Bound (1996) with Bootleg Friday

I'm thinking back to April 2023 when we watched this movie and I'm also thinking about Jennifer Tilly.

Jennifer Tilly always had this sexy charismatic charm about her and a seductive breathy voice. I tried remembering movies from the 90s that had her like Made In America. I hadn't seen that movie in a long time so I looked up a clip and suddenly got reminded of a scene where she cartwheeled across the bedroom naked. I also remembered her in Liar Liar where she would get a little too close to Jim Carrey's character. I didn't know her name but I had nice memories of her.

I never heard of Bound before and it was wonderful to discover it. Not a single person I met who was crazy about The Matrix ever told me about this movie. If I saw it back then I would've stayed being a fan of the Wachowskis after the Matrix phase passed.

In this movie the main character is a tough, hard-working gal who goes about her day doing all kinds of maintenance work, minding her own business, being all strong and hot. I call her the main character because she is seduced by Jennifer Tilly's character and her breathy sexy voice, just like how everyone watching is seduced too. We are this main character being seduced. Tilly's character whispers stuff like "redistribution of wealth" in our ear and calls us "Corky". We're all basking in this chemistry between the two characters and having a good time.

We're drawn into her world. Unfortunately, she's involved with a bad dude who's involved with other bad dudes and lots of ill-gotten money. She convinces us to run away together with all the money. The plot that follows is full of chemistry, thrills and suspense. It's just an amazing movie that kept us all glued and riveted.

One of the bad guys said "capisce" a lot and it was getting tiresome. Then he got owned. He wasn't gonna say it anymore.

The snack I had was ham and cheese vol-au-vents from Centra. They were really good and tasted like jambons. I don't usually eat them because they usually have chicken in them. These ham and cheese ones were delish.

Dead Heat(1988) with Beyond Friday

The trouble with making these posts so late is that it's hard to recall the experience of watching movies in great detail. I'm gonna get stuff wrong too so I'll have to work on that.

It was the end of March two years ago when we watched this. It had zombies, zombies with Uzis(which I called zombuzis), Vincent Price, a big weird dude named Doug who said big weird dude things like "ah'm gonna hurt him" and it played out in fabulously entertaining way.

There was a weird contraption that brought people back from the dead. I may be wrong but there was dramatic Danny Elfman Batman music that played when the contraption was on screen. It was an interesting tone shift from the rest of the movie.

The rest of the movie features its buddy cop protagonists with snazzy action and making snazzy quotes(there seemed to be a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail... "flesh wound" quote maybe?)

They get tangled in this plot about people coming back from the dead. Vincent Price appears in a tape with some very nice exposition.

One of the main guys is Doug, who's just a big weird interesting fun dude. I was always drawn to seeing what funny big weird dude thing he was going to say or do next.

What else can I remember about this... there was someone who was trying to do sewing while they were driving for some weird reason and there was a fight scene in a hallway where neither dude seemed to be getting hurt or showing signs of dropping dead. Maybe they were zombies? I dunno. I should probably watch this again sometime as it was a lot of fun.

Wild Mountain Thyme with Bootleg Friday

On St. Patrick's Day in 2023 we sat down and watched this movie that was widely slated and hated by everyone. It was supposed to be one of the worst movies about Ireland. What I found instead was something that was indeed very weird but it was also very romantic.

It was a fine choice for the occasion, and I had many cans of Club Orange and Manhattan Popcorn to make it even more Irish. I recall getting slabs of Club Orange very cheaply at the time. Unfortunately, in the time since then they decided to put sweeteners in it. That was not a nice surprise.

This movie was a nice surprise though. Sure enough, there was a lot of weirdness in the way characters were speaking, using phrases like "coughing like pertussis" and saying "byebyebyebye" even though they weren't talking on the phone, but there were really nice moments too. Christopher Walken had some lovely sentimental dialogue for example.

One thing that stood out for me was the scene where your one was giving out to your man(sorry it's been ages since I saw this) and she was making sandwiches for him while she was giving out. I don't think he even asked for sandwiches. I thought maybe this is one of the romantic notions Americans have about Ireland? Do American men order their wives to make them a sandwich only to be refused and then daydream of Irish lasses being all feisty, making and throwing sandwiches without being asked? I was thinking maybe their fantasies manifested into what this movie became.

The weird bee thing was fun to see on social media alright.

Other things I recall from this movie were logos in the opening credits that made me think of Gerry Ryan's "Secrets", an artificial-looking outdoor scene that was both rainy and sunny even though our weather is often like that, usage of the seduction music from Dracula, and Jon Hamm.

We all expected something catastrophic, but instead we got something strange and delightful that made me say "what's goin on is this actually good or something"

my top 10 movies 2024

I don't want the year to pass without making a post! Here's a top 10 of movies I saw in the cinema this year:

1. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

2. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

3. Sonic 3

4. Deadpool & Wolverine

5. The Boy and the Heron

6. Paddington in Peru

7. The Substance

8. Queer

9. Despicable Me 4

10. Bad Boys 4

I also saw The Wild Robot and Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. I enjoyed them too. I'll write about them all someday.

