The Friday Encourager: The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
…is Christmas, obviously. But Hallowe’en is still a good time for moviegoers, for a variety of reasons. So whether you love or hate this season, being inside a cinema should be high on your list of possible options this weekend.
Love: Paranormal Activity 2
If you want to truly get the spooky feel, then the best bet would be some out and out scares. There are other seasonal options around (neither of which I’ve seen yet, I hasten to add), Saw 3D finishing the horror series, and while the first two were great scares and more thoughtful horror movies with great twists, it’s been pretty much downhill from there. There’s also Burke and Hare, but the trailer suggests this is broad comedy through and through. So if you’re looking for things that go bump in the night, then may I suggest the follow up to last year’s low budget chiller.
I’ll be honest with you – if you don’t buy into the concept at least a little then you may be struggling to get the most from this one. It’s also largely a retread of the first movie, with just enough to keep it different, although it does attempt to expand the story of the original. (I know, I’m really selling it, aren’t I?) But if you can find a darkened cinema with enough like minded other individuals, there’s enough jumps and scares here to leave you wandering nervously into the night. (Clue’s in that last sentence – movies like this shouldn’t be watched in the daytime.)
Hate – Pretty much anything else
I’ll be honest – I’m not a fan of Hallowe’en. Even if I didn’t have some religious leanings, I’ve never been that into ghosts or ghouls, and if there was an All Hallows equivalent of “Bah humbug!”, I’d be saying it right now. (I may have to come up with one, come back to me on that.) But why not escape the constant barrage of over-sugared seven year olds arriving at your front door with a box of eggs, a suspicious looking paper bag and a collection of malicious grins beneath those Spider-Man masks, and head down to your local multiplex or art house?
Rounding out the top 4 (number 5 is an odd looking film about owls fighting in slow motion) are Despicable Me, RED and The Social Network. The latter is an instant classic that will have people banding around words like zeitgeist and Timberlake, the former are two perfectly acceptable pieces of entertainment, one for the family and one for the grown ups, but both with plenty of enjoyable moments. But if you have any sense, then you’ll see The Social Network, if you haven’t already, and possibly even if you have. But please, just get out there and see something.
(Timbergeist? For the Hallowe’en bah humbug? No, sounds more like something you’d wear on the day. Or maybe they all need to be sweet related. Humph bonbon?)
The Movie Evangelist 