What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 25th May 2023.

The 63rd Krakow Film Festival kicks off this Sunday 28th May and runs through until Sunday 4th 
June in Krakow, the second largest city in Poland. The Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest events in the world dedicated to documentary, animated and short feature films. At its core it consists of three competitions of equal rank - documentary film competition, short film competition and national competition. During the eight festival days, the viewers have a chance to watch about 200 films from Poland and around the world. They are shown in competition sections and in special screenings. The festival is accompanied by exhibitions, concerts, open-air shows and meetings with artists. Every year, the festival is visited by approximately 900 Polish and international guests, including Directors, Producers, festival programmers and many dignitaries making up the audience. The importance of the Krakow Film Festival is asserted by the fact that it belongs to a prestigious group of festivals accredited by, among others, International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), European Film Academy (EFA) and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) - so reads the official website.

This year’s programme features over 190 films from around the world, including one hundred World and Polish Premieres.

The International Documentary Competition consists of fifteen films which will be competing for the Golden Horn and Silver Horns which opens the way to the European Film Awards and Oscars. They focus on anxieties of the contemporary world and revisit landmark historical events, family secrets and deeply hidden, systemic omissions. They show people without prospects and heroes of our times, inhabitants of metropolises and remote villages, little joys and the toil of creation, a life to be lived and a life as a monument. Using archival photographs and material, the filmmakers turned fascinating fiction into a documentary form. The selection features comics and crime fiction, family drama, social cinema and the terrifying shadow of the war in Ukraine.

In brief, those titles are as follows :-

* 'Dreaming Arizona' - from Denmark, Estonia and Norway and Directed and Written by Jon Bang Carlsen. 

* 'Is There Anybody Out There?' - from the UK and Directed by Ella Glendining.

* 'Lazaro and the Shark : Cuba under the Surface' - from Cuba and the USA and Directed and Written by William Sabourin O'Reilly.

* 'Motherland' - from Sweden, Ukraine and Norway and Directed and Written by Alexander Mihalkovich (who also Co-Produces) and Hanna Badziaka (who also Co-Edits).

* 'Much Ado about Dying' - from Ireland and the UK and Directed, Written, Co-Produced and photographed by Simon Chambers.

* 'My Name Is Happy' - from the UK and Turkey and Directed by Nick Read (who also Co-Produces) and Ayse Toprak.

* 'Radical Move' - from Poland and Directed and Written by Aniela Gabryel.

* 'Signs of War' - from Ukraine and Austria and Directed by Juri Rechinsky (who also wrote the script, Edited and Co-Produces) and Pierre Crom (who also Co-Produces).

* 'Silent House' - from Iran, Qatar, Canada and the Philippines and Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Farnaz Jurabchian and Mohammadreza Jurabchian.

* 'Songs of Earth' - from Norway and Directed and Produced by Margreth Olin.

* 'The Dmitriev Affair' - from the Netherlands and Directed, Written and co-photographed by Jessica Gorter.

* 'The Hostage Takers' - from Denmark and Directed by Puk Damsgaard and Soren Klovborg (who also Produces).

* 'The Land You Belong' - from Italy and Romania and Directed and Co-Written by Elena Rebeca Carini.

* 'Unpaved' - from Poland and Directed, Written and photographed by Mikael Lypinski.

* 'Who I Am Not' - from Romania and Canada and Directed by Tunde Skovran.

For the full synopsis of the above mentioned documentary films, plus the full details of the thirty-seven films in International Short Film Competition, the forty-one films in the National Competition and the ten films in the International DocFilmMusic Competition, together with the other ninety-six films in the ever-popular screenings sections of non-competing films dedicated to various themes, you can go to the official website at : https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/

Turning the attention then back to this weeks five new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, we kick off with a comedy horror offering that sees Dracula's henchman and inmate at the lunatic asylum for decades, longing for a life away from the Count, his various demands, and all of the bloodshed that comes with them. Next up we have a live action remake of an animated Disney classic that has a young mermaid making a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince. Then we turn to a French film that follows a novelist who attends the trial of Senegalese woman at Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, but things don't go as expected. This is followed by a RomCom about a couple in a relationship, who decide to invite their parents to finally meet about marriage, but as it turns out the parents already know one another well, which leads to some differing opinions about marriage; and closing out the week we have an action comedy that has the past coming back to haunt this pervious party animal when a murderous mobster tries to kidnap him to atone for his crimes of twenty years ago when he was a drunken student in Russia. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 coming week.

