I think we're going to need a bigger boat!

Are  there any people in the civilised world who haven't seen the blockbuster "JAWS"?  If you're like me, you're probably pretty sick of it being trotted out at every opportunity by satellite companies. Like ‘James Bond’ movies, it seems there's never a holiday passes without yet another rerun doing the rounds on one station or other.

Having just said that, I found myself quite bemused a few weeks ago as I pressed the record button on it yet again. I've no idea what came over me. Later, I'd meant to delete it, especially since we were getting a bit low on recording space on our digital recorder, but for some reason hadn't got round to that either until looking through the planner with the lovely G for something to watch. I was just about to delete it when the lovely G volunteered that she'd never seen it before. Considering we've been together for 25 years I was pretty amazed that despite all the conversations about movies we've had and all the movies we've watched together that this vital part of her cinematic education was lacking. The reason? She'd always thought it would be too scary.

That was a surprise too, particularly considering some of the films we've been to see over the years. She's always seemed impervious to me but, having been too young to see "JAWS" when released, she later wasn't allowed to watch it on TV as her parents thought it too gory. Somehow that imprint remained firmly fixed in her mind.

Earlier today we were watching a BBC nature documentary called ‘Earth flight’, a beautifully filmed series following migrating birds. In the episode there was a scene showing seabirds scavenging remains from shark kills. That she was watching this at all was a surprise in itself as she's usually too squeamish for reality like that, yet for the first time she seemed comfortable watching sharks or crocodiles successfully capturing their prey. At the end of the programme she further astounded me by suggesting that tonight we should watch "JAWS" although with the proviso that she would snuggle up next to me on the sofa in case she got scared

“JAWS” is a classic cinematic milestone and technologically it was a marvel in its day. I loved it when I first saw it at the cinema. That first time it was scary, exciting, incredible and ground-breaking. Now having spawned generations of similar stories – “Aliens” was famously described as being “JAWS” in space – it seems simple, clichéd and a bit naive. The acting of the main cast is great but some of the lesser characters leave a lot to be desired, especially through repeated viewings. Because of the countless similar films over the years, the scene set up is highly predictable and those teaser ’scary' scenes are clearly signposted by the absence of the shark’s signature music.

Tonight for the second time, I got to experience it for the first time!

With G tucked up against me, an arm around my waist and mine around her shoulders I got to feel every shiver; every fright; every sharp intake of breath. I shared her excitement; through her reaction it was all fresh, all new. I jumped too when that head appeared through the hole in the boat for the umpteenth time of watching. I left my jaded perception behind and was thrilled anew by a great big plastic shark. It was brilliant! And I got cuddled to bits!

What a shame she’s seen Star Wars………

What movie would you want to see again for the first time?

How to Significantly Reduce Global Warming

Maltesers - Cinema Confectionary of choice

Sitting in the cinema last night as we watched Liam Neeson's latest flick 'Unknown' {almost up to average by the way} I dipped my hand into the bag of sweets so thoughtfully provided by the Lovely G only to find they had turned almost to goo. That's right, they had become - Meltesers. {Aye thanks dbs for fixing 'wordfusing' into my wee brain cell}

The thought struck me that it could probably cure global warming and the energy crisis combined if only cinemas would turn the thermostat down to a reasonable level instead of cranking it way up. {I can just imagine a smiling cinema manager, "These go up to eleven!"}

Oh and talking about turning things down - while you're at it perhaps you could turn the thermostats on your chiller cabinets down too. Charging £2.55 for a bottle of lukewarm water to take into the movie is just adding insult to injury. And look on the bright side - with all the money you'd save on energy bills you wouldn't have to charge silly money for drinks and stuff. Or pay staff a decent wage of course, as well as saving the world..........

Aye, well you might want to think about it, that's all I'm saying.............

See you later.

Listening to Adele 'Someone Like You'

At the Movies........

Hullo ma wee blog,

I love a good film and am happy to spend hours squirreled away in the dark watching a movie or two. I'm not overly particular about what genre of movie {except one} I'm going to see either as long as it's well made. Even in a film that doesn't grab me for plot or characterisation I'll often enjoy the music or the cinematography or some other aspect of the production. I just love being at the cinema. The lovely G and I both have 'unlimited' tickets to get into the cinema - pay a monthly fee and go as often as you like - which is worthwhile if you go more than twice a month and that's no problem for us. I used to like all the gore and guts of a good slasher or horror story but as I get older I'm shying aware from these more and more as they get more and more predictable and more and more over hyped. I still enjoy the odd shocker but it's more of a rarity these days. While I love the escapism, action and adventure tales that cinema offers I do like a good story well told and I love films about the human condition, relationships and just good human interest stories. The best films make you think about them long after the final curtain and we've been lucky to see some great movies over the last month or so, so I thought I'd share a recommendation or two with you in case you missed any of them.

