What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th July 2017.

'Planet of the Apes' which sees another film released under this banner this week (see Preview below) started out life way back in 1963 as a novel by French Author Pierre Boulle titled 'La Planete des Singes' (translated as 'Planet of the Apes' or 'Monkey Planet') and since then has gone on to spawn it's original 1968 film adaptation with Charlton Heston in the iconic role as Astronaut George Taylor who crash lands on a seemingly alien planet inhabited by intelligent apes who rule over humans, only to discover in the closing scene that he is in fact on Earth sometime in the distant future (if ever there was a twist at the end of a movie this ranks up there amongst the best of them!). In turn 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968 saw four sequels - 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' in 1970; 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes' in 1971; 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' in 1972; and 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' in 1973. These first five films cost a combined US$16M to bring to the big screen, and collectively they grossed a total worldwide Box Office stash of US$160M.

Then of course came Tim Burton's reimagining with 2001 'Planet of the Apes' which cost US$100M to make and raked in US$362M, but which met with a luke warm critical response. In the meantime, there had been a fourteen episode televisions series in 1974 that was based on the earlier film franchise that saw Roddy McDowall return as chimpanzee Galen, whereas McDowall played the ape Cornelius in two of the original films and Caesar, the son of Cornelius in the latter two. The series was canned after its first season due to lacklustre ratings, and in 1975 an animated series hit the TV screens for thirteen episodes, but once again due to average ratings only at best, a second season was never commissioned. However, the storyline continued in various novels by noted Sci-Fi authors of the day, as did comic books, toys and merchandise, video games and apparently a theme park ride is under construction in Malaysia too. Which brings us up to the present day, and a successful reboot of the franchise that is so far three films in, going strong and has seen solid Box Office returns and largely critical acclaim.

This week then there are just two new release films coming to your local independent theatre or multiplex. First up we have the second sequel in a successful rebooted Sci-Fi franchise that sees mankind face of head to head, hand to hand and toe to toe against simian kind to determine the rulers of our planet, and then we have a children's tale of a young lad learning a few life lessons from a giant walking, talking tree.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the two new releases 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 cordially invited 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 meanwhile, enjoy your cinematic experience in the coming week.

'WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES' (Rated M) - the 'Planet of the Apes' saga has a long history on both the big and small screen, but this last reboot of which this marks the third and supposedly final instalment has received widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. The original reintroduction to the franchise came in 2011 with 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and was Directed by Rupert Wyatt for US$93M and grossed US$482M and starred James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar, the first intelligent ape. In 2014 its sequel 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was Directed by Matt Reeves for US$209M and grossed US$711M worldwide and starred Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis as Caesar again and Toby Kebbell as Koba, a lieutenant to Caesar. Now in 2017 we have 'War for the Planet of the Apes' Directed once again by Matt Reeves for US$150M and so far since its US release on 14th July has taken US$178M and stars Woody Harrelson as the main human protagonist and Andy Serkis again as Caesar. There are several likenesses with the fifth film in the original franchise series 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' but this is not intended as a remake of that earlier 1973 film. 'War for the Planet of the Apes' has met with widespread critical acclaim with strong praise for the acting (Andy Serkis for his Mo-Cap performance especially), the storyline, the action scenes, the music score and the overall Direction.

And so to this gripping instalment. We join Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his apes who are forced into a deadly conflict with a military faction of humans known as Alpha-Omega led by the ruthless paramilitary Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson) who is obsessed with wiping out Caesar's tribe and any humans infected with the Simian Flu to preserve mankind's place as the dominant species. After the apes suffer huge losses at the hands of the Colonel's army, Caesar needs to come to terms with his own inner darker instincts and so embarks on his own journey to avenge his kind. As that journey counts down to the final face to face conflict, Caesar and the Colonel are pitched against one another in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both of them as individuals, their species and the planet. Talk of a fourth film in this rebooted franchise has already been mooted.

'A MONSTER CALLS' (Rated PG) - Directed by Spaniard Juan Antonio Garcia Boyega whose previous credits include 2012's 'The Impossible', 'A Monster Calls' is based on the low fantasy children's book by Patrick Ness published in 2011 of the same name. The film Premiered back last September at TIFF, was released in Spain in early October, then the US last Christmas and in the UK on New Years Day, and only now does its reach Australian cinemas having recovered US$46M from its US$43M budget outlay. Telling the story of young lad Conor O'Malley (Lewis McDougall) who is having to deal with far more challenges in his young life than other boys of his age. His beloved and devoted mother Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Clayton (Felicity Jones) is terminally ill. He has little in common and wants little to do with his strict and ruling grandmother Mrs. Clayton (Sigourney Weaver), and his father, Mr. O'Malley (Toby Kebbell) who has divorced his mother Lizzie has resettled thousands of miles away in the US. But Conor finds a most unlikely friend when one night at 12:07am a tree-like Monster (Liam Neeson) appears at his bedroom window, and proceeds to tell Conor that he has come to tell him three true stories, after which Conor must tell the Monster his own story - that of the truth behind his own nightmare. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster takes Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth that powerfully fuses imagination and reality.

