BLACKKKLANSMAN : Tuesday 21st August 2018.

I saw 'BLACKKKLANSMAN' this week and this American biographical crime drama is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Spike Lee and is based on the true life story and exploits of one Ron Stallworth as recounted in his 2014 book of the same name 'Black Klansman'. Released in the US earlier this month, the film had its Premier screening in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, where it won the Grand Prix. Costing in the region of US$15M the film has garnered generally positive Reviews, and has so far grossed US$28M.

Beginning in 1972, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, and son of Denzel) was the first African-American Police Officer and Detective to join the Colorado Springs Police Department. He is initially assigned to the records room, which needless to say he finds mundane and beneath him. After a short time, he requests a transfer to go undercover, and after refusing his request Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) has a change of heart and assigns him to attend a local rally presented by the Colorado College at which national civil rights leader Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) will be guest speaker. At the rally Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier) the President of the black Student Union at the College and a strong supporter of civil rights for Americas black population.

Afterwards Patrice agrees to meet Stallworth at a local bar for a night-cap. Before though she had agreed to drive Kwame Ture back to his hotel. En route however, their car is pulled over by patrolman Andy Landers (Frederick Weller) a racist corrupt Police Officer working in the same precinct as Stallworth, and who has already given the rookie cop a hard time. Landers threatens Ture and sexually assaults Patrice who recounts this to Stallworth when they meet up later that evening. At this point Stallworth has been very guarded about the nature of his work.

Following the rally and having gained enough of an insight to convince Chief Bridges to continue with the investigation, Stallworth is reassigned to the intelligence division. While reading the paper at his desk one morning, he comes across an advertisement recruiting new members into the local Ku Klux Klan. Stallworth calls the number listed and pretends to be a white man. He speaks with Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold), the President of the Colorado Springs chapter posing as a racist white man that 'hates blacks, Jews, Mexicans and Asians', and anyone basically who is not a pure blood white Anglo Saxon American.

Stallworth and his Jewish coworker, Phillip 'Flip' Zimmerman (Adam Driver) are forced into an unlikely partnership. Zimmerman is chosen to act as Stallworth in order to meet the Ku Klux Klan members in person. He attends a meeting and meets with Breachway one evening in a bar, along with the more radicalised member Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Paakkonen) whose obese wife Connie (Ashlie Akinson) is equally as radicalised, and another member named Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Hauser) who indicates, somewhat mockingly, of an upcoming attack. 

Stallworth and Zimmerman continue to massage their relationship with the local Ku Klux Klan chapter - the former always and only over the phone and the latter always and only in person. Under the guise of wanting to hurry up his membership to the 'organisation' (aka the Ku Klux Klan) so that he can attend cross burning ceremonies as a bone fide paid up member, Stallworth calls David Duke (Topher Grace), the Grand Wizard, in Louisiana, with whom he quickly strikes up regular conversations over the phone. Duke expedites Stallworth's membership, and before you know it, he's official! Meanwhile, getting deeper into the throes of the organisation and uncovering more clandestine goings on, Stallworth has begun dating Patrice but has still not let on that he is a Police Officer.

David Duke announced over the phone to Stallworth that he intends to visit Colorado Springs to meet with him in person and preside over his initiation into the organisation. Chief Bridges assigns the real Stallworth to security detail for Duke, which despite his protestations Stallworth must comply with. Zimmerman once again masquerades as Stallworth for the purposes of his Klan initiation ceremony together with a bunch of other new recruits. At a Reception immediately afterwards, Zimmerman is recognised by another Klan member, Walker (Nicholas Turturro) as the Police Officer who sent him down to serve jail time. Walker in turn alerts Felix who sensed something wasn't quite right about Stallworth from the get go, and with the real Stallworth and the fake Stallworth both in the room at the same time sets up a comedy of errors.

