Well, we're around the corner from Hollywood so it's about time we talked movies! Cinemas here are well run and quirky in some cases. The food on offer is, as you'd expect, better than in the UK. The audiences, however...that's a different matter.
American cinema audiences are a strange bunch, putting tragedies like the Colorado shooting aside. In the 4 visits we've made to the cinema since we've been here, at few strange people have laughed and passed comments THROUGHOUT the film.
Now bear in mind the films we were watching at the time were 'Prometheus', 'The Dark Knight Rises' 'The Master' and 'Looper'. Not exactly slapstick levels of comedy.
Why? Why all the commentary and guffaws during a mildly-amusing-bordering-on-dull scene in an otherwise serious film?! Why the constant verbalising of how you're feeling, how cute the kid on screen is, how shocked you are when someone's killed. I blame the therapy culture here...It's all very annoying and just a bit stupid really. Sorry America. You make great films but your audience sucks.
Visit a cinema in the UK and you're guaranteed a gang of spotty teens and groups munching noisily away on popcorn and using their phones. Let's blame that on being young. In the US you're surrounded by grown adults, devoid of a sense of humour, or awareness of the sound of their own voices. Show them an episode of The Office and the cinema would most likely remain eerily silent...
In terms of the movies themselves, if you've not seen any of the above, here's a quick review:
Prometheus: Well made, too much thinking involved during and after. Not enough aliens!
Dark Knight Rises: Sublime. Sad it's the last in the franchise.
The Master: Will probably win awards, but we came away unimpressed. Indulgent, and uncomfortable, weird for the sake of it, and didn't have much to say about quite an interesting subject.
Looper: Bruce Willis and time travel. What more could you want? Very entertaining.
We took a trip to the Getty Center yesterday; J Paul Getty's hilltop museum housing paintings, sculpture and photography from around the world. 
Another blazing hot day (you tend to forget it's late October) and not a cloud in the sky gave us some ideal photo opportunities, with the ocean on one side and downtown LA on the other...
