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Jul. 9th, 2010 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spooky_missSome more books and films…
Films 36, 37, and 28 – Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I thought I’d do this all in one entry as I’m sure a lot of people know the story of these so I don’t need to go into a huge detail! The Chamber of Secrets starts with Dobby the house elf trying to stop Harry from going back to Hogswart for his next year at school. Fred, George and Ron then pick him up in Ron’s dad’s flying car. When he gets to school something strange is going on, lots of people, including Hermione, are being petrified by something. Then a message appears on the wall “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened” – and obviously Harry and Ron want to find out what’s going on. Harry finds Tom Riddle’s diary, which he knows has something to do with it, but isn’t sure what. They find out that Ginny, Ron’s sister, has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and then when they get there find out that Tom Riddle is actually Voldemort, who has come back to try to kill Harry, again!
In The Prisoner of Azkaban they return to school to find Dementors patrolling the grounds, as notorious prisoner Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban. Harry is given the Marauders Map, on which at night he sees Peter Pettigrew. He thought that Peter Pettigrew was dead, so he mentions it to Professor Lupin. Lupin realises that Harry is in danger and teaches him the Patronus charm protect him. (I’ve probably missed a lot out here..) Harry thinks that it is Sirius who he is being protected against, and that Sirius killed his parents. Harry, Ron and Hermione then go to the Shrieking Shack, where they meet Sirius, Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, who is disguised as Ron’s rat, Scabbers. Lupin and Sirius explain that it was Peter Pettigrew who betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort, and that they thought he was dead. Harry also finds out that Sirius is his godfather.
In the Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard Tournament is to be held at Hogwarts, with competitors from two other schools. The film starts at the Quidditch World Cup, where the Dark Mark is seen in the sky. At school, Harry is nominated for the tournament, despite being too young. The first task is to fight a dragon, and Hagrid helps Harry by showing him where the dragons are hidden in the forest. Harry then lets Cedric Diggory (the other Hogwarts competitor) know about this as well. The second task is to rescue their friends from the lake, without being attacked by the creatures that live there. Harry takes the time to rescue one of the other competitor’s sisters, which as she was unable to complete the task, and is given second place for this, even though he took longest. The third task takes part in a maze, with the aim being to touch the Triwizard Cup. Unfortunately it has been bewitched to be a portkey, and Harry and Cedric end up in a graveyard with Voldemort and his followers, including Peter Pettigrew. Voldemort is angry that Harry is not yet dead, and in the fight that follows kills Cedric Diggory.
I know I’ve missed a lot out in those summaries, as in the last one I haven’t even mentioned Mooney and Barty Crouch Jr, etc etc etc…but that’ll do for now. I love these kind of films – when I was younger my favourite stories were school stories such as the Chalet Schools and Mallory Towers, so Harry Potter is just as great as those. At first I didn’t like the films as much as the books as they missed so much out, but I know that they have to do it to stop the films being so long! I think my favourite out of the first four is the Goblet of Fire – although I do love Sirius Black’s character. I like all the classroom scenes, not always the big action bits, and when they do all the spells and are practicing them etc. I also like the way that their characters have developed, like Neville being so interested in Herbology, you can see how it develops through the books / films. I give all of these films 8 / 10. I can’t wait for the last two this year and next – although I know they will be so sad! I have number 5 to watch at home, and I’m hoping that I will find number 6 cheap enough to buy it soon so I can watch that too!
Film 39 – Good Morning Vietnam
In this film, set during the Vietnam War, Robin Williams plays a radio DJ sent to do a radio show for the troops. He has a very different style from the other DJs there, and this causes a bit of a problem with his superiors, apart from one who likes him. He also sees a girl and wants to meet up with her, and becomes friends with her and her brother after taking over an English language class. The turning point of the film comes when the girl’s brother asks him to come out of the American bar that he’s in, to meet the girl, and a minute after he’s left it blows up. This really brings everything home for Robin Williams’ character (can’t remember his name!) and he realises what everyone is involved with in this war. The news he reads on his show is heavily edited, but after this incident he refuses to do it, and reads the news as it is. He then gets sacked from his radio show, and they get lots of complaints. Then it is realised that the brother of the girl he likes is one of the “enemy”, and so as a consequence he is sacked from the radio show. The film ends with him going back to America, but the style of the radio has changed and they’ve realised what it is that the soldiers really want to hear. This film is great as it is all funny and light in the first half, but then the second half really brings you down and you realise what it was like there. Robin Williams is a great actor, I really like him, although the only problem is that whenever I hear his voice I think of the genie from Disney’s Aladdin, which he also did the voice for…haha! 8 / 10 for this film though!
Book Sixty One – The Other Side of Me by Sally Vickers
The general outline of this book is good, about a psychiatrist who through talking to his patient learns a lot about his life, but unfortunately the main character (the psychiatrist) was really unlikable so I didn’t really care about his life! The patient’s story was good though – she was suicidal due to feeling down about her lover dying in Italy, and her feeling unwanted by her children. It explained how she came to meet with lover, and how he became angry (in a form of righteous anger type, not angry with her) that she was staying with a husband who didn’t love her. There were some good descriptions of the other psychiatric patients and how they helped the hospital and each other, but mainly the book was quite boring. The psychiatrist ended up finding out that his wife was having an affair with his best friend, but he was just so cold about it, he didn’t care emotionally. I suppose it was supposed to be that this patient of his helped him to become more emotional, but it didn’t really come across like that, it was a bit rubbish really! 4 / 10
I am ever so almost at the end of SS GG by Len Deighton, a spy / crime thriller set in a time when Germany won the Second World War. Its good, although at times a bit confusing as to who is on what side and who is secretly working for the resistance. Quite good though. If I finish it at lunchtime I’ll come back and write a review of that too!
