I would not normally choose to see Terminator Salvation. However, it was my 14-year-old son William’s birthday party, and, having dropped him, some friends and his brothers off at the cinema, I was aghast to find that the youngest wouldn’t be admitted. It was classified as 12A. Yes, Charlie is eight, but surely he would be allowed in with his brother?
As the answer was no, I had to go in as well. Usually, I expect to be horrified or shocked by things that my children find perfectly unremarkable, but in this case, I found the film very noisy, without being scary. It’s too computer-generated for that. I was more disturbed by the generally apocalyptic tone, which seems to reflect an increasingly common world view: that, in the words of Private Frazer in Dad’s Army, we’re all doomed.
There have been eschatologists before; Savonarola preached at a time when many Florentines thought the world would end in 1500. It didn’t then, and when I emerged from the cinema, having thought it safe to leave after half an hour, I found that it hadn’t on Saturday. The sun shone. There was a Mediterranean feel to the streets as I drove home and back again to pick them up. Just time for a swift half in a surprisingly classy pub. We’re all doomed? I’ll think about it later.
-
‘Calf’s brains have a bland, gentle richness that soothes and cossets': Tom Parker Bowles on the joys of eating offalEating offal it is more sinned against than sinning, but it offers the ultimate in magnificent, fully immersive eating.
-
The wave of downsizing about to hit the property market in the UKThe Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget — and specifically the 'Mansion Tax' — has fired a starting pistol for downsizers, and the waves will wash across the entire property market. Annabel Dixon spoke to property experts across the country to gauge how it will play out.
