Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Sleeper-Cell
I love the original BBC Life on Mars. It is gritty and fun. I tried watching the American copy when it first came out and it just didn't work for me. One of the main interests of the original BBC version is Gene Hunt as played by P Glenister. Gene Hunt is a tough 70's cop who has no problem going Dirty Harry to get results. In the BBC version Hunt is much bigger and more physically imposing than Tyler. This forces Tyler to have to get on Hunt's good side and also to on occasion outwit him. And this is where it failed for me in the American version. The American Gene Hunt is smaller, much older and just looks like he can be cast aside easily. It also lacks the grittiness of the original. I didn't get through the first episode and as the series was cancelled mid season due to falling ratings it appears I wasn't the only one. Do yourself a favour and check out the BBC version.
aedine35
Keitel cannot save this awful remake of an excellent Brit series. How dumbed down are we going to go, folks? This is like taking a great novel and turning it into a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. Gone from this American version are: 1. THE MUSIC: the BBC version serves up actual smash hits from the era, many made right in the UK, while the US version largely serves up a cheesy soundtrack trying to mimic the authentic sound of the times. 2. ACTING. Period. 3. GOOD DIRECTING. Compare the time travel scene in episode 1 in both versions. The Brit version gets it right as the camera crescendos perfectly in time with the crescendo of Bowie's "Life on Mars." The U.S. version reduces that drama to a flattening camera angle change. 4. MANCHESTER, ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 70S - a much more unique canvas for the anachronisms to follow.Oy! Watch the BBC version and skip this crap, unless you are only watching it for 1) Keitel or, 2) because you really like soap operas
elshikh4
It's an old-fashioned TV show, namely something so missed in these days, with a police officer chasing the criminals, solving the crimes, passing more time in the street than his office, yet all of that mixed with the irony of someone from the 2000s living the 1970s, or in another word; a time travel matter.The way how the lead did travel was hasty and forced. The writers tried to philosophize it, but with results, I think, assure the pure desire of doing something just new. (John Simm) as the lead is blank. More than once I asked for what he was chosen, else being tall and blond, to find no answer. While (Harvey Keitel) handles a real enjoyable character enjoyably, he looks so old to be a police officer, being 69-year-old in real life, and 77-year-old on screen ! The direction isn't that distinguished; ahh, imagine this work as a Blaxploitation's big homage. WAW. That could have been more attractive and 70s I can tell you that !Still, my heaviest problem with this show is its YELLOW color. OK, I'll try to be as quiet as I can be. So
WHY THE HECK IS THAT??!! Is it a way that saves time and money that may be spent for giving the sets, the clothes,
etc. any harmony? So is it a way to shoot faster while no effort would be done for directing the image colorfully? Whatever the reason is, it is a way to damage my nerves!Maybe someday I would make a list of the yellow TV shows; where all the images of all the scenes during all the episodes have JUST ONE COLOR. (Relic Hunter – 1999) comes to my mind powerfully, with its repulsive, unjustified and forever reddish yellow. At any cost, it's certainly a move that only happened during the end of the 1990s and the whole 2000s; the age of (CSI : Crime Scene Investigation) along with its many brothers and sisters of other Crimes; The age of how to annoy the viewer!Anyway, it's ugly to unbearable extent despite any stupid allegation that it's done for artistic purpose or special atmosphere. Well, yellow can't be the color of the 1970s. I'm damn sure that nearly 90 % of the world is with me on that. The 1970s rather defines gaudiness, as the era of ALL the colors ! The writing is better than the rest, all the rest. It brought back the old days, of the 1970s in America and the 1980s in The TV of America, altogether. Its directing just missed the artistic qualities of both. For me, it deserved more than 17 episodes, if only was cured of the yellow fever it had !
