I will not be leaving the house today. Last night I made the fatal mistake of having a KFC and subsequently am experiencing the trots. Jennifer also had KFC. There is nothing wrong with the cow. This proves, unconditionally I think, that she is in fact an alien. I have suspected as much for a long time.

Jennifer has made me have two Loperamide Hydrochloride tablets which, on past experience, are effective enough to block up the Hoover Dam. She will be cooking scrambled eggs as soon as she has finished watching "High Society".

So, blogging it is for today. Some brief film reviews, methinks. Not something I do very often. :-)

I have seen two movies over the past two days. "P2" and "Son Of Rambow".

"P2".



I liked the premise of "P2". (Loony tunes parking attendant (Wes Bentley) pursues overworked business woman (Rachel Nichols) around a deserted multi-story car park on Christmas Eve.)

I liked Wes Bentley's psychopath, even if in the latter stages he is more funny than threatening.

I liked Rachel Nichols' girl in peril. She ticked all the pertinent boxes required for a spunky, resourceful heroine.

However...

My overall impression watching "P2" was to think 'Been there, done that'. "P2" is the kind of movie I thought had stopped getting a major cinema release circa 1985, once Jamie Leigh Curtis had retired from stalk-and-slash movies. The kind of movie now relegated to the local specialised horror or thriller television channels, broadcast by your favourite cable provider. "P2" is curiously old fashioned in it's intentions, but don't get me wrong. "P2" is not un-enjoyable, just predictable.

Sorry feminists, but there is still some residual enjoyment to be had by the eighties video shop/VHS generation in watching a bad man pursue a half naked girl, only to be thwarted by the object of his desires. Maybe one day somebody will make a movie about a well chiseled, attractive young man, dressed only in his underpants, being pursued by a bad girl with a big weapon. Until that happy day, the cliche of the fit looking girl in jeopardy will still rule.

"P2" is an reasonable enough thriller. It has some effective shocks, tension and excitement, and uses nicely the enclosed environment of the cold, dreary, impersonal multi-story car park. I did like the Christmas Eve setting, which leads me to ask why "P2" was released in the UK in May? Releasing "P2" in the UK just prior to Christmas would surely have given it an extra bit of frisson and would have been a nice alternative to the family films and blockbusters clogging up the cinemas at that time.

So, not bad, if you are prepared to see something you have seen many times before.

"Son Of Rambow".



"Son Of Rambow" is a nice little film about a pair of lonely little boys who, one summer in the early 80's, decide to make their own sequel to "Rambo: First Blood" to enter into the "Screen Test" young filmmakers competition. "Son Of Rambow" is about realising the importance of family, growing up, making friends and knowing that sometimes (puts on very sincere voice), friends, you just have to follow your dream.

I thought that "Son Of Rambow" was really funny, kind of touching and, according to my Brother who was a schoolboy circa 1983, really accurate as to what it was like to go to an English comprehensive school at that time. There are great performances by the two main leads: Will Poulter as the Artful Dodgeresque Lee Carter, a rascal, thief and blagger, ignored by his family, and Bill Milner as Will Proudfoot, a boy stifled by the rigid and antiseptic religious community he has been born into, whose life is changed forever by the power of the movies.

One thing that I most definitely did not like was the sloppy attention to period detail. "Son Of Rambow" is set no later than 1983. Brian Trueman is shown as the presenter of "Screen Test", and "Rambo: First Blood" was released worldwide circa 1982/83. So far so good.

So, how could "The Reflex" by Duran Duran be played at the school disco, when the version played in the film, remixed from the track on "Seven And The Ragged Tiger", was not released until 1984? Ditto "Peek-A-Boo" by Siouxsie & The Banshees, a single not released until 1988? Also, an audience is seen waiting to watch the film "Yentl". That film did not come out in the UK until 1984. I am sure there may well be other discrepancies.

That aside "Son Of Rambow" is a good film, but remember to take your hankies for the end.