The day of Valentine may have passed but there are still plenty of Date Night movie options available with Magic Mike still playing and of course the 3D re-release of Titanic on the big screen celebrating its 25th anniversary.

This week we are offered another Marvel movie and with a huge movie star joining the franchise and the next ultimate villain to follow in Thanos’s footsteps. We are in for a treat.

For booking details, visit wtwcinemas.co.uk

New Releases

Ant Man and The Wasp Quantumania.

Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily return as the title characters and deliver another quirky and comedic adventure.

The original Ant-Man was superb in delivering a fresh and very comedic tale more in line with a comic heist movie.

The second outing kept the comedic elements but with more sci-fi, this time it is full blown sci-fi adventure as the heroes travel into the Quantum realm.

Much with time travel I would not go delving into the full understanding of Quantum realms and just enjoy the ride. A multi Generational adventure as original Ant-Man and Wasp Hank and Janet Pym are joined by their daughter and current Wasp Hope alongside Scott Laing and his daughter Cassie, who aged considerably during the snap making her an adult and a new superhero.

They venture into the Quantum Realm and encounter a world like no other, facing against the Governor Krylar (Bill Murray!) who has a Quantum past with Janet that we are eager to know more about. The quintet also encounters Kang a time-travelling, multiversal adversary trapped in the Quantum Realm who needs Pym Particles to get his ship and a device online that would allow him to go anywhere and when in time. Kang is an alternate-timeline variant of the character He Who Remains, the teased super villain at the conclusion of the Loki series. Kang brings a more considered and intellectual level of villainy and the best super hero films are always judged by the quality of the antagonist and we have found a very worthy one here.

The film sees Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer back on board and Jonathan Majors joining the team as Kang and of course acting legend Bill Murray.

Event Cinemas

Othello

On the 23rd February The National Theatre bring a contemporary retelling of a Shakespeare classic.

An extraordinary new production of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy, directed by Clint Dyer with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwan (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).

She’s a bright, headstrong daughter of a senator; elevated by her status but stifled by its expectations. He’s refugee of slavery; having risen to the top of a white world, he finds love across racial lines has a cost.

Wed in secret, Desdemona and Othello crave a new life together. But as unseen forces conspire against them, they find their future is not theirs to decide. Othello is filmed live on the Lyttleton stage of the National Theatre.

Mary Cassatt: Painting the Modern Woman.

The latest of the exhibition on screen features well be showcased at The Plaza on the 8th March with a feature on Mary Cassatt, released to coincide with International Women’s Day. Mary Cassatt made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, feminine and real, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art.

Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels and paintings, this film introduces us to the often overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted.

She printed, sketched, and painted dozens of images of mothers and children yet she never married or had children herself. She was a classically trained artist but chose to join a group of Parisian radicals - the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the language of art.

The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars help tell this riveting tale of great social and cultural change; a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely re-written. Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all

Silver Screen

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

The Silver Screen returns after a brief half term interlude.

Please note that after many years we have had to raise the ticket price slightly, and it is now £4.30 per seat which still includes a hot drink and a biscuit.

The first film up for this run is Whitney Houston Biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Naomi Ackie plays the R&B icon and brings her amazing musical life to the big screen.

Some powerful musical numbers and fine supporting cast including the excellent Stanley Tucci. This is a fantastic musical biopic that has an amazing soundtrack.

Cinema Memories

Blast to past this week and my trawl through my years working in the cinema and there is only one obvious place to stop and that is 25 years ago and the release of Titanic.

The film ran and ran for a record-breaking number of weeks and cinema staff will know the film off by heart, certainly the moment pre interval and the ‘steamy windows’.

Two memorable moments stand out for me during the run one was an unfortunate trip by one of the usherettes racing into the screen for the half time interval sale and losing her ice cream tray amongst the audience, whilst most items were returned a few coins and a couple of cornetto’s are still MIA.

Another time involved former Manager David Priston and the Filmcentre had the loan of a very intricate and extensive scale model of the Titanic ship, normally on display at the Ship Wreck centre.

The model was on show in the main foyer but one night a regular customer, known to be rather unsteady on his feet lunged for the table the model was on and sent the piece towards catastrophe a collective gasp until a colleague of mine turned and caught the ship just as it was descending to the hard ground.

Safe to say Mr Priston needed a sit down and the model was safely put out of arms reach for the remainder of the loan.