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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- Mamma Mia! Here we go again



Movie - Mamma Mia! Here we go again (= 2nd) 

Score : 6/10 

Year :  2018

Director: Ol Parker 
Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman
Music:  Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (the 2 men in ABBA)
 & Anne Dudley (score + orchestration)

Country:  USA. UK. Japan 
Language: English. French. Greek 
Duration:  1h54 (IMDB)
Writers: Ol Parker  (written by and story) ;   
Richard Curtis, Catherine Johnson (story) ; Catherine Johnson (musical book) ;
Judy Craymer (originally conceived by)


Full cast & team (IMDB)


Made 10 years after Mamma Mia!, the story of its sequel alternate flashbacks to 1979, of younger Donna, Rosie and Tanya, to "present days" which are set five years after the events of the previous movie. In present, Sophie, still living on the Greek island, prepares for the grand reopening of the Hotel Bella Donna, whilst learning about her mother's past. The flashbacks show Donna's graduation, dreams of the Island, and the budding relationships with the three men whom we heard about in the first Mamma Mia. 

Once again, the story is told using hit songs by the popular 1970s group ABBA, joined by Anne Dudley on score and orchestration. Benny from the band has a short cameo during 'I kissed the teacher' in a 1979 flashback scene. 

The chosen songs accompany each segment as the characters in the scene sing them, and then dance - once again, in varying degrees of success. Some of them should never have been given singing roles, or have had training. 

Donna's friends Rosie Mulligan (Dame Julie Walters) and Tanya Wilkinson (Christine Baranski), are also present for the occasion, still close to Sophie, especially that Donna died a year prior (=4 years after Mamma Mia 1) - and they're still just as spunky and quirky as before. 

Cinematography still uses the natural beauty of the island, with more or less on par quality with that of the first installment, but is more awkward with the choreographies, overall, and especially with Cher, starring as Ruby, Sophie's grandmother. Her singing of 'Fernando" fails the mark for me, far too autotuned - a problem also present at the ending song, where most main characters singing together and alternately. 

Acting is once more uneven ; but the aims of this musical are clearly towards dieheard ABBA fans and to entertain - with dance, songs, disco-y outfits, and laughs - in dialogues as well as situations. It reaches these goals adequately, but less so than the first movie, but adds an unexpected emotional moment at the end... I'd still recommend it to other ABBA fans, and give it a slightly lower overall score. 
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