IT : CHAPTER TWO - Tuesday 10th September 2019.

'IT : CHAPTER TWO' is Rated MA15+  and here it is - the sequel to the hugely popular and successful 'IT' supernatural horror film of 2017 based on the 1986 Stephen King novel of the same name, which I saw earlier this week. That first instalment raked in US$701M at the global Box Office off the back of a production budget of US$35M making it the highest-grossing R-Rated horror film of all-time, the highest-grossing horror film internationally and the highest-grossing horror film of all time. The film also received positive reviews, with many Critics calling it one of the best Stephen King adaptations, and along the way it picked up eight award wins and a further 43 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit. This film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles at the end of August, and went on general release in the US and here in Australia last week. Off the back of a Production Budget of circa US$70M, the film has so far grossed US$221M and has generated for the most part positive Press. Both instalments have been Directed by Argentinian Andy Muschietti.

It is 2016 and we open up at the Derry Carnival at night, with fair ground rides, side stalls and attractions aplenty to occupy anyone and everyone. At the carnival we are introduced to Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) and his boyfriend Don Hagarty (Taylor Frey) who are attacked by a group of homophobic youths on their way home. Beating the pair up on the street out of view from the general public, the youths man handle a semi-conscious Mellon over a bridge and into the fast flowing river below. Hagarty, distraught, gives chase to his struggling boyfriend only to see him rescued from the river by Pennywise, who in turn kills him. Hagarty looks on helpless and horrified from the opposite riverbank. And so, twenty-seven years after the Losers Club defeated Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard), IT returns to terrorise the town of Derry, Maine once again. Later that same night Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) overhears the incident on a Police scanner of a dismembered body found down by the riverbank, and rushes to the scene.

Mike quickly realises that 'IT' has returned. He calls the other members of the Losers Club who have now all gone their separate and independent ways and have carved out successful careers for themselves away from Derry, all except Mike who has remained in Derry throughout all the passing years. He calls Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) now a successful mystery thriller writer based in LA and married to a famous Actress; Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) now a successful stand-up comedian also based in LA; Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) now a successful architect living in Nebraska and having slimmed down and toned up from the fat kid that he was; Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) who is now a successful risk assessor working for a major firm in New York City; Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) who is now a successful accountant working in Atlanta; and Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) who has become a successful fashion designer working in Chicago. They all take Mike's call, although need prompting to remember who Mike is as most are forgetful about their childhoods and disturbed by the calls, but agree to return given that they all swore a blood oath to reunite in Derry if Pennywise ever resurfaced. Stan, however, commits suicide after his call by slashing his wrists while taking a bath at home. Without knowing of Stanley's recent death, the Losers reunite at a local Chinese restaurant in Derry and slowly begin to remember their past over a few beers and a meal together, but then become terrified by a relentless onslaught of disturbing visions and horrific taunts implanted in their sub-conscious but seemingly very real, created by IT.

Once outside the restaurant after the horrifying visions have subsided, Beverly tries to connect with Stanley only to reach his distraught wife who informs her that he committed suicide. Richie and Eddie have already seen and heard enough, and decide to leave while Mike reveals to Bill that he met with a Native American tribe who showed him a vision of IT arriving to Earth from the stars decades ago, and informed him of the 'Ritual of Chud', the means to destroy IT forever. Bill and Mike are able to convince Richie and Eddie to stay and finish what was started. Henry Bowers (Teach Grant), having survived his apparent death, had been confined to a mental hospital for killing his father and two friends back in 1989, and with the help of IT, he escapes, intent of seeing off the Losers Club finally, one by one.

For the Ritual of Chud to be successful, each Loser must find an artifact of some personal significance from their past. Beverly goes to her old home and finds the love letter Ben wrote for her, though she still believes Bill wrote it. A Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) now lives there - a seemingly sweet and gentle old lady who invites Beverly in for a nice cup of tea, but minutes later it turns out that Mrs. Kersh is anything but, as an insidious monster manifests itself and rampages through the house attacking Beverly who hallucinates other visions of Pennywise before finally escaping.

Bill meanwhile comes across a second hand shop where in the window is his old bike from when he was a kid. He goes into the store and is greeted by the shop keeper played in cameo by Stephen King who sells Bill back his bike for US$300 - steep, but as a successful author he knows that he can afford it. Bill then cycles back to his former house and goes to the storm drain where his younger brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) was killed in October 1988 and recovers his paper boat before meeting a boy named Dean (Luke Roessler), who tells Bill that he lives in Bill's old house and often hears voices coming up through the drain in the bath. 

