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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
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Movie - A night at the opera



Movie - A night at the opera 

Score : 6/10 

Year : 1935
Director: Sam Wood
Cinematography: Merritt B. gerstad
Music:  Herbert Stothart 
Country: USA 
Language: English. Italian. 
Duration:  1h36. (1h31 in the 1948 re-release). 
Writers:   George S. kaufman &  Morrie Ryskind (Screenplay) ; 
James Kevin McGuiness (Story)


Full cast & team (IMDB)

Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) is a business manager. He and and two wacky friends, Fiorello and Tomasso, (Chico and Harpo) help Rosa and Ricardo achieve success at the opera, while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies. 
When you see Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, you see the Marx Brothers, a sign of goofy comedy, involving music, slapstick and a whole lot of silly random action. You recognize and expect Groucho's moustache, eye glasses, and fast-paced dialogue deliveries ; Chico always as an Italian character, playing the piano ; and Harpo, always silent, making goofy faces, and playing the harp and piano... at least, that's what you get in this particular movie, where the level of goof introduced and used is usually quite hilarious, except for a couple minutes where an enemy character is quite mean to Harpo's Fiorello, and another moment where a sleeping Harpo is situated in such a way that there unintentional groping, which was unnecessary, but I understand... movie's from 1935 - though I still cringed at that part. 

There are some costuming issues, but the movie is a comedy and pure fiction, so I guess we can cut it slack for being stupidly and hilariously entertaining, as it doesn't take itself seriously, why should I be so meticulous? 

I'm not into opera music, and despite its presence in the movie, I do enjoy the overall comedic action, though the singing bits are awful  - are they commenting on snob vs lay people's taste in music, when the ones they really love sing so badly ? I cannot tell what was intended here. 

Cinematography is ok, but doesn't have to shine in such a slapstick comedy. Dialogue, continuity issues and goofs are quite numerous, so on the technical aspect of movie-making, the movie gets a a notable minus on its total score, lacking consistency. The only forgivable issue is the harp playing by Tomasso (Harpo recording in studio and then, synching during the shoot, which results sometimes in out-of-synch sound for a second or two, here and there, but nothing major). 

A night at the opera is goofy, funny and entertaining, despite technical issues, really bad singing, and a scene that made me cringe. Classic Marx Brothers! 
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