Monday 13 April 2009

The one where Nicolas Cage proves that a turkey is not just for Christmas.

Noticing that our local cinema has a £3.89 a ticket policy on Tuesdays I have set up "Cheap as Chips Tuesday". This is very much likeOrange Wednesday , without a huge advertising campaign (I do like the adverts, better than some of the films I've seen recently), or the hassle of having to get a code, you can even use it with an odd number of participants.

So far it has been a mixed success, the first film I selected was "The Young Victoria", The potential members stayed away in droves, including Mrs B. It was only Lorna my Yoga torturer teacher, who eventually saved me from sitting on my own. Since we both enjoyed the film and Lorna's only complaint was her toe ring hurting, hardly my fault, I considered this a minor success. Driven on by this I decided to open up the club to democracy and managed to get nine friends interested for the second C.A.C.T. simply by giving them a number of options and allowing them to vote. Never again, this unfortunately served to highlight the short comings of democracy. You end up having to live with other peoples mistakes choices. As the organiser I don't see it as my role to blame anyone for the second choice of film, even if my friend Mala did launch a huge and ultimately successful campaign to have "Knowing" adopted for the evening. If I ever run for office I'm selecting Mala as my Campaign manager, if she can get "Knowing" elected.....

My main problems with the film are :-

- The film contained one too many Nicolas Cages for my liking.

- It was about 2 hours longer then it should have been...Now you may consider this harsh for a film that lasts 121 minutes but if you do, you have clearly not sat through two of the most excruciating dull hours of your life.

- The two kids were so wooden that I kept expecting Jiminy Cricket to appear. If only someone had had taught them to play with matches it would have been far more entertaining.

- The love interests was so annoying that her death was a relief - if only it had been much earlier, like before the film had started.

- Typical of most NC films the plot line had to be spelt out real slow like, for the audience, rather like his Long monotones speeches.

I'm currently not sure if Cheap as Chips can recover from this but have planned this week for the "Boat that Rocks" I just hope it doesn't turn into the Titanic or even
'Marie Celeste' with all hands lost. Surely that would be the end....

Bank Holiday Classic from Mrs B
We decided to visit to Aldeburgh, one of our favourite seaside destinations. Not only has is devoid of "kiss me quick hats", it has chips so good that people are prepared to queue for days. Mrs B and I prefer to opt for the much more civilised booking a restaurant, I can highly recommend 'The Regatta', to sate our potato related cravings.

People have been known to send out orders for takeaways to avoid starving to death.....


As we hit the beach Mrs B mentioned that it was a shame that we had forgotten to bring the binoculars.
So moving along....


New life in the garden
Mrs B had been wanting a water feature in the garden for years. I was always worried about the disruption it would cause. i.e me having to dig out trenches for electrical wires, the inevitable blackout of the entire neighbourhood when against all probability I manage to short the local electrical substation etc.etc.etc Imagine my delight when just before Christmas I spotted a solar powered water fountain. Under the guise of it being good for the environment I managed to sell the idea to Mrs B. It has only taken three months of careful planning and preparation to get it out of the box and into the garden. I even managed to put water in it. For days nothing...... It was only when an uninterrupted burst of sunshine hit the solar panel did the full power of the beast reveal itself. I have to admit it has it's limitations i.e if an ants shadow falls across the solar cell then the fountain immediately stops, but hey it's not as if we purchased it to resolve the problem of global drought, which I guess is just as well really......
Stand back she's going to blow....OK so not the most impressive jet in the world but at least it works


Until next time I'll leave you with some terrible shots of Aldeburgh. I think my new motto is going to have to be "If you can't do something properly then chuck in any old rubbish...."

OK, it's not much of a boat but it's only a small seaside
town, what were you expecting the bl**dy QE II


Posh Bogs, what more can you ask for
in a seaside town


This strange statue looks like a deposit of corrugated iron from a distance, which turns out to be a deposit of corrugated iron close up, brilliant....


After a valiant effort the sun finally broke through just as we were leaving. What do you expect? It was a Bank Holiday......

5 comments:

  1. that water feature - I think you should think about a commercial proposition with it - absolutely breathtaking!!!Is Mrs B living at home again - or still camping under the heel of capitalism (and banking)

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  2. Skipper I'm not sure the UK is ready for the power of our Solar Powered Water Fountain. I for one don't want to be responsible for the riots and general panic that would ensue if these were made available to the general public. We did after all go through an intensive three months training before we even opened the box.

    Despite Mrs B making it home during actual hours of daylight she has yet to see it in action....

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  3. You will almost certainly enjoy "The Boat that Rocked" - it is not as saccharine as most other Richard Curtis films, and does have a couple of surprises in store. The cast are excellent, and the principle characters are all based on real people, or a mix of two people. The sets and detail are almost spot on, and only someone like myself who has actually been an offshore radio DJ could pick any holes. The film does perpetrate the myth that offshore radio finished in 1967, when in fact Radio Caroline continued at sea until 1991, albeit not with the huge listener base it had during the 1960's heyday. The ending is pure Curtis, but don't let that put you off - the film is not a documentary, but it does capture the feel of being offshore (except we never had any women!)

    Regards,

    Hugh.

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  4. See, this is the problem with Nicholas Cage films. Instead of doing the sensible thing (having him stand with his back to the camera in a pair of snug fitting jeans and only showing him from shoulder down to knee height) they insist on letting him speak. Mistake.

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  5. An anonymous comment from someone called Hugh!

    I saw Monsters v Aliens last Tuesday. Although it was in the afternoon, so wouldn't count as a C.A.C.T.

    Ohhhh for people in the know you can refer to C.A.C.T. as a Cactus. i.e. "Fancy a cactus next week?" wink, wink, nod, nod.............

    ReplyDelete

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