ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL : Tuesday 19th February 2019.

I saw 'ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL' earlier in the week. This American cyberpunk action film is Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by James Cameron based on the Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro graphic novel 'Gunnm' (aka 'Battle Angel Alita'). Going back to 2000, Kishiro's manga was brought to the attention of James Cameron by Guillermo del Toro who so liked what he saw and read that he immediately registered a domain name for the film, and by 2003 was announced as Director on a feature length live action film. Then Cameron's 'Avatar' got in the way and it was then slated for a 2009 release. In 2010 Cameron stated that the film was still in development but no plans existed as to a release date. In 2013 he set a Production start date of 2017 and in the meantime Robert Rodriguez was in discussions to Direct if he could condense Cameron's script and sizeable notes into a workable Screenplay. Filming began in late 2016 with Rodriguez Directing with Cameron Producing, and a budget of somewhere between US$150 and 200M. Digital effects were provided by Peter Jackson's New Zealand based Weta Digital, amongst others. The film was released in the US last week too, has so far recouped US$156M of its circa US$180M production budget, and has generated largely mixed or average Reviews so far. If the film proves commercially successful ultimately, this will be the first instalment in a franchise that will see at least two sequels reportedly.

Set some five hundred years in the future, following the catastrophic global war known at 'The Fall' of some three hundred years previously, the abandoned disembodied 'core' of a female cyborg, with a still intact human brain, is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor. Ido takes the remnants of the upper body back to his workshop come lab and fits her out with a new body, one he had previously built for his disabled daughter, who died before he was able to give it to her.

When the girl awakens in an upstairs bedroom, she is surprised by her fully functioning body and takes a few moments to find her feet and get accustomed to her new and strange surroundings. She ventures downstairs and is greeted by Ido and his assistant. The cyborg girl has no recollection of her past life at all, not even her name. Ido calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar) - after his dead daughter.

Ido takes Alita out into the street where she gets her first taste of her new world and all the hustle and bustle of the metropolis that is Iron City. Pretty quickly Alita befriends Hugo (Keean Johnson), who harbours dreams of moving to the wealthy sky city of Zalem that hovers just a few kilometres above Iron City. A few days later Hugo introduces her to the competitive sport of Motorball - the street version as opposed to the grand spectator arena battle royale race where cyborgs fight to the death (kind of a more up to date take on 1975's 'Rollerball').

One day Ido comes home with a badly injured arm. A few nights later, Alita follows Ido as he leaves the house carrying a huge case and subsequently discovers that Ido is a 'Hunter-Warrior' when they are set upon by three cyborg assassins led by Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). In the ensuing attack Ido is injured. Alita's instincts click in and she attacks the cyborgs, killing two of them and severely damaging Grewishka, who retreats underground. Despite Alita re-igniting her skill in the ancient martial art of 'Panzer Kunst', Ido discourages her from becoming a Hunter-Warrior. 

Later, out on an expedition with Hugo and two of his friends to the outskirts of the city and through a forest Alita is taken to a downed space ship resting overgrown and half submerged in a lagoon. Hugo tells her that it is a relic of 'The Fall' but Alita is drawn to the ship, jumps in the lagoon and seeks to gain entry. She does and emerges on the inside where the controls of the ship spring to life as if Alita is a charged battery needed to power it up. In it, she finds and brings home to Ido a 'Berserker body' which Alita begs Ido to fit onto her. Ido refuses, saying it is a relic of the past, she now has a new life and besides its an unknown quantity that could do more harm than good. This angers Alita, so she promptly registers herself as a Hunter-Warrior.

Alita and Hugo then make for the Kansas Bar, a local hang-out for the Hunter-Warrior community to ask others to help her take out Grewishka, but they refuse. There Zapan (Ed Skrein) an acclaimed cyborg Hunter-Warrior picks a fight with Alita and comes off worse. As a fight breaks out and mayhem ensues across the crowded bar, an upgraded Grewishka storms into the bar and challenges Alita to a rematch, stating that he had been ordered by Nova, his boss, to destroy her. At the same time Ido arrives on the scene.

Despite her bravery and proven fighting skills, Alita's body is sliced up by Grewishka's bladed fingers before she blinds him with her left arm. Ido, Hugo, and McTeague (Jeff Fahey), another Hunter-Warrior who leads a pack of robot killer dogs, force him to retreat. Ido has no option now but to transplant Alita onto the Berserker body, which automatically begins to interface with her core system.