Connie, who can hardly contain herself out of excitement at the prospect of killin' some blacks, leaves the ceremony under instruction from husband Felix to place a bomb at a civil rights rally to be attended by Patrice. Stallworth realises her intentions, and alerts the local Police Department. Connie calls Felix from the site of the planned attack interrupting his luncheon welcoming the new members, saying that the place is buzzing with Police cars, and what should she do? Felix directs Connie to use their 'Plan B' by placing the bomb at Patrice's house. Connie drives to Patrice's home, but before she can place the bomb, Patrice arrives, leaving Connie panicked. Unable to fit the bomb in the mailbox as intended, she runs around out of sight and locates the C4 bomb under Patrice's car instead.

Stallworth arrives and tackles Connie, but is pretty quickly detained by Police Officers who have arrived at the scene, and despite his protests and claims to be an undercover Police Officer is beaten to the ground into submission. Felix, Ivanhoe, and bomb maker Walker, arrive minutes later and park next to Patrice's car, and, thinking the bomb is located in the mailbox on the porch, detonate it, unintentionally killing themselves in the process, having parked right alongside the car bomb planted by Connie. Zimmerman arrives and frees Stallworth from the over zealous Police Officers, while Connie is distraught and promptly arrested. 

Afterwards while celebrating their success in a bar, Stallworth and Patrice are approached by a drunken Landers who openly brags about his last encounter with Patrice and his feelings of contempt for black people. Chief Bridges then waltzes in and promptly arrests Landers having heard his 'confession' via wiretap worn by Stallworth. The next day, Chief Bridges meets with Stallworth and Zimmerman in his office and congratulates them on  job well done, but orders them to cease their investigation immediately and to destroy all records pertaining to the case. 

A dejected Stallworth leaves the office as his phone starts to ring. Doubling back to answer it, it is Duke on the line. After some friendly banter, with Zimmerman and various Police colleagues listening in, Stallworth reveals to Duke that he is a black man before hanging up abruptly with an 'FU muthafugga' leaving a speechless Duke dazed and confused on the other end.

This film is as relevant today as it was back in the day, and it speaks volumes to the political sentiment that peppers the Trump administration of the present day. The end of the film shows footage of just one year ago at the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally in which white supremacists, counter-protesters and a vehicle ram raid into the gathered crowd took the life of young Heather Heyer, together with Trump's controversial statements that followed. This is a thought provoking film that clearly demonstrates Lee's deft touch at hard hitting social commentary that neatly wraps up a clear message taken from history that remains highly pertinent almost fifty years later. The more things change, the more things stay the same is the key message here, and in 'Blackkklansman' there is hatred, racism, bigotry, violence and injustice intertwined with moments of humour, strong performances and a storyline as real and shocking as it is, that is engaging, grounded and well told. You should watch this film as it is one of Lee's best in recent years.

'Blackkklansman' is worthy of four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - Tuesday 7th August 2018.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT' which I saw at my local multiplex this week is the sixth instalment in the Tom Cruise action franchise based on the popular '60's television series, that since 1996 has been dusted off every five years or so with another big budget high octane screen offering. The franchise launched with Brian De Palma's first film adaptation in 1996, followed by John Woo's Directed 'Mission : Impossible 2' in 2000; then J.J. Abrams took over Directing duties with 'Mission : Impossible III' in 2006, then Brad Bird assumed the mantle in 2011 with 'Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' followed by Christoper McQuarrie in 2015 with 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. These first five films have grossed at the worldwide Box Office a combined US$2.8B from a collective Budget of US$650M. Now in 2018 Christoper McQuarrie returns to the Directors chair for 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' which he also wrote. Tom Cruise Produces too, as he has all other films in the series to date. The film has received universal acclaim from Critics, with many praising it as the best in the series so far with the cinematography, action set pieces, stunt work, storyline and cast performances as being particularly credit worthy. The film cost US$178M to Produce and has so far raked in US$360M since its release Stateside last week.