'RENFIELD' (Rated MA15+) - this American comedy horror film is Co-Produced and Directed by Chris McKay whose previous feature film making outings are his debut with 'The Lego Batman Movie' 2017 and 'The Tomorrow War' in 2021. This film is based on a story by Robert Kirkman of the hugely popular 'The Walking Dead' and 'Fear the Walking Dead' TV series among others, and he also serves as Co-Producer on this film, which is also inspired by characters from the 1897 novel 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker. The film had its World Premiere showcasing at the Overlook Film Festival at the end of March this year and was released in the US in mid-April, having generated mixed reviews from critics and so far grossing US$25M off the back of a US$65M production budget. 

Set in the present day, Count Dracula's loyal servant R. M. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is the tortured aide to history's most narcissistic boss, Dracula (Nicolas Cage). Renfield is forced to procure his master's prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there's a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency. Also starring Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz and Adrian Martinez. 

'THE LITTLE MERMAID' (Rated M) - is an American musical fantasy film Co-Produced and Directed by Rob Marshall whose prior feature film making credits take in his debut with the multi-award winning 'Chicago' in 2002, then 'Memoirs of a Geisha' in 2005, 'Nine' in 2009, 'Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides' in 2011, 'Into the Woods' in 2014 and 'Mary Poppins Returns' in 2018. This film is Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 animated film of the same name, itself loosely based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same title by Hans Christian Andersen. Ariel (Halle Bailey), the youngest daughter of the kingdom Atlantica's ruler King Triton (Javier Bardem), is fascinated with the human world but mermaids are strictly forbidden to explore it. After saving Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck and falling in love with him, she becomes determined to be with him in the world above water. These actions lead to a confrontation with her father and an encounter with the conniving sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), making a deal with her to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress Eric. However, this ultimately places her life (and her father’s crown) in jeopardy. Also starring Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina and Art Malik, the film saw its World Premier in LA in early May and is released Stateside this week too.

'SAINT OMER' (Rated M) - this French legal drama film is is Co-Written and Directed by Alice Diop in her feature film making debut after helming a series of documentary films since 2005. Rama (Kayije Kagame), a literature professor and novelist, travels from Paris to Saint-Omer in northern France to observe the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) and write about the case. Coly is a student and Senegalese immigrant accused of leaving her fifteen-month-old daughter on a beach to be swept away by the tide in Berck. Rama, who is four-months pregnant herself and, like Coly, is in a mixed-race relationship and also has a complex relationship with her own Senegalese immigrant mother, feels a personal connection to Coly. She plans to write a modern day retelling of the Greek Medea myth about the case. The film is based on the French court case of Fabienne Kabou, who was convicted of the same crime, and which Diop attended her trial in 2016 and became 'obsessed' by it. The film has collected eighteen award wins and a further forty-two nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit, following its World Premier screening in-competition at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award. It was released in its native France towards the end of November, has so far grossed just US$823K at the Box Office but has received universal critical acclaim. 

'MAYBE I DO' (Rated M) - is an American RomCom Written and Directed by Michael Jacobs in his feature film making debut, and is based on his own 1977 play 'Cheaters'. Here, Michelle (Emma Roberts) and Allen (Luke Bracey) have reached the point in their relationship to take the next steps toward marriage. Thinking it is a good idea to invite their parents to finally meet, they set a dinner and make it a family affair. To everyone's surprise, the affair takes on a whole new meaning as the parents already know each other all too well -- they've been cheating on their spouses for months... with each other. Trapped in this precarious predicament, they try to hide their dalliances from the kids while confronting their spouses' lovers head-on. Starring Diane Keaton and Richard Gere as Michelle's parents and Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy as Allen's parents. The film was released in the US at the end of January and has so far grossed US$4.3M and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. 

'THE MACHINE' (Rated MA15+) - this American action comedy film is Co-Produced and Directed by Peter Atencio whose first feature film credit was 2010's 'The Rig' followed by 'Keanu' in 2016 and now this offering although he has notched up thirty Directorial credits mostly on TV series and short films. This film is inspired by the 2016 stand-up routine of the same name created by American stand-up comedian, podcaster, reality television host and actor Bert Kreischer, who also stars as a fictionalised version of himself. Here then Bert Kreischer and his estranged father Albert Kreischer (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped by those Bert wronged some twenty years ago while drunk on a college semester abroad in Russia. Together, Bert and his father must retrace the steps of his younger self (Jimmy Tatro) in the midst of a war within a sociopathic crime family, all while attempting to find common ground in their often fraught relationship. The film is released Stateside this week too. 

With five new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 30th March 2017.