Lidl Halloween Snacks

Happy Halloween and sorry for the long break in posting! I keep meaning to and I have made notes about movies I watched this year and snacks I've enjoyed. Will talk about them soon. For now I'd like to talk about some Halloween snacks I got from Lidl. Their display looked really nice.

Halloween Scary Mix

These are jellies that come in six different and unusual flavours, them being Orange & Chilli, Raspberry, Apple & Chilli, Onion, Ginger, Vanilla. I'm not really into spicy sweets that much, though they are pleasant enough. I just think they're a bit strange. The mild spiciness from these is nice and novel. The vanilla flavoured one is really nice. They come in fun shapes like skulls, skeletons, disembodied feet and coffins.

Halloween Super Sour Bones

Bone-shaped fizzy jellies that were indeed super sour and quite firm. They're a dark red colour, but I couldn't really tell what flavour of fruit they were exactly.

Halloween Cruspies

Chilli, wasabi and barbecue flavour coated peanuts. Festive greenish tinge from the wasabi and orangish tinge from the others made this a fun choice. It was my first time trying the wasabi flavour and it makes for really good coated peanut flavouring. The weird thing was the rest of them were barbecue flavoured. I didn't get any chilli ones in here at all.

Halloween Vampire Snacks Ketchup Style

Adorable little bat-shaped corn snacks, even cuter than the ones displayed on the pack. I haven't had the chance to try the ready salted or paprika flavours, but the ketchup flavoured ones are so so tasty. Ketchup is the most Halloweeny fun flavour for crisps too as it's like pretend blood. Ketchup is what was used to reincarnate Count Duckula after all. By far my favourite Halloween snack this year.

Watching 65 and Scream VI With Friends

Kinda low on money lately so the plan was to just watch the one movie with a friend, but then we met up with another friend who was going to see the same movie plus another movie. Was planning to just watch 65 but we ended up doing a double bill and went to Scream VI as well.

I met up with the lads on one of the only dry days that was forecasted. We did some shopping before 65 started. While we were shopping I wondered if our other friend was up for seeing the movie with us and he was delighted to come along with us. He happened to be going to the same movie anyway. It was opening day for both movies.

We got the big screen for 65 at our usual cinema. It's all about this guy from another planet who crash lands on Earth 65 million years ago. He locates an escape vessel on a distant mountain that broke off from the main ship. The entire movie is about him facing dinosaurs while also trying to escape in time to avoid the apocalyptic asteroid that wiped the dinosaurs out. It's a very simple and appealing premise!

He meets another survivor, a young girl who speaks a different language. They help each other out as they try to survive their trip.

As you can imagine, there isn't a lot of dialogue. There are lots of scares when dinosaurs jump out of bushes to attack. Some of them small, some of them enormous. The guy fights 'em off with his laser gun thingy with a pew pew and there is lots of peril and excitement.

Adam Driver plays the protagonist and he has fantastic physical acting. he plays the role of a space explorer and survivor so well. He has his computer equipment that tells him about the cataclysmic event that's gonna happen if he doesn't hurry. Towards the end of the adventure, bits of fiery space debris rain down from the skies. This would make a fantastic video game scenario and it's possibly inspired by the likes of Metroid Prime. I wouldn't be surprised at least.

When the movie was over we hung out on the cinema lobby couches for a while. One of the lads went out for a quick burger. After that it was time for Scream VI.

Scream's been around a long time! I remember seeing VHS covers for the earlier movies in our local video rental place. They had the 18 certificate and they did look scary. I haven't really been following the series and I vaguely remember seeing bits and pieces of the series throughout the years. I think we rented Scream III on Sky Box Office once.

I noticed Scream VI was 16 certificate. I reckon it must be for die hard fans and newcomers. One of the lads saw all the others in the cinema as well. We nearly went into Screen 6, confusing the title with the screening room, which was kinda funny.

Screen VI was enjoyable and watchable. It was great to see Courtney Cox and I was looking forward to seeing Jenna Ortega as well. Samara Weaving is in this too, which was a nice surprise. There are many references to the older films as well and there are a bunch of film fans in this too. My favourite quote was when one of them was like eff this franchise.

The plot has its twists and turns, many elements of a whodunnit film, and even feels like an episode of Scooby Doo! It's very much a formula now but it can still feel like a satisfying puzzle to guess whodunnit!

There are lots of stabbings of course and lots of bloody squelching effects. It gets really weird at times when characters get stabbed only to later spring up screaming in seemingly perfect health. This happens a lot.

Other weird moments that are quite humorous include a big ladder bridge someone makes for an escape. He just had that ladder handy in his apartment! That was quite entertaining.

The subway sequence from the trailer was probably the best part. Different people had Ghostface costumes and you're there wondering who the killer is.

