What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 18th September 2014.

This week with the advent of school holidays just about to click in, and the sun shining now more on a regular basis as Springtime takes hold across Australia, there is a plethora of new releases in the week ahead that will offer something for everyone - from the young, to the not so young. There are animated features, action Sci-Fi, graphic novel noir, a coming of age tale and a family introspective dramedy from a second time Director.

There is much to like in the week ahead and plenty to tempt you out once again from in front of the small screen to in front of a big screen with the eye-popping hi-def and ear piercing surround sound that only the movie going experience can provide. When you've been out to your local multi-plex this coming week and sat in the dark for two hours watching the film of your choice, drop me a line at Odeon Online, in the comments box immediately following this regular weekly feature, and let me and my other frequent reader know what you thought! Enjoy your cinema experience!

SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR (Rated MA15+) - it has taken Co-Directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez almost ten years to bring the second 'Sin City' instalment to our big screens. Once again based on the graphic novel written by Frank Miller, it's predecessor the 2005 film 'Sin City' has become a cult classic and performed well at the box office given its gritty subject matter, its interwoven stories, strong cast and its excellent dark, noir, brooding look on screen - the likes of which we had never seen before. Fast track to 2014 and Miller and Rodriguez have amassed the budget and the cast to do it all again, this time combining four stories from the Sin City series whilst retaining all the key elements from that original outing, but enhanced digitally given that technology has marched on another decade since the first film.

This time around we once again have a stellar cast with a few names reprising their roles from earlier. The grizzled hard boiled citizens of Basin City that make up an unsavoury but nonetheless entertaining bunch of killers, criminals, thugs, pimps, prostitutes, pushers and losers consist of Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Powers Booth, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, Dennis Haysbert and Jeremy Piven with our femme fatales made up of Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and Eva Green . . . and even Lady Gaga gets a gig somewhere in there too! With four stories - 'Just Another Saturday Night', 'The Long Bad Night - Parts 1&2', 'A Dame to Kill For' and 'Nancy's Last Dance' these stories twist and turn and are interwoven with the unscrupulous Senator Roarke (Powers Booth) being the glue that sticks it all together. If you liked the first instalment; are a follower of the genre, the cast and the film makers; and want another unique visual experience following closely in the footsteps of the first - then this is a must watch over the coming weeks!

THE MAZE RUNNER (Rated M) - adapted from the 2009 book of the same name by James Dashner this is likely to be the first in a trilogy if it performs well enough, and there is every chance it will given its storyline, its visuals and its targeted audience (largely in the same vein as 'Divergent', and 'The Hunger Games'). Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) awakes in a lift not knowing how he got there or why, only to be deposited in a corn field with sixty or so other teenage boys all glaring down at him. We learn that these boys have been there for two years or so, that a new boy arrives every thirty days and they are living in a completely enclosed environment surrounded by very high walls that keep them in a state of captivity. Their only means of escape is through their surrounding maze, but no one has yet been successful, the maze is ever changing and lurking out there are nightmarish mechanical creatures ('Grievers') preying on would-be escapists. Then, when they least expect it a girl arrives carrying a note saying she is 'the last one ever' and things begin to change for Thomas and the group as they seek to escape and find answers to their past and their future confronting much adversity, danger and adventure along the way.

THE INFINITE MAN (Rated MA15+) - another offering to add to the canon of solid Australian film content to be released in recent times, 'The Infinite Man' is from South Australian Screenwriter and Director Hugh Sullivan and is an original little film with a little cast and a big idea set in the middle of nowhere! Starring Josh McConville as Dean, he is the amateur scientist who takes his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall) away to a remote outback hotel to celebrate their anniversary (filmed in Woomera, of all God forsaken places!). During their little holiday they split up and Lana's ex. Terry also arrives,  (Alex Dimitriadis) just complicating things further leaving Dean to lick his wounds and invent a time-machine (as amateur would-be scientists do!) in an attempt to rectify those wrongs in the relationship and win her back on the same day. Creating a time-travelling devise fashioned from odd bits of audio equipment and a head covering of some sort, the net effect is that multiple versions of Dean are created as he jumps back in time several times to get it right - which only serves to complicate a complicated matter further. With Dean having conversions with his other selves, and all at odds with Terry and Lana this is a set up for complications and confusion aplenty, madness and hilarity, and an original story with a soft core despite the harshness of its surroundings.

WE ARE THE BEST (Rated M) - a Swedish/Danish collaboration this has a limited release. Directed by Lukas Moodysson and based on a comic book written by his wife Coco, this is about three teenage friends growing up in 1982 Stockholm who decide to form a Punk band to prove to themselves and the world that Punk is still alive, kicking and doing the pogo! Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) recruit young guitar legend Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) to their 'band' despite the fact that they have no instruments and negativity from everyone around them. This is a story not of the music, but more of relationships unfolding, the teenage spirit, and youthful innocence that is likely to pull us in just as 'Stand By Me' did in 1986.

WISH I WAS HERE (Rated M) - Directed, written and starring Zach Braff this is his second Directorial outing after 2004's 'Garden State', and sees him as Aidan Bloom a doting father and husband but hapless provider as a budding actor who fails at just about every audition he goes for. At 35 he still lacks meaning and purpose in his life, and when his ageing and sick father (Mandy Patinkin) announces that he can no longer afford the school fees for his two grandchildren, Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and Grace (Joey King), Aidan decides it is time he schooled them at home. Starring Kate Hudson as the wife Sarah, Aidan's journey while home schooling Tucker and Grace lead to some interesting discoveries about himself, love, family, relationships and perhaps the meaning of life!

THE BOXTROLLS (Rated PG) - based on the Alan Snow children's book 'Here Be Monsters' this film is a stop-motion animated feature that looks delightful, has a strong voice cast including Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette and Elle Fanning and is sure to please for its creative, heart-warming, humorous story and visuals. Based in and under the town of Cheesebridge, orphaned lad Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) has been raised by underground dwelling inventors known as 'The Boxtrolls' (surprisingly, trolls who carry themselves around in recycled boxes!). Undercover of darkness and in the dead of night The Boxtrolls clamber up the sewers and ransack the garbage bins of the townsfolk for hidden 'treasures' that they can recycle for their clever inventions. Despite them being largely harmless, fun loving intelligent inventive little creatures the city slickers above ground believe them to be ruthless, child napping, thieving criminals intent on stealing the towns prized cheeses. Above ground Boxtroll Exterminator, Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) is intent on ridding the town once and for all of the evil below ground dwelling menace and taking his rightful place in society.  Eggs, as the only human in the Boxtroll clan, ventures above ground and meets future friend and support Winnie Portly-Rind (voiced by Elle Fanning) to overcome Snatcher and win over the townsfolk once and for all.

PLANES : FIRE & RESCUE (Rated G) - Disney spent US$50M making this sequel to the 2013 'Planes' animated feature so they must consider it a worthwhile exercise to give this another go! With a voice cast that includes Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Stacy Keach and Teri Hatcher we see our avionic hero Dusty (voiced by Dane Cook) given the news that he has terminal engine damage and will never likely race again. He needs to take it easy and so becomes an aerial firefighter joining up with veteran fire and rescue helicopter, Blade Ranger and his team. With a huge bushfire raging wildly out of control Dusty quickly learns what it is to become a real hero! One definitely for the kids on a wet afternoon methinks!

Seven new Odeon offerings to tempt you out this week and again something for almost everyone, and if it's not one of the above, then there is still plenty of cinematic content from previous weeks still doing the rounds and on-show at a theatre near you!

Enjoy the movies - see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-