Impulsively went to the movies tonight, Sum Of All Fears (5/10 if you're interested), Fiona was restless, couldn't stay comfortable. She said that she didn't think that she could sit through another movie before Turner Jr. finally makes an appearance. It therefore struck me that tonight was the beginning of the end of an era. Pity it wasn't a better movie. Post 9/11 it was striking how toned down action movies that depict catastrophic loss of life have become. Plot spoiler - highlight the following invisible paragraph to read it.....Basically a nuclear bomb goes off at a football stadium in central Baltimore, the only detailed scenes of destruction are the President's cavalcade getting blown off the road in the blast wave and Jack Ryan's helicopter gets downed. Contrast this with the very graphic scenes of cities being annihilated in movies like Independence Day and one of the 'comet hitting planet earth' movies, can't remember the title but it was the one with Bruce Willis in it where comet fragments are shown slicing through office blocks in very graphic detail. Writers aren't going to stop writing about catastrophic loss of life so I guess Hollywood will eventually loosen up and we'll see buildings getting destroyed again sooner or later. Hopefully later.

Anyway, the beginning of the end of an era.