Bond season again at London's Prince Charles cinema from Jan '24

Was it this year or last year they did a James Bond season? It all blends in for me. Last year, surely.

Dr No kicks off in early January. All are present and correct, including the latest No Time To Die.

Unlike my suggestion to the cinema on Twitter, no double bills or themed all-nighters. But all seem to be in the downstairs cinema, so that's good. I may catch the first three, I won't be revisiting the ones I saw last time but there's a good few to catch anyway - Diamonds Are Forever I skipped last time as the cinema was a bit full and it was Covid still.

https://princecharlescinema.com/PrinceCharlesCinema.dll/Seasons?e=29205568

"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

Roger Moore 1927-2017
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Comments

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    Hmm, I wonder if my free voucher is still valid from 2022 ?

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    FRWL on 20/01 is in the upstairs cinema.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    Is it a bigger auditorium ? I was thinking of going if the family stuff doesn't interfere with the weekend

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    No, the upstairs is the smaller of the two screens, unfortunately, but it's still a decent cinema.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    Thanks, guys, it is really all to do with the family commitments around the funeral; we've got rellies coming from over the north pond. I did see the Feb dates, but they are midweek - still maybe an excuse to visit a decent restaurant or drink a martini in a posh bar somewhere 🍸️🍸️🍸️

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    @chrisno1 Best wishes at what must be a difficult time.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent
    edited January 21

    So I saw FRWL in the upstairs ciinema at the PCC this afternoon... a perfectly fine screen.

    The issue was that the PCC was short-staffed today and they weren't able to let anyone in till after the advertised start time. The ads were already running by the time people were admitted. Then it felt like boarding a delayed EasyJet flight.... or perhaps like jumping onto the Orient Express at the last minute as it's pulling out of the station at Istanbul! The cinema was almost entirely full. Thankfully nearly everyone was settled by the time we got to the gunbarrel.

    Meanwhile the hard-pressed, short-staffed guys at the PCC were having a tougher job on their hands managing the long queue for a downstairs screening of 'Godzilla Minus One' - an excellent Toho Godzilla movie, by the way - due to start at about the same time.

    I always love seeing FRWL again. Not least because in this one it really does feel as if John Barry is scoring Ian Fleming as much as a James Bond film per se.

    Sound is so important to the suspenseful PTS of FRWL. It's really only at somewhere like the BFI that it's possible to enjoy that without a background cacophony of rustling sweet bags, munched crisps and ripped open tabs on cans of fizzy drinks. Certainly not at the PCC. And I'd respectfully suggest that the best call that anyone with a ticket but suffering with a hacking cough could make would be to forget about coming to the cinema altogether and sit it out at home with a cup of LemSip. Just saying.

    Still, all that aside... an entertaining screening. It was good that there were a lot of younger people in the audience too - Gen Craig, one might say - appreciating classic Bond. It's always fascinating to see which parts of a Bond film get the biggest laughs in the cinema... I mean genuine laughs from the wide-eyed as opposed to obligatory chortles from the well-worn. Klebb whacking Grant in the stomach with a knuckleduster was such a moment this afternoon.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent
    edited January 26

    Gosh, sounds like I missed a metaphorical bullet there @Shady Tree

    I may try the showing next Tuesday, as it is during the day, so perhaps a more dedicated crowd. It is in a big screen and virtually empty, with 21 seats sold. Two punters are in the back row [ahem ! 😮]. I am quite keen to see this movie on the big screen as I missed it in the Vue recent rundown.

    Otherwise I will be at the John Barry / YOLT bill at the BFI the following week.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    Update - FRWL is not going to happen - too much going on right now

  • LordWSeamaster007LordWSeamaster007 Posts: 4MI6 Agent

    Hi all is anyone going to see Thunderball Saturday 24th February? So far this year I have seen Dr No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. It’s great seeing them on the big screen. So far Goldfinger and Dr No have been my favourites. From Russia With Love was upstairs and too crowded due to the cinema being short staffed. Otherwise I have been enjoying the films so far.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    I saw Thunderball at the Prince Charles a couple of years ago - you can probably dig up my review on Last Bond Seen somewhere. I recommend it, of course it's the first in widescreen.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    I was all set to see You Only Live Twice on Friday - along with a brekkie beforehand at one of the last remaining Cafe Rouge restaurants, nr St Paul's Cathedral, but I found I couldn't quite justify it. It's a film that suffers through Connery's poor physical fitness - he's overweight really - and oft listless performance, that and the long-winded nature of it in the second half. The whole 'turning Japanese' thing is problematic - not exactly due to the politically incorrect aspect of it, though I suppose that doesn't help - but because while it's borrowed from Fleming's book, it just bogs the plot down, all that stuff about having to pretend to be married. Freddie Young's photography may be acclaimed, but for me it's not quite on the money for a Bond film, I like something less impressive, almost. It's hard to pin down the look I like, I want something colourful, heightened reality for sure, but not too lush or like a static painting.