Ben goes to the town's high school and finds his old yearbook page, which Beverly was the only person to sign. Eddie goes to a pharmacy and recovers an inhaler. Richie goes to an abandoned arcade where he finds a game token, but afterwards is confronted in the town's park by Pennywise whose taunts him with threats to reveal his dirty little secret to the world. After all have managed to evade individual encounters with IT, the Losers use a shower cap retrieved from their secret forest childhood clubhouse for Stan, and Mike finds the rock that started their fight against the Bowers gang all those years ago.

Back at the guesthouse where all but Mike are staying, Bill and Beverly share a kiss before a skateboard caked in blood and with a message written on the underside comes rolling down the staircase. Bill recognises the board from his earlier encounter with young Dean, and realises that IT is going after Dean, and chases him to the carnival in an attempt to save the boy. He sees Dean disappear into the Clown Funhouse, and into a maze of mirrors and glass panels. There he comes across Dean but on the other side of a glass panel and therefore out of reach, as Pennywise appears on the other side of Dean, also separated by a glass panel. Pennywise repeatedly slams his head against the glass panel so cracking it and so giving him access to the boy, who then devours him. 

Traumatised by his failure to save both Georgie and Dean, he returns to the run down abandoned house at 29, Neibolt Street, to murder IT alone. Bowers attacks and wounds Eddie by stabbing him in the face with his knife, but survives and in turn pulls the knife from his severely bloodied cheek and stabs Bowers in the chest. Mike is at the library waiting for the other Losers to rendezvous with him there, and is attacked by Bowers but is killed by Richie arriving just in time. The rest of the Losers depart for the Neibolt house to aid Bill, as they had always vowed to stick together to thwart IT.

Once inside the house, it is seen to have fallen further into a state of disrepair and seemingly horrors awaiting at every turn and in every decrepit room. After confronting various horrors all conjured up by IT, the group descends into an extensive cavern buried deep beneath the house and through the sewers in order to complete the Ritual. 

In forming a circle, holding hands and repeating a chant directed by Mike, the group seem to have early success, until IT reveals that he is able to withstand the Ritual, unaffected. IT takes on a giant, spider-like form with Pennywise's head, and pressures Mike into revealing to the Losers that the Natives who attempted the Ritual in the past all died in the process. 

The Losers are then all individually thrown into nightmarish scenarios that they must endure, but from which they all manage to escape from before arriving back inside the cavern from whence they came. Richie is hypnotised and elevated by IT's hypnotic 'deadlight' eyes and is about to be killed, but Eddie comes to his rescue and is immediately impaled by IT's razor sharp spider legs in the process. 

The Losers regroup and come to the realisation that IT can be killed if they stand up to IT, face their fears, show IT that they are no longer afraid and make IT feel smaller than he actually is. They surround and berate IT repeatedly with a barrage of insults making IT shrink physically and weaken mentally until they are able to tear out IT's heart and crush it so extinguishing all life from IT. At this point, the cavern begins to implode and Eddie dies from his injuries despite Richie's attempts to save him. The remaining group now need to race against time to exit the rapidly crumbling cavern and get back to the surface before it all comes crashing down around them and on top of them. They do so just about, and exit through the front door of 29, Neibolt Street, before the house collapses in on itself in a heap of old timbers and dust. 

The remaining Losers return to the quarry where they once swam together and jump in from the cliff top high above the lake to wash off the dust, the dirt, debris and blood. Sometime later, the Losers all individually receive posthumous letters from Stanley, detailing that he thought he would've held them back, but knew they could defeat IT if they were brave enough without him. Mike is seen to be packing up his belongings into his car as he decides to move out of Derry to start a new life.

Also starring as their younger selves are Jaeden Martell (aka Jaeden Lieberher) as the younger Bill,  Sophia Lillis as the younger Beverly, Jeremy Ray Taylor as the younger Ben, Finn Wolfhard as younger Richie, Chosen Jacobs as younger Mike, Jack Dylan Grazer as younger Eddie and Wyatt Oleff as younger Stanley. All those portraying their younger selves reprise their roles from the first film.

