What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th February 2019.

Finally, after all the hype, the melodrama, the controversy over a Host, the wranglings over what awards should be televised and those that shouldn't, whether all five best original songs should be performed live or just a proposed two, and the inclusion of a new populist film award, the 91st Academy Awards were held on Sunday evening 24th February 2019 at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. This years ceremony was the first in three decades, since the 61st Academy Awards in 1989, to be conducted with no Host after the withdrawal of Kevin Hart as the 'chosen one' due to past jokes and adverse comments about certain demographics ten years ago came back to haunt him. Sad but true!

Now the dust has settled on this years Oscar's gig, in case you missed all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood's Night of Nights, here is the list of those winners and grinners who walked away with a golden statue, and those that didn't!

* Best Picture : won by 'GREEN BOOK', beating out 'Black Panther', 'BlacKkKlansman', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Favourite', 'Roma', 'A Star Is Born' and 'Vice'.
* Best Director : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA' beating out Spike Lee for 'BlacKkKlansman', Paweł Pawlikowski for 'Cold War', Yorgos Lanthimos for 'The Favourite' and Adam McKay for 'Vice'.

* Best Foreign Language Film : won by 'ROMA' (Mexico), beating out 'Capernaum' (Lebanon), 'Cold War' (Poland), 'Never Look Away' (Germany) and 'Shoplifters' (Japan).
* Best Documentary Feature : won by 'FREE SOLO', beating out 'Hale County This Morning, This Evening', 'Minding the Gap', 'Of Fathers and Sons' and 'RBG'.
* Best Animated Feature : won by 'SPIDER-MAN : INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE', beating out 'Incredibles 2', 'Isle of Dogs', 'Mirai' and 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'.

* Best Actor : won by RAMI MALEK for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY', beating out Christian Bale for 'Vice' as Dick Cheney, Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born' as Jackson 'Jack' Maine, Willem Dafoe for 'At Eternity's Gate' as Vincent van Gogh and Viggo Mortensen for 'Green Book' as Frank 'Tony Lip' Vallelonga.

* Best Actress : won by OLIVIA COLMAN for her portrayal of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out Yalitza Aparicio for 'Roma' as Cleodegaria 'Cleo' Gutiérrez, Glenn Close for 'The Wife' as Joan Castleman, Lady Gaga for 'A Star Is Born' as Ally Maine and Melissa McCarthy for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Lee Israel.
* Best Supporting Actor : won by MAHERSHALA ALI for his portrayal of Dr. Don Shirley in 'GREEN BOOK', beating out Adam Driver for 'BlacKkKlansman' as Philip 'Flip' Zimmerman, Sam Elliott for 'A Star Is Born' as Bobby Maine, Richard E. Grant for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Jack Hock and Sam Rockwell for 'Vice' as George W. Bush.

* Best Supporting Actress : won by REGINA KING for her portrayal of Sharon Rivers in 'IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK', beating out Amy Adams for 'Vice' as Lynne Cheney, Marina de Tavira for 'Roma' as Sofía, Emma Stone for 'The Favourite' as Abigail Masham and Rachel Weisz for 'The Favourite' as Sarah Churchill.
* Best Original Screenplay : won by 'GREEN BOOK' Co-Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly, beating out 'The Favourite', 'First Reformed', 'Roma' and 'Vice'.

* Best Adapted Screenplay : won by 'BLACKKKLANSMAN' Co-Written for the Screen by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee and based on the book by Ron Stallworth, beating out 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs', 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'A Star Is Born'.
* Best Original Score : won for 'BLACK PANTHER', beating out 'BlacKkKlansman', 'If Beale Street Could Talk', 'Isle of Dogs' and 'Mary Poppins Returns'.



* Best Original Song : won for 'SHALLOW' from 'A STAR IS BORN' by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, beating out 'All the Stars' from 'Black Panther', 'I'll Fight' from 'RBG', 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' from 'Mary Poppins Returns' and 'When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings' from 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'.
* Best Cinematography : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA', beating out 'Cold War', 'The Favourite', 'Never Look Away' and 'A Star is Born'.

* Best Visual Effects : won by 'FIRST MAN' beating out 'Avengers : Infinity War', 'Christopher Robin', 'Ready Player One' and 'Solo : A Star Wars Story'.
* And in the remaining categories, 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' won Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing; 'BLACK PANTHER' won for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design; and 'VICE' won for Best Make Up and Hair Styling.

