BECKETT : Monday 16th August 2021

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown, and as a result all cinema's closed until 28th August at least now, I've been reviewing over the last few weeks some the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own home this week is the action thriller 'BECKETT' Written and Directed by the Italian filmmaker Ferdinando Cito Filomarino in only his second feature film outing following the biographical drama film 'Antonia' in 2015, although he did serve as Second Unit Director on 'A Bigger Splash' in 2015, 'Call Me by Your Name' in 2017 and 'Suspiria' in 2018. Each of these three films incidentally were Directed by Luca Guadagnino who also Co-Produces on 'Beckett'. This film saw its World Premier screening at the Locarno Film Festival on 4th August and was released onto Netflix on 13th of this month, and has so far generated mixed or average Reviews. 

We are first introduced to Beckett (John David Washington), and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) in bed in an Athens hotel room. From the discussions they had a fight the night before but have since 'kissed' and made up. April draws a tiny love heart with a Sharpie on Beckett's palm. They intend to leave Athens due to a political rally set to take place in the square overlooked by their hotel room, which it is reported is going to be big, noisy and could potentially turn violent. We then see the happy couple enjoying some of the sights and scenes that ancient Greece has to be offer. While driving to their hotel later that night, with April dozing in the passenger seat, Beckett falls asleep at the wheel and sends their car crashing over an embankment and down into a nearby house. The car comes to rest on its roof, with Beckett dangling upside down restrained by his seat belt, while April was flung through the windscreen not wearing a belt. As Beckett is coming to his senses, hanging upside down and peering through the shattered windscreen, he sees a red-headed child hurried out of the room by a woman. He clambers out of the car and sees that April is lying dead on the ground having suffered a serious head wound. 

Sometime later he wakes up in a hospital room with his arm in plaster. Later while being questioned by the Police, he is told that it was lucky the house was abandoned and empty. He tells the English-speaking, Police Officer Xenakis (Panos Koronis) that the house was occupied and that he saw a red-headed boy. After leaving the Police Station he walks the four kilometres to the scene of the accident with the intention of killing himself by ingesting April's bottle of sleeping pills. Having taken one, and just about to swallow the remaining contents, a blonde woman (Lena Kitsopoulou) stood outside the building starts shooting at him. Hiding behind a bush, Xenakis appears and calls out to him, saying there has been a mistake, to come out and that he'll be safe. As soon as he raises himself, the blonde woman shoots him in the upper arm. He makes a dash for it as both the woman, and Xenakis shoot at him and give chase. He jumps off the edge of a cliff into a tree some distance below, lands roughly on the rock strewn ground and makes his getaway. 

Beckett that night takes refuge in an old abandoned wreck of a truck and is awakened by hunters the next morning. Beckett needs access to a phone and so one of the older huntsmen takes Beckett to his house to attend to his wound. While recounting his story, there is suddenly a knock at the door. The old hunter goes to the door and Xenakis and the blonde woman force their way in attacking and beating the old man. Beckett jumps out of a rear upper window and escapes. He comes across a couple of beekeepers who lend him a phone. He calls the US embassy in Athens, and explains his situation. They tell him they can come to get him the next day, and so Beckett tells them he will come to them instead because it will be quicker. Athens is about a five hour car journey away, so he cadges a lift on a school field trip bus to take him to the nearest train station. Boarding the train and taking a window seat, he fails to notice Xenakis walk past the window and board his carriage. When Xenakis tries to detain him, Beckett pulls on the train’s emergency brake and in the ensuing struggle, Xenakis shoots himself in the foot and Beckett again flees the scene.

In town, Beckett notices numerous posters being pasted to walls of the red-headed boy being put up by two female activists, an American Lena (Vicky Krieps) and a Greek woman Eleni (Maria Votti). They tell Beckett that the boy is the kidnapped son of a liberal politician who has been held by a far-right organisation, called Sunrise. They conceal Beckett in the trunk of their car and drive him to Athens, during which time he tells them his story, to which Lena is more trusting that Eleni. Beckett leaves the car to avoid a Police roadblock and having arrived in Athens takes a train to get closer to the US Embassy. While trying to avoid the Police at the subway station, he is attacked by a man with a knife and slashed across the forearm. Beckett manages to escape across the rail tracks and is helped directly to the embassy by two young men. After having his wounds dressed and a change of clothes, he meets with Tynan (Boyd Holbrook) who tells him that they located April's body and that they have had it shipped there. He is then taken to the morgue to view her body, and further told that the Embassy have called her parents to break the news of their daughter's death. 

Tynan offers to take Beckett to an honest local cop to sort things out so that he can be extradited back to the US. At first Beckett is reluctant to leave the safe harbour of the Embassy, but is convinced to go by Tynan. They drive down various side roads and into a dodgy looking neighbourhood and into a quiet lot where is parked a number of trucks. Slowing down Tynan pulls out his taser and tries to zap Beckett. Beckett instead was able to turn the taser on Tynan and escape after the car crashes into the back of a truck. 

Beckett goes to where the activists told him they were headed, under the 'clasped hands' to try and warn them. Tynan has by now shaken off the effect of the taser stun and arrives with the Police and chases Beckett into the political rally. As violence mounts and clashes with riot Police unfold, shots ring out and Beckett runs into the basement of small shopping precinct. There he is confronted by Tynan, armed with a gun, who tells him the liberal politician has just be shot and killed, that his case of being the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time is now moot and he's free to get on a plane back to the US. Becket fights him, gains the upper hand and knocks him out. 

Tynan goes back up the streets where the riot is in full swing and spots the blonde woman who shot him. He follows her to a parking garage, where she meets up with Xenakis, on the top floor. Before they can escape, Beckett shoots the cop in the hand and forcibly drags the blonde woman out of the car window. He is shot at close range in his side, but he still manages to bash her head against the concrete knocking her out. By now Xenakis has driven off making an exit out of the car park, with the muffled sound of someone banging on the roof of the car boot from the inside. Lena arrives having chased after Beckett chasing down the blonde woman. As Xenakis car exits the parking garage, Beckett launches himself onto the car from the top of the parking lot, landing squarely on the windscreen. He wrestles with Xenakis who drives the car into another coming to an abrupt halt. He knocks out Xenakis, as Lena arrives and passers by pull the boy from the boot. Beckett is being consoled by Lena as he looks down at his palm at the now faded heart April drew on his hand, saying mournfully how he should have died.

Watching Beckett survive a horrific car crash, get shot twice, stabbed, punched, kicked, hurl himself off a cliff top, and, off the roof of a multi-storey car park onto a moving car below, run, run and then keep running, and evade being captured more times than I can recall all amounts to just how much beating can a man withstand in a 24 hour period, and still come out on top? This guys is on an emotional and physical roller coaster that knows no bounds and stretches the credibility to the very limit. The political machinations of the film are underdeveloped, we know very little of Beckett's back story and so its hard to feel invested in the characters or the plot for that matter. Put simply, it's a man-on-the-run thriller that fails to elevate itself above the many other similar films in the same genre, and when the action comes it's all too pedestrian.

'Beckett' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOMB RAIDER : Tuesday 20th March 2018.

I saw 'TOMB RAIDER' earlier in the week, and here we have a reboot of the 'Tomb Raider' franchise that launched into the cinematic world in 2001 from its video game origins dating back to 1993. That first outing starred Angelina Jolie as our titular action adventure heroine Lara Croft, with the film being Directed by Simon West for US$115M and grossing US$275M. On the strength of this, a second film was released in 2003 titled 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider : The Cradle of Life', with Jolie reprising her role but this time Directed by Jan de Bont for US$95M and raking in US$157M. Now fast forward fifteen years, and its reboot time for this film franchise, which as a video game has sold over 63 million copies worldwide, and has made Lara Croft one of the most recognisable and notable video game protagonists in existence. And so Norwegian Director Roar Uthaug has helmed this latest instalment based on the 2013 video game of the same name as worked up by game developer Crystal Dynamics. Costing US$90M to make, the film has so far grossed US$163M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so in 2018 Alicia Vikander portrays the fiercely independent, free spirited, reckless and carefree action adventure loving Lara Croft who spends her life kick boxing at her local gym and in between time running food deliveries as a bicycle courier across London. She is the only daughter of eccentric archaeologist adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) who went missing some years previously, now believed to be dead. When she is arrested for a relatively minor infraction, involving her bicycle and a Police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller (Kristen Scott Thomas) posts bail and advises her that if she does not claim her inheritance, her father's estate will be sold off. In flashback we see Lord Croft tearing himself away from his country estate and his young seven year old daughter Lara to go away on some purposeful adventure, and then doing so again at age fourteen . . . a journey he would not return from.

Reluctantly Lara, now in her early twenties, agrees to sign off on the inheritance papers, and in doing so uncovers a key contained in an old Japanese wooden puzzle wrapped up in a handwritten clue that gains her access to a secret office located in the bowels of the Croft estate. Rummaging around in her fathers office, she finds a camcorder with a recorded message to Lara that describes his years long search for the tomb of Himiko the mythical queen of Yumatai whom it is said was able to control the power of life over death. The parting message warns Lara to destroy all evidence of his search for Himiko - written notes, diaries, scribblings, voice and video recordings, lest they should fall into the wrong hands and unleash the power of Himiko upon an unsuspecting world with deadly consequences for all humanity.

