J. V. HartReseñas

Magic

A vampire moves to London.

3/4 (Good)

A lot of this movie is a disaster. But a lot of it is great, too - like the art direction. And when it's bad, it's bad in interesting ways (with the except of Keanu Reeves).

(Sep. 2021)½

The first minute of animation art was excellent, but it devolved into cheap cartoon art, uninteresting characters and a mediocre story line.½

Boring. One chapter bled into the next and nothing happened and nothing made sense. Even James' character didn't make sense. Who is he? Hero? Villain? In-between? It's like the author couldn't decide. And everything just fades to background. All of the characters, the school, everything. Nothing stood out. Nothing was memorable.

Ellie Harroway, scienziata, risponde a segnali che provengono da Vega e decide di recarsi nello spazio per entrare in contatto diretto con gli extraterrestri. Il suo problema sarà quello di conciliare la propria razionalità con le attese messianiche di massa. Zemeckis torna su temi a lui congeniali utilizzando tecnologie sempre più avanzate (nel film compare anche un Clinton digitalizzato). Il problema è però quello di una sceneggiatura fragile e un po' troppo "americana" che si fa sostenere da un'interprete in stato di grazia. La Foster sa ormai conciliare alla perfezione il proprio interesse per la regia con una capacità di recitazione sempre più "raffinata". (fonte: Mymovies)

Anno 1462; dopo aver conquistato Costantinopoli i turchi dilagano in Europa, minacciando il mondo cristiano. Dalla Transilvania si leva, a difesa della Chiesa, un cavaliere romeno del Sacro Ordine del Dragone, Vlad Ţepeş conosciuto anche con il nome di "Draculea". Tornato in patria vittorioso, scopre che l'adorata moglie Elisabeta, ricevuta la falsa notizia della sua morte in battaglia, inviata dai turchi per vendicarsi della sconfitta, si è tolta la vita gettandosi da una torre del castello. Alle parole del sacerdote che sentenziano la dannazione eterna di Elisabeta in quanto suicida, Vlad, accecato dall'ira e dal dolore, rinnega Dio e la Chiesa che aveva difeso, scatenando le forze del male e trasformandosi così nel vampiro Dracula.

One of the best scifi movies that had the science right and molded it into a thrilling story full of twist and turns. I just can't get around the ridiculous politics of the ending, hence a star deduction.

In general, I'm a fan of prequels to beloved stories. I wasn't sure what to make of this one at first. There was a LOT of time spent at Eton and dealing with being a weird kid with a mysterious past. I was disappointed that his yellow blood is never explained.

I adored the love story between Jas and the princess. I was hoping their story would play out more but it just seemed to end (will there be more stories in this series?)

The last third of the book takes place on Jas's first voyage out to sea. He takes a back-seat to the authority figures on board for a little while, but not very long, and the short leap to his becoming captain of the ship was well done, but quite violent. I wouldn't recommend this book to children under 8 years old, only because of the graphic violence in the last few chapters. Otherwise it's quite a nice story and I could see there being one or two more follow-ups.½

This is an interesting back story of the boy who will become one of literature's most notorious villains. The Eton period lays the groundwork for explaining the dichotomy between his ruthless personality and sense of fair play. James is utterly ambitious, patient -- to a point, cunning, and willing to take great risk to achieve personal gain, but insists that opponents and companions alike act with honour and "good form," attributes that we will see still hold true in his future dealings with Peter Pan.

If you were intrigued at how this masterpierce was put together by Francis Ford Copolla, then this book is for you. Complete with the history of the story, actors who played the characters and the director. Photos are priceless as well. You won't find them anywhere in the internet.

An oversimplified version of Dracula that adds nothing to either the movie or the original novel. Pretty pointless. Read the real Dracula instead.

For a more in-depth review, please see http://blip.tv/file/3976509

I agree with the reviewer who wasn't too impressed with the first half (Eton) but enjoyed it a lot more once they went to sea. I did enjoy pondering the juxtaposition between Jas and bully Arthur Darling in this book and bully Hook and the children of Arthur Darling in Peter Pan. I also got a kick out of the fact that James Mathew B(astard) and J. M. Barry share the same initials. Coincidence? I think not.

Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth isn't a terrible book. I just didn't like it very much. There are good things, such as the font, Brett Helquist's occasional illustrations, and Electra, a giant pet spider. The writing is generally okay. Honestly, though, I feel like J.V. Hart should have stuck to screenplays. After all, he wrote one of my very favorites (Muppet Treasure Island!), as well as Hook (RU-FI-O, RU-FI-O). In fact, Capt. Hook might have come across better on the screen. Perhaps, in visual motion, "King Jas." wouldn't come off as such a jerk. At the very least, maybe he'd be a more likeable one.

The rest of my review is at my highly neglected book blog because there are a lot of spoilers for the last part of the book.

A decent enough story. It improved greatly after James went to sea. There was far too much "Etonian" slang and I kept having to go Google for definitions. A glossary might have been handy.It's a good story speculating on the childhood of the villainous Capt. Hook... it's not spectacular. It didn't make me want to read the sequels.

Конец XIX века, Лондон. Молодой юрист Джонатан Харкер и красавица девушка Мина любят друг друга. Джонатан на время вынужден оставить невесту одну и отправиться по делам в Трансильванию к графу Дракуле, желающему приобрести недвижимость в столице Англии. Но Джонатан не знает, кто такой Дракула на самом деле…
В ролях: Гэри Олдман, Вайнона Райдер, Энтони Хопкинс, Киану Ривз, Ричард И. Грант, Билл Кэмпбелл, Том Уэйтс, Сэди Фрост, Моника Белуччи

Movie tie-in for Francis Ford Coppola's film with Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman. Contains film script, photos and stills, introduction by Coppola, afterword by Leonard Wolf. Oversized trade paperback. Printed on very nice slick glossy paper.

Okay, so it was only a good movie, not a great movie. As is obvious from the script, the liberties Coppola took with the novel betrayed his initial plan to make "Stoker's Dracula." He made "Coppola's Dracula" instead, which is only to be expected. And Keanu Reaves had no business in this flick...he was dreadfully miscast. Still, despite its flaws, it was a worthwhile effort and a beautifully shot film, which is why it is a good movie and not a horrible one, and why this is an enjoyable coffee table book.

Love this book! Could read it over and over!

An intelligent book about a young Captain Hook that details all the important aspects of his youth from why he is the way he is to how he got his name. Young King Jas. enters Eton wearily and finds almost immediately the enemies (named Darling of course, like the children in the original book), friends (Jolly Roger of course!) and love that his life has been missing. His adventures continue to entertain fluidly transforming from one to another. J.V.Hart really found the comfortable medium where the reader roots for James while still seeing the evil that you will someday come to expect from Capt. Hook. Everything is here: dastardly deeds, poisonous pet spiders, duals to the death, fires, escapes, mutinies! The whole book reads well and comes highly recommended for a bit of light reading.

My brother gave me this for my birthday & he said it was because he knows I love good kids books. He was right. I'd never even heard of this book, but it was a fun read. It's a bit of a dark tale about a younger Captain Hook, and how could I not love a book about a vengeful, mischievous boy with a pet spider?

128 minutos

James wants to fit in his new school of eton but the higher class won't let him