INCREDIBLES 2 : Tuesday 19th June 2018.

'INCREDIBLES 2' which I saw in a packed out theatre earlier this week finally hits our big screens after a hiatus of fourteen years. Now comes the long awaited sequel to 2004's 'The Incredibles' - that highly praised computer animated Superhero film from Pixar that took US$633M at the global Box Office and picked up two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Sound Editing, as well as the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the first entirely animated film to win the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Brad Bird wrote and Directed the first film, and it's no surprise that he reprises those two earlier roles for this second instalment, as do the majority of the principle voice cast. The film was released in the US last week too, cost US$200M to make and has so far raked in US$329M at the global Box Office, and has received generally favourable Reviews, with Critics praising the quality of the animation, and the sense of humour the film instills.

'Incredibles 2' takes off immediately where 'The Incredibles' finished, with the introduction of the mole like villain The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) attempting to rob the Metroville Bank, in which he is partially successful. His plans are however, thwarted by the Parr family on the spot, who with their combined super powers overcome the mole like mechanical digging machine and prevent a much bigger catastrophe. But alas, they are promptly arrested for causing too much damage to whole city blocks in the process. As a result, Agent Rick Dicker (Jonathan Banks) advises the Parr's that the 'Super Relocation' programme, of which the are a part, is being mothballed, forcing Supers, just like them, across the world to uphold their undercover identities for good, and to learn to adjust once and for all. There is nothing more that Dicker can do for them, except grant them temporary accommodation in a motel somewhere.

In the days that follow holed up in their motel room eating takeout and going stir crazy, Bob Parr, aka Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and wife Helen, aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) together with good friend Lucius Best, aka Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are contacted by Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) a big fan and advocate of Super heroes, who also happens to own a hugely successful telecommunications company named 'Devtech'. He plans a makeover of Supers to promote them in the best possible light so regaining public trust, admiration and support to overthrow governmental decisions around the globe to exile Supers.

Helen, is considered the least destructive of the Super family and the most level headed, and so she is chosen by Deavor for a publicity stunt to set the wheels in motion to begin regaining the confidence of the people. She is dispatched to New Urbem under her alter ego Elastigirl to openly fight crime on the streets wearing a camera to record her every move and those criminals halted in their tracks.

So Bob reluctantly has to play the stay at home Dad, offering to look after the kids Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile and Nicholas Bird) whilst Helen is out there being Super. During her time on the streets of New Urbem, she witnesses the launch of a new high speed rail system with the unveiling the subject of much pomp & ceremony. When the train is set to take its maiden journey, it slips into reverse and gradually accelerates away at a rapid rate of knots getting out of control very quickly. It's Elastigirl to the rescue and she successfully thwarts a disaster, with all the cameras flashing and her image beamed around the world on the news channels.

Deavor has meanwhile allowed the Parr's to reside in one of his luxury homes on the outskirts of town fitted out with all the mod-cons, gizmo's and gadgets to make their stay as comfortable as possible. During Helen's absence, Bob tries to settle into a routine with the kids, but comes to the realisation that baby Jack-Jack has super powers all of his own - a fact that he struggles with initially coming to terms with, and controlling, when these at first manifest themselves in various situations. This causes Bob numerous sleepless nights from which he is becoming increasingly agitated, temperamental and lacking in patience.

Seeking some support and solace from the very demanding Jack-Jack whose various super powers require almost constant monitoring, Bob goes to see Edna Mode (Brad Bird). A long time close family friend and Super costume designer, Edna is at first very reluctant to baby sit the young toddler, but soon comes round when she witnesses the little tykes powers for herself. In the meantime, Helen has uncovered the evil enemy behind the earlier train incident that caused the driver to fall into a catatonic state at the controls. Screenslaver (Bill Wise) is a mystery criminal who controls computer and television screens to project hypnotic imagery that almost instantly brainwashes those looking on.

In an incident involving a high ranking government official known as the Ambassador (Isabella Rossellini) who supports the legalisation of Supers, in which her fleet of helicopters is overtaken remotely by Screenslaver's nefarious antics. With Elastigirl to the rescue once more, Screenslaver is thwarted and unmasked only to reveal a humble pizza delivery lad who had no recollection of how he came to be. At a subsequent party at Devtech's HQ to celebrate Screenslaver's defeat, Helen siddles away into a separate room and looks at video footage filmed from her hidden suit camera. This reveals an anomaly in that the pizza delivery guy was being controlled by hypno-goggles. At this point Evelyn Deavor (Catherine Keener) the sister of Winston and the inventive one in the family reveals herself to be the Screenslaver, and forces a pair of hypno-goggles onto Helen, so controlling her.

Evelyn sees the Supers as a threat to all humanity and is Hell bent on seeing to it that the are never legalised. So she took it upon herself to sabotage her brothers mission and has plans to brainwash the leaders of the world by exposing them to her controlling hypnotic imagery so that they do not pass the legislation making Super's legal. Ultimately, both Bob and Lucius are coaxed into a trap and fitted each with hypno-goggles, so controlling them too. Meanwhile, various other Super's who have all come out of the woodwork thanks to Winston's PR campaign success and Elastigirl being in the news for all the right reasons, have also been subjected to Screenslaver's controlling powers.