The film opens up with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) woken from his slumber in a Belfast safe house. He is delivered the ubiquitous package detailing his next mission . . . .  should he choose to accept it. Set two years following the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation' in which Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) was captured with what remains of his secretive anarchic organisation 'The Syndicate', reformed into a terrorist group operating across the world known as 'The Apostles'. Hunt's mission is to prevent the sale of three plutonium cores to the group on behalf of their client, one John Lark whose true identity remains a mystery. Hunt's pre-recorded message self destructs within five seconds, and next we find him in Berlin where he meets up with colleagues Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to arrange the purchase of said plutonium cores. However, the mission goes awry, leaving Hunt a choice to either sacrifice the cores or sacrifice Luther being held at gunpoint. He chooses to save Luther's life, and lo and behold the cores disappear into the night, courtesy of The Apostles.

The team quickly home in on Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner) and set an elaborate trap to make him confess his involvement and hand over the blueprints for his three portable nuclear weapons as well as releasing valuable information relating to The Apostle's next move. Director of CIA Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) instructs Special Activities Division operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium, much to the distrust of IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Hunt and Walker HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) parachute jump into Paris, where they infiltrate a fundraiser party at a lavish venue where John Lark is set to buy the cores from The Apostles. They track a man whom they suspect to be Lark to a Gents WC, where a fight breaks out between Lark, Hunt and Walker in which Lark gains the upper hand over the other two, but is shot dead unexpectedly by the emergence of Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson).

To ensure the successful execution of the mission, Hunt impersonates Lark and meets with an arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) acting as a broker, on the basis that she will not be aware of the true identity of Lark. Agents of The Apostles have been sent to kill John Lark and The White Widow, but she and Hunt escape from the private party in a hail of bullets, knives and fist fights with a room full of guests and panicked onlookers. The White Widow has fallen for Hunt's rouse.

Believing Hunt to be Lark, and in order to secure the plutonium, The White Widow tasks him with extracting Lane from an armoured convoy transporting the fugitive through Paris. She hands over one of the plutonium cores as a payment in kind for the mission. Hunt and his team attack the convoy but not as planned, pushing the armoured vehicle into the Seine so saving the lives of numerous Police Officers who would have been collateral damage, and sending the perpetrators into complete disarray. A straight jacketed Lane is extracted from the now completely submerged armoured vehicle by Benji Dunn and bundled into the back of a waiting speed boat and Luther Stickell.

Walker and Hunt drive a panel van as part of their getaway chased down the back streets of Paris by The White Widows henchmen. They then decamp to getaway motorcycles as the van becomes wedged at the end of a narrow street. Successfully evading the Police, but only narrowly, Hunt is picked up in the speed boat by Dunn and Stickell and a hooded and still straight jacketed Lane.

The team of three and a captured Lane now make for a lock up garage in which is stowed their getaway car - an olive green BMW from yesteryear. Upon raising the garage door they are greeted by a random female Police Officer who suspecting that something is not quite right pulls her gun and orders the three and their hooded and bound captive to freeze. Whereupon four of The White Widows goons arrive to take charge of the situation and reclaim Lane. In the standoff the Police Officer is shot but in a non-life threatening way, and the four goons are all rapidly dispensed with courtesy of Hunt. A high speed car chase ensues across Paris, with Hunt skillfully dodging traffic, pedestrians, motorcyclists and all manner of obstacles while also avoiding The White Widow's forces, the Police and Ilsa, who is under orders to kill Lane to fulfil her mission for MI6 and to be able to walk free following her exploits of two years ago when she joined the IMF and Hunt's team. The mission to extract Lane remains successful, whereupon The White Widow instructs the team to deliver Lane, and Ilsa, to London.

Meanwhile, also in Paris, Walker has secretly met with Erica Sloane and spun her a yarn how Hunt is in fact the elusive Lane, and has framed him by doctoring the evidence found on the man they believed to be Lane and who they killed at the party earlier. Walker hands over the dead mans mobile phone containing all the 'evidence' that Sloane needs to incriminate Hunt. Sloane needs little convincing and orders Walker to put an end to the mission by whatever means necessary, even if it means taking Hunt, and his team, out.

