PATRIOTS DAY : Tuesday 14th February 2017.

'PATRIOTS DAY' is another real life dramatic thriller Co-Written for the screen and Directed by Peter Berg who also brought us last years 'Deepwater Horizon' and 'Lone Survivor' in 2013 which both also starred, like this offering, his go to actor for playing the uniformed ordinary everyman caught up in extraordinary circumstances - Mark Wahlberg. Based on the book 'Boston Strong' by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge this tells the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Costing US$45M to make the film has so far recovered US$38M since its US release at Christmas time. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews from critics and film goers alike.

The film opens up with Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) busting down a door with his leg to get to a drug dealer inside a seedy downtown apartment. The bust goes according to plan, except that Saunders has hyper-extended his leg and now walks with a limp and a knee brace for the rest of the film. Immediately following the bust his superior officer, Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) arrives and orders that Saunders reports for Marathon Supervision duties the next day wearing his Police Uniform. He tries to argue back but is quickly brought down a peg by Davis reminding him of some earlier misdemeanour for which he is serving out time on dead beat duties, and tomorrow is his last day of servitude and then he has a clean slate again thereafter. He arrives back home in the early hours of the morning having had a few beers with the boys, wakes his wife Carol (Michelle Monaghan) who dismisses him, and settles onto the sofa with another beer - he has to be up for Marathon duty in less than five hours. The next day, April 15th 2013, with his Police Uniform neatly pressed and high viz jacket on, the pair kiss and bid their farewells.

The next day cuts to an apartment where radical Islam brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) are making final preparations for a bomb attack on the Boston Marathon. Using home made devises loaded with all manner of harm inflicting shrapnel, they load the improvised explosive devices into two back-packs and make off for their destination. We trace their journey to the proximity of the finish line, negotiating their way through the crowds of onlookers and revellers out enjoying the Patriots Day public holiday. They weave in and out of spectators young and old, security personnel, Police, and other officials and then lay their back packs at their feet, turn around and depart from whence they came. No one suspects a thing. Pacing up and down the street meanwhile is Tommy Saunders taking it all in and sharing a joke with his on-duty fellow Police Officers. Then boom, as an explosion rips through the crowd just a block away quickly followed by another with smoke billowing out from the side of the street close to the finish line.

With widespread panic all around, Saunders and his fellow Officers are close at hand to issue orders, call in all necessary emergency support and provide assistance to the injured. It's a scene of carnage as the low positioned bombs radiated out their deadly shrapnel on most victims from the waist down. There are badly lacerated legs, ankles and feet, and severed lower limbs lying on the blood soaked pavement - it's a picture of death and destruction. We follow ambulance crews and paramedics attending to the injured and needy and then move to several hospitals where emergency surgery is being performed to amputate legs - on young husband and wife Patrick Downes (Christopher O'Shea) and Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) separated after the blast and taken unconscious to separate hospitals.

Quickly afterwards various law enforcement authorities began to gather at the scene while the emergency services go about their business. With Saunders giving orders to his fellow Police Officers on the ground, so arrives Commissioner Ed Davis, with FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) who survey the fall out and determine if this was a terrorist attack. Upon initial inspection DesLauriers is uncertain, but his mind is soon made up when he picks up a cluster of small blood soaked ball bearings. At this point DesLauriers assumes command and is in charge of operations. For now though he places a widespread embargo on any communication with the press or the media about a possible terrorist attack pending investigations and to avoid the news frenzy associated with acts of terror, especially on American soil.

Within no time a Command Centre is established in an abandoned warehouse where all manner of technological hardware, state of the art software, a reconstruction of the street scape and blast zone, and a whole army of analysts, surveillance experts and officials are mobilised to track down whoever did this. They begin by tapping into every camera lining the streets and those inside shops, cafes, bars and restaurants; using all the abandoned mobile phones from the scene and scanning text messages, photos and videos; and talking to witnesses at the scene, including those hospitalised. Saunders goes home to his wife, emotionally distraught at the sights he has witnessed over the preceding fourteen hours or so. In no time however, he receives a call to come into the Command Centre. There Saunders knowledge of the city and camera locations is put to the test as a person of interest is identified from the footage of the blast zone immediately before the explosions. Tracking the suspects possible whereabouts they trace back his journey in an attempt to get a clear photograph of the individual and any accomplice. It's not long before they do!

