ORIGINAL VS REMAKE - Broadchurch/Gracepoint

Today ITV's Broadchurch does battle with FOX's Gracepoint.

Original

In 2013 a new series aired on ITV1 about the investigation of a boy's murder in a coastal town in England. I'd seen British crime dramas before, I'd seen  Sherlock and Death in Paradise and that sort of thing so I did actually give this one a miss; what did peak my interest though was the fact that on various websites and forums around the web people were raving about Broadchrurch, the whole of the UK seemed to be entranced with this show. A few months later I got round to watching it and boy, what had I been missing. Broadchurch is one of the most intriguing, emotional, fantastically realistic piece of television I have ever watched, it's plot and characters are so drawing I watched four episodes in one day. It is incredibly well directed, the shots and camera work is beautiful, the script is real, the acting is amazing from everyone. I don't know if it is because I have visited towns like these as I live in the UK (and have actually been to where it was filmed), but I can't get across how real it all felt. Whatever your taste in genre, you need to give Broadchurch a try.

Remake

When I heard there was going to be an American adaption I was disappointed because I am not in favour of films or television being remade for a foreign audience. But because it was the same writer and apparently it would end differently so I decided to check it out. Well, what can I say? Gracepoint is a shot for shot replica of Broadchurch, the scenes are exactly the same, the dialogue is verbatim to Broadchurch and there are very few creative differences. The problem is that it's just not as good, the acting is quite poor, David Tennant's terrible American accent is off-putting and for anyone who saw Broadchurch you could predict every plot point from the word go. I mean, to be fair they did add some new elements, mostly in episodes 4 and 7 and there was a new twist in the finale which were interesting but I'm afraid there was just not enough change for me. Even for new viewers the premise apparently it didn't go down well as the second season has been cancelled.

Comparison

As if I hadn't made it clear already Broadchurch is far superior so for this Original VS Remake, the original wins. Thank you for reading, if you disagree please leave a comment, after all these are just my opinions,

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who: Last Christmas

Moffat, you haven't redeemed yourself yet, but your on the right path.

So the end of 2014 brings us Peter Capaldi's first Doctor Who Christmas special. It's about a group of scientists trapped on a polar base in the North Pole because of weird alien creatures. To start, I love anything with a premise like that so I knew I was probably going to enjoy this; and I did!
   'Last Christmas' was a really good, solid episode. The plot was really engaging and smart, it had some real good suspense and creepiness. The feel of the episode definitely had vibes from the Alien film (which is acknowledged) and also things like The Thing and even Inception I'm all on board for that and loved the callbacks, so plot wise it was one of the best, except maybe towards the end it started to cross the line but not too much.
   For the characters, this was a good episode, the people on the base seemed realistic and normal, The Doctor has definitely settled into the role and had some great lines of dialogue with Clara who I don't really like but she was good in the episode. And of course Santa Clause himself and his elves. Now, I don't celebrate Christmas but seeing Santa and the Doctor interact was one of the funniest things this year, They did a few back and forth banter which was great and there are definitely some things about Santa we don't know, so maybe a return...? In the end I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and look forward to what series 9 has in store.

9/10

OJ's Movie Review - Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Don't lie to yourself, you want a Capuchin monkey too.

You know, Night at the Museum is one of those films where it's not a huge movie, it's not a blockbuster, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just generally not talked about in the film fan world as I've seen it. It is however regarded as a nice family film to sit down and enjoy, so was the second instalment, and this one isn't any different.
  We all know the premise; a special Egyptian tablet makes it possible for all the exhibits in the museum to come to life at night. What I'm glad about is that this third film is not a rehash of the previous two; it's predecessors had a similar theme of a main villain wanting the table,t which were different enough to enjoy but Secret of the Tomb does something completely different with it's plot and execution which is an awesome change I enjoyed a lot. Of course another thing we enjoy with these movies is the actual museum coming to life and they do some really cool stuff with that idea and it's awesome to see these historical figures interact with statues and even paintings!
    They brought us some new characters too which included Lancelot who steals so many scenes and has some great lines, I love that character; also we get Ben Kingsley as King Merenkahre who surprisingly didn't actually have much screen time for a big-name actor. Rebel Wilson as a British security guard didn't quite grab me as the other characters did, she was the comedic relief in what was already a comedy so her presence wasn't really needed and could come off as annoying. In the end Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb was a fun ride just like the first two, it has some awesome surprises I wasn't expecting and all round a good family film.

8.5/10

R.I.P. Robin Williams