The Ultimate(um) Experience

Blockbuster of the year. Highly acclaimed by critics and those around us who have seen the movie. Looks like one of those films you HAVE TO catch on the big screens.

Since I have a terrible memory of books read and films viewed, I decided to do a revision of the first two installments of the Bourne series before making the trip to the cinema. Unfortunately, it was not the easiest of tasks to get hold of the DVDs for Identity and the Supremacy. The kiosks that derod and I frequent do not carry them, and the couple of rental stalls I inquired at had their supplies all checked out. It was so tough that we had decided to abandon the revision plan and head straight for the Ultimatum.

Sounds easy? Beat this.

On two separate occasions, derod and I have attempted and failed to catch the show. By attempted I mean that we have packed up gabe and his stuff, brought him to my parents’, ventured out to the streets, only to find that we were far too late for any screening at the three or four nearest cinemas. You'd have notice that a significant amount of time has transpired between the inability to get hold of the revision materials and the unsuccessful attempts at a date in the dark. So, derod did what he was good at *ahem* and I got to view Identity and Supremacy on his laptop. But beggars can't be choosers; I had to compromise on watching Identity in CHINESE! Can you imagine Bourne in chinese?!?!

With the revision done, we were all set to drive down to our third and final attempt today. The initial plan was a 2.45pm show at W cinema, then we found we were late and it had to be changed to 3.05pm at X cinema. We couldn't make it again and had to settle for 3.25pm at Y cinema. Don't ask me why but we went for a longer route to Y and after taking into account all the traffic lights, u-turns and ERP charges, we were met with "carpark full" at its entrance. The string of cars queuing turned derod off and he concluded that he was not in the mood to catch anything now, despite alternative suggestions of titles from me. We drove off but somewhere inside, very buay gum guan la. So continued our search for another "nearest cinema" and we found one! 4.25pm Z cinema. We looked at the clock. 4pm.

Along the way, I sounded derod out on the worst-case scenarios: what if we were late again? What if they say they only have tickets for the front three rows? So we laughed our way to our destination, seriously feeling very stupid and declaring that this better be a damn damn damn good movie. Guess what? The guy at the ticket counter trumped my worst-case scenario by offer two seats at the 2nd row from the front. And derod actually accepted it when he found out it was a 10-row cinema!!!

The last time I was this close to the screen was possibly a decade ago, when a bunch of us girls watched The Song Sisters on Row 1. Then, the seats were closer to the screen and the canvas was much higher up, so you can imagine us looking like we were watching a ping pong match, with tears streaming down our eyes at more than one part of the film, all this while our necks were craned so far back our hairlines touched our spines. I had promised myself never to repeat this stunt... sighhhhh

Those of you who have caught Ultimatum would note that the cameras move so fast so often that it was sometimes difficult to tell the details of what happened. Imagine that with cross-eyed vision. I wonder whether it was more exciting for Bourne or me when they were going through that car chase, for it was happening at possibly ten times the speed for me.

It does look like the film deserved all the good comments it got, but don't ask me if it was worth all the time, effort, fuel for round-the-island trip, parking of close to five bucks, weekend ticket prices, and of course the amount for renting the DVD when it's released, for derod said we just have to have a clearer view of the details.