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Practically Perfect in Every Way

My favourite Christmas present this year was a Cineworld Unlimited card from my Mum. It was also her best Christmas present, to her self. It was made for us, however up til now our finances have made it impossible......but this is our year. Just so that you are in the picture, the Cineworld Unlimited card pretty much allows you to see all the standard films shown at the cinema for one fixed payment, thus allowing you to visit as many times as you like throughout the year, and we plan to take complete and full advantage of that. We thought it would be interesting to keep a record of the films we see and how we rate them, and whether we actually manage to get value for money from our cards. So, to get us started before the New Year even breaks we looked through the listings and were disappointed to see that there was very little on that took our fancy. We are assuming that this is a seasonal thing as usually we have the opposite problem and struggle to fit them all in, however one film was calling us.


Mary Poppins Returns is a new release and just in time for Christmas. It stars Emily Blunt (not cockney rhyming slang) and Lin-Manuel Miranda and of course the concern with this film is...can it live up to the original? It wasn't billed as a remake but carries that burden of responsibility never the less. The original was released on 23rd December 1964 with its incredibly catchy score, charming animation and timeless lyrics, not forgetting Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, a true film classic. The new film boasted that Mary Poppins 'returns' so we already know a new actress will be playing the title role but can she possibly do her justice, in a world where almost all reality is augmented in some way there was a fear that they would over do it and CGI it to within an inch of its life. With an Unlimited card we decided to risk it as we no longer have the worry of wasting £12.10 each.

We were off to a bad start immediately as although the booking system seemed to work fairly well the car didn't. We gave this up as a bad job and booked a cab. As it was the first time we had used the Unlimited card we weren't sure how difficult it would be to collect tickets etc but as it turned out it was very straight forward.

Mary Poppins Returns revisits 17 Cherry Tree Lane and lots of the characters associated with it. It oozes familiarity and nostalgia for those in the know, but for those who aren't familiar with the original there is enough to grip you from the start. It is pure family entertainment with an old fashioned vibe.
Just to spell it out we LOVED it. It was a long film at 130 minutes but this wasn't an issue as each minute was filled with magic. We found ourselves smiling throughout and almost spontaneously applauding after each song.


We will give each film we see a score out of 10 for overall enjoyment.
Mary Poppins Returns = 9. We deducted a point for Emily Blunts' slightly over the top accent.
Our Unlimited year is off to a practically perfect start.

The card we have is £17.90 per month for a minimum of 12 months or a one off payment of £214.80. Get yours here→ www.cineworld.co.uk







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