Of Film and Crisps

I love movies. And I love potato chips (crisps, here in the UK). Here's my two cents worth on both these topics.

I have a movie theatre just about a minute away from where I live, so I got a monthly movie pass that costs me 11 GBP for unlimited movies per month. I try to go at least three times a month to get best value for my cash. But I end up spending 6 GBP or something like that when I buy popcorn and a drink, so perhaps I don't really save anything at all.

Anyway, I went to watch "Lucky Number Slevin" this weekend. Have you guys seen this movie? The movie has some pretty big names in it - Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Josh Hartnett. OK, maybe Josh Hartnett is not that special, especially after "Pearl Harbor".

In my very humble opinion, this is an AWESOME movie. Really gets you thinking. And has some very cool twists and turns (although if you're a little zippy you'll probably figure out the ending before the ending). And it's a little on the bloodier side than what I'm used to. But (small) shortcomings aside, I really give this movie a big "Booyah - it kicks butt" ranking. Go see it, guys and gals - I think it's worth your cash. I really liked "Memento", and LNS has about the same kinda' changes in direction as Memento had. If you didn't like Memento, hmmmm... go see LNS anyway. And if you haven't seen Memento, then go see LNS AND rent Memento from your local video store.

OK, now onto the other random topic of crisps. I really like potato chips. I could eat a lot of them except the saturated fat and the sodium would cause severe arteriosclerosis.

In the US, there's three basic flavors of chips that most normal people like - plain, BBQ and SC&O (sour cream and onion, for all you acronym-challenged types). Sure, there are some "marginal" flavors like jalapeno or habanero or cheddar (I'm not counting Cheetos here - they are in a whole separate category) or salsa-lime or something like that - but in general, even these marginal flavors aren't that "out there". And you can always rely on the "Big Three".

Here in the UK.... not so much. I've just opened a bag of... wait for it... Oven Roasted Chicken and Thyme potato chips. Yup. It tastes just about as good as it sounds. I'm visualizing that they (a) took a big ole' heap of roasted chickens that had some thyme on them, and then (b) grinded them all up to form something like a thick "roast chicken gooey essence", which they then (c) put into the vat of potato chips to flavor them. Hmm. Maybe they shouldn't have experimented with this one.

Some other distinct UK flavors that we don't get in the US -

1. smoky bacon,
2. tomato ketchup,
3. beef and onion,
4. lamb and mint,
5. marmite (some vile, beefy tasting extract akin to Australia's vegemite),
6. pickled onion, and
7. prawn (shrimp) cocktail.

Dude, they are so messing with a good thing here. And I'm not too happy about it. I understand from one of the producer's web sites that the following flavors have been suggested by the UK public - pineapple & cheese, bacon & egg, and pigeon & garlic. I think I'll have to give the big IX-NAY to all of these.

And remember Cheetos? Nope. Don't have them here. Barbaric, these folk are, I tell you. Simply barbaric.