Film In 2025, I began seeing films in a cinema again. Over the past ten years, the only films I've visited cinemas for have been big spoiler-prone franchise blockbusters. Partly it was the cost, but mostly it was the audiences, who generally didn't seem very interested in seeing the film, or spent the whole time masticating. But after experimenting with Cineworld a couple of summers ago, this year I took out an Odeon myLimitless subscription and have pretty faithfully been visiting these churches of cinema every week for at least six months.
The Liverpool One Odeon has always been something of a film presentation nemesis, a trend which continues to this day. Up until this year, the last time I visited was for Fant4stic (curiosity kills the brain cells), a screening afflicted by a dodgy and quite noisy air conditioning fan which led to me receiving a refund (probably only fair considering the film itself). Actually no, it was for San Andreas where the restless audience was the problem as my seat rocked back and forth, not because of 4DX, but due to a group of teenagers kicking the back of the chair.
Which isn't to say it's been a complete cakewalk. Even during my first visit this year, Final Destination: Bloodlines, there was someone who was texting back and forth throughout the film and popping out now and then to make a phone call. Later screenings have been beset by dead pixels, light pollution through the windows of auditorium doors onto the "laser" screen, a fly which had landed on the projector during The Fantastic Four: First Steps taking up a quarter of the screen on occasion, banging auditorium doors, and persistent liquid stains on the screen.
But despite a number of issues since (and writing a lengthy email of complaint), I've kept going because it's just been nice to treat cinema as an occasion again. I've tried to train myself to be more tolerant of such issues and of audiences in general, and to keep myself focused on what's in front of me, rather than being micro-distracted by what's going on behind me (I always book for the front row, or as close to it as possible). Most of it has been Hollywood fare, but it's also nice to have seen what's in the film charts while it's still there rather than many months afterwards.
All of this preamble is to introduce the following list of every Odeon in the country in alphabetical order. A few months into visiting Liverpool, I began to wonder what other locations in the chain were like and how they compare to this city's interesting collection of architectural choices (seriously, why do the doors have windows?). So I decided to go and visit a few in other cities, a plan which quickly grew into a project to visit all the Odeons (yes, all of them) and also give a reason to go to places I wouldn't otherwise have a reason to visit.
So like all my other tick-box projects, I thought it an idea to start posting about them on the blog and then linking to them all in one place. The actual posts aren't going to be anything too elaborate, probably just a photo, a couple of observations, and a link to somewhere which has more information (because what's the point in ripping off someone else's research when I can just refer you to it). Some of them will be an expensive and logistical challenge through public transport, but let's see how far I get.
Note: I've added some recent encounters but I'll do a proper catch up when I have a moment, plus include some which don't exist anymore at the bottom. I'll delete this message when I'm all caught up.
Now:
Andover
Aylesbury
Basingstoke
Bath
Beckenham
Belfast
Birmingham Broadway Plaza
Birmingham New Street
Bournemouth BH2
Braehead
Bridgend
Brighton
Bristol
Bromborough
Camden
Cardiff
Chatham
Chelmsford
Colchester
Coventry
Crewe
Derby
Dorchester
Dudley (Merry Hill)
Dundee
Dunfermline
Durham
East Kilbride
Edinburgh Fort Kinnaird
Edinburgh Lothian Road
Edinburgh West
Epsom
Exeter
Glasgow Quay
Greenwich
Guildford
Harrogate
Hastings
Hatfield
Hereford
Holloway
Huddersfield
Hull
Islington
Kilmarnock
Kingston
Lee Valley
Leeds Thorpe Park
Leeds-Bradford
Leicester
Lincoln
Liverpool ONE
Liverpool Switch Island
Llanelli
London Haymarket
London Leicester Square
London Tottenham Court Road
London West End
Loughborough
Maidenhead
Maidstone
Manchester Great Northern
Manchester Trafford Centre
Mansfield
Middlesbrough
Milton Keynes Stadium
Newark
Northampton
Northwich Barons Quay
Norwich
Nuneaton
Oldham
Orpington
Peterborough
Port Solent
Preston
Putney
Richmond
Rochdale
Salisbury
Sheffield
South Woodford
Southend
Stafford
Stoke
Streatham
Swadlincote
Swansea
Swiss Cottage
Tamworth
Taunton
Telford
Trowbridge
Tunbridge Wells
Uxbridge
Warrington
West Bromwich
Wimbledon
Worcester
Wrexham Eagles Meadow
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