Birthday's to share this week : 15th - 21st January 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Damien Chazelle does on 19th January - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 32, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 15th January

• Mario Van Peebles - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• James Nesbitt - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor
• Ryan Corr - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actor  

Monday 16th January

• John Carpenter - Born 1948, turns 69 - Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Composer | Songwriter | Musician
• Debbie Allen - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actress | Producer | Director | Choreographer | Singer | Songwriter  

Tuesday 17th January

• Zooey Deschanel - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actress | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• James Earl Jones - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actor
• Kevin Reynolds - Born 1952, turns 65 - Director | Writer
• Brian Helgeland - Born 1961, turns 56 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Jim Carrey - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Naveen Andrews - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor
• Leigh Whannell - Born 1977, turns 40 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor  

Wednesday 18th January

• John Boorman - Born 1933, turns 84 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Kevin Costner - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Mark Rylance - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor
• David Ayer - Born 1968, turns 49 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Dave Bautista - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer
• Jason Segel - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter  

Thursday 19th January

• Antoine Fuqua - Born 1966, turns 51 - Director | Producer
• Nash Edgerton - Born 1973, turns 44 - Stuntman | Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Damien Chazelle - Born 1985, turns 32 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Friday 20th January

• Tom Baker - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actor
• David Lynch - Born 1946, turns 71 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Editor | Composer | Singer | Songwriter
• Skeet Ulrich - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor
• Omar Sy - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor | Producer | Writer  

Saturday 21st January

• Luke Grimes - Born 1984, turns 33 - Actor
• Geena Davis - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actress | Producer

Damien Sayre Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island to mother Celia Martin, a writer and Professor of History at The College of New Jersey, and father Bernard Chazelle, a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. He has a sister Anna, who is an actress and circus performer. He attended the comprehensive public Princeton High School in New Jersey where film making was a keen interest for him, but he got sidetracked by the possibility of a music career as a jazz drummer which was to become the inspiration for his breakout film 'Whiplash' courtesy of an intense music teacher. He knew though that he never had the talent to make it big musically, so instead he reverted back to his first love and studied film making in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard University from where he graduated in 2007.

Chazelle's big screen debut came in 2009 with the jazz musical film 'Guy and Medeline on a Park Bench' which he Directed, Co-Produced, Wrote, Co-Edited and acted as Cinematographer on. The film performed very well critically, and was widely shown around the worldwide festival circuit where it picked up a handful of awards and nominations. The film features a cast of non-professional actors, but accomplished musicians nonetheless. Chazelle also provide the lyrics for the films original music score.

In 2013 Chazelle wrote and Directed an eighteen minute short film called 'Whiplash' which was to be the pre-cursor for his highly acclaimed feature film of the same name released in 2014. Telling the story of the relationship between an ambitious jazz student, played by Miles Teller and his abusive domineering music teacher played by J.K.Simmons, the film went on to win three Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, three BAFTA's and a SAG award amongst its haul of 91 wins in total and a further 135 nominations. The film cost just US$3.5M to make and raked in US$49M at the Box Office.

Also in 2013 Chazelle took Writer credits on the supernatural horror drama film 'The Last Exorcism Part II', and 'Grand Piano' an English language Spanish film telling the story of a pianist making a comeback performance under threat from a sniper who has targeted him for death if he dare play one wrong note. The film starred Elijah Wood and John Cusack, and received largely favourable Reviews. In 2016 Chazelle also Co-Wrote the Sci-Fi psychological thriller '10, Cloverfield Lane' which took US$109M at the Box Office from its US$15M production budget and again garnered generally positive Reviews.

This gave way to the recently released 'La La Land' which has received universal critical acclaim. This romantic musical comedy drama film was Written and Directed by Chazelle, made for US$30M and has so far grossed US$91M, and has picked up 112 award wins including a history making seven Golden Globe wins, and 180 nominations including eleven BAFTA nods yet to be announced and excluding the yet be announced Academy Award nominations also. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in the two lead roles, with John Legend, J.K.Simmons and Rosemary DeWitt amongst others supporting. 

