Last night I met up with Brian Pigeon's PR agent, Lisa, Madame Miaow and Annie Mole (of "Going Underground" fame) - the latter being responsible for us all meeting up for a popcorn-stuffing, Revel Russian Roulette*-fuelled few hours sitting in the dark, or "going to the cinema" as it's normally called.
This was a preview screening of "Three and Out", a film about a driver on the London Underground. On a slight tangent, why is it that even a "small" popcorn is absolutely gargantuan in size? Who on earth decreed that it's almost mandatory to nibble at vast quantities of packaging material whilst our brain is otherwise occupied with visual images? Perhaps there's some big recycling drive between Odeon Cinemas and Royal Mail that we're so far not aware of? I'm pretty certain it was Brian's PR who referred to popcorn as "Polystyrene" last night, and quite frankly, that's what started this whole thought process - not that I don't enjoy absently shovelling it in along with the rest of the audience, but I digress (as usual). Back to the movie - we have taken our seats to watch this British-made comedy out next month - trailer below.
Mackenzie Crook, tube driver in debt, has had 2 people fall under his train in as many weeks. He is then told about the Three and Out rule: three fatalities in a month, and you're out of a job with a huge payout. This is the story of what happens next, when he meets Colm Meaney (yes, O'Brien out of Star Trek, and yes, I know he's been in Layer Cake and is an established actor outside of the Federation, but this is "Geek Chic", after all, so I had to mention it).
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Being the sort of person to avoid finding out anything about a film before going to see it, it's quite a challenge to review this film and say what I thought was good about it without giving too much away. It's a strange movie - how does one produce a screenplay dealing with death which is also a comedy? Certainly, having a dark sense of humour myself (probably due to traumatic childhood experiences) I found myself warming to a film which had a bit more substance than your average rom-com.
Although I found the love interest somewhat unbelieveable (Mackenzie Crook in an uncomfortably extended sex scene (no pun intended) with a Bond girl, anyone?), there was still a great plot to accompany the now obligatory "boy meets girl" storyline and a refreshing amount of substance to Meaney's character in particular.
_Tube lovers like myself will also appreciate the train driver viewpoints afforded to the filmmakers by London Transport and I did enjoy the film despite one glaring geek error which I can't prevent myself from mentioning (watch out for what sound the Dell computer makes when it boots up, Apple Mac fans).
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Considering there aren't any helicopters, explosions or Kung Fu, I still think this is worth a bucket of polystyrene or two in the dark.
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Three and Out is in cinemas from 25th April 2008.
*mmm, Malteser!! Noooo, coffee!!
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