So like, taking the fam to the cinema is supposed to be like, a cheap treat, right? But when the munchkins are losing it at home on a rainy weekend, you gotta get out, like, ASAP. When this happened to our squad of three little girls, the flick that checked all our boxes was still playing – Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Jennifer Coolidge’s A Minecraft Movie. The “chance” the crappy weather gave us to catch this comedy, based on the hit kids game, had to be taken. The only prob? The cost. The city centre Broadway Plaza Odeon was asking for £37.50 for two adults and three kids, plus almost the same amount for snacks. Payday wasn’t until the end of the month, so we needed another option, like, yesterday. That’s when my partner remembered how another school mom had scoped out deals at the nearby Reel cinema in Quinton. After checking online, we saw the 10 am “Movie Madness” showing was a steal at £4.99 each – for adults or kids. Compared to the Odeon at the same time, we saved a whopping £12.55, around 30%. It was like finding a pot of gold, but, like, in movie tickets!
When we got to the old school 1930s brick building on Hagley Road West, the parking lot was packed but we still found a spot. We dashed through the rain, busted through the double doors straight to the food counter, and grabbed the family deal for £15. That was like half the price of what I thought I’d be shelling out at the Odeon, for the same stuff. But this wasn’t a fancy Odeon with big escalators. We navigated through dingy halls with peeling paint and barely any signs. Some parents might not dig the look, but do my kids care about fancy cinema vibes? Nah. Thankfully, the movie itself, directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess, with jams belted out School of Rock-style by Black and the crew in the pixelated Minecraft world, was full of jokes, action, and thrills.
Halfway through, each of my girls had to pee (in five-minute intervals, of course). The first trip took us through the maze again, accidentally up to the old-school projection booth (“Daddy, is this from the olden days?”), before we finally found the bathrooms – just in time. The movie got mixed reviews and won’t be a classic like Barbie or spawn a franchise like Mario Bros or Transformers, but it was never dull – and all thanks to the “Movie Madness” deal, we saved big time.
