Hobbit Review

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

‘Stop! Stop! I haven’t got a handkerchief!’

Hobbits are strange creatures; about three feet tall with pointy ears and very large hairy feet, they like the warm comfort of their hobbit-holes.
And they most certainly don’t like their hobbit-holes being invaded by big hairy dwarves at supper time.

Embarking upon a great quest, Bilbo Baggins leaves his cosy hole behind in exchange for a wild adventure with dwarves.

He, along with Gandalf (McKellen) and thirteen (unruly by Bilbo’s standards) dwarves set off in search of the Lonely Mountain and the great dragon Smaug, who years before drove out the dwarves who called the mountain their home.

Therein still dwells the dragon, who sleeps upon heaps of gold and treasures, including the Heart of the Mountain…

Led by Thorin Oakenshield, Bilbo Baggins (Freeman) and the dwarves face many perils on their journey, including trolls who want to roast them alive, goblins, orcs and other foe. But their resilience and friendship has got them through. Well, this far at least.

The story itself is much more light-hearted than Jackson’s ever-successful series, surrounding the adventure of Frodo Baggins and the One Ring. Set 60 years previously, much more needs to be explained. There is a whole new set of characters plus some returning faces.

There is action and laughs abound especially in the Riddle scene between Bilbo and the creature Gollum.

The thirteen dwarves

The skill of the writers to include so much of the book, almost word-for-word is an incredible feat. An adaptation such as this is not often seen, and extra parts are not usually well-received. However, as in the recent adaptation of The Hunger Games books, additions (such as the Seneca Crane character and Gamesmaker scenes) can benefit a film and they most certainly do here in the Hobbit. I will say they add much more depth to the film, another layer of mystery and ingenious links to connect this series of films to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I shall leave them for you to find for I wouldn’t want to ruin the film should you decide to see it.

Agreed, this is slow to get moving, but so was the Fellowship of the Ring. There is so much background to tell, so much to explain and explore in the first film, it’s almost like a prologue. The second and third films are where the real adventure begins.

‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ is an understatement for what lies ahead for this rag-tag group.

A must-see for all Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson fans; this packs a punch and leaves one wanting more - if you can wait a year.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

I have a job!

I realise I haven't been writing as much lately, I don't know if that bothers you but I simply haven't had the time. Life has been so hectic and so full of STUFF I barely have time to think of a blog post let alone write one.

Apart from going to uni and doing uni stuff I haven't been up to much, expect finally starting work of course.
I work at Sports Direct, a big sportswear store on the edge of town and it's alright. The hours are weird and the pay is less than average - it's the minimum so I don't know if I'll be able to save much, but we'll see.
So far I've only been in the stock room, a delightfully chilly room full of stock which we have to sort out, hang and security tag. Such fun. Hopefully next time I'll be out on the shop floor doing something more interesting.
The uniform is a delightful cherry-red polo shirt with tracksuit bottoms and trainers (which we had to buy from sports direct) and it's not the best in my opinion but hey, it's a job.

We've also been busting a gut trying to find a house to live in for our second and third years of uni. Why is it so hard to find a 6-bed student house with 1 car parking that isn't ridiculously expensive. Everytime we find a place we ring up to view and it's gone already. ARGH!

So apart from the massive stress of finding a house and fitting work around my studies life is going pretty well.

Looking forward to Christmas!!

Skyfall

Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Naomi Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes

Director: Sam Mendes

Well from the moment I sat down there was no hiding from the fact this was a Bond movie – almost every ad and trailer was Bond-themed or action-styli. I was inundated with advertisements for the James Bond perfume, laptop, phone, video game, watch and Heineken beer – rumoured to be replacing the Martini but thankfully did not.

Packed from the pre-credit scenes with car chases, rooftop brawls, girls, guns, explosions, creepy villains and gadgets it was proving to be quite a stereotypical Bond-esque movie.

However, each typically Bond element had been updated slightly, modernised to fit with current ideas. Gadget-wise with Q (Ben Whishaw) half Bond’s age there’s a wonderfully witty scene between them in the National Gallery “what were you expecting, an exploding pen?”

There was also an apparent lack of girl-action in Skyfall, with only a hint of some naughty goings-on with a frankly disappointing Bond girl (Bérénice Marlohe). There was an innuendo-filled shaving sequence with Naomi Harris but again it fell flat relationship-wise.

If anyone was the Bond girl in this movie then it was Judi Dench, whose M developed considerably as she battled her own past while fighting the present which was forcing her to retire. This in turn led to some brilliant lines “To hell with dignity, I’ll leave when the job’s done”. There is one concern I had about M’s character and that was how much she swore. I know that strong language isn’t exactly new in the world and it may just be my love for Judi Dench but I felt a woman of her stature and position shouldn’t be swearing so much, the odd ‘bloody hell’ perhaps.

As for the plot itself, I felt this was back to the real image of Bond – spying and sleuthing, hiding in plain sight. It wasn’t the ‘shoot first and ask later’ business of his previous few films. It had a this-time-it’s-personal feel but not the merciless revenge of Quantum of Solace. A real celebration of Fleming’s original character

Now Javier Barden’s Silva wasn’t exactly evil but he was certainly twisted, hell-bent on revenge with a hidden yet gruesome deformity. With a penchant for stories about rats Silva always had a dramatic entrance and an equally gritty departure.

