As a plus, you might as well check out this great YouTube channel where you can learn new expressions and practice your English with great classic films, such as Forrest Gump - hope you'll enjoy it!
31 March 2020
Book & film reviews
Hello there,
I guess one of the best things we can do if we have to spend a lot of time inside is to read and watch new books and films or even revisit those books and movies or TV shows that really made an impact on us. Do you have an all-time favourite book, movie or series? Have you seen or read any good ones recently? If you have, I'd really appreciate it if you let us know about them here, so that other students may give them a try and also you might compare each other's preferences. What are you waiting for? Let us know about them!
As a plus, you might as well check out this great YouTube channel where you can learn new expressions and practice your English with great classic films, such as Forrest Gump - hope you'll enjoy it!
As a plus, you might as well check out this great YouTube channel where you can learn new expressions and practice your English with great classic films, such as Forrest Gump - hope you'll enjoy it!
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“I am Sam”
It was written and directed by Kristine Johnson and Jessie Nelson.
Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer are the main actors.
The soundtrack is a very famous song by “The Beatles” called “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”, and it sounds several times in the film because it´s the favourite song of Sam (one of the main character).
I love this film because, in my opinion, it´s a very special story because Sam has a mental disability.
The story begins when Sam has an affair on a beggar and she gets pregnant. The same day of the birth, the woman leaves poor Sam alone with a newborn baby.
Sam decides that his daughter is going to be called “Lucy”, like her favourite song.
Although at first everything is difficult for him, he learns to take care of Lucy and he gives her all the love in the world.
Everything seems ok, but when Lucy starts school, she starts to read better than her father and that starts to worry the teachers.
Sam has to face a hard and unexpected separation from Lucy because everybody thinks that he can´t raise her well, but with the help of an important lawyer (who ends up becoming his friends), Sam wins the legal battle and recovers Lucy forever.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
The Rebel forces were hidden in a very cold planet inside the mountains, but finally Darth Vader finds them, so they have to escape from there.
Princess Leia, Han Solo and the others go to a city in the skies to be secure with a friend of Han.
Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker goes to learn about the Force from master Joda, but a few days later he feels that Han and Leia need help and he has to leave his training to save them.
When Leia and Han arrived in the city they realised that Vader was waiting for them, and then they were arrested.
While Luke traveled to find his friends, Vader had tortured and put Han into a box like an ice rock.
By the time Luke arrived, Han had disappeared and Leia was looking for the way out.
Luke and Vader fought while Leia and the others escaped from the building. The combat was strong and finished when Vader chopped off Luke’s hand with the laser sabre to allow Luke to live and said to him that he was his father. In that moment, Luke couldn’t believe it and threw himself into the deep dark.
A few minutes later, Leia rescues Luke and leave the planets to take care of him and they’ll find a way to recapture Han Solo.
by Aitor Santos
Thanks for your comments, Noe and Aitor.
I haven't seen 'I am Sam', but after reading your review I'd really like to see it. Besides, Sean Penn is one of my favourite actors.
And of course, 'The Empire Strikes back' is arguably the best and most memorable of all the Star Wars movies, and you don't need to be a Star Wars geek to know that this is where you can hear the famous line: "I am your father".
Come on everyone, keep posting your reviews!
Hi there.
I´m going to post my text about Troy.
Troy is a 2004 epic/period war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
The main actors are Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector and Orlando Bloom as Paris.
It is based on Homer´s Iliad. Achilles leads his Myrmidons along with the rest of the Greek army to invade the historical city of Troy, defended by Hector´s Trojan army.
It lasts 162 minutes (196 minutes Director´s cut).
I found this film fascinating; the strong points are the battle scenes. I particularly like the scene where Hector and Achilles are going to fight due to the fact that Hector has killed Achilles` cousin, Patroclus. Achilles arrives with his horse carriage at Troy´s walls and he starts to shout “Hector”. Then Hector leaves the city and they start to fight in front of Hector´s family. Both are excellent fighters but Achilles wins. When Hector has died, Achilles drags Hector’s body with his horse carriage along the outside walls up to his tent.
As soon as the night falls, Hector´s father goes to search for his body and Achilles gives it back.
The ending is unexpected for me because I hoped that Achilles was not going to be murdered by Paris while he was trying to save his beloved, Briseida.
