I remember watching Donnie Darko for the first time (about two hours before watching it for the second time). It was on DVD after the initial spate of interest in the movie. Being that I am as superficial as Paris Hilton at a Beauty Pageant, I don’t tend to rush out and watch these arty movies, especially when they are described as oh-my-god-you-have-to-see-this-movie-it’s -so-weird-and-really-great-oh-my-god. But we were down in cork at there was a special offer in HMV or Virgin or Tower or whatever it is they have down there. We bought a bunch of €3.99 DVD’s, one of which was this off the wall semi-sci-fi drama with Jake Gyllenhaal.

I was immediately disappointed. Disappointed that I hadn’t bought it sooner, disappointed that I didn’t believe the hype, disappointed that I didn’t take the time to see it in the cinema. Well, as part of the Cinemagic’s Festival of Film and Television for (and by) Young People, I have the opportunity to see it on the big screen in Cineworld.

I have no intention of giving any credit to Darragh Doyle, who has provided tickets for the Tuesday 29th showing of Donnie Darko in Cineworld Cinema on Parnell Street. Nor do I plan on thanking him for giving me the opportunity to share a number of tickets with readers of this blog.

If you would like to join me to see this wonderful movie, please drop me a mail or leave a comment requesting tickets. They’re free!!! The film starts at 6.30pm on Tuesday 29th April and I would love to drag people into Keating’s Church, the bar on Mary’s Street, for drinks and chattery afterwards.

Donnie Darko

Set in the small town of Middlesex, USA at the end of the Reagan era, it tells the story of a disturbed teenager, Donnie, who has visions of Frank, a man in a fake-fur suit and rabbit mask.

Frank leads Donnie to commit crimes while he is sleepwalking and tells him that the end of the world is fast approaching.

At school Donnie makes friends with new girl, Gretchen, who is trying to escape her abusive father. Together they try to understand Donnie’s neurosis, however both their futures are changed forever when Donnie, following Frank’s instructions, takes drastic actions against local self-help guru Jim Cunningham.

A series of events are set in motion that are only disrupted further by Donnie’s traveling back in time.

Cinemagic

Please check out Cinemagic’s website or Darragh Doyle’s blog for further information about this great festival.

I love this show!!

The plan to head to Donegal on Friday evening after work was slightly delayed. We hit the road at 8.15 Saturday morning.

Picking up a friend of mine, Gary, in Dublin, we met the rest of the gang beside Tesco in Letterkenny. Wrecked tired, hungry and thirsty, having traveled 232 kilometers, we just wanted to sit. The prospect of running around in the mud, carrying heavy guns and dodging bullets did not sound particularly appealing. But we pulled ourselves together (Mary and I needed a pint before being able to pull ourselves together, naturally) and headed towards The Old Foundry to risk our lives, to dare to be bold, to step once more into the breach, to……okay, it’s just paintballing, but it hurts!

I was surprised they allowed us to do it, as our group consisted of just six people (a certain blogger and another member of our group, Niamh, were too chicken to be shot repeatedly and endure pain and bruising – wimps).

The day was broken into a number of missions or objectives, and we were broken into two teams (they wouldn’t allow boys vs girls – is that some sort of sexism?). Our team, Mary, Lottie and myself, took on Stella, Gary and Nicky. The first mission, Capture The Flag, was triumphantly won by our team. My genius girlfriend legged it for the flag and took cover before the enemy had even left their base.

After we gained a 2-0 lead, our Nazi-esque opposition clawed back to 2-1, forcing us to pull out all the stops and regain our 2 game lead. It’s fair to say, at 3-1, our near saintly side was feeling confident, and their satanic, evil and fairly ugly side were dejected and lost. How then, HOW could we let them get those last two games to make the day a draw? Grrr argh!

We finished the painball with a free-for-all which was undoubtedly the most barbarous part of the day. Pellets flew in every direction. There was no triage – everyone had to die!! With only Mary and myself left standing, the result was inevitable. I strode confidently in her direction as I heard her screams and cries. She was out of bullets, her gun spouted gas and nothing more, the small bale of hay was not sufficient cover, as I demanded her surrender and claimed victory as king of all! The small amount of guilt I felt at reducing Mary to tears quickly subsided as I accepted my crown.