GLASGOW FIlm festival
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Scott Henderson urges you to grab your bucket of popcorn and celebrate some blockbuster birthdays on the big, big screen, as three movie classics come to Glasgow IMAX
‘G oodness gracious / great balls of i re!’ Sorry, couldn’t resist. Glasgow Film Festival continues its masterful balance of arthouse festival l icks and populist fare, reaching the broadest spectrum of cinephiles and movie nerds, with a strand of decadal blockbuster anniversaries from 1976 to 1996 on glorious, neck- straining IMAX presentation. Better yet, The List is giving you the chance to pick one of the i lms that screens.
As you’ve probably already guessed, one of the i lms in GFF’s IMAX Blockbusters series is 1986’s Tony Scott-Tom Cruise classic, Top Gun, and there really couldn’t be a more natural home for the aerial combat actioner than on IMAX. Prepare yourself to re-live the greatest love triangle since The Philadelphia Story, as Maverick, Goose and Iceman go toe-to-toe to i nd out who is the best of the best of the best, with honours. Also, there’s shirtless beach volleyball, Kelly McGillis and moody love scenes that literally take your breath away. Our l ight suit is already on order.
Sticking with 1986, and a blockbuster with a greater mix of sci-i brains, military brawn and some of the i nest work of the late James Horner, how about Aliens: The Director’s Cut? Comparisons to the other Ridley brother’s earlier Alien are futile; these are two very different space beasts. In the unlikely scenario you need convincing how amazing Aliens will be on IMAX (the Nostromo, the escape scene, the Queen? Come on!), the UK Colonial Marine Corps will patrol the viewing area for added atmosphere, so keep your eyes peeled for Private ‘illegal alien’ Vasquez, Private ‘game over’ Hudson and Lieutenant ‘always was an asshole’ Gorman. Stretching back to 1976, the festival has opted for the Brian De Palma- directed Carrie. Starring Sissy Spacek, it’s the i rst of Stephen King’s books adapted to i lm. This tense atmospheric 70s horror should play well on IMAX, especially its famed, blood-soaked climax. You probably won’t be quoting along with this one – more likely you’ll be busy chewing your i ngers down to the bone.
Best of all, the i nal selection in the strand gets to be chosen by you, List readers. Take yourself back to 1996: three of the year’s most memorable i lms are vampire gore fest From Dusk Till Dawn (remember when Tarantino was still trying his hand at acting?); Scream, Wes Craven’s brilliant return to form, satirizing the slasher genre he’d mastered; and i nally our very own scum-of-the-earth, generation-dei ning Brit l ick, Trainspotting, in which we dare you to pick the best scene. Even tougher might be choosing between these contemporary classics, so make sure you pick wisely, because it’s unlikely you’ll get the opportunity to see any of these i lms on an IMAX screen again. Vote to see From Dusk Till Dawn, Scream and Trainspotting in IMAX at list.co.uk/gff16 – the poll closes Thu 11 Feb, 5pm.
Carrie, Fri 19 Feb; Aliens: The Director’s Cut, Sat 20 Feb; Top Gun, Fri 26 Feb; and The List Reader’s Choice, Sat 27 Feb; all at Glasgow IMAX, 7.30pm. Vote at list.co.uk/gff16
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