IT is not often one has the chance to review a new film showing at a fresh out of the wrapper cinema, but such a gig presented itself this week at Cineworld Glasgow Silverburn, which opens today.
Located at the Silverburn Shopping Centre off the M77, this is the fourth Cineworld in Glasgow, after the flagship Renfrew Street site - two million admissions a year and rising - Parkhead, and the IMAX at the Glasgow Science Centre. With 14 screens in total, Silverburn's unique selling point is the first Superscreen in Scotland. Superscreen is Cineworld's own large screen format. Besides a screen stretching wall to wall and floor to near the ceiling, the Superscreen boasts a 57-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system. It is also, as you might expect, dearer with prices ranging from £10.80 adult/£7.70 child during the day rising to £14.80/£11.80 in the evenings. Tickets generally are £10.10 adult/£7.10 for children.
Matt Ayre, Cineworld's senior vice president of operations, was confident there was room for another cinema in Glasgow.
"A lot of our Unlimited Card holders live here and travel to Renfrew Street so we believe there is a big market for it. And when you are building something like this it is going to attract people from all over the country."
Silverburn and the other Cineworlds are set to get busier once the long-awaited refurbishment of the 18-screen Renfrew Street site begins. On that, Mr Eyre said: "We're waiting for the approvals to come through from the local authorities to get going. We've got the plans. So hopefully we'll be starting end of July/August."
The immediate sensation on walking into the Superscreen theatre was one of smell. You've heard of a new car smell, well this was a new cinema whiff, and very pleasant it was too. The seats are ultra comfy, there is lots of leg room, the screen is pin sharp, ditto the sound. As for the film chosen for the opening gala, Minions, it was more three star than five star.
A spin-off from the hit Despicable Me films, Minions sees the return of the little, yellow, gibberish-spouting blob folk who live to serve an evil master. This time, the master is a mistress, Scarlett Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, who clearly had a lot of fun with the role. The film as a whole, though, is short on big laughs. There are some sweet and gently funny moments, and the little guys are as endearing as ever, but one too many pop culture references (the film is set in Swinging Sixties London) mean a fair few of the jokes might go over the heads of young cinemagoers, while older ones will have seen most of them before. A safe bet for school holiday viewing; a pity it was not more.
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