Conservatives Go to the Movies

To be fair, I don't think it's just dedicated fans they appeal to. I watched Captain America: the Winter Soldier on TV yesterday. The things about superhero films is they usually don't disappoint in terms of delivering the expected goods; they look good, they have solid story-telling, and they usually have an uplifting moral. However, they are so samey. Whenever I watch a superhero movie, I feel a sense of defeat. Yes, I'll watch this, but I wish there was something better, more grown-up.

And lets not even think of the abusive relationship of Enid Blyton's Noddy and his more mature companion Big Ears!

Haven’t but can’t help chuckling over how peculiarly the theatrical expression “break a leg” would go down in this context.

f’Man

The trailer for the upcoming MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, with Saoirse Ronan taking the part, is reportedly released this week. It will be very interesting to see how Catholicism and the Reformation in Scotland would be dealt with in this. As well as Queen Mary's own faith. Many consider her a martyr and, for those of us who dislike extraordinary ministers ( and I am admittedly one) it's worth noting that she is said to have received permission from His Holiness to administer Holy Communion to herself during incarceration.

I went to see Mission Impossible: Fallout at the weekend. It was really excellent, a feast of a film. Action films are not by favourite genre by any means, but of its kind, this was masterful-- no-holds-barred, all-out, top of the range action. The twists were often ingenious, and the visuals were wonderful to look at. I also appreciated that there was no political correctness or preaching. The three central characters are two white guys and a black guy but race is totally irrelevant. And one of the villains is fanatically anti-religious. I definitely recommend it.

I've just been to see The Meg-- a film about a giant shark, starring Jason Statham and Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) amongst others. I really liked it.

It has a TERRIBLE title-- "Meg" is short for megaladon, a massive prehistoric shark. But I didn't realize that's what the title meant, going in to see it-- it doesn't exactly sound menacing or exciting. I'm more likely to associate it with nutmeg or Mystic Meg.

The film is set in a deep-sea underwater research station in the Pacific ocean, the deepest part of the world's oceans, called the Mariana Trench. It is being funded by Rainn Wilson's character, who is a tycoon of some kind. The staff of the station have a theory that there is a deeper level of ocean underneath the Mariana trench, and it turns out that there is. It also turns out to sustain megaladons, who have survived there two million years after they've gone extinct everywhere else. An exploration vessel has become trapped at the bottom of the ocean and is in danger from this creature.

The staff of the station have to turn to Jason Statham, a retired rescue diver, the only person who has ever rescued anyone at such depths. We saw him in an opening sequence of the film, set years before, in which he allowed several crewmembers of a submarine to die because he believed he saw a giant creature about to attack their submarine. The giant creature was destroyed in the blast so he has no proof and everyone thinks he is crazy. (Of course, it was a megaladon.) However, he is the best in the business so they have to seek him out.

Basically the film is one long set of encounters between human beings and the megaladon, in various different situations.

I liked it. The thing I go to the cinema for is to see a spectacle, and it was a spectacle-- there are some great shots. Oceans and water are always a great source of stunning cinematography, and the high-tech research station is also great-- I love anything where people are only separated by glass from either space or the ocean.

It wasn't a claustrophobic film, and I liked that-- it didn't really dwell on the physical confines of the various underwater vessels they use, and a lot of it is set on the surface of the water, anyway. Later it moves to a beach, and that also added variety.

I liked the lack of PC-- not that it was politically incorrect, but it wasn't politically correct, either. The cast was multi-ethnic, but this makes perfect sense in the context.

I didn't like that it repeated the cliché, and the falsehood, that a child of a separated or divorced parent is always enthusiastic for the parent to enter into a new romantic relationship.

It had just enough dramatic tension to stop me from getting bored. Some of the dialogue was corny, like: "A war between man and megaladon is not a war, it's a slaughter", and "Try to stay out of its mouth." (Quoting from memory, I'm sure not accurately, but that's the gist.)

I recommend it, unless the whole premise sounds boring to you. Four out of five, I'd say-- although the professional critics were much less complimentary.

For all its flaws, I think Michael Collins is the best Irish movie ever made.

My parents, myself and my brother all went together. I remember the taxi driver, when we asked for the cinema, said: "All off to see Michael Collins?" I love that kind of national event.

My father, a lifelong republican, spent the whole film grumbling about historical inaccuracies. I think he was just short of standing up in front of the screen and launching on a historical lecture.