Next up for Chazelle is 'First Man' which will be Directed by Chazelle, teaming up with Ryan Gosling again in the lead role as Neil Armstrong in this biopic of the first man on the Moon based on the best selling book by James Hansen. All up Chazelle has seven Writer credits to his name, five as Director, three as Producer and two for Soundtrack lyrics. He has amassed 46 award wins and a further 104 nominations excluding this years Academy Award nominations for 'La La Land' which are still to be announced at the time of writing. Chazelle was married for four years to Writer, Producer and Director Jasmine McGlade from 2010 to 2014.

Damien Chazelle - the current toast of Hollywood and the Darling of Tinsel Town, riding the crest of a wave of success that started in no small way with a debut feature and is still gaining momentum. At just seven years in the movie business you've come a long way in a short period of time - congratulations on your achievements and recent awards success, and Happy Birthday to you Damien from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

10, CLOVERFIELD LANE : Monday 4th April 2016.

I finally got around to seeing '10, CLOVERFIELD LANE' earlier this week after procrastinating for a long while about seeing it . . . and I'm pleased I did see it, because it is worth it! This Sci-Fi psychological thriller is Directed by Dan Trachtenberg in his Directing debut, and Produced by J.J.Abrams and is described by him as being the spiritual successor to 2008's found footage 'Cloverfield' which made US$171M off its US$25M budget, was critically well received, and was also Produced by J.J.  This latest film was released in early March Stateside and has so far grossed US$85M off its US$15M budget, and has also has received critical praise.

The film opens with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packing up her belongings and leaving home with her engagement ring left on the side table and a tear in her eye. As she drives through the night her mobile phone rings and it is Ben (voiced by Bradley Cooper) her boyfriend/fiance pleading with her to come home and not to over react because they had an argument. She answers the phone but doesn't speak, just allowing Ben to say a few words before hanging up on him. A few moments later, and Ben calls back, and as she reaches down to the phone, her car receives a direct hit from a passing vehicle sending her car tumbling end over end through a crash barrier and down a ravine, landing upside down.

She wakes sometime later on a mattress on the floor in an enclosed room behind a bolted door bandaged, and chained to a railing. She panics not knowing what has happened, when, why or how she got there.  Through the door enters big burly Howard (John Goodman) calling for her to rest up, take the medication he is offering and to give him thanks for saving her life and pulling her from the wreckage of her vehicle.  She has no memory of this.  She demands that he allows her to call her parents who will be worried sick, that her boyfriend will be out looking for her, and that she should get proper medical aid at a hospital. Howard then tells her that its is useless - no one is looking, there are no hospitals, and that she is in an underground bunker - safe from the world above that no longer exists as she remembers it - the result of an attack, but of which kind he is uncertain - nuclear, chemical or alien, or maybe all three.

Shortly afterwards we are introduced to Emmett (John Gallagher Jnr.) who is also holed up in the bunker but is there voluntarily as he originally helped Howard build the thing, and when the attack came - which he witnessed - he forced his way inside. Inside the bunker therefore are the three of them and we learn that Howard is an ex-Navy man, with conspiracy theories aplenty but had been planning and building his Doomsday Bunker for years knowing that such a day would come . . . and it did, very recently, and they could be down there for two years until the air above clears and becomes breathable once more. Michele doesn't know if she can believe him as his story seems too fantastical.

For a while some relative normalcy is resumed below ground with enough supplies, running water, power and the comforts of home to keep them occupied for a long while. Michelle however, hatches an escape plan which sees her get so close only to be confronted with a heavily skin infected woman hammering at the outer door of the bunker demanding to be let in. Michelle dare not let her in given what she is witnessing as Howard pleads with her not to go outside. Could he be telling the truth after all?

As time progresses a few truths are uncovered by Michelle and Emmett that lead them to hatch a second escape plan, but this is partially uncovered by Howard, who takes his anger out on Emmett who concocts a cover up story. Needless to say is doesn't end well for Emmett involving a gun shot at point blank range and a tub of perchloric acid. This is the catalyst for Michelle to take things into her own hands and act quickly now or face Howard's unhinged state.

