Life Usually I'm not one to not avoid taking part in a collective meme, but having an excuse to see two films by a pair of our greatest filmmakers isn't something to not be embraced. Spending the day at the cinema was something I used to do a lot but as the cost of tickets rose, even for day showings, and the variety of films at multiplexes reduced, I got out of the habit. Having had too many bad audience and/or projection experiences, I just stopped going to the cinema except for spoiler-sensitive franchise features.
Lately, my cinemas of choice have been the Vue in Birkenhead, Picturehouse at FACT and the Cineworld in Speke. My calculation for where to see a film is usually based on screen size and price and although the largest screen at FACT is big enough, I've been travelling out to Cineworld when a new release has been relegated to the smaller screens, which also has the benefit of being pretty quiet during the day, especially in the morning. The downside is it's also pretty expensive even during the day, and I have free member tickets for the cinema on Wood Street.
For Barbenheimer, I immediately looked at the logistics for Cineworld and sure enough they were very good, especially for Monday - 10:30am for Barbie (10:50 after adverts) then a 13:15 for Oppenheimer (more like 13:30) - so plenty for time for a sandwich in the middle. But the price - £9.99 (during the day) still feels steep to someone who used to see three movies for that price at the Showcase on the East Lancs Road (admittedly when he used to have a student card). I'd have to nibble the fission bomb if I wanted to take part in a cultural moment (TM) which already has a thoroughly referenced Wikipedia page.
Then I took a step back, a longer look at the Cineworld website, did some sums and signed up for one of their Unlimited cards. £16.99 a month for a minimum of three months and as they say for the price of less than two tickets. I quicky booked for Monday and last Thursday to sneak in a showing of M:I Dead Reckoning Part One, something which would otherwise have waited until the BD or streaming upload which ever was the quickest. It is a film which should be seen on a big screen, although I don't know that it needs to be that long (unlike Oppenheimer).
Of course, £16.99 per month is incredible value if you plan to see everything which turns up at the multiplex in comparison to the price of a single ticket and much quicker than a home release which you won't see in nearly the quality of presentation (which has so far been excellent at this particular place). But unlike streaming services which charge a lot less than this, it has a much smaller selection of films available in a geographically less convenient place than a chair in the house in front of a screen (or as has been the case here for about six months a projection on a wall).
But what this means I have to take advantage of the offer, I need to visit the cinema more and so at least once a week for the foreseeable, I'll be travelling out to my original home of Speke to see one or two films (maybe three), which makes it a homecoming in numerous ways. Next week I have Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny pencilled in (which would be good to see before it disappears from cinemas) and perhaps the film about the actually teenaged mutant ninja turtles. Not everything will be good but it'll be fun not having to wait three months to see what everyone has been talking about.
