2013: Week 8

I have had such a perfect weekend. And yes, it was because Apollo came to see me :)

On Friday, it was another Allnighter at the student cinema. We went to the one last term, and enjoyed it so much that we were planning to go to this one from the moment we found out when it was. Armed with energy drinks, lemonade, sweets, the hundreds of packets of biscuits and giant bar of chocolate my mum sent me in a goody bag (thanks mum!), salty peanuts (they were on offer in Tesco), blankets and pillows, we headed off to the cinema.

I was very excited about this allnighter, partly because of the fun I had last time, but mostly because of the films that were showing this time.

Skyfall - The latest of the Bond films, starring Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Javier Bardem. When Bond's latest assignment goes horribly wrong, a list of agents is compromised, as well as Bond escaping to lice in the shadows. But when an explosion is set of at MI6, it becomes apparent that someone from M's past is coming back to haunt her. Bond returns to MI6 to help M, only to have to return to his own haunted ppast.

This film was amazing. There is no other word for it. I'd never seen a Bond film before, and I am so glad that this was my first one. I don't really find Daniel Craig particularly attractive, but he played Bond very well. Judi Dench was just brilliant, and I loved the bad guy, Silva. He was amazingly camp and creepy all at the same time. It was funny, it was sad, it was brilliant. And then of course there is the amazing theme by Adele, that I have a particularly strong love for. My sister was right when she said the opening titles were the most beautiful she had ever seen. All in all, I loved it.

American Beauty - Starring Kevin Spacey, American Beauty is a drama about middle-aged Lester Burnham, who is in the midst of a mid-life crisis when he develops an infatuation for his daughter's friend. Upon meeting her, he decides to change his life, quitting his dull job, starting to work out, smoking with his daughter's new boyfriend, and generally trying to make his life happier.

I have mixed feelings about this film. All the way through, I thought it was a bit cringey when Kevin Spacey fantasised about the 16 year old friend of his daughter. But by the end, I decided it was really good. It was very funny and light hearted, as well as dealing with issues like Homophobia, abuse and general depression in day to day life. I saw one of the twists coming from about halfway through, and Apollo called the other big one, but instead of feeling disappointed that it was so obvious, it just made us feel impressed with ourselves. That may be because we are childish and competitive with each other though... Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I also found it kind of funny that it had Seneca Crane from the Hunger Games in it. I'm not sure why...

Seven Psychopaths - Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken. When Marty, a struggling screenwriter, is having trouble with his new screenplay The Seven Psychopaths, he is somehow involved in the criminal underworld of LA after his friends kidnap a gangster's beloved dog.

I will admit that I didn't really understand this film. The storyline didn't seem to flow right, and I thought the basic premise of the story was pretty stupid to be honest. There was a lot of fuss over a small, kind of ugly dog. I suppose that it was supposed to be funny that this big gangster turned soft around his dog, but I just didn't really care. I'm not really an animal person, can you tell? It didn't help that the cinema crew ran into a big of trouble halfway through, and the film turned off for a good ten minutes, so we missed a chunk. I'm not really convinced that, had I seen it all the way through, I would have enjoyed it any more. I did, however, love Christopher Walken's character. I just thought he was so cute, and I actually liked learning about his past. He was definitely the most interesting character.

Brazil - I am going to have to find a summary of this online, because I honestly couldn't tell you what it was about! Starring Jonathan Pryce. A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.

Yeah, I don't really have a lot to say about this film. I mean, I was awake through most of it (having only a couple of 10 minute power naps halfway through), but I have no idea what happened. This was the mystery film of the night, and started off much better than last term's, so I thought it would be alright. But I quickly lost track of what was happening, I didn't know anything about the world where it was set and so didn't understand why the characters acted as they did, or why someone who fixed air conditioning was considered a criminal... It just made no sense.

ParaNorman - Starring the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Anna Kendrick. Norman Babcock can see ghosts, but no one in his town believes him, save for his new friend Neil. He is left outcast by everyone, including his own father, until an annual curse threatens the town, when Norman is the only one who could save them.

The night got good again when this film came on. I was actually really excited about this one. It is an animated movie, in a similar style to Corpse Bride and Coraline, and it was a nice break to have a more kiddy film. The storyline was really good and, as is surprisingly often the case, was actually quite deep. The tale of the witch of the town was dark, but I suppose that is the best way to get the big morals across to kids. In any case, it was a heart warming story, and I really enjoyed it.

The last film was Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, but after over 12 hours of watching films and eating sweets, Apollo was done in. I think I would have been able to manage the last film as well, but I was more than happy to go back to bed. I think 7.30pm to 8am counts as an allnighter, don't you?

The next (or rather, later that) day, we basically slobbed around watching House. Or, in my case, falling asleep again.

Apollo took charge of taking pictures. Apparently he thought I looked cute.

We made fajitas for dinner, the first meal we've cooked for ourselves that wasn't pizza. It was yummy. On Sunday we made pancakes for breakfast/lunch. That didn't go so well...

They burned to the bottom of the pan, but also didn't actually cook. I'm not sure how that works. A quick phone call to Apollo's mum for some cooking advice meant we managed to make some decent ones though. Then Apollo decided that, instead of being sensible and having two to finish off the mixture, he wanted to put it as one giant pancake. It was more like an actual cake.

That picture doesn't really show off how thick it actually was. It took like, 5 minutes to cook, which is long for pancakes.

After such a good weekend, I was more upset when he had to eventually go home. But I am really looking forwards to 3 weeks time, when he is coming back to see me, and we are going to Comic Con for our C date. I cannot wait.