Kirk’s Movie Blogspot 20th Feb

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Actually managed to get to the cinema at the weekend to finally see Valkyrie. Not my usual type of film admittedly, but I quite enjoyed it all the same. I wouldn’t say this was outside of my comfort zone, just that historical films aren’t usually my thing. This got me thinking as to how we all view cinema and film differently. We’ve got a friend, that can, on occasion be slightly pompus. She’s stated several times that she can’t believe that intelligent people such as my wife and I like the Hollywood drivel that we do and that we don’t like subtitled arty films in black and white.

My reply to this is that I do enough thinking at work (I’m a research scientist) and when I go to the cinema or watch a film at home I like to switch my brain into idle and be entertained. Being the typical bloke that I am this usally entails big guns, big explosions, loud car chases as well as slapstick and toilet humour. Each to their own I say, I’m not going to ridicule the arts films out there that would bore me silly, when it comes to films I’m a blockbuster kind of guy.

Thankfully my wife is also of the same opinion. I’m lucky in that she actually quite likes a good sci-fi film. We take it in turns choosing a film, she fakes reluctance at being dragged to see the latest action flick and I fake reluctance at being dragged to see the latest rom com (I actually quite like them, I’m just a big softie at heart!). I drew the line at the Sex in the City movie though, she went to see that one with friends!

Unfortunately these days I find, for me, the cinema experience is changing. We had a baby girl last March and so we very rarely get to go together. I tend to go with my friends and she goes with hers and even that doesn’t happen as regularly as it used to. I’ve therefore missed a lot of fims that I would’ve loved to see at the cinema, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Tickets now cost £7.20ish at our local Odeon and by the time you’ve added pick ‘n’ mix and a drink you’re at least up to £15 for one person (I don’t like to scrimp on the pick ‘n’ mix! Our local does the biggest, juciest chocolate raisens you’ve ever seen!). You can pretty much pick up a new release film on Blu Ray for £15, get better picture quality and you own it for life.

This is where the home cinema comes in. I don’t have one. I want one though. About a year ago I managed to finally talk the missus into an LCD to replcae our 28″ Panasonic CRT. After much viewing in John Lewis, she who must be obeyed finally stated that a 37″ would be the maximum size. I valiantly battled on for a 42″, but it was a rear-gaurd action at best and certain defeat at worst. Completely oblivious to the mathematical formulae available to calculate the correct screen size from viewing distance (my wife plain refused to believe that we watch the TV form 14ft away, even when I got out the tape measure!) my wife held firm and a 37″ it was. I did manage to sneak in a surround sound amp and speakers (she still doesn’t know that I had the carpet up and laid the cable under it for the rear speakers!) for my first taste of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS and boy is that a revelation!

Even I had to admit that when I’d unpacked the TV and set it all up (you wouldn’t believe the spahetti junction at the back of the TV) I stood back and thought ‘damn that looks big!’. The wife also thought the same and was begining to regret not going for the 32″. A weeks viewing saw us get used to it though, to the point that my wife turned to me whilst watching The Big Bang Theory and calmly said ‘you know we could have probably gone for the 42″ after all!’ I somehow managed to control the urge to throttle her and started to plan my revenge!

I would dearly love to have an HD projector and screen set-up, but unless I win the lottery sometime soon, it ain’t gonna happen. An increasing group of people are getting such set-ups though and with the new bread of HD projectors and amps capable of decoding the new HD sound formats, they’ve pretty much got a better viewing and sound experience than your local multi-plex can offer. With Blu rays starting to come down in price (most online retailers have a section where there are a pretty good selection of Blu’s for under £10) is this the death of the cinema? I’d better go to Costco and buy a huge tub of chocolate raisens!

Can’t really report on much filmwise this week as I’ve not really watched anything. I’m continuing with the excellent Star Fleet (am over half way through and still oving every second of it!) and continued in the retro nostalgia trip with the purchase of The Mysterious Cities of Gold on DVD. Next week I shall be watching (and reviewing) Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear and I mught try and see Burn After Reading, the latest Coen brothers offering.