General Comments

I went to the cinema today wiht the children and paid somewhere around £25 for the tickets. It was just after lunchtime and we were all peckish so we thought a few bags of popcorn and a drink each would tide us over. I normally don’t indulge in this kind of snack because I consider it to be so unhealthy, but I was weary and felt like a lazy compulsive.

We queued for a moment until my eleven-year-old daughter turned to me holding around 60p in her hand and said “here you are daddy, this is my contribution – it’s all I’ve got”. Naturally, my heart melted and I told her to keep her precious pennies. I casually glanced to the menus above the serving area, not really thinking about cost so much as content when I saw with some horror the amount of money that popcorn commands.

This is surely a mistake. A small-ish bag of popcorn and a medium sized drink cost more than the cinema ticket. £6.30.

Now, I know that cinemas make some money on the peripheral goods, like sweets, ice-creams and so on. What I didn’t realise was they are attempting to asset-strip every parent who wants to give their kids a small treat. I may have been weary, but I was thinking straight and couldn’t believe what i was reading. Pop-corn has got to be one of the cheapest products to create. Coke is not all that much more to produce but in the size it was being offered it is over six times more expensive than petrol.

So, being in Bluewater (Dartford crossing area of the UK), there are any number of shops who will sell you snacks. We walked away (my daughter’s request, not mine) and found some sweets and a drink elsewhere. The entire cost for all of us came to a little over the cost of one at the cinema.

But then you have to run the gauntlet of ticket checkers who see whether you are carrying food and drink in, of course. Apparently you are not allowed to do so. Ah well, over we went, goodies stuffed into our pockets, looks of innocence all round. The tickets were handed over as a batch, stacked one on top of the other. The young girl simply took the lot, tore them in half and handed them back without stopping to count or check them. In we went to “screen 4, downstairs”.

Now, I like to think I am a reasonably straightforward and honest chap, but I was drawn into any number of thoughts about how I could have got into the cinema with two tickets and a truckload of food, saving a fair amount of money in the process. Dark thoughts kept recurring to me all the way downstairs and into screen 4, until the film started.

Even darker thoughts then occurred to me as I realised I was in another low quality film. Dull, dull, dull. Something with Keanu Reeves and the day the earth stood still. Absolute nonsense, and not worth watching at all. Even my normally very easy to please daughter came out of that one saying we should have gone to see a different film. Ah well. Beleagured parents everywhere take note – buy fewer tickets and save a few quid – spend that money in a news agent and don’t even contemplate popcorn from the cinema, and always read the reviews of films before you go to see them.

Changeling, with Angelina Jolie, has been out a short while now and the cinema (Bishop’s Stortford) was mercifully devoid of customers. It meant a quiet screening, and I was very glad of it, as the film is well worth the time and money, in my opinion.

The basic story is of a single mother in the late twenties America (Los Angeles) who needs to go in to work unexpectedly, but returns home to find that her young son has disappeared. The LAPD seem almost reluctant to be called in, and we find out through the early part of the film that they are rife with corruption and self promotion through ‘bending’ the rules. When they do finally get their act together a child is eventually found who they claim to be the missing boy. However, this child is three inches shorter that Jolie’s son, and has also been circumcised. Despite this the police insist he is the child, and go to incredible lengths to persuade people that they have done well. Jolie embarks on a mission to reveal the wrong that has been done, and to find her own son against incredible opposition.

She finds support from Rev. Gustav Briegleb (played brilliantly by John Malkovich) who runs a radio show dedicated to highlighting the wrong doing of the LAPD, and gradually the story unravels.

Without wanting to provide too much of a spoiler, it transpires that her son is amongst many that have gone missing. Through sheer chance an honest detective is sent out to a ranch to pick up a Canadian child who has entered the country illegally. The boy reveals that he has been complicit in the deaths of up to twenty children, abducted by his uncle and imprisoned on the ranch. The uncle has an unhealthy appetite for murder, and the boy, once in police custody, tells of how it all happens.

The film ends in the only way it could to stay credible, and we are left feeling both satisfied at a great film, and slightly cheated that the fairy tale ending doesn’t happen. On reflection, I’m pleased it doesn’t as it would have reduced the film to pure cheese if it did!

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this is a fine film to see and well worth the money. It is in parts harrowing, and I found myself longing for the corrupt police captain to get his come-uppance. He does, eventually, but not nearly as much as he should have done! The scenes in the psychiatric ward are superbly done, and they also leave you wanting revenge. Jolie has done a fabulous job playing this role, which she does almost as well as in ‘Girl, interrupted’ where she was outstanding. All in all, this film could become a firm favourite.