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It’s a tale as old as time and a story that’s loved by young and old the world over. This weekend saw the release of Disney’s much anticipated live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. The original animated film was released way back in 1991 and has remained a cult classic ever since. The release of the new film has generated a lot of excitement and many predictions were made about whether Disney could pull it off again.
As a huge fan of the original film, I admit that I was slightly sceptical about the whole thing. I mean, is the remake ever better than the original? Surprisingly enough, this film managed to exceed my (pretty low) expectations.

I suppose the initial question we all have is how similar this version is to the original. Let’s start with the obvious, did Emma Watson disappoint as Belle? To answer that question, no she did not! There was a lot of hype surrounding the casting of Emma Watson and how she would portray the iconic Disney princess. She wouldn’t have been my first choice for the role but in the end, she delivered a fantastic performance. Watson portrays Belle as an intelligent, courageous young woman and is incredibly likeable throughout the film. Dan Stevens is also on point with his depiction of the Beast and there’s a genuine chemistry between the two which really adds to the authenticity of their on-screen relationship.
The film also hosts a star-studded cast and sees the likes of Ewan McGregor (Lumière), Sir Ian McKellen (Cogsworth) and Emma Thompson (Mrs Potts) portray the beloved characters from the original film. My biggest criticism is probably McGregor’s attempt at a French accent but that I can forgive! The villainous duo of brutish Gaston (Luke Evans) and his bumbling sidekick Le Fou (Josh Gad) are also two of the film’s most prominent characters and, in my opinion, stole the show on many occasions.

Despite the obvious differences between animation and live-action, the film bears many similarities to the original. Most notable similarities appear in terms of music and dialogue. You can expect to hear all your old favourite musical numbers as well as four new original songs. Disney did not stray from the original and the whole CGI aspect didn’t overpower the storyline. The cinematography was stunning. In many scenes, it felt like the original animation had literally come to life.The film also gave a more detailed background on each of the characters. This allowed us to learn more about them which really brought a new dimension to the film.
Is the remake better than the original? That’s hard to say, as the original holds its own special meaning for so many Disney-lovers. However, this film stands out as one of the better remakes which have been released in recent years, such as Cinderella. Whether you’re a hardcore Disney fan or just an avid cinema-goer, this film will not disappoint and is worth a watch.
Catch Beauty and the Beast in cinemas now.
GamerCon Dublin 2017 was probably one of the most exciting events on our calendar this year. We’ve just attended Dublin Tech Summit in Dublin’s Convention Centre which, in its first year, was a roaring success. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for year one of GamerCon – also in Dublin’s Convention Centre.
GamerCon was set to be run across two days. Visitors buy a day ticket to pop in on either Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, the organisers would appear to have grossly oversold the venue. With huge headline sponsors such as Xbox, PlayStation, Alienware and GameStop, the event has turned into a PR nightmare. With thousands, gathering outside, the doors to GamerCon have been closed with punters outside.
#gamerconDublin @GamerCon_Europe complete FARCE!! 2 hour Q in rain to be told doors closed by security as too many people inside. JOKERS pic.twitter.com/XO30TkMk7i
— Andrew Dalton (@mr_13b) March 18, 2017
Now that’s disappointing if you live in Dublin. It’s a waste of a walk and you’re now pretty cold and miserable. But, don’t forget, there are parents with children who can’t get in and people who’ve travelled considerable distances too.
The shambles that is #gamerconDublin . Travelled 5 hrs on bus with son, prepaid tickets to be turned away. Never again.
— Matt Clifton (@thePolyPusher) March 18, 2017
There have even been reports that the fire brigade have had to step in for safety reasons.
#gamerconDublin Dublin fire brigade sending officers down due to safety fears because of over crowding inside absolutely disgraceful
— davidknox (@daveyknox) March 18, 2017
So, that’s a pretty bad start, right? Well, it gets worse.
In an extremely ill-advised move, the organisers have reportedly panicked, updating their terms and conditions.
Ah #gamerconDublin @GamerCon_Europe when exactly did you change this? When you realized you massively oversold tickets today? pic.twitter.com/fLW0bMx7ym
— Daithi (@daithigorman) March 18, 2017
Now, this is a whole different kettle of fish. People have made their purchases under one set of terms, which have been changed because of the mayhem at the Convention Centre. This could possibly be illegal, but is at the very least just terrible form from the organisers.
GamerCon, like all conferences, would have people coming and going all day. For that reason, you can expect organisers to oversell the venue slightly as everyone won’t be there at once. In this instance, everyone came at once and the organisers clearly went over the top in the overselling department. This is leaving attendees absolutely irate.
Current scenes pic.twitter.com/aC22MppCdA
— Craig Jocelyn (@CraigOJocelyn) March 18, 2017
Imagine you’ve travelled for hours with children only to find out you couldn’t get into GamerCon. While irate you think you better sort out your refund. The GamerCon site is unlikely to cheer you up much:

