WAR MACHINE : Tuesday 24th February 2026

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'WAR MACHINE' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this Australian and US Co-Produced Sci-Fi action thriller is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Patrick Hughes whose previous feature films efforts take in his debut with 'Red Hill' in 2010, which he would follow up with 'The Expendables 3' in 2014, 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' in 2017, 'The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard' in 2021 and 'The Man from Toronto' in 2022. This film was released two weeks ago in Australia before streaming on Netflix from 6th March onward, and has so far grossed US$29K.

The film opens up on the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan where a small platoon of soldiers arrive in their Humvee's and armoured vehicles. The soldiers all exit their vehicles and a nameless combat engineer (Alan Ritchson) saunters up to his younger brother (Jai Courtney) who is under the bonnet on another vehicle with a can of 'Stop Leak' trying to fix it with a colleague. The pair embrace after some playful banter, and one of other soldiers asks if the pair know each other. We're brothers comments one,  as seen by the matching tattoo's running down their arms 'DFQ' in a rectangular box outline - standing for 'Don't Fucken Quit'. The younger brother then comments that the pair should be out there on the front lines rather than nurse maiding the locals, and how about they join the Ranger Assessment and Selection Programme (RASP) with a chance to gain entry into the 75th Ranger Regiment, as they talked about when they were younger. The older brother says that those days are gone and he's too old for that, but then he reluctantly agrees. As he turns away, the Taliban strike them hard with rapid mortar fire, destroying a number of vehicles and killing just about all the platoon. The older brother has a large shard of shrapnel embedded in his leg, which he pulls out, gets to his feet and surveys the carnage all around. He finds his brother still barely alive, lifts him up over his shoulder and limps away. 

Fast forward two years, and the older brother is on a bus with a whole bunch of other hopefuls making his way through the Colorado wilderness to the RASP training camp. Upon entry, all recruits are assigned a number by which they'll be recognised, his is #81, and they are told that throughout their eight week rigorous training programme they will be subjected to physical, mental and emotional hardship, and only the strongest of the two hundred or so hopefuls will make it through to the final test of their abilities - The Death March. And so what follows is a montage of each of those eight weeks of training as the recruits are put through their paces, and we see the mud, blood, sweat, tears, orders barked through a loud hailer and the sheer exhaustion etched on the face of the ever dwindling number of recruits as week on week many are rejected and are sent packing. 

In the final week of training the recruits left are given an exercise to carry two heavy dumb bells underwater in a swimming pool for as far as they can walk and hold their breath. All of the other recruits succumb fairly early on and rise to the surface gasping for air. Not #81, however. He continues but blacks out having had a recurring vision of him carrying his dying brother through the desert in Afghanistan. He is yanked out of the pool unconscious, but is revived. This results in him being hauled in front of the Camp Commanding Officer Major Sheridan (Dennis Quaid) and Army Officer Torres (Esai Morales), who both tell him that despite his impressive history of service he is a potential liability, and quite frankly is too old to be leading a crack team of Rangers potentially. Sheridan gives him a pre-written letter of voluntary discharge, and asks him to sign his release paper. #81 stands up and says that he just want's to get across the finish line after the Death March, to which Torres responds that 'it's not the finish line, it's the starting line'. #81 responds with that he's going to join his other recruits on parade.

And so ten or so recruits make it through to the final test of strength, stamina, strategy and support for one another - The Death March. Given their orders they have 24 hours to make it back and #81 is assigned team leader, before being choppered in on two Blackhawk helicopters. A few hours after they are dropped off, they rest up for 20 minutes. During their resting they are startled by a sudden eruption of sound and blinding light travelling at great speed along a river, before all trace of the disruption is gone. Continuing their mission they soon come across the possible cause of the commotion. What appears to be some sort of huge metallic like structure lies half buried in the river bed. Thinking that it is some new Army tech, that the enemy Cadre have planted there as part of their mission, they decide to blