Red Riding Trilogy with Spiderman, The Govenor and Full Monty's Mark Addy

Again i am on a tangent form my usual fair. As an actor I usually prefer to act in this sort of work than watch. But the three film series, made for BBC 4, was mesmerizing. If you liked HBO's True Detective you will love this.

Four Books by David Peace -  made into 3 TV Movies - are fiction based on true events with added political corruption and organized crime.

WARNING -No gruesome details below BUT if you have issues with torture and grotesque crime scenes - not to much live slaughter moments - this show will give you the creeps. Maybe Nightmares....

MUSICAL NOTES - The 3 movies are a cool musical time machine Dr Who would be proud of... Music/Sound Director deserves credit for perfectly capturing the time. Same true with costumes etc. Filmed on 16mm the films feel they were made 20-30 years ago - in a good way.

Red Riding 1974 We meet the West Yorkshire Police A highly corrupt sort, that make a serial killer and organized crime seem petty. Andrew Garfield plays young reporter on the case of the Yorkshire Ripper (Based on true story). But he pushes some wrong buttons, falls for the wrong girl (Rebecca Hall) and the police clean it all up (including David Morrissey - The Governor from Walking Dead). Spiderman does not have a happy ending in this one... OH And a young boy toy nick named BJ (no idea why) seems to know more than he lets on before scooting away between buildings no normal person could. (OK I know why)


Red Riding 1977 - Not made into movie

Red Riding 1980 - Less movie star driven of the three... Clean Cop Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine - BBC fans will recognize for sure) is sent in to investigate West Yorkshire. This episode feels more like a TV show. BJ Pops up again. Very elusive this BJ. Peter learns that one of the Ripper murders was not by the ripper, but a cover up for police corruption and organized crime... We meet the Reverend laws who appears to be a comfort to the ladies. I suspect more of him. Maybe in the third movie... But you know hunter is getting close. They burn down his house and he is in the lime light. They put a bullet in him and I think either frame him for the murder of another corrupt cop OR frame the dead corrupt cop for Hunter's Murder. Foreign Films are hard to follow. The whole thing is in British...

Red Riding 1983 -  but so far the Governor - David Morrissey as Det Morris suspects maybe with all their corruption that maybe they got the wrong guy for the actual Ripper murders. With the end of the 2nd and beginning of this film we learn that a pact was made by Sean Bean and the Cops years before. When Spiderman killed them all in revenge, cops came in and killed all the witnesses. But a new girls is dead. And there are obvious similarities - OK it is obviously the same guy. A medium (speaker with spirits not average size lady) seems to know too much. This alarms the Governor and another cop. I do not like her chances in this story. Oh this whole time Mark Addy is back to his Full Monty Character but now a solicitor (LAWYER in American) looking into the original killer's appeal.

1/2 way thru MORE TO COME

SADD PSA + Adultery PSA + 1% Sucks + But you gotta have hope = The Great Gatsby The Movie

Forget my overly simplified summary, as i actually enjoyed this movie. however I fear most will miss the true message of hope. Hope that made Gatsby become a criminal to get close to the one true love.

I have a love hate with Baz Lerman. He is the Zefferilli of our time. A man who invented - at least for modern times - the over production craze on stage and film. But too often I feel story is lost amid lavish sets and costumes.  Zefferilli's one saving grace? He himself said "I would give my right arm to be a tenor" - So being a sing - a tenor - I have to give him some props.

Who am I kidding? I love the work of both these two. Just at times they do take things too far.

HOWEVER, all that being said... Baz Lerman made a Great Gatsby that just might get young Americans excited about a true America Classic. A book that is more a lavish painting with words than story anyway.

And the cheese factor associated with a Baz Lerman production is best suited to the Roaring 20s.

And I love the gate way of Queens - a hellish coal mine the rich and powerful have to pass through to get to "Town". A foreshadow of the Great Depression, perhaps. Not too different form how some still must think of Queens today, except now they have high speed boats and helicopters, so they no longer have to slum it on the roads and trains with the rest of us.

I watched this when I had nothing to do, ill with a stomach virus and wanted to hate this movie. but alas, Old Sport, I did not!

I suppose when done well, hyperbole is not horrible...

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan
Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan
Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker
Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson
Jason Clarke as George Wilson
Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfshiem
Jack Thompson as Dr. Walter Perkins
Adelaide Clemens as Catherine
Richard Carter as Herzog
Max Cullen as Owl Eyes
Heather Mitchell as Daisy's mother
Gus Murray as Teddy Barton
Steve Bisley as Dan Cody
Vince Colosimo as Michaelis
Felix Williamson as Henri
Kate Mulvany as Mrs. Mckee
Eden Falk as Mr. Mckee
iOTA as Trimalchio