The action now moves to a London safehouse in which Alan Hunley confronts Hunt about being John Lark, based on the fabricated evidence presented by Walker to Sloane. Hunt denies these accusations naturally and incapacitates Hunley to continue with their mission. Benji Dunn masks up as Lane for the purposes of the trade with The White Widow, leaving the real Lane under the charge of Walker while Hunt and his crew go off to make the deal. After being asked to monitor Lane, Walker unwittingly reveals himself to be the real John Lark, in association with Lane. But Benji Dunn and the real Lane did the switcheroo and pulled a fast one on Walker which they recorded for all posterity, with Sloane watching in remotely, while Hunt, Stickell and the real Lane were still in the building.

At this Sloane has instructed a shadow CIA team to take Lane, Walker, and Hunt’s team in. The CIA team though has been infiltrated by The Apostles and Walker orders them to attack the IMF team. Hunley is stabbed and killed in the ensuing fight by Walker, who then escapes on foot across London.  Hunt, after bidding a fond farewell to a dying Hunley, chases Walker on foot aided by Benji Dunn guiding him remotely as a result on implanting a tracking device in Walker's neck during the fracas at the safehouse. Walker leads Hunt on a chase across roof tops to the Tate Modern art gallery, where Walker escapes with Lane in a waiting helicopter on the rooftop, but not before making a threat against Hunt's ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) as added security for Hunt to no longer meddle.  

Using the tracking device still in Walker's neck leads the team to a medical aid camp somewhere in the foothills of Kashmir. Faust deduces that Lane intends to detonate the two remaining nuclear devices at a river that crosses the borders of China, Pakistan and India so contaminating the water supply to a third of the world's population. Upon arrival at the camp, Hunt comes face to face with Julia and her new husband Patrick (Wes Bentley) who are both working as Doctors providing voluntary medical aid to the locals. Walker had set up Julia to be there to raise the incentive for Hunt. 

Lane activates the nuclear weapons choosing to stay behind as his work is now done, but seeing to it that Walker leaves quickly so as to be out of harms way when the atomic blasts come, which is counting down to fifteen minutes hence. Lane hands the detonator key to Walker who exists in a helicopter. Hunt takes off in a second helicopter clinging to a payload hanging below, leaving Dunn, Stickell and Faust to locate the two nuclear devices and attempt to disarm them within the next fifteen minutes. Hunt clambers up the dangling payload and into the cockpit of the helicopter dispensing with the pilot and co-pilot before taking the controls. All the while Hunt is negotiating mountainous terrain, cavernous ravines, glacial landscapes and deep valleys under a barrage of machine gun fire from a mightily pissed off Walker in hot pursuit. 

Hunt and Walker continue to engage in aerial combat each from their own helicopter, before Hunt uses his chopper to ram Walker's helicopter out of the sky, causing the two downed aircraft to come to rest on a snow covered cliff edge. Narrowly escaping the remnants of two destroyed helicopters, the pair fight high up on a flattened cliff edge, where Hunt eventually kills Walker by sending him to his death wearing a helicopter necklace that explodes in a ball of flame a couple of hundred metres below. Ethan gains control of the detonator while Stickell, Dunn, Faust aided by Julia, deactivate the bombs with one second to spare. With the two cores safely recovered, Sloane arrives on the scene having sent a rescue helicopter to air lift Hunt off the precipice. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 aided by The White Widow who has secretly been working undercover for MI6 to infiltrate Lane and his network. Faust is cleared of any wrongdoing and is off the hook with MI6. Hunt, Stickell and Dunn can say Mission : Accomplished, and the world is safe, for another day at least!

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' is by far and away the best in an escapist action franchise that just keeps on improving with age. Here the Cruisemeister just reaffirms his position at the top of the ladder in terms of balls out epic big screen action commercial cinema where he chooses to do all his own practical stunts for added realism instead of giving way to green screen CGI enhanced effects, and all credit to ya Tom. He jumps, leaps, runs, climbs, clings, fist fights, kicks, shoots and is involved in a foot chase, a car chase, a motorcycle chase, a helicopter chase, jumps from a plane at 25,000 feet and saves the world all in the space of two and half hours of action packed adrenalin fuelled high octane fast paced drama. All the while, the story is believable, the action sequences of which there are many are delivered with a deft touch, the locations spectacular, and Hunt is presented as human after all with emotions, regrets, feelings and a vulnerability that perhaps we have not seen in previous instalments. This is a well rounded film in every respect - from the performances, the pacing, and the practical effects and the McQuarrie/Cruise combo has proved a sure fire winner here that elevates this franchise much further up the food chain. See it on the big screen while you can - you won't be disappointed.