Meanwhile, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack have all been suited and booted by Edna Mode with new super outfits. Keen to avoid the same fate as their parents, the three of them lurch to the rescue attempting to secretly board Deavor's luxury ocean going liner on which are gathered many world leaders for a hearing on reinstating the legality of the Supers. On board, the Screenslaver, who has Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone all under her control are forced to give a negative address to paint them negatively in front of the worlds watching media. However, the kids get in there soon afterwards  and free up Mum and Dad Parr and Frozone from those pesky controlling hypno-goggles, and a fight breaks out. As control of the luxury liner has been lost and it is on a collision course for New Urbem, its the dynamic trio once again to the rescue to prevent disaster. Mr. Incredible has to turn the giant rudder underwater to divert the ship, Frozone has to make a course of ice to prevent the ship from reaching land, and Elastigirl is off to capture Evelyn who thinks she's getting away. In the aftermath, Evelyn is arrested and carted away in the back of a patrol car, and Super's are legalised and legitimised, and the world is a better, safer place for it!

I enjoyed 'Incredibles 2', but not as much as the first instalment, but was it worth the fourteen year wait between instalments - yes definitely! The main characters are familiar now and maturing, and the role reversal between Helen and Bob gives rise to some moments of genuine humour, and in this time of the 'MeToo' movement seems aptly current and not out of place. What I did question however, was why give baby Jack-Jack seventeen different super powers when the rest of the family have to settle with just one or two each. Clearly little ol' Jack-Jack is something very special, and the world had better watch out when he grows up! The quality of the animation is top notch, creative and faultless with breathtaking scenes where the action ramps up, or it is seen simply in the level of detail in every frame. In this age of Marvel and DC Superhero movies bombarding our big screens several times every year, its great to see a refreshing grounded Superhero offering about the average family next door harbouring super powers aplenty while hiding in plain sight. Pixar have done it again, with another follow up to add to their already burgeoning canon of animated classics. A film for kids of all ages, young and young at heart!

This film is worthy of four claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GOLD : Tuesday 7th February 2017.

'GOLD' which I caught last week is Directed and Co-Written by Stephen Gaghan, Co-Produced and starring Matthew McConaughey and as the opening credits would indicated is inspired by true events. Those true events, are that of the biggest mining scandal of all time - associated with Bre-X Minerals Ltd., a Canadian based mining and exploration company in Calgary that was involved in a major gold mining scandal when it reported it had struck a significant gold deposit at Busang, Indonesia (Borneo). Bre-X purchased the Busang location in early 1993 and by late that same year had announced significant reserves of gold had been discovered, sending its stock price into the stratosphere. Originally a penny stock, its stock price reached a peak at C$286.50 in May 1996 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with a total market capitalisation of over C$6B. Bre-X Minerals collapsed in 1997 after the gold samples were found to be fake. This is that story derived from the Bre-X scandal for this drama adventure film, although for legal reasons the Producers deny any claim to a connection with these events, changing the names of the individuals, company's and decade in which they occurred for the purposes of our entertainment.

The film launches in 1981 with Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) in the offices of clearly successful metals prospecting and mining company (Washoe Mining Corporation) owned by his father Kenny Wells (Craig T. Nelson), strategising about a suspected minerals deposit and whether or not to jump in headlong to its exploration. Kenny Senior gives Kenny Junior the thumbs up, and as dad gazes out of his office window Scotch Whisky in hand, so son beams a smile that says 'I love you dad'! Fast forward seven years, and Kenny Junior has inherited the company from his father who died back in 1981 and who built up the company from his Grandfather. But the economic downturn has seen the company land on hard times and now operating out of bar where Kenny's girlfriend, Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard) works. Kenny has also lost his home and resides with Kay, and the financiers whom Kenny courts for capital funding won't give him the time of day.

Down on his luck and quickly running out of money, one night Kenny has a whisky induced dream of hitting a substantial gold strike in some faraway verdant jungle. He digs out the business card of a once before met guru geologist who has an ability to sniff out precious metal deposits where no on else can, and so travels to Indonesia to meet with Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez). After an initial frosty meeting in which Acosta claims to have heard it all before from Kenny, the couple pair up and head up river. They then trudge through the lush jungle undergrowth until Acosta determines the spot where there's gold in them thar hills! With hired help in the form of the willing locals they set up a makeshift mining camp with a drill and begin to take core samples, sending the fruits of their findings off for testing. This goes on seemingly for months in the hot sun drenched tropical forest, with those core samples drawing up blanks time after time.