There is another way to get your GamerCon tickets refunded. If you ordered your tickets through the GamerCon site, you have used Eventbrite. If you pop on over to the Eventbrite website, you’ll be able to open a “dispute” to reclaim your cash. This is also the case if you paid with PayPal. Some disappointed attendees are saying they’ve done both to speed up the process.
just requested my refund on @eventbrite @GamerCon_Europe …
— Carmine Calicchio (@freakypunker) March 18, 2017
There you have it. Day one has been a bit of a disaster. It’s actually been impossible to find any positive news coming from the event because of the havoc. Here’s hoping things pick up for day two.
For such a small country, Ireland is really churning out some great movies these days. Why do so many of our successes involve fairly crap criminals though? Topping the list are Intermission and Adam and Paul. You could definitely include In Bruges and The Guard on that list too. The list has just gotten a little bit longer too, but hugely better. The Young Offenders is one of Ireland’s best movies in a long while.
Back in 2007, the Gardai carried out Operation Seabright. This was the second largest drug seizure in Irish history. Lots of cocaine was being smuggled into the country aboard boats. That much is true. The Young Offenders takes place at the same time as Operation Seabright. Two young Cork lads, Conor and Jock, hear that bales of cocaine might be floating around the ocean. Tired of stealing bikes and thinking that €7 million might come in handy, they set off in search of the coke.
To dive a bit deeper, The Young Offenders is a buddy movie. Two young lads are killing a bit of time during after their Junior Cert. To be honest, Irish summers can be a bit boring so the draw of €7 million makes sense.
There are no real Hollywood stars to be seen, but there are plenty of well-known faces. Faces will be particularly recognisable if you’re into the Irish comedy scene.

The stars, Conor and Jock, are played by Alex Murphy and Chris Walley in their breakthrough roles. PJ Gallagher and Hilary Rose are the more familiar faces that appear in The Young Offenders. While known best for hidden-camera comedy, the two deliver on the big screen.
When I said The Young Offenders is one of Ireland’s best movies in a long while, I meant it. The film delves deep into Conor and Jocks relationship together while handling some other problems like alcohol in the home. Most importantly, The Young Offenders is a highly successful movie that’s not based in Dublin. That’s incredibly satisfying.
The movie has won several awards already and is one of the top selling Irish movies of 2016. It’s also been released in the UK, again to great applause. Best of all, you can now watch The Young Offenders on Netflix, so there’s no excuse.
On 10 March, Netflix released the second series of their original romantic comedy show Love. The show first hit our screens back in February 2016 and has been met with rave reviews from critics and fans ever since. Produced by the shows main actor Paul Rust, his wife Lesley Arfin and Judd Apatow (the man behind Superbad and Knocked Up), Love has made a name for itself as one of the most creative comedy shows in recent years. At first, I was a bit cynical about it. I mean, is there really a need for more rom coms? The whole ‘boy meets girl’ scenario is played out again and again in TV and film and it can get slightly repetitive. As it turns out, Love proved me completely wrong.

Set in Los Angeles, the show follows the story of Mickey (Gillian Jacobs) and Gus (Paul Rust), two people in their early thirties who are trying to figure out the next stage in their personal and professional lives. Mickey is an aspiring producer at a radio station. While Gus is an on-set tutor for child actor Arya (Iris Apatow), the star of the fictional TV show Witchita. Following previous failed relationships, a chance meeting brings the two together and we see how their friendship begins to develop into a dysfunctional love story.