After the movie we went to eat at a Thai street food place. I was there already recently where I tried beef pad thai, which was lovely. I wanted to try out the stir fry with rice and beef this time. One of the lads was curious about this place to try as well.

The food was pretty good. I usually like rice more than noodles but I think in this case I liked the noodle dish more. This dish had lots of tasty mushrooms at least. Also, the beef was really nice and tender both times I went.

Soon afterwards we went home. It was raining at that stage but luckily I managed to avoid any downpours. It was a grand day out.

I gotta say 65 was way better and more thrilling than Scream VI was but I liked both movies.

Watching Cocaine Bear with a Friend and Exploring the Amazing Food Market

I finally got a chance to see Cocaine Bear! It's been a bit of a sensation for the past few months, with everyone saying it's a great idea just by looking at the poster for it. I was going to see it with friends but I had to go home early when it opened. One of them joined me later to watch it again and it was lovely to hang out.

Before that, I must say I got a high score on the unofficial Cocaine Bear ZX Spectrum game! I got 2,600 points, beating my personal best. My friend played the mobile phone game so yes, there's more than one game made based on this film.

I arrived at the cinema before my friend. I bought two 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola for the price of 1 to share with him. I thought it was the appropriate snack to enjoy for watching this film!

I arrived early at our usual cinema and camped out in a good seat with the railing in front. I was one of the first there and I guarded my friend's spot while waiting for him. I told him to be careful when making his way here and he arrived safely. Groups of people started to come in and some of them were chatty with each other. They were grand though.

What was amazing was the fact that this was the second week since the film came out and they premiered it in the smaller screen before moving it to the biggest screen by the time I got to see it, so waiting for it paid off well in a way!

My friend arrived and we had a great time watching the movie. It is a very silly, funny and violent movie. It has an 18 certificate and everything! I was talking to someone later on who was charmed by the comedic situation of the bear but they were turned off when I told them it was so violent. I didn't mean to put them off and I made sure to tell them it was funny, but I couldn't really deny it was very violent.

I should have wrote this post sooner as I'm trying to recall as much as I can. It has some very satisfying scenes in it like the bathroom fight and the ambulance chase. The guy who does those Ikea TikTok videos Scott Seiss plays one of the ambulance staff and he's great in this! His reactions and facial expressions are really well done. 

This movie was filmed here in Ireland and it was fun looking at the scenery to find out which parts were undoubtedly filmed here.

The story was fun and had many satisfying showdowns between characters who were hunting down the bear, hunting down the drug cargo, hunting down the criminals and others trying to save their kids. 

I gotta say RIP to Ray Liotta as well and it was nice to see him have a good final project like this. I don't know him particularly well but he is celebrated for Goodfellas, which I only saw for the first time recently.

It was a good time and we left feeling satisfied, but now we had to get a bite to eat somewhere. We bounced a few ideas but my friend suggested that big food market at the harbour we've heard so much about. I was never there before either so I was glad to check it out.

It wasn't too long a walk, not far from the bus station. Still we had to have a nice day for it and thank goodness we did. It was a big stretch of a walk along the waterfront with no rain and no wind thankfully.

We were walking for a while and it felt like we were going nowhere in particular. A lot of the buildings here were old and abandoned and we didn't see much sign of life. The big stretch of the walk felt like something out of Streets of Rage or a Kung Fu movie.

We started to see people walking past us with food and that was a clear indication that something was ahead. Otherwise, the place seemed kind of out of the way. When we got there, there was a big car park and lots of people.

I was expecting some food trucks and no place to sit outdoors, but instead what I saw was this huge warehouse of a place with tons of food trucks and a massive food court-like area with all kinds of tables, chairs, booths, even armchairs and couches!

We spent a long time looking around to see what we wanted and at the sellers stalls as well, who were selling arts and crafts and clothes and that kind of stuff.

That worked up an appetite for us. After a lot of browsing, I decided on the business that was selling stews! What an idea! I've never seen the likes of it. All kinds of stews like beef, Irish, lamb rogan josh and even coddle! I decided to go with something safe and ordered the beef stew. I had the option of having either mashed potatoes or chips with it and I was delighted with those options. This was all served in a big street food cardboard bowl. My friend ordered some kind of chicken burger from another stand that came with lots of tater tots.

I adore beef stew. It had a stout flavour which I wasn't mad about and it had a bit too many vegetables, but it did have a satisfying amount of beef in it. I was pretty happy with it! I ate with fork, knife and a spoon to get it all eaten. My friend liked his food too and shared tater tots, which were good too.

We had some time before we could catch buses home, so we looked for a place to hang out. The pub we usually go to was full up, so we opted for McDonald's. I wanted to try out the survey offer thing where they do a Big Mac and fries for cheap. I was trying to figure out how it worked with the kiosk system. I was able to just go to the counter which was cool. It was a good idea. I was bursting after though what with all the food we were eating. It was a really fun day and I finally got to see the movie, my friend and the big food market.

