Written by WILLIAM BURT, Film Correspondent

The latest half term is already upon us and this one seems to have taken everyone a little by surprise. 

I suppose with all of the strike days and bank holidays there seems to have been plenty of time off for school goers recently. 

It is a funny time of year at school with the GCSE students taking exams but younger years winding down for the big summer break, which is far too long, I have always thought the summer holiday is too long. 

One month would suffice and then a longer Christmas would be good which always seems to be over too soon. Anyway back to this week and we have a pair of releases with different audiences in mind and a number of event cinema productions to look over. 

For booking details, visit wtwcinemas.co.uk

Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse

Yes another super hero film but this is not your usual MCU affair. 

The original was an award winning animated film collecting the 2019 Bafta and Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The film does feature a variety of art forms and different animated techniques. With its sprawling multi dimensional premise delivering a multitude of visuals to match the varying storylines. 

Admittedly I think we are all a bit Multi-versed out and the MCU are certainly doing their best to overcomplicate things. Fortunately this film does it well and we have the focus on how one event in one place can implicate others, leading to a sort of butterfly effect and the debate about the moral reasoning behind whether such action should take place because it is expected even though it can cause catastrophic repercussions. 

Faced with an extremely difficult decision which could put the very existence of Spider-Man at risk in this film. 

There is depth and great visuals throughout and a strong voice cast including Andy Samberg, Oscar Isaac and Hailee Steinfeld. This is great escapist fun and a beautiful film to enjoy. 

The Boogeyman

A thriller from the master of the genre Stephen King.  

This film is adapted from one of his short stories. Lester Billings talks to a psychiatrist about the “deaths” of his three young children, describing the events of the past several years. His first two children died mysteriously of apparently unrelated causes when left alone in their bedrooms. 

The only contributing factor in each death was that the children cried “Boogeyman!” before being left alone and the cupboard door being open when Billings swore it was closed. Is there a mysterious killing being in the cupboard or is it all in Billings mind?

Die Zauberflote

On the 3rd June The plaza Truro will be presenting another MET opera. 

One of opera’s most beloved works receives its first new Met staging in 19 years - a daring vision by renowned English director Simon McBurney that The Wall Street Journal declared ‘the best production I’ve ever witnessed of Mozart’s opera.’ Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Met Orchestra, with the pit raised to make the musicians visible to the audience and allow interaction with the cast. 

In his Met-debut staging, McBurney lets loose a volley of theatrical flourishes, incorporating projections, sound effects, and acrobatics to match the spectacle and drama of Mozart’s fable. 

The brilliant cast includes soprano Erin Morley as Pamina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Tamino, baritone Thomas Oliemans in his Met debut as Papageno, soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and bass Stephen Milling as Sarastro. 

Berg

Also at The Plaza is a European documentary feature on the 4th and 5th June.   

A journey at high altitude seen through the eyes of three mysteriously connected hikers. After their coincidental meeting we follow these three on their personal odysseys. 

The levels of concentration they exhibit in trying to avoid mistakes makes their experience of the overwhelming landscape even more intense. Berg is a highly aesthetic landscape experience.

Il Trovatore

The final visit to Covent Garden for the 2022/23 season and the programme concludes with Il Trovatore on June 13. Passions run high as Manrico and the Count di Luna compete for the affections of Leonora. 

Little do they know, Manrico’s mother Azucena has been keeping a terrible secret for decades. Soon a curse from the past will rise up from the ashes with devastating implications for them all.

Starring Marina Rebeka, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Riccardo Massi, Gregory Kunde, Ludovic Tézier and Jamie Barton, Adele Thomas’s energetic staging sets Verdi’s tale in a Hieronymus Bosch-inspired universe of medieval superstition. On the podium, Antonio Pappano conducts Verdi’s dramatic score, featuring the famous Anvil chorus.

Regular readers will be familiar that I am recounting my last 25 years in cinema and in last week’s interview with Debbie we mentioned one of the old stalwarts Mr. Bryan Rowe. 

When I started in 1997 Bryan was a duty manager and also on the cleaning team in the mornings. Bryan was certainly one of the old school generation and many of my most memorable times in cinema involve Mr Rowe. Dancing along to the finale in The Full Monty. Starring in the old Filmcentre calendar as one of the Men in Black. 

There was the night he circled a drunken troublemaker showing off his boxing skills to ward off the threatening miscreant. The downside is Bryan was not as young as he thought he was and needed a few minutes to recuperate after the police arrived, but he impressed all of the younger lads working that night with his bravery. I myself joined up with the cleaning team in the mid 2000s and there is many a tale to tell. 

One great story involved another cleaner Elsie who was cleaning in screen 1 and announced to Bryan that she had found a pair of shoes. Not just any pair of shoes but one’s just like hers. Bryan politely informed Elsie they were her shoes and she was looking at her own feet through the cinema seats! 

Fortunately Bryan was a fan of the practical joke and we had plenty of bantering between us and the longest running joke involved Bryan’s dislike of rats. My finest hour involved tying a toy rat to the back door so when Bryan came in to unlock in the morning the soft toy would scuttle towards him as he pulled the door open. It still makes me laugh now. 

Sadly Bryan is no longer with us but we had some amazing times together and he is one of the many great characters I have had the pleasure of working with other the years that for me are the best cinema memories.

Masculine movie titles. With Spider-Man and Boogey man I am using the topic of films with the word man in the title. I am avoiding super hero titles too so no Bat, Super, Ant, Spider et al.

Question 1

Which actor played the title character in Austin Powers International Man of Mystery? 

Question 2

Which action star played Ben Richards in 1987 sci-fi The Running Man?

Question 3

Which comedic actor put in a robotic turn in 1999 movie Bicentennial Man?

Question 4

Who starred as the title character The Man with one Red Shoe in the 1985 spy comedy?

Question 5

Which animation studio brought us the 2016 film Early Man?

A) Illumination  

B) Aardmam  

C) Pixar

Question 6

Who starred as Dr Ben McKenna and Josephine Conway McKenna in Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much?

Question 7

Who starred as Sgt. Howie and Lord Summerisle in the 1973 horror The Wicker Man?

Question 8

British rom-com Man Up features which two stars as unlikely couple Nancy and Jack?

Question 9

Who featured as Detective Frazier and Dalton Russell in the 2006 heist movie Inside Man?

Question 10

The 1998 swashbuckler The Man in the Iron Mask, who starred as the musketeers Porthos, Athos and Aramis. Plus D’Artagnan and also King Louis/Phillipe?

1 Mike Myers who along with the lead role also played Dr Evil.

2 King of the 80s action film Arnold Schwarzenegger.

3 Robin Williams in a film that is becoming even more relevant with today’s AI technology.

4 An early role for Tom Hanks.

5 B) Aardman the creative team behind Wallace and Gromit.

6 Regular Hitchcock star James Stewart who was joined by Doris Day.

7 Edward Woodward was the police officer and Christopher Lee was the sinister lord. The British classic is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

8 Lake Bell was Nancy and Simon Pegg as Jack in this underrated comedy. Well worth a watch if you are a Pegg fan.

9 Denzel Washington was the Detective and Clive Owen played Dalton.

10 An amazing cast for this take on Dumas classic tale with Gerard Depardeu, John Malkovic and Jeremy Irons as the three musketeers. Gabriel Byrne was D’Artagnan and Leonardo DiCaprio as the King.