Lara travels to Hong Kong in search of a boat owner that allegedly took her father to the island of Yumatai seven years previously aboard 'The Endurance'. After a run in with some local likely lads who steal Lara's satchel, which she retrieves successfully following a foot chase across various boats and junks on Hong Kong Harbour, she encounters Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) the drunken gambling owner of the boat. He explains that it would have been his father (also named Lu Ren) who was commissioned by Richard Croft to take him across 'The Devil's Sea' to the island of Yumatai - but Lu Ren Senior is now dead! However, the pair strike up a deal, and set sail. The ship gets caught up in a boiling sea just off the island and crashes into treacherous rocks and is smashed. Lara is tossed off the boat, and Lu Ren is presumed lost at sea. Washed ashore in the storm, Lara is knocked unconscious by a mystery figure.

The next morning Lara comes around face to face with Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) who has been on the island for seven years searching for Himiko's tomb with no success. He claims to have killed Lara's father all those years ago, but is grateful for his detailed research notes found in Lara's satchel that will help him locate the tomb once and for all. Vogel works for a secretive organisation called 'Trinity' that wants to harness the power of Himiko, and ultimately weaponise it. Vogel takes Lara prisoner and puts her to work with a whole bunch of other fishermen and shipwrecked sailor prisoners captured over the years, and Lu Ren, who survived the storm only to be captured himself too.

With the help of Lu Ren, Lara is able to stage a distraction and make an escape, but is chased through the dense jungle undergrowth by two of Vogel's henchmen. She successfully evades them, but gets into various death defying falls and bad scrapes along the way that see her lurch from one near death experience to another in quick succession. Finally, she is hanging from the canopy of an old parachute as it roughly glides her down towards the jungle floor through the trees to come to an abrupt crashing halt. She is injured and passes out from her wound.

Later that evening Lara is stirred by the sounds of someone or something lurking close by. She gets into a fight with one of Vogel's henchmen sent to track her down and retrieve her. She gains the upper hand and drowns him in the river. Her first kill, which distresses her. But this is short-lived when she spies a hooded figure looking on through the nighttime undergrowth. She gives chase but the figure disappears up the side of a cliff with the aid of a rope which is quickly hauled up. Lara climbs up without the aid of the rope into a cave, where the mystery figure is poking around at an open fire. The mystery figure is a heavily bearded Richard Croft. At first Ricard does not recognise his daughter, but she jogs his memory and they embrace. Richard treats Lara's wound, which she sleeps off until the next morning.

Despite Richard's protests Lara sets off to recover his research notes and a satellite phone from Vogel's camp. She and Lu Ren create a distraction so allowing him and the fishermen prisoners to escape amidst the chaos of gunfire and explosions in and around the camp site.

Meanwhile, Richard has ventured up to the uncovered entry to the tomb site, found by Vogel with the aid of his extensive research notes which were clearly not destroyed by Lara despite her father's very specific instructions to do so. He is joined by Lara and then Vogel. With Richard caught in the middle, with his daughter aiming a bow at Vogel and Vogel pointing a gun at Richard's head, something in this Mexican stand-off has to give. And it is Lara who buckles under the pressure, and agrees to open the tomb in lieu of saving her father, much to Richard's disdain. And so faced with various cogs and wheels built into the wall which must be unlocked in sequence in order to gain access to the tomb, Lara sets about her task . . . with relative ease it seems!

With access gained to the tomb, Vogel orders Lara to venture down first, then Richard and then several henchmen bringing up the rear. Needless to say the group is greeted by a number of booby traps and challenges through a labyrinth of tunnels and corridors that open out in to huge expanses of underground space. One of the henchmen perishes at the end of a giant spike, and there are several close calls along the way, but ultimately the group reach Himiko's sarcophagus.

Opening up the casket, two of Vogel's henchmen attempt to lift Himiko's corpse but are almost instantly infected by her power. Lara deduces that she was the carrier of a disease that was so powerful that physical contact alone triggers an immediate reaction whereby the body starts to progressively die and disintegrate. From the markings around the walls, she further deduces that Himiko voluntarily sealed herself in her tomb because she wanted to avoid spreading it, even though she had an immunity to the disease which she was carrying. Vogel shoots one of his infected henchmen, and from this decides that he cannot move the corpse as planned. Instead, he cuts off a finger tip and seals it in a plastic ziplock bag and drops it into his shirt breast pocket. One of the henchmen believed to be dead, rises up and attacks Richard, allowing Lara to make a getaway. In the ensuing gun fight between Richard and Vogel, Vogel is shot in the leg but manages to escape, while Richard fends off the henchmen killing him, but is himself infected by the henchman's touch.

Lara returns to the sarcophagus where Richard sits, the infection taking hold. He tells Lara to keep her distance, and explains that he proposes detonating several bombs to seal the tomb shut forever, prevent the worldwide spread of the disease and killing himself in the process. Lara backs away tearfully and gives chase to Vogel who is fleeing the cave as quickly as he can. The two meet and fight, with Lara ultimately force feeding Vogel the severed finger which he swallows inadvertently biting down on the bag. He stumbles backwards as the disease takes a rapid hold and falls down a deep ravine in the cave on to a bed of human skeletons. The explosion rips through the cave system, the blast destroying everything in its path and sealing the cave tightly shut under mounds of dust, debris and rubble. Lara escapes just in the nick of time, and is pulled out of the rubble at the mouth of the cave by Lu Ren. The two then commandeer an arriving Trinity helicopter to take them and the remaining fishermen prisoners back to the mainland.

