AMERICAN REUNION

FROM IMOGEN: I’ve never seen an American pie film. Not out of pretentious snobbery. Instead I had a closeted youth free of such vile, crude, populist, lowest-common-denominator jokes.

No really, I somehow just missed the boat. However, this Saturday I decided to end this spell of bad luck. I was going to immerse myself in American Pie and the viewing conditions had to be optimum.

I wanted an out-of-town leisure complex pretending to be American. The sort with a Pizza Hut, Bowlplex, Chiquitos with the chipper Mexican music drifting out the door and the golden arches of McDonalds announcing your imminent arrival from the motorway. A place so successful at emulating the birthplace of the $955 million film franchise, the real-life American I went with felt he was home - that guy sat two seats down could well be Stifler. The only thing testifying otherwise were the Bristolian accents of the ushers.

There’s not much point in going into plot, its pretty simple. One friend asked me if I missed all the in-jokes. Well, I can’t answer that as I don’t know the in-jokes so who knows if I missed them- a catch 22 situation. Yet really it didn’t seem to matter. I went for the cinema experience: the big screen, Hollywood voiceover, the sound of someone cramming popcorn in (and around) their mouth, and, despite Orange’s best attempts, a phone going off followed by a scrabble in a bag and a really-loud-but-still-whispered ‘fuck’.

My tagline of ‘I don’t care what’s on, I’ll come with you, I just LOVE the cinema’ has been dangerous at times. I sat through Wolverine without watching any X-men before. I’ve even watched Hall Pass. American Reunion was more entertaining than the former (which, however, is very unintentionally funny), and less gross-out than the latter (the words ‘too far’ come to mind).

Psychology says laughing releases endorphins etc. etc. As Vinny is a psychologist (-cum-blogger obviously) this is an informed opinion. I’d gone into the cinema feeling a little under the weather, I left the cinema with a beatific Hollywood smile. Siegfried Kracauer damned 1920s Berlin picture houses as ‘palaces of distraction’. Is this Vue Longwell Green’s new tagline? I admit, I was not edified in any way, but it sure was fun.

O U T D O O R S C R E E N I N G S

VINNY SAYS: I know this blog is meant to be for film reviews, but I am getting really excited about all the great summer screenings, there are SO many to choose from. 


-Somerset House Film4 are showing three premieres this year of On the Road, The Watch and Lawless. I personally am going for crime drama Lawless with screenplay by Nick Cave (yes of the bad seeds) and features Gary Oldman. Not to mention Enter the Void. and Pretty in Pink. I think I may just spend my summer there.


-Dalston Midnight Screenings are showing some alt classics like Lost in Translation and American Graffiti (where apparently they will have waitresses on rollerskates, totes amaze)on a roof. Pretty amazing. Bet it'll be FULL of hipsters.


-The Nomad Cinema is the one I am most excited about AND isn't till end of summer when everyone is needing something fun to do before the dreaded end of summer gloom. They are showing at a range of venues including showing The Shining in Brompton Cemetery. I'm going to go scare myself silly.


http://thelexicinema.co.uk/special-events/nomad-roaming-pop-up-cinema/

OH MY GOD NEW BATMAN

Vinny says: I cannot wait until the 20th of July for Dark Knight Rises to hit my eyes in all it's glory. Christopher Nolan is a genius.

MARVEL AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

VINNY SAYS : So I tried to go see Marvel Avengers Assemble, aka The Avengers last weekend. I forgot it was bank holiday monday so was pipped to the post by a load of savvy fourteen year olds. This weekend I booked and boy am I glad I did. Every now and again a really great blockbuster comes along and this is one of them, although not quite up there with Dark Knight. Basic plot is Loki, who is Thor's brother, comes from out of space somewhere (can't remember exact details but he's the bad guy) and is going to open a time portal which means a load more bad guys will come to try and take over Earth. 


So to thwart him they call on THE AVENGERS - Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Black Widow and The Hulk (and Hawkeye), who are overseen by Samuel L Jackson with an eyepatch. So basically you get an action film x 5 with the line up, excellent value for money. Plus it's directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Cabin in the Woods) who is doing pretty well at the moment. The lines are genuinely funny and not too cheesy, and the characters all bring something different to the movie. Plus the jokes about the courageous, nationalistic, albeit slightly naive, Captain America not being up to date with the 21st century are pretty great, 'There is only one God, and I don't think he dresses like that'. Iron Man is played by Robert Downey Jnr, who does sarcastic, snipey and self assured to a T. Loki was a great character as well, somewhere between Hannibal Lecteur and Severus Snape, think greasy and pale and BAD. HE uses some pretty old school (Q***) swearing too which I had to google.


By the end I was so into the film, I felt like I had become American I was so full of team spirit, it was super. I enjoyed every minute and felt happy for days afterwards. Made me wish I was in a super hero gang. Sometimes it's fun to go and watch something which doesn't require much brain power but isn't completely moronic (Ghost Rider). I would really recommend it for some casual, fun loving popcorn viewing. Anyways I'm off to watch all the individual films now, Hulk first.