ONE SMALL SCREEN, ONE GIANT SCHLEP

Last week I watched movies on a plane. Being an infrequent flyer, this was a great novelty to me – seat-backs converted into mini-cinemas! Literally tens of titles to choose from! Sensibly, I decided to kick off my 11-hour high-altitude journey to the States with a film centred on terrorism – the mildly disappointing Rendition (intriguing set-up, lukewarm payoff, not enough for Meryl and Reese to do). After that I turned briefly to the novel I’m reading, which promptly threw a plane crash in my lap.

My viewing experience improved with movie number two, one of 2007’s lost gems: real-life DJ drama Talk To Me, sporting lovely performances from Chiwetel Ejifor and Don Cheadle (so much better in non-Cockney). The journey was still barely half over, so I went for another: In The Shadow Of Moon, the deservedly lauded doc about NASA’s Apollo missions. Bit pointless, you might think, to eyeball such expansive subject matter on a screen the size of a lunchbox. And yet… despite the seven-inch viewing panel, despite the continuous passenger announcements, trolly-dollies bustling up and down the aisle and the kid bawling behind me, I got totally swept up in the moon-walking majesty of it all. Mankind’s giant step still loomed large on the tiddly little screen.

The point I’m nudging at is that with cinema, size doesn’t really matter – quality will out, whatever the format. Watching ITSOTM reminded me of catching Point Break (get well soon, Swayze; where did you go, Kathryn Bigelow?) for the first time on a mate’s piddly TV back in the dark pre-DVD ages. Didn’t hamper the tsunami-like adrenaline rush one tiny bit. Course, it cuts both ways – watching Beowulf in three dimensions at the IMAX couldn’t disguise the so-so-ness of the storytelling. Next-gen tech’s a true blessing – thank God the days of fiddling with the ‘tracking’ on the VCR are dead and gone – but no Blu-ray brainiac’s ever going to stumble on the formula for polishing turds.