Ultimately Michelle escapes after turning the tables, and the perchloric acid on Howard which results in the bunker exploding in a ball of flame and the old fella buying the farm. Outside using a makeshift biohazard suit and gas mask that she has fashioned together from a shower curtain and plastic drinks containers, Michelle is free and notices a flock of birds flying overhead - proof then that the atmosphere cannot be polluted. As she stands on the roof of Howard's car looking over the corn fields she spies in the near distance the awful truth about the outside world, and the claims that Howard was making. Needless to say it doesn't end there as Michelle is confronted with the truth up close & personal, and needs to think and act quickly if she is to survive.

This film is well crafted and the tension delivered by the three actors is at times palpable. There are a few jump scares too along the way which help maintain the attention and build the suspense, and the story twists and turns and it's not until the end that we discover if Howard was really telling the truth. You'll just have to catch it for yourself to find out . . . I don't think you'll be disappointed.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 10th March 2016.

With the 2015 film award season now well & truly done and the dust having settled on the recent Academy Awards and the BAFTA's and the Golden Globes before that, it is perhaps time to take a reflective look back at the top films of last year, and how they fared individually on both a critical and commercial level. So, in no particular order, here are the Top 12 films of last year if award wins, nominations and Box Office haul are anything to go by :

• THE REVENANT : 65 award wins | 135 nominations | 3 x Oscars, 5 x BAFTA's, 1 x SAG, 3 x Golden Globes and 1 x AACTA | US$430M Box Office | US$135M Budget
• THE BIG SHORT : 31 award wins | 66 nominations | 1 x Oscar and 1 x BAFTA | US127M Box Office | US$28M Budget
• THE MARTIAN : 30 award wins | 147 nominations | 2 x Golden Globes | US$627M Box Office | US$108M Budget
• THE HATEFUL EIGHT : 27 award wins | 86 nominations | 1 x Oscar, 1 x BAFTA and 1 x Golden Globe | US$146M Box Office | US$44M Budget
• THE DANISH GIRL : 26 award wins | 62 nominations | 1 x Oscar and 1 x SAG | US$54M Box Office | US$15M Budget
• SPOTLIGHT : 107 award wins | 112 nominations | 2 x Oscars, 1 x BAFTA, 1 x SAG  and 1 x AACTA | US$64M Box Office | US$20M Budget
• ROOM : 76 award wins | 115 nominations | 1 x Oscar, 1 x BAFTA, 1 x SAG and 1 x Golden Globe | US$24M Box Office | US$6M Budget
• BROOKLYN : 28 award wins | 126 nominations | 1 x BAFTA | US$53M Box Office | US$11M Budget
• CAROL : 56 award wins | 193 nominations | 2 x AACTA's | US$36M Box Office | US$12M Budget
• BRIDGE OF SPIES : 23 award wins | 73 nominations | 1 x Oscar, 1 x BAFTA and 1 x AACTA | US$165M Box Office | US$40M Budget
• MAD MAX : FURY ROAD : 170 award wins | 155 nominations | 6 x Oscars, 4 x BAFTA's, 1 x SAG and 10 x AACTA's | US$378M Box Office | US$150M Budget
• STAR WARS : THE FORCE AWAKENS : 17 award wins | 53 nominations | 1 x BAFTA | US$2.05B Box Office | US$200M Budget

This just goes to show that critical acclaim and award wins does not always equate to Box Office success and bums and seats, and neither is the opposite true. Only you as the paying cinema goer can make that determination. 

And so with that in mind, what of this weeks latest release films. First up we have two brothers separated in early childhood and individually put up for adoption only to be reunited thirty years later with potentially world shattering consequences - it's gonna be a laugh a minute! Also new this week is a horror thriller centered around a trio of survivalists in an underground bunker living in fear of what lurks above the ground, until one of them hatches a plan to escape! The  we have a doco drama recounting the recent Olympic adventures of an Aussie aerial skier and her determination to go where no woman has gone before; and closing out the week there is a German film about a Spanish girl, four young men, a bank job, a getaway car all caught in a single tracking shot!

With four new and four very different films to choose from this week, and a whole heap of other great cinema content still out on general release, there is no excuse not to get yourself in front of a big screen. When you have done so, share your thoughts and opinions with your like minded fellow readers here at Odeon Online and leave a Comment below this or any other Post - we'd love to hear from you! In the meantime, enjoy your movie!

