* Barry Malkin - born October 26th 1938, died 4th April 2019, aged 80. Malkin was an American film Editor with thirty big screen credits to his name, many of which he Edited for acclaimed Director Francis Ford Coppola between the years of 1969 and 1997. Among his credits for Coppola were 1969's 'The Rain People' and then in 1974 'The Godfather Part II', 1979's 'Apocalypse Now', 1983's 'Rumble Fish', 1984's 'The Cotton Club', 1986's 'Peggy Sue Got Married', 1987's 'Gardens of Stone', 1990's 'The Godfather Part III', 1996's 'Jack' and 1997's 'The Rainmaker'. In between time he also worked on two 'Godfather' compilation films for television screenings - in 1977 'The Godfather Saga' and in 1992 'The Godfather Trilogy : 1901 - 1980'. His other more notable Editing credits take in 'Little Big Man', 'Big', 'It Could Happen To You', 'Lucky Numbers' and 'The Big Bounce'. Malkin was nominated for four awards including two Academy Awards for 'The Cotton Club' and 'The Godfather Part III' and a BAFTA nod for 'The Godfather Part II'.
* Seymour Joseph Cassel - born January 22nd 1935, died 7th April 2019, aged 84. Cassel was an American Actor whose career spanned seven decades right up to the present day with him scoring his first uncredited role in the John Cassavetes Directed film 'Shadows' in 1958. He went on to star in a number of Cassavetes films in the years that followed including 'Too Late Blues' followed by 'Faces' in 1968, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and then 'Minnie and Moskowitz', 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie', 'Opening Night' and 'Love Streams'. Subsequently Director Wes Anderson also cast Cassel in a number of his films, those being 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' as did Actor and Director Steve Buscemi in three of his films - those being 'Trees Lounge', Animal Factory' and 'Lonesome Jim'. Other more noteworthy appearances from his portfolio of 213 film and televisions roles include 'The Killers' with Lee Marvin, 'Coogan's Bluff' with Clint Eastwood, 'The Revolutionary' with John Voight, 'Convoy' with Kris Kristofferson, 'Tin Men' with Richard Dreyfuss, 'Colors' with Sean Penn, 'Dick Tracy' with Warren Beatty, 'White Fang' with Ethan Hawke, 'Indecent Proposal' with Robert Redford, 'Boiling Point' with Wesley Snipes, 'It Could Happen To You' with Nicolas Cage, 'Pete Smalls is Dead' with Peter Dinklage, and the recently wrapped but yet to be released 'Time Framed'. Cassel was the recipient of seven award wins and two nominations.
* John McEnery - born November 1st 1943, died 12th April 2019, aged 75. McEnery was an English Actor and Writer who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and at the age of 20 joined the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool where he enjoyed three years of stage productions, before moving to the National Theatre Company in London in 1966. He scored his first film role playing a couple of bit parts in the highly acclaimed 1965 film production of 'Othello'. Perhaps his breakout role was in Franco Zeffirelli's 'Romeo & Juliet' in 1968 playing the role of Mercutio for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. Over the years he amassed a portfolio of 71 big and small screen credits taking in such feature films as 'Bartleby' in 1970, 'Fury' in 1973, 'The Land That Time Forgot' in 1973, 'Galileo' in 1975, 'The Duellists' in 1977, 'Little Dorrit' in 1987, 'The Krays' and 'Hamlet' both in 1990, 'Black Beauty' in 1994, 'When Saturday Comes' in 1996, and 'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' in 2004. In between time he had regular work on television mini-series and single and recurring episodes right up until the present day on 'Will Shakespeare', 'The Word', 'A.D.', 'Tusitala', 'Merlin', 'The Broker's Man', 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', 'The Bill', 'Silent Witness', 'Wallander' and 'New Tricks'.