Paul Giametti is one of those actors who can often lightly pass by in a movie with his understated performances and lack of screen idol good looks and to be honest I wasn't sure at the start about casting him as the lead in 'Barneys Version' which is a cracking film about life, relationship and regret. I have to say I was absolutely wrong in that and he turns in a wonderful performance that by turns makes you hate, despair and finally appreciate his character. As the film unfolds, and I'm not going to spoil it or any of the movies by just reeling off a plot line, he really manages by slow degrees to make you  aware of the complexity of a life of selfishness, yearning and the regret he has for the way he's lived and some of the choices he's made. A great film. I absolutely loved it and was mesmerised for the whole performance. A great supporting cast too.




I was really looking forward to going to see The King's Speech, although I always worry about films that get so much hype and critical acclaim. I really prefer to ignore all that and make my own mind up. Imagine my disappointment when we went to the cinema as we often do with no firm decision made about what we will go and see - one of the strengths of these 'unlimited' tickets is that we just go, see what is starting soon and go watch and this has let us find some super films that we wouldn't necessarily have chosen to go and see - when my Lovely G said that even though 'The King's Speech was starting first, she didn't really fancy it and would rather wait and see 'Black Swan' that was starting a little later. Like most men I realise what has to be done for a quiet life and so, with a little sigh, I agreed and dutifully went along to this film about ballet, or so I thought.

The movie stars Natalie Portman in this portrayal of obsession and descent into paranoia of a ballerina who has longed for recognition and especially the chance to play the dual perspective lead role in the ballet Swan Lake only to feel this is being snatched from her at the very moment when she should be being acclaimed for it.. Cleverly written and directed and with a well played lead role from Portman this again was a surprising and intriguing film which caught the excitement and fear of the slide into madness in a very graphic way. It's been panned in some areas for being too melodramatic and over the top, but I thought that it captured the fear and angst of Portmans character in a very understandable way and didn't go beyond the limits of realism either with the portrayal of the obsessed star or the conniving and manipulation of the dance troupe by a megalomaniacal director of dance. It's dark and manic and I felt that it draws you in to the story and the passion of these dancers who have a very short career-span before having to give up what they have trained so hard to achieve really effectively. For a film I didn't expect to get much out of I really enjoyed it. Portman - who I've always thought of as credible but not much more puts in a stunning performance and also trained so effectively for the part that you do actually believe absolutely in her as the highly driven and incredibly capable dancer she portrays. It was an Oscar winning performance and I understand why. It is melodramatic and it is borderline over the top at times but that's how I think of madness anyway. Great film, but don't go expecting many laughs.



Next in the movie timeline of recent weeks we went to see a reshowing on the big screen of 'Inception', starring Leonardo Di Caprio. I'd actually seen this before but G had missed it and was delighted to see it reshown as she wanted to see it on the big screen. I'm not the biggest fan of LDC but I do appreciate he is getting better as he gets older and I really thought he was perfectly cast for this role. Great idea, great effects, a great performance by Di Caprio and a great supporting cast all worked together to make this an incredible piece of movie-making. A deeply intriguing psychological idea at the heart of the story and a movie that, although bewildering if not given full concentration, fairly rattles on at a great lick and has plenty going on to keep you rivetted to the screen for the duration. I loved this movie and found so much more on second viewing. One that'll end up in our DVD collection for sure.



At last I got what I wanted when  we went to see .The King's Speech'. I do like Colin Firth and he was great in this film, well cast and deserving of all the praise for sure. Helena Bonham Carter I'm not really a fan of and as usual I thought that although she played the part well that others could have played it even better. She did fit the look and fashion of the 1930's and 40's particularly well and that to me anyway made her  a completely realistic choice. For me though the star of the piece was the character played by Geoffrey Rush as the king's speech therapist. I felt he stole every scene he was in. He just dominates in such an unassuming way. I find him mesmerising to watch. He brings absolute realism to everything he does and for me is one of tha great actors around just now. I was sorry he didn't get more recognition for the part he played in this movie, which is a relationship tale told with great humanity. It really deserved the number of Oscar nominations it received. I thought that for a story about royalty - which I'm also no great fan of - that it focessed successfully on the human side of the tale and didn't lose itself in any of the visual spectacle that would have been so easy to slot into almost any part of the narrative. I though the main characters were all well and sympathetically written and yet it was probably quite near the historical truth. I thought the sub plots of family relationship and antipathy of the establishment to Wallace Simpson were all well done and neither under or over emphasised. It's a film that I felt was well balanced throughout. Even the Lovely G, who really didn't want to see it said that she enjoyed it.