GRIMSBY (Rated MA15+) - aka 'The Brothers Grimsby' Stateside, was Written, Produced and stars Sacha Baron Cohen and is Directed by Louis Leterrier, and judging by the shorts I have seen of this film has SBC's gutter humour of his previous outings, although perhaps just a little more plot substance this time around. Released in the UK on 24th February, 'Grimsby' gets its Australian and US release on the same day, and so far critics have only had average things to say about this comedy action film, so I guess it is just as well that it has a running time of just 83 minutes!

The film tells the story of two brothers separated at birth and both consequently being forced into very different directions in life. Norman 'Nobby' Butcher (Sacha Baron Cohen) lives in the large seaport town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire, England and is a bona fide beer swilling football hooligan, father of eleven, and the elder brother of Sebastian (Mark Strong) - one of the best MI6 agents and assassins in the business. Since their separation and subsequent adoption by two different families Nobby has spent close to thirty years tracking down his younger sibling. Upon learning of his whereabouts, Nobby tracks down Sebastian unaware that his young brother is an MI6 agent, and that he has also just uncovered a plot that puts the world in grave danger. When Sebastian has to go on the run and deep undercover having been wrongly accused, he comes to realise too that to save the world he needs to enlist the support of his hapless older brother, with what I'm sure will be dire consequences for everyone concerned . . . and the world as we know it! Also starring Rebel Wilson, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (Rated M) - if you are thinking this is the follow up to 2008's found footage film 'Cloverfield' then you are mistaken, although also Produced by J.J.Abrams and 'Bad Robot Productions' he says that this is a 'blood relative' and a 'spiritual successor' to that earlier film but certainly not a sequel. In his Directorial debut, Dan Trachtenberg, shot this for about US$5M only, and stars a very limited cast that consists John Goodman as Howard Stambler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle and John Gallagher Jnr. as Emmet - three people living in an underground bunker which is where the majority of the film takes place. Michelle does not know how she wound up there although knows she survived a car accident, and believes she may have been abducted by a survivalist and that the world underwent a chemical attack rendering the outside environment uninhabitable. She doesn't know what to believe, but plans her escape to discover what truth really lies above the surface despite the unknown dangers she may face.

THE WILL TO FLY (Rated G) - made for just US$1M and Produced and Directed by Katie Bender and with Leo Baker as Director and Cinematographer this tells the true story of Australian Lydia Lassila who as a young gymnast had her sights set on the Olympics. But, struck by injuries and missed opportunities that chance was missed, however, aerial skiing gave her another stab at her Olympic dream, and so through her own courage, determination and overcoming adversity she came back to win the 2010 Winter Olympics with a world beating score that still holds today. Fuelled by her success she was determined to reach still greater heights and so returned to the 2014 Winter Olympics to perform the most complex aerial acrobatic manoeuvre usually only the domain of her male counterparts - the quadruple twisting triple somersault. An inspirational story of determination, vision and strength from a four time Olympian who never gave up on her dream.

VICTORIA (Rated MA15+) - Directed, Produced and Written by Sebastian Schipper, this German production has garnered much international acclaim and awards including at the  65th International Berlin Film Festival where it took out the Silver Bear Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution in Cinematography. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this film is that it was filmed in one continuous tracking shot although it took three attempts to do so. With a script that was just twelve pages long, a cast of largely unknowns, and dialogue (much of it improvised) that is realistic as any likely to be seen on film this year. The story surrounds Victoria (Laia Costa) a young Spanish girl who has recently moved to Berlin. After partying all night until 4:00am she meets up with four young guys - Sonne, Boxer, Blinker and Fuss who ask her if she wants to join them as they hit the town, she agrees, but little does she know the plans the men have for a bank robbery and for her to the the getaway driver. Whilst denied entry to the most recent Academy Awards for the Foreign Language Film category because of its high percentage of English dialogue, this film could already be the best foreign language offering of the year for a whole multitude of reasons.

Four films new this week and plenty more still out there on general release to tempt you to your local movie house. Share your views, keep the movies alive and I'll see you at the Odeon sometime in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-