kuniko Suzuki said “I kept saying in my head please stop, please stop now, please”, Kuniko Suzuki was caught in the tsunami, luckily a roof came towards her and she mannaged to get on top of it.

Shinsuke Itoh said “i ran outside but was unable to stay standing up because the ground was shaking so much, I got down on my hands and knees and waited for it to pass”, Yuichi Owada said “the earthquake was extremly long so i thought a tsunami would come”.

The Cat Returns film review

RELEASED  27th May 2005 (UK)

CERTIFICATE U

DIRECTOR Hiroyuki Morita

CAST Chiziru Ikewaki, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Aki Maeda

RUNNING TIME  75 mins.

“Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear” this is said by the baron (hakamada) he says this to Haru (Maeda). This sentence becomes relevant later on in the film when Haru starts changing into a cat. I thought that the movies voice actors did very well to portray that they were doing something and to have it match the actions of the animation.

Haru seems to be like any other school girl, she has a crush on a guy in her class and she is quite unorganised but she has a gift that she is unaware of, she can talk to cats. When she is walking home from school with her friend she sees a cat walk past with a box in its mouth, Haru and her friend stop and watch it while it crosses a road, but as it gets to the middle of the road the traffic lights turn from red to green and a large lorry is getting closer to the cat, Haru panics then runs towards the cat and saves it from being run over. Haru is visited by the king of the Kingdom Of Cats and finds out that she saved the prince, he says that she will be rewarded for what she has done, the next day she is chased by cats, has lots of live mice in her locker at school and then gets an unexpected visit from another cat that says that Haru will marry the prince, did Haru make a big mistake by saving the cat. Haru meets old friend makes new friends and has a large mix of emotions throughout the film.

In my lead paragraph i said that I thought that the movies voice actors did very well to portray that they were doing something and to have it match the actions of the animation. In the opening sequence of the movie Haru is rushing to school and from the voice acting you could tell that even if you close your eyes and did not look at the screen.

Verdict

Overall the movie did very well to present the feelings that the director wanted to present to the audience the subtitles were easy to read and if you don’t like subtitles there is the English dub version where Haru is voice acted by Anne Hathaway.

I am Number Four film review

RELEASED 23rd Febuary 2011 (UK)

CERTIFICATE 12A

DIRECTOR D.J.Cartuso

CAST Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Diana Agron

RUNNING TIME  109 mins.

The movie is an adaptation of I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore a pseudonym created by James Frey and Jobie Hughes, it is the first book in the Lorien legacies. This adaptation isn’t as good as the book but what adaptation is? The movies special effects, romance and enigmas worked well together to keep the audience’s attention. “You have no idea what I'm capable of” is said by the protagonist of the film, the protagonist believes that he is very powerful due to his abilities he wants what he wants and he gets it, this develops throughout the rest of the film by showing how powerful he actually is and also how weak he is. Overall I would give the movie 3.5 out of 5 and recommend this movie to any sci-fi lover, even people who don’t like sci-fi movies may enjoy this movie.

 The movie starts out by showing the audience number 3 and his cepan (a protector) be murdered, we then see a number four he is having fun and then his leg starts to burn and emit light out of his leg, unfortunately there are witnesses and he has to leave the state, he ends up moving to Paradise, Ohio at first number four resents the place but with a few friends and some love along the way he begins to like the town, as he is moving number four’s cepan gives him a new identity for Ohio, he will be named John Smith.

In the lead paragraph I wrote Overall I would give the movie 3.5 out of 5 and recommend this movie to any sci-fi lover, even people who don’t like sci-fi movie may enjoy this movie. I wrote this because I personally don’t like sci-fi movies, I wouldn’t sit down and watch star trek saying that this movie was very good the trailer encouraged me to watch the film because it made the film look really good, the movie even exceeded my expectations I did not think it was going to be as good as it was. The action and suspense built up throughout the film worked really well to keep my focus and entertain me.  However after reading the book I think it should have had the flashbacks when John had seen Lorien be destroyed.  

Verdict

The movie has done very well to keep the audience’s attention , the questions by the audience when watching the film are answered throughout the film there are some that are still unanswered at the end and this has been left for another film if you haven’t watched the film yet I recommend you watch the movie.  

3.5 stars out of 5

drugs report

How different drugs affect individuals

There are many different types of drugs in the world and the affect individuals in different ways; drugs affect individuals physically and psychologically.

Cocaine

Cocaine is a stimulant that has strong but short-lived effects; Cocaine is a very serious drug that can cause someone with a previous mental health problem to relapse. Cocaine is very similar to Speed, the differences are Cocaine is stronger and the effects don’t last as long, when the effects of Cocaine are wearing off the desire to take more increases. Cocaine only takes around two minutes after use for the effects to reach their peak and a further ten minutes for the effects to wear off. If an individual has taken a lot of Cocaine in one night it is not uncommon for them to have flu like symptoms the next day. In a questionnaire that I carried out one of the participants wrote down that Cocaine gave him “the feeling of 10 men”.

Gnomeo and Juliet film review



Gnomeo and Juliet

Released - 11/02/2011

Certificate - U

Director - Kelly Asbury

Cast- James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham

Running time - 84 mins.

This adaptation follows the main storyline of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the movie adds twists that are not in the original book to appeal and be more suitable to a family audience. “And payback is going to be fun” gnomeo does not know what he is getting himself in for. The movie exceeded my expectations because I didn’t think that the film was going to be as funny as the trailers were making out because of the book that it was adapted from. The comedy aspect of the movie did very well to keep the audience’s attention and amuse people of all ages.

The reds and blues hate each other and this is obvious straight away in the movie. We then met the main characters, their personalities and actions defined how they would be throughout the film. Gnomeo and Juliet soon meet and start rebelling against their parents’ wishes the suspense and comedy build up throughout the film and an explosive ending leaves the movie with an unexpected outcome. The movie had songs from Elton John and changed the lyrics to suit the movies storyline the lyrics are also funny such as “I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss

Well, a few of the verses, well, they’ve got me quite cross

But the sun’s been quite kind while I wrote this song

It’s for people like you that keep it turned on”. Also Gnomeo’s mom says “may he rest in pieces” after one of the characters is smashed which also adds to the comedy value. 

Verdict

The movie doesn’t follow everything from the book even the names are changed a little but the overall outcome of the film was surprisingly entertaining (3 stars out of 5)