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' warrants five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 23rd March 2017.

With the release of the next Disney animated classic in full live action mode this week - see my Preview of 'Beauty and the Beast' below, it is no wonder this Production Company has a strategy in mind given the pay dirt they have hit since embarking on this renewed focus. Following hot on the heels of the other classic animated features given the live action or full CGI makeover, that were Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' in 2010 taking US$1.03B; 'Maleficent' in 2014 which took US$786M; Kenneth Branagh's 'Cinderella' in 2015 which grossed US$544M and last years 'The Jungle Book' Directed by Jon Favreau with receipts of US$967M, it is hardly surprising that Disney is green lighting its animated classics for the live action treatment. 'Mulan' is up next in November 2018.

Upcoming from Disney over the next several years, we can expect to see, 'The Lion King' which has been announced with Jon Favreau Directing given his success as mentioned previously, although a release date is unknown. Favreau is also Directing 'The Jungle Book 2' to follow on from last years success. Tim Burton is said to be Directing a live action version of the 1941 classic 'Dumbo', and Guy Ritchie is rumoured to be Directing 'Aladdin'. Angelina Jolie will reprise her 'Maleficent' role in a sequel, Reece Witherspoon is attached to 'Tink' as 'Tinkerbell', a spin off from the world of 'Peter Pan' and David Lowry who Directed 'Pete's Dragon' is attached to 'Peter Pan' on Directorial duties. Emma Stone is set to play Cruella De Vil in an origin story spin off from the 1961 animated film and the 1996 live action '101 Dalmatian's'. Others on the slate to get the full live action/CGI treatment include 'Pinocchio', 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' it's first full length animated feature film, 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Sword in the Stone', 'Winnie the Pooh', and the follow-up from the 1964 'Mary Poppins' film, 'Mary Poppins Returns' with Emily Blunt playing Poppins, is scheduled for a Christmas release 2018.

This week there are four new film offerings to tempt and tease you out to your local multiplex or independent theatre. We kick off with a much loved and hugely successful Disney animated classic getting the full 21st Century live action makeover. We then move to an outer space alien horror story involving a quickly evolving Martian life form, an International Space Station, the six man crew and the fate of our fragile little green planet. We then have the launch of a possible new Superhero franchise that is not of the Marvel or DC kind, but will be known to many of us as an existing popular long running television series that sees five unsuspecting teenagers brought together to save the world with their particular set of skills, and their brightly coloured threads! Wrapping up we have a young childhood based animated feature from those people at DreamWorks that sees a baby taking charge on the home front to reunite a family and thwart a potentially epic struggle involving a manipulative company CEO.

When you have fulfilled your opportunity to watch a film of choice in the week ahead, from any one of those Previewed below, or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog posts, be sure to drop us a line detailing your relevant, constructive and unbiased opinions. Simply leave your views in the Comments section below this or any other Post - we'd love to hear from you! In the meantime, enjoy your movie.

'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' (Rated PG) - this Walt Disney Pictures latest live action release of its much loved animated film of the same name from 1991, spawned a whole industry in itself in the wake of its release. The original animated feature which picked up multiple awards and nominations including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and five Grammy Awards and took US$425M at the Box Office, gave rise to three straight to video sequels, a television series which ran for 65 episodes, and a hugely successful Broadway musical which toured through thirteen countries and took US$1.4B between its release in 1994 and when the curtain finally came down in 2007. There has also been a bunch of video games over the years.