My expectations were high and Skyfall certainly did not disappoint. Happy Anniversary Bond.

Literally Loving Life

My God this past month has been the most hectic ever!
So far I've:

• Left home and started University
• Got a manic timetable
• Learned how to live and be independent
• Got a job at Sports Direct
• Joined CSRFM and being trained up to do my own show
• Started a website called The Broken Biscuit Company (some of may have found your way here from there)
• And made a massive amount of new friends both in my house and on my course

Literally loving life right now, but I seem to have no time left in the day!! My schedule is so hectic and now my tutors are starting to give us more work to do, I'm starting to think I'll have to let something go. 

And I fear it may Fencing - we haven't started training yet after all as we can't find a coach :(

Since leaving home, I've hardly had time to miss it, but when family came to visit last weekend I realised I do miss them a lot. It's made me think that those students who see their family often, or Skype/FaceTime them regularly find it hard to get on because they're always dragging themselves backwards.

But that's just my view, other may find it easier to cope with being away.

I also have a job now. Went along to a group interview at Sports Direct with a couple of housemates and was called up the next day with a job offer which is brilliant! After years of failure back home, four weeks here and  I'm officially employed.

It's minimum wage, which is fine, and technically a 'zero hour contract' meaning you get your hours the week before and it's based on your performance. So if you decide to go out the night before and then turn up late or not at all, you'll get fewer hours the next week. But I'm looking forward to starting and finally having a proper job with a monthly paycheck and stuff.

CSRFM - Canterbury's Community and Student Radio - broadcasts city-wide on 97.4 and is one of only seven such stations to have a five-year licence from Ofcom. Playing alternative music, CSRFM broadcasts 24/7 365 days a year - and I just joined! I'm thinking of doing a 'Rock Through the Ages' type show where I play songs from a particular year and listeners text/tweet/email their guesses in - makes it a bit more interactive? I'll have to see what the producers say about it but I shall keep you posted on that

And finally I have a website, thebrokenbiscuitcompany.weebly.com. Here you will find film news, film reviews and each week I'll upload an interesting video I want to share with you all. If you have a film you would like me to review, new or old, leave a comment here or on the Comments page on the site and I'll see what I can do!

That's all for now, so much going on!!

My First Week

My my what a hectic week!! I've been so busy, today had been the first time I've had time to myself it's been crazy.
I absolutely LOVE my roomates. I'm in a house of five other girls and they're so much fun :P Rosie is a mancunian trombone player, Jenny who will be spending a year in America, Nicola from Essex along with Ellie who's a second year and Sharon...who we barely even see haha.
But they're all brilliant either way, really nice girls

As for my course, I cannot wait to start on Monday. We've spent the week in 'Induction' where we get introduced to all the course modules (print/tv/online/radio/law&ethics) and this is literally my dream come true. It's everything I ever wanted it to be and I have a feeling this is my calling. I don't know exactly what I want to do at the end of it, like some people know they want to be sports reporters etc. but I know this is where I belong and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I've also signed up to a few societies including: the student radio CSR Fm; the Media Society, Yoga, Cycling and Muggle Quidditch xD

I'm sure all that along with my course will keep me busy enough and I shall try and keep you updated with what's going on

This is how happy I am ^_^

Oh It's a Student's Life For Me

Hi everyone...all 6 of you who read this (thank you!!) Sorry it's been so long, been a hectic month getting everything ready for moving to UNIVERSITY!!!
And now I'm here and it's all so different and exciting and so scary! Being in a big city it's nerve-wracking!

As ever there were a few hitches with moving in:
1) Front door is next to impossible to open
2) No hot water thus
3) No heating
4) No internet
5) Fridges didn't work

Oh what a life

However thankfully it's all been fixed now and am toasty and pretty happy with uni so far.

Next stop, FRESHERS!!!

I'm off to Uni!!

Well I guess this is it then, the next stage of my life about to commence, and this will no doubt be the most exciting - it's certainly the scariest!
I'll be leaving home and moving to Canterbury to study Multimedia Journalism at Canterbury Christchurch University. I can't wait to move, I just want to pack already! But I've got four weeks yet so it's just a waiting game now, ahhhhh!!!
Unlike some who go to Uni totally alone, I will be taking my three favourite people with me :) First, my wonderful boyfriend Oli who will be studying Computing at Canterbury and living just a 2 minute walk away rather than an hour-and-a-bit bus&train journey away haha. And then my bestest friends Cat and Em who will be studying History and Film respectively at Kent Uni, which is only a couple of miles up the road. So I feel pretty darn lucky as we'll all be sort of together yet still following our own paths to success.

However I feel extremely lucky to even have a place at uni, I didn't exactly do brilliantly in my exams especially  English. I think I must just fail epically at that because I got an E in my AS again and only a D in my A2. fortunately the B in my coursework brought the whole grade up to a D but it's still not the most desirable result. And then after finally getting onto UCAS and finding my place confirmed I was over the moon, and so surprised of course. I think they may have gone on my work experience to boost my chances.

Either way, I'm going to University and it's going to be the damn best three years of my life...fingers crossed xP