A recent radio review of a movie highlighted (again) the need for reviewers to be very careful of not giving the plot away; even accidently .
This time it was a panel, all waxing lyrical and enthusiastically about Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River. I, like most of the listening audience, hadn’t seen it yet. It had only just opened and the reviewers had probably seen an earlier critics preview anyway.
In their excitement during this live show, one of them, whilst praising a certain element of the film, said something like “at the end when XXXXX points his fingers in the shape of a gun at YYYYYY. ”
Ouch!
It’s sort of a mystery film and now we all know who lives!
A similar thing had happened a decade ago, when a friend saw Basic Instinct before I did. I asked her what it was like and was told “really good, except you never know if Sharon Stone is really killing them…”. Oh dear.
Mark S from Monash, if you are out there you may be having a quiet laugh. I do believe after seeing The Empire Strikes Back, you and I walked out passed the queue waiting to go in. I do believe the following words were jointly spoken, out loud: “Wow, I can’t believe that Leia is Luke’s mother….”