Kitted out with her brand new shiny all singing all dancing Berserker body, Alita enters a Motorball tryout race as a means to send Hugo to Zalem with the winners proceeds. Ido discovers that the other contestants are Hunter-Warriors and wanted cyborgs hired by Vector (Mahershala Ali), an entrepreneur working under Nova, a powerful Zalem scientist, to kill her. He warns Alita, and as the race gets underway, she dispenses with many of the contestants with her superior combat skills and evasive techniques.

Meanwhile, Hugo is being hunted by Zapan, after he frames Hugo for murdering a cyborg - a charge punishable by death. Hugo calls on Alita for help. She locates Hugo just as Zapan arrives and reveals to her that Hugo has been attacking cyborgs and stealing their body parts for Vector to transplant onto other contestants in his Motorball games. Zapan mortally wounds Hugo and cordially informs Alita that Hunter-Warrior law dictates that she must either now kill Hugo or let Zapan finish him off.

Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), Ido's ex-wife, also a master cyborg engineer and in cahoots with Vector as a means to relocate herself to Zalem, is looking on, and is prompted by a flood of emotion to save Hugo by attaching his head to Alita's all powerful cyborg heart in order to keep his brain functioning. Zapan attempts to stop Alita from leaving and she slices part of his face off with his prized sword, which she claims as her own.

Back at Ido's cyborg surgery, he transplants Hugo's head onto a cyborg body, and then promptly advises Alita that Hugo's actions were based on the fact that he would be able to eventually buy his way into Zalem, which quite simply was not the case. Ido confides that this was a lie fabricated by Vector for his own ends, and that citizens of Iron City are unable to gain entry into Zalem unless they become a Motorball champion. Alita decides to confront Vector, who is being mind-controlled by Nova. Alita arrives at Vector's high rise penthouse suite and through Vector, Nova reveals to Alita that Chiren has been harvested for her vital organs and then orders Grewishka who has scaled up the outside of the building to reach them, to kill her. Alita battles Grewishka again and this time, thanks to her new powerful Berserker body, finally kills him by slicing his re-modified body clean in half, then stabs Vector, communicating with Nova through Vector's dying eyes that he made the mistake of underestimating her.

Ido communicates to Alita that Hugo has fled and is desperately attempting to climb one of the supporting tubes that binds Zalem to Iron City, in a seemingly vain attempt to reach the place of his dreams. Alita gives chase, catches up and pleads with Hugo to return with her. Hugo ventures ever upward and in doing so Nova releases a razor spiked defencive ring that slices through Hugo's body sending his various body parts into the air. Leaping after him, Alita is unable to prevent Hugo from falling to his death. Some months later, and Alita is the star champion of the Motorball arena. As she walks into the packed stadium greeted by the cheering crowd of spectators, she points her sword towards Zalem, while Nova (unmasked for the first time to reveal Edward Norton in an unspeaking cameo role) watches her from above. 

There is no doubt that 'Alita : Battle Angel' is a feast for the senses, a visual spectacle, and an achievement in world building that offers the audience all the latest in CGI technology writ large with enough slicing and dicing violence and flailing body parts to keep any genre die hard fan in clover.  And, on that level the film delivers in spades. Rosa Salazar puts in a convincing enough performance too as our rebirthed and then born again protagonist Alita, but as for the other human characters they are under cooked, and the others are nothing more than human heads perched atop various heavily customised cyborg killing machines. The story is nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before and as such plays out predictably saved only by various digitally rendered action set pieces to help things move along apace. All that said, this film is a worth a look and worth catching on the big screen - just don't go in with too high an expectation. Michelle Rodriguez and Jai Courtney also cameo.

'Alita : Battle Angel' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 14th February 2019.

In January the world bid a fond farewell to a number of stars of the silver screen and the small screen. In brief, shown below, is my passing tribute to those stars who leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, and in particular the world of film and television. May you all Rest In Peace, and thanks for the memories . . . . Carol Channing, Windsor Davies, and Andrew Vajna.

