What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 13th January 2022.

And so the 2022 award season has officially launched following the postponement of the American Film Institute Awards on 7th and the Critics Choice Awards on the 9th January due to the ongoing ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the 79th annual Golden Globe Awards were held on January 9th honouring the very best in film and American TV from 2021 and as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This year, the awards are marred by controversy as various media outlets including regular US broadcaster NBC, Netflix, Amazon, WarnerMedia, Actors, and other creatives planned on boycotting the ceremony over the HFPA's lack of action to increase the membership diversity of the organisation. The HFPA still went ahead with a ceremony behind closed doors. This marked the first time since the 36th Golden Globe Awards in 1979 that there was no telecast, and the 65th Golden Globe Awards in 2008 that there was no traditional ceremony. 

This years winners, grinners and also rans in the feature film categories are as given below :-

* Best Motion Picture, Drama - presented to The Power of the Dog, beating out Belfast, CODA, Dune and King Richard. 

* Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - awarded to West Side Story, beating out Cyrano, Don't Look Up, Licorice Pizza, and Tick, Tick . . . Boom!.

* Best Motion Picture, Animated - presented to Encanto beating out Flee, Luca, My Sunny Maad and Raya and the Last Dragon.

* Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language - awarded to Drive My Car from Japan, beating out Compartment No. 6  from Finland, Russia and Germany, The Hand of God  from Italy, A Hero from France and Iran, and Parallel Mothers from Spain.

* Best Director, Motion Picture - presented to Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog, beating out Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter, Steven Spielberg for West Side Story and Denis Villeneuve for Dune.

* Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama - awarded to Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos, beating out Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, Lady Gaga for House of Gucci and Kristen Stewart for Spencer.

* Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - presented to Rachel Zegler for West Side Story, beating out Marion Cotillard for Annette, Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza, Jennifer Lawrence for Don’t Look Up and Emma Stone for Cruella.

* Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture - awarded to Ariana DeBose for West Side Story beating out Caitriona Balfe for Belfast, Kirsten Dunst for The Power of the Dog, Aunjanue Ellis for King Richard and Ruth Negga for Passing.

* Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama - presented to Will Smith for King Richard, beating out Mahershala Ali for Swan Song, Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog and Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth.

* Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - presented to Andrew Garfield for 'Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, beating out Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up, Peter Dinklage for Cyrano, Cooper Hoffman for Licorice Pizza and Anthony Ramos for In the Heights.

* Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture - awarded to Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog, beating out Ben Affleck for The Tender Bar, Jamie Dornan for Belfast, Ciaran Hinds for Belfast and Troy Kotsur for CODA.

* Best Screenplay, Motion Picture - awarded to Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, beating out Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog, Adam McKay for Don’t Look Up and Aaron Sorkin for Being the Ricardos.

* Best Original Score, Motion Picture - presented to Dune by Hans Zimmer, beating out The French Dispatch by Alexandre Desplat, Encanto by Germaine Franco, The Power of the Dog by Jonny Greenwood and Parallel Mothers by Alberto Iglesias.

You can get the full low down on all the recipients and nominees of this years Golden Globe Awards in both the movie and television categories, by visiting the official website, at : https://www.goldenglobes.com/

Turning attention back on this weeks four new release movies, we launch with a biopic that tells the true story of how a pair of sibling tennis superstars became who they are after the coaching from their determined father. Next up is a spy drama about a top-secret weapon falling into mercenary hands, and so a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who's tracking their every move. This is followed up by an Aussie survival thriller that tells the story of two men who uncover the biggest gold nugget ever found in the harsh Australian desert, who must then find a way to extract the nugget from the ground. And we close out the week with the fifth film in a slasher franchise that is set twenty-five years after the original series of brutal murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and a former resident and survivor must return to uncover the truth.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 RICHARD' (Rated M) - this is an American biographical drama film Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green whose feature film debut came with 'Monsters and Men' with John David Washington in 2018 which he followed up in 2020 with 'Joe Bell' with Mark Wahlberg. The film was originally scheduled for release in late November 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year and was released in mid-November 2021 Stateside in cinemas and on HBO Max. Having garnered largely critical acclaim, this has failed to materialise into Box Office receipts, having taken so far US$27M off the back of a production budget of US$50M. 'King Richard' has so far picked up twenty-one award wins and a further eighty-four nominations from around the awards and festival circuit, with many of those nods still pending a final outcome. 

Based on the true story, this film follows the journey of Richard Williams (Will Smith), an undeterred father instrumental in raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time, who will end up changing the sport of tennis forever. Driven by a clear vision of their future and using unconventional methods, Richard has a plan that will take Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton) from the streets of Compton, California to the global stage as legendary icons of the tennis world. Also starring Jon Bernthal and Dylan McDermott. Will Smith also Co-Produces here with both Venus and Serena Williams serving as Executive Producers. 

'THE 355' (Rated M) - is an American spy film Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Simon Kinberg whose only other directorial credit is 'Dark Phoenix' (of the 'X-Men' franchise) in 2019. He has however, written and/or produced numerous other mainstream pictures taking in 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'X-Men : Days of Future Past', 'The Martian', 'Deadpool', 'X-Men : Apocalypse', 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'The New Mutants'. Originally slated for a release in mid-January 2021 the film was delayed by a whole year to mid-January 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving up by a week to 7th January in the US and this week in Australia. The film cost in the region of US$70M to produce and has so have recovered just US$2M following mostly negative or average Reviews. When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason Brown (Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival German agent Marie (Diane Kruger), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Lupita Nyong'o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Penelope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan), who is tracking their every move. As the action takes us around the world from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the opulent auction houses of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world, or get them killed. Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez and Jason Flemyng also star. In case you were wondering, 'The 355' derives its name from the codename of a female spy for the Patriots during the American Revolution between 1765 and 1791. 

'GOLD' (Rated M) - this Australian survival thriller film is Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced and also stars Anthony Hayes who has ninety screen acting credits to his name and five as Director taking in his debut feature in 2002 with 'New Skin' and then 'Ten Empty' in 2008, with 'Stingray' due for a future release. Filmed in South Australia, this tells the story of two men (Zac Efron and Anthony Hayes) who stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever discovered while travelling through a remote desert. The two men hatch a plan to protect and excavate the nugget with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment to pull it out of the earth. The other man remains and must endure harsh desert conditions, preying wild dogs and mysterious intruders, whilst battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his own fate. Also starring Susie Porter. 

'SCREAM' (Rated MA15+) - is an American slasher film Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett whose previous film making credits take in 'The Devils Due', 'Southbound' and 'Ready or Not'. It is the fifth instalment in the 'Scream' film series which began in 1996 and which over the first four films grossed US$605M off the back of combined production budgets of US$118M. Though billed as a relaunch of the film series, the film is a direct sequel to 2011's 'Scream 4' and the first in the series not to be directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Set twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, California, a new killer wears the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past. The film stars franchise newcomers Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, and Jack Quaid, with Marley Shelton, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, and Roger L. Jackson reprising their roles from previous instalments.

With four new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-