Permutation City Blog

This cinema may not be familiar to newcomers to the university but it's only a few minutes walk from the QMU. This use to be a small and slightly old tired cinema but it showed strange films late at night on Fridays and it was cheap. We all loved it but it closed. Over many years it was totally refurbished and is my cinema of choice. There are two screens, both small, but the seats are comfortable and roomy. Slightly on the expensive side unless you go on a Monday when all the seats are half price. Warning: It gets very popular on bank holidays and you should be there early to get a good seat.

I haven't see this movie but have heard a lot of bad things about it. This is not so much a review as a warning. Watch Cube, watch Cube Zero, but don't watch this.

Seven strangers wake up inside a maze of cubes, they have no memory of how they got there. Some cubes contain deadly traps, there is no food or water. This is a low budget film with a simple set but great execution. Well worth watching.

While the other books in the Mars Trilogy have some cool ideas it all seems to have finished by the time we get to this one. Everything big has already been done and this book just tries to tidy up a few loose ends. If you've made it through the other two I wouldn't bother with this one.

This film starts strange and gets stranger. Early on unsuccessful puppeteer Craig Schwartz starts as a filing clerk in office where all the ceilings are half height and no one can stand up straight. Then he finds a portal that allows him inside John Malkovich's head. By the end of the film half height ceilings seem normal.

Prot claims to be an alien from K-Pax and ends up in a mental hospital. He talks of a society totally different from Earth with a psychiatrist who just wants to know who he really is. Good performances all round. Is he an alien or is he just mad? That's for you to decide.

The film is a firm favourite of mine and it was interesting to read the book. Characters are more complicated with more back story for each of them. However this seem to distract from the tale rather than enhance it. It also lacks the humour found in the film. (If you do read it I suggested totally ignoring the sections in italics, it makes for a better read.)

This is a great fairy story with all the elements a child (or adult who hasn't grown up) could ask for: a prince, a damsel, a giant, a master swordsman, even a pirate!

This is a great computer animated film. This is a great animated film. This is a great film. I left the cinema thinking, "I want to see the sequel to this." Find out about the secret life behind the superheroes and what happens when they get married and have kids. Watch it!

This director is famous for his twists so I will say as little as possible. Apart from it's period setting and a charming romance there was one scene that sold this movie to me. We can see what is going on but the blind girl can't. It is her fear that matters not ours.