There was a huge crowd of people at that market too. Full of people just hanging out and having a good time just sitting around if they wanted to! It looked like a lovely communal thing and I hope it keeps going.

Prophecy(1979) With Beyond Friday

Cocaine Bear would have to wait for a small while. Before I got a chance to see that I watched this film with the Beyonders, which also featured a bear killing everybody. However, the bear in Prophecy was a monstrosity deformed as a result of human industrial activity and pollution from mercury waste.

The bear in this movie isn't cuddly looking. It's lost all its fur due to the pollution and just looks like a wrinkly slimy fleshy mess with claws and teeth. It's disgruntled because at one point the humans have its cub they rescued from the water. The cub is a screaming wrinkly slimy fleshy mess with claws and teeth, yet its mother wants it back. One of the humans is a pregnant lady who looks at this horrifying thing with a broody look on her face. Mothers are kinda nuts.

The movie starts out with shaky torchlight footage in the darkness and the heavy sounds of a dog panting. Then there's a flash of the creature murdering its first victims. Unfortunately there's lot of this kind of thing in the movie itself. Much of it can be quite atmospheric but it does wear out.

For the longest time in the first half of the movie there's not much action until a distempered raccoon attacks the doctor and his wife in the cabin they stay at. I joked around and said this was my second-cousin once-removed Distempered Donie (RIP Donie). This raccoon had to carry a lot of the film when things were quiet but it wasn't enough. 

This doctor figures out the link between the polluting plant and the monstrous animals. He comes across a huge fish and tadpole in his investigation. Everyone pointed out how weird it was when he told his wife to touch the mercury on her boots with her bare hands. It was really weird. Don't tell anyone to do that ok. That stuff is dangerous.

Another party in this movie are the native Americans who protest the industry-mongers and I'm just recalling a scene where they block the vehicles and the boss makes one of his staff rev a chainsaw up close to one of their faces in order to scare them. That was pretty intense and it was said this movie got a PG rating. Wow.

Some kids appear early on as well and Beyonders were calling for them to get owned by the bear. This happened eventually when one was zipped up in a yellow sleeping bag and got tossed before exploding into feathers like some kind of weird piñata. That was pretty funny.

Eventually it becomes time to take the bear on, leading to a climactic fight. There was one really weird sequence where the bear goes underwater and makes fart-like bubbles while it's in there. Everybody just stands and stares at it like eejits until the bear emerges and goes after them again. 

During the climactic fight the characters run into their last stronghold and it got weirdly quiet before the bear burst through the roof, which made me laugh as we didn't need any more quiet moments. The fight reaches its conclusion. Oh yeah and it ruled when the boss got owned, mustn't forget that.

For a snack I had Aero Peppermint Mini Eggs. I was expecting them to be more or less like the Bubbles variety, and they were, but they were absolutely dotey little minty mini eggs and they looked like the pills from Dr. Mario. I found them to be perfectly bite sized as well. Try them out especially if you like the Bubbles!

Wotsits Crunchy Flamin' Hot

Remember Nik Naks? I don't see them very often but they're corn snacks that are thinner and more dense than Wotsits. These Crunch ones are extremely similar to Nik Naks, except they're in Wotsits flavours. There are cheesy ones as well but these Flamin' Hot ones are tasty and very moreish. They're also really expensive right now, about the same as those big sharing bags of crisps. But yeah, think Nik Naks but with the Walkers Flamin' Hot flavour and you'll have a good idea of them.

After Eight Mini Eggs

Egg-shaped dark chocolate with peppermint fondant and some solid dark chocolate in the middle too. Well it's more fondant than you usually get for sure but still tastes very much like After Eight, so go for it if you like it.

The eggs are individually wrapped as well. It can be a little finicky to unwrap them but they look really nice and very shareable. The packaging with the bunny all dressed up is really cute too.

Crackzel Pretzel Pieces Jalapeno Flavour

Interesting snack! Big chunky pretzel pieces that have a nice and toasty crunch. Comes in loads of tasty flavours too so it never gets dull. The jalapeno variety has a nice spicy kick to them.

Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs Bar

Little chocolate beans embedded in chocolate is a wonderful thing. You got Smarties bar, Cadbury Mini Eggs bar, M&Ms bar etc. and it can help with biting into the shell when it can be a bit hard. The experience feels like it's been perfected with this bar. It's a very pleasant munch.

KP Krunch Mix Sour Cream & Chive Flavour

Coated peanuts are great. The Walkers Sensations ones I find are the nicest and I miss when there was a Hunky Dory Buffalo variety. Here's one that's sour cream & chive flavour. It's a very strong flavour to begin with but you get used to it quickly and it's quite nice. It also includes little Hula Hoop and other shaped corn snacks so there's a nice bit of variety to snack on. Also comes in barbecue flavour I haven't tried yet.

