Saturday Night At The Movies....

Who cares what picture you see.... do bee do bee

Well, me actually cos I haven't got anyone to be a huggin' and a kissin' and even if I did I most certainly don't go in for that sort of thing! Heh, my first date at the tender age of 15 was to see 'Delicatessen' (how sophisticated was I for a 15-year old?!?! Not very cos I didn't get it at the time) and the boy I was with kept trying to snog me all the way through. I kept swatting him off because I was actually watching the film and it's carried on like that ever since. I take my cinema very seriously and can't be doing with stupid boys who want to cuddle up when my chair is obviously designed to make me comfortable and him having his arm around me is just a pain in the neck, literally. Gerrofff!

That's one of the reasons why I don't usually go on a Saturday evening. People who say they don't like going to the cinema obviously only go on a Saturday and get a very skewed notion of what goes on. Tea-time/after work on a Tuesday, that's when you should go, it's very civilised then. No long queues, no gangs of unruly teens, a lot less popcorn munching and answering of phones, etc. etc. etc. Anyhoo, I went to Emily's for dinner and to meet her tripod cat, Albie, on Saturday and then we headed up to Cineworld to see what Mel Gibson's latest offering was like. Albie was very cute by the way and the three-legged thing isn't as freaky as you would think.

So, Apocalypso. What can I say about this film? Um... it's an interesting one - but not for the right reasons. Perhaps I should have read more about the plot synopsis before I went but, to me, that shouldn't be necessary with a good film. I knew absolutely nothing about Vera Drake when I saw it as a special preview but right from the start I was intrigued with her and Mike Leigh only took about 10 minutes to get to the point. 40 minutes in to Apocalypso and I was still wondering where on Earth it was supposed to be going? I'm swithering about how much to say because if I complain too much I'll give away the plot but then again, I'm not sure I would encourage people to watch this effort.

Oh gosh, I just read the review on the IMDB of this film. 10 stars? What film was that dude watching??? Breathless pace? Only if the guy next to you is snoring! I thought the film took an age to get where it was going and then just got very silly and predictable at the end. By far the best bit is the jaguar chase and I don't think the effect Mr Gibson was going for was to make me absolutely piss myself laughing.

I think it's an interesting film because not many people would attempt a film in a dead language so, from an historical point of view, it could be valuable. However, as the IMDB states:

Factual errors: The Mayans had a prolific knowledge of astronomy and were able to calculate solar and lunar eclipse dates over thousands of years. So, a solar eclipse would not have been a surprise for anyone.

D'oh! Major plot point there.

On Sunday afternoon (a much more civilised cinema time) I went to see The Last King of Scotland, a not at all silly and actually very good offering. This film is about a young Scots medical graduate who travels to Uganda in 1970 in order to taste a bit of life instead of being shovelled straight into the family GP practice with his father. That young Scot is played by the strangely yummy James McAvoy so I've posted a picture of him cos hey, any excuse! Through a chance encounter he ends up the personal physician to the new leader of the country, Idi Amin. As Amin's reputation as an evil bampot is his legacy you can imagine that all does not end well for our hero. In fact, it all goes pretty spectacularly wrong and I have to admit that I was on the edge of my seat for at least the last half hour of this movie. It is stunningly scary, mostly due to Forest Whitaker's brilliant portrayal of an absolutely psychotic Idi Amin. I think the lazy eye thing helps so I don't know if the real Amin was just as or even more scary without it. If that film is an accurate portrayal the guy was a freakin' fruitloop and had a lot of power so yes, he was a very, very, very scary man. As they say, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Not at all an enjoyable movie to watch but very good indeed.

Now I'm looking forward to the release of Bobby, a film Emilio Estefez has apparently been trying to make for years. The cast he finally got together is star studded and the advance hype all seems quite positive. That's out the week after next so if you're very good I'll let you know what I think of that as well ;o)