I went to see Barbie and Oppenheimer over the weekend in Glasgow and loved both

It’s not uncommon for blockbuster movies to be released in the summer months, but this time it felt a little bit different as the highly anticipated Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day.

Glasgow has a rich history of being a cinema city with it at one point having 127 cinemas in 1929 which was reckoned to be the most outside the USA compared to any other city similar to its size. Cinemas provide a rich history through architecture and people which can be fondly looked back on.

First up was Barbie on Friday evening which wasn’t of my choosing but yet it was still highly enjoyable with cinemas up and down the country being visited by people dressed in pink to celebrate the occasion. There are several places in Glasgow that have taken the release very seriously as popular Italian restaurant Di Maggios has introduced a pink menu named ‘carbie’ which includes ken out of ten waffles and pinkydinkshakes. Elsewhere, Rainbow Room International George Square has created their own Barbie dream world in the salon and the GFT has special cocktails available.

One of the actors starring in the film is Glasgow-born Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie who has also appeared in My Fat Diary and the much-loved sitcom Two Doors Down. She was meant to be attending a screening at the GFT but cancelled due to the Screen Actors Guild strike.

Oppenheimer was next up and really lived up to the hype as Christopher Nolan has yet again delivered a cinematic masterpiece that completely blows the doors off the hinges with a tremendous mixture of US politics and the morality of science. Glasgow has its only link to the Manhattan Project through physicist Sir Samuel Curran.

It was once again great to see people getting back out to the cinema for these blockbusters which have already generated hundreds of millions of pounds as Vue International said it had the biggest weekend for UK cinema ticket sales in four years after the release of both films.