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.

A is for All Nighter

A while ago, my mum and my sister both started going on alphabet dates. Basically, each date is something to do with each letter of the alphabet, starting from A and eventually ending with Z. Now, since coming to University, I haven't been able to see much of my boyfriend. I went from seeing him every day to a couple of days every 2 weeks or so. This meant that we've been trying to come up with a plan to do something nice when we meet up, rather than just slobbing around like we normally do.

Last weekend, the student cinema put on an Allnighter, and we decided to go. But I was thinking about it one night, and realised that Allnighter begins with an A. This got me thinking about the alphabet dates, and how that might be a good way for us to spend our time together. It would give us more to get excited about on our visits. I told my boyfriend, and he immediately started thinking of things we could do for other letters, so I think that we are definitely going through with it!

A is for All-Nighter

Neither of us had ever been to an all-nighter before, so we were both pretty excited. After stocking up on loads of chocolate, sweets, fizzy drinks and biscuits to keep us awake, we headed down to the lecture theatre where the student cinema is held. We were given a running order on what was going to happen during the night, and then the first film started.

Ted - Ted is a film about a little boy called John, who wishes is teddy was real so he would have a friend. His wish comes true and the two grow up together. Years later, John and Ted are still best friends, but their friendship is tested when John has to choose between the vulgar teddy bear, or his girlfriend of 4 years.

I didn't think I was going to like Ted. It's done by the same guy who does Family Guy, which I cannot stand, but I actually quite enjoyed it. It was completely ridiculous and stupid, but there were some moments that I couldn't help laughing at. Mostly the bit at the end when they said the fat kid got a personal trainer and became Taylor Lautner... You probably have to see it to find that funny... Anyway, it was a good start to the evening.

Brave - Not wanting to be forced into marriage, the Scottish princess Merida falls out with her mother, the Queen, and finds a witch to cast a spell to make her change her mind. The spell goes horribly wrong (don't they always?) and Merida has to repair the bond that was broken before her mother is cursed to be a bear forever.

I had no idea what Brave was actually about. Disney has a way of making trailers entirely out of clips that aren't included in the movie, but I knew I really wanted to see it. And it didn't disappoint! I'll admit the strong Scottish accents made it a little hard to understand what they were saying sometimes, but it was funny, sad and heartwarming all at the same time. Also, the baby bears were the cutest damn things I've ever seen in my life.

Usual Suspects - (Summary from IMDB) A boat has been destroyed, criminals are dead, and the key to this mystery lies with the only survivor and his twisted, convoluted story beginning with five career crooks in a seemingly random police lineup.

I did watch this film, but I'm not sure I could really explain what happened. It was getting pretty late, and there was a lot of skipping between flashbacks and current events, I got kind of confused. I did enjoy it though, and would watch it again, maybe earlier in the day, so I could understand what goes on.

Mystery Film - This is where the night started to go wrong really. Up until this point we were having a really good time watching films, losing quizzes and not winning any prizes in the raffle (I know that sounds bad, but we were having fun!) Then it got to the mystery film. Before the night, we were told what 5 out of the 6 films were, leaving one film as a surprise for the night. I was quite excited to find out what it would be, but the reality was disappointing. The film was This is Spinal Tap. I'd never heard of it, but within 10 minutes I was bored and decided to have a nap. The boyfriend was moaning about how rubbish it was every time I woke up, but for some reason thought it would be a good idea to stay up and watch it anyway. So yeah, mystery film, not so good.

Bourne Legacy - I also slept through this one... I would have watched it if it was on earlier, but it was close to 4 in the morning, and I couldn't keep my eyes open. So I have no idea if this was any good or not.

Jaws - I love Jaws, and I woke up from my two-movie nap specifically so I could watch it. Unfortunately my boyfriend felt ill after too many sugary drinks and nearly 24 hours of being awake on top of the hour and a half drive to get here, so at this point (at 6.30 in the morning!) we decided to call it quits. To be fair, he had watched all five movies up to that point. I watched 3, and slept through 2, so he did more of an all nighter than me!

So that was it. It was kind of weird leaving the cinema in daylight when it was dark when we arrived. It was also weird getting ready for bed at nearly 7am, but we needed the sleep. We did spend the rest of the weekend slobbing around watching Criminal Minds, but I think we deserved the rest!

Being the brilliant photographer I am, I only have one photo of the entire night...

Highlight of the date: Brave was my favourite film of the night I think. Disney for the win!
Lowlight of the date: When I forgot to bring my ticket with me when I went for a toilet break. I think the guy only let me back in because I wasn't wearing any shoes...