Forza Horizon

Forza Horizon was released 26^th October 2012, and is the fifth instalment to the Forza Motorsport series even though the game was developed by british games developer Playground Games apposed to the previous that were developed by Turn 10 Studios.

The game is very different to the ones before it mainly because you can drive around a map in the cars that you have bought or won, you have to drive to challenges, races and the garage. The game is set in Colorado USA at a fictitious festival called the Horizon Festival.

The graphics are outstanding, the cars look so realistic and the game is fun. There are lots of things to do in this game such as, improving your popularity, you can do this by performing tricks inside and outside races, increasing your popularity gives you the chance to win a free car and who doesn't like free things. You can modify cars that you have purchased by manual or automatic upgrading and you can design the bodywork on your car. The game is very short and it doesn't have a lot of cars but the verity is good. All in all the game deserves 4.5 out of 5.  

The Hunger Games Film Review

Set in the future in what was North America now called Panem, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are the chosen tributes of District 12 to compete in The Hunger Games, the reason for the games is to remind the people from the twelve districts that the rebellion that they once tried was a huge failure and to also show them that the Capitol are in charge and another rebellion will be pointless because the rebels will lose. The Hunger Games consist of 24 contestants fighting to the death and the games only end when there is a lone victor.

The way the film was filmed makes the audience feel Katniss’ feelings such as in the scene where Katniss gets stung by the tracker jackers, she then starts hallucinating and the audience see what Katniss is seeing, also Jenifer’s acting was very good she was believable and overall a very good choice for Katniss, the action scenes were very good to keep the audience hooked and they were very well shot as well, the film also stayed very true to the book making only a few minor changes.

Kiki's Delivery Service Review

“At this rate, I’ll be a white cat by the morning” is said by Jiji (Sakuma) Kiki’s (Takayama) cat, they have just moved into the bakery and their room is a little dirty so Jiji freaks out. The films storyline did very well to keep the audience’s attention throughout the film.

Kiki is only 13 years old and she is leaving home, all witches her age have to leave their homes and spend a year away from their families, so they can train and discover their talents. She decides that she wants to leave on the full moon, unfortunately for her parents that night is only a few hours away. Kiki soon realises that the world is not full of nice people and finds it hard to settle into the town which she loves the look of, while being in the town only 5 minutes she nearly causes a car crash and a policeman starts talking to her about not flying through the town on her broom, then a woman screams “thief” and the police officer runs off, Kiki then makes a run for it and a boy rides beside her on his bike and he was the one imitating a woman’s voice screaming thief, Kiki takes a sudden dislike to this boy and flies away from him. Kiki then runs into a heavily pregnant woman who is trying to call one her customers back because she forgot her Childs dummy, Kiki takes the dummy from the shop owner and flies down to the woman who misplaced the dummy and she hands the dummy over to the woman. When Kiki returns to the shop the pregnant woman asks Kiki if she has anywhere to live and offers Kiki her spare room to stay in. Kiki decides that she wants to open her own business and chooses to do deliveries; Kiki makes lots of friends, loses her powers and saves a citizen.

I said that “The films storyline did very well to keep the audience’s attention throughout the film.” Kiki gets into trouble in her first delivery; she meets new people and also works hard to make money.

Verdict

The voice acting was done very well, the subtitles were easy to read and the animation was very good for the time period.

Awkward Series 1

Awkward. is a 12 part series following Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards) a unpopular girl who can’t seem to stay out of the spot light since her recent accident which looked a lot like a suicide attempt and as much as she tried to explain no one believed her, Jenna receives a nasty letter telling her what she needs to do to become popular and attractive, Jenna and her friends Tamara (Jillian Rose Reed) and Ming (Jessica Lu) suspect many people of writing the letter, Jenna is caught in a love triangle with Matty (Beau Mirchoff) who has her heart but doesn’t want to be seen in public with her and Jake(Brett Davern) who loves Jenna for who she is and isn’t worried to be seen with her or make a fool of himself.

The series is very funny; with an eclectic group of characters there is bound to be someone you can relate to, the storyline was brilliantly presented and kept the audience wanting more, overall the TV series is very good and appeals to a large amount of people.

4.5 stars out of 5  

Two Versions Of The Same Song by Susan Francis

The story follows Serena and Paul, they meet at a New Year's Eve party and there is a lot of tension between them, as the book goes on we see that the tension between Serena and Paul builds up. They are forced to team up to create a song for Paul's cousin Kai's birthday party, Serena finds out that her feelings for Paul are becoming uncontrollable but he already has a girlfriend.

I was hooked from the first page, it was so fun to read, the storyline was very well constructed and I related easily to some of the characters and the stories they live. There was a few punctuation mistakes but apart from that the book was incredible, the descriptions wasn't overdone but enough to visualise the settings. Susan Francis is one to watch, I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Hunger Games Book Review

Katniss Everdeen is 16 years old and is very poor she lives with her unresponsive depressed mother and her younger sister Primrose Everdeen, Katniss breaks the law everyday so that her family can eat because her mother doesn’t provide money and food for the family, Katniss poaches in the forest with Gale he is 18 and calls Katniss cat-nip, the hunger games are starting and 2 teenagers from each district have to compete, they have a slip of paper in a glass bowl and in the first year the persons name is in the ball once their second year their name is in twice and so on until there 19, they can add another slip with their name on it so that they get a years supply of rice but that slip also goes on to the next year, Katniss has 20 slips with her name on this year because every year she adds an extra 3 slips in so that her family can eat, Primrose has one slip with her name in it, Gale has 40 slips with his name on it, Primrose’s name is called and Katniss is in shock, she thought that there would have been no chance of Primrose’s name being called out, Katniss call out that she was going to volunteer in her sisters place, Katniss met a lot of people along the way some she liked and some she didn’t, in the hunger games all she could have hoped for is that she didn’t have any bonds with anyone when the games started.

The book kept the reader hooked all the way through, it had many twists throughout the book that shocked the audience on each twist, the book had an amazing storyline and brilliantly written, hats off to Suzanne Collins and I can’t wait for the next instalment in The Hunger Games series.

The Colossal Squid

The colossal squid is a rare creature; Steve O’Shea is one of only a few scientists that have worked on these animals. Their existence has only been known since 1925 and only 5 have ever been found. The Ross Sea is where most of the specimens have been found.

There are only 5 reports of colossal squid the first was discovered in 1925 in the stomach of a sperm whale and all that was left was the tentacles, the second was discovered in 1981 and the scientist believed the specimen to be an immature female, the third was discovered in 2003 and it was a sub adult specimen with a mantle length of 8ft the fourth was found in 2005 and weighed around 150 to 200kg, The fifth colossal squid was caught in 2007, it was the largest one caught where all the organs had minimal damage, it weighed 330 pounds and was 16 foot long, Steve O’Shea said the squid was female and young as well; an adult would be much bigger. 2 of the specimens were found in the Ross Sea and another found off of South Georgia Island

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)