Our first visit to Vue Exeter!

This week we made our first Orange Wednesday visit to the new Vue cinema in Exeter. First impressions were the service was poor (slow, no smiles etc) and the price of popcorn and drinks were through the roof (altho the small ones were big - bit American!) We had to go up a REALLY long escalator too but we got on, well I got on & John was about to get on, and a Vue bod called us back to check our tickets...now ticket checking is to be expected but surely you would put the checking post BEFORE the start of the escalator or even at the top of it not 5foot past it. Odd! The screen was quite small and, having been offered seats in 'front, middle or back' and chosen middle we were surprised to find ourselves in the 2nd row...not really the middle but not too close I suppose.

Right, on to the film...in one word -

Brilliant!

The quality of the acting was really high; Forest Whitaker has received a Best Actor Oscar Nomination and won the Golden Globe in the same category for his portrayal of charismatic but psychopathic ruler, Idi Amin. James McAvoy compliments him & is supremely believable as the naive, handsome, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan who arrives in 1970s Uganda freshly qualified and looking for excitement, sun & the chance to help a country truly in need of his medical skills but gets drawn into Amin's inner circle, becoming the leaders confidante and advisor.

When Garrigan is called to attend to an accident involving Amin and a cow he makes an impression on the new Ugandan leader when he takes control of the situation at hand. Already obsessed with Scotland; it's history and culture, Amin takes an instant shine to Garrigan and consequently makes him an offer he can't refuse as his personal physician.

Garrigan falls deeper & deeper under Amin's spell, spurred on by their shared love of fast cars, beautiful women, glamorous parties and not to mention power. However things start to go very very wrong as he becomes aware web of kidnappings, assassinations & vile atrocities (arms and legs chopped off and then sewn back in the other way around - any takers?!) When Garrigan makes steps to get away from Amin he finds himself fighting for his freedom, and his life.

Based on the novel by Giles Foden & directed by documentary filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, the film mixes historical fact with fiction to produce a truly thought provoking and, to be quite honest, frightening film. John has read the book so he's the man to ask about the quality of transition from book to screen but for me this is a definite contender for my 2007 Top Five as things stand.

Fingers crossed for Forest Whitaker and his Oscar!

TA

This certainly was a brilliant film, and I already know it is in my top 5 of 2007! I thought that Forest was brilliant, and so very scary as Idi Amin, with those hard and powerful eyes. James was also good as the naive doctor who became enveloped and mesmerised by the power and presence of Amin.

For the first time ever, I have read the book, and seen the film, and very much enjoyed both. The book and film differ to quite an extent, but the changes are thoroughly understandable. The book’s ending wouldn’t be a satisfactory ending to any film. As such a lot more suspense, action and drama have been added superbly.

The book focuses on a lot of Nicholas’ adventures in Uganda prior to his encounter with Amin and his sprained wrist, before covering, and surpassing the film, explaining the moral dilemma of Nicholas and his realisation of the wrongdoing’s in 1970’s Uganda, his eventual escape (not by plane with PLO hostages!), his repatriation in Britain and his ensuing guilt.

I highly recommend both! 5 Stars!
John.

Car-frigging-park!

Well we were running a little late for the cinema this week, and after the Casino Royale incident, we had promised ourselves not to park inside the Harlequins car park.ut seeing as our favourite outside spaces were occupied by builders shite, we took the risk. Fair enough we thought, when we have arrived back to the car past 11pm before, the car park has never been locked – sometimes up to 20 minutes past 11. Not this week – we arrived back at 9 minutes past to find the thing shut as tight as a tight thing!

A call to the car park control centre (having called mum to tell her that her precious yellow beast was locked in,) revealed that the car park opened at 5.30am. So a £10 taxi back to TA’s, and a night on her sofa meant that TA was able to obligingly drop me off at the car park for 7.25am, before charges took effect! I was home before 8.00am, and then in work for 9.45am for a long (relatively) day working until 5.30pm, meaning I missed Neighbours.

Lesson learnt, I am now not going to be so tight as to not pay the £1 parking fee for Mary Arches Street car park, which is open until midnight!

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

This is the strange story of a very gifted child called Jean-Baptiste, born to a fishmonger who is put to death for abandoning her child. He grows up in an orphanage before being sold to a tannery in Paris, having honed his sense of smell throughout his upbringing. Whilst on an errand, he becomes enthralled by a woman's scent, and follows her, but he takes her by surprise, and suffocates her to death.

He approaches a perfumer who is behind the times with regards to fashion, and is being outdone by other perfumers. The protégé creates the rival perfume by eye in a matter of moments, stunning the old perfumer, who takes him on as an assistant. Jean-Baptiste wants to be able to capture the scent of things such as glass and even the cat, but the method the perfumer has shown him is unsatisfactory. Jean-Baptiste sets out for Grasse to learn more secrets of the perfume trade.

In Grasse J-B kills 12 women, and 'cooks' them in animal fat to remove their scent, and he distils the oils into perfume ingredients. He then sets off after the daughter of one of Grasse's noble residents, and kills her to extract her scent. He then has the 13 ingredients for the perfect perfume, which he uses to seduce the towns population into believing him to be innocent, (at this point the town's residents have a far fetched mass orgy in the town square [at this point, In my opinion the whole thing became unbelievable, and to a certain extent, laughable.]) Not knowing what to do with the power the perfume exerts, (it's not given him the love and adoration he was after,) he commits suicide, but pouring the remaining perfume over his head, and being ripped to pieces by homeless people in the fish market where he was once born.

I found the film highly entertaining up until the mass orgy where it went a bit awry and ludicrous, but that's dramatic licence for you, but it does mean I only give it 3 stars.

Free Tickets!

I almost forgot to mention that I got two free tickets to the Picturehosue cinema to make up for their Gostbusters debacle! Hooray! (Maybe TA will get some eventually... ...she did buy the originals after all...)

The Prestige

On Wednesday TA and I eventually got to the the film, The Prestige. Now, we have wanted to see this film since it first came out, and we saw the trailers for it, and Adam and Troë said it was most excellent. However, it was very badly distributed. In fact the closest cinemas that were showing it were Plymouth or Taunton, and even they only showed it for a week. We even tried in desperation at the Vue cinema at Cribbs Causeway with no luck!

However, TA's grandma very kindly bought us tickets to see it on Wednesday, Hurrah!

Well, it was fantastic. I had a horrible feeling that I may have hyped it up too much, and would therefore be disappointed. I was not. TA and I were discussing the ins and outs of the film all the way back to the car. Definitely getting it on DVD! (Those with an affinity to birds may want to avoid it though - several get 'killed' in the name of magic...)

The film depicts the rivalry of Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), two Victorian magicians of the late 19th/early 20th-century in London. Angier blames Borden for an illusion that went wrong, killing his wife. A competitive one-upmanship ensues, in which both magicians, obsessed with creating the best stage illusion and stealing each others tricks, will stop at nothing to uncover the secret of each other's acts, with deadly results! The twist at the end is fantastic.

5 Stars!