In between time Kenny returns home to the US to raise more funds to underpin their ongoing search for the elusive gold deposit, and then returns to join Acosta at the mine site. But samples, wages, infrastructure and the location all costs money and quickly their finances are slipping through their fingers. To make matters worse Kenny catches a dose of malaria and is holed up in his jungle home on a camp bed for weeks, while his local mining crew up sticks and leave because of non-payment of wages and doubtless various other gripes associated with their working conditions. Emerging from his malaria stupor seemingly recovered, he is greeted by the news from Acosta that they have struck gold, and it's on!

Meanwhile back on Wall Street, investment banker Brian Woolf (Corey Stoll) gets wind of this gold strike and hastily engineers a meeting with Kenny and Acosta at their plush city offices. Kenny refuses to succumb to the allure of instant wealth at the hands of the investment bank and commands that representatives from the bank travel to the deepest darkest Indonesian jungle to see their stake for themselves first hand. This they do, and whilst they don't witness any gold coming out of the ground, they do pan for nuggets in the river upstream, and strike it lucky - providing all the evidence needed to satisfy themselves that there is indeed gold in them thar hills! Soon afterwards there's an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange that sees the stock value in Washoe skyrocket on its opening day of trading and as a result Kenny and Acosta's fortunes are reversed overnight, and they become the darlings of Wall Street with investors falling over themselves to buy in on what is described as the 'biggest gold find of the decade'!

Against this back drop we have the ongoing romance between Kay and Kenny that hits hard times as Kenny's rise to riches and fame take hold, and Kay struggles to reconcile this with her simple life back home. It all goes pear shape at a lavish dinner held in their honour after the floating of their company, and Kay walks out on Kenny claiming that he cannot see that he is being taken for a ride by the Wall Street powerbrokers who all want a piece of the action and will take no prisoners in doing so.

Enter Mark Hancock (Bruce Greenwood) a gazillionaire mining company owner who with the help of Brian Woolf offers Kenny US$300M for his company, walk away, never worry about money again for yourself, your children and your children's children! Kenny declines the offer when he notices on the draft contract that Washoe's name doesn't appear anywhere, and nor does Kenny's or his 50/50 partner Acosta. Having unceremoniously turned down the offer, he heads for his own office where he receives an urgent telephone call from Acosta at the minestite saying that the Indonesian authorities have seized the camp, evacuated all the workers and revoked their license to mine. The share price plummets, and any wealth that Kenny and Acosta had is now all gone, in an instant, whereas 24 hours earlier they could have been richer to the tune of US$300M. Gee, life sucks!

At this point the FBI arrive on the scene and seize all company records and documents smelling the proverbial rat given the billions of dollars that have been lost by thousands of now very angry investors. Paul Jennings (Toby Kebbel) heads up the investigation interviewing Kenny overnight in his hotel room. Meanwhile, Kenny is awarded the golden pick axe - the highest accolade that can be bestowed upon any prospector/miner by the #1 industry magazine. He attends a lavish awards ceremony, collects his gong, makes a speech honouring his father and his grandfather before him, at which point Acosta slinks out of the room, never to be seen again except in flashback as Kenny recounts his story.

It seems that Acosta had a plan to gain back a stake in their mine by infiltrating President Suharto's estranged son. A deal that would give back the lion share to Indonesia with Kenny and Acosta retaining a 15% stake in their company, and a deal that would demonstrate to the President that his son could broker a good deal that was good for the Government, good for the country and good for them personally. When news of this deal hit Wall Street, the share price instantly rebounded. But when proper due diligence was conducted around the site the gold claim was found to be fraudulent and therefore in fact no gold deposits existed, and nor had there ever been. A fact known to Acosta who quickly dumped his shareholding for a cash windfall of US$164M, thanks very much. Kenny maintained his innocence throughout this and claims that he was also duped on a massive scale by his partner whom he trusted and whom he thought he knew, despite the evidence that the FBI confronted him with. Acosta returned to Indonesia and wound up very dead (allegedly) having 'jumped' out of a helicopter at a thousand feet, only to be eaten by wild pigs and discovered days later. In the final analysis Kenny is allowed to walk free absolved of any criminal intent and as broke as the day he started . . . although there is a silver lining!

McConaughey for his role transformed himself once again with a pot belly piling on 47lbs, balding comb over and crooked teeth demonstrating his commitment to his craft once more following his dramatic weight loss for 'The Dallas Buyers Club'. Here he dominates every scene with his larger than life, greed is good, shit or bust attitude to life. When he doesn't have a cigarette in his hand, he's downing a glass of Whisky whilst chewing up his lines and bringing real life grittiness to his character. But he overshadows all other players, including his number one guy and partner Edward Ramirez, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Kay is left wanting on the sidelines and under utilised, as is Toby Kebbel's investigative FBI Agent. The film for all its based on real life events, is an enjoyable caper portrayed by loveable rogues but the movie lacked any chemistry between the principle Actors and plodded along predictably playing out as one would expect from these couple of unlikely lads chasing their hopes and dreams and suffering the consequences as a result. Stacey Keach and Rachael Taylor also star.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-