We Don't Need Two Metaphors

At the halfway mark, Broadchurch is making good on its initial promise I've been quite critical on some of the more minor aspects of Broadchurch in the opening episodes. It says a lot about the quality of this episode that those annoyances didn't bother me as much. First of all, it turns out Alec Hardy is in fact a human being and not a grumpy crime solving android. Hurrah! After initially turning his nose up at the prospect of dinner at the Miller residence, Hardy not only enjoys himself but he starts to open up a little. He's clearly a troubled man, but now we're starting to understand some of what's troubling him. After collapsing in his hotel room, he wakes up in hospital with hotelier Becca at his side. Whilst she is slightly amused at having to pretend to be his wife, Hardy is instantly concerned about keeping the incident under wraps. Alec Hardy and his "wife" Becca Elsewhere, Karen has stepped up her game in pursuit of a story. Aft...

Broadchurch delivers its best episode so far in week 3 Apologies for this somewhat belated and truncated review of the 3rd instalment of Broadchurh . As my previous reviews indicate, I have been enjoying Broadchurch  so far, despite it's flaws. Whilst there were still some problems in this episode, I found it to be the most satisfying of the lot. Beth tries to cope with the boredom that comes from waiting for news. She cleans the house and tries to go back to work, only to be turned away by her caring but overprotective boss. She also meets the friendly neighbourhood psychic Steve, who claims to have a message for her from Danny. Beth's initial disgust at Steve claims soon develops into curiosity. Yet despite his best intentions, Steve's message may have caused more problems for the Latimer family. As with last week's episodes, the scenes with Steve were the best of the episode. Beth (Jodie Whitaker): the grieving mother and suspicious wife  The revelat...

Murder mystery is moving forward, albeit rather slowly Opening episodes are always tricky to get right. The tone has to be set whilst also delivering enough intrigue to ensure the viewer tunes in for the next episode. On the basis of this second episode, Broadchurch has settled into the groove formed in the opening hour. More suspects are introduced this week but some have yet to be developed into fully rounded characters. Pauline Quirke gets to say and do suspicious things, a step up from her looking suspicious moments last week. Arthur Darvill gets another post Doctor Who  role (following his brief appearance in The Paradise ) as the local priest who has to help the town come to terms with the tragedy. Most intriguingly, Steve Connolly (Will Mellor) is a telephone engineer who claims that he receives messages from the dead. This type of character is something I've always liked and I hope that Broadchurch  develops his character and his "abilities" further.  Me...

Why Sam Mendes passed on Bond 24. Plus a potential short list of successors (Massive spoilers for Skyfall , obviously.) Even with the best will in the world, I don't think EON producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli would've predicted the extent of Skyfall 's success. The previous two outings took $586 million and $599 million at the box office, but Skyfall 's $1.1 billion makes it the 3rd largest gross for a non 3D film (behind Return Of The King and Titanic's initial 1997 release). Therefore, it's entirely understandable why everybody wanted Skyfall director Sam Mendes back on board. The problem is, Skyfall  has left the franchise in a somewhat precarious position. With  Skyfall , Mendes got to do things no other Bond director has done. He got to kill off M, bring old characters back into the series and with the 50th anniversary falling in the same year; he got to explore whether Bond's old fashioned approach still had a place in the 21st c...

A few thoughts on the opening episode of ITV's new crime drama In this post The Killing  televisual landscape, crime thrillers have their work cut out to bring something new to the genre. Despite its poor start, Broadchurch  shows signs of have something to offer in this opening episode. Set in a coastal Dorset town, Broadchurch  centres around the suspicious death of an 11 year old boy, Danny Latimer (Adam Wilson). DI Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and DS Miller (Olivia Colman) are tasked with solving the mystery whilst this small close knit town comes to terms with the tragedy. Olivia Colman & David Tennant in Broadchurch The first 15 minutes of Broadchurch were really quite frustrating. Small niggling inaccuracies that shouldn't have bothered me were too strange to ignore. When Danny doesn't turn up at the school sports day, no one contacts the parents to find out where he is. A journalist returns from the sports day and is told to "get yourself some fre...

My final predictions for tonight's ceremony This year's awards race has been one of the most open and encompassing of recent years. You only have to look back at last year's race, when it was obvious from a very early stage that The Artist  was going to win, to see how uneventful the annual awards race can be. This year, most of the major films have had their ups and downs. Things have settled in the past few weeks but the unpredictability of past few months means that many awards aren't pinned down. So I shall be making my picks in each of the categories based on what I think will win, what I think might win, what I think should win and what I think should've been nominated. I'll only make picks for should win and should've been nominated where I've seen enough of the nominees. Best Film Will Win: Argo Could Win: Lincoln Should Win: Zero Dark Thirty Not even nominated: Skyfall Best Director Will Win: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) ...

Zero Dark Thirty has come under fire from journalists and politicians about its depiction of torture and its effectiveness. In this post, I am to examine exactly what Zero Dark Thirty claims happened in the 10 year hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Whilst I may touch upon the ethics and morality of torture, this is not a post arguing whether or not torture is justifiable. Nor is it a post about the repercussions (or lack of repercussions) from the Obama administration for those people who approved the use of torture. This post aims to clarify whether or not the film-makers behind Zero Dark Thirty are accountable for some of the claims made against them. WHAT DOES ZERO DARK THIRTY SHOW? The intense torture scenes at the start of the film produce no information about Bin Laden. The captive (named Ammar) is being tortured by Dan (Jason Clarke) because the CIA believe he holds information about an imminent terrorist attack. Afterwards, the CIA trick him into believing that he gave up informati...