Tickets now available to purchase on the SU website!

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Set a few years on from the events of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph’s (John C. Reilly – Sing, Guardians of the Galaxy) life is perfect. Each day he gets up, wrecks buildings in his arcade game all day, then quaffs root beer and hangs out with his best friend, Vannelope (a racer in a nearby Sugar Rush arcade game). Who could ask for anything more? However, for Vannelope (Sarah Silverman - Wreck-It Ralph), all the secret tracks have been uncovered, every corner of the tracks is memorised, and she wins every race she drives. She’s starting to wonder if there’s more to life than this…

Ralph’s efforts to provide her with new and exciting racing ends up breaking her Sugar Rush arcade machine, leaving her and all the other racers destitute, and having to share homes with the other arcade characters. And if he can’t find a way to get a replacement to Litwak’s arcade, then Sugar Rush will be taken away as scrap and Vannelope will never be able to race again! The only way to do this is to go onto the worldwide web!

The two main characters have great chemistry, and are pulled into numerous bizarre and amusing scenarios. The visualisation of the internet into solid geography is imaginative and dazzling, and this is an enjoyable and frenetic romp through avatars, memes, brands and gags in an effort to save the day...

Natalie Tyldesley-Marshall

Bad Times at the El Royale

The latest offering from the director of The Cabin in the Woods… This suspense yet fun thriller, set in the ‘60’s, is situated at the mysterious locale of the El Royale. A magnet for secrets and lies, where even the bellhop (Lewis Pullman – Battle of the Sexes), and the establishment itself is hiding a secret…

The El Royale has the state line between Nevada and California running directly through the hotel, and though it has a certain grandeur, its glory days are long behind it. Its clientele are increasingly few, though one night four arrive, all with something to hide: an elderly priest (Jeff Bridges – Kingsman: Golden Circle; Iron Man); a cocksure salesman (Jon Hamm – Baby Driver, Mad Men); a sweet lounge singer (Cynthia Erivo - Widows); and a moody hipster (Dakota Johnson – Fifty Shades). It’s not long before they’re joined by others, and tensions start rising, bullets start flying, and blood starts spilling…

If you like films that clearly enjoy defying the conventions of the genre, then this one’s for you!

Gail Marshall

The Devil Wears Prada (35mm)

Three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep stars as Miranda Priestley, editor of the fictional Runway magazine. They say that just a year’s experience of working under Ms Priestley will lead to whatever job a journalist dreams of. After firing her previous second assistant, the demanding Miranda is on the lookout for a new one. In steps Andrea (Hathaway), a young woman with no fashion sense, no knowledge of Miranda Priestley, or her magazine, and most certainly no idea of how to spell Gabbana. Despite all of this, however, Miranda sees something in Andrea that makes her take the risk of employing her. The endless list of seemingly impossible tasks that Andrea is landed with over the next few months will truly shape her as a person and help her realise finally just what matters most to her in life.

Based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel, The Devil Wears Prada simply oozes class and sophistication. Meryl Streep adds yet another string to her bow of endless roles and could very well add to her thirteen Academy Award nominations come Oscar time. The film is worth watching simply for Miranda’s acid one-liners and, even though we shouldn’t laugh at the poor girl, her treatment of Andrea.

It would be unfair to call The Devil Wears Prada a chick flick. Although there is a focus on the world of fashion journalism, there is more than enough wit, drama and comedy in the film to appeal to anyone.

Ricky Wyatt

Jurassic Park (35mm)

Presented with its original Oscar-winning theatrical 35mm DTS soundtrack.

Many of us will have been too young to remember the first release of the now legendary Jurassic Park, perhaps Steven Spielberg’s greatest film to date. The film hardly needs an introduction; nor does it need to provide a reason for seeing it, for the film is pure entertainment - two hours of pure heart-pounding, dinosaur-chasing, wise-cracking fun. Along with Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jurassic Park heralded believable and fully-realised computer-generated imagery in the early nineties, setting the precedent for the rest of the decade that has lasted into the twenty-first century. Some would even argue that the overall effect of the film has never been surpassed, due to the guiding hand of the most commercially successful director of all time.

It’s hard to have grown up in the past twenty years and to not have watched this film. Everyone seems to remember a particularly defining moment, whether it be the initial attack of the poor helpless Mexican theme park worker, the primary rain-soaked encounter with the T-Rex, big Dennis (Knight) being devoured by that freaky ink-pitting creature, or the Velociraptor siege in the kitchen. Who could forget the douche-bag lawyer ‘escaping’ to the toilet? Old memories will be refreshed for the returning viewer, and new ones will be created for new audience members. Perhaps the greatest reason for the film’s abiding memory in the mind of the nineties child is the idea that children themselves were not free from danger. Spielberg employed the innocent device so well with Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, but subverts it here by placing Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards into inescapable terror. This is a terrifyingly good blockbuster film experience.

Jack Porter

Original 35mm print kindly loaned from the BFI National Archive.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (35mm)

UPDATE: this film will now presented in 35mm.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a high school wise-guy who wants a day off from school, and he has developed an incredibly sophisticated plan in order to do so. However, he must avoid school principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), who is convinced he is playing hooky and is hell-bent on catching him.

With a fun story that everyone can relate to, this classic comedy is a pleasure from beginning to end. The cast work very well together, with Jones on his quest providing a great number of funny members, and the script is very amusing and highly quotable. We get the experience of the joy of the con, and the message to live life to its fullest, all wrapped up in a bundle of entertainment. Never has a teen movie been presented so charmingly, and it has deservedly stood the test of time.

Reece Goodall