Playing the Unofficial Cocaine Bear Game for the ZX Spectrum

Inspired by true events! This movie has been getting people excited online and now an author named Azimov made an unofficial fangame. 

Lately one of my friends bought The Last of Us game to get ready for the TV adaptation that was coming out, so I thought I'd do the same with Cocaine Bear, which is coming out in the cinema.

This game doesn't seem to have any particular goal. You can just roam around, trying not to get killed while humans run around all freaked out. It has a top down view and 15 screens to explore. You can enter fury mode for a few seconds to mangle any humans that run into you. You use up white um... power packs as the readme calls it, so you only have so many of these. You can try and get the maximum possible score when you get bored exploring and use up all your power packs. That's about it.

It's pretty hard not to get killed. Even if your ear brushes off a cactus or the water you get killed. When you press a direction the bear just keeps moving and won't stop, even when going on to the next screen and right into danger. He's kind of like Pac-Man that way. It is fun owning the humans, but you can't get the ones that shoot because they stand still, and fury mode only works for humans that run into you.

I mapped the 15 screens out very roughly and it looks like the maximum points you can get is 6,300. I could be wrong though. It's assuming you can only get one pickup per game and the most humans you can mangle at once is 3. I managed to get 1,800 points as my personal best but with patience you can get much more.

It is quite satisfying mangling two humans at once and it's the best way to get a high score. You can mangle 3 humans at once at the very beginning, but it's tough enough to line them up!

The screens make up a maze at a nice seaside setting with lots of sand. The music is a happy little tune as well. Looking forward to the movie!

If you're using a ZX Spectrum Vega, here's a configuration I made for the game. Just paste the following into a text editor and save it as CocaBear.zxk:

T:Cocaine Bear
F:CocaBear.tap
M:128
K:;Q;A;O;P;SP;;1
D:;Up;Down;Left;Right;Fury Mode;;Start Game

Cast a Deadly Spell With Bootleg Friday

I found a snack I hadn't seen in a while, Fox's Rocky Caramel. Fox's make really nice chocolate biscuits I normally only see as Christmas presents but here is that same high quality biscuit only presented as an ordinary teatime biscuit for busy people in a multipack. the shortcake and chocolate are so good I feel like I'm getting away with something luxurious and the caramel is just the right amount. Not too much or too little, just right.

There is a chocolate variation but it has dissected coconut for some strange reason. It's awful and I'm surprised it isn't highlighted as an allergen.

With my caramel Rocky's, I was ready for the film. It's styled like a film noir detective story but it's main twist is that it involves magic powers as weapons. It sounds very strange and novel, a bit too strange to be mainstream. It was made by HBO, which is known for making its own stuff without the same restriction policies that others follow. My guess is that they wanted to make something with a taboo theme like the occult, but that's just a guess.

The font of the opening credits I recognised immediately as the exact same font from the credits of Fish Police, a fish themed detective noir cartoon made for older audiences in the early 90s. I was ready to spend the whole watch party making comparisons between that cartoon and this movie. In the opening scenes, there was a guy calling a lady "Angel", but that was about it. In any case, lovely font.

Despite having the magic theme, the detective story stuff is played super straight and doesn't feel like a parody or spoof at all. All the actors did a really good job of it.

One death happens from a paper tornado, but it looks sinister and fantastic rather than something too ridiculous and stupid like a shark tornado.

The weird monstrous gremlins and gargoyles make me imagine cartoon haters would decide the movie is for kids and then turn it off. They were cool though.

Then there's the femme fatale club singer and I'm thinking about Jessica Rabbit and Angel from Fish Police again. I love indulging in memories of those two, but the scene in this movie is well made and played straight, again not feeling like a parody.

The breakfast time in the diner looks absolutely lovely with its sun drenched lighting and booth seating. We Bootleggers and Beyonders find ourselves looking at the lighting in these old movies we watch with a lot of envy. We just don't get good lighting in movies these days. The monster in the kitchen was really cool too.

The blonde girl is delightful and has lovely lines like "lurking behind my mulberry bush".

One of my favourite things I said was when the gargoyle got kicked in the crotch and I said it got a "kick in the gargoyles". It was an amusing creature and at one point it was dancing around like a baseball mascot.

The ending was a satisfying conclusion when the bad guy got eaten up by the very thing he was summoning. Turns out his daughter saved the day by not being a virgin anymore. Woo! Serves him right.

So yeah this was a very interesting movie to check out and it's a lot less goofy than its premise suggests. Hardened detective noir fans get a bit of a treat with the fantastical aspects and special effects too.

Ant-Man 3 and Shamrock Shakes

I waited a long time for both of these things and I was glad they finally arrived. I started the day by rolling into the café by the bus station for scrambled egg, bacon and toast. I wasn't planning on that, but the signs and menu were pretty inviting.

The food wasn't bad at all and it came with little serving dishes of butter and ketchup without even having to ask them for it.