    Also, that Cafe Rouge has bad reviews, no wonder they're dying out!

    I'd prefer to listen to the soundtrack LP with a bottle of Malbec.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent
    edited April 7

    I saw DAF on the PCC's large downstairs screen yesterday afternoon.

    A big screen always makes a difference. Something I'd never really focused on before, though I'm sure that it must have been mentioned somewhere, is that in Willard Whyte's penthouse suite, for the long shots where both Blofelds are in frame and the Blofeld in the high-backed chair is in the distant background with lines to say, that background Blofeld appears to be a mannequin with animated mouth movements to simulate talk - a little creepy! Of course, Charles Gray also has mid-shots as both characters so this is not a special effect which draws attention to itself, at least not on TV sized screens.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • LordWSeamaster007LordWSeamaster007 Posts: 4MI6 Agent

    Hi is anyone going to see Live and Let Die today?

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent
    edited May 1

    Is anyone planning on attending TMWTGG on Saturday? It's not a first choice Bond film, but I'm up for it [unless work interferes] If I'm in town, I usually go for a pint somewhere. PM me.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    'It profits a man nothing to see any Bond film at the Prince Charles cinema - but The Man With The Golden Gun?'

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    I have my reasons...

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    Well, here's something off Twitter to whet your appetite... @chrisno1

    https://twitter.com/MrsSimonTemplar/status/1785736965352026121

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • LordWSeamaster007LordWSeamaster007 Posts: 4MI6 Agent

    I’m going to see The Man With The Golden Gun today if anyone wants to say hi 👋

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    Just checking in on this thread, after the event. I was there this afternoon. TMWTGG is a film which depends a lot on its saving graces, though I always enjoy it!

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,577MI6 Agent

    Work got in the way unfortunately... Sorry I talked up ideas of a meet. Hope you guys enjoyed it.

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent
    edited June 2

    I skipped LALD and TSWLM but saw MR at the PCC yesterday. I'm calling it a day there with this current season, at least till LTK.

    Hmmm.

    I'm afraid that for me the MR screening was ruined at the PCC by odd pockets of braying hipsters who seemed intent on wrapping the whole experience in forced laughter and loudly spoken ironic commentary.

    What's galling is the arrogant assumption that the film is so dated that it shouldn't be accorded a noise-free screening. Why not just accept that the film is what it is, and abide by social protocols for the cinema context? Surely the appropriate place for 'performing' ironic comment is on Youtube or by podcast.

    Anyway, I politely but firmly challenged a couple of these guys at one point, as they were sitting right behind me, and this did have the effect of quietening them down ahead of John Barry's space music. When I did this, another middle-aged chap, sitting in their row, politely backed me up.

    But one of the hipsters, the forced laughter merchant, still managed to fire off an abusive parting shot as I was leaving the cinema at the end of the screening.

    Maybe Christopher Wood should come with an ironic hipster trigger warning...

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,923MI6 Agent

    Aargh, that sounds a bit tiring. Sorry to hear you had that experience.

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,679Chief of Staff

    This is the very reason I try and pick movie showings at times when I think the cinema will not be full….especially Bond films…in fact I’ve been lucky enough to see several of the Bond films (first cinema showings) from the 80’s onwards in almost empty theatres 👏🏻

    YNWA 97
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    Odd - I got that a bit with AVTAK, just one person. Not sure if he was a hipster or not - his behaviour was certainly pants...

    Why come see the film if you don't rate it? Nobody's forcing them to.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    On Saturday it was just a selfish, annoying way of enjoying the screening at other cinema-goers' expense.

    Exclaiming "WTF?" whenever Roger got fresh with a woman or delivered some innuendo; commenting loudly on Roger's wing collars and flares; "Product placement!" when we saw the '7 Up' hoarding in Rio; loud, forced laughter at every semi-amusing moment, as if the humour was a revelation - even though these guys were clearly already familiar with the film (one exclaimed, "Wait till you get to the double-taking pigeon!")

    I'm not saying these aren't legitimate responses to the film. Just that: if you want to have a hoot over MR, throw a private MR party at home with some likeminded buddies, cracking open the beers; let other fans watch it in the cinema free of intrusive commentary!

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    They do have a trailer from Cape Fear beforehand which says 'no inappropriate cackling' beforehand don't they.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,995MI6 Agent

    They do... but these guys read it wrong and seem to take Max Cady as a role model....

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,461MI6 Agent

    Just checked and it seems Never Say Never Again has been pulled - it was due to be shown on 19 July. Why is this? I can't say I'd have gone to see it but then again it might have worked better on the big screen (though not much) and it would be a nostalgia rush of sorts. Are the movies being shown as part of an EON-sponsored thing?

    FYEO showing for the last time, first week of July.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
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