Film Chat: Footlong hotdogs on a Friday morning?

Michael gives his views on the pick and mix that is a Friday at the multiplex.

FRIDAY morning at the multiplex is a strange time.

No queues, no kids chucking popcorn about and no problem finding a space in the car park.

These are all more than adequate compensations for the weird sensation of emerging, blinking from a darkened auditorium into the sunlight of an April lunchtime.

It’s not all pluses, though.

As I waited, bleary-eyed, for my morning coffee to be prepared, I was a little alarmed to see two other punters, each built like the proverbial brick outhouse, adding lashings of ketchup to their footlong hotdogs, each of which was already swarming with fried onions. Not quite what I wanted to see at 11.30 on a Friday morning.

Thankfully, these human eating machines went a different way from me at the top of the stairs and I was left to the relative peace of Screen 1 and the Gervais/Merchant treat that is Cemetery Junction.

Until that is, two middle-aged men sat in the same row and began rustling their cagouls, forcing me to move a few rows back.

Such are the swings and roundabouts of a Friday morning at the movies. Still, it beats a 100-strong queue and a dozen ongoing mobile phone conversations, I suppose.