Friday Film Club

I love films. I'm not a film buff by any means - that's my husband, who can recount endless information on almost every film ever made and ever actor to have lived on cue. I don't say that to be sarcastic; truly, his knowledge of moving pictures is impressive and incredibly useful in pub quizzes.

We met each other when we both started working at Blockbuster as uni students, at a time when there was still the excitement and romance of going to your local video store on a Friday night to browse the latest releases and argue with your parents / friend / date about what genre of film you should rent and whether you should buy salted or sweet popcorn (salted, of course). This was way before LoveFilm, Netflix and illegal downloads rendered independent rental shops and Blockbuster relatively redundant and in turn made us all a little complacent in much the same way Sky did when first introducing the British family to more than four, maybe five if you were lucky, terrestrial TV channels.

Anyhow, my main role on a weekend night shift was 'Active Seller', where I would pace the shop floor, stalking unsuspecting customers to ask them whether they needed any help choosing what to watch. Yep, I was one of those annoying shop assistants who seemed to appear from nowhere to pounce on you and ask you in a very cheery way whether you needed help. Surely, you're more than able to choose a film for yourself, right?! I promise I was very friendly and not too pushy, unless I was on the till and had the snack bundle to push on you (don't judge me, it was my job), but I digress.

As a result of being an Active Seller, and from hooking up with my now husband and amassing a DVD and Bluray collection reaching 1,000 different films and TV series (blimey, think of all the bags and shoes you could buy...), my knowledge of movies has grown and is one of my main hobbies. I guess it's an extension of my love of books - storytelling is the same in any medium and I'm a sucker for 'Once upon a time'. When the titles start to roll, I'm drawn into the imaginary world shown on screen and become captivated by the characters and swept up by the stories being told.

Becoming a mum means I have rare opportunity now to go to the cinema, something that was our main weekend pastime. You could guarantee that we would have seen any of the major films within days, sometimes hours, of being released and this past year we became Cineworld Unlimited members - a film fanatic's dream. Now, we've missed so many new releases, I fear even my dad would know more about what's this year's must-see movie, and his last trip to the cinema was to see something in black and white (a slight exaggeration perhaps, but we're talking about a man who once put Kill Bill on to only spend half an hour watching the DVD menu title sequence over and over before realizing he wasn't actually watching the film).

However, I still have a passion for the big screen and whilst my Friday night viewing will be restricted to the latest DVD release, I hope to be able to share some of my movie recommendations with you. I'm no Barry Norman but I like to think I can match the perfect film to the right person - it's the active seller in me.

So, I'm starting my virtual Friday Film Club. Each week, I'll post about what I've been watching that's new as well as a few favourites of mine, plus I'll give them my To Become Mum rating. If your a subscriber to Empire magazine, don't cancel just yet - my reviews are merely for me to share my film loves and hates rather than to be brilliantly analytic, extremely detailed and well-researched pieces of literature.

Watch this space for more details on my pick of the week and do let me know if you have any recommendations to share or if you too want to chat about your latest trip to the cinema. Just don't forget the popcorn.