inquizitors-845-455978 Reviews

Get Santa (2014)

Just enjoy!

[7/10 · 24 December 2016]

Some people take everything so seriously. This is a fun Christmas film that I have witnessed being enjoyed by a large group aged from 4 to 72. It is no classic but is good fun with all the characters to see the good versus bad battle. Just relax with a mince pie and your favourite tipple - or a nice cuppa - and enjoy this harmless festive fun film.

A 9-year-old boy Tom finds Santa Claus in his garden shed after Santa crashes his sleigh. Desperate to return to Lapland in time for Christmas, Santa asks Tom and his dad Steve for help. It's just a few days before Christmas, and his reindeer are found running loose through the streets of London.

Give it a watch. It is harmless fun. Jim Bradbent is a brilliant Santa and adds to his catalogue of very different roles. Rafe Spall is excellent as the dad released from prison trying to help his young son surrounded by cynical people in all guises. Kit Connor is the 9 year old boy who is the star of the movie and is excellent.

DCI Banks (2010–2016)

The books are in a different class

[2/10 · 3 February 2014]

I first discovered DCI Banks by Peter Robinson whilst recovering in hospital from life saving surgery. They were an essential part of my recovery - against the odds. Since then I have read every novel.

The TV series is however a different kettle of fish. Shallow characters abound and major characters are just not portrayed in the intended manner. The one black character, Winsome, who is such a vital character in the books with her IT skills has been dropped altogether. Her replacement? That rather nice lady from Doc Martin. Why? I have no idea.

Annie Cabbot talks down to her superior Banks in a way the character invented by Peter Robinson would never do. Apart from the fact they had an affair she is obviously very much a supporting officer in the books. She is also now a mother which is also poles apart from the original character and her lifestyle.

This is typical bubblegum TV and reduces Banks to the level of most crime series whereas it has the advantage of some superior story lines to be a major TV series. It should be another Morse or Lewis.

Steven Tompkinson? Great lightweight TV actor but not as DCI Banks in my book. I know that TV rewrites some excellent crime stories, I suppose Frost is a prime example, but Banks is my greatest disappointment by a mile.