You can catch all the highlights, the reports, the stories and the clips, at the official website at : oscar.go.com

This week then there are four latest release films coming to your local Odeon. Kicking off with a bunch of old codgers with a plan to commit an audacious cash & jewellery heist over the Easter long weekend, their plan is successful until their infighting afterwards leads to distrust and their ultimate demise. We then have a horror drama that plays out with a young good Samaritan returning a seemingly lost handbag to its older rightful owner, leading to an instant bond between the two but all is not as it seems as the older lady here starts to reveal a sinister pre-meditated agenda. Next we turn to a true story of a displaced man's best friend and that canine friend trekking over four hundred miles and several adventures later to get back to its rightful owner; and we then close out the week with a psychological thriller of a Police Emergency Call Centre operative taking a call from a distraught female with a cryptic clue that she has been abducted by her ex-husband, and so begins this real time taughtly woven game of cat & mouse.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead. 

'KING OF THIEVES' (Rated M) - Directed by Brit James Marsh whose previous film making credits include 'Man On Wire', 'Project Nim', 'The Theory of Everything', 'The Mercy' most recently and now this true life British crime drama. The film tells the story of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Burglary that took place over the Easter long weekend back in 2015. To give some context, this was an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area which is a commercial precinct in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, close to the City of London's boundary. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who established a mansion in the area. Hatton Garden is famous as London's jewellery quarter and the centre of the UK diamond trade. This speciality established itself in the early 19th Century, to the point where today there are nearly 300 businesses in the jewellery industry and over 55 shops, representing the largest cluster of jewellery retailers in the UK.

A famous thief in his younger days, 77 year old widower Brian Reader (Michael Caine) pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in their 60's and 70's except for one, use their old-school thieving skills to plan the heist over the Easter long weekend. Posing as gas repairmen, they enter the deposit, neutralise the alarms, and proceed to drill a hole into the wall of the safe. Two days later, they manage to escape with allegedly over £200M worth of stolen jewels and money, although court reports later on reduce that sum down to £14M, which was described as the 'largest burglary in English legal history'. Nonetheless, when the Police arrive on the scene and the investigation begins, the cracks between the misfit gang members begin to emerge as they argue over how to share the spoils with brutal greed and then a fierce distrust of each other begins to set in. Also starring Ray Winstone, Tom Courtney, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Cox. The film was released in the UK back in September 2018, and has garnered mixed Reviews.

'GRETA' (Rated MA15+) - this horror drama offering is Directed and Co-Written by Neil Jordan whose previous big screen credits over a long and distinguished career take in 'The Company of Wolves', 'Mona Lisa', 'We're No Angels', 'The Crying Game', 'Interview with the Vampire', 'Michael Collins', 'The End of the Affair' and 'The Brave One' amongst others. The film saw its World Premier screening at last years TIFF in early September, and only now does it get a release in Australia, and in the US this week too. Here Frances McCullen (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds a handbag on the New York subway and dutifully returns it to Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher who loves tea and classical music. Having recently lost her mother, the young Frances grows closer to the kindly widow. Within no time, the the two become firm friends, but Greta's maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta's life is quite what it seems and she must now end the rapidly changing relationship before things spiral out of control. Also starring Maika Monroe, Stephen Rea and Colm Feore.

'A DOG'S WAY HOME' (Rated PG) - here Actor, Writer and Director Charles Martin Smith brings us this family adventure story based on the true story as recounted in the book of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. The film was released in the USA in early January and has so far grossed US$69M off the back of its US$18M production budget and has generated mixed or average Reviews. As a puppy, Bella (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) finds her way into the arms of Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King), a young man who gives her a good home in Denver, Colorado. When Bella becomes separated from Lucas, she soon finds herself on an epic 400-mile journey from Farmington, New Mexico back to Denver to reunite with her beloved owner. Along the way, the lost but spirited dog touches the lives of an orphaned mountain lion, a down-on-his-luck veteran and some friendly strangers who happen to cross her path on this epic journey that will take two years to complete, if she can survive that long. Also starring Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, and Alexandra Shipp.

'THE GUILTY' ('DEN SKYLDIGE') (Rated M) - this Danish psychological thriller known as 'Den Skyldige' in its native tongue, is Directed by first timer Gustav Moller, saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January 2018, was selected as the Danish entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards, in total has so far won 27 awards around the festival and awards circuit and been nominated for another 31, and has received widespread Critical acclaim. Here Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) is a Policeman who’s been demoted temporarily to working the phones in the emergency call centre of his local Police Force after one too many at-work misdemeanours. When a terrified woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage) calls him to say she’s being abducted by her ex-husband and the call is then suddenly disconnected, Asger will need to use every bit of his ingenuity and policing skills to find her before it's too late. Taking place entirely within the confines of Asger’s secluded and enclosed emergency services room, and in real time, this film has been praised for ramping up the tension, the sound design and for Cedergren's compelling performance.

With four new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-