Gifted

I watched this movie during the weekend with my younger sibling and my Mom. What an amazing story! I loved it.

Frank Adler looks after his 6-year old niece, Mary, after her mother’s death. They live in a small house in Florida next to a neighbour named Roberta, who helps out with Mary a couple nights a week so Frank can get some alone time. He gets along by fixing boats freelance style. Mary doesn’t have much or any social skills, not having any friends her age, her only friends being Roberta and Frank. She really enjoys mathematics and reads books like ‘Transitions in Advanced Algebra’ by Charles Zimmer and tackles university level sums and mathematical equations! 

Mary’s first day of school arrives. She is not very eager to go, preferring to stay at home with her one eyed cat and for Frank to continue schooling her – but he has taught her everything he knows. Her teacher, Bonnie Stevenson, notices Mary’s special ability with mathematics when she complains about the simple sums. Intrigued, she asks Mary increasingly difficult questions and is surprised at how capable she is.

Roberta and Frank are both worried about putting Mary in school, afraid that her special ability might

be noticed and she won’t be able to have a normal childhood. Frank fights hard to give her a normal 

life and encourages her to do all the fun things children do.

After an incident at the school, the principal offers to arrange a scholarship for Mary at a prestigious

school for gifted students. Frank turns the offer down but the principle doesn’t take no for an answer 

and notifies Mary’s Grandmother, Evelyn, who comes down and tries to talk to Frank about Mary’s 

future. When Frank doesn’t listen to her reasoning, she decides to sue him for custody of Mary. 

Frank fights hard and their lives are all changed by this encounter.

I wont tell you anymore about the movie, hope that gives you a good idea of what the movie is 

about. This movie is brilliantly done! Superb acting, heart touching storyline and awesome actors!

Title: Gifted

Actors: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate, Lindsay Duncan

Release date: 12 April 2017 (USA)

Length: 1hr 41min

Genres: Drama

Age restriction: PG-13

Blindspot Season 1

  

Blindspot is definitely one of the best series that I have watched! Its just brilliant!

The series start off with the FBI finding a woman, covered in tattoos, in a duffle bag in Times Square. She can’t remember who she is or where she came from. Her memory has been erased. The name of an FBI agent, Kurt Weller, is tattooed on her back.  

Together Kurt and his team: Reade, Zapata and Patterson, follow the clues tattooed on the lady they call Jane Doe to find out who did this to her and why. At the same time, the people who did this reach out to Jane, to show her the plan they had in doing this to her, and this causes her to question what really is right and wrong.

The tattoos lead them to many different crimes and the people involved in them. Corruption, human trafficking and much, much more!  While out in the field some of Jane’s memories come back and she finds out she has many other skills, like being able to speak Bulgarian and Mandarin and being an expert at hand to hand combat.

Episode by episode the plan for why Jane’s memory was erased is revealed, leaving you to wonder if she is a double agent. At the same time Jane has to build relationships with her colleagues, something that’s hard to do when your memory has been erased.

I highly recommend this brilliant series!! I am in season 2 at the moment and haven’t been disappointed in the least! I would advise for an older audience (13+) as there are some scenes that wouldn’t be so pleasant for younger viewers.

P.S A review for season 2 will be coming soon!!

Title: Blindspot

Actors: Sullivan Stapleton, Jaimie Alexander, Rob Brown, Audrey Esparza and Ashley Johnson, Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Release date: 21 September 2015

Length: 42min per episode, so if you are like us you could squeeze 2-3 episodes a night.

Genres: Action, Crime, Drama 

Created by: Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Age restriction: TV-14.

Deepwater Horizon

Mike Williams is a family man and works as the Chief Technician on Deepwater Horizon, an oilrig off the coast of Louisiana. Deepwater Horizon is a dynamically positioned, ultra-deepwater, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig that is owned by Transocean, but on lease to BP for 12 years. The offshore drilling rig is kept together with spit and duck tape, courtesy of Mike.

The drilling is way behind schedule, almost a month, so BP would save time and money by skipping ‘unnecessary’ tests that needed to be done before drilling started. Under the seabed pressure is building up and damaging the base of the well. Suddenly oil at over 400 psi bursts up from beneath the seabed and blows off pieces of the oilrig as it rockets skywards. The air system sucks the fumes in and turns it into a fireball.

In the ensuing chaos, Mike and a couple of other people rush to help others who are wounded, selflessly risking their lives to save others.

It was saddening to see the greed and taking of shortcuts that caused the worst oil spill in American history. BP had to pay out billions of Dollars in damage, which could have been avoided by paying a much less fee of a couple 100 000 Dollars to test out the well before beginning to drill.

This is a must watch movie, very real and inspiring. I recommend an older viewing audience for this movie, the violence and gore in this movie is justified and different to the violence and gore in action movies. This movie will have you on the edge of your seat!

Title: Deepwater Horizon

Actors: Mark Wahlburg, Kate Hudson, Kurk Russel, Dylan O’Brien, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez

Time: 1 hour 47 min

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller

Release date: 30^th of September 2016 (USA)

Age restriction: PG-13

Alone in Berlin

‘What more can a man give then his child?’

Alone in Berlin is the story of Otto and Anna Quangel, who resisted the Nazi regime.

Devastated by their son’s death on the battlefield in the early stages of Word War 2, and realising that the Nazi agenda was wicked, they secretly began to share their message of resistance. This was courageous in the face of the brutal control of the Nazi’s. Anyone rising up against their schemes was tortured and imprisoned – even killed.

In the beginning it was easy, I dare say that the regime didn’t expect it. Otto, with the help of his wife, strategically dropped the cards with an anti-Nazi message in different locations across Berlin, never using the same street twice in a row.

And although their resistance was small, they worked alone and managed to elude the police who named them the hobgoblin.

Working on something together brought them closer and I was touched by the deep love that they had for each other at the end of their venture.

Alone in Berlin is based on the novel ‘Alone in Berlin’ by Hans Fallada about the real live of Otto and Elise Hampel.

I was very inspired by this movie and wowed by the incredible acting from Brendan Gleeyson, Emma Thompson and Daniel Brühl! A brilliant movie! I would rate this movie appropriate for 15 + for violence.

Title: Alone in Berlin

Actors: Brendan Gleeyson, Emma Thompson and Daniel Brühl

Date of release: 13 January 2017 (USA)

Genres: Drama

Length: 1 hour and 43 minutes

Age restriction: R (I think that the age restriction was a bit harsh and as I said above 15+ would be good ;) )

Sully: Miracle on the Hudson

'Mayday! Mayday! This is Cactus Fifteen-Thirty-Nine, we have lost both engines!'

Having just taken off from LaGuardia Airport, Sully and his crew unexpectedly flew into a flock of birds which caused an immediate duel engine failure. Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger, a veteran pilot with decades of flying experience, had to make a quick decision. Immediate clearance was given to land at two different airstrips, but Captain Sully knew the plane could not make it that far with the speed and altitude that it had.

Desperately searching for a place to land, he spotted the Hudson River and decided to execute a water landing. It was a great risk landing on the Hudson, because landing at that speed on the water could have seriously damaged the plane or possibly destroyed it. Co-pilot Jeff Skiles immediately assisted Sully and minutes later they had perfected a textbook water landing, saving all 155 people on-board.

New York ferry's were the first to arrive to help the survivors, NYPD's scuba team following shortly, while emergency services on land had time to gather to treat the wounded.

You would think that after perfecting the water lading and saving everyone on board, they would be hailed as hero's. But, most of the movie focuses on the investigation into the incident, which was quite nerve wrecking. If the NTSB was able to prove that they were negligent in anyway, the pilots would have lost their licences and been charged.
  

The movie 'Sully; Miracle on the Hudson' is based on the autobiography 'Highest Duty; My Search For What Really Matters' by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffery Zaslow.

Watching Sully; Miracle on the Hudson was a long awaited treat! I really admire and respect how Sully kept a clear head during the incident, didn't panic and when praise was given to the great feat he had accomplished he humbly told everyone that it was a team effort. 

This movie is worth every cent spent to make it! Totally worth the watch and suitable for the whole family! 

Title: Sully: Miracle on the Hudson

Actors: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Holt McCalleny and Laura Linney

Date of release: 2 December 2016 (UK) 

Genres: Drama, Biography

Length; 1 hour and 36 minutes 

Age restriction: 12A

Daughter of Twin Oaks (A Secret Refuge #1)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next two in the series!!

Having promised her father, on his deathbed, to take the remaining horses from their plantation up to her uncle’s farm in Missouri, Jesselyn Highwood requires courage and perseverance to complete her task.

 The American Civil War is in full swing. Jesselyn hates the war; it has already taken one of her brothers from them and now, her father.

Taking a handful of slaves to assist and protect her and her little brother, they leave the rest behind to keep the plantation running in her absence. The slaves are like family to her and she struggles to leave them. Trying to avoid both the Confederates and the Yankees, they move by night and rest in the day. Living off the land and keeping a low profile, they make their way to Missouri.

This story isn’t just told from one person’s perspective, but switches regularly between different characters as they give their various accounts. The characters are vulnerable and reveal their personal struggles. Jesselyn, although having been raised with her siblings in a Christian home and being one herself, struggles to see how God could allow this war and the destruction happening.

I think an audience of 13+ would be able to appreciate the details of the story line better.

I got this book for FREE on Amazon.co.uk for my mom’s kindle. You can get the next two as well, which although are very affordable, aren’t free :p

Author: Lauraine Snelling

Date Published: April 1^st 2000 (Don’t worry its not a joke J )

Sequels: Sisters Of The Confederacy (A Secret Refuge #2) and The Long Walk Home (A Secret Refuge #3)

Length: 292 kindle pages. 

Florence Foster Jenkins

‘People can say that I couldn’t sing, but they cant say that I didn’t sing’

                                                                                                -Florence Foster Jenkins

This movie is a comical dramatic biography of Florence Foster Jenkins’s musical career.

Florence Foster Jenkins is a socialite, founder of the Verdi Club and amateur soprano singer. Amateur is an overstatement. But she practices hard everyday for a whole hour, sometimes two! People didn’t know if they should take her seriously, because no one in their right mind would stand up in front of an audience and make a fool of themselves.

We had our fair share of laughter, and I admire her for her bravery to stand in front of an audience like that. I think that she was molly coddled by her life partner St. Clair Bayfield and her vocal’s teacher Carlo Edwards. Mind you, they were well compensated.

Then along came Mr MacMoon, an ambitious, young pianist who auditioned to help with Florence’s practice sessions and later on her performances, much to his dismay at first. But as the movie goes on he forges a friendship with her and is a great support to Florence.

Her life partner St Clair Bayfield keeps a tight hold on publicity and takes drastic measures to ensure that Florence doesn’t hear the negative critics. In protecting her from criticism, he kept her ‘singing dream’ alive.

This is a tough review to write, as most of the info would be spoilers, but I would highly recommend watching it. We enjoy watching true-life stories and are glad that we watched this one. Actors Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant played their roles very well. I was really surprised by Simon Helberg’s role in this movie, he acted in a very different role to what I’ve seen before. These are very versatile actors, and they did a great job to bring this story to life. 

Title: Florence Foster Jenkins

Actors: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg and Rebecca Ferguson

Date of release: 6 May 2016 (UK)

Genres: Biography, Comedy and Drama.

Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Age restriction: PG