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"

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.