Matthew Beckett Reviews

This week I am doing a double review, the film Ugly Dolls and the accompanying soundtrack, this was my wife's suggestion, I said I was going to do the soundtrack and she said why don't you do the film too. This meant we got to watch it again and introduce our toddler to it, safe to say he definitely loved it. Film I will start with the film, Ugly Dolls is based on the toys of the same name, directed by Kelly Asbury and starring Kelly Clarkson as Moxy, Nick Jonas as Lou, Blake Shelton as Ox, Janelle Monáe as Mandy, Pitbull as Ugly Dog, Wang Leehom as Lucky Bat, Wanda Sykes as Wage, Gabriel Iglesias as Babo, Bebe Rexha as Tuesday, Charli XCX Kitty and Lizzo as Lydia. Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first. Ugly Dolls opens in Uglyville where all deformed dolls go. The lead character is Moxy who dreams of going to the big world and having a child to love h...

This is my second book review and I am only doing the one book this time, a far more sensible idea I think. I finished reading Fragment a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten round to reviewing it yet, so here it goes. Firstly I will say that this will contain spoilers, so if you have not read the book and plan to I suggest reading it first. The book follows a group of scientist and a film crew while filming the reality TV show Sea life, they arrive on an unexplored island, called Henders island, in the middle of the South Pacific ocean in hopes of finding new life forms. What they discover is an ecosystem completely different to our own that has remained untouched and evolved differently. The life forms on this island are like nothing seen before but with some elements of creatures we do have, the whole ecosystem is violent with a literal everything eats everything food chain. After several scientists and crew get killed live on TV the US Navy is sent to quarantine the island and...

Time for my second film review and this time I am reviewing the film Love, Rosie, which is based on the book Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern. Directed by Christian Ditter and staring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin in the lead roles with Tamsin Egerton, Suki Waterhouse, Jaime Winstone and Christian Cooke in the main supporting roles. Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first. Love, Rosie follows the story of best friends Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Claflin) over twelve years as they go through various life events that concludes in them finally realising they are in love and ending up together. The first big change is when Alex goes to Harvard university and Rosie gets pregnant after a one night stand with Greg (Christian Cooke), meaning she does not join him in Boston as planned. After finding out Alex's girlfriend is pregnant (which is later revealed to not be ...

Time for another album review, this time I am reviewing the amazing self title second album from US country singer Carly Pearce. This woman has an incredible voice and her debut album Every Little Thing is absolutely amazing, I loved her as much as I love Luke Combs (if you read my review of his second album you will know that is a lot - if you didn't check it out here ) so you can imagine that I had great expectations for her second album and she most definitely did not disappoint. This album hasn't been massively successful commercially as it only peaked at 73 in the US and didn't chart anywhere else, her first album peaked at 32, so this is quite a drop in performance unfortunately. As you can tell I really loved this album it just builds on the impression Carly gave with her first album, she has an amazing voice and can convey so much emotion in every song, I am so glad I discovered her. It is a great collection of songs, with love, heartbreak, Success and Failure a...

This is my first film review (finally) so let's see how it goes. I am going to review the brilliant film The Shape Of Water released in 2017, directed by Guillermo del Toro and staring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Doug Jones in the main roles. When it comes to awards the film was really successful, winning Best Director for Guillermo del Toro at most of the awards ceremonies and Best Picture, Best Actress for Sally Hawkins and Best Film Score for Alexandre Desplat at several awards ceremonies, in my opinion all are well deserved. Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first. This film is set in Baltimore in 1962 and follows the lead character Eliza Esposito (Sally Hawkins) who has been mute since she was a baby and communicates through sign language. Her only friends are her closeted homosexual neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) ...

This is my first album review in a while but hopefully I can get back into doing one a week, for now I am doing a review of The second album by Melanie Martinez called K-12. This is album follows four years after Melanie's incredible debut album Cry Baby and continues the story of the fictional character of Cry Baby. K-12 peaked at number 8 in this country, giving Melanie her first top 10 album and second top 40 as Cry Baby peaked at number 32, the album peaked at number 3 in the US making a second top 10 after Cry Baby peaked at 6 and a second top 40 in Australia peaking at 6 while Cry Baby peaked at 27, both albums also went top 40 in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada and New Zealand. I absolutely love Melanie Martinez, she has such a unique voice and style, I've never really heard anyone like her which makes it so enjoyable to listen to her because she is so different. As I said above Melanie's debut album Cry Baby is incredible and although K-12 doesn't quite match i...

So I am finally doing my first book review and it's a big one, I am going to review the Throne Of Glass books that I have read so far, there are 8 books in total (including 1 prequel of 5 short stories). I have read 5 so far and have the last three on my shelf to read, but they are quite large so will do a review on each after I've read them. Therefore the books I will be discussing are (in the order I read them); - Throne Of Glass - Crown Of Midnight - Heir Of Fire - The Assassin's Blade (prequel of 5 short stories) - Queen Of Shadows First thing to say is that this will contain spoilers, so if you have not read any of the books and plan to I suggest reading them first. I will start with a general overview then cover each book individually. I am absolutely loving this series, I would even say it's one of my favourites already, but it will all depend on the last three books to be sure. I'm really enjoying the developing story line with the multiple twist...