After this I went to visit Argos. I'm not sure if this'll be my last visit to the place, but I'm gonna miss it. I won't miss being asked for my e-mail address, but I'll miss being asked if I'm over 12 or 16 when buying games, which is funny.

McDonald's wasn't busy when I passed on the way to Argos, but it was hopping when I got back to it. I ordered a large Shamrock Shake with fries and a Grand Big Mac with bacon, minus the burger sauce, which is a nice thing about those kiosks. You can specify with the press of a button if you don't want something.

The Shamrock Shake is one of the nicest things about spring, along with spotting frogspawn and Pancake Tuesday. It's got a mild spearmint flavour and it only comes out for the run up to St. Patrick's Day, so it's worth going out for one now if you'd like one.

After that I went to the cinema. I got a ticket for the recliner screening and made sure it wasn't the 3D one because I don't like the glasses. The recliner seats are lovely where you can just press a button and it raises the foot rest and tilts the seat back. You can adjust it to your liking and there's a ton of leg room. I made sure not to sit in the front row this time. People walk in front of you when they're bringing their kids to the toilet and I get a bit self-conscious my legs in the air might be in their way. In the second row no one crossed in front of me.

I like to call this movie Ant-Man 3, because I don't like its whole title, "Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania". When you see it on a poster they have the Ant-Man part shrunk and the Quantumania part blown up.

Ant-Man is my favourite character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe(besides Spider-Man) because a lot of the time it's Paul Rudd walking around looking confused, which is how I feel most of the time when watching these films. I decided to get into them when I saw the first Ant-Man, which was great. Ant-Man 2 was pretty good too, much better than anyone said it was. For Ant-Man 3, I was gonna watch it even if people dumped on it because I just love Paul Rudd's characterisation as Scott Lang/Ant-Man so much.

I love the big/small gags, though there aren't many here. The pizza enlargement bit was pretty awesome and makes great food for thought as well. Scott's got a new book out called "Look Out For The Little Guy" which is a great title. 

Scott's daughter now has a backstory of getting into trouble with the law like her dad and into science like his predecessor. The family get sucked into the quantum realm because of one of the things she was studying.

This quantum realm is where the vast majority of the movie takes place. There are some cool weird things about it, but most of it feels like something out of Star Wars. There's more alien stuff than there is microscopic cellular stuff, it's presented more like a different planet than it is about something really tiny. I kind of wish it was much weirder than it actually was.

The bad guy from the first film is here and I was really weirded out by the sight of him. He got turned into some kind of Humpty Dumpty figure with tiny arms and legs. His head is gigantic and his face looks like an image stretched sideways. After that initial shock I just kind of accepted it as one of the weird things about this setting.

Ant-Man is here with his family, but I always find myself wanting to see more of him. Everyone else has their role and they're all very important but most of them are narrative devices rather than thinking feeling beings.

I just took a look at the Ant-Man Twitter and it's only now I see the word "quANTuMANia" has "Ant" and "Man" in it. That flew right over my head. Wow.

Anyway, the bad guy is Kang and he's a pretty decent character! In fact all of the bad guys in recent MCU movies have been good. Kang is a powerful but soft spoken and menacing character. He's been destroying other incarnations of himself like Jet Li in The One and he's been banished to the quantum realm, looking for a way out through Ant-Man's abilities and access to technology.

Bill Murray plays one of the characters they meet. Normally I'm thrilled to see him in anything but he's just okay here. He drinks a weird drink with a creature in it.

Michael Douglas' character is as charming as ever and that army of ants that show up at his command was pretty cool.

Another cool thing is where Ant-Man gets to go all kaiju-big again, stomping around Kang's drab empirical city yelling for him. That was awesome.

There's also that bit where Ant-Man turns into an Ant-Man colony which is fun to watch.

The movie rolls along and has a happy ending, or does it? Scott pauses to think about possible consequences during his happy walk. He gets all serious before going back into happy mode. Charming fellow!

At the end of the movie, most of the people in the cinema left and the lights even came on before the credits ended. I always wonder if people know there's going to be post credit scenes for a Marvel movie. They really should know at this stage.

There are two post credit scenes and I was happy to see them, even though the lights came on. One of the scenes I later learned was a direct adaptation of a comic panel, which was cool.

After the movie I headed home. The movie met my expectations. Setting wasn't my favourite but I got to see more of Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, and the odd big/small joke kept me happy.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish at the Cinema with a Friend

I finally got a chance to see Puss in Boots: The Last Wish! I've been looking forward to this for ages. I love the character and I'm so happy to see him back. His debut in the Shrek movies was fantastic and his first spin-off was superb. When the new Avatar movie took up all the cinema screens I stayed at home and read about Puss in Boots. It's been doing very well in its own right and everyone's been praising its action scenes and in particular one showing a panic attack.

