Categories
Podcasts

006: Solo Jurassic Odyssey

We conduct our very first interview with Phil Cook, former manager of the now, sadly demolished Odeon Cinema Cheltenham.

In this month’s, “At The Flicks”, we conduct our very first interview. We sit down with Phil Cook, former manager of the now, sadly demolished Odeon Cinema Cheltenham.

Phil recounts details of his time as front of house manager, in the 90’s and early 2000’s!

He talks about the technical challenges of projecting movies from reels of actual Celluloid! Meeting the cast of Harry Potter and a number of humorous stories detailing the complexities of running a cinema and dealing with the cinema going public. Listen out for his hilarious run in with the local newspaper, over enhancements to the art-deco sculptures that adorned the front of the cinema.

We hope you enjoy the interview as it moves from, Area 51 alien conspiracy theories, to management outrage at putting women in boxes and ends with a confused, time travelling cyclist materialising at the start of a feature presentation? We had a lot of fun recording this feature and we hope you find it an enjoyable listen.

The “At The Flicks” team would like to thank Phil for his time and for letting us use him as our interview guinea pig!

The rest of our show is dedicated to reviewing; 2001 a Space Odyssey, back for a 50th Anniversary rerelease. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the second in the current new Jurassic World trilogy; and Solo: A Star Wars story. Solo is the movie Ron Howard expertly shepherded to production following a very troubled production.
As usual, our Movie news section takes a rather irreverent look at what you can expect to see in cinemas next year. This month’s News section includes a scoop brought to us by one of our growing band of listeners in the US. This month Jeff relents and servers up a slightly less difficult fun Movie question for you.

Reviews

Graham’s review

Graham reviews the latest Disney, Star Wars blockbuster, Solo: A Star Wars story. The review concentrates on the simple question: “Following it’s troubled production is Solo a good movie?” This heist caper set in the Star Wars universe seems an obvious crowd pleaser, but the box office returns tell another story. Has Star Wars fatigue set in, or did poor decisions by Disney’s marketing team doom this movie before its release?

  • Directed by Ron Howard,
  • Written by Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan and based on characters created by George Lucas.
  • Staring: Alden Enreneich, Woody Harrelson, Emillia Clarke, Donald Glover, Paul Bettany and Thandie Newton.

Jeff’s review

Jeff reviews Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This is the second outing for Claire and Owen in the reboot of the classic Jurassic Park series of dinosaur movies. We review the artistic freedom given to popular director J.A. Bayona and discuss the leading couples acting talents, charisma and chemistry. This movie has soared at the box office but: “Is it any good?”

  • Directed by J. A. Bayona\
  • Written by: Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow. Based on the books of Michael Crichton\
  • Staring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt and Toby Jones, with a fleeting appearance by Jeff Goldblum.

Neil’s review

Neil this month reviews the 50th anniversary rerelease of 2001 a Space Odyssey . This is not the movie Neil had intended to review. Neil’s Movie for June was supposed to be The Bromley Boys. Unfortunately The Bromley Boys was not shown at any cinema in Gloucestershire! Neil goes back to the future vision of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick to review the iconic and incomprehensible enigma that is 2001!

  • Directed by Stanley Kubrick.\
  • Written by: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.\
  • Staring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and William Sylvester.

Mentioned in the Podcast

In this months interview with Phil Cook, Graham mentioned that we had found the resting place of the Celluloid Ladies. Below are a couple of picture of their current installation on the side of the Brewery Centre in Cheltenham.

Friends and Thanks

The At the Flicks team would like to thank the following groups, people and friends who make the show possible:

At The Flicks, are fans of the excellent Phil the Bear’s film review site, which can be found here. Highly recommended! If you enjoyed our reviews this month then check out Phil’s opinion on Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

For listeners living in the West Country, we would recommend; The Stroud Film Society. Information about this local group of film aficionados can be found here

Many thanks to the artist Silent Partner for our Podcast Music. You can find more by the exceptional Silent Partner on the YouTube Audio Library.

Films and TV Shows mentioned in this month’s Podcast

Oops!

Hidden here at the bottom of the page, is the section where we correct mistakes made in the Podcast.

This month we don’t think we made any factual errors. Unless one of our listeners spotted a gaff in the show! If so, please email us at [email protected] and let us know.