* Carol Channing - born January 31st 1921, and died January 15th 2019, aged 97. Channing was an American Actress, singer, dancer and comedienne whose lifetime credits take in eight decades of stage, screen and television appearances that began in 1941 in a New York stage production from which she would never look back. From there she moved to Broadway and secured regular work on various stage productions and in 1948 she picked up the Theatre World Award which really launched her career as a star player. In the latter half of the '50's she worked with George Burns on his television comedy show, and in 1961 she gained a Tony Award nomination for 'Show Girl' and in 1964 won the Tony Award for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in the smash Broadway musical comedy 'Hello, Dolly!'. Channing had 37 film and television credits to her name throughout her career which launched with the feature film 'The First Travelling Saleslady' in 1956 opposite Ginger Rogers, Clint Eastwood, Barry Nelson and James Arness. In 1967 she starred in 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Oscar in the same category. This was followed up a year later with 'Skidoo' with an all star cast taking in Jackie Gleason, Frankie Avalon, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney and Groucho Marx. She also lent her voice talents to various animated feature films and animated television series episodes over the years. Her last film role was in a 2011 documentary of her life 'Carol Channing : Larger than Life' and on television in 2016's 'RuPaul's Drag Race'. She released her autobiography 'Just Lucky I Guess' in 2002. All up Channing won seven awards including four Tony Awards, a Grammy, and a Golden Globe and further six nominations.

* Windsor Davies - born August 28th 1930, and died January 17th 2019, aged 88. Davies was a Welsh born Actor who starred in many British films and television series between 1962 and 2004. Perhaps his best known role was over 56 episodes spanning eight seasons of the hit British sitcom 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' starring as Battery Sergeant Major Williams which ran from 1974 through until 1981. He also appeared in television series 'The Onedin Line', 'Callan', 'Never The Twain' and 'Oh, Doctor Beeching!'. Of his film appearances, he had roles in 'The Pot Carriers' in 1962 his first feature film, and then the likes of 'Murder Most Foul', 'The Alphabet Murders', 'Drop Dead Darling', 'Adold Hitler : My Part in His Downfall', 'Carry On Behind', 'Carry On England', 'Confessions of a Driving Instructor', 'Grand Slam' and 'Old Scores'. All up Davies had 128 Acting credits to his name, and a UK Number One record with 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' co-star Don Estelle in 1975 with 'Whispering Grass'. He also worked extensively on television commercials adding his distinctive Welsh accented voice.

* Andrew Vajna - born Andras Gyorgy Vajna on August 1st 1944 and died January 20th 2019, aged 74. Vajna was a Hungarian born American film Producer. After various ventures in the Far East and Hong Kong including a film acquisition and distribution business, he met Lebanese Film Producer Mario Kassar at Cannes in 1975 and the pair went on to form Carolco a company specialising in the financing, sales and distribution of films worldwide. In less than four years, Carolco became one of the top three foreign sales organisations in the motion pictures industry. In 1982 Vajna and Kassar made their film production debut with 'Rambo: First Blood', starring Sylvester Stallone. The film was a critical and commercial success giving rise to numerous sequels over the years. At Carolco the pair also Produced 'Rambo : First Blood Part II' and 'Rambo III' as well as 'Angel Heart', 'Total Recall', 'Air America' and 'Jacob's Ladder'. In late '89, Vajna sold his interest in Carolco to form  Cinergi Productions for the financing, development, Production and distribution of major event releases. 'Medicine Man', 'Tombstone', 'Color of Night', 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' 'Judge Dredd', 'Nixon' and 'Evita' were among Cinergi's Productions. Never forgetting his Hungarian background, Vajna played a significant role in many films being shot in Budapest including 'Evita', 'Escape to Victory', 'Read Heat' and 'I Spy'. In the late '90's Vajna reteamed with his former business partner Mario Kassar and in 2003 Produced 'Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines' and thereafter also acted as Executive Producer on 'Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles' and 2009's 'Terminator Salvation'. From 2011 Vajna worked as the Government Commissioner in charge of the Hungarian film industry where he conceived the Hungarian National Film Fund since which time the Hungarian film industry has won more than 130 international awards while the number of foreign films produced in Hungary has increased significantly.

