A Descent into Dullness

Been awhile since I went to the movies with the family. Last night we caught State of Play. Which apparently was originally a BBC mini. Anyway its a political thriller. Mistress and political aide of Congressman (Stephen Collins) is killed in subway accident/suicide/murder. Congressman is part of panel investigating BlackwaterPointCorp. The Congressman is friends with a Washington reporter (Cal McAffery) who is looking into the double shooting of a purse snatcher and a regular citizen delivering pizzas by bike. Investigating the sordid affair angle is paper's rookie blogger/editorialist (Della Frye)...

Its a perfectly good movie. Russel Crowe is Cal and is always good. Rachel McAdams is Frye and she pulls off the whole "discovers the way of real investigative journalism" quite nicely. And Congressman Collins is Ben Affleck who essentially plays Ben Affleck. Which is good, since thats honestly when he's at his best in a movie...

Theres some decent twists, including a final act one (that really only has one plot hole to it I spotted). Plus some great supporting roles by Helen Mirren as the paper's editor and Jason Bateman as a PR specialist and source for the story...

But despite all that I'd still say don't pay full price. Its not one of the best mystery/thriller types I've seen, but its a solid picture. Well worth a rent or a matinee. I am 'flixing the BBC original, if for no other reason than BIll Nighy plays the editor in that one...

Well that was definitely television. Yep. Thats a sitcom all right. Maybe later seasons have more of that amazing humor I heard about? Because this one is pretty average. Nothing terrible really. But nothing that really makes it better (or worse) than your average American sitcom...

Just finished watching the final disc of the second set of this old series. An older BBC series about what is essentially MI-6 and its SIS division of elite agents known as "Sandbaggers". The series is credited as the major inspiration for Greg Rucka's Queen & Country series. As with the first set, the parallels between the two story sets is easy to spot...

This second set deals less with fighting the evil commie spies and more with Jr. Director Burnside's dealing with his own sides bureaucracy and rivalries. As well as plots by allies like the CIA and whatever the name of the West German agency was. There is an interesting sequence where CIA: London head Ross goes off on a rant about how the FBI orchestrated the assassinations of JFK and MLK. Kind of odd seeing JFK conspiracy theories coming from a British show...

This set lacks any of the really woah moments of the first one, but is still a fascinating look into Cold War era espionage...