Today I ventured back to the lovely (alas, not!) Croydon My Vue cinemas on Purley Way with my friends Laura and Sara to see Mamma Mia.
I have to say, I thought the film was just stunning. I saw the musical a few years ago with my sister Melissa, when she was visiting London with my at the time 9 month old nephew Harry (seeing as he is now 7... that gives you an idea of how long ago that was...). We had easily the best night of our lives (well, maybe Turandot at the Sydney Opera House for Mel's 21st might've been marginally better...), left the theatre singing all the songs... it was awesome. And so I was anxious that the movie live up to that fine standard - and I was not disappointed.
I was however disappointed that the lovely (alas, not!) Croydon My Vue cinemas on Purley Way would sell tickets to clearly under 8 year olds, clearly unaccompanied by parents, to a film which is clearly a musical based on songs from the 70s / 80s, when the so called under 8 year olds weren't even a hint of a twinkle in their parents' eyes... Who thinks an 8 year old would enjoy a bunch of ABBA songs? By the 5th or 6th song the kids were clearly restless, and started talking through EVERYTHING and running up and down the aisle...not to mention at the end, during the credits (when Meryl and the girls are singing Dancing Queen), one of the boys grabbed one of the girls by the arm and proceeded to practically rip it out of its socket, causing her to scream piercingly loudly - with no challenge by anyone in the audience...The reason for that though is obvious. What are we up to now, some 20 deaths in London due to gun and knife crime? There were 4 more in England today alone...
It begs the question then, will I ever go to a cinema in England where the movie is not spoiled by under-age troublemakers...? I doubt it...
Although I have actually experienced a troublemaker child-free cinematic English experience, and only recently too. I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square. The cinema there is absolutely humungous, and simply gorgeous - and the sound is not too loud and you don't get blocked by some dipstick sitting right in front of you. Plenty of leg room too... and no troublemaker children. The only reason I can think of though for this is simply - the price. At Croydon you'll pay £7.50 as an adult to see a film, £5.25 for kids. At any of the Leicester Square cinemas, you'll pay at least £13.50 as an adult, and I don't know what as a kid, but that would seem to me to be a huge deterrent for delinquent youths.
Maybe I'll just have to stick with Leicester Square for all my cinematic experiences...
On another note, I will say that I stayed for the duration of the trailers, and therefore witnessed an example of Health and Safety gone mad. There was a disclaimer at the end about the dangers of smoking - harping on about the smoking depicted in the film as being just for artistic purposes, smoking damages your health, yada yada. Has the whole world gone mad, that we now need this sort of Nanny State message at the end of our films? Oy ve...
Meanwhile, enjoy the Mamma Mia and Prince Caspian trailers...
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