Every Wednesday, TMINE reviews two movies and infringes a former mobile phone company’s trademarked marketing gimmick
Ah, well. It was good while it lasted, but I’ve failed you this week, gentle reader. Despite the headline, I only managed to watch one full movie this week. I tried to watch a second one, but it was so, so bad, so I gave up. So I found a replacement… and it was so, so bad, so I gave up. And then I ran out of time.
Can you guess which I made it all the way through of these:
Triple Frontier (2019) – a group of ex-special forces soldiers steal a stash of cash from a Colombian drug dealer, but their escape doesn’t quite go according to plan
Hotel Artemis (2018) – Jodie Foster runs a hotel-cum-hospital for criminals in a near dystopian future
Special Correspondents (2016) – Ricky Gervais and Eric Bana create fake news
In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, ABC In the UK: Not yet acquired
I really don’t know why people are still fascinated by the OJ Simpson trial(s). Maybe it’s the racial angle; maybe it’s the trials’ mutually contradictory conclusions mean the truth is still debatable; maybe it’s because of the idea of a celebrity murdering someone.
But you’d think, 24 years on from the trial, we’d be over it by now, wouldn’t you, not still making TV series – certainly not making celebrities out of the children of the lawyers involved. Just in the past few years, we’ve had the dramatisation of the trial in American Crime Story, and we’ve had documentaries like OJ Simpson: Made in America.
And now we have The Fix, exec produced by Simpson’s prosecutor Marcia Clark, which sees Robin Tunney (The Mentalist) playing a thinly veiled version of Clark given a second chance to prosecute Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost, Oz, The Bourne Identity) playing a thinly veiled version of OJ Simpson.
Adam Rayner and Robin Tunney in The Fix
The Simpsons
The action starts in 2010, which is easily identified by everyone having cars dating from the 1990s for some reason. Akinnuoye-Agbaje has been in and out of jail for a year for the murder of his wife, for which Tunney and fellow LA prosecutor and main squeeze Adam Rayner (Tyrant) have prosecuted him to the full strength of their abilities. Then comes the glorious day when the jury finally return a verdict… and wouldn’t you know it, Akinnuoye-Agbaje is found innocent!
Fast forward to modern times. Tunney’s given up the law and is happily living with cowboy Marc Blucas (Buffy, Underground, Necessary Roughness) in rural Oregon, while Rayner’s become LA’s deputy district attorney and has married one of the reporters covering the trial. Then oh noes! Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s girlfriend is murdered!
Guess who Rayner thinks has done it. And guess who he decides to bring back to LA for a second chance at sending faux-Simpson down.
The Victim is a thriller told through the eyes of the plaintiff and the accused. Set within Scotland’s unique legal system, the show asks: who is really ‘the victim’?
Kelly MacDonald plays Anna Dean, whose son was murdered 15 years ago. She is accused of revealing his killer’s new identity online and conspiring to have him murdered. Has the anger of a grieving mother turned her into a criminal? What is she capable of doing in her son’s name?
Hard working family man Craig Myers (James Harkness) is viciously attacked, after being identified online as a notorious child murderer. Should Craig keep his head down or try to prove his innocence? Is he a convicted murderer, or simply the tragic victim of mistaken identity?
The Victim follows the progress of a trial in Edinburgh’s High Court, while also covering the events leading up to the legal proceedings and the criminal investigation, led by DI Steven Grover (John Hannah), who has his own reasons for wanting to crack the case. Craig and Anna are pitted against each other, but our sympathies will be divided. New potential suspects will be revealed and long buried secrets unearthed as the story builds to a final, devastating climax.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with key personnel from the cast and crew.
