A Night Out!

Since the beginning of October, we had been planning on going out on the night of the 30th. The plan was simple - a local restaurant was hosting a fancy dress Halloween night of food and music and dancing, so at the start of the month, we booked out tickets - Kellie & Myself, plus Kerry & James.

We decided - for giggles - to go as Witches & Wizards. Nothing 0dd in that, except, the girls were going to be the Wizards, and us boys would be the Witches. The girls got costumes, but obviously, we needed something more special, so started sorting our dresses, tights/stockings/hats/broomsticks/makeup - the whole lot.

Those of you that have known me for several years will know that Dressing Up used to form part of my main hobby, that of Live Roleplaying. I used to love going, costumed up, running adventures - brilliant stuff. Sorting costumes and props for our night out reminded me how much I loved - and miss - LRPing.  What I didn't count on, however, was nerves. I've not been out in public dressed like a crazy in many years, and while I was looking forward to it, my stomach decided to be a bit nervy. I knew I'd be OK eventually, as we'd be with other like-minded crazies that would also look rather 0dd.

Yesterday morning - while putting the finishing touches to our costumes, the phone rings. It's the restaurant, telling us the night is cancelled due to lack of ticket sales.

Arse.

So, a flurry of activity between us and K+J, we start to figure where we're going to go instead. Using the powers of the Intarwebz, as well as local papers, we started to hunt. Page after page of "Events" and "What;'s Happening" and "Social Stuff" and we made an interesting discovery...

There was NOTHING else going on within 30 miles of us. Not a party, not a function, not a fancy dress screening of anything... So, with the girls being pissed off, we decided to see what movies were on. Don't Be Afraid of The Dark was the first scary movie that sprang to my mind, but it's not showing anywhere in Essex. Kent or London, yes, but Essex? No.  Paranormal Activity 3 was showing, but A) I've not seen the first two, and B) The girls refuse to watch #1 on grounds of it being "too scary".

Then the discussion shifted - let's wear our costumes to the cinema AND eat out somewhere. I was not impressed with this idea. I had chilled out a bit thinking "no need for costume" but at the mention of wearing it - in public, where no one else would be wearing theirs - I was not having none of it. At all. I could handle being dressed up with other dressed up sorts, but not going out for an evening dressed like it. Hell no.

I don't do "center of attention" very well at all, let alone out and about in Basildonia. So the other three all started sulking. "If you're not wearing yours, we're not wearing ours!" came the cries.

They tried Guilt. On me. Ha!

I pointed out that at NO point was I stopping them wearing theirs, that at no point would I have any issue with them being dressed up and me being, well, dressed, and at no point did I tell them I would feel left out.

But no, if Dan wasn't dressed up, they wouldn't be either. Again, the guilt didn't work, but they are grown ups - they can make their own decisions ;)

So anyway, I was up for several movies - Tin Tin, Contagion, The Three Musketeers, I'd have been quite happy with them. However, group of four, trying to get all four to decide on something = not easy. 3/4 thought Tin Tin was a good idea. 2/4 voted Paranormal Activity. And so on... Kellie put on a trailer for something called We Need To Talk About Kevin and said it looked interesting. I sort of wrinkled my nose - it didn't do anything for me. Kerry agreed with Kellie that it looked interesting, and James made the decision that THAT would be what we were seeing.

I, however, kept quite because I'd already "made" everyone not wear their costumes. I didn't want to tell them the film looked iffy.

So, first stop of the evening was Aroma - an All-You-Can-Eat Chinese buffet restaurant that is lovely. And James and Myself really do put that to the test - we eat all we can. I opted for a plate of MEAT, I skipped the noodles and rice and stuff, I just wanted MEAT. Us boys had, er.. three plates each, while the girls scoffed two. Then we had dessert. Om nom nom and indeed, nom.

Then we hit the cinema. Grabbed our Stupidly Oversized Popcorn and Bladder Busting Drink, went into the cinema and plonked our bums. Movie started.

Now, I am not by any means a film snob. Far from it, I tend to find Arty-Farty movies not to be my cup of tea. They may well be the greatest movies of all time, but they don't do anything for me. At all. And "indie" films also don't stoke my proverbial fire.

Ten minutes into the film, and it was all about focusing in and out, jumping between "now" and "then", using colour as a metaphor, having very quiet sounds play just out of your hearing... I thought "uh oh" but sat and remained quiet.

We Need To Talk About Kevin has received rave reviews. Star Ratings coming out of the wazoo. Stormed the crowds at Cannes. No doubt it did well at every other arty-farty film festival.

At one point, I noticed Kerry was asleep. James was doing the nodding-head-forwards thing. But I endured. Something might happen to interest me.

Kellie guessed one of the main twists five minutes before it happened on the screen. The ONLY character I liked in the whole thing meets a grisly end (which, I suppose, is the point) and in the long run, was depressing as f$ck.

So, screen goes black. I look at Kellie, I glare at James. Kerry makes a "What the f..." comment, and I'm SO with her. And everyone else in the cinema just looked at the person they were with, with the exact same expression I could feel on my face. The movie ended, everyone got up and walked out.

In complete and utter silence.

Nothing, not a word, not a cheer. Those three went for a pee, and I stood outside waiting for them. Another couple left, and she said to him "What was that film about, exactly?" and he just shrugged.

I am happy to report, that James did receive a fairly large amount of shite for his choice of movie. Flak here, flak in person, flak on Facebook, even flak on Twitter - which he doesn't even use! I can honestly, hand-on-heart say that I did NOT enjoy that film. No one in there seemed to. Maybe it was just us, maybe it was just that kind of film but I can't see how it got the reviews it got.

I suspect that at someone will probably come on here with their Anonymous hat on, and rip the crap out of me/us for our review of the movie. Feel free, in fact. You liked it, we didn't. You have your positive review, I have my negative.

I'm not telling anyone to not go see it. I'm sure some of you will prolly like it, or even love it. But we unanimously did not like it nor love it. And the same goes for James. We neither like nor love him any more.

And he will come here, make his case for his defence. Just ignore him. He has no say in movies any more.