Fernando
Jaws
Jaws is a classic film based on a novel that is based on real events, but in fact the monster who threatened the conmunity wasn´t a white shark.
The shark was a bull shark, which is a little smaller but more aggressive.
The film it´s set in the beaches of Amity Island in 1975. The story it´s about a huge white man-eating shark that attacks swimmers on the beaches. And the local police chief with a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter try to kill him.
The most exciting part is when some teenagers go sailing in the small boats. Meanwhile, the shark pursues and attacks them until the police chief arrives and kills the shark.
This film is the proof that a good film doesn´t require a lot of money in visual effects and that a good plot and a good soundtrack is more important.
CASABLANCA
My favourite film is a classic movie from 1942 called “Casablanca”.
It's the typical story of two lovers separated by destiny during the Second World War.
The girl, during the conflict, was married with a man that was a member of the French Resistance, but they had to run away from the nazis and the only scapeway is through Casablanca, in Morocco.
Once they arrive in Casablanca, she meets up again with Rick, her old lover and the old feeling comes up again between them.
Meanwhile, the nazis are about to catch her husband and Rick will have to choose between his own happiness or his fight against the Nazi Regime.
In the end, he saves his old lover and her husband, by saying the well-known line: “We will always have Paris”.
One of the particularities of this film is that it was filmed without a finished, definitive script.
The actors didn't know what they would have to say when shooting began because the script was makeshift and re-written every night.
Maybe this is one of the reasons that have turned Casablanca into a masterpiece of cinema.
Raúl
Como el río que fluye, Paulo Coelho
I'm not about saying this could be my favorite book, but it's a beautiful compilation of short anecdotes or stories about Paulo Coelho's life, some of his readers' lifes or some friends' anecdotes. I would like to share it cause is easy to read and a very enjoyable book. I think for these days that we are experiencing at home, it could be quite useful and entertaining.
One of my favorite ones is about the storie of a dune and a cloud. They talk to each other and share their thoughts about life and its meaning. Its based in Sahara's desert. And the cloud in its way down to the south found the dune, and it falls in love with its shape. And the cloud stop his way down to the south to stay next to the dune. The cloud that could see the dune worried about its life, if it rained so much, said to the dune "love doesn't die, it transforms, and I want to show you the paradise" I think its a lovely short storie full of metaphors.
Thanks for motivate us!
Thanks for sharing your preferences, Marta. I haven't read P. Coelho's book, but your story reminds me a lot of a classic tale by Oscar Wilde, "The Happy Prince", where a swallow flying back to Africa falls in love with the golden statue of a prince in a northern European town... I won't spoil it for you in case you want to read it!
Take care
"The Miracle Worker"
Directed by Arthur Penn in 1962 and the script was based on the eponymous play by William Gibson. I saw the film on TV when I was a teenager. I wouldn't say it is my favourite film but it meant a lot to me. I was surprised by the perseverance of that teacher and governess, Anne Sullivan, with that deafblind girl, Helen; and the great goal she achieved. Even at the risk of being a spoiler, Anne Sullivan did much more for Helen than teaching her how to be a well-behaved girl. Helen learnt the international language of signs. And she could even speak.
Never heard of that film, María, but it sounds interesting. I tend to like teacher-pupil films, so this could well be my thing. I'll see if I can get hold of it somewhere. Thanks for sharing!
The spanish name is "El milagro de Ana Sullivan". That might help
https://youtu.be/4BHKujXvHuI
"Boogie Nights"
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
The soundtrack was composed by Michael Penn. Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle and John C. Reilly are the main characters.
This is an story about the starts of the porn movies during the seventies. A story about rise and fall. Everything about "Boogie Nights" is interestingly unexpected, even the few seconds of darkness before the film's neon title blasts onto the screen. Like other films as "Goodfellas", "LA Confidential" or "Pulp Fiction", this wonderful film is a nexus of decadence and pop culture. A perfect mixture of comedy, drama, drugs and cinema inside the cinema. All the actors give a good performance, even some limited actors like Mark Walberg, who plays Eddie Adams, an ingenuous young who turns into a porn start when Jack Horner, a porn auteur, pays attention to him.
Absolutely recommendable.
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