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Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts and being so quiet for some time, but having a complete life change (moving, starting a new job) within a few weeks has totally kept me occupied. Now that I have some time off, I finally found a minute to reflect on 2015. Low Points 2015 : I couldn't afford living in the UK without a job, so 2015 started depressingly, as I had to move back to my parent’s house in Germany. The dream of living in the UK failed. For the first couple of months I felt isolated and very lonely. After ten years of moving out, I had to give up my independence again and live in the middle of nowhere. I spent the first half of the year writing zillions of applications just to receive rejection after rejection. Worst reaction to my application? To be told, my Master’s degree scares the employer and they couldn’t pay me my asking salary because my ‘First Class is [was] too good’. I applied for a ridiculous amount of traineeships with magazines and TV stations but faile...

The first installment of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was an animated LSD-trip for food fetishists. A bit nerdy, a bit weird, fueled by a warmly-written screenplay full of humour and pathos directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Thanks to its originality and charm, the box office agreed with a take in excess of £77m. So, it was only a matter of time before Sony cooked up a sequel. In the first film, we met Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), an unsuccessful inventor from Swallow Falls. Putting his original ideas into practice isn't Flint’s best. So when he promised the islanders a respite from their permanent diet of sardines, he hoped to bask their respect and success thanks to his food creator machine: the “Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" ( FLDSMDFR for short). The FLDSMDFR transforms water into everyone’s favourite dish. Freed from a diet of oily young herrings Flint is celebrated by the islanders, until the machine turns into an ou...

After a week of severe eye-straining and permanent headaches, my body forced me to slow down my busy schedule and I had to 'relax' and 'stay away' from the screen for a few days. I still feel massively tired and burnt out a little so this weekend will be spent in the Forest of Dean and hopefully I can refuel on my energies. But before I go into a social media and blogging free weekend, I'd like to give you a quick update on what's been happening this week in London. 1. Fashion: I visited the LV Series 3 exhibition I spotted an advertisement for the Louis Vuitton Series 3 exhibition whilst on the tube and the opportunity to go and see it came up, when Alex had an appointment in Covent Garden. Whilst he went there, I would visit the exhibition on The Strand. The venue for the exhibition was only a few meters away from the iconic Somerset House and easy to find.  Entrance to the exhibition is free but upon arrival, you'll have to 'sing in' and leave you...

Hi everyone, this month, you should see..... Southpaw (8/10) ... if you appreciate exceptional acting and want to indulge into a complex film showing the rise and fall of a world champion boxer. Plus Jake Gyllenhaal deserves an oscar for another outstanding performance.  Leave it if you're after a more light-hearted and less intense movie.  Fantastic Four (5/10) ... if you love the FF franchise and old films and want to wallow in nostalgia. Leave it if you don't want to get disappointed that they have yet again not managed to transform the comic into a decent adaptation. The charming cast has not fully used their acting potential and the plot is as shallow as a frying pan. Mistress America (6/10) ... if you're after a quirky indie film with authentic characters and a plot full of random WTF moments. Leave it if you can't stand excentric and self-centered characters, a theatrical heavy score and some slow plot progression. Inside Out (9/10) ... because it is a sophistic...

Hi ladies, 'oh another film post' I can hear you say. Well I left my June round up rather late, so I had to split my film review for July into two parts as I'm trying to catch up on films earlier this month. Said and done. I booked myself a cinema marathon of four films, of which I only managed three in the end, due to an emerging migraine. Magic Mike will be, however, added to the list later in the month, so keep watching this space. Amy 5/10 To me a good documentary can talk about an unknown topic and engage me through an extraordinary presentation. The facts are wittily intertwined to stir interest, demand interaction and teach me something. Sadly this doesn’t apply for the latest and much talked about documentary about Amy Winehouse. Yes, it has exclusive and never seen before footage and video recordings but does it tell you anything new about the singer? No. I’m not an expert but I did follow the extensive media coverage around Amy for years before she died in 2011. ...

Hi ladies, how are you all? Hope June has been an incredible month for you. I'm a bit late in joining the party for Jurassic World and in posting my monthly film reviews but I hope, you'll still enjoy today's post and have seen the one or other film at the cinema, too. So have your nachos at the ready and enjoy today's film post. Jurassic World 8/10 Jurassic World is a solid summer blockbuster that doesn’t disappoint to entertain and impress. The dinosaurs are incredibly well animated and the park is so realistic that I wish it would exist. The remarkable cast includes a Bryce Dallas Howard who can make a full sprint from a T-Rex in heels (!!!) and a very athletic Chris Pratt as a Raptor trainer. Though numerous cross references to the original Jurassic Park are made, Jurassic World lacks own character. The straightforward, yet predictable plot can’t tell anything new. The action scenes are great but not as intense as the famous nail-biting T-Rex encounter from the orig...

