Daily Archives: September 15, 2011

Drive

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Tonight Sandra and I were pretty lucky to be amongst the first to be checking out the newly renovated cinema (renos costing around £3m) at Swiss Cottage. The cinema itself doesn’t actually re-open until tomorrow so the guy who met us at the door was pretty excited that we were getting this sneak preview. As we had some spare time before our movie he offered to give us a tour of the new cinema to show where the £3m went – don’t think Sandra was particularly interested in this but I couldn’t help but be infected by our host’s excitement and didn’t see it hurting any.

The organisation tonight was a little bit lacking. We were supposed to be seeing the 7.30 screening but apparently there were two screenings tonight and no one had though to really sort us out into the right screenings. We were all kind of herded up into the new bar (admittedly very flashy and with a very extensive drinks list) and told to wait to be summoned. Drinks were offered to us but seeing as we were all here on a freebie – we didn’t want to take a drink in case we had to pay for it! Ha – we are so cheap! 😉

In fact none of us were actually watching the movie on the Imax screen, instead we were checking out the new Club screens. These new cinemas offer a more premium experience for a more intimate crowd (60+ seats as opposed to the Imax’s 300+). After waiting and waiting and seeing some people leaving we decided to take it upon ourselves to just head down to one of the screening rooms to seat ourselves! This was a good decision in te end as we managed to nab some decent seats. The club cinema offers some very comfortable seats (the only way they might have been more comfortable would have been having the legs left up so you could almost lay down) with the promise that food and drinks would be brought to you. Tonight at the premiere they offered up bottles of water and popcorn – unexpected so gratefully accepted.

As for the movie itself – well, Drive was certainly indescriable. For a start I don’t think there could have been more than three or four pages of dialogue in the entire movie! Drive is shot in an olden-day-style – including the font used to show the credits, the music (oh the music!) and some of the stills. It felt awkward at times as there wasn’t a lot of speaking with lots of long silent pauses between characters – sometimes fitting but on other occasions I felt I’d wandered on to the set of the Bold and the Beautiful (or any day-time soap opera where they have those long giant pauses.) It was very odd but … yet … I found myself paying extra attention when characters did speak as you knew it had to be important. This is truly the oddest and weirdest romance you’ll ever watch. Startlingly it’s also very gory in parts starting about half-way through the movie, and when I say gory I mean blood and guts and all sorts of violence on the screen. *Spoiler ahead* A guy actually gets his head kicked in and its literally stomped and flattened in front of you.

Oh and by the by – plot summary: Ryan Gosling plays a driver for hire: stunt driving for movies during the day and driving getaway vehicles at night. He falls for his neighbour, who is still tangled in her husband’s criminal life. There is a robbery gone wrong, lots of people die and lose body parts. It’s a total mess.

Don’t really know what to think of the movie but it is certainly one of the most interesting I’ve seen in a while, and certainly a most original screenplay.

Me Love Sushi

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Somehow scored some last minute tickets to a movie premiere tonight at the new Imax cinemas in the refurbished Swiss Cottage Odeon so of course I took along my regular partner in crime – Sandra, for this experience. But first, dinner! Situated just a very small stroll from the cinema and a nearby theatre I was surprised that Me Love Sushi wasn’t at all busy. Admittedly it was rather early abut even at about 6.30 you might have expected a few more than just us three or four diners. Not to worry – that wasn’t going to stop us tucking into our fare.

Me Love Sushi has a reasonably extensive sushi menu featuring all sorts of styles of sushi for your choice. Nothing on the menu though that isn’t comparable to Yo Sushi or Itsu in price or offering. In addition to sushi they also offer hot dishes such as tempura, kushiyaki (skewers of grilled foodstuffs), noodles, rice dishes and other odds and ends including a black cod miso dish served with rice. This was actually quite well-priced at £14.50 though as we didn’t actually sample it I have no idea whether the portion was reasonable.

Sandra was in the mood for sushi so we selected a mixture of ngiri and maki dishes and finished the meal with some of their own branded ice cream. The food we had was nice though I’m not convinced as to its absolute freshness. From a stomach filling perspective we didn’t feel the portions themselves were particularly generous and we left, if not feeling hungry, at least not particularly full. I’m not saying that you have to leave a restaurant staggeringly food-coma full, especially a sushi one, but in hindsight I would have preferred to have mixed my sushi with some of the bulkier items like a rice bowl to get better value for money, and save my ££ for more established sushi restaurants.

Me love “Me Love Sushi”? Well, not so much however I can see why I might come back – decent variety on the menu covering more than just sushi, service which is very friendly if sometimes a bit slow and distracted, and a cute little venue with sweet added touches such as the writing on our sushi plate, and prices are average for a London restaurant.