This week there are six latest release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with a Sci-Fi epic based on a popular Japanese manga set five hundred years hence where a dismembered cyborg is taken in by a good doctor and given a new body only to awaken with no recollection of who she is or where she is. Her journey to discover who she really is reveals much more than anyone bargained for.  We then turn to an already highly acclaimed romantic drama film set in the early '70's surrounding a couple and the challenges faced by both which need to be resolved before the birth of their child. Next up is a biographical drama charting the last years of a famed but troubled painter up to his death in 1890, followed by a story of survival in the frozen depths of the Arctic Circle as one man struggles  against the elements to find salvation and civilisation. Then we have a remake of a successful 2000 film that gives one lucky lady the ability to hear mens thoughts, but this in itself creates more challenges than she bargained for. And wrapping up the week we have a horror sequel about a girl stuck in a time loop who must die time and time again in order to save her friends and thwart a maniacal masked killer.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies 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 most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL' (Rated M) - this American cyberpunk action film is Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by James Cameron based on the Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro graphic novel 'Gunnm' (aka 'Battle Angel Alita'). Going back to 2000, Kishiro's manga was brought to the attention of James Cameron by Guillermo del Toro who so liked what he saw and read that he immediately registered a domain name for the film and by 2003 was announced as Director on a feature length live action film. Then Cameron's 'Avatar' got in the way and it was slated for a 2009 release. In 2010 Cameron stated that the film was still in development but no plans existed as to a release date. In 2013 he set a Production start date of 2017 and in the meantime Robert Rodriguez was in discussions to Direct if he could condense Cameron's script and sizeable notes into a workable Screenplay. Filming began in late 2016 with Rodriguez Directing with Cameron Producing, and a budget of somewhere between US$150 and 200M. Digital effects were provided by Peter Jackson's New Zealand based Weta Digital, amongst others. The film is released in the US this week too.

Set some five hundred years in the future, the abandoned disembodied 'core' of a cyborg, Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious Alita to his clinic and fits her out with a new body. When Alita wakes, she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the post apocalyptic world destroyed by a technological meltdown that she now finds herself in. They soon discover that Alita is more than what she seems and has an extraordinary past. As she learns to navigate her new life, and the often deadly streets of Iron City she battles other machines who are empowered with skills, while Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious past. Also starring Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Michelle Rodriguez and Casper Van Dien. If successful, this will set up a series of films.

'IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK' (Rated MA15+) - here we have another acclaimed offering doing very well around the awards and festival circuit with 73 wins so far and another 138 nominations including three Oscar nominations, yet to be announced. Directed, Co-Produced and Written for the screen by Barry Jenkins (of 'Moonlight' fame), based on the 1974 novel by American author James Baldwin. The title of the book is a reference to the 1916 W.C. Handy blues song 'Beale Street Blues', named after Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The film saw its World Premier showing at TIFF back in September, went of general release in the US in mid-December, and has so far recovered US$15M from its US$12M production budget outlay. And so this American romantic drama film is set in early 1970's Harlem. Daughter and wife-to-be Clementine 'Tish' Rivers (KiKi Layne) vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt (Stephen James), who goes by the nickname 'Fonny'. Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a lasting future together, but their plans go awry when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. With the support of close family and friends Tish seeks to clear Fonny's name and prove that he is innocent, before the birth of their child. Also starring Regina King, Brian Tyree Henry, Colman Domingo, Ed Skrein, Finn Wittrock, Diego Luna, Perdro Pascal and Dave Franco.

'AT ETERNITY'S GATE' (Rated PG) - this biographical drama film is Directed and Co-Written by American painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel and has already done much around the awards and festival circuit. It saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival back in  early September and was released in the US in mid-November and only now does it get a showing in Australia. Garnering generally positive Press, the film has so far picked up three award wins and another fifteen nominations mostly for Lead Actor Willem Dafoe in his portrayal of Vincent van Gogh, including an Oscar nod. The film primarily focuses on the painters latter years from 1888 when he based himself in Arles in the south of France and during which time he broadened his subject matter to include series of olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers in a much brighter colour palette. Then in 1890 van Gogh discharged himself from a psychiatric hospital and relocated himself to  Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris where he was cared for by a homeopathic doctor. His bouts of depression and anxiety continued right up until late July 1890 when van Gogh shot himself in the chest, from which he died two days later aged 37. The film also stars an ensemble cast including Oscar Isaac as Paul Gaugin, Rupert Friend as Theo van Gogh, Mathieu Amalric, Mads Mikkelsen and Vincent Perez, and has so far taken US$7M at the Box Office.

