At the Flix with @Timmy666
Time to put on our rain macs and get our marmalade sandwiches at the ready for this week’s At The Flix. If that wasn’t hint enough, let’s get to it shall we…
Paddington (PG)
With a cast of British ‘darlings’ and the sight of a familiar figure of many of our childhoods (of a certain age!), albeit brought in 2014, this is a film as welcome as a warming bear hug!
Paddington arrives in the city in search of a home – city life is not all he had imagined until he meets the kindly Brown family who take him in reading the sign “Please look after this bear. Thank you,” and offer him a temporary haven.
The film is quintessentially British and fun to boot – a caper filled with much charm, plenty of jokes and glorious performances.
It’s clearly going to be a sure-fire hit!
Horrible Bosses 2 (15)
Adorning the sides of many Travel West Midlands buses is the sight of Hollywood A and B listers queuing up for parts on the follow up to the original 2011 hit. Quite how a sequel got commissioned is open to question, given that the original didn’t garner the best of the reviews.
That’s not to so though that the sequel is likely to be terrible. The sequel sees the return of Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day – once swamped by the conceit, they now start up their own businesses – after the rug is pulled out from beneath their feet by investor, the three would-be entrepreneurs hatch a plan to kidnap the investor’s adult son and ransom him to regain control of their company.
The cast is strong and has some ‘funny’ people in it, yet the question is whether or not the joke is as strong second time around? Is it funny or a strained attempt of a calibre cast squeezing out what it can.
Showing at mac on Sunday through to Tuesday, this film is set in 1950s New York, following an aspiring poet who’s world is enlightened when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hell raising hero, Dylan Thomas.
This film garnered mixed reviews during festival season, but credit was given to director Andy Goddard for his odes to classic Hollywood, what film studies students would refer to as “pure cinema”, art and style aplenty.
The Phantom Of The Opera + live score from Minima (PG)
Showing this Sunday at the Electric, here’s a unique opportunity to view the 1925 adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera along side an electrifying post-rock live score by Minima, capturing the horror of the story but also finding pathos and romance.
Citizenfour + live discussion (15)
Also showing at the Electric is an another opportunity to see Laura Poitras’s revealing and acclaimed documentary in tracking down Edward Snowden. The film is followed by a live discussion led by the Open Rights Group (ORG), a UK-based organization that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues.
So, that’s it from me. As always, if you have any queries, quibbles, questions etc, please drop me a tweet @timmy666.
Have a great week at the cinema and tune in next week for more #AtTheFlix. Big bear hugs to all!