Back in London at the headquarters of Croft Holdings, Lara signs her agreement to accept her fathers inheritance looked on by Ana Miller and Mr. Yaffe (Derek Jacobi) legal counsel for Croft Holdings. Once completed Yaffe hands Lara a portfolio of all the companies owned by Croft Holdings. Scrolling through the huge volume of individual business details, she notices a company name that she had seen before on Yumatai Island and deduces that this is a front company for Trinity. Investigating further, she begins to suspect that Ana Miller is not all she seems and that she manipulated Lara to signing over the day to day business operations of Croft Holdings. Knowing how ruthless Trinity is, Lara arms herself with two assault pistols procured from her local pawn shop owned and operated by Max (Nick Frost), ready for her next adventure.

'Tomb Raider' is a bit of a misnomer for this film really, considering that Lara Croft doesn't actually raid a tomb here, but is rather a reluctant bystander dragged along while someone else does the raiding. She's just the 'Joanna on the spot' left to clean up someone else's mess, pay the price and get the hell outta there before it all comes crashing down around her ears. And in casting the diminutive Alica Vikander in the role of our titular heroine she is far cry from the tall statuesque curvaceous arse kicking gun wielding Angelina Jolie that most resembles the video game character that the world has come to know and love. That doesn't make Vikander's performance any less, and she is reasonably convincing in the role but she does get beaten up and picked on aplenty by her male antagonists who are all worthless dispensable bad dudes anyway that we don't care about and ultimately get their comeuppance. In between the well choreographed action sequences the film plods a little, and really there is very little here that we haven't seen many times over in similar genre specific offerings - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Mummy', 'National Treasure' and the earlier 'Tomb Raider' franchises most notably. Clearly set up for further instalments, Lara Croft will need to lift her tomb raiding, gun toting, tough as nails approach if she is to succeed in this action adventure world.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JASON BOURNE : Monday 1st August 2016.

'JASON BOURNE' which I saw earlier in the week is based on the action spy thriller books and the character created by Robert Ludlum who first burst onto our screens in 2002 in 'The Bourne Identity' with Matt Damon playing the title character of a CIA assassin suffering extreme memory loss who chases across the world to uncover the secrets of his past, and claim back his identity. The first film was Directed by Doug Liman, with the second and third instalments - 'The Bourne Supremacy' in 2004 and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' in 2007 both Directed by Paul Greengrass. In 2012 'The Bourne Legacy' was Directed by Tony Gilroy with Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross on the run as a result of Bourne's actions in 'Ultimatum', and although Damon declined to return as our titular hero, he does appear in archival photographs and dialogue as the storylines overlap. Those first four films were made for a combined US$370M and grossed worldwide US$1,222B and collectively were hailed as both critical and commercial successes. Now almost ten years after last playing the character, Matt Damon is back and reunited with Paul Greengrass in this further instalment - made for US$120M with the screenplay written by Greengrass and both Damon and Greengrass acting as Co-Producers. The film has so far grossed US$128M since its release.

After ten years of laying low following the events at the conclusion of 'Ultimatum', we find Bourne (Matt Damon looking all the more grizzled and world weary) scraping together a meagre living by engaging in illegal fist fights for money somewhere on the Turkish/Bulgarian border. Meanwhile in Reykjavik, Iceland, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) is collaborating with a computer hacker, whistleblower and privacy activist to hack into the CIA mainframe and expose their black op's programmes. Whilst doing so, Parsons finds documents relating to Bourne's past and in particular his entry into the Treadstone project and the part his father, Richard Webb, played in it, which ultimately cost him his life back in 1999. Armed with this extensive new found data Parsons travels to Greece to track down Bourne and alert him, convinced that while his memory has returned, these files will contain revealing new information that he will not be aware of.

Whilst Parsons is hacking into the CIA main frame, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who heads up the CIA's cyber operations team is alerted that their system has been compromised, and so a trace is put on Parson's with suspicions that she is linked to Bourne. Let the chase begin! Lee works for Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) the Director of the CIA who gives the go ahead to put full resources behind tracking Parsons and in turn Bourne - mobilising 'The Asset' (Vincent Cassel) to take them out in a search and destroy mission - ask no questions. Soon enough Parsons meets up with Bourne in a anti-government riot stricken Athens with CIA operatives and The Asset hot on their heels.