* Steve Golin - born March 6th 1955, died 21st April 2019, aged 64. Golin was an American film and television Producer. He was the Co-Founder in 1986 of 'Propaganda Films' - a talent management, advertising, and video production company. He jointly built Propaganda into the largest music video and commercial production company in the world, winning more MTV Video Awards and Cannes Palme d'Or Awards than any other company and quickly became a home for the most sought-after young music video and commercial Directors. One of its first discoveries was David Fincher and shortly thereafter a young Michael Bay. After seeing a couple of skateboard videos he liked, Golin brought Spike Jonze on board. Other discoveries included Antoine Fuqua, Gore Verbinski and Alex Proyas. Having sold the company in the late '90's his next venture was 'Anonymous Content', located in Culver City, California, which he launched in early 2000. He guided the company's commercial division to become one of the top commercial production entities in the industry, producing spots and campaigns for numerous blue chip companies, and his management arm of the business grew to represent in excess of fifty Writers, Directors and Actors. During his career which began in 1984 he Produced 91 films and TV shows including 'Wild at Heart', 'Candyman', 'Red Rock West', 'Kalifornia', 'The Portrait of a Lady', 'Sleepers', 'The Game', 'Being John Malkovich', 'Bounce', 'Fifty First Dates', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', 'Babel', '44 Inch Chest', 'The Beaver', 'The Fifth Estate', 'Spotlight', 'The Revenant', 'Bastille Day', 'Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot', 'Boy Erased' and most recently 'The Beach Bum'. His small screen Producer credits take in the likes of 'Mr. Robot', 'The Alienist', '13 Reasons Why', 'Berlin Station', 'True Detective' and 'Catch-22'. All up Golin won thirteen awards and was nominated a further 32 times, including the Best Motion Picture Academy Award for 'Spotlight' plus two other Oscar nods for 'The Revenant' and 'Babel' added to a BAFTA win for 'The Revenant' plus three other nominations, three Primetime Emmy nominations, two AACTA nods and six PGA Award nominations and a win for 'Being John Malkovich'.
* Larry 'Flash' Jenkins - born May 10th 1955, died 25th April 2019, aged 63. Jenkins was an American Actor, Director, Producer and Screenwriter. With five Directors credits to his name, six as Writer, twelve as Producer and forty-nine as Actor, Jenkins career in the film and TV business launched in 1978 in the made for television movie 'Crisis in Sun Valley'. From there he would star in a number of well known TV series including 'M*A*S*H', 'Quincy M.E.', 'Lou Grant', 'T.J. Hooker', 'Home Improvement' and 'The Shield' with recurring appearances over the years in the likes of 'The White Shadow', 'Bay City Blues' and 'Finder of Lost Loves'. As for his big screen roles, he also starred in 'Body Double', 'Fletch', 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', 'Armed and Dangerous', 'Prison', 'The Presidio', plus two films that were in pre-production at the time of his death which were Written, to be Directed and also starring Jenkins being 'The Gospel Truth' and 'Anna Lucasta'. Jenkins formed his own Production companies in October 2005, 'Flashworks Productions' and 'Gold Coast Productions' based out of Los Angeles, California.
* John Daniel Singleton - born January 6th 1968, died 29th April 2019, aged 51. Singleton was an American film and television Director, Producer, Writer and Actor probably best known for Directing 1991's 'Boyz n the Hood', his Directorial debut, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award. Since then he went on to amass nineteen Director credits, sixteen as Producer, six as Writer and seven for Acting, accumulating along the way thirteen award wins and a further 25 nominations. His other film making credits include 'Poetic Justice' in 1993, 'Higher Learning' in 1995, 'Rosewood' in 1997, 'Shaft' in 2000, 'Baby Boy' in 2001', '2 Fast 2 Furious' in 2003, 'Four Brothers' in 2005 and 'Abduction' in 2011. He also Directed episodes of television series 'Empire', 'American Crime Story', 'Rebel', 'Billions' and more recently the crime drama 'Snowfall' which he created, Wrote for, Produced and Directed three episodes.This week then we have four latest release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with an American RomCom telling the unlikely story of a hapless yet gifted journo who by chance stumbles into his former babysitter and childhood crush, only to learn that she holds a position of great power and responsibility right next to the US President, and when she decides to run for the Oval Office, who's she gonna hire as her number one speechwriter? This is followed by an Aussie RomCom of an interracial couple who decide to tie the knot in ten days up in the Northern Territory, but first they must embark on an outback road trip to find the mother of the bride to be who has gone AWOL in the bush. Next up is a comedy of an Indian street magician and trickster who gets involved in all manner of international adventures, and mis-adventures too, while searching for his estranged Dad. We then close the week with a Filipino horror offering surrounding a convent, a guidance counsellor, several gruesome suicides and a dark secret contained within the four walls of this Catholic school for girls.
