Famine to Film Flood: Really!

 

 

Am I then, only person on the planet that finds it more than I little bit irritating that all the best films come out in Autumn? After the film famine that is summer, to the serious movie buff like me; when it was hard to find one vaguely interesting film that was not made for children.

Steve and I do try our best to support our tine local cinema, the Windmill that struggles to compete with the huge multiplex cinemas of this modern world. The Windmill is only kept open because most of the staff being volunteers; most of those are retired people who love the movies and get to see some of them for nixy poos by joining the small force who give up their time to help keep this ancient kino alive. 

Most of the summer the programmes, have held the most of the space for animated films, and general children’s entertainment. The hard chore movie goer is, during that time, neglected just a little bit. Yet last weekend the showing of Miss Saigon was a complete sell out as is was in Worthing eight miles away where they are putting on another two repeats. 

Now the children are back at school and there is a glut of big stars in huge movies and if you are a once a week cinemagoer, it is hard to catch all the good films that you want to see. Apart from the one off musical last week, my husband Steve and I have taken in three movies because we know that come December the cinemas will be back to kids stuff again.

We crammed in Inferno and were a little disappointment that the film did not match the high level of value that the book, by Dan Brown did so well. It was entertaining enough though. Yesterday we took another hit at our long list of must see films and having checked out all the programme times, we chose two films that we could see in one afternoon with just time for visit to the loo, get a drink and an ice cream before piling into one of the other nine cinemas in the complex at Cineworld. There was sadly, nothing that we wanted to see on in our home town.

Having bought the tickets for both films to save time, we recalled to one another how this seemingly film greedy little outing did not in any way compare to ‘The Old Days’ when a trip to the cinema was a night out of excellent value, where there would be an opening B movie to start off, then a cartoon, then world news; now redundant because of TV and the internet, then the trailers. There was an interval when usherettes who called you Sir or Madam, would come in only just able to lift the huge tray for selling ice cream. If you were in one of the larger cinemas there would rise magically,  a huge theatre organ and the words would appear of the screen and you could sing if you wanted to. Then and only then did the main feature begin. People would have gone out at 6pm, stood in a queue around the block to buy tickets and they would not go home until 10.30pm or so.  How we are ripped off these days doesn’t bear thinking about.  

 

 

Yesterday we saw Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Tell you what! Don’t take any notice of the reviews that say these films with Tom Cruise in, are a load of tosh. They are a very entertaining load of tosh indeed. OK Tom Cruise is not as tall as Reacher or as heavy, yet at fifty four, he is (and ask most woman) still gorgeous, and has always been a blinkin’ good actor. I am only too happy to totally ignore Lee Child’s description of Reacher because in every other way, Tom portrays Jack Reacher to perfection catching so many of the other traits given to the character by the author. Steve agrees with me to a degree. Cobie Smulders was excellent as the army Major who had succeeded him and the young Danika Yarosh, as the stroppy teenager that might have been his daughter in the movie was excellent also. Thoroughly enjoyable piece of entertainment which is what I go to the movies for; to be entertained by my choice of actors. Great stuff Tommy boy, love ya!! 

In the quick change, Steve got another coffee but I am still trying to cut down on my coffee addiction. I needed something though, and bought a seriously overpriced two scoop cup of ice cream; I chose blueberry and something or other flavour. My husband, who would not put a blueberry in his mouth at home, even though I constantly tell him that they are on of my list of magic foods, scoffed at least one third of my ice cream before the film started.

 

 

This time it was again a film based on a huge best seller The Girl on the Train. Emily Blunt was perfect in the main lead part of Rachel Watson. It was tense and the story grew nicely, though Steve hates jumps back and forth in time scale.  We both got a little confused by the two other women; the woman Rachel’s husband had had an affair with that caused the breakdown of their marriage, along with her drinking problem, and then the new younger woman, that he was cheating on his new wife with. They were we thought too similar. Rebecca Ferguson (not Steve’s favourite singer but a namesake) played the second wife Anna and the slightly more quirky Haley Bennett as Megan as the latest lover.  

The tension gave us both a headache and so we didn’t go want to go home directly, but tried out the Gourmet Burger in that same precinct. I tried a burger named after local space man Major Tom just back from six months or so in space, that was a perfectly acceptable slightly different burger, I couldn’t bring myself to ask for the ‘Naked’ version (without the bun), out of respect for the great local spaceman. A nice hour or so relaxation time spent before driving home, and having missed the worst of the traffic. 

Back in the old days the whole outing would have cost no more than a couple of quid but yesterday Steve was £70 pounds light on returning home! Cannot be right can it?