It was a lovely spring day and I met up with a friend. We went to McDonald's for breakfast but it was closed for some reason, so we went to another branch that wasn't too far away. After that we did some shopping. I picked up a lot of snacks I'll talk about soon and also got some curry Samyang noodles, a flavour I haven't seen in months. Glad I got some.

We went to CEX and found they were shrinking their DVD section by a lot. I hear they're phasing them out sadly.

When we went in to see the new Puss in Boots, there were quite a few people in there already, but still plenty of room for us to get good seats. Among the trailers was one for the new Mario movie and I can't wait for it!

This movie is presented in a couple of styles, the regular CGI style we normally associate with DreamWorks movies and the Spider-Verse style where frame rate is lower and the frames themselves are like paintings. I have a desperate lack of better terminology. Stop motion? The latter style is used for the movie's spectacular and satisfying action scenes. I love the way Puss cartwheels through the air and that fight with that earth giant thing in the opening reminds me of fight scenes from the anime FLCL.

Puss has lost eight of his nine lives and this brush with permanent death drives him to retire to a cat lady's home. He now wants to live a life of solitude from enemies and he grows a beard. He gets wind of a "falling star" treasure that grants wishes, so he sets off on a journey involving other characters who are after the same thing.

The panic attack scene really got people talking online and it got high praise for being one of the most authentic in movie history. Puss's heart races and his therapy dog friend Perrito places his chin on him, which helps him calm down. It's a wonderful moment in the cinema, but seeing the clip on social media with headphones, it was jaw-dropping. The sound of Puss' heart racing, his friend's muffled voice calling out to him, his heart then calming, then Antonio Banderas' deep voice thanking his friend gratefully. What a moment. Have a look for it.

The Shrek tradition of witty takes on traditional characters continues. My favourite here is Goldilocks and the Three Bears, who are portrayed as a family gang pulling off criminal capers. They're voiced by Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone and Samson Kayo and they have tough English gangster accents. I laughed in delight when they were introduced. There's Little Jack Horner, portrayed as Big Jack Horner, who has world domination plans. He's voiced by John Mulaney.

The Wolf character is like the Grim Reaper and he is designed extremely well. He's got these big red eyes and carries these threatening sickles around with him. He makes Puss' hairs go grey and stand on end. He whistles like Charles Bronson's harmonica tooting character in Once Upon a Time in the West. He's really cool.

We see returning characters like love interest Kitty Softpaws. One of my big questions was if we were going to see the Ohhh Cat again and we do! He's there for one brief scene doing his thing but it was nice to see him!

Puss and Kitty both do the cute eyes thing. No one in the cinema went "AWWW!" like they used to in previous movies. Maybe it's because we're used to these characters now? Or maybe it's because everyone has access to cute kitty compilation content now. Who knows.

The movie's plot plays out breezily and in such an agreeable way it can feel like a lovely afternoon pastime rather than something unforgettable, though there are some wonderful and spectacular things that are too cool to just forget. For example I can't remember the lyrics to the "favourite hero" song but I won't forget the fight scenes or the wolf character. I suspect this movie will be used by parents as a babysitter to kids but there are cool things they should hang on for a moment to enjoy too.

I hung around until after the credits and there was no scene, but there was a brief repeat audio of Puss saying the line "You're still here?" like he was Ferris Bueller and that was it. I take it for granted now, but Antonio Banderas as dashing Zorro-like Puss in Boots is a wonderful thing.

Afterwards we went looking at books, grabbed a burger, grabbed a bit of pizza and headed for home, humming the tune I still can't remember the lyrics to. I still had a bit of popcorn left but I eventually finished it that evening. The weather stayed nice.

My impressions of Nintendo Direct including Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime Remastered

I'll talk about some stuff I'm interested in from the Nintendo Direct from two nights ago.

Pikmin 4 is one of the main games I'm looking forward to. I find the games really stressful but I do enjoy them. There's a sheepdog-like thing in it now which is a nice new surprise. Pikmin does feel like herding sheep so it suits the game.

Samba de Amigo: Party Central would've gotten me very excited, but you just know they're going to DLC it to death. Amigo looks like he's been decapitated and his head placed on some random Just Dance figure.

Decapolice and Bayonetta Origins aren't really hooking me in that much but there may be something for me there. I'd have to see more of what they're like so I'll keep an eye on them.

Disney Illusion Island seems decent enough for a 2D platformer. Hope the single player is good. This is made by the same crowd who made the new Battletoads game so they have some experience at least.

Octopath Traveler II has a demo! I'm gonna get the game anyway.

We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie is nice to see coming along. That extra bit with the king might be something worth checking out.

Sea of Stars has a demo as well and it looks really good! Looks like it has a Chrono Trigger feel in its basic gameplay and it features one of its composers too! Font looks decently legible as well. This I really should try.

Omega Strikers has an air hockey theme, which I really like. Could be fun.

Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection compiles a series I never played but fans I know really want the physical version to be released in English. Feeling sorry for them right now.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-boot Camp is finally coming out! Delighted to see this game getting unbanned!

