Films, Lovely Films

The Mule and I went to the cinema on Saturday for a double billing of cinematic delights. Neither of us had been for ages due to other, theatrical commitments and MuleBoy's Uni workload. I was desperate to see Slither and quite fancied Confetti (it has Jessica Stevenson in, which is a reason to watch anything except dire BBC sitcoms) but Mule was in more of a Mission Impossible 3 mood and if you can't have one star of Spaced... Well, Slither helped my diet out as I had no intention of eating sweets or indeed anything for a while after it finished. While I like horror, and I do, there's something about body-horror that makes me a little bit squeamish. With flesh-eating people, phallic tentacles and evil (and again phallic) red squishy worms, it was a bit too much, especially towards the film's climax when there was a sequence of great unpleasantness. However, I would still thoroughly recommend it as I'm a big fan of B-movies and enjoyed the humour and scares. There was a nice sense of surprise going through the film; no-one really knew how to deal with the situation they were suddenly faced with and none of the characters were ever particularly safe. Although I do play the "who's going to die" game with certain genres (horror, disaster movies) it is nicer if it isn't spelled out. I also approve of anything that gives Cap'n Tightpants (Nathan Fillion) a starring role.

MI: 3 was surprisingly good, I was disappointed by the first and avoided the second but decided to watch this one. Mainly because JJ Abrams was in charge and it has Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it (and the other star of Spaced, Simon Pegg). JJ Abrams had made me happier because he was going back to the notion of the Mission Impossible team, that, lets face it, was the point of the TV series. I remember ridiculous plots that shouldn't have worked but were a lot of fun in their implausability and always boosted by the fact that you had loads of different experts. I was really enjoying the first 10 minutes of MI: 1 because you had Emilio Estevez being clever with computers etc, Kristin Scott Thomas being fabulous and Tom Cruise being the front man. It was then hugely disappointing when they all died and Tom ended up being the only man. So this was a return to the team and, on the whole, it worked. Still a little too much emphasis on Crazy Tom, but there we go. And Pegg was great. I've got this thing about British actors playing British characters in American products, I love it if they do well and really stay British. I think it's because I hate being badly represented so would prefer if they manage to retain their identity. I never really understood why Helen Baxendale couldn't just say "trousers" in Friends and had to say "pants". Would the writers have fired her if she'd put her foot down? I think not. Maybe they should have done for being patently unfunny, but that's a different matter. Anyway, Simon Pegg is funny, probably had some input on his lines, and you should all look out for Hot Fuzz which is in production at the mo.

I also bought Primer last Friday, which I am hoping to watch soon. Apparently it's a combination of lots of different films that I like (eg Donnie Darko, Memento) and you've got to love innovative independents.