Directed by Bill Condon and with an ensemble cast that features Emma Watson as Belle an avid bookworm, who's independent and a beautiful young woman, and Dan Stevens as The Prince/Beast, an egotistical handsome prince who is cursed into a reclusive bestial creature by The Enchantress as punishment for his arrogance. The story, which you'll know already, features Belle who is taken prisoner by the fearsome Beast in his enchanted castle. There, she learns that the castle's residents were once humans and are cursed into their current states as household objects. Belle also tries to evade a fiendish former soldier-turned hunter, Gaston (Luke Evans) who seeks to have Belle as his trophy wife. Despite her fears, she soon becomes friends with the castle's welcoming enchanted staff and learns to look deeper beyond the beast's ugly exterior, allowing her to see the kind heart and soul of the true prince on the inside. Also starring Kevin Kline, Ewen McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Josh Gad and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. This production cost US$160M to bring to the big screen, and it has so far recouped US$393M since it release in the US last week.

'LIFE' (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Daniel Espinosa this Horror Sci-Fi is set aboard an International Space Station where the six-man crew successfully intercept a probe returning from Mars with a sample inside. The crew is tasked with analysing that sample for what may prove to be the first signs of extra terrestrial life. As the crew celebrate their discovery and settle down to conduct their research, the primitive life form ultimately proves to be not so primitive as was thought as it rapidly evolves and proves to be much more intelligent, menacing and deadly that they could have imagined. The race is on to destroy it, before the crew are all destroyed, and the ISS returns to Earth with a deadly cargo capable of wiping out all humanity, if life on Mars, or lack of it, is anything to go by. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Furgusson. The film was made for US$58M and is released Stateside this week also.

'POWER RANGERS' (Rated M) - after 24 years, 24 television seasons and now three cinema released films, this teen Superhero film gets a reboot with the Red, Pink, Blue, Black and Yellow Power Rangers saving the world for a cool budget of US$105M. Directed by Dean Israelite, this film features many of the characters as seen on the television series 'The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' albeit updated for a whole new audience brought up on a diet of Marvel and DC animated adaptations. Here five teenagers with attitude are thrust together either by design or by coincidence to become the newest line of warriors, crime fighters and protectors of the Earth, known as 'Power Rangers'. Quickly putting their real life teenage issues behind the them, the newly formed Power Rangers must assimilate quickly to each other, their new powers and their new responsibilities to protect their own small town of Angel Grove, and the world at large, from an alien attack, launched by Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), a powerful witch and former Green Power Ranger, with an army of stone golems and a giant golden monster. Starring Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, R.J. Cyler, Becky G and Ludi Lin as our titular young heroes with a particular set of skills, with Bill Hader and Bryan Cranston too.

'THE BOSS BABY' (Rated G) - this DreamWorks CGI animated feature is based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee and is Directed by Tom McGrath. Here, the arrival of a new baby impacts a family, told from the perspective of a unreliable, albeit delightful narrator -- a wildly imaginative 7-year-old named Tim (Miles Bakshi, and narrated by Tobey Maguire as his adult self). The most unusual Boss Baby (Alec Baldwin) arrives at Tim's home in a taxi, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. Their sibling rivalry must soon be put aside when Tim discovers that Boss Baby is in fact a spy on a secret mission to win back the affection of his parents (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow), and thwart a plot that involves the CEO of Puppy Co. Francis E. Francis (Steve Buscemi) in an epic battle between puppies and babies. The film is released in the US on 31st March.

Four films this week offering the usual range of genres and tastes from epic big budget Disney live action retelling, to an updated teenage Superhero offering, to an ET alien running rampant on an International Space Station, and wrapping up with an animated family offering with a message. Share your thoughts with us here at this Blog, and in the meantime, I'll see you somewhere, sometime in the coming week at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CONCUSSION : Saturday 20th February 2016.

CONCUSSION which I saw over the weekend was released Stateside at Christmas and this latest Will Smith vehicle has so far received luke warm reviews but has made US$42M off its US$35M budget. Opening in Australia just last week, this biographical sports medical drama is based on the article written for GQ magazine in 2009 titled 'Game Brain' by Jeanne Marie Laskas, and was written for the big screen and Directed by investigative journalist Peter Landesman. This is a true story.


As the film opens we see retired NFL legend 'Iron' Mike Webster (David Morse almost unrecognisable) talking onstage about his life and his 18 years at the top of his game and what it meant on a daily basis to play the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. As he speaks he struggles with his words and is clearly not the man he used to be - he is not yet 50 years of age, but looks older.

