Film Screening 24th March, 2018

Poster for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 

7:00 PM, 24th March, 2018
No Guests

  • PG
  • 111 mins
  • 2017
  • Jake Kasdan
  • Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan

1995’s Jumanji was part action, part comedy, and part coming-of-age romance centring on a magical board game that manifests a sprawling, dangerous jungle. Robin Williams starred as the grown version of a young boy cast into the jungle world years earlier, who upon release teams up with his childhood friend and two young kids to defeat the game to return the jungle and its deadly inhabitants safely to the confines of the game.

Reworking the premise, 2017’s Jumanji is now a video game discovered by four teenagers while in detention. Propelled into the world of the game, each teen is assigned an adult avatar (cue humorous juxtaposition) and must complete a quest in order to return home. Despite the change in setting, Welcome to the Jungle retains the family-friendly themes of the original while throwing into the mix four talented actors as the mismatched avatars.

Dwayne Johnson’s fantasy-action chops are now confirmed by his turns in films like this and (most fantastical of all) the Fast and Furious franchise. Karen Gillan has an equally impressive pedigree thanks to “Doctor Who” and Guardians of the Galaxy, while Kevin Hart and Jack Black offer a double dose of comic relief.

Stephen Mann

Poster for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women 

9:01 PM, 24th March, 2018

  • MA
  • 108 mins
  • 2017
  • Angela Robinson
  • Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, Oliver Platt

No great work of art is created in a bubble, and the creation of Wonder Woman is no exception.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women tells the tale of how psychologist William Moulton Marston (Evans) created one of the most inspirational and recognisable characters in pop culture in the 1940s – but not without controversy.
The film is told in flashback during a 1947 testimony that Marston was required to give to the Child Study Association of America after being called upon to explain issues involving the ostensibly-family-friendly character of Wonder Woman. We learn how Marston was inspired to create Wonder Woman by his relationships with powerful and independent women, particularly with his wife Elizabeth (Hall) and their mutual partner, Olive Byrne (Heathcote).

The story of these relationships, and the early days of Wonder Woman herself, is intriguing. There is a lot more to the tale than someone drawing a beautiful woman in tight clothes and giving her a whip! I can’t help but wonder if Stan Lee’s life was ever this interesting…

If you’re in the mood for a touching film about creation, love and the strength of feminist ideals, this critically acclaimed and fascinating tale is for you.

Karolina Firman