Friday 29 March 2013

The OJ Reviews NEW LOGO!

For those of you who have read The OJ Reviews' Google+ post you will know we are having a logo change. The old one was bit messy and didn't look to good but now after some viewpoints and votes we finally have the OJ Reviews logo 2.0. I hope you like it and you will be seeing it on other sites we're on soon!



Another tidier version will be used for thumbnails and small profile pictures:



Tuesday 26 March 2013

OJ's Book Review - Why the Whales Came

Yes; a bit random but I've just read it and have only posted one thing this month. So here we go!

Why the Whales Came is a Morpurgo book that came out in 1985. It was lent to me by a friend so I read it. While reading I came to the conclusion that this book should not be called Why the Whales Came because the entire story has nothing to do with whales until the very end; so the title is almost like a spoiler for a twist ending. A better title would be The Birdman because that is what the book centres on really - this apparently crazy old man who is maybe related to a witch. Two children start talking too him through shell messages and that begins the story. As I've probably mentioned before Michael Morpurgo is very good at describing things, some scenes you can see in your mind like a photo. The story too was well executed. Very good mystery and it kept leaving you asking questions in your mind. It also built a little bit of fear at the beginning to the children's safety when they got near this Birdman guy and then as nearly all Morpurgo books do it ties in with the war and that becomes a main plot line. So Why the Whales Came was a very good book and do recommend it to all ages; just don't expect everything to be about whales.

Monday 11 March 2013

ORIGINAL VS REMAKE - King Kong

The first Original VS Remake is 1933's King Kong going up against the 2005 remake.

Original

1933 brought us a crazy film maker called Carl Denham who liked filming wild animals and strange things for his movies. And he has a new film to shoot but his lead actress has quit so he accidentally finds a girl while she's stealing an apple and they go off aboard the ship to Skull Mountain - an unknown island of mystery. This movie was pretty good for its time, it had a good plot, characters and good effects in the case of stop-motion which was all the rage back then. The acting was a bit shabby but all in all in was enjoyable and an old monster classic.

Remake

In 2005 they upgraded King Kong with CGI, a popular cast and more storyline. Obviously the effects where better, and it was in colour but King Kong in 2005 definitely kept true to the original. There were almost exact scenes, same lines, and same time period. There were of course new things as creatures, characters and plot points and they changed a few things like the beginning the natives being a bit more savage but they were for the good and really improved it.

Comparison

1933's was good but 2005's was just that bit better, maybe for the effects but more for the story line - there was a lot more to it. But I'm happy they kept very close to the original so the remake wins the first Original VS Remake but that's just my opinions. What do you think?