Hi ladies, finally after what seems to be an eternity, the much-talked about The Last Unicorn Tour will come to Germany in July! For everyone who doesn't know, The Last Unicorn is a famous high fantasy story that was adapted into an animation film in 1982. The film has now been digitally remastered and is brought back to the screen across the globe. Author and Lord of the Rings screenplay writer Peter S. Beagle will be joining the tour and fans can get their hands on some exclusive merchandise. The tour started back in 2013 but has been in the US for most of the time. Originally planned to run for two years, but due to popular demand, it has no extended to 2016. Peter and his team will come to Europe for a few months and the dates for Germany have been released. 1 July - Leipzig                8 July - Dortmund 3 July - Berlin              ...

Hi ladies, yeah the bank holiday is finally here and there's time for us to head down to the movies and catch up on some great films. I can't wait! Let me know if you're going to see a movie (or two, or three) and hope you'll enjoy today's film post.  Far From The Madding Crowd  7/10   Who says only city people face intrigue, drama and love triangle problems? Far From The Madding Crowd is a spectacular and ostentatious film adaptation of Hardy’s Victorian novel starring an A-List cast of Carrey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge. It centres on strong independent Batsheba (Mulligan) who rises to wealth through a generous inheritance. A confident, beautiful and rich woman of course attracts lots of attention so she’ll soon find herself vowed by not just one (Schoenaerts), but three admirers (Sturridge and Sheen). If you love period drama and adaptations of epic British literature, than FFTMC is for you. For anyone else, the 2h film of emot...

Hi ladies, we're blessed with another bank holiday this month. Yeah! I'm so excited for this long weekend. Hope you are too? What are your plans? Well, here are mine. 1. I'm going to use the holiday to get some writing work done. I'm currently working on an application that requires me to hand in a feature, opinion piece and a news snippet by Monday midnight. So far I have my topic 'Identification and Immigration in the UK' all set up and researched. A first draft has been created for the feature but I need some ideas for the opinion piece. The news snippet will be fairly easy as it will only require 2-3 sentences answering the 4-w and 1-h question. This task will keep me busy and creative all weekend long. 2. Tonight is Eurovision! I'm such a nerdy fan, but only since I've moved out from home (OMG it comes to 11 years this year!). As a kid my parents always made me watch it and I hated it. And what have I done ever since I left their nest? I watched it....

Happy Friday to you all. Here is my monthly film post on what's hot or not to see at the cinema. Hope you'll enjoy and as always, let me know if you've seen any of the films yet (or are going to). Looking forward to your comments! Home 1/10 I’ve never been a fan of Dreamworks Animation movies, simply because they are always hectic, gaudy and far too loud for my taste. Home doesn’t make an exception and you can’t help it but watching it will constantly remind you of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. Dreamworks keeps it noisy and hyperactive throughout the entire film which I found stressful to watch. The characters can’t create any kind of identification which is in my opinion down to the inappropriate voicing. Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon disguised as a cute, cuddly alien (errrm) and Rihanna as a precocious nuisance failed to draw me into the movie. A thin storyline, flat characters and the main message to buy Rihanna’s next album (you’ll be bombarded 90 minutes with Rihanna songs) ...

The movie Philomena is one of the shining lights of the film year 2013 which brings us the gripping, heart-touching search of a mother who lost her son in the 1950’s. She has kept her past a secret ever since and lived with a burden of a lifetime. The award-winning British drama, directed by Stephen Frears, is based on the true story ‘The Lost Child of Philomena Lee’, a biography written by BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith. The movie centers on Philomena Lee (Dame Judi Dench) who has held a burden all of her life. As a teenager in the mid 50s, pregnant Philomena lived at a convent in Roscrea, Ireland. The nuns allowed her to keep the child, but was later forced to sign away her parental rights to the Catholic Church. Three years on, Philomena’s son is adopted by an American couple and taken away, leaving no trace behind. Ever since, Philomena never stopped thinking of her son and attempted to find him, but failed. By this time, she has a 35 year old daughter, who introduces her to ex...

During my UK trip I had time to catch up on films so here are my high- and low lights for this month. Hope you'll enjoy and let me know which ones you've seen and are excited about to watch. 1. Shaun The Sheep. The Movie. 7/10 Shaun and his flock finally get the chance to star in their very first movie, so we are thrown into a 80 minute long adventure far away from the idyillic British countryside - in the big city. Of course the farmer, dog Bitzer and Baby Timmy join us when we make new friends and get up to mischief. I've never thought of Shaun the Sheep as a mere toddler's programme, it is very cutely animated and a nice change to simply sit back, watch and enjoy a film without any dialogues, in which pictures and music speak enough for themselves. 2. Jupiter Ascending 3/10 Technically speaking the sci-fi opera ticks all the boxes with regards to special effects and cast. I mean there's Channing Tatum (for the ladies), Mila Kunis (for the boys) and actor...