Men with swords talking nonsense

Okay, slightly later than planned (what's new?) but you'll have to forgive my even-more-sporadic-than-usual blogging while I sort out some computer issues.

Let's see, where was I?

Oh yeah, before I go any further, I'm obviously not going to get round to writing an entire blog entry about it at this rate, so let me just say that the awful film I saw recently which I promised to tell you about was HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS.

It's a Spanish film doing the rounds at festivals at the moment and, bizarrely, picking up some critical acclaim. I can't even begin to fathom why.

Loosely based on the tale of Don Quixote, the film opens with Quixote and Sancho Panza sitting about in a field. It goes on like this for some time. Then they walk somewhere. Then they sit about for a while again. Then one of them might say something. And so it goes for the entire bloody film.

What we're left with is two hours of two uninteresting blokes wandering about some fields doing uninteresting things (by which I mean nothing at all), and occasionally saying something uninteresting. I know I never walk out the cinema early, but this one had me seriously considering calling an end to that rule. I felt insulted after sitting through this drivel, and to make it worse, it's not even like it looks nice. It's like some guy just decided to shoot his mates with a camcorder while they wandered about a field.

The director is kidding himself if he thinks his (glaringly unprofessional) cast or (murky and ineffective) cheapo visuals are actually interesting enough to carry this off and make it worthwhile sitting through. Avoid this film like the plague - it may have picked up some praise and drawn comparisons to directors such as Pasolini (who I'm not a huge fan of to begin with) but from where I was sitting the emperor appeared to be entirely naked.

Immediately after watching this film, I popped up the road to see 300. Again, this was another film that involved blokes with swords talking about honour. However, this one was actually worth watching.

Despite it being the kind of big-budget no-brain stuff I usually rail against, I found that 300 had enough spectacle, heart and such a sense of fun that the time flew by, the exact opposite of the pretentious guff I'd just sat through previously. It's like a historical epic in the style of SIN CITY, and if you see one film about blokes with swords waffling about honour, this should be the one. Women can admire the pumped up soldiers, blokes can admire, well, pretty much everything else in the film.

Blimey, I've just realised that I have sat and told you all about it after all. That'll do for today then. Next time I might even manage to get round to writing up that trip to London recently. If I can remember anything about it by the time I get round to writing it.