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe I was gonna skip because I have the original, but I'm really tempted by the Magolor epilogue now.

I'm pretty shocked they just announced and released Metroid Prime Remastered straight away with the physical version soon to follow. No hype or anything and it looks better than any Zelda HD remake ever did. How long was this in development? It just came out of nowhere.

Baten Kaitos I & II HD I didn't ask for, but I knew a few people who did. I better catch up with them to ask how happy they are.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has a really bad title, but, like the original game that came out during the aftermath of the Great Recession, you can live out the fantasy of having a job.

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has voiceover from the bad guy, whoever it is and some footage of cars and flying machines. Nice little update.

Vanilla BN Biscuits by McVitie's

I never tried BN biscuits before. I decided to give them a go, expecting them to be ordinary enough. They're crackers with some vanilla stuff sandwiched inside and they're nice enough. I was expecting to be much more like a biscuit, like a Bourbon Cream or a Custard Cream.

However, I heard they're originally from France, that they disappeared for a while and then came back with the McVitie's label. Some fans from before their disappearance are dissatisfied, noting the cracker is very oat-y and not as sweet as they used to be.

I never tried them before so I don't have that comparison to make, but if you liked them from years back, be aware of that. I still they're nice and moreish. They have a nice face pattern on them too. I guess BN sounds like the positive French affirmation "bien" and wonder if that was part of the naming decision. I also like the vanilla flavour. Haven't tried any other flavour yet.

Remember when Cadbury had these biscuit combination things a few years back? One was with a biscuit brand called "LU" and they were really sweet and tasty. I wonder if this was the kind of sweetness that fans miss from the new BN biscuits?

Barb Wire with Beyond Friday

Pamela Anderson is back with a new documentary on Netflix called "Pamela, A Love Story". I haven't watched it yet but I have watched Barb Wire, which has also been added to the Netflix catalogue for one month only, likely as a companion piece. It was a good chance for us to make a watch party out of it.

I haven't seen the movie since the 90s, when she was a major heartthrob for me and everyone I knew growing up. Back then we watched it on a VHS tape rented from the petrol station or the video van all together in one sitting room, like we did with the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Bros movies. The Power Rangers movie was another big one for us, but I digress.

Looking at Pamela Anderson's character in the movie now, she is a work of art. Everything about how she looks, her eyes, hair, lips, teeth, breasts, she looks extremely beautiful, glamorous and well-lit, like she was made for the camera. She has this fearsome, lion-like aesthetic that makes her look powerful and made us weak at the knees back in the day. We obsessed over her breasts and she was a sensation in mainstream media. She was everywhere. Today we have wider access to media and we don't see her as often. Her beauty in this movie hits different. It's very nostalgic, but she still looks like a goddess.

The movie looks amazing as well and everyone agreed on the lighting. Movies back then had much better lighting than they do now. The part where the lighting brings out Barb's eyes I was comparing to the lighting of Bela Lugosi's eyes in the classic adaptation of Dracula. I was also drawing a comparison between her and Barbara Windsor, who had similar aesthetics and also had a character in EastEnders who owned a pub, often reminding everyone whose pub it was.

For snacks I had chocolate biscuit cake, also known as tiffin on the label. I also had Jaffa Cakes that were discounted. It was the Jacob's brand as well, so it was the good stuff.

We enjoyed this movie in the 90s, but since then it's been dumped on critically and I never really thought about rewatching it, but I feel now when I watched it with the Beyonders we really enjoyed it for what it was and especially for things it got right, particularly with the lighting, cinematography and general aesthetics.

We loved Pamela and her character. Seriously she was really cool and worth rooting for. There was this part where she had this MacGyver-like ingenuity to use a mattress to aid with some kind of plastic explosive detonation. I imagined the schoolyard back in the day where some lucky kid who got to rent the VHS before anyone else would boast about her "making the bed explode!"

Let's see... there are cool bits and sequences and I don't remember the whole thing but there are cool bits on their own. The junkyard crane fight, the bubble bath, the splashy pole dance in the opening credits... some narrative elements like the shot of the very red landscape, opening prologue and Barb revealing the year to be 2017. I commented this was what happened in an alternate timeline where the Nintendo Switch wasn't released.

So let's see... she's also a bounty hunter, she's the hero, her brother gets fridged by the bad guys in a gender reversal on that trope... Imagine if there was a Metroid movie in the 90s and she was in it... food for thought. I think she's a deserving action movie protagonist and it would be cool if there were more movies like this with her in the lead. She could rescue nerdy scientists or boys our age or something and we would all swoon and fawn over her.

Udo Kier is in this. I remember him from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Imagine a crossover, some big crazy weird 90s crossover.

We just had all had a good time with this movie! I felt we were righting a wrong with this revisit and appreciating what it is, making some good memories.

I'll end this with more daydreaming of Pamela Anderson's beauty and glamour. I'll have to check out her documentary too.