All The Plans - Starsailor

Advantages: absorbing read
Disadvantages: none

...I have read most of Emily Barr's novels and each one is fresh and enjoyable and you think they can't get any better. However, having just read Plan B, they do get better and I was totally absorbed in this story from the moment I picked the book up! Emily Barr is such a good storyteller and she hooks you from the very start so that you don't want to stop reading. I found myself snatching odd moments in the day to pick this book up, and now that I've finished it I'm almost disappointed as I didn't want to stop reading. The main character in the book is Emma and over half of the story is told from her point of view and is written in the first person. At the beginning when we first meet Emma she is reluctantly moving to France to start a new life with her partner Matt and their two year old daughter Alice. They have bought a ramshackle... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: cinematography, billy bob thornton
Disadvantages: slow, some unbelievable moments

...leads to a showdown back at the very plane that is the cause of all their problems. I do generally like Sam Raimi's work, most people are aware the "The Evil Dead" and there as yet undiscovered tribes in the Amazon basin that know of Spiderman, so I thought this was a good choice as a movie to watch. But (I was soon to discover) this is not like his normal fare, at least not in terms of the other Raimi movies that I have seen, these have been more on a horror or fantasy level (the aforementioned Evil Dead, Spiderman etc), although in saying that all the films that I have seen do tend to have one thing in common, and that is that they portray normal people that end up doing things that they would not normally do, and in that sense A Simple Plan is a classic Raimi film. I don't know if this is a theme through ALL of his movies. The movie... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Some good, strong tracks
Disadvantages: Nothing groundbreaking or massively interesting

...In the crossfire is the big anthemic opening track, typical Starsailor. Counterfeit Life has a very mid-career Steriophonics sound to it spiked as it is with heavier guitars than is their usual trade-mark. In my blood has a nice rolling drum loop and not much more making it an essentially forgettable album track. Faith Hope Love is trying for a harder, rockier sound that doesn't quite hit the mark. Don't Know is a bit of a non-entity of a track, in my opinion the 2nd forgettable album track. Way back home Instantly sounds interesting and makes you want to listen with a Muse type moment halfway in, which actually works quite well. This is a big and noisy track, something that Starsailor seem to be pulling off increasingly well. Keep us Together is a song I first heard at V festival 2004 and it's a truly great live track. The bass line... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful