I saw Up in the Air this week, which I have been meaning to see for ages. Thank God for Orange Wednesdays because I went to see this in town and tickets were £10.40 each!!! Almost £21 to go to the cinema before popcorn and drinks? No wonder everyone downloads films these days.

Anyway, it was a lovely film. Really funny and charming (well, it does star George Clooney after all), but ultimately incredibly sad. Poor George never does make his connection…

Last night, in a bid to cheer myself up, I went to a friend’s to watch a DVD. I had recently been sent a care package from a friend at Icon, and had a number of good films to choose from. Looking for Eric looked like the most uplifting, so we watched it.

Ok, so the package has lots of pictures of people smiling and lot of quotes like “The feelgood movie of the year”. But make no mistake, my friends, this movie is very very depressing. It’s about a man in Manchester who lives with his two stepsons because his second wife left him and abandoned them. His eldest stepson is involved with a local thug and is getting himself in way over his head. The younger stepson is obsessed with porn and music videos full of guns and violence. Meanwhile, our Eric is still in love with his first wife, who he left twenty years ago. He is also obsessed with footballer Eric Cantona who, on night while smoking a joint, he starts to see in his bedorom and chat with.

Yes, eventually things get better, and yes, there are some laughs, but this was a ‘Broken Britain’ movie if ever I saw one. The way that Eric and his stepsons rid themselves of the gangsters is funny, but also really awful!

Still, it is a good movie, even if NOT AT ALL what is being sold on the tin. Seriously, all of the smiling images from the back cover are from the last 5 minutes of the film (literally).  I guess they thought it wouldn’t sell if they didn’t position it as an upbeat, The Fully Monty, kind of film?

Looking for Eric

Although it is a bit overlong and very violent in parts (just like the book), this is a brilliant film. Lisbeth is spot on. Although the director has (wisely) cut out some bits of the story (like Mikael’s relationship with the co-founder of Millennium and his affair with one of the Vanger women), it stays mostly true to the novel. Like in the book, I started to wane toward the end once the main action was over, but that they brought me right back in again with the final sequence. I can’t wait to see the second one now.  Worth the £11 (!!!!) they charged me and highly recommended.

When the ghost writer for an ex-Prime Minister dies, Ewan McGregor is brought in to finish the job. The Prime Minister is being investigated for war crimes, and Ewan starts to realise that his back story doesn’t make sense. Soon he begins to unravel a plot involving the PM, an American arms companies and the CIA. The cardinal rule of ghost writing is not to get involved with your subject, but Ewan can’t stop himself. He writes the PM’s official statement denying the war crimes and even ends up bedding the PM’s wife. The longer he stays and the more he looks into it, the more he starts to think that maybe his predecessor didn’t just drown by accident…

Gripping stuff! I know that the PM is a fairly transparent version of Tony Blair, and there was a sequence featuring a BMW Tom Tom which felt a bit like an extended car ad, but this was a fun film! I hadn’t read the book so had no idea what was going to happen.Lots of tension, good acting (apart from Kim Cattrall who was AWFUL), and a very twisty ending. A good film for watching on DVD on a big screen when it is pouring with rain outside.

Wow! Why did it take me so long to see this film? It was great! So gripping. It kind of freaked me out with the whole teeth coming out/nails coming off scenes. This is the first thing I have watched on the TV in my bedroom since I got it. Reasons for this are numerous: 1) there is no aerial socket in my room, so I don’t get reception, 2) the plug doesn’t reach the socket, so I have to use the extension cable my hair dryer and straighteners are plugged in to and 3) I forgot the remote at my old flat, meaning all volume/menu control has to be done manually.  But I’m glad I decided to get it all set up and watch the film tonight - great picture!