Author Archives: illu

L.A. Candy

L.A. Candy is a fiction trilogy and I read the first one of the series which was published in 2009. The trilogy is written by Lauren Conrad who is an American television personality, author and fashion designer. She has been in reality shows such as the Hills and Laguna Beach and in my opinion the books were inspired by them. In this book we get to follow the life of Jane Roberts who is the central character and her friends.

At the very beginning of the book two friends, Jane Roberts and Scarlett Harp move to Los Angeles. They need to get out of their comfort zone and do something different with their lives. Jane has an internship in Fiona Chen’s office who is the hottest event designer in Hollywood. Scarlett starts to study in the USC college. The girls are very different. Jane is delicate and fragile and she always thinks before she does something. She is also crazy about decorating and fashion. Scarlett on the other hand is the brave one who always protects Jane from all the bad. Jane seems to believe that there is something good in everyone. Scarlett is the exact opposite from her best friend because she could not care less about fashion and looks. Still somehow she manages to look gorgeous.

The girls are new in the big town and they try to find out what life is like  there. They meet a couple of new guys and somehow they end up in a club where they are asked to contact Trevor, appreciated reality show producer, if they would like to star his upcoming reality show. The girls hesitate first but after a few days they call him and let him know that they are in. What could be a better way to make something happen in their life? Jane and Scarlett don’t even know what they are getting into. Soon the whole Los Angeles will know who they are and they want to know every little detail about them.

Everything advances quickly and soon the girls notice that their whole life is being shot. If they for example want to date a guy, it is not going to be a private relationship. The cameras follow them and two other girls to work, to clubs, to restaurants, to school.. It’s like they have no private life. In the end of the book Jane gets to see that it is not always a good thing when you get distracted with Hollywood lifestyle and glamour.

The language used in the book was very easy to read and the storyline was easy to keep up with. I liked the book because even though it was fiction it really could be true. None of the occurrences were over the top. This was only the first part of the series and the end of this book left me the feeling that i really should read the other ones as well. I usually don’t read this kind of books but this was a very positive reading experience.

Like I said in the beginning I think that the books were inspired by the author’s own experiences in reality shows. You could see the similarity in them. Lauren Conrad tells in one interview the following: ’’It also tells of what it was like during The Hills, some stories are basically behind the scenes on The Hills …’’. If you have ever watched the Hills and liked it, you are going to like the book also.

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Now you see me

The movie ’’Now you see me’’(Suuri puhallus) is an american thriller and it was released in 2013. Film was directed by Louis Leterrier and he is known for his international movies such as ’’The incredible Hulk’’. The movie is stared by four magicians, Woody Harrelson (Merrit), Isla Fisher (Henley), Jesse Eisenberg (Daniel) and Dave Franco (Jack). Mark Ruffalo (Dylan) and Melanie Laurent (Alma) are the agents who investigate the case. Morgan Freeman (Thaddeus) is the agents help and Michael Caine (Arthur) is the magicians manager. In my opinion the characters were picked up with care. For instance magicians are a bit weird and mysterious and in the movie those traits did came up.

The movie tells about illusionists, magicians, who rob corrupted banks during their shows and steal money from multimillionaires. After that they donate the money to the audience. The magicians don’t know why they are told to do all that, they just follow the instructions from the magical ’’Eye’’.

It all starts when four amateur magicians are invited to a certain place at a certain time. Only a year later they are known as ’’the Four horsemen’’ and they amaze the audience doing unbelievable tricks or what the FBI-agents who are chasing them would say, crimes. Their first mind-blowing task is to rob a bank in Paris while they are in Las Vegas. Morgan Freeman who plays Thaddeus tries to help the agents to expose them and reveal the secret: what they do and how they do it. The great part is that the illusionists seem to be one step ahead of them all the time and yet they have bigger surprises coming.

The film moves forward quickly but it is not hard for the viewers to keep up with the speed. The effects used in the movie create grandiosity. Money is flying from the sky and bright lights are flashing and dashing everywhere and the music suites the movie perfectly. All the effects create a certain state of mind and atmosphere. It almost feels like you are there yourself, watching the show with all the amazing magic in it.

It’s up to the viewers on the other side of the screen to decide whether it is really magic or just very skilled cheating. It certainly feels like magic because those kind of things don’t happen in real life. All of the tricks were revealed in the movie and after that  it was funny to see how wrong you can be when you are thinking about how the trick was made. The sentence which is repeated very often in the movie ’’the more you think you see the easier it will be to fool you’’ really proved itself right. Everything is not necessarily happening under your nose.

You would think that it made the movie poor when you saw how the tricks were made but i think it only made it more fascinating. When watching it feels so overwhelming that all you can think about is how it was executed. Your brain is on fire about all the wondering and it only feels good to finally know the truth.

The conclusion of the movie was a bit unexpected when you found out who the ’’Eye’’ was. When I watched the movie for the first time it did not really come open but after watching it for the second time it all came clear to me. Overall this movie was worth watching and it became one of my favorites so far.

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