What follows is an intense action set piece around the back streets of Athens as Parsons and Bourne separate on foot and then meet up at Syntagma Square and commandeer a motorcycle tearing off down the side streets and alleyways chased by The Asset, the local Police and the CIA. They successfully manage to evade and by-pass rioting hordes, riot police, motorcycle police, the CIA in hot pursuit in the obligatory black trucks and The Asset chasing them down at high speed and then on foot. But The Asset comes good in the end with the help of drone surveillance from above, and a link to Lee in his ear, and with a single well aimed shot takes down Bourne and Parsons sending the former slamming into a parked car and the latter with a bullet in her back. Muttering her dying words she passes a luggage locker key to Bourne, containing a hand written notebook and an encrypted USB stick.

Moving to Berlin, Bourne locates the hacker that Parsons was dealing with back in Reykjavik, and has him decrypt the USB files. Looking through these he learns more truths about his father and how he was the originator of the Treadstone project that ultimately got him killed. However, Lee is able to trace the location of Bourne through malware implanted in the files which he has now accessed, and so a team is sent to take him out. By now however, Lee is beginning to form her own opinions of Bourne based on the information that she is seeing unfold in front of her own eyes. She alerts Bourne to the onset of the raid and that his cover is blown, just as he makes off, and the computer files are erased remotely. 

Using the data he recovered from these files the action moves to London, where Bourne tracks down a Malcolm Smith (Bill Camp), a former Treadstone Surveillance Agent now working at his own security firm. Smith is instantly nervous that Bourne wants to see him and alerts Dewey and in turn Lee that a rendezvous has been arranged. Lee meanwhile persuades Dewey to allow her one attempt to bring Bourne in having studied his files further. Dewey agrees to her plan but secretly mobilises The Asset to take down Lee's team and eliminate Bourne once and for all. Sensing that the CIA will be watching his every move, Bourne sets up some diversion and distraction tactics of his own in the very public gathering place he is to meet with Smith. He whisks Smith away long enough to question him on a roof top, not knowing that Dewey is in Smith's ear ordering him not to divulge anything to Bourne. However, Bourne is growing increasingly impatient threatening to launch Smith off the edge five storey's up. Smith relents and advises that Richard Webb created Treadstone, but tried to prevent his son's entry into the programme. Smith also advises that under orders from Dewey, he had The Asset kill Bourne's father but stage the death to look like a terrorist attack, so giving the young David Webb the impetus to join Treadstone. The Asset takes out Smith before any more beans can be spilled, and Bourne jumps to safety from five floors up!

Bourne meanwhile meets up with Lee who is left scratching her head wondering what the hell just happened to her team. She confesses that she is questioning Dewey's motives, and advises him that Dewey is due to speak at a Las Vegas convention with Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed), the CEO of a social media application with 1.5 billion subscribers - called 'Deep Dream'. Kalloor has a huge following being the face of corporate social responsibility in the internet age, but his company is being secretly funded by Dewey, who wants to use his technology as a backdoor entry for unhindered surveillance of the masses in a project now known as 'Iron Hand'. Kalloor has an attack of his conscience and intends to come clean at the convention in front of a gathered audience and the worldwide media. But Dewey has other thoughts and orders The Asset to take out both Kalloor and Lee whilst they sit on the speakers panel, but this attempt is thwarted by Bourne just in time. In the frenzy afterwards Bourne makes it to Dewey's suite to confront him with what he knows with both the CIA and Lee closing in. In the ensuing fracas Dewey is shot by Lee, and Bourne sustains a bullet wound from Craig Jeffers (Ato Essandoh), Deweys right hand guy, but not before Bourne puts a bullet in him.

This only leaves The Asset on the run having sustained a bullet wound from Bourne at the convention assassination attempt. The Asset commandeers a SWAT truck to make his getaway, leaving Bourne to do likewise with a car through the streets of uptown Las Vegas in what is a lengthy and well choreographed chase sequence. When both vehicles come to rest in a casino amidst much carnage, destruction and collateral damage, a foot chase leads to a sewer where its close quarter hand to hand combat between Bourne and The Asset. Needless to say, the latter buys the farm!

In the aftermath when the dust has settled and Bourne has gone back underground, he meets in a park with Lee who attempts to persuade him to come back in, promising him that the CIA is changing with the times and can be the organisation he thought it was when he first signed up. He walks away saying he'll think about it, but does not respond when she calls after him 'how will I reach you'? The film closes as Lee sits back in her car with a recording device planted earlier by Bourne that has audio visual evidence that she cannot be trusted.

