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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher

Movie – Zoolander


Movie – Zoolander

Score : 6/10 
Year : 2001
Director:  Ben Stiller 
Cinematography: Barry Peterson
Music: See IMDB ; David Arnold 
Country: Germany & USA 
Language: English 
Duration: 1h30 (IMDB) (1h25 : French DVD, I assume due to 4% Pal Speedup)
Writers: Ben Stiller & Drake Sather (story and character Derek Zoolander)
These 2 + John Hamburg (screenplay)
Full cast & team (IMDB)

Derek Zoolander won VH1's male model of the year three consecutive times, but on the fourth, facing Hansel, his fiercest rival in the industry, costs him an identity crisis ; whilst an evil fashion designer wants to set him to kill Prime Minister of Malaysia, because the latter has a project to end child labour. 


With this hilarious and no-brainer comedy, directed and co-written by Ben Stiller, serious subjects of child labour for fashion and clothing industries are raised, as well as models' impact on the masses, and their intellect and personalities are depicted excessively devoid of any brightness, only with hidden humans qualities. 

The subject of the impact the fashion and modelling industries have on others is alos raised, and though nothing is showing, there is a trigger warning I'll discuss further down, for those concerned with the topic. 

Actors appearing in this film either play themselves like the other celebrities, but some of them portray the fictional characters of this story, in a funny mix of real and fake persons who share the spotlight. 

I'm not big on comedies, and this one does have some crude language as well as slapstic humour, but overall funny, entertaining and original. 

One short scene pays an homage to 2001 a space odyssey, as well as a few other sci-fi references, such as Han Solo (Star Wars), Star Trek (TOS's Mugatu), and more.

There are some action scenes but no real violence, nor even blood ; some sexual harassment & references +  one short (30") scene all depicting sex in a humorous, non-graphic way, so this is PG13.

Cast : Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor, Milla Jovovich, Will Ferrell, Jerry Stiller, David Duchovny, Jon Voight, et al. 





The trigger warning is a discussion about bulimia, as part of said impact about models on other people, and a few mentions that may trigger emetophobes such as me, so I make sure not to watch this movie whilst eating. They are short and nothing is shown. 

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