Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Andy Doodles, Batman, christopher nolan, Comics, Comics4Causes, entertainment, film, heath ledger, The Joker, tim burton, will brooker

Things To Do In Birmingham This Weekend If You Like The Joker

Published Fri, 19 Sep 2014 06:00:00 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

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By Olly MacNamee

Comics4Causes, the fledgling comic book based charity working out of Nostalgia and Comics here in the heart of the Midlands are at it again this weekend, teaming up with Millennium Point's Big Screen to offer an enviable double bill that puts the Clown Prince of Crime's cinematic outings in the spotlight in this anniversary year for Batman. Unsurprisingly then, the two films are the Tim Burton's Batman and Jack Nicholson's Joker from 1989 followed with The Mirthful Murderer's most recent appearance in Chris Nolan's 2008 film, The Dark Knight, which bagged Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for his manic portrayal of arguably Batman's most infamous arch-enemy. A great evening's entertainment on a big, big screen: IMAX big!

Tickets are £10 for the standard seats, with £14 being charged for the premium seats. That's two big screen films for a very decent price and of course a cut of the profits goes to the charity of Comics4Causes choice, the Birmingham Children's Hospital. Like the recent Batman (1966) showing at the smaller Electric Cinema, these films will be introduced by Professor Will Brooker, who will enlighten the film-going audience with a brief history of the Joker through the ages before the first of the two films is shown. This time, with a bigger venue (Millennium Point also houses Birmingham City University, The Think Tank Science Museum as well as other ventures) the guys'n'gals of Comics4Causes have brought out the big guns; or, the big Batarangs, if you will, given Batman's aversion to the bang-bang.

Andy Doodles, local cartoonist, will be on hand to sketch your caricature and there will be fresh baked Batman-based cookies and cupcakes to hoover up too. They are encouraging cosplayers to come out and be proud, and I hope they do as this kind of thing only adds to the great and geeky atmosphere of such events. This and a pop-up comic book store courtesy of Nostalgia and Comics and my advice is to get there early to soak up the fun before the first screening at 6.30pm. Doors open at 5pm so if you do want to take advantage of the added extras that Comic4Causes are putting on, get there quick. All-in-all it seems to have the makings of a micro-comic con (is that a word? Is it even a thing? It is now!) with Batman and the Joker as the stars for the evening.

But wait! That's not all! There is also talk of a few surprises over the course of the night; so don't expect to sit there silently without the odd planned interruption. At the Electric Cinema, during the afternoon performance I attended with my daughter, The Riddler and his henchmen held the whole room to ransom and mugged us of a few quid each. Could he be making a return visit this weekend? He never was captured and is still at large somewhere in this big city of mine I hear.

Overall, and after just three great charitable events that you can remind yourselves about here and here, this should be an unmissable event for Batman fans across the Midlands. Oh, and it's got a bar too, so, y'know, there's that too.

Olly MacNamee teaches English and Media, for his sins, in a school somewhere in Birmingham. Some days, even he doesn't know where it is. Follow him on twitter @ollymacnamee or read about his exploits at olly.macnamee@blogspot.co.uk. Or don't.

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