I liked 'Jason Bourne' but it delivers exactly what you have come to expect from this franchise. It is well delivered but fairly formulaic and predictable. The action set pieces look good at the hands of Director Paul Greengrass who has proven his ability to stage intense close up fist fights and epic multiple vehicle city centre chases on foot, on motorcycle and by car. Bourne has proven as indestructible and indefatigable as ever surviving bullet wounds, near strangulation, countless body blows, falling off a roof five storeys high with nothing but an industrial strength washing line to break his fall, careering off a motorcycle at high speed and into a parked car, and driving his car into a SWAT truck that pins him under the roof of the porte cochere to a casino. And that is just in this film! Their are some confusing elements to this film, questions left unanswered and plot holes that includes what has Bourne been doing for the last ten years as we see him engaging in various underground illegal fist fights - for what purpose exactly I wonder? It is worth seeing for sure, but you can wait for the DVD/Bluray release, and while this film sets up a possible further instalment, I do wonder if this franchise has now run its course and its time for Bourne to ease himself into retirement once and for all, and concentrate on his future rather than his past.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 28th July 2016.

Last week for a bit of fun I counted up to 30 using movie titles with numbers in their title from 'Zero Dark Thirty' to '30 Days of Night'. This week, continuing in that same vein I've listed those upto 100. This is just my view of the cinematic universe and there'll be those I've missed and plenty more too besides those I have given below. See what you think?

• '31 North 62 East' - 2009 - Directed by Tristan Loraine, starring John Rhys-Davies,
• 'Miracle on 34th Street' - 1947 - Directed by George Seaton, starring Maureen O'Hara,
• '35 Up' - 1991 - Directed by Michael Apted, starring Michael Apted,
• 'The 39 Steps' - 1935 - Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat,
• 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' - 2005 - Directed by Judd Apatow, starring Steve Carell,
• '42' - 2013 - Directed by Brian Helgeland, starring Harrison Ford,
• 'Movie 43' - 2013 - Directed by Peter Farrelly amongst others and starring a Who's Who of Hollywood's A-listers,
• '44 Inch Chest' - 2010 - Directed by Malcolm Venville, starring Ray Winstone,
• '47 Ronin' - 2013 - Directed by Carl Rinsch, starring Keanu Reeves,
• '48 Hours' - 1982 - Directed by Walter Hill, starring Eddie Murphy,
• 'Ladder 49' - 2004 - Directed by Jay Russell, starring John Travolta,
• '50 First Dates' - 2004 - Directed by Peter Segal, starring Adam Sandler,
• 'Planet 51' - 2009 - Directed by Jorge Blanco, starring Dwayne Johnson,
• '52 Pick-Up' - 1986 - Directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Roy Schneider,
• '54' - 1998 - Directed by Mark Christopher, starring Ryan Philippe,
• '55 Days at Peking' - 1963 - Directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Charlton Heston, 
• 'Passenger 57' - 1992 - Directed by Kevin Hooks, starring Wesley Snipes,
• 'Gone in 60 Seconds' - 2000 - Directed by Dominic Sena, starring Nicolas Cage,
• '61*' - 2001 - Directed by Billy Crystal, starring Barry Pepper,
• 'Roadhouse 66' - 1984 - Directed by John Mark Robinson, starring Willem Dafoe,
• ''71' - 2015 - Directed by Yann Demange, starring Jack O'Connell,
• 'Winchester '73' - 1950 - Directed by Anthony Mann, starring James Stewart,
• 'Around the World in 80 Days' - 1956 - Directed by Michael Anderson, starring David Niven,
• '84 Charing Cross Road' - 1987 - Directed by David Jones, starring Anthony Hopkins,
• '88 Minutes' - 2008 - Directed by Jon Avnet, starring Al Pacino, 
• 'United 93' - 2006 - Directed by Paul Greengrass, starring Christian Clemenson,
• '99 Homes' - 2015 - Directed by Ramin Bahrani, starring Michael Shannon,
• '100 Rifles' - 1969 - Directed by Tom Gries, starring Raquel Welch.

All that said, and turning to more current affairs, there are four new films to grace our cinema screens in the week ahead kicking off with the fifth instalment in this popular action spy franchise that sees a return to form for this pairing of Actor and Director for a third outing, as this character comes in from the cold after an absence of ten years still seeking answers whilst thwarting enemies on both sides of the law. Then there is a down on his luck salesman trying to close the deal of his life in a far away country while licking his wounds resulting from a broken marriage, a lost home and family upheaval. Next up historical fact and fiction combine in this critically acclaimed foreign language film shot in the depths of the South American jungle as a tribal elder helps two scientists separated by thirty years, seek out a mythical plant. And then we wrap up with a tale of all things bread like with one added secret ingredient that helps boost sales and helps two opposites combine their talents on a micro scale with an underlying macro message.

Remember, that when you have sat through your movie of choice in the week ahead, be sure to return to these humble pages and share your thoughts and observations on the movie you have just seen by leaving a note in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We would love to hear from you. Until then, enjoy your film, and get a taste for this weeks latest releases from my Previews as below.