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.
'LONG SHOT' (Rated M) - this well received romantic comedy offering is Directed by Jonathan Levine whose previous credits take in 'The Wackness', '50/50', 'Warm Bodies', 'The Night Before' and 'Snatched' most recently. Co-Produced by Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron (who also occupy the two lead roles) and Evan Goldberg, the film saw its premier screening at SXSW back in March, goes on wide release this week, and has garnered generally positive Reviews so far. 
Telling the story here of Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) who is a free-spirited and somewhat gifted journalist who has a knack for getting into trouble. Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is the Secretary of State of the United States and as such one of the most influential women in the world - a smart, sophisticated and proven Politician. When Fred unexpectedly runs into Charlotte, he soon comes to the realisation that she was in fact his former baby sitter and his childhood crush. When Charlotte decides to make a run for the Presidential nomination, she impulsively hires Fred as her speechwriter, much to the chagrin of her trusted advisers. What could possibly go wrong? Also starring O'Shea Jackson Jnr., June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel, Andy Serkis, Alexander Skarsgard, Randall Park, Bob Odenkirk and Lisa Kudrow.
'TOP END WEDDING' (Rated M) - this already highly acclaimed Australian romantic comedy which saw its World Premier screening at Sundance earlier this year, is Directed by Indigenous Australian Writer, Actor and Director Wayne Blair who's previous filmmaking credits include 'Septembers of Shiraz' and 'The Sapphires'. Here Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee) are an interracial couple engaged to be married, they are in love, and they have just ten days to find Lauren's mother Daphne (Ursula Yovich) who has gone walkabout somewhere in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, reunite her parents and pull off their dream wedding. Also starring Kerry Fox.
'THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR' (Rated M) - this French English-language comedy adventure film is Directed by the Canadian Screenwriter, Actor, Director and Comedian Ken Scott and is based on the 2013 book by Romain Puertolas titled 'The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe'. The story here centres around Ajatashatru 'Aja' Lavash Patel (Dhanush, aka Venkatesh Prabhu), who has lived all his life in a small Mumbai neighborhood, and who makes a living as a street magician and trickster making people believe that he possesses special magic powers. After his mother passes away unexpectedly, he sets off on a journey to find his estranged father living in Paris armed with a fake EUR100 note. There, he meets a woman named Marie Riviere (Erin Moriarty) in a furniture store whom he initially swindles, but is quickly attracted to her personality. Aja then experiences a series of wide-ranging adventures around the world, initially in an IKEA wardrobe to London, then a Louis Vuitton suitcase to Rome, and a hot air balloon to Tripoli, while being chased down by Parisian taxi-driver Gustave Palourde (Gérard Jugnot), whom he swindled out of a cab fare back in Paris. Along the way, he befriends a Sudanese man named Wiraj (Barkhad Abdi), an illegal immigrant whom he met on the way to London. The film was released back in May 2018, cost US$12.5M and has so far grossed just over US$13M.
'EERIE' (Rated CTC) - Directed and Co-Written for the Screen by Filipino Mikhail Red this horror film is set in the Philippines of the mid-'90's, where guidance counsellor Pat Consolacion (Bea Alonzo) is an attentive ear for all students at St Lucia’s Convent. Following the unexpected and gruesome death of a student that threatens the existence of the long standing Catholic school for girls, Pat involves herself with the students in the hopes of helping them cope, and at the same time uncover the mysteries of the student's death. What she uncovers is that the student committed suicide in a bathroom stall, the very same one in which another student, Eri, died years before. What the St Lucia’s girls don’t know, however, is that Pat possesses a secret clairvoyant ability, one that allows her to become a compassionate ear to the ghost of Eri, who has never left St Lucia’s halls. Pat uses her ‘sessions’ with Eri to dig deeper into the troubling phenomenon, and piece by piece discovers that her key witness may not be as reliable as she seems while also uncovering the convent’s dark history of physical punishment and abuse that has gone unchecked for the last century or so.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-
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