Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ and I’m Tim Bradley!

On Saturday 21st of March, I enjoyed seeing ‘Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory’ at Vue Cinema in Cardiff. On Saturday 28th of March, I enjoyed seeing my favourite Roald Dahl film adaptation – the 1996 film ‘Matilda’ – at Vue Cinema in Cardiff. Both were worthwhile!

This was all part of Vue Cinema’s Roald Dahl film season that’s happening in Cardiff. Other films for this season include ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘The Witches’ 1990 film, ‘The BFG’ 2016 film and ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’. I haven’t had time to check out all these films.

‘Willy Wonka’ and ‘Matilda’ were two Roald Dahl film adaptations I truly wanted to see on the big screen, as they’re closest to my heart. Mind you, ‘Matilda’ is a film that tops it for me compared to ‘Willy Wonka’, and I’ve very fond memories seeing it as a kid in the 1990s.

It’s also amazing to find that this year is the film’s 30th anniversary, hence why it was re-released at cinemas recently. That’s incredible to discover. To know that ‘Matilda’ is a film that’s lasted for 30 years and still people talk about it. I’m glad it’s still a well-loved movie.

I went to see ‘Matilda’ at the cinema with my best friend from school, Stephen. We had a great time watching the film on the big screen, and this was, for us, our first time seeing it on the big screen compared to viewing it on TV, VHS, DVD and Blu-ray over the years. 🙂

When we were teens, we used to create our own version of ‘Matilda’ called ‘Billy Prime’, which had a blend of ‘Matilda’, Spider-Man and Transformers in it. 😀 It was silly but fun when we did it, as we could memorise all the lines said by the characters in ‘Matilda’ for it. 😀

As we watched ‘Matilda’ on the big screen, I recall Stephen laughing at the very funny moments featured throughout the film, including Danny DeVito as Harry Wormwood. It was funny when he said lines to Matilda that were cruel and yet very amusing to hear. 😀

One of the great aspects of checking out these classic films on the big screen is that you can pick out more details compared to seeing them on the small screen. My best mate discovered that when watching the scene with Zinnia Wormwood and the two FBI agents.

Apparently, one of the FBI agents was holding the microphone to record what Zinnia was saying that would inevitably ruin Harry’s dodgy career as a car salesman. Even after seeing this film many times, I wouldn’t have picked up on this unless Stephen mentioned it.

It was fun and tense to see the Bruce Bogtrotter cake scene, especially when seeing how huge that cake was and much Bruce had to take in getting to eat it all. Also, I don’t think anybody in real life can eat as huge a chocolate cake as that compared to Bruce eating it. 😀

In the 1996 film, the book and the musical film. Incidentally, this is the second time I’ve seen a ‘Matilda’ film on the big screen at Vue Cinema in Cardiff, as the first time I saw a ‘Matilda’ film was in fact the 2022 musical film, which I saw before the end of that year. 🙂

I certainly enjoyed the 1996 film more than the musical film, especially when I got more vibes in it being a faithful film adaptation of the original book by Roald Dahl. Plus, the 1996 film is funnier and more action-driven compared to how the musical film did things.

Mara Wilson shines throughout this film. I’m confident ‘Matilda’ is a film that many will recall her for in the years to come compared to other films she’s in like ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’, ‘Miracle on 34th Street’, ‘A Simple Wish’ and of course ‘Thomas and the Magic Railroad’.

The rest of the cast are also very good in this film, including Danny DeVito, Rhea Pearlman, Embeth Davidtz and Pam Ferris. Pam Ferris especially continues to be terrifying as the evil Miss Trunchbull and it’s what I’ll always remember her for in terms of acting.

I’m very pleased my best friend Stephen and I got to see ‘Matilda’ again and at the cinema recently. We enjoyed reliving our 1990s nostalgia with this film and it’s always good to see a film we know we love so much on the big screen for the first time from viewing it as kids.

I’m lucky in that I’ve been able to see my favourite films at the cinema over the years since doing my blog. Not just with ‘Willy Wonka’ and ‘Matilda’, but also with the ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy, the first two ‘Back to the Future’ films and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy. 🙂

Fantastic! Looking forward to what’s to come next for special cinema re-releases of films! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