It’s an odd one really; I spent most of the week very tired and heading to work on auto pilot. Admittedly it was largely due to the week before and the residue from a bad cold and not sleeping properly. I probably didn’t help myself by not going to sleep as early as I probably should have given the circumstances. In my defence though, when I get home and just want to have a bit of a night, the couple of hours after getting home, cooking and doing anything that needs done, just don’t cut it. I’m slower than the average bear and like Yogi that includes my leisure time, once I get started watching a TV show or surfing the net that’s me there for a couple of hours at least. So usually bed time ends up going on midnight, if not later – student habits of old die hard it seems! However after being a bit run down, this lifestyle unfortunately resulted in me becoming a part time narcoleptic upon finally returning home from work on Friday.
So tied and a bit dazed it was odd to be heading to work one morning and to see a mass of large powerful lights surrounding a pub called the Garrick bar on Chichester Street. The place looked like a crime scene from the outside but the trucks and vans parked along the street gave away that they were defiantly home to a film crew and their gear.
Later the same day, heading home this time, I ended up walking down the back of the City Hall. Oddly I stumbled across a Big Red London bus, a red phone box that hadn’t been there the day before and a random tent with anti war slogans on it. Not far from these items was a group of about 30 people and some sort of makeshift set up for outdoor catering. Next to all this a sign saying “Caution Filming in Progress”.
I’m really not sure what they were filming for, but they weren’t isolated events that day as a colleague at work also told me they had seen a film crew at another location in town. It seemed from the London theme that they using the back of the city hall to re-create a London street scene. The Labour advertisement on the Bus combined with the ‘protest tent’ seemed to indicate something political but whether it be a drama or a party political broadcast or even a comedy, that’s for them to know and us to find out! I can’t find anything about the filming elsewhere but maybe before long all will become clear with an appearance of this scene on TV... do let me know if you see it!
To top it off, as I headed down the street a little further, I look down to see a bright tag kicking around on the floor and what do I find just laying there but yet another cinematic link...Could it be Ben Stiller was in town or as the lable hints, in a wearhouse near by? It's a mystery!
After all the showbiz and in an attempt to relax we decided to have a bit of a date night. Norn Girl and I really do enjoy our random, though usually meal then cinema based, date nights - when we can afford it or aren’t too tired or lazy to head out of the house. We decided that day to head to see a movie that was new out as most others that are out we’ve either seen already or one of us didn't really want to see. We both knew very little about the movie and I hadn’t even seen a trailer for it. I’m starting to find that this is the best way to see movies as you aren’t so disappointed having already seen what are usually all the best bits in the trailer already.
The movie we picked to see was ‘The Hangover’ and I have to say I thought it was really rather good! In the magical world of cinema I don’t mind too much what I’m watching but I do prefer movies that can take me somewhere new and that keep me glued to the screen. For a comedy based around a stag do, it broke the preconceptions I would have had having now seen the trailer. Loads of laughs and a plot that keeps us intrigued by the characters being as unaware as we are as to what happened. An intriguing mystery that puts my earlier one to shame is laid out in front of us, leading from one comedy moment to the next. To top it off it’s not only funny but uses the screen well unlike some comedies (I’m thinking of several romantic comedies I’ve had to watch in recent times) that might as well have been made for TV. Sure it’s a little rude and maybe not one to watch with the kids but if you want comedy that has the potential to make you lol-a-lot and that even managed to include end credits worked in to be a meaningful part of the plot, then it’s a movie worth a watch.
Its reinvigorated a taste for the cinema (if it ever went away) so all being well we’ll be seeing a few more movies in the near future. One movie we aren’t likely to head to is the new transformers one. Although I do love Sci-Fi and I even loved to play with the plastic toys when I was younger, those movies based on cartoons and comic books really never seem to be that good. Having now sat through the trailer a couple of times, it just looks boring
and unlikely to be much more than a comic book guys drool fest with special effects as the plot. I probably shouldn’t be too quick to judge but I’m tempted to see something on a whim from now on than something advertised to death before hand.The biggest piece of advertising I’ve seen so far is the transformer that’s taken up residence in the disguise of the new Obel building. It’s a handy disguise but we can see through it, it seems friendly enough so it’s probably an Autobot and we should be safe but sure we’ll have to see how pretty it is before we know whether we should try convincing it to head back to Cybertron.
Update 06/09/2009
The filming that was going on around Belfast back in June this year has been revealed in the October 09, City Matters (Belfast City Council Residents magazine) to be, "an upcoming Channel 4 drama 'Mo', in which she (Julie Walters) plays the role of the late Mo Mowlam, former Northern Ireland Secetary of State". Another mystery solved! According to the article it'll be on TV sometime next year :)
The film crew were also that week down on Ballyholme beach in Bangor so will be interesting to hear what they were filming for
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Andrea