'JASON BOURNE' (Rated M) - this action spy thriller series of films based on the books and the character created by Robert Ludlum first burst onto our screens in 2002 in 'The Bourne Identity' with Matt Damon playing the title character of a CIA assassin suffering extreme memory loss who chases across the world to uncover the secrets of his past and claim back his identity. The first film was Directed by Doug Liman, with the second and third instalments - 'The Bourne Supremacy' in 2004 and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' in 2007 both Directed by Paul Greengrass. In 2012 'The Bourne Legacy' was Directed by Tony Gilroy with Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross on the run as a result of Bourne's actions in 'Ultimatum', and although Damon declined to return as our titular hero, he does appear in archival photographs and dialogue as the storylines overlap. Those first four films were made for a combined US$370M and grossed worldwide US$1,222B and collectively were hailed as both critical and commercial successes. Now almost ten years after last playing the character, Matt Damon is back and reunited with Paul Greengrass in this further instalment - made for US$120M with the screenplay written by Greengrass and both Damon and Greengrass acting as Co-Producers on this film.

After ten years of laying low following the events at the conclusion of 'Ultimatum', CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to lure our man Jason Bourne out of self imposed exile and assigns Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) to track him down and bring him out of the shadows. Lee however, suspects that Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) - a former CIA Operative and ally of Bourne, is also searching for him. So begins another game of cat & mouse as the action ramps up and Bourne finds himself front & centre as he and Parsons get caught up in a sinister network leveraging terror and technology to build a global power base, whilst evading the CIA who have their own agenda for wanting to bring him in, and Bourne attempts to uncover further answers about his past and his family. Vincent Cassel also stars.

'A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING' (Rated M) - written for the screen and Directed by Tom Tyker and based on the 2012 book of the same name by Dave Eggers, this comedy drama film starring Tom Hanks in the lead role was released in the US on 22nd April having cost US$30M to make and so far it has realised a return of just US$4.7M, representing Tom Hank's lowest grossing film in which he has top billing for thirty years. Set in 2010, the film tells the story of Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) - a washed up, depressed, down at heel corporate salesman who lost his home and divorced his wife during the Global Financial Crisis. He travels to Saudi Arabia with the intention of selling a holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi Government for a pending development in the King's Metropolis of Economy and Trade. As he goes about his business he is assisted by new acquaintances in the form of a beautiful doctor Zahra (Sarita Choudhury) and a smart arse cab driver Yousef (Alexander Black). Also starring Tom Skerritt and Ben Whishaw.

'EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT' (Rated M) - this film has been critically lauded the world over, and is the proud recipient of 24 Award wins and another twenty nominations including the Best Foreign Language Film nomination at this years Academy Awards, and the winner of the Arts Cinema Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight. Filmed entirely in the Amazonia region of Colombia and Directed by Ciro Guerra, the films tells two stories separated by thirty years both centering upon an Amazonian Shamen, Karamakate (played by Nilbio Torres as the younger, and Antonio Bolivar as the older). He is the sole survivor of his tribe, and he accompanies two scientists - the German ethnologist and explorer Theodor Koch-Grunberg (1872-1924) played by Jan Bijvoet in 1909, and American biologist Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) played by Brionne Davis in 1940 as they each search for a rare and sacred plant - the Yakruna - said to possess healing and psychedelic properties. Mixing both fact and fiction in glorious monochrome with the backdrop of the Amazonian rainforest with the emergence of Colonialist enforcers and the ensuing destruction of tribal lands, culture, history, beliefs, people and nature on a scale that still continues, Guerra delivers a haunting, dramatic, revealing and thought provoking film on a multitude of levels - a must see.

'DOUGH' (Rated M) - Directed by John Goldschmidt this film tells the story of an ageing Jewish baker Nat Dayan (Jonathan Pryce) single handedly running his little bakery shop and finding it all a little too much as the strains and struggles of early mornings, heavy lifting & kneading and hot baking ovens begin to creep into his old age whilst trying to maintain a viable business. Persuaded, albeit reluctantly, to take on a young seemingly no-hope Muslim immigrant apprentice from Darfur Ayyash Habimana (Jerome Holder) things begin to take a turn for the better when the young lad drops cannabis into the dough mixture, and suddenly the bread shop is much in demand and its products sought after as demand outstrips supply. This is a film that explores the power of relationships, acceptance, tolerance and support for the little guy who overcomes adversity from the big guy - with a little help from some weed, luck and good fortune. Pauline Collins and Phil Davis also star.

Four films for mid-Winter that once again offer a mixed bag of new cinematic content for your movie going choice in the week ahead. Share your thoughts when you have done so, and in the meantime, I'll see you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BURNT : Saturday 7th November 2015.