 
'ARCTIC' (Rated M) - this Icelandic Arctic Circle survival thriller Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year where it competed for the Camera d'Or and is Directed and Co-Written by Brazilian musician and filmmaker Joe Penna. Following an aeroplane crash, Overgard (Mads Mikkelsen) is stranded in the Arctic. About to receive a long-awaited rescue, the helicopter that finds him crashes in a blizzard. The pilot is killed with the passenger, a young woman, severely injured (Maria Thelma Smaradottir). He must now decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp in the stricken aeroplane and again wait it out until the next rescue attempt, if there is to be one, or to embark on a potentially deadly trek through the unknown snow covered and harsh wilderness in the hope of making it out alive. Made for just US$2M this film was released in the US on 1st February. Filmed over the course of nineteen days in Iceland, Mikkelsen later commented that it was the most difficult shoot of his career.

'WHAT MEN WANT' (Rated M) - if this title sounds familiar it's because this is a remake of the 2000 Nancy Meyers Directed film 'What Women Want' which starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt and off the back of a US$70M production budget grossed US$374M. Here this fantasy comedy offering is Directed by Adam Shankman and centres around Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson), a successful sports agent who is repeatedly left out by her male counterparts. When Ali is by-passed for a well-earned promotion, she begins to wonder what more she needs to do to succeed in a male dominated world. Hoping to find some direction from a psychic, Ali drinks a strange potion that allows her to hear mens thoughts. Using her newfound skill, Ali starts to outsmart her boisterous obnoxious male colleagues while racing to sign the next basketball superstar, but the lengths she has to go to will put her relationship with her best mates, and a potential new love interest, to the test. Also starring Tracy Morgan, Aldis Hodge, Kellan Lutz and Richard Roundtree. Also released in the US this week.

'HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U' (Rated M) - Jason Blum, of Blumhouse Productions knows a thing or two about the horror genre and how to create a winning formula, clearly having proved himself on numerous occasions over recent years. Here he is at it again, in this sequel to 2017's 'Happy Death Day' which cost a tad less than US$5M to make and grossed US$126M. Blum once again takes a Producer credit, with Christopher Landon once again in the Directors chair on this horror slasher offering that reunites some of the characters from the first instalment and plants them a couple of years on from the first film. And so trapped in a time loop once more, college student Theresa 'Tree' Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) must die over and over again to save her friends from a psychotic masked killer. Determined to escape the time loop now that she has learned that her friends are also involved, and that the original masked killer Lori Spengler (Ruby Modine) has been murdered, Tree must now face a new killer threat, uncover its identity and break free now once and for all. Also starring Israel Broussard and Suraj Sharma. The film is released in the US this week too, and cost US$9M to bring to the screen.

With six new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 12th - 18th February 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Mahershala Ali does on 16th February - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 43, 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 12th February

• Joe Don Baker - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actor
• Michael Ironside - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Josh Brolin - Born 1968, turns 49  -Actor | Producer
• Darren Aronofsky - Born 1969, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Christina Ricci - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actress | Producer

Monday 13th February

• Kim Novak - Born 1933, turns 84 - Actress
• Stockard Channing - Born 1944, turns 73 - Actress
• Mena Suvari - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actress
• George Segal - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actor
• Neal McDonough - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actor | Producer  

Tuesday 14th February

• Alan Parker - Born 1944, turns 73 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Simon Pegg - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Freddie Highmore - Born 1992, turns 25 - Actor  

Wednesday 15th February

• Matt Groening - Born 1954, turns 63 - Producer | Writer | Animator | Actor | Singer
• Claire Bloom - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actress
• Jane Seymour - Born 1951, turns 66 - Actress | Producer
• Jessica De Gouw - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actress  

Thursday 16th February

• Elizabeth Olsen - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actress
• Ice-T (aka Tracy Lauren Marrow) - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Christopher Eccleston - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor
• Mahershala Ali - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actor   

Friday 17th February

• Hal Holbrook - Born 1925, turns 92 - Actor
• Lou Diamond Phillips - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Michael Bay - Born 1965, turns 52 - Director | Producer | Actor | Cameraman
• Dominic Purcell - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Jerry O'Connell - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Rory Kinnear - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Born 1981, turns 36 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | Singer
• Renee Russo - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actress
• Denise Richards - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actress | Producer  

Saturday 18th February

• Cybill Shepherd - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Greta Scacchi - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actress
• Molly Ringwald - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actress
• Milos Forman - Born 1932, turns 85 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• John Travolta - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Matt Dillon - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Writer

Mahershalalhashbaz 'Mahershala' Gilmore was born in Oakland, California and was raised in Hayward, California in the East Bay area of San Francisco Bay. His mother Willicia Goines, was an ordained Christian Church Minister, and his father Phillip F. Gilmore, appeared in stage plays on Broadway. Raised a Christian, he converted to Islam and in so doing changed his surname from Gilmore to Ali. He attended St. Mary's College of California, a small private co-educational college in Moraga, about 15kms east of Oakland, on a basketball scholarship from which he graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in mass communication. He became disillusioned with a career in sport however, and so developed an interest in Acting after earning a role in 'Spunk' that led to him gaining an apprenticeship at the California Shakespeare Theatre upon graduating from St. Mary's. Having taken  a year off he landed a job at the long established 'Gavin Report' - a San Francisco based radio industry trade publication which subsequently closed down in 2002. He then enrolled in the New York University Graduate Acting Programme gaining a Masters Degree in 2000.

His first screen break came in 2001 scoring the role of Dr. Trey Sanders on nineteen episodes of 'Crossing Jordan'. This was quickly followed up with single episodes on television shows 'Haunted', 'NYPD Blue', 'CSI : Crime Scene Investigation', and 'The Handler'. Fifteen episodes on Homeland Security drama thriller series 'Threat Matrix' and 32 episodes on Sci-Fi drama mystery series 'The 4400' with comedy film offering 'Making Revolution' coming in between time.

2008 saw his first major big screen role in David Fincher's 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' alongside Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film won three Oscar's and was nominated for another ten with an all up awards haul of 76 wins and 146 other nods. 'Crossing Over' followed in 2009 with Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta and Jim Sturgess with Sci-Fi actioner 'Predators' with Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburn, Danny Trejo, Topher Grace and Walton Goggins in 2010. In between time there had been more television work on 'Lie to Me' with Tim Roth, 'Law & Order : SVU', 'Lights Out' with Stacy Keach, and 'Alcatraz' with Sam Neill.

The Derek Cianfrance Directed crime drama thriller about a bank robbing motorcycle stunt rider 'The Place Beyond the Pines' with Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Ben Mendelsohn and Eva Mendes was released in 2012, before John Sayles Written and Directed 'Go for Sisters' and 'Supremacy' in 2014. 'The Hungers Games : Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2' released in 2014 and 2015 saw Ali play Colonel Boggs. These two films returned a Box Office haul of US$1.41B off a budget of US$285M.



In between big screen appearances there were further small screen roles on six episodes of post Hurricane Katrina drama 'Treme', and twelve episodes on Sci-Fi action drama series about humans with enhanced abilities 'Alphas', and then 33 episodes of the highly acclaimed, very popular and much awarded 'House of Cards' as Remy Danton with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.

'Kicks' came next in 2016 with the Gary Ross Directed 'Free State of Jones' with Matthew McConaughey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and then the universally acclaimed 'Moonlight' which is nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor for Ali, Best Picture and Best Directing for Barry Jenkins. It is also up for four BAFTA Awards including again the Best Supporting Actor nod for Ali. Both the BAFTA and Academy Awards are yet to be presented at the time of writing. In the meantime Ali won the SAG Award for his Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category. The film cost just US$5M to make and has so far taken US$20M at the Box Office.

Since, he has starred in seven episodes of the Netflix small screen Marvel adaptation of 'Luke Cage' as Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes, before the pending release of the highly anticipated 'Hidden Figures' due in cinemas in Australia on 16th February and is also nominated for three Oscars and has so far picked up 25 wins and a total 64 nominations form around the traps. Next up is 'Roxanne Roxanne' due later this year and then Robert Rodriguez Directed and James Cameron Co-Written 26th Century action adventure offering 'Alita : Battle Angel' with Jennifer Connelly, Christoph Waltz, Ed Skrein and Jackie Earle Hayley bringing us up to date.

All up Ali has 37 Acting credits to his name so far, he has an outstanding nomination for this years Academy Awards and BAFTA's for his role in 'Moonlight' and he has 46 award wins in total and another 30 nominations. Not bad for someone you've probably only very recently heard of, or perhaps not at all! He married Amatus Sami-Karim in 2013, and in December 2016 the couple announced the pending arrival of their first child together.

Mahershala Ali - whose name hails from the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible and is a combination of four words 'Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz' meaning 'hurry to the spoils' or 'he has made haste to the plunder'. He is also a respected rapper in the hip-hop world, and aside from big and small screen appearances has appeared in numerous stage roles in both contemporary and classic plays. Get used to the name and seeing more of Mahershala as his star continues to rise and the spotlight is turned firmly in his direction. A very Happy Birthday to you Mahershala, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-