Category Archives: Do Over

Old joys through fresh eyes

Do Over: Big

  By Laura | March 26, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Do Over, Movies & TV
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One of the most confusing things about Big is Josh’s wish. “I wish I were big” Not “I wish I was an adult” or “I wish I looked like that bloke from Splash! – his face is exceptional”. No. He wants to be ‘big’. Of course they had to work the movie title in somewhere but it’s an odd choice of words. “I wish I were big” could easily be interpreted as “I wish my underpants were a little tighter” but one would doubt that would merit a PG rating. Perhaps Josh meant “I wish I was 7ft 11” which makes more sense since Josh was turned away from a theme park ride because he was too short. I digress. Big (1988), if you somehow managed to skip childhood, tells the story of young Josh Baskin. Whilst at a funfair, Josh makes the aforementioned wish at a machine called ‘Zoltar … There’s more →

Do Over: The Brady Bunch

  By Hermia | March 23, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Do Over
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There’s an episode of the Gilmore Girls where Lorelai and Rory try to explain the beauty of The Donna Reed Show to Dean. The conversation goes like this: Rory: My favourite episode is when their son, Jeff, comes home from school and nothing happens. Lorelai: Oh that’s a good one. One of my favourites is when Mary, the daughter, gets a part-time job and nothing happens. Rory: Another classic. That pretty much sums up The Brady Bunch. It’s a beautifully simple show where one life lesson or general scenario is taken care of tidily in one quotable episode. The OCDer in me shrieked with delight when I first came across it about three years ago. Six siblings, two parents and a maid all living in close quarters and existing in perfect harmony. Sure there was the odd row, but nothing that couldn’t be quickly solved by some inward reflection and … There’s more →

Do Over: Charlie’s Angels

  By Hermia | March 22, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Do Over, Movies & TV, TV
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“Once upon a time there were three beautiful girls who went to the police academy and they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie….” Now you stop that eye rolling immediately. I know for a lot of you Charlie’s Angels conjures up vile images of Cameron, Lucy and Drew dancing around in their underwear and being thoroughly ridiculous in every way, but I’m here to put you straight. Those movies were spittle in the face of every true fan of The Angels. Jill Munroe, Sabrina Duncan and Kelly Garrett - the three women who inspired a generation of girls and aroused a generation of boys. Sure there were other angels - blow-ins to fill up space - but those three were the original and best. Each of them represented a different type of … There’s more →

Do Over: Beverly Hills, 90210

  By Hermia | March 21, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Do Over
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I was three when Beverly Hills, 90210 first aired in 1990 and by the time it ended in 2000, my parents were still telling me I wasn’t allowed to watch such a salacious show at my impressionable age. When the CW Network had the gall to relaunch the classic series back in 2008 in the form of 90210, it reminded me of the original series I was so harshly deprived of during my younger years and I immediately sought out the boxsets, feeling smugly triumphant in my delayed rebellion. The Walsh Clan was the average, down-to-earth American family transplanted into the fickle and shallow world of Beverly Hills and the show tracked the positive effect the wholesome Walsh Twins had on the local West Beverly kids and in turn, how they managed to fit into this scary new world. Brenda and Brandon Walsh - one of the most famous sets … There’s more →

Do Over: Lady And The Tramp

  By Laura | March 20, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Do Over, Movies & TV
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Unless you have children, it would be safe to assume that it has been quite some time since you have seen Lady & the Tramp. To jog your memory, it is the 1955 Disney classic about talking dogs who enjoy pasta. As I’ve been feeling quite nostalgic in recent weeks, I have been slowly revisiting the films I used to rent as a child. To my innocent eyes, Lady & the Tramp was a heart-warming tale about a dog who feels abandoned after her owners pop a sprog. Along comes Tramp to teach her about the streets and spaghetti. There was something in the middle about cats and then a zoo and then BAM it’s Christmas and everyone is happy and surrounded by puppies. As an adult, Lady & the Tramp is a different watch altogether.

