10 Year Trauma

10 years ago this day, I had the worst time I've ever had in a cinema.

Ben, Julian and I somehow ended up at Bishan with time to kill. There wasn't any movie of note showing at Golden Village. We took stock of the options, and I voted for City Hall, by Al Pacino. Julian, wanted Nicole Kidman in To Die For.

Ben had no strong opinions either way. And it went down to a coin-flip. Which I lost.

OMG, that was the worst movie I ever paid money to watch!!

A story about a psychotic blonde who'll do anything to get on TV. What a bloody boring plot!

This happened during that period of time when everyone thought that the best ticket to an Oscar was to act a dumb / crazy character. Think Hannibal Lector, Nell, and Forrest... It's pretty naive thinking, but the Academy IS that shallow and predictable. Even Sean Penn, despite all his great works, had to play an idiot in I Am Sam to get noticed. (Which he didn't win, because 2002 was the Academy's 'Patronise the African Americans' Year.)

Back to the blonde... I sat through a shitty, dull movie, just so that Julian can get an eyeful of cleavage in the scene where Nicole jumped a high-school kid in order to get him to murder her husband.

There wasn't an ounce of suspense in the movie. The husband was gonna die, and I could feel nothing for the dumb jock. Nicole was gonna die, and I couldn't care less either. There was not one relateable character in the story. It's like a satire, that's not even funny. It's like watching a child's purple balloon drift away from his grasp; the event must have meant something for someONE, since the movie was made at all, but the rest of the world really can't care less.

I could have had two plates of Boon Tong Kee chicken rice for what it costed me to watch that movie.