When bad movies happen to good people

I saw 'Australia' on Friday night. It was horrific, as I thought it would be. It was like Baz Luhrmann put as many cliches as you could possibly imagine into a fairy floss machine and then had a bit of a puke on it. Oh, hang on, that was me. I had a very good reason for going, though. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

The experience was made bearable by the fact that I was sitting with Luke and Amy. What this meant was that we were free to snort cynically, giggle inappropriately and slouch further and further down in our seats until we were in adequate cringing positions. I think at one point I nearly slid off my seat in the hope that I would bang the back of my head and become concussed so that the movie would at least appear to finish sooner.

This has happened to us before (not the concussion, but the bad movie watching experience). We went to the Nova to see 'Noise' (which incidentally is an excellent movie) but it was sold out. We decided on the spur of the moment to see 'The History Boys'. It may be summed up in a scene where a weedy teenage boy sings a song entitled 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' in front of his whole class focussing on the object of his affection- an arrogant young man who everyone in the movie (including teachers) seems to be inexplicably besotted by. It was honestly one of the most terrible films I've ever seen. I was certainly not bewitched by it. Bothered and bewildered by the sheer pointlessness of it, perhaps.

But, as much as I hated these films, I would rather watch a bad movie with great people than a good movie with people I don't connect with at all. With good company, the experience can move from potentially intolerable through to more than tolerable- maybe even fun!

Still, don't see 'The History Boys'...or 'Australia'...