We then cut to a court room and Will Smith's Dr. Bennet Omalu is sat in the dock in court and for the jury is asked to give his credentials. It takes him five minutes to do so - such is the length of his qualifications, degrees, and educational track record gained in his native Nigeria, then the US and the UK in between.  He now works at the Pittsburgh Allegheny County Coroners Office as a forensic pathologist under County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks) and is in court to give evidence in a murder trial. It is 2002.

Meanwhile, Mike Webster's condition has worsened and we see him living in his battered pickup truck, practically destitute and suffering from the signs of amnesia, dementia, depression, bone & muscle pain, headaches and voices inside his head to a point where his state of mind has almost become unbearable. He seeks medication from former team doctor and good friend Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin). A few days later Webster is found dead inside his pickup truck. The city of Pittsburgh reels from the news that their favourite son and NFL legend is dead. He winds up on a slab in the path lab at the Coroner's Office, with Omalu tasked with the autopsy.

Following extensive brain tissue investigation and meticulous research, Omalu determines that essentially NFL killed Webster, through repeated blows to the head throughout his career - blows to the head that the human brain is simply designed not to be able to withstand to such an extent and over such a prolonged period of time. He brings his findings to the attention of acclaimed neurologist Dr. Steven DeKosky (Eddie Marsan) who concurs with his findings but is apprehensive about publishing based on just one case. Omalu is convinced that other NFL players have died before, and more will follow, but they cannot run tests on the living, because the cause does not register on CT scans, and the symptoms are inconclusive.

In time there are further player deaths from very similar circumstances - Terry Long, Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk which allows Omalu to conduct further tests and draw the same conclusions time after time. He receives a call from Julian Bailes now retired from the NFL and running his own practice, who agrees with his findings but states clearly that Omalu is treading very dangerous ground, but offers his support. With DeKosky and Wecht he publishes his findings and conclusions in a medical journal which is quickly dismissed by the multi-billion dollar NFL machine, as the musings of an unqualified African quack! Giving the disease a name - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) the NFL close ranks and begin a witch hunt against Omalu and those closest to him.

Feeling the pressures to back down from his continued work and what they reveal about the inherent dangers of the NFL game. Wecht becomes a victim of politically motivated 80+ trumped up corruption charges in an attempt to make Omalu resign, his wife Prema Mutisu (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) miscarries their first child as a result of being stalked, and the couple are forced to sell up their custom built dream home and relocate to California.

Three years later however, Bailes calls Omalu with the news that highly respected former NFL Players Association Executive Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) has shot himself dead due to ongoing cognitive issues, and in a suicide note left by his bedside he admits that Omalu was right all along. After years of brick walls, denial, dismissal, smear campaigns, and accusations against him and those near, the NFL is forced to sit up and finally take notice. Omalu is invited to attend and present at the National Football League Players Association national conference and talk about concussion and CTE in the game.

As the closing credits roll, we are told that since then it has been determined that 28% of all NFL players are diagnosed with the symptoms of CTE and most are in the 40's and 50's. As a result of his work and his findings the NFL had been forced to pay out huge undisclosed sums to the families and relatives of those that have succumbed to CTE and that Congress and the NFL have subsequently taken the concussion issue much more seriously.

This is a compelling dramatic film that had to be told given the enormity of the game and the almost god-like worship given to the players within it and the consequences of playing week after week year after year in such a brutal, violent yet beautiful sport. Will Smith gives a standout performance in every respect and is convincing in his restrained role as the reluctant but determined doctor just wanting the truth to be told. On the sideline Alec Baldwin and Albert Brooks in particular give fine supporting turns as supporters to Omalu in stoic do the right thing never back down fashion. Overlooked at the upcoming Academy Awards but nominated for a Golden Globe, this film picked up four award wins and another eleven nominations from around the traps - all mostly for Will Smith's performance. A film worth watching but don't expect 'Any Given Sunday' or 'Remember the Titan's'

-Steve, at Odeon Online-