I did enjoy 'IT : Chapter Two', but not quite as much as Chapter One and felt that it meandered somewhat and at a running time of two hours and 49 minutes could have done with  little more scrutiny in the editing suite I thought. That said, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise remains as menacing and as devilishly dastardly as he did in the first instalment, and the now adult members of the Losers Club are well cast and seem to share a nervous chemistry that just heightens their on-screen presence, interspersed with flashbacks to their younger selves that serves to recapture the essence of the first film. Director Andy Muschietti doesn't hold back on the gore, the monster effects, and the horror scares that you can see coming from a mile away but still deliver the necessary jolt to maintain the interest throughout. Certainly worth the price of your movie ticket to see the conclusion to the story that comes full circle, albeit a little too long, melodramatic at times and just a tad predictable in places.

'IT : Chapter Two' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th August 2015.

These days you can pick up just about any book, magazine or social media page and there'll be the greatest, the best, the worst, the most this, that and the other of all time, to stuff you should eat, drink, go, see and listen to before you die, and just about everything in between. We seem to have an insatiable appetite for someone's else opinion of the good, the bad and the ugly in life that is rated on some kind of scale and tells us just how many and what is considered great, best, most, worst or whatever!

And so last month I read with interest such a poll of the 300 Greatest Movies Of All Time as published in a certain popular Australian movie magazine that shall go nameless, but to which I have loyally subscribed since issue #1. Of those 300 I have seen 218, all 30 out of the Top 30, and 48 out of the Top 50. I'm fascinated by this stuff which of course is just someone else's opinion, often regurgitated, who may consider themselves an authority on the subject, and which can then be sliced, diced, repackaged and churned out again for another unsuspecting reader to dive into . . . like me! It got me thinking how much people take note of such lists, but I guess it must be a lot - because the magazines sell, the books get published, people 'like' the social media commentary and another Critic, Reviewer, Author or Blogger will publish another such list tomorrow no doubt!

Speaking of which, this week ahead there are four new films with which to tempt, that include a reboot of a superhero franchise that first appeared in a two film series in 2005; then an Aussie stage play based on a true story road trip now adapted for the big screen; a RomCom of a mis-matched pair consisting a OTT party girl and her would be boyfriend; and finally a foreign language life & death drama comedy that seems to have divided audiences but is likely to provoke thought & discussion.

In the coming week when you have sat through your movie of choice, drop your like minded cinema going readers a Comment, following this or any other Post, and share your own views, opinions, observations and critique of your movie experience with Odeon Online. Enjoy your film.

FANT4STIC FOUR (Rated M) - Back in 2005 Marvel released its first 'Fantastic Four' offering as Directed by Tim Story and made for US$100M grossing US$331M. Whilst a reasonable commercial success only, it was hardly hailed as a critical one, but, nonetheless it spawned a sequel in 2007 with 'Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer' also Directed by Tim Story and made for US$130M but grossing only US290M this time around. Proving that you can do less with more, the Fantastic Foursome were mothballed as Marvel Studios, as they were to become, rolled out more & more of its rich comic catalogue, developed new franchises based on its source material, got bigger and better at it and raked in mega-bucks along the way! Which brings us up to 2015 and those fantastic guys have been bought out of retirement in a reboot costing US$122M with Josh Trank in the Director chair.

You know the story here but in case you don't, essentially four mere humans are thrust together and end up teleporting to a alternate universe (as you do!) and in so doing so have their physical form altered and new weird wonderful and wild powers and abilities bestowed upon them. Upon returning to life as the know it they discover their new found powers and so have to learn to control them and harness them as they are pitched against an old friend turned foe who threatens to bring our little green & blue planet to its knees! Starring Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, Kate Mara as Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, with Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/Thing and Toby Kebbell as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom. With this first retelling already generating a sufficient amount of pre-release buzz, the sequel has been announced for June 9th 2017, and with Marvel's track record since that 2007 film there is little doubt that this will be a success. Fantastic!