Do Over: Jurassic Park

  By Kitty Catastrophe | October 3, 2011 - 11:55 am | Do Over, Movies & TV
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Ah, Jurassic Park. A staple of countless childhoods and the cause of many subsequent dinosaur fixations. I’m almost certain that the collectible weekly magazine DINOSAURS! came out around the same time in what would quite obviously have been a hurried effort to cash in. It was the one where you collected sections of a glow in the dark Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and the first issue cunningly lured you in with the skull. Those crafty publishing types. But back to the film. And what a film. I’m delighted to say that Jurassic Park is just as brilliant now as it was when I saw it in 1993. Once the preamble (the Montana desert dig that introduces Doctors Grant and Stattler) is taken care of and the team are approaching the island in the helicopter, there’s a genuine sense of excitement and wonder, especially when the tremendous John Williams score swells into … There’s more →

Do Over: Mortal Kombat 3

  By Lisa McInerney | September 6, 2011 - 9:00 am | Do Over, Games
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For as long as there have been violent video games, there have been hand-wringing numpties complaining about them. From the days of running down pixels pedestrians in Death Race, our moral guardians have been foretelling the end of childhood as we know it, predicting that reverence for one’s elders will be replaced by a lawless dystopia where teenagers roam in vampiric gangs, hacking the heads off clergymen and razing libraries to the ground. There have been a lot of video games that shocked and upset conservative non-gamers, but not many as successful as the Mortal Kombat franchise. I was far too young to play Mortal Kombat and its sequel. I was still too young to play Mortal Kombat 3, which was plastered with warnings about its fantastical gore and vicious objectives , but this time, I was old enough to want it. And once I got my mitts on it, … There’s more →

Do Over: Gauntlet.

  By Lisa McInerney | August 25, 2011 - 12:00 pm | Do Over, Games, The Culch
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When I were a lass, there used to be one of those multi-choice consoles in the local Supermacs (yes, Supermacs. I’m a proper culchie Culch.ie), to which you could theoretically feed your pocket-money in return for a cheerful selection of the games of the time. I say theoretically because, as one of the games was Super Mario 3, chances of the player exercising their right to choose were slimmer than a hipster Luigi. You’d slot your 50p in, tease a level of Mario out of it, get cocky, fall down a hole, add another 50p, and before you knew it, puberty had taken hold and you’d missed the entire summer season of Knight Rider. But I was never one for respecting theory. I didn’t even turn up for my Leaving Cert chemistry exam. So, while I played far, far more than my fair share of Super Mario 3, I frequently … There’s more →

Do Over: Paperboy

  By Lisa McInerney | August 2, 2011 - 9:00 am | Do Over, Games, The Culch
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Video games are not just for children. One might expect that every lost nunky knows that, these days, but there’s a surprising amount of supercilious arses that won’t admit it. Firstly, games have become very rapidly more sophisticated – imagine Pong aficionados, back in the ‘70s, getting an eyeful of something like Red Dead Redemption – and grown-ups appreciate the finer things in life. And secondly, of course, the kids who jumped on mutant mushrooms with Mario, and beat competitors off their bikes with cattle prods in Road Rash, are now twenty and thirtysomethings with their own mortgage arrears. There weren’t a huge amount of parents playing video games in the early ‘90s, but there bloody well are now (especially considering that you can have virtual affairs in Fable III and get virtual lapdances in GTA). Fable III. Romantic. I say this because the notion that one plays video games … There’s more →

Do Over: Beauty and The Beast … twenty years on. (Now you feel old, non?)

  By Lisa McInerney | June 24, 2011 - 11:00 am | Do Over, Movies & TV, Random Whimsy, The Culch
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“It’s not right for a woman to read! Soon she starts getting ideas, and … thinking.” Inspired by Sinéad’s hindsight-fluffed dissection of The Lion King the other day, I took it upon myself to dust off my (now digitalised) copy of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast to see if what was neon-catchy then can stand up to scrutiny now. And you know what? The grown-up me has found just as much to like about it! Hurrah! Beauty and The Beast was a grower, for me. As a tween, I preferred Aladdin’s derring-do and his bare-chested-but-non-threatening aesthetic moxie. Hot on his genie’s blue heels came The Lion King, which had more fart jokes than you could shake a warthog’s arse at, and then, of course, along came Toy Story, which turned all of our brains into fizzing Play Doh. But eventually it occurred to me that I liked Beauty and The … There’s more →

Do Over: Rewatching The Lion King 17 Years On

  By Sinead Keogh | June 22, 2011 - 1:54 pm | Do Over, Kids, Movies & TV, Random Whimsy
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“Simba, everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you will need to understand that balance and respect all creatures because we are all connected in the great circle of life.” A few weeks back, on an intense Disney bender, (it’s like drinking, but you wake up the next morning wrapped in an Aladdin t-shirt that hasn’t fit you since you were six with a banging headache from rewinding and replaying ‘Under the Sea’ in The Little Mermaid a few too many times), The Lion King found its way back into the VCR. When we were growing up, my younger brother was addicted to two videotapes, worn out from watching. They were The Lion King and, inexplicably, Riverdance. As a result, I saw both more times that was healthy or necessary, but since we grew out of them I haven’t seen either for years. The usual reactions … There’s more →