With clear photos of the two suspected bombers DesLauriers remains reluctant to go to the press without further hard evidence, but is hand is forced when Fox News announces that they have leaked photos of the suspects that they are going to release on their news channels soon. With photos of the perpetrators out there on all the news channels, the authorities hope that the people of Boston will come forward with information leading to a prompt capture . . . but it doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, the Tsarnaev brothers attempt to lay low while preparing for their next attack - in New York, but they have to get there first. They load up a car with their makeshift explosive devices in two boxes, and head out late at night. They need another weapon with which to protect themselves and so happen upon young Police Officer Sean Collier (Jake Picking) who is on night watch at a University Campus. They ambush him at gun point in his parked patrol car and shoot him twice in the face and attempt to steal his Police issue weapon, but Collier fights back from his drivers seat but is eventually overpowered with several more rounds shot into him at point blank range.

On the outskirts of the Campus, texting while parked in his new Mercedes SUV, Chinese student Dung Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) is car jacked by the two brothers and held captive at gun point. It is now 18th April, late at night, and the brothers brag to their captive that it was they who committed the Boston Marathon bombing and intend to do so again in New York. Meng is fearful for his life at the hands of the two bombers who now have him captive in his own car en route to New York. At a petrol station where the brothers stop to refill for fuel and food, Meng spies his chance to make a bolt for it and does so across the street into a convenience store and immediately calls the Police crouched behind the cashiers desk.

Saunders arrives at the scene and meets with Meng who, in his panicked pigeon English, reveals what the bombers said to him, and the number of his cars GPS tracking device so that they can follow the Mercedes. In Watertown the Mercedes is tracked down to a side street and a passing Police patrol car recognises the vehicle from the alert put out and goes in pursuit. The Mercedes is parked up in a quiet side street, that is about to turn very bloody and very noisy as an all out gun battle ensues between the two armed brothers and the gathering Police force including Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K.Simmons). The brothers also use their stash of homemade bombs and in the ensuing firefight several Police Officers are injured, vehicles trashed, but Tamerlan is shot by Pugliese and then ran over by his brother who makes his getaway in the Mercedes. Tamerlan dies on the operating table a short time afterwards in the hospital from his wounds.

The next day the decision is made to lock down the city completely with a house to house search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Saunders is back on the beat aiding the house to house investigations with the full force of the Police, and the military, as marshall law is declared temporarily and for the safety of Boston's citizens. A local man discovers someone hiding under the protective sheet covering his motor cruiser boat, and blood stains at the entry point at the boats rear. He calls the authorities, who converge on the property with Saunders and a colleague being the first to arrive at the scene. It's not long before the might of Uncle Sam reins down on the occupant of the boat who is indeed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is promptly arrested after a brief stand-off, and the closing credits reveal that he is sentenced to death by lethal injection and is still awaiting an appeal in federal prison.

I enjoyed 'Patriots Day' and felt it was respectful to those that died and were injured in the attack, and the authorities, first responders, survivors and investigators who all played a part in the concerted effort to bring the Tsarnaev brothers to justice as quickly as they did. The film has clearly been meticulously researched and is professionally played out without over dramatising the events or glamourising the subsequent manhunt. This is a procedural Police investigative story that holds true to the timeline, and is told from several different perspectives splicing actual footage from the event into the film that adds authenticity to the suspense and the drama of one of the most sophisticated and celebrated manhunts in history that helped reunite the people of Boston.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 2nd February 2017.

Moving right along with the film and television awards season this year, Sunday evening 29th January saw the announcements of the 23rd annual edition of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Held at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California during a two-hour ceremony, Awards in six film and nine television categories were given. Unlike other awards shows like the Oscars and Golden Globes, this one does not have a host, which helps it move along more swiftly. From the world of film the winners and grinners were :

* Outstanding performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role : Denzel Washington for 'FENCES' (released in Australia on 9th February)
* Outstanding performance by an Female Actor in a Lead Role : Emma Stone for 'LA LA LAND'
* Outstanding performance by an Male Actor in a Support Role : Mahershala Ali for 'MOONLIGHT'
* Outstanding performance by a Female Actor in a Support Role : Viola Davis for 'FENCES' (released in Australia on 9th February)
* Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture : 'HIDDEN FIGURES' (released in Australia on 16th February)
* Outstanding action performance by a cast in a motion picture : 'HACKSAW RIDGE'
* The Lifetime Achievement Award : Lily Tomlin.

