A Day at the Pictures

I spent all day Saturday at Cineworld in Newport, catching up with some films that have come out in the last couple of weeks. My Unlimited Pass is the one way I treat myself, the one luxury I allow myself and refuse to feel guilty about. Some times, I just need to hide out in a cinema for a few hours and get away.

Saturday I actually spent seven hours straight in the cinema. Crazy. But I had a great time. I started with Beautiful Creatures which, as you know from my previous post, I've been looking forward to. Like most book to big screen adaptations, it was different from the book in a lot of ways but I think it did a pretty good job in capturing the essence of the story.


It was thoroughly enjoyable, even though there were some bits I was expecting (like all the stuff with his cellphone and her poetry) that either got no screen time or very little. The ending was also very different than I was expecting, with a huge chunk of climax missing. Oh, and his father was completely missing with very little explanation and all the stuff with his mom barely touched on but, hey, that's film for ya.

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the bloody book!)

Beautiful Creatures was my favourite of the day. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was my least favourite. My verdict? Dumb.


I saw the trailer for this the last time I was at the pictures and I thought it looked cool. There were obviously a couple of things I'd forgotten:

1. I hate historical inaccuracy in film.
2. I am a witch. 

After about ten minutes of "burn the witch" crap, I was annoyed. It does have it's moments, though, and can be very funny in parts. (I wouldn't suggest it if you're sensitive to swear words, though, because they fucking swear a lot!) I think if you're going into it knowing that it's going to be dumb, you'll probably enjoy it. It's kind of like Sherlock Holmes (2009) meets Quentin Tarantino. (Yeah, lots of gore too.)

I finished off the day with Mama, a ghost story.


This had some great scary moments even though the ghost was shown too much. Trouble with a movie like this is that, if you overplay the ghost, it stops being scary. But she still scared the crap out of me - much to the delight of two teenage girls sitting behind me who burst into hysterical laughter every time I jumped. (Bitches.)

There was a moment where this movie was meant to end - and yet it kept going. I can understand trying to avoid that stereotypical horror ending but it was almost too sappy at the end. There was a story line set up especially for the ending but it was almost discarded when it got there.

Over all, I enjoyed my day at the pictures and it went far too quickly. Hopefully Oz: The Great and Powerful will be happening soon...