TRAINWRECK (Rated MA15+) - Directed and Produced by Judd Apatow, this film was Written by, and Stars Amy Schumer as Amy Townsend a thirty something magazine writer who lives an over the top existence of men, booze, parties, promiscuity and complete lack of commitment to just about anything & everything. It is what her Dad told her 25 years earlier and the ongoing philosophy by which she has lived her life. Working at S'Nuff Mens Magazine she is tasked by her Boss, Dianna (Tilda Swinton) that she needs to write an article on a well known Sports Doctor, Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), even though she knows nothing about sports, doctors and doesn't want the gig! She has to go along with it and while interviewing the Doctor, researching her piece for the article and getting to know Conners she finds herself unwittingly falling for the guy (horror of horrors, what's a girl to do?) It seems also that the feeling is mutual and Conners is attracted to Townsend too. As time progresses and the couple realise they have much in common Townsend comes to learn that maybe the whole commitment thing isn't so bad after all and maybe it's time to get serious about being serious!

LAST CAB TO DARWIN (Rated M) - Originally a stage play released in 2003 under the same name, this big screen adaptation of the Reg Cribb story is based on the true life of taxi driver Max Bell who in the early 90's was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and chose to drive from Broken Hill in New South Wales to Darwin in the Northern Territory so he could end his life there by voluntary euthanasia. Here our taxi driver is called Rex and is played by Michael Caton who embarks on this epic road trip to end it all on his own terms and with some dignity still intact, but along his journey up to Darwin he learns a lot about himself and others, and that dying is as much about living as it is about sharing and caring. Also starring Jacki Weaver as Dr. Farmer and Directed by Jeremy Sims.

THE FAREWELL PARTY (Rated M) - Coincidentally another offering tackling the touchy subject of euthanasia, but this time set in an Jerusalem aged care facility where the residents have secretly built a device to allow the user to self-euthanise, which they intend to allow a terminally ill dear & close friend use. However, as more & more people become aware of the machine, so demand for its use increases, and so the group of friends have to deal with the decisions this forces them into, and the emotional upheaval that goes with this territory. Directed and Written by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon this film stars local talent Ze'ev Revach as Yehezkel and Levana Finkelstein as Levana as ageing husband and wife team, and has so far picked up nine award wins and a further eleven nominations. This poignant dark comedy is a tale of compassion, friendship, love, loss and deciding when it's time to call it a day!

Four to choose from, and I'm not sure they're all fantastic but with two treading a similar pathway, another off the rails and the last off the planet there is choice it must be said that will give you something to ponder, something to discuss and debate, something to escape into and something that you may want to 'snog, marry, avoid'! Whatever you select for your filmic enjoyment in the week ahead, share your thoughts and maybe add another to your own list of movie recommendations as you compile you own 300 Best, Biggest, Baddest and Boldest films in the known universe stretching out to infinity and beyond!

See you at the Odeon!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 25th September 2014.

After last weeks dearth of new releases - seven no less - comes another raft of new cinema content during the Aussie school holiday season with five new films to tease you out on a Spring evening into a darkened movie theatre with a bunch of popcorn chewing fizz slurping strangers. Sounds like fun . . . and indeed it will be, with the big screen rendering of a popular 80's TV revenge and retribution action series made famous by a stoic Edward Woodward in the title role back in the day; then we have estranged twins dodging death coincidentally and pondering their life and where/how and why it all went horribly wrong - sounds like a laugh and it might well be! Next up is an Aussie sex-romp charting the bedroom Olympic antics of five couples that is funny, controversial, scandalous and weird and is likely to polarise audiences because of its revealing at times taboo subject matter. Then we have a bungled kidnapping and a ransom refused because of a pending divorce and all the table turning hilarious fallout as a result; and to close out the week a foreign language coming of age story of two young teenage girls set amidst the backdrop of a newly independent state in the early 1990's.

Get out amongst it this week to your local independent or multiplex theatre, and when you've sat through your big screen entertainment, record your thoughts in the Comments section following this article, or a Review, and let me, and my other Reader know what you think! Enjoy the movie!

THE EQUALIZER (Rated MA15+) - 'The Equalizer' TV Series upon which this film is based ran for 88 episodes from mid-1985 through to mid-1989 and starred veteran actor Edward Woodward as Robert McCall - a former covert operations officer turned 'Equalizer' to protect the innocent, downtrodden and needy who are suffering at the hands of low life crims, organised crime, and the unscrupulous underworld of a late 80's New York City.