With just two new releases this week to tempt you out on a cold mid-Winter evening, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles 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-

Birthday's to share this week : 3rd - 9th July 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Toby Kebbell does on 9th July - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 34, 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 3rd July 

• Tom Cruise - Born  1962, turns 54 - Actor | Producer
• Tom Stoppard - Born 1937, turns 79 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Patrick Wilson - Born 1973, turns 43 - Actor
• Connie Nielsen - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actress

Monday 4th July

• Eva Marie Saint - Born 1924, turns 92 - Actress
• Neil Simon - Born 1927, turns 89 - Writer | Producer  

Tuesday 5th July

• RZA (aka Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Director
• Edie Falco - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress  

Wednesday 6th July

• Eva Green - Born 1980, turns 36 - Actress
• Jennifer Saunders - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Singer
• 50 Cent (aka Curtis James Jackson III) - Born 1975, turns 41 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Writer | Producer
• Kevin Hart - Born 1979, turns 37 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Geoffrey Rush - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actor | Producer
• Sylvester Stallone - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director 
• Ned Beatty - Born 1937, turns 79 - Actor

Thursday 7th July

• Akiva Goldsman - Born 1962, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Ringo Starr - Born 1940, turns 76 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer | Director
• Shelley Duvall - Born 1949, turns 67 - Actress | Writer | Producer

Friday 8th July

• Anjelica Huston - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Kevin Bacon - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Wally Pfister - Born 1961, turns 55 - Cinematographer | Director | Cameraman
• Billy Crudup - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actor | Singer
• Jaden Smith - Born 1998, turns 18 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter

Saturday 9th July

• Toby Kebbell - Born 1982, turns 34 - Actor
• Tom Hanks - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• Jimmy Smits - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Chris Cooper - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actor 
• Richard Roundtree - Born 1942, turns 74 - Actor
• Brian Dennehy - Born 1938, turns 78 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Kelly McGillis - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actress | Producer

Tobias Alistair Patrick Kebbell was born in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, England, and grew up in Nottinghamshire. He was raised by his mother Michelle Mathers, a cook and landscape gardener after she divorced her husband and father of Toby, Robert Kebbell, an engineer, when the young lad was just eighteen months old. Toby is the fourth of five children. He attended a Catholic Primary School, and at fifteen dropped out of school, and two years later joined a Carlton Television Workshop and attended an 'over 16' audition which gave him the framework to launch an acting career.

He came to early prominence at age twenty when cast by Director and Writer, Shane Meadows, in the British psychological thriller 'Dead Man's Shoes', Co-Wriiten and also starring Paddy Considine. Whilst the film did little by way of commercial success, critically it was hit appearing on many 'Top Film' lists - not only for the year of its release (2004) - but for all time - 'Empire', 'Total Film' and 'Time Out' voting it so. The young Actor also picked up an award nomination as Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards. This was followed up that same year with Oliver Stone's 'Alexander' alongside Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell and Val Kilmer, and then a year later in Woody Allen's 'Match Point' with Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cox and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

2006 brought horror film 'Wilderness' and then the critically lauded Anton Corbijn Directed biopic of Joy Division's frontman Ian Curtis, played by Sam Riley in 'Control'. Kebbell played Rob Gretton, the manager of the band, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards.

In 2008 Guy Ritchie cast Kebbell as Johnny Quid in 'RocknRolla' alongside Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy and Thandie Newton. The next year saw 'Cheri' Directed by Stephen Frears with Michelle Pfeiffer.

The new decade saw 'Prince of Persia : Sands of Time' with Jake Gyllenhaal; 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' with Nicolas Cage, and 'The Conspirator' with James McAvoy, and Directed by Robert Redford. 'The Veteran' followed in 2011, as did Steven Spielberg's 'War Horse' with Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Marsan, David Thewlis and Emily Watson.

'Wrath of the Titans' with Sam Worthington came next, then 'The East', and then Ridley Scott's 'The Counsellor' with Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. 2014 saw Kebbell venture down MoCap territory with his role as Koba in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' - a scarred bonobo ape and lieutenant to Caesar as played by Andy Serkis in the first instalment of this rebooted franchise 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'.

2015 gave us Marvel's attempt at resurrecting 'Fantastic Four' with Kebbell starring as Victor von Doom/Doom alongside Miles Teller (Mr. Fantastic), Michael B. Jordan (The Human Torch), Jamie Bell (The Thing), and Kate Mara (The Invisible Woman). The film recovered its budget and then some, but was critically panned. Then came 'Buddha's Little Finger' and the recently released Duncan Jones fantasy action epic 'Warcraft : The Beginning', with Kebbell returning to MoCap again for his role as Durotan a nobel orc chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan. The film has so far made US$414M off its US$160M budget outlay, but has not fared so well with the critics.

Next up there is 'Gold' with Matthew McConaughey; Timur Bekmambetov's remake of the classic 'Ben Hur' and 'A Monster Calls' with Liam Neeson all due later in 2016. 'Kong : Skull Island' with Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson is due in 2017, and then 'Category 5' with Ryan Kwanten as Directed by Rob Cohen. In the meantime Kebbell has starred in several short films, a couple of made of television movies, and television series 'The Street', 'Black Mirror' and 'The Escape Artist' as well as a number of theatre productions.

All up Kebbell has 38 Acting credits, he has one Award win and another four nominations. In 2009 he was linked to entrepreneur and founder/CEO of 'Peek.com' Ruzwana Bashir, but has since stated that he is in no hurry to marry. 

Toby Kebbell - quite possibly the most acclaimed, successful sought after Actor you have never heard of; right up there with Andy Serkis for their MoCap efforts and prowess; a Yorkshire lad done good and very much a star on the rise. Happy Birthday to you Toby, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-