Videogames are defined by how quickly they’re replaced by next-gen technology – and yet decades-old favourites endure. The owner of a ‘retro arcade’ chooses the very best. A An alluring mix of 1980s music and the ping, ping, ping sounds of classic video games emerge from a dark shop front in Old Town Pasadena, California. At the Neon Retro Arcade, owners Mark Guenther and Mia Mazadiego, a husband and wife team of eight-bit enthusiasts, invite fans to re-live the heady days of arcade gaming, when playing Centipede was cool and bragging rights came with a high score on Space Invaders. For today’s young people, used to playing games on a smart phone or in the cloud, the cumbersome black boxes, housing such classics as Pac-Man, Mario Bros and Frogger, may be as alien as some of their characters. And yet, among older gamers, nostalgia runs high for this era of low-fi gaming. Mark and Mia, who met in college over a game of pinball, have brought together more than 40 vintage arcade games. "I had been collecting these things for a number of years, restoring them, and we had some arcade parties at our house,” says Guenther. "It always went over really well, and so eventually we thought we should really do something with this and turn it into a business." Watch the video above to see Guenther share what he thinks are the five greatest arcade videogames of all time. Armando Iannucci’s funny, spirited and shrewd adaptation of the Dickens classic finally arrives in theatres after playing at festivals. The film stays true to Dickens’ 19th-Century setting, and the casting works beautifully, with Dev Patel as the orphaned hero trying to make his way in the world. Tilda Swinton as his imperious but kind-hearted Aunt Betsey Trotwood and Hugh Laurie as the eccentric, bewildered Mr Dick steal every scene they’re in. Who would have guessed that the brains behind Veep and The Thick of It was just the right director for this refreshing, multicultural take on the beloved novel? (CJ) Released on 24 January in the UK and Ireland, 8 May in the US The Invisible Man (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) In 2017, Tom Cruise’s The Mummy was supposed to be the first in a series of blockbusters about Universal Studios’ classic monsters. But the film flopped so badly that Universal scrapped its plans for a ‘Dark Universe’ franchise – and that included an action movie starring Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man. In its place, Leigh Whannell, the co-creator of Saw and Insidious, has written and directed a creepy low-budget take on HG Wells’ story. Elisabeth Moss plays a woman who is stalked by an abusive ex – but because he happens to be invisible, nobody believes her. Let’s face it, the Depp version wouldn’t have been as intriguing as that. (NB) Released on 28 Feb in the UK, Ireland, and the US No Time to Die (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) It may have been hampered by injuries, accidents and even the withdrawal of its original director, Danny Boyle, but Daniel Craig’s final Bond movie could be among his best. For one thing, Boyle’s frantic, fidgety style never seemed right for 007, whereas the director who replaced him, Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation, True Detective), specialises in muscular action sequences and gritty international locations. For another thing, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) has spiced up the script. The story is that Bond has retired with his girlfriend (Léa Seydoux), leaving a new double-0 agent (Lashana Lynch) to save the world in his absence. But his buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) persuades him to fight the evil Safin (Rami Malek). Oh – and Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is up to no good, too. (NB) Released on 2 April in the UK, 10 April in the US Promising Young Woman (Credit: Focus Features) (Credit: Focus Features) Emerald Fennell, a multi-talent and the next big thing, has been compared to Phoebe Waller-Bridge for good reason. Fennell, who plays Camilla Shand in The Crown and was Patsy in Call the Midwife, took over from Waller-Bridge as head writer on season two of Killing Eve. Now she has written and directed her first film, a thriller starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who takes revenge on abusive men. The trailer suggests a droll, bold take on the themes of sexual abuse and vengeance, with Mulligan putting on a series of personas and disguises, including an ominous Halloween-ready sexy-nurse’s costume. There is bound to be nothing like it. (CJ) Released on 16 April in the Netherlands, 17 April in the US and US Artemis Fowl (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) When he’s not directing or acting in Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh shows remarkable