Saturday, May 26, 2007

Rain, Friends and a Movie Review

Rain

The rain is coming down hard. The intensity goes up and down like waves. At one point it almost looks like snow the droplets are so thick.

It's strange, when I got up early this morning the sun was shining. I opened the curtains and pushed my chair into the light to bask in the warm glow. But that's Glasgow for you.

Friends

Meet up with some people last night to see the movie Next. Movie was OK, but that wasn't the point of the evening. At some point between chatting with people at the table in the theatre's Cafe Bar and then walking down Sauchiehall Street to another pub it kind of hit me that I'm now with friends. I no longer feel like an outsider, silently observing. It felt comfortable and natural.


After the movie we went to an old man's pub The Griffin for a pint and conversations about the Legendary Lonely Haggis, shopping for vintage clothing, and fishing for sea bagpipes. Much laughter was had. Still trying to figure out why though in the last 30-45 minutes the pub decided to crank up the music to the point that it became difficult to be hear. That was one of the reasons we went for the old man's pub', for the quiet.

The Movie Review


Don't worry I won't give any spoilers or plot twists. This is just my general opinion about the movie. I thought the concept was good, but I think it would have been better as an independent film rather than a major studio. It would have been good to have a bit more grit and for the main character to show a bit more torment (this was only slightly eluded to in one scene).


I just don't like Nicolas Cage in this type of role. I think he's better in the quirkier movies, Raising Arizona is a perfect example. The character of H.I. McDunnough was just so over the top yet had such a lovely humanity to him you immediately bought into it. A more mainstream example would be the the role of Dr. Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock. Of course this being a Jerry Bruckheimer film it was a slick but the main character was the old fish out of water take with lots of zingy dialogue.

Then there is the hair. Not sure what's going on there. It seems to be getting darker and thicker with each role and he's just starting to look a bit creepy.

But that's just my opinion. It was an entertaining evening out and really that's all I look for when going to a movie with friends. But on the way to the pub we walked past the GFT. Looks like some good films are showing there.

Oh and the rain stopped (for now)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is great to hear you nestling into Glasgow life. Enjoying both a sun beam and a stormy sky (and if God wills it, a rainbow) on the same day is one of the coastal pleasures we enjoy as well. We look forward to reading your blogs from the wee island in the mediterranean.

Peggy said...

The thing about living in Scotland is that if one cancels things because it is raining, one will never get anything done. You just learn to go out in spite of the rain. The only exceptions to this are picnics and mowing the lawn.

Squirmy Popple said...

I agree with you about the music at pubs. It seems like they feel the need to crank the music up to an ungodly volume at a certain point in the evening. I go to pubs because I want to have a quiet drink with friends. If I wanted loud music, I'd go to a club.

shivaya1972 said...

hello there! i came across your blog while googling for blogs on expats in scotland.....i recently visited glasgow for a business trip and fell in love with it...

i have very vivid pipe dreams about moving there and working there someday with my husband...oh glasgow, how i miss thee! the scots i met there said that Scotland is very amenable to giving visas to foreigners and to "seal the deal" i should birth a kid there...hmmm.... :))

thanks for the window into life there....when youre on sauchiehal and garnet, i think is the cross street, have a great brandy coffee at the corner cafe if you haven't already.....

best to you! :))

A. Colleen Jones said...

Hi Chris, the music in the pub thing is the same in Galway. They crank it so you can't talk and all you can then do is drink. That is the reason for it. Very irritating because I think people would drink just as much if they could talk as well. But who ever said it was logical!

Scott said...

Great blog thanks for posting this.