X Men 3

Of course - the inevitable happened. We met up with Lester in London at 2pm on Saturday for the third installment of the excellent 'X-Men' film saga. After enjoying (yet) another excellent Vietnamese meal on the outskirts of Chinatown, we ventured out of the sweltering heat to seek refuge in the air-conditioned sanctuary of the cinema, only to find our film was on the top floor (yes - London's like that) on a smallish screen at 4:30pm. "...But.." the assistant tells us... "it's just starting on the big screen downstairs"... 2 minutes later we're in the THX-accredited theatre being introduced to the previews. Bliss. I have to say - I was pleasantly surprised. With Brett Ratner's only notable previous outings being the Rush Hour movies and Red Dragon, and a stylish but vapid Austin Powers / Madonna video, I expected a hollow imitation of Bryan Singers' previous X-Men chronicles. What we got was a headlong charge through another X-Men storyline, with some reasonable glimpses into the past with flashbacks to Xavier and Eric as younger men. A wasted cameo (and I mean that in the worst way) appearance from the ever-disappointing Vinny Jones as Juggernaut, and the 'well-setup-but-then-dropped-for-no-reason-except-for-appearing-unexpectedly-at-the-end' mis-use of Warren Worthington III/Angel. Kelsey Grammer gives great value as the brooding-but-restrained Dr Hank McCoy, ESPECIALLY when he finally 'let's his hair down' and get's his 'beast' on! One top-tip for anyone planning to go see the film... hang around until after the credits (they're shorter than normal for just this reason). It's worth the wait.

Oh well. It was fun - and we got home much earlier than expected.