Steve Roberts

Such a pity. I love 20,000 leagues under the sea. This could have been a great show, but instead contemporary politics, superficial characters and lack lustre performances, made it a dull, predictable, anti-British mess. I’m off to read the book.

Could have been great...but wasn't.

There is no reason why this shouldn't have worked with an all female cast, but it didn't, it really didn't. This is a truly awful movie; and the only film in my life that has taken me 3 attempts to watch; and I've seen some terrible films. This film wasn't even funny accidentally and is about as a exciting as watch paint dry. It was only my love for the original film series that eventually made me watch the whole thing; the lack of coherence and plot, unfunny 'jokes', sexist & racist comments (while strangely enough not trying to be either), the over the top acting and general sense of inauthenticity, made this painful to watch. It felt more like a parody rather than a reboot. Not a patch on the original.

I've watched Dr Who from the beginning, and I'm afraid to say it's just gone off the rails recently; and is now pretty much a train wreck. Whether the Doctor can regenerate his/her way out of the mess of twisted metal and mangled storyline still remains to be seen, but I just don't like it at the moment. And it's NOT because he's now a she; I understand this gender-swapping, subverting expectations stuff is all very trendy; and I guess there's no particular reason why he couldn't regenerate into a female; just perhaps a different female, who could have done a better job, supported by a better writer. I'm sure she's great in other things, but Jody Whittaker is, in my opinion, a terrible Dr Who; my cat makes a more convincing Timelord; “He's like fire and ice and rage; he's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun", but Jodie is none of that. And as for Chris Chibnall, he must be on some kind of secret mission to destroy Dr Who for ITV; nobody can make that many bad creative decisions and it not be deliberate. Either that, or he's having some sort of bizarre mid-life crisis which he wants to play out through Doctor Who. Or is on drugs. Or is confused and thinks he's writing for Scooby Doo, not Doctor Who. Or just has a screw loose and needs a sonic screwdriver to fix him. Either way, the man needs to be stopped!

Not worth 2 hours of your life.

The betrayal of Victorian London as a backdrop was good; the plot was ok (not unlike some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s more spooky tales). The show was even exciting in parts. It had a lot of potential. But, modern race and gender politics had to rear it’s ugly head; and it felt like there was a lot of product placement going on; only 1.6% of people in Victorian London were actually BAME whereas the show ups the number considerably. Why can’t writers stop being lazy and come up with some decent stories for actors of colour rather than just shoe-horning them in, and making the show less believable as a result. Making John Watson a person of colour might please the PC crowd, but it adds nothing to the authenticity of the show. Another annoying aspect of the show is the sloppy writing; the word clone (spoken in the second episode by a main character) was NOT a word in use in Victorian England! The characters behave in a very modern way not in keeping with the historical setting. They are like clean, modern teens living in a basement, but for some reason the basement is in Victorian London. The show has loads of potential, the ideas are good (even original) but the dialogue, virtue signalling, PC politics, and ahistorical elements are so off putting it’s hardly watchable. It’s almost like the writers came up with a great idea and then thought ‘how can we screw this up’? And then proceeded to ruin it.

Absolutely brilliant movie!! Fantastic spooky fun, with a new cast, but with the heart and soul of the 1984 movie. Fun throughout, clever and witty without being silly; and poignant tribute to Harold Ramis. Plenty for old Ghostbusters fans, and a great introduction for a new generation of fans. Really hope we see more Ghostbusters like this. Best movie I've see in years.