MARCH 2017 - FILMS +TV

March saw two cinema trips, a short crime film from You Tube, a bit of intrigue and some condensed series viewing with Tom Hardy stalking around Ye Olde London in a big hat, and the much anticipated start of Broadchurch series 3!

The Last Job (2014)

Thanks to John Grant of Noirish for the tip-off on this one. 25 minutes short and and a bit of a Probert family production with four of them involved in this one. John's post is here and tells you more than I could ever hope to. A worthwhile watch

Adam is a police officer and loving husband. When his wife Jane is diagnosed with cancer he makes a deal with corrupt medical scientist Dr Redgrove who he has been hunting for years to use his research to save Jane in exchange for his own life. Adam fakes his own death to work for Redgrove as an assassin, after years working for him he is given his last assignment which is to kill his wife's new husband who is a medical scientist opposing Redgrove's research.

Taboo (2017) 

I read a scathing review of this series - to the effect that it mainly consists of Tom Hardy skulking around London in a tall, black hat and Jonathan Pryce telling someone to fuck off once a week.

I kind of get where they were coming from, but as I like Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce I could enjoy watching this one. Stephen Graham (Combo - This is England) and Tom Hollander (Corky from The Night Manager) also feature.

It was a bit slow in places and I can't claim to have totally understood the plot, especially the weird brother-sister-drowning in the water-shagging-mystical-occult type weirdness but it was incredibly dark. Hardy an adventurer sticking it to the powerful East India Company and the Prince Regent. 

Taboo is a British television drama programme produced by Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker for BBC One and FX. The show premiered on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017, followed by the United States premiere on FX on 10 January 2017. The programme was renewed for a second series in March 2017.

It was created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, and his father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, and is based on a story written by Tom and Chips Hardy. The eight-part series, set in 1814, begins with James Delaney (Tom Hardy) returning to England after twelve years in Africa with fourteen stolen diamonds, following the death of his father and as the war with the United States is nearing its end.

Broadchurch - series 3 (2017)

David Tennant - Olivia Colman - AMAZEBALLS! Disturbing and uncomfortable viewing in places as our intrepid pair investigate the rape of a woman at a birthday party. Plenty of suspects, including Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) and Lennie Henry - who would have thought they could produce such compelling straight man performances. Gripping - and to be concluded in April!

The third and final series of the British crime drama Broadchurch began airing on the ITV broadcast network in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2017. Set three years after the previous series, the eight-episode series focuses on the sexual assault of a local middle-aged woman in the fictional, close-knit coastal town of Broadchurch in Dorset, England.^[1]

Broadchurch was conceived as a trilogy, the second series was only announced on 22 April 2013 as series one ended, the third part being announced at the end of the second series.^[2] The return features series stars Olivia Colman and David Tennant and many of their co-stars from the first two series.

Denial (2016)

A trip to the flicks and some top drama with Timothy Spall, Rachel Weisz and Tom Wilkinson in a true tale of a libel battle between a holocaust denier and a Jewish American author. All three give fantastic performances. Not a film you could forget in a hurry really.

Denial is a 2016 British-American historical drama film directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, based on Deborah Lipstadt's book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. It dramatises the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel. It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, Andrew Scott, Jack Lowden, Caren Pistorius and Alex Jennings.

La La Land (2016)

Back to my local library theatre with my wife the day after watching Denial and a bit of lighter fare this time. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one too much but was pleasantly surprised. I do like Ryan Gosling and I enjoyed Emma Stone's performance in The Help. I must admit to a touch of sadness at the alternate outcome-life path scene - what the hell is wrong with me?

A jazz pianist falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.