The show acts as a raw, honest commentary on dating and relationships in the 21st century. Love shows the painfully awkward and embarrassing aspects of sex and dating that you just can’t help but laugh at. The main characters come bearing all sorts of problems and imperfections and this, in my opinion, is what makes the show so enjoyable. Throughout the show, we see how Mickey and Gus deal with their own personal issues such as anxiety, addiction and low self-esteem. As well as the romantic aspect, Love also looks at relationships between friends, family and work colleagues.
Although they are far from perfect, both Mickey and Gus are extremely relatable in their own unique way and you can’t help but root for them. The writing of the show is incredibly clever and hilariously accurate. It’s impossible to watch Love without being reminded of your own embarrassing moments and that is part of what makes it so funny. It’s the perfect binge-worthy show for when you just want to chill out, laugh and have a good cringe!
Ok, we admit it. Sometimes we love nothing more than a good nerd out over some data. Every quarter, the Commission for Communications Regulation, or ComReg, releases a massive report. This ComReg report tells us how people are connecting online, at home and with their smartphones. We’ve gone through the report to pull out a few interesting nuggets. It turns out that your broadband is fast enough and your phone bill is cheap enough
Believe it or not, Ireland currently has more than one active phone per person. In a population of 4.7 million people, there are 4.9 million phones. The vast majority of these are smartphones with 4.3 million using 3G and 4G networks. Maybe, just maybe the Nokia 3310 will change that.
It’s no real surprise that Vodafone is once again crowned Ireland’s most popular network, holding 37 percent of Irish mobile customers. They might be a little worried as they used to have 38.3 percent of customers. Tesco Mobile and Three were the big winners through the end of 2016. It’ll be interesting to see if Three’s contract change letting customers leave their contracts leads to a drop in market share. The other operators also increased their share. This is largely down to Virgin Media gathering momentum.
It’s rather interesting to see bill pay grow again. Bill pay is always growing which really makes no sense. Phones are not improving as much as they used to and prepay is generally great value. You can even check which is better for you using our handy bill pay versus prepay calculator.
There is one factor we haven’t considered too much – the convenience. Bill pay helps you afford high-end smartphones. Also, running out of credit does feel a little bit childish right? Well, running out of credit is a lot cheaper than having a bill – just look for yourself.
According to the ComReg Report, the national average for a bill pay contract is €31 per month. Prepay customers are paying about €14 per month for their service. The average cost of running your smartphone is continuously being reduced. ComReg attribute these reductions to bundling of home broadband with mobile services. Personally, I think SIM only becoming increasingly popular also plays a part.
SIM only is an increasingly popular way middle ground between bill pay and prepay. This is visible in the ComReg Report as the average cost of bill pay continues to decrease. Sure, you pay a bill but the cost is lower because there’s no phone involved.
We’re talking as much on our smartphones has we ever have. Between October and December 2016, the population of Ireland used 3.1 billion minutes. That’s roughly 277 minutes per person or 90 minutes per month. In the grand scheme of things, not a huge figure.
But, calling remains as popular as ever, unlike poor old text messages. WhatsApp, Snapchat, Messenger and the likes are killing text messages. During the same period, the people of Ireland sent 1.4 billion text messages. A substantial amount yes, but a 15 percent decline on the same period a year earlier.
Between October and December 2013, Irish people used just over 10,000 terabytes of data. Towards the end of last year, we used over 50,000 terabytes. To most, that number means nothing. Here’s some perspective. It’s about the same amount of data it would take to watch 50 million episodes of stranger things.
On the move, Irish smartphone users are now each gobbling up 3.4GB of data per month. Which is less than was a lot of Irish data plans now offer. That does make sense. When was the last time you heard someone say they are running out of data?

Sometimes, you can’t help but doubt the stats when you see them. We’re under no illusions that many parts of rural Ireland are miles behind urbanised areas in terms of connectivity. According to the ComReg Quarterly Report, the average broadband speed in Ireland is now 30Mbps. That’s a 56% increase over the same period last year.
We can’t help but feel that’s going to be tough reading for a few people.
So, how does that make you feel? Are you on the right side of the averages? Let us know in the comments below. Also, it’s fairly heavy reading, but you can grab the whole ComReg Report in full and tear it apart if you like.
I recently downloaded the FitMenCook healthy recipes app and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Although I am not that much of a cook, I have to say this app has some serious upsides. It even managed to get even me preparing some pretty decent grub. If I do say so myself.
FitMenCook is a recently released collaboration between FitMenCook and Nibble Apps. It has finally made the jump to the Google Play Store so all of us Android users can experience the benefits of healthy eating too. Social influencer Kevin Curry aims to help us make “struggle free, healthy and practical recipes that are easy on the wallet”. Essentially, the aim is to help people to eat more healthy foods without them tasting like cardboard. In addition, with 294 recipes currently available, Curry aims to have something for everyone.
Struggle free, healthy and practical recipes that are easy on the wallet
The motivation behind this app is a story in itself. Curry who had long struggled with his weight had seen a photo of himself posted on Facebook and decided to make a change. After paying what he called an exorbitant amount of money for a four-week online diet plan. He went to the gym and all in all pursued a healthier lifestyle. The problem was that after a while he began to get tired of bland chicken and rice. He felt the temptation of the foods that had gotten him overweight in the first place.
That’s when he decided to study up on nutrition and do something for himself. He started to create healthy recipes on his Tumblr blog and from there it grew into a thriving online community dedicated to changing the way people look at healthy eating.
The app itself is an extension of all of this. Allowing users to eat the food they like, all the while experiencing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
In conclusion, this is definitely worth a download. The FitMenCook app really delivers on everything it says. Curry and his team have put together an app that is really useful and helps to take the tediousness out of living a healthy lifestyle.
So with the nutrition side of things locked down, you’ll just need to get moving with these apps.

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a show that you’ll need to see to believe. As well as being fantastically entertaining, it also gives an interesting insight into the LGBT community and the world of drag. All the while, it’s promoting a positive message of creativity and self-love. Season 9 is set to debut on VH1 in the US on Friday 24 March. There has been no word yet on when the show will air in the UK and Ireland.