Movie Review – Maleficent

Does the name A Series of Unfortunate Events ring a bell? It was written by Lemony Snicket, and was adapted into a film. This is not the Netflix series, but the film that covers the first three novels: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window. Today, I shall be review that very film: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was released in 2004. It was directed by Brad Silberling who is known for directing Casper, Land of the Lost and this particular movie. The main protagonists are Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, who are played by Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and Kara Hoffman. The main antagonist is Count Olaf, who is played by Jim Carrey.

At the beginning of the movie, the characters are introduced, until a disaster happened: their house was burned down along with their parents, they became orphans with an enormous fortune left for them. Count Olaf – their “closest living” relative wants to get his hands on it. They begin to move from guardian to guardian, hoping to find a suitable home.

This movie has a lot of genres, but the main ones are fantasy and adventure. It also has a lot of differences from the books and the Netflix series. They also edited out some details, since this movie is only about two hours long, and more than two hours is not enough to cover the full of three books.

The orphan roles are quite hard, because the acting must show the miserableness of the three orphans, but it has to show their own unique style and abilities. Count Olaf is an actor in the book, so in my opinion, his role is the hardest because all of the disguises he put on as a lot of people. I would say that the acting of this movie was fine.

The costumes were good, there were not many songs but it makes sense since it is not a happy movie. It is about the tragic life of three orphans. The screenplay was mostly based on the books, with a little changes, but it was fine enough. I would rate this 3.4/5 stars and I would think that the Netflix series was more accurate.

To anyone out there, this is the review of the book “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The end” and is the 13^th (the last) novel in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” novel series – which is also available on Netflix as a film series.

The author, who goes by the name Lemony Snicket, is Daniel Handler. Daniel Handler is also the person who wrote the whole “A Series of Unfortunate Events” novel series (13 books) and Brett Helquist is the illustrator of the novels.

“A Series of Unfortunate Events” has a lot of genres (that all books share) including: gothic fiction, absurdist fiction, mystery, comedy-drama, children’s literature and dark comedy. The series was written in a 7-year period (1999 -2006), and this particular one was written in 2006.

The setting at first is on an island. The main protagonists (as you know in the previous books) are the Baudelaire orphans – Violet, Klaus and Sunny. Violet is an inventor, Klaus is a researcher and Sunny is a girl who loves to bite. And the main antagonist is Count Olaf, an evil man who is after the Baudelaire fortune.

At the beginning of the book, the Baudelaire orphans and Count Olaf are heading away from the burning hotel on a boat, until they encounter a storm. The storm brings them to an island, and the Baudelaires are welcomed by a girl named Friday. However, Count Olaf is not welcomed due to his attitude, and the Baudelaires live on the island with the islanders for a while. The ending of this book is a cliff-hanger, so the story of the Baudelaire orphans is a mystery.

One of the things I like most about this book, is Lemony Snicket’s opening for chapters and the comments about the situations. It sometimes is very long and distracting, but it helps us learn more.

The book is good overall, but I would recommend it to teens, not children, and I would rate it 5 stars

Hello to the undead ! My name is Nhat Anh and I will be talking about my favorite figurine – Caelum

Caelum is a snow owl, and she has been with me since I was nine years old. I got her on a trip to Ueno Zoo in Japan, although the tag says “Made in Indonesia”. Her name, “Caelum” comes from the first thing I thought of when I saw her, not snow… Heaven, which is the definition of “Caelum”.

The day I bought Caelum to class, was “picture day”. First day in school, and she’s already making friends, like Ricarduck – Quoc Anh’s figurine. She also loves the bookshelf. They say that owls are the symbol of knowledge, so maybe that’s why Caelum has always been a bookworm.

Caelum’s feathers are white. This is proof that she is indeed a very young owl, since adult female Snowy Owls have black spots on their feathers. They pop up most in black scenery.

Caelum… She reminds me of Harry Potter’s owl – Hedwig – which is also a snow owl.

Caelum will always be my favorite figurine, and I shall take care of her and treat her to whatever’s right.

Hello, readers! I will be reviewing my favorite book: A murder most unladylike mystery – Murder most unladylike! This book is written by Robin Stevens, who is from England. Robin Stevens is also the author of many other books in the “A Murder most Unladylike Mystery”, including Arsenic for tea, Cream buns and Crime, A spoonful of Murder and First Class Murder.

The genre of this book is Mystery, which means that it has loads of exciting adventures and mysteries awaiting. The book was first published in 2014, which was the year when Ebola epidemic becomes global health crisis.

The setting is in 1934, in a school called Deepdean. The main character in the books is Hazel Wong, who is a foreigner. She made friends with Daisy Wells. Hazel is shy and clumsy, and Daisy was a “card” in school. Together, they formed the Wells & Wong Detective Society.

Murder Most Unladylike is the first book of the series A murder most unladylike, when Daisy and Hazel solve their first real mystery – the murder of their Science mistress.

Of course, the books has many good things. It’s a thrill and exciting to read about. Because it’s form Hazel’s Point of View (PoV), the descriptions are very detailed, and it’s very easy to understand. Also, Hazel was the only student who saw Miss Bell’s – the Science Mistress’s – dead body before the murderer could clean up the dirty work.

But, alas, everything has it’s flaws. I have to admit that the girls were smart, but sometimes, it’s like the murderer made it too easy for them. It doesn’t make much sense for the murderer to be that careless. The book itself could improve a little too. If they actually made a mini epilogue about Daisy’s PoV, then it’s going to capture more readers.

Overall, the book is good, and I would think that it fits teens, who like Detective stories and mysteries. I would rate it 4.5 stars.