Odeon Kettering – The Final Visit

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This was a milestone event – our final visit to the local Odeon. The building is due for demolition next week (Tuesday, the 28th), leaving the town with no cinema at all.

Apparently, the town has had a cinema, somewhere in the town, for the past 100 years! And now it doesn’t – and the natives are restless!!

Tonight, it wasn’t particularly the film that mattered, as it was more about a ‘final opportunity’ to see this oft-visited picture palace before it becomes a pile of bricks! From the developer’s perspective, it’s all part of a bigger picture where the land PLUS all the surrounding buildings are being demolished to make way for…

…well, no-one seems to be 100% certain! – the latest rumour being ‘open storage’ (whatever that is!). ☹️

With Hobson’s Choice – the Pub/Restaurant opposite – already boarded up and marked for a similar fate plus nearby Frankie and Benny’s on the receiving end of a bulldozer a few days back and finally, Mazza’s (the Indian Restaurant) that’s stood empty for nigh-on 10 years), leaving only the nearby KFC, the only building left standing.

And then, last Tuesday, it was announced that they were on the demolition list too!

The local online petition only attracted around 3000 signatures, so that won’t have made any difference! We arrived at the Cinema and it was near-deserted! ☹️ Happily, still plenty of staff though! 😁. After a(another) ‘final visit to the in-house Costa, we headed for the Screen.

Things didn’t improve much when we got to our seats – the Screen was completely empty (although the two back rows DID fill up just before ‘curtain up’).

The Film

Oh, the film… we chose to see ‘Flight Risk‘ starring Mark Wahlberg, Michele Docker and Topher Grace (who??)

Synopsis

A U.S. marshal boards a small plane to transfer a government witness to New York. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions start to rise as not everyone on the flight is who they appear to be.

Official Trailer

Any Good?

Actually, it was a really good film. Directed by none other than Mel Gibson, it was a riveting, if not stressful and claustrophobic watch! 🤔. Set almost entirely on a small plane, it was very well done – and very convincing, with Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey) making a very convincing American!

Well, that’s then of an era! ☹️. For me, it’ll be sadly missed and where we now have to work out the best alternative location for our regular ‘movie fix’. 🥹🥹🥹🥹. Looks like the nearest cinema will now be CineWorld at Rushden Lakes, the new ‘Luxe’ Odeon in Northampton (ironically on the site of the recently closed CineWorld!) or The Savoy Cinema in Corby.

There’s a really comprehensive article by Kettering local, Tony Smith, in the Northamptonshire Telegraph listing ALL the Cinemas that Kettering has seen through the years! Read it HERE.