Fast forward to 2014 and Director Antoine Fuqua has once again teamed up with Denzel Washington to bring this popular 80's TV series to the big screen. Washington is Robert McCall a former black-ops Commando this time around, who having faked his own death is now leading a quite life in Boston. minding his own business, and trying to forget his violent turbulent past. Armed with a unique set of combat skills and a heap of experience he comes to the rescue to young Teri (Chloe Grace-Moretz) who is under the control of Russian gangsters and mobsters, as he can't simply sit-by and let her life go down to the toilet. And so McCall comes out of exile and self-imposed retirement to equalise the odds of the innocent, downtrodden and needy by doing what he does best, and dishing out his own brand of justice, mixed up with just a hint of vengeance! As the 80's show told us - if someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have no where else to turn, then you can call 'The Equalizer'!

THE SKELETON TWINS (Rated M) - twins Milo (Bill Hader) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig) have been estranged from each other for ten years or so, having been very close and almost inseparable as children. Coincidentally they both manage to cheat death on the same day and this together with other family circumstances reunite them once again at the family home in up-State New York - now both in their thirties. Milo is a struggling no-hope actor with little prospects on the horizon and Maggie a secretly unhappy wife who is barley keeping mind and soul together despite a loving husband. Milo seeks to rekindle a long-lost relationship with Rich (Ty Burrell) - a scandal that back in the day caused the rift between brother and sister. Maggie meanwhile fraternises with Aussie SCUBA instructor hunk Billy (Boyd Holbrook) potentially threatening her marriage. As the twins reunite and relive the painful memories of the past whilst confronting the confusion of the present day, their relationship is tested as they seek to make excuses for their past acts and reconcile their previous behaviours. Understanding this though and acknowledging their mistakes may be the only way they can truly move forward and re-establish the close brother and sister bond they once shared.

THE LITTLE DEATH (Rated MA15+) - another Aussie offering this week - this time from first time Director Josh Lawson who also wrote and stars. This is a film of relationships, sex, love, fantasy and fetish and what goes on behind the bedroom door. With the spotlight on the sexual shenanigans of five couples all living in the same street it peers into the often taboo subject of sex and the things people get up to to satisfy their sexual appetite, and the potential ramifications of it. Interwoven in the story is the new neighbour who somehow connects them all while asking us the question why we do what we do, and just how far are we prepared to go to get it for a few brief fleeting moments of sexual satisfaction? Also starring familiar faces including Lachy Hulme, Lisa McCune and Patrick Brammall this original comedy will leave you pondering the nature of its taboo subject matter.

LIFE OF CRIME (Rated MA15+) - based on an Elmore Leonard book this black comedy centres around two petty crims who decide to kidnap the wife of wealthy socialite Detroit property developer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) and seek a hefty ransom. In masterminding their get rich quick kidnapping scam to snaffle Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston) and demand $1M for her release, they don't bank on nefarious husband Frank refusing to pay because he doesn't want her back, and besides he has a Mistress on the side and is about to file for divorce anyway! And so our crims need to quickly rethink their scheme and come up with Plan B to turn the tables, bring down the cheating husband, and take him for all they can - this time though aided and abetted by a somewhat annoyed and angry wife! Also starring Mos Def, Isla Fisher, Mark Boone Jnr., and John Hawkes this is Directed by Daniel Schecter.

IN BLOOM (Rated M) - set in Tiblisi in the early 90's, this film tells the coming of age story of two teens girls Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria) with the backdrop of Georgia and their beautiful but increasingly run down city - newly independent from Russia and on the brink of civil unrest with all the uncertainty, fear and dread that this in turn creates. Their lives contrast each other but what goes on at home behind closed family doors has little consequence when compared to the adventure of boys, the big city, a new state of independence and their lives about to spring into bloom. When handsome young lad Lado gets to know Natia and gifts her a pistol with which to protect herself, the ramifications of this on both teenage lives will test the relationship and potentially change their young lives for ever. A multi-award winning film at various international film festivals, and nominated at this years Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film this film is touted as compelling viewing based on the real life childhood experiences of writer and co-Director Nana Ekvtimishvili.

And so there it is - five film offerings to tempt and tease your movie going tastebuds, but not so much for the kids this week! Nonetheless there is still plenty of great content doing the rounds from previous weeks to ensure that all tastes and genres are provided for.

Get amongst it - go see a movie!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-