Back in Summer 1981 some girls came to visit Sligo from Northern Ireland and we hung around with them for a while.

We were seventeen, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

One of our guys (who’d better remain nameless in case he’s lurking like Sean was - (see comment in previous post)) actually fell head over heels for one of the girls for the sole reason that he helped her to get sick in a wash basin one fine evening. Well, physical contact was at something of a premium back then.

Look, here’s the point – these girls had seen a film, up in Northern Ireland, which we hadn’t even got to hear about yet.

"Wait ‘til you see it," they said, "And wait ‘til you see the first ten minutes, you won’t bloody believe it."

How right they were!

My relationship with the individual Indiana Jones movies has revised itself a bit over the years. My great affection for the first has never changed and revisiting it on the big screen can revive the most jaded of B Movie palettes. I loved the second when it first came out and I was very disappointed with the third.

This view on numbers two and three has now been completely reversed. ‘Temple of Doom’ is shallow and weak in narrative – although the opening sequence is still great. ‘Last Crusade’ has an opening that is a bit-of-a-dud, in my opinion, but the movie itself is warm and adventuresome.

So last night, our little nuclear family went to see the new one – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I wanted to like it and so I did. There is much in it to be thankful for. Thanks that Harrison Ford is not required to play younger than he is. Thanks that Karen Allen has some back to Indie and to us. Thanks that period detail and wry humour can still be accommodated.

I rushed to see it before all the reviews and the clips and the opinion and the interviews coloured my view of what I was seeing and I strongly recommend that you do the same. Even the small amount of hype which I have exposed myself to, since seeing it, has already started to convince me what I should think of it. I hate that – I know what I think of it, I bloody saw it didn’t I?

Downside? There is a 30 minute section in the first hour that drags quite remarkably. There’s a lot of plot-exposition to get through. Also - I know there’s a lot of talk about this – some of the CGI special effects seems a little intrusive but then I recall that the matte work in Temple of Doom seemed very intrusive too. Once that slow bit gets done – it’s all systems go.

Before I saw it, I didn’t actually know what this movie was ‘about’ – I mean in the same way that the first was about the Arc of the Covenant or the Third was about The Holy Grail. Had I known what it was about, a whole other set of prejudices would have emerged in me before I saw it. You will probably get to hear what it is about before you see it (no, I won’t tell you). How you deal with that information is entirely up to you.

Will you like the new movie?

The answer to that is simple. If you go to it expecting to enjoy it, then you will. All the necessary elements are there, knock yourself out.

On the other hand, if you go expecting to be disappointed, then you will be. There is enough there to be disappointed about, if that’s what rocks your boat.

'Want my advice? Put your best happy face on and get your arse down to your nearest movie-drome.

They still make ‘em like they used to.

These days, I only get to see first run movies if they are kid-friendly. That’s why I was quite pleased to see ‘Iron Man’ come along. This was right up my young guy’s street and, truth be told, it was right up mine too.

I enjoyed this film a lot. I like my comic-book-movies to take themselves a little seriously. That’s the way the original comics were – they created a fantastic world that they did not then feel obliged to apologise for. That’s why those ‘nod-and-a-wink’ movies like Tim Burton’s Batman never really did it for me.

So ‘Iron Man’ takes itself a bit seriously, but not too much so. Robert Downey Jr, looking gaunt and remarkably like Al Pacino at times, is perfect in the lead. This nicely-flawed egotistical, selfish hero almost feels autobiographical to him – except for the flying bits.

Support from Gwyneth Paltrow and most especially Jeff Bridges is excellent. Special effects are so good that it’s finally hard to see the joins between CGI and live action and the overall design mixes hyper-modern with a curious retro feel which simply works brilliantly.

Downside? It’s sufficiently slow to get off the ground that the young folk might twitch a bit (I didn’t). Oh and Terrence Howard doesn’t get enough to do to raise himself above standard sidekick material.

But it’s a complete blast, really. The Iron Man suits are iconic and powerful and the last line is wonderfully telegraphed for all the world to appreciate.

You’ll probably have to like comic books to like it.

But, if you do, you will.

My only complaint had nothing to do with the movie but rather with the theatre I saw it in – so pay attention Mayo Movie World, I know you monitor this feed on a 24 hour basis.

Basically, the sound reproduction in the cinema was nothing less than dreadful. The whole show sounded like it was coming out of a brown paper bag, it was muddied and indistinct.

I went into the foyer quite early on and asked whether the projectionist could come in and have a listen and see if he/she could do something about it. Nothing ever happened. I’ll write them a letter and maybe someone will look into it.

I think auditoria in multiplexes are under-monitored – ‘Set the movie running and then leave it alone’, seems to be the general policy. This is nothing new. In Sligo, many years ago, the movie ‘Christiane F’ ran for a full week with all the reels shown in the wrong order. The general view in the town was that the show was avant garde and challenging.

I also remember when I went to see ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in the cinema. The reels were cranked incorrectly so that only the heads and shoulders of the on-screen protagonists were being seen. The full-house munched away happily while I nearly went mad. I went out, found the projectionist, and told him what was wrong.

"Ah no," said he, in his very best Sligo accent, "Ye see that’s the way it was back in World War Two. They were all down in trenches the whole time."

As I got back to my seat, the image on the screen lurched upwards and corrected itself magically. I spotted the projectionist again as I left but I couldn’t catch his eye.

Finally, at ‘Iron Man’ last night there was a bunch of giddy schoolkids running in and out of the cinema laughing and shouting with no regard for the rest of us trying to watch the film. Well, I think there was regard because this kind of thing is mostly a play for attention, in my jaded opinion.

Anyway, I gave them the attention they craved with a stout warning from my darkened seat.

And guess what?

They all shut up! That never happened before.

... now I know I’m getting old.

Mostly, I've been putting my blogger blogs on here too but lately they've been getting longer and weirder so I've stopped.

But you're welcome to come on over to here:

http://kenarmstrong.blogspot.com/

and have a look around.

Just hang your socks on the radiator, they won't be long dryin' out.