With the release of 'The Lego Batman Movie' this week, it may come as a surprise to some that Lego have in fact been producing films and television series for a good number of years now. Lego officially broke into the movie making business back in 2003 with a series of films based on their 'Bionicle' range at first in conjunction with Miramax for the initial trilogy, and then with Universal for a reboot. After four films in the 'Bionicle' franchise between 2003 and 2009, Lego followed this up with their first feature length CGI animated adventure comedy 'Lego : The Adventures of Clutch Powers' which spawned a mini-sequel and a short film. In 2005 Lego capitalised upon their tie in with the Star Wars franchise with a number of short films and television specials, which has so far yielded ten such stories right up to 2016. Since 2013 there have also been a range of seven Lego Superhero films based on the DC Universe mostly featuring Batman, and the Justice League, with two short 22 minute films featuring our friends from the Marvel Universe too. The Lego Ninjago series has been hugely popular in its television series format running for six years so far over 64 episodes to date with a full length feature offering due later in 2017. In the meantime there has also been 'The Hero Factory' series, 'Lego Scooby-Doo' series and the 'Lego Friends' series and other one offs based on popular films and television series including Monty Python's Holy Grail, Indiana Jones, Jurassic World, Atlantis, and The Simpsons. In collaboration with Warner Animation Group Lego have so far released the hugely successful 'The Lego Movie' in 2014, 'The Lego Batman Movie' this year and as Previewed below, with 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' due in November, and with 'The Lego Movie Sequel' and 'The Billion Brick Race' both in development for 2019.

Turning form CGI driven animated interlocking bricks to the coming week, we have five new cinematic releases that offer a high octane Sci-Fi actioner set in a Japan of the near future and based on a cyber manga franchise now approaching thirty years old. We then have a small interconnecting bricks DC character inspired film about Gotham City's finest Superhero going head to head and brick to brick with his arch nemesis and just about every other arch criminal from popular culture you care to remember; before moving onto two critically acclaimed Foreign Language Film offerings that were both up for the Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Oscar Awards Ceremony - one from Denmark and a true account of young German POW forced to clean up their own mess in a small corner of Denmark immediately following the end of the war, and the second from Sweden about a grumpy old man. We then wrap up with an animated reboot of little blue and white critters who have been going strong for fifty years or so and whose latest adventure takes them on a journey of discovery, secrets and danger.

When you have sat through any one of these films as Previewed below, or those as Reviewed and Previewed amongst these previous Blog pages, be sure to leave your valued, constructive and relevant feedback, by leaving your movie going thoughts and opinions in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your film in the coming week.

'GHOST IN THE SHELL' (Rated M) -  is a Japanese media franchise that had it origins way back in 1989, having been published as a series of comics aimed squarely at the youth and more mature male market written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow which is the pen name for manga artist Masanori Ota whose works under this title have subsequently led to two theatrical anime movies, two anime television series, an anime television movie, a theatrical live action movie, and several video games. The original premise told of the fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation Public Security Section 9 (a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives) led by protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi in mid-21st Century Japan. Here, computer technology has advanced to the point where many members of the public possess cyberbrains, technology that allows them to interface their biological brain with a variety of networks. The level of cyberization varies from basic minimal interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic components, in cases of severe trauma. This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body enabling a person to become a cyborg. Major Motoko Kusanagi, is such a cyborg, having had a terrible accident as a child that ultimately required her to use a full-body prosthesis to house her cyberbrain.

With that lesson over, this live action version finally hits our screens this week after some time of dazzling Previews. Directed by Rupert Sanders in only his second feature film outing after 2012's 'Snow White and the Huntsman', this film adaptation centres around Major (Scarlett Johansson) - the first of a kind cyber-enhanced human who has been perfectly engineered to be the prefect soldier who exists only to stop the world's most dangerous notorious criminals. With technology reaching new heights that allows terrorists to hack into  the minds of the people and ultimately take control of them, the Major is best qualified to stop them. As Major steps up to the plate to vanquish her dastardly foe, she learns that she has been lied to and everything about her life is not as she was led to believe - that she was not saved and made in to what she is today, but rather her life was stolen! She will stop at nothing therefore to recover her past and stop those responsible before others befall the same fate. Also starring Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche, Takeshi Kitano and Pilou Asbaek.

'THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE' (Rated PG) - featuring an all star voice cast this film is a spin off from the hugely successful 2014 'The Lego Movie' which took a cool US$470M from its US$60M production budget. This instalment is Directed by Chris McKay on a budget of US$80M and has so far grossed US$293M since its US release in early February. Here the story centres around Bruce Wayne (aka Batman, aka the voice of Will Arnett) who is living the reclusive life in his mansion with his Butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes). When he's not fighting crime, his arch nemesis The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) musters up all the super crims he can possibly round up to thwart Gotham City's Batman once and for all. Meanwhile new Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) suggests to the Batman that he should take on a closer working relationship with the local city law enforcement authorities. Following some sort of misunderstanding Wayne inadvertently adopts orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) and so it boils down to Wayne, Grayson, Alfred and Gordon to save Gotham from the Joker and his army of  super villains. Also starring the voice talents of Eddie Izzard, Seth Green, Zoe Kravitz, Mariah Carey,  Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Adam DeVine and Billy Dee Williams amongst others. 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' is due for release at the back end of 2017, with a sequel to this film already announced for an early 2019 release.

'LAND OF MINE' (Rated MA15+) - this Danish/German Co-production had its Premier at TIFF in September 2015, and was released in its native Denmark in early December 2015. Only now does this highly acclaimed foreign language offering arrive into Australian cinema's off the back of 26 award wins and nineteen further nominations including a Best Foreign Language Film nod at this years recent Academy Awards. Telling the true WWII story of the days immediately after the surrender of Germany in May 1945 when a group of about 2,000 German Prisoners of War were handed over to Danish authorities and sent out to the west coast where they were forced to clear up to two million land mines buried in the sand along the coastal beaches there by the Germans when they occupied the country. Many were teenagers and all were ill equipped to get down on their hands and knees and carry out such dangerous work. One such group under the unscrupulous supervision of Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen (Roland Moller) did it tough with his unrelenting unsympathetic views towards his former occupiers. Many lost their lives in doing so. As the days and weeks pass by, Rasmussen however, grows more and more conflicted in his feelings towards the young lads under his charge - especially, one, the protective and natural leader of the group Sebastian Schumann (Louis Hofmann). A tale of tragedy, tension, compassion and the human spirit as Directed and Written by Martin Zandvliet, this film cost US$5.2M to make and has so far grossed US$2.2M.

'A MAN CALLED OVE' (Rated M) - another Best Foreign Language Film nominee at this years Academy Awards was this Swedish comedy drama film Written and Directed by Hannes Holm and based on the 2012 book of the same name by Fredrik Backman. Released in its native Sweden at Christmas time 2015, this film only now too has a limited release in Australia, but being the recipient of thirteen award wins and another 22 nominations, may be well worth hunting out. Telling the story of Ove (Rolf Lassgard), a grumpy, ill tempered, opinionated and isolated retiree who spends his time  enforcing the rules and regulations around the residential estate where he lives, and visiting the graveyard of his dearly beloved wife. When he finally decides to check out by his own hand, he quickly comes to realise that suicide is not a easy as he thought, and to make matters worse when new neighbours move in next door, an unlikely friendship unfolds that gives the grumpy old man a different perspective on life. The film has so far taken US$26M at the Box Office.

'SMURFS : THE LOST VILLAGE' (Rated G) - the Smurfs date back to the late 1950's in French/Belgian comics, and in the last sixty of so years the Smurfs have evolved to take in animated feature films, television series, video games, music recordings, merchandise, theme park rides, and even 'Smurfs on Ice' (not the illicit type either, although . . . !) As recently as 2011 there have been what was originally said to be a trilogy of films from Sony Pictures Animation launching with the live action/CGI offering 'The Smurfs' which grossed a cool US$564M. In 2013 along came 'The Smurfs 2' which grossed US$348M. Now in 2017, Directed by Kelly Asbury we have this rendition that is not a sequel to the 2013 Smurf outing but a fully animated reboot of the franchise and is unrelated to the earlier two movies. Here we find Smurfette (Demi Lovato) trying to find her place in the village. She comes across a mysterious map in the Forbidden Forest which prompts her, and her friends Brainy (Danny Pudi), Clumsy (Jack McBrayer) and Hefty (Joe Manganiello) to locate a lost village where SmurfStorm (Michelle Rodriguez), SmurfLily (Ariel Winter), SmurfWillow (Julia Roberts) and SmurfBlossom (Ellie Kemper), SmurfMelody (Meghan Trainor) and others live, and in so doing discover the biggest secret in all of Smurfdom. Along the way their journey is full of action, adventure, surprise, danger and discovery, but the clock is ticking too, and the evil wizard Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) is on the hunt and on their tails! Also starring the voice talents of Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf and Gordon Ramsay (yes, the Celebrity Chef!) as Baker Smurf and others, of course.

Five new movie offerings this week to drag you out kicking and screaming to your nearby cinema that offers something for the kids, something for the family, something for the Sci-fi action geeks and something for the lovers of foreign language independent fare. Share your movie going thoughts with us here, and in the meantime, I'll see you somewhere, sometime at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-