Flash Gordon

The Roxy Cinema, our local, has a regular event called Eat The Film. This started as a special event during Wellington On A Plate, but has been so successful that they have started to do it regularly throughout the year. The premise is that you watch a classic film, and are fed and watered with food and beverages either featuring in the film, or based on events in the film, interpreted and brought up to date by the chef at Coco At The Roxy - the restaurant attached to the cinema. We’ve been to a similar event before, when we saw Elvis Presley in King Creole.

When The Roxy announced that they would be doing Flash Gordon as an ETF event, we naturally jumped at the chance, and booked tickets immediately. When I say “immediately”, this was in February 1PC (Pre-Covid), for an event initially scheduled for April. But, you know the story from here…

The event has been moved twice, and they finally decided to go ahead with it on 20^th and 21^st September. As we are still under Level 2 restrictions (although they are due to be reviewed today) they split it into two sessions so that they could distance the seats, having people sitting only in alternating rows.

One of the advantages of the delay is that they were able to use a new, digitally-remastered version of the film, upping the quality (of the image) substantially. Sadly nothing could be done about the quality of the acting, with such luminaries as a pre-Bond Timothy Dalton, Topol, Max Von Sydow, and Brian Blessed amongst the supporting cast.  

We showed up half an hour early, and whilst waiting in the upstairs lounge they screened one of the first episodes of the original black and white serial, starring Buster Crabbe, from 1940. It was hilarious! This was followed with screen images of various comics, books, and other products available through the years, showing the history of Flash Gordon.

At 6:00 we filed into our designated social-distanced seats. Each seat was furnished with Ming’s Magnificent Mezze, and accompanying cocktail of Hot Hail. Whilst we tucked into this, the cinema manager gave us a brief introduction into how Eat The Film works, and also about the film, after first establishing that there was a considerable proportion of people who hadn’t (a) been to an ETF event before, and (b) seen Flash Gordon before. The menu is shown below. As you can imagine, a considerable amount of glassware and crockery build up during the performance, so a bag is provided to stack your used implements in.

Ming's Magnificent Mezze

The film is, of course, completely hilarious, and we were able to laugh, join in at appropriate moments “Gordon’s ALIVE?!” “Open fire! All weapons!” Dispatch war rocket Ajax” etc etc. All good fun, and tasty food and cocktails, as befits Coco At The Roxy’s chef and barman.