Films 36, 37, and 28 – Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I thought I’d do this all in one entry as I’m sure a lot of people know the story of these so I don’t need to go into a huge detail! The Chamber of Secrets starts with Dobby the house elf trying to stop Harry from going back to Hogswart for his next year at school. Fred, George and Ron then pick him up in Ron’s dad’s flying car. When he gets to school something strange is going on, lots of people, including Hermione, are being petrified by something. Then a message appears on the wall “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened” – and obviously Harry and Ron want to find out what’s going on. Harry finds Tom Riddle’s diary, which he knows has something to do with it, but isn’t sure what. They find out that Ginny, Ron’s sister, has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and then when they get there find out that Tom Riddle is actually Voldemort, who has come back to try to kill Harry, again!
In The Prisoner of Azkaban they return to school to find Dementors patrolling the grounds, as notorious prisoner Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban. Harry is given the Marauders Map, on which at night he sees Peter Pettigrew. He thought that Peter Pettigrew was dead, so he mentions it to Professor Lupin. Lupin realises that Harry is in danger and teaches him the Patronus charm protect him. (I’ve probably missed a lot out here..) Harry thinks that it is Sirius who he is being protected against, and that Sirius killed his parents. Harry, Ron and Hermione then go to the Shrieking Shack, where they meet Sirius, Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, who is disguised as Ron’s rat, Scabbers. Lupin and Sirius explain that it was Peter Pettigrew who betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort, and that they thought he was dead. Harry also finds out that Sirius is his godfather.
In the Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard Tournament is to be held at Hogwarts, with competitors from two other schools. The film starts at the Quidditch World Cup, where the Dark Mark is seen in the sky. At school, Harry is nominated for the tournament, despite being too young. The first task is to fight a dragon, and Hagrid helps Harry by showing him where the dragons are hidden in the forest. Harry then lets Cedric Diggory (the other Hogwarts competitor) know about this as well. The second task is to rescue their friends from the lake, without being attacked by the creatures that live there. Harry takes the time to rescue one of the other competitor’s sisters, which as she was unable to complete the task, and is given second place for this, even though he took longest. The third task takes part in a maze, with the aim being to touch the Triwizard Cup. Unfortunately it has been bewitched to be a portkey, and Harry and Cedric end up in a graveyard with Voldemort and his followers, including Peter Pettigrew. Voldemort is angry that Harry is not yet dead, and in the fight that follows kills Cedric Diggory.
I know I’ve missed a lot out in those summaries, as in the last one I haven’t even mentioned Mooney and Barty Crouch Jr, etc etc etc…but that’ll do for now. I love these kind of films – when I was younger my favourite stories were school stories such as the Chalet Schools and Mallory Towers, so Harry Potter is just as great as those. At first I didn’t like the films as much as the books as they missed so much out, but I know that they have to do it to stop the films being so long! I think my favourite out of the first four is the Goblet of Fire – although I do love Sirius Black’s character. I like all the classroom scenes, not always the big action bits, and when they do all the spells and are practicing them etc. I also like the way that their characters have developed, like Neville being so interested in Herbology, you can see how it develops through the books / films. I give all of these films 8 / 10. I can’t wait for the last two this year and next – although I know they will be so sad! I have number 5 to watch at home, and I’m hoping that I will find number 6 cheap enough to buy it soon so I can watch that too!
Film 39 – Good Morning Vietnam
In this film, set during the Vietnam War, Robin Williams plays a radio DJ sent to do a radio show for the troops. He has a very different style from the other DJs there, and this causes a bit of a problem with his superiors, apart from one who likes him. He also sees a girl and wants to meet up with her, and becomes friends with her and her brother after taking over an English language class. The turning point of the film comes when the girl’s brother asks him to come out of the American bar that he’s in, to meet the girl, and a minute after he’s left it blows up. This really brings everything home for Robin Williams’ character (can’t remember his name!) and he realises what everyone is involved with in this war. The news he reads on his show is heavily edited, but after this incident he refuses to do it, and reads the news as it is. He then gets sacked from his radio show, and they get lots of complaints. Then it is realised that the brother of the girl he likes is one of the “enemy”, and so as a consequence he is sacked from the radio show. The film ends with him going back to America, but the style of the radio has changed and they’ve realised what it is that the soldiers really want to hear. This film is great as it is all funny and light in the first half, but then the second half really brings you down and you realise what it was like there. Robin Williams is a great actor, I really like him, although the only problem is that whenever I hear his voice I think of the genie from Disney’s Aladdin, which he also did the voice for…haha! 8 / 10 for this film though!
Book Sixty One – The Other Side of Me by Sally Vickers
The general outline of this book is good, about a psychiatrist who through talking to his patient learns a lot about his life, but unfortunately the main character (the psychiatrist) was really unlikable so I didn’t really care about his life! The patient’s story was good though – she was suicidal due to feeling down about her lover dying in Italy, and her feeling unwanted by her children. It explained how she came to meet with lover, and how he became angry (in a form of righteous anger type, not angry with her) that she was staying with a husband who didn’t love her. There were some good descriptions of the other psychiatric patients and how they helped the hospital and each other, but mainly the book was quite boring. The psychiatrist ended up finding out that his wife was having an affair with his best friend, but he was just so cold about it, he didn’t care emotionally. I suppose it was supposed to be that this patient of his helped him to become more emotional, but it didn’t really come across like that, it was a bit rubbish really! 4 / 10
I am ever so almost at the end of SS GG by Len Deighton, a spy / crime thriller set in a time when Germany won the Second World War. Its good, although at times a bit confusing as to who is on what side and who is secretly working for the resistance. Quite good though. If I finish it at lunchtime I’ll come back and write a review of that too!
