A film snob? Not me!

Stuart Smith took offence at my blog last week about film “bluffs”, accusing me of being a cinema snob, writes our Movie Blogger Carl Jones.
He reckons I’d try to tell people Citizen Kane was a wonderful must-see movie, when he thought it was terrible.

Actually Stuart, I’ve never described it as a magical piece of cinema. I’d like to think I try very hard not to fall into the trap of many film critics, who seem to write simply to impress one another.

If you ask me what my favourite Orson Wells movie is, I’d actually buck the critics’ trend and go for The Third Man . . . but given the choice I’d still rather watch a James Bond film, and can’t wait for the release of the new Spider-Man adventure.

I liked the first American Pie teen comedy, love the ridiculous action romp Con Air, and am a sucker for a bit of Peter Sellers as the Pink Panther.

If I’m a movie snob, then I’m certainly a mass-market one.

There are reasons why you get more bums on seats for the big blockbusters. Big-money advertising and media hype is one of them, but the fact that they connect to the wider population’s interests and aspirations is another.

At the end of the day, the majority of people go to the cinema for escapism, not education. Sometimes, we can get far too pompous about it.

Someone once asked me to name my 10 favourite films of all time, and despite agonising about it on many occasions, I’ve never managed to come up with it. Because it depends what mood you’re in.

My ideal film would have the style of a Hitchcock thriller, the twists and turns of a Usual Suspects, a dreamy John Barry soundtrack, and a teasing romantic back story which suggests far more than the audience is ever allowed to see.

Anyway, time to move on. This week Shropshire gets a dose of the lights, camera and big-screen action when the south of the county is featured as a key location in the dark and at times very brutal revenge thriller Straightheads.

Key parts were filmed at Mawley Hall, near Cleobury Mortimer, where my features desk colleague James Shaw spent several days snooping in search of an exclusive. Sadly, star Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer remained elusive.
Perhaps they didn’t want to spill the beans about what a mediocre movie they were making.
Beautiful, sexually confident Alice (Anderson) hires Adam (Dyer) to install a new security system in her expensive London apartment. The charge of sexual attraction is instant and Alice invites Adam to accompany her to a party in the south Shropshire countryside.

After a quick fumble in the shrubbery at the party, where Alice’s friends stare down their noses at Adam, the couple begin driving back to the capital.
But en route they almost collide with a Range Rover, which forces them off the road. Serious road rage follows – Adam is badly beaten by a gang of heavies, and Alice is raped.
Refusing to report the incident to the police, the pair stagger back to their old lives, bearing the emotional and physical scars of their ordeal.
The pain cuts deep until Alice discovers, by chance, that the gangleader and his daughter live close to her late father.
The opportunity for revenge is irresistible . . .
The dark desires, which propel the characters on their journey of self-destruction, might be more compelling if the screenplay were stronger. Unfortunately, characters aren’t well formed, and the longer the torrid tale is spun out, the more tenuous the film’s grasp on realism becomes.
Not a title to name-drop in the pub to impress your mates.