FAST GIRLS (2012)

FAST GIRLS opens up in the UK on the 15th June. The movie deals with a quartet of young girls and their journey towards taking part as the British relay team in the 2012 London Olympics. The movie stars Lenora Crichlow, Lashana Lynch, Dominique Tipper and Hannah Frankson along with Noel Clarke, Rupert Graves and Phil Davis. One of the stars Noel Clarke has come a long way since playing Mickey in Dr.Who and now enjoys a credit list that includes Kidulthood, Adulthood and 4-3-2-1 to name but a few acting/producing and writing credits. And not only does he act in Fast Girls but co-wrote the script. Fast Girls should have been the feelgood movie that highlighted the work that British athletes do in preparation for the Olympic Games - OUR Olympic games. The same Olympic Games that Londoners are paying for via that 'little bit extra' added on to the Council Tax. There are some people out there who think that some of us have forgotten about that. Return to the Olympic theme - halfway through the making a movie that promotes the Olympics - an idiot from the International Olympic Committee said that neither the words 'Olympic' nor '2012' could be used in the movie as these words were copyrighted. Since when? That means that movies like 'Cool Runnings', 'Chariots Of Fire' and '2012' should have been dragged into court for breach of copyright etc. One of the American Presidents said something along the lines that it wasn't about what you could do for your country but what your country could do for you. Well, my country and the London Olympic Committee could have stood up for this movie So now Fast Girls is about a team of athletes traing for the 2011 World Athletics Championship - but for me it will be just as intended a tribute to the young athletes that put their heart and soul into doing their best for their country at the 2012 Olympics.

THE AFFAIR by Lee Child

The events in Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel takes place in March 1997 just six months before the events in 'Killing Floor' (the first Reacher novel). Janice May Chapman's body is found with her throat cut behind a bar in a small Mississippi town - but this is an army town and the question is was the killer a local or a soldier from the barracks.Duncan Munro of the Military Police is already on the base and has shut it down - all leave cancelled. Reacher's job is to go in undercover. However, the local sheriff is a woman, Elizabeth Deveraux, a former Marine and MP - so it takes her all of five minutes to blow Reacher's cover. Nor is it long before we discover that the killer has struck before with the same M.O. only the first two victims were not white. Also, Alpha and Bravo Companies based at Kelham Army base have on-off clandestine ops in Kosovo and that all the murders had taken place after the return of Bravo Company. And that is where I leave the plot summary. Of course, there is a cover-up going on - and the suspects are quickly revealed so that all is needed is a procedural story of how the reader arrives at the conclusion. However, there is, I felt, an unnecessary side story that was intended to throw the reader. For me it didn't work but there you go and that is only my opinion. To be honest having read 'The Enemy' and 'Killing Floor' I enjoyed this book just as much and still look forward to 'A Wanted Man' which will be out in September this year. I read on the Piccadilly Publishing blog and The Tainted Archive that 'One Shot' renamed 'Reacher' is to star Tom Cruise in the title role. The New York Times describes Jack Reacher as "That legend of a tough, cerebral drifter, a latter day 6-foot-5-inch cowboy...." Need i say more?