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FlixMaster
Reviews
Ghosts (2021)
Certainly not a terrible adaption
This is not a 1 star stinker like the US adaptions of IT Crowd, Spaced or Red Dwarf.
However, unlike US adaptions that were reasonable re-interpretations like Man about the House or the Office that approach the level of the originals, this has yet to blossom into a good show.
The rejigging of roles was reasonable (but not perfect, the greaser seemed terribly undercooked even noting the mostly minor role of "Bone/Crash" in the original) for the location shift. While even in the original the ghosts are somewhat one dimensional (with subtle and not so subtle clues to character depth, which did appear somewhat in this version) in the original they nevertheless presented as interesting, idiosyncratic and humorously imperfect. The original ensemble cast have a long history of working together and this shows with the original hitting its beat from the first episode. Pinnock stood out among the ghosts and I appreciated her character and portrayal.
Trying to follow the same script as the original is fraught and the pilot falls into this trap. Better to pick up the premise and make material that really works for the new setting/characters/actors.
Adequate and hopefully will improve as the cast get in their respective individual and collective grooves.
And can reviewers take a reality pill? 30% of the votes are 10 stars, you might have enjoyed it but 10? Same for the 1 star votes, yes, it does not stand up to the BBC version by a wide margin but it is far from abysmal.
91 Days (2016)
More than what it appears from first viewing
At first glance this could be mistaken for a dreary dirge chronicling revenge enacted by a rather bitter (understandably so) protagonist. But there is more to this story. The pairing up of the protagonist and the target of his revenge lends itself to interesting opportunities for character development.
Revenge is enacted not simply by gunning down the baddies, but by cunning and intriguing plots.
There are many homages (I'm treating them so, others might think they're blatant lifts) to gangster movies, very obviously the Godfather but others, e.g. episode 6 has an ending alluding to a certain late 80s black comedy involving gangsters.Just waiting for the Thelma and Louise ending!
Ghostbusters (2016)
Reboot of classic 80s' comedy
The original was an iconic part of cinema from the 80s, a movie which actually managed to live up to its big hype, budget and comic star filled cast. So, I went into this reboot with a little trepidation.
I was quite pleasantly surprised. Like the original, it had a little bit of set up to do, but similarly it soon delivered with plenty of laughs and fun. From the trailers I thought there might be great slabs of material cut and pasted with a new skin, but the reboot manages to give just enough nods to the original while standing firmly on its own feet.
The story was a little tighter than the original; e.g. the supernatural macguffin being more accessible than in the original ("...entire roof cap is made out of a magnesium-tungsten alloy").
The original cast's performance certainly left big shoes to fill, the current actors did a great job in filling them (despite the pre-emptive howls from the bloggertariate). The group dynamic, if not the individual performances, were an improvement on original.
If I had one criticism (yes, I know that you Reddit users have about 420,000 more) it is the obviously deleted scene cut for(presumably valid) timing reasons did jar a little.