flair for making commercial Disney films, from Thor to Cinderella. Here he takes on a fantasy-adventure based on the first in Eoin Colfer’s huge, bestselling series of children’s books. The hero, Artemis Fowl (Ferdia Shaw), is a 12-year-old genius and criminal mastermind – now there is a great child's fantasy – who battles fairies while searching for his father. What could go wrong? Laden with special effects, the spectacle includes underground worlds, mythical creatures and even Dame Judi Dench as a police chief, Commander Root. (CJ) Released on 28 May in Australia, 29 May in the UK, Poland and the US Wonder Woman 1984 (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) Superhero blockbusters are so last decade. In 2020, it’s the superheroines’ time to shine. Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is finally getting her own film, and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, the only decent thing about the shambolic Suicide Squad, returns with Birds of Prey. But the year’s biggest and brightest-looking superheroine movie will probably be Wonder Woman 1984, a sequel to Patty Jenkins’ 2017 smash. Decades after the events of the first film, the warrior princess (Gal Gadot) goes into battle against Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah and Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord. She may well have to contend with Rubik’s Cubes, shoulder pads and Duran Duran singles while she’s at it. (NB) Released on 7 June in the US and UK Soul (Credit: Disney / Pixar) (Credit: Disney / Pixar) Soul is another of the boldly imaginative cartoons that you wouldn’t get from any US animation studio except Pixar. More specifically, it’s the kind of cartoon you only get from Pete Docter, whose previous films – Monsters Inc, Up and Inside Out – have all pondered human behaviour and the meaning of life. His latest cartoon is about souls developing their interests and talents in an another dimension before they fuse with bodies in the physical world. The biggest names in the voice cast are Tina Fey, who also co-wrote the screenplay, and Jamie Foxx; his jazz-loving character is the first African-American hero of a Pixar cartoon. (NB) Released on 19 June in the UK and US Top Gun: Maverick (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) Tom Cruise puts his Aviator shades back on for a high-flying sequel to the 1986 hit. Thirty-four years on, his US Navy pilot character is still calling himself ‘Maverick’, and he still hasn’t made it past the rank of Captain. But never mind the plot. If the last film is anything to go by, this one will be all about the thrill of seeing jet planes tearing through the sky at teeth-rattling speeds. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t the only belated new addition to a 1980s franchise, either. Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Bill & Ted Face the Music are also due in 2020. (NB) Released on 26 June in the US, 17 July in the UK Tenet (Credit: Warner Bros) (Credit: Warner Bros) Mystery surrounds Christopher Nolan films, sometimes even after you’ve watched them, but he has unveiled a few details about his latest, a tempting, espionage-themed action-filled brain twister. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki lead a cast that includes Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh. Washington’s character tries to prevent a global fate worse than nuclear war by unravelling the secret meaning of the word tenet. (It’s probably more than his forgotten password, but that would be a fun ending.) The setting spans continents, with locations including India, Estonia, Italy and the UK. And the story plays mind games with time, space and memory as Nolan has done so brilliantly in films from Memento to Inception. (CJ) Released on 16 July in Brazil, Germany, the UK and US West Side Story (Credit: Alamy) (Credit: Alamy) Steven Spielberg delivers singing, dancing and some of the most beautiful music ever written – Maria, Tonight, the list goes on – with his adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's classic Broadway take on Romeo and Juliet. Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) and the little-known Rachel Zegler are Tony and Maria, the star-crossed lovers caught in a gang war between the Sharks and the Jets in 1957 New York City. The film was written by playwright Tony Kushner, who also wrote Spielberg's Lincoln. You can’t accuse either one of not stretching. And 2020 brings another high-profile musical, which probably wouldn’t exist without the original West Side Story. In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2005 Broadway hit, set on the streets of a Latino neighbourhood in New York, is directed by Jon M Chu of Crazy Rich Asians. (CJ) Released on 16 December in France, 18 December in the UK and US |