The final movie we went to see was 'Never Let Me Go', an adaption of a book by Kasuo Ishiguro. It's always hard to see a film of a book as comparisons will always abound and any screenplay isn't going to have the same impact as the novel. Here though is a film that is so deep, so well rounded and so perfectly sparse and understated that it may well be my favourite out of all the films we've seen recently. The three main characters, played by Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield, put in stunning performances and Carey Mulligan is perfection. Her playing of the girl experiencing confusion, anxiety, hurt, bewilderment and finally acceptance is simple, graceful and spellbinding. One of those films you talk about all journey back home.




All in all it's been a great couple of weeks of cinema going and I thoroughly recommend you to see any of these movies if you get the chance. Next on my list is 'True Grit' and I'm also looking forward to 'The Adjustment Bureau.

see you later..........

Giggling in the dark................

photo - Alastair Sim, actor.

This afternoon I picked up the lovely G from work when she finished at 3pm.

We headed off across Edinburgh on a bright but blustery afternoon and parked the car at Kings Stables Road car park. We talked about whether we { or I} should take the big umbrella out of the back of the car as there were a few dark clouds about, but decided to leave it as if it should rain we would just dive into a coffee shop or a pub till it blew over. Anyway it was blowing a gale!

From there it was just a short walk up St Johns Terrace by the side of the castle to the top of the Royal Mile where we stopped at The Hub for a drink and to watch the tourists go hurtling past, battered by the wind, high percentages of them wrapped in those see through blue tinted plastic waterproof wrappers that seem to be made out of economy bin bags, as others, with varying degrees of success, struggled with umbrellas against the strong wind. There were a number of great photo opportunities but sadly I hadn't my camera as we were planning on going to the cinema a bit later.

Once the wind had died down a bit and we had finished our drinks we walked down the Royal Mile. It was absolutely crammed with tourists and we found it really hard to make any headway as people would just stop in the middle of the pavement to look into a shop window not noticing there was anyone else near and that there were streams of people trying to get past on one side or another. I was quite fascinated as usual with people watching and listening out for the various languages that come at you from every direction. American, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swiss German { I can recognise some of the accents by now } and of course the ubiquitous Japanese, all vying to get into the shops and take advantage of the weak pound and buy all the tat that everyday Scots find most cringe worthy. You know the stuff, the tartan equivalents of the stuffed donkey and over sized sombreros that us Brits are so fond of bringing back from Spain: the Braveheart tee shirts and those beautiful little plastic Highland Piper dolls dressed in garish tartan and black and stuffed into a plastic tube sealed with a red lid.

Aye that's the one - made in China or India especially for us by five year olds being paid 50 pence a fortnight to work 14 hours a day so we can exercise our basic human right to buy complete rubbish!

G and I lost each other in the crowd for a bit - I wasn't paying attention of course - but found each other after a while.


So after that we headed to The Filmhouse to see 'The Happiest Days Of Your Life', part of the Edinburgh film festival season celebrating the work of Alastair Sim { photo at top } who was "born near here" according to a plaque on the wall of The Filmhouse itself.


The film was great - very funny in a typically british "jolly hockey sticks" kind of way but our enjoyment was increased by the presence of three lovely elderly ladies who sat in the row behind and had a fantastic time right from lights off when the adverts and trailers started. They "Ooh'd" and "Ah'd" as every product was revealed regardless of whether it was a well known brand of vodka or a designer car and giggled infectiously with each other and promised to buy each other one or other of the goods on offer and discuss who would best suit each one.

This continued through the trailers as they described their amazement with the actors, actresses or special effects and you could feel their excitement build as the main film started. G and I sat hand in hand and listened to their quiet banter and hoped we would be so full of life at their age. Like us they really enjoyed the film and its look back to simpler times and gentler humour. It was just hilarious and even more so as we saw it through their eyes perhaps just a little.


Thank you, Girls..........