This week there are just three new filmic offerings coming your way that start off with a critically acclaimed film of grief, loss and suffering as old wounds are re-opened in this small coastal community. We then turn to a real life and very recent terror attack staged during a community event and the aftermath as the antagonists were brought to account and that affected community came together again, stronger, united and more resilient than ever. We then wrap up with an '80's era tale of geologists, gold and greed as a down on his luck prospector hits pay dirt in the jungles of Borneo and has to fend off the power brokers in the jungles of Wall Street.

As is generally the way, when you have sat through your movie of choice in the week ahead, you are cordially invited to leave your own summary of your movie going observations, thoughts and opinions by posting your relevant, pertinent and brief Comment below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your film, wherever you might be.

'MANCHESTER BY THE SEA' (Rated MA15+) - Written and Directed by Kenneth Lonergan, Co-Produced by Matt Damon and Starring Casey Affleck in an award winning turn, this feature costing just US$8.5M to make has gained universal acclaim, brought in over US$43M since its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and subsequent tour around the festival circuit before its release Stateside at the end of November last year. The film has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and three Best Actor nods for its three lead players (Affleck, Williams and Hedges), plus six BAFTA's nominations. Casey Affleck won the Best Actor Golden Globe for his lead performance, and it has accumulated a further 93 wins and 194 nominations, with the Oscar and BAFTA winners & grinners yet to be announced of course. Manchester-by-the-Sea is a real place by the way, located in Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts with a population of just over five thousand and just 40kms northeast of Boston.

In a career defining performance the film centres around Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) who works as a janitor in an apartment block in Boston. He's quiet, reserved, goes about his business by day and picks fights in bars by night. One day he receives a phone call from a family friend advising that brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has suffered a heart attack. Before Lee can get to the hospital, Joe dies. Lee then travels to his home town of Manchester-by-the Sea to give the news of Joe's passing to his sixteen year old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). In returning to Manchester however, Lee must face the memories of an even greater loss that threaten to re-open even greater wounds of a personal tragedy that he thought were behind him, and in so doing might just tip him over the edge forever. Michelle Williams also stars as Randi - Lee's former now re-married wife. Masterfully Directed, gracefully acted this is a film of sadness, loss, grief, self-loathing and suffering and how it impacts everyday folk in a small seaside community.

'PATRIOTS DAY' (Rated M) - this film is another real life dramatic thriller Co-Written for the screen and Directed by Peter Berg who also brought us last years 'Deepwater Horizon' which also starred, like this offering, his go to actor for playing the ordinary everyman caught up in extraordinary circumstances - Mark Wahlberg. Based on the book 'Boston Strong' by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge this tells the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Costing US$45M to make the film has so far recovered US$32M since its US release at Christmas time. April 2013, and during the annual Boston Marathon two bombs are detonated in the crowd of onlookers causing widespread chaos and panic. In the aftermath of the attack Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg), Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) and FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) join forces with survivors, other investigators and those first on the scene for the manhunt to bring the perpetrators to justice before they strike again. Also starring J.K.Simmons as Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese, and Michelle Monaghan as Carol Saunders. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews.

'GOLD' (Rated M) - Directed and Co-Written by Stephen Gaghan, Co-Produced and starring Matthew McConaughey, and a strong supporting cast, this film had a limited release in the US on  December 30th before its wider release this week. Set in the 1980's, down on his luck and desperate prospector Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) teams up with geologist Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) to search for a hidden seam of gold deep within the Indonesian jungle of Borneo. They eventually hit gold, and the biggest strike of the decade that seems easy work compared to keeping hold of their new found wealth when the Wall Street power brokers begin to circle wanting a piece of the action. Also starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, Craig T. Nelson and Rachel Taylor. McConaughey for his role transformed himself once again with a pot belly, balding comb over and crooked teeth - a sight to behold . . . let's hope it's not 'Fool's Gold'!

With three big pictures to tempt you out on a hot Summer day or night sometime in the week ahead, together with those still doing the rounds and out on general release as Reviewed and Previewed between these humble pages in previous weeks, you really don't need any excuse! Get amongst it at your local multiplex, and I'll see you sometime, somewhere in the coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-