Hello Coffee and Crochet lovers,
JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, The Travelling TARDIS, Jen Desmarais, and Eric Desmarais will be at this year’s (September the 6th to the 8th) Ottawa Comiccon at the EY Centre.
Come get your coffee, crochet, and books!
We’ll be at booths 2604-2606!
Can’t wait to see you there!
Jen and Éric
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1983 film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
This cleans up the loose threads of the other two movies and concludes the story in a satisfying way. It’s a little meandering and at times the philosophy is laughable.
Score: 0.5
The main characters are consistant and likeable. The secondary characters are good and the emperor is deliciously evil.
Score: 1
Cheesy and a little over the top but lot of fun with quips galore.
The emperor is wonderfully evil but his manipulations of Luke aren’t as clever as it’s made out to be.
Score: 0.5
The special effects from the original movie hold up well but like the other movies, the effects added digitally in the 2000’s don’t look as good. I’m also not a big fan of replacing Sebastian Shaw as the Anakin force ghost. I get the whole Anakin died when he became Vader but I don’t like it.
The music is amazing and I was particularly happy with the major-chord version of Vader’s theme that played when he died.
Score: 1
This movie remembers the hope of the first and gives us the happy ending needed. It’s only sad because of what we know about the sequel movies and how the characters never truly find happiness.
I love how all three movies are excellent at building a universe with so much depth without being overly confusing to the casual viewer.
The kids loved this one although they were a little confused about Vader’s motivations.
Score: 1
A wonderful way to end the series, filled with hope and fun. The movie is satisfying on it’s own and as a closing chapter to the trilogy.
Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
Deviating a little from the bare bones hero’s journey of the first film, this one introduces new villains and allies. It also becomes a lot more confident in its worldbuilding. It definitely leans further into the space opera in one story and the wizard fantasy in the other.
Score: 0.5
Luke starts to have a backbone and agency, which is shown as a bad thing. The romance between Leia and Han is pretty forced. Leia is portrayed less like a competent diplomat and more like an overworked leader with workaholic tendencies.
I’m also reminded that I like C3P0 significantly more when the humans ignore him.
Score: 0.5
The dialogue is deliciously cheesy and I love so many of the lines. I get annoyed at the bargain-bin Orientalism of Yoda and the ridiculous absolutism of the Jedi in general.
Score: 0.5
Once again the model work is utterly fantastic and the practical effects are wonderful. The camera work is great and the set are spectacular.
The music is iconic and although there’s a lot of carry-over from the first movie, the new themes are wonderful.
Score: 1
This movie is a lot of fun but has less of the hope (pun intended) of the first film. The shift in tone comes from the defeat at the beginning and the way the Jedi act like all is lost when Luke, rightfully, chooses to save his friends.
Score: 0.5
The movie is epic and the visuals amazing but it suffers from being half of a story and from a drastic change in tone that would continue in the sequels/prequels.
Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5
How This Works – Read Other Reviews
Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope.
This is a Fantasy movie, set in a Space Opera setting, populated with characters from Westerns and Samurai movies. It’s a combination that shouldn’t work, but works really well. However, all the set dressing in the world doesn’t make it any less of a stereotyped hero’s journey.
Score: 0.5
The characters are barely fleshed out archetypes and tropes. The farm boy, the rogue with a heart of gold, the strong(TM) princess, the honourable wizard knight, and the evil dark cloaked former apprentice.
The actors do a great job with what they have, but the weakest part of the movie is the characters’ motivation and personalities. (Something that improves in future movies.)
My biggest gripe is that the bad guys and the good guys treat non-human races as inferior. I’m still annoyed that the droids and Chewy didn’t get medals.
Score: 0.5
Iconic quips and quotes that are hardwired into geek culture. The movie has some amazing lines and some absolutely terrible ones.
As quotable as the movie is, its dialogue is stilted and filled with pseudo-nonsense that wouldn’t be explained for decades.
Score: 0.5
I realize that the special effects were touched up in the version we have, but the touch ups look worse then the actual practical effects. The original effects are utterly fantastic.
John Williams wrote one of the most iconic themes in film history.
Score: 1
I first saw this movie when I was in my teens. It was re-released in theatres. It was quite the experience, but watching it at home and seeing the wonder in my kids faces was great.
Score: 1
Iconic and amazing, this movie captures the wonder and joy of going to the movies in a way that every blockbuster wants to recreate. It has its problems, but it’s a great watch.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Hello Coffee and Crochet lovers,
JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, The Travelling TARDIS, Jen Desmarais, and Eric Desmarais will be at this year’s (September the 8th to the 10th) Ottawa Comiccon at the EY Centre.
Come get your coffee, crochet, and books!
We’ll be at booths 2604-2606!
Can’t wait to see you there!
Jen and Éric
Hello Coffee and Crochet lovers,
JenEric Designs, JenEric Coffee, The Travelling TARDIS, Jen Desmarais, and Eric Desmarais will be at this year’s (September the 8th to the 10th) Ottawa Comiccon. at the EY Centre.
We’ll be at booths 2604-2606!
We will be debuing 2 new flavours: Pineapple, and Cookies & Cream. Come try our samples.
Jen’s new book Crushing It and my new book The Mystery of the Dancing Lights, will be available as well. Come get a signed copy and maybe some awesome bonus things.
Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version
The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version
Hope to see you there!
Éric
