Mr Popper's Penguins

[valda]

Is there any chance of this happening at every cinema at the screening tomorrow

The activities? probably not, this was some sort of special thing, there were camera crews around and a whole heap of reserved seats. It was utter pandemonium when I got there, heaving with kids and really really hot. Lots of lovely pastries, fruit on sticks, coffee tea juices. I had a coffee but felt it was rather dangerous so went for a juice or two. Loved the film, I was really laughing out loud and even had a tear in my eye or two. All the kids were incredibly well behaved and no running around or crying as you normally get. it made me laugh seeing all the penguin balloons waving around ( I did think about stealing one or b*ying one )

Great to see Funthing and PCX as always and lovely to see the Mums enjoying it as well. Saw Soonforgotten in a huge pile up of kids. I think he was after the coloring in book

Got swept out in a tide of happy familes and ended up in M&M world 8/10

[shmile]

saw this at empire too and loved the pastries and coffee
thought it was a pretty goood film too 8.5/10

also i think the other fmukers were sitting behind me but not sure??

[funthing29]

also i think the other fmukers were sitting behind me but not sure??

Where were you sitting?

valda, pxc and I were all sitting together so you may have heard us chattering away.

[valda]

Did you have the cute kids? And the little boy was so excited and dancing around in his chair, and the sister was sitting next to him? I did think we was rabbiting away a lot and I think you may have been looking round at us

[shmile]

no that wasnt me but i was sitting next to them
so i think you guys were sitting behind me and yes i did hear you guys talking away thats why i presumed it would have been someone from here

valda, pxc and I were all sitting together so you may have heard us chattering away.

[soonforgotten]

Unfortunately, we made it too late for the pastries, as by the time we got there at 10.20, everything had pretty well been picked over. The place was pretty much a zoo. I felt like there was a lot of kiddie chattering for the first half of the film or so (before the penguins became the main focus) but then I also don't think I've been to such a large screening with so many children and given that, they were all pretty well behaved. As my luck would have it, my gf needed to be difficult and hostile to me for no apparent reason prior to the film so I was in a pretty bad mood going into this. The film is quite obviously very cute. It's easy to like a film with penguins. Of course the whole story is so totally implausible and I get stuck on such things, but I try to remind myself that the target audience probably won't realise that. There's a bit of humour aimed at the more mature in the audience, which I appreciated. Overall, I thought Jim Carrey played the part well, though the role wasn't completely safe from him being far too over the top at times (slow motion, really?). The whole story with his father seemed slightly under-developed. It's not made clear how or why the two were seemingly so distant in the 30 years that followed the opening. Obviously only so much time could be dedicated to this before getting to the penguins and all, but as their relationship is the fondation for the story, I feel it could have been better explained.

One other sticking point for me is the whole parents getting back together angle. It may be unfair to pick on such plotlines who Hollywood films are full of unrealistic, romantic happy endings. However, I would personally like to see some more responsibility in films aimed at children. I just hate the thought of kids from "broken" homes going to a film like this and coming away from it thinking that maybe mum and dad will get back together. More likely they'll come out thinking how awesome penguins are and that they want one of their own, but still.

Anyway, off my soap-box now, 7/10 from me. Cute, harmless fun, but nothing too memorable for an old fogey like me.

[spyzapper25]

was this a screening from the paper ? and where did people get tickets for this

[elski]

was this a screening from the paper ? and where did people get tickets for this

It was a screening for 'filmclub' which is mostly for schools but there were also various comps posted in the comp section. Cineworlds across the rest of the country are holding screenings at the same time as the odeon screenings tomorrow, again tickets were through comps except for Nottingham where SFF gave that code.

edit: this is the link for the film club screening info, but you have to be a school group and part of the scheme to apply for tickets so it doesn't get posted here (except for discussion purposes)
http://www.filmclub.org/blog/details/40 ... n-reminder

[elski]

^^^ I see they've added some Apollo screenings on the 31st July so that's some more comps to look out for/ google.

[kevinknapman]

was this a screening from the paper ? and where did people get tickets for this

It was a screening for 'filmclub' which is mostly for schools but there were also various comps posted in the comp section.

It was actually a multimedia/press screening. I think they offer tickets to 'filmclub' so that there are plenty of the film's intended audience (ie. kids and families) and not just critics and bloggers. The Rango, Rio and Cars 2 press screenings did the same thing I think.