Having worked in Hospitality for most of my career in and around kitchens, chefs, restaurants and food service in various guises, you can imagine how interested I would be in seeing 'BURNT' which I saw over the weekend. It is intriguing to see how Chefs and Cooks are depicted on the big screen. It is after all only really in the last five or so years that we have seen these types featured in the movies since a few of those who have excelled have risen to celebrity status, and with the advent of the plethora of cooking shows on television and the inordinate amount of cook books there are for sale, it is hardly surprising that Hollywood would latch to the heat of the kitchen. All that said, if it helps raise the profile of food, the industry, different cuisines and produce, and the people working in it then this must be a good thing, but is it good for Hollywood? In the case of 'Burnt', not really - because this film is half baked only - golden brown and crisp on the outside but soggy and undercooked on the inside!

What 'Burnt' does for us is take us into the hallowed territory of maybe the top 1% of all restaurants globally. It is here where the two and three star Michelin establishments reside, where the Chef's and Cook's toil away relentlessly but enjoy Rock Star status for the blood, sweat and tears they have to give working 20 hours a day to reach the zenith of perfection in their culinary craft. And it is here too where these famed restaurants as beautiful as they often are, are big holes in the ground into which the owners shovel money every day (and lots of it) with only a very small margin of return, if any!

And so it with this US$20M John Wells Directed culinary caper that sees fallen from grace former two Michelin starred Chef Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) having lived the celebrity chef status in Paris for all its worth with sex, drugs, alcohol and rock 'n' roll crash to the bottom only to rise again  to regain his reputation, his credibility, his self-worth and a third star. We learn through back story dialogue between the characters that three years ago things got badly 'burnt' for him in Paris when he went off the rails, cost his restaurant its two star status, his team lost their jobs and then spread far & wide, and he went AWOL presumed by many contemporaries and critics to be dead. He surfaces in London having served a self imposed penance to shuck one million oysters in some seafood joint that he promptly walks out of when his milestone is reached.

He emerges after some chicanery in the kitchen of Tony (Daniel Bruhl) in London at The Langham Hotel where he delivers a commitment to take it to three star status. Tony's father (the one with all the money) agrees and so the kitchen is remodelled, Jones assembles his brigade of new and previously worked with talent, and the restaurant relaunched. The first night all goes pear shaped when guests no-show, the food is below expectations, and the write up in the press is less than favourable. Jones is the consummate artist, perfectionist and after service what follows is a Head Chef rant at his brigade the likes of which I'm not sure you would see in any kitchen anywhere . . . not even Gordon Ramsay's! These days with industrial relations compliance, human resource guidelines, and fair work requirements Jones would face an instant walk out and be hauled up in front of some IR Commission on the grounds of workplace harassment, bullying and intimidation . . . no matter how good he thinks is he! But I guess this is Hollywood after all, and you gotta give the audience what they want!

As time progresses the kitchen bridge settle into their routine, they begin to work cohesively, and a flame of romance starts to burn between Jones and his recruited Sous Chef and the only female in the kitchen Helene (Sienna Miller). There are other story sidelines here too that surround Jones fierce rivalry with Reece (Mathew Rhys) former colleague in Paris and now the equally fiery, temperamental talented London Chef at the three star 'Reece'. Additionally, there is Michael (Omar Sy) who is recruited as a Chef de Partie by Jones but back in Paris three years before Jones called the Heath Inspectors in and closed down his restaurant - beware the hidden agenda behind Michael's acceptance to join Jones in his kitchen that manifests itself when least expected!

Also there is the former working relationship with Tony, gay, but the best Maitre D' in the country and therefore somewhat forgiving of Jones' kitchen antics. Jones' drug addled past also catches up with him and as two heavies appear from time to time demanding payment on a drug debt which Jones cannot deliver on so he gets roughed up on the most demanding of days. There is also his former love interest and daughter of his recently deceased former employer in Paris, Anne Marie (Alicia Vikander), and then Helene's struggles as a single mother juggling her commitment to her young daughter Lily, and the relentless demands of the kitchen and Jones. Let's also not forget the therapy that Jones has to undergo with Dr. Rosshilde (Emma Thompson) every Friday morning and if he misses a single session all funding to his kitchen and his dream will cease immediately. And, sitting over all of this is the expectation of the eventual visit of the Michelin Men to rate the restaurant for the famed guidebook.

The gloss is here with a beautiful restaurant, an equally beautiful kitchen, the highest standards of culinary expertise and food porn aplenty delivered with an insight into the seemingly never ending hours of experimentation, creativity and long days and nights spent rattling the pans over a hot stove, traipsing through the markets in the early hours, and seeking inspiration from other eateries. But despite all of this it's still a half baked underdone soufflé of a film. I found the Jones character difficult to warm to and relate to, his violent bursts and abuse in the kitchen completely overcooked, the final Michelin visit and judgement just glanced over, and the Hollywood-ised account of the finest of fine dining restaurants and what goes on in and around them a little too hard to swallow, but, there are a few redeeming feature along the way!

You don't need to see this on the big screen and can easily wait for the release of the DVD and Blu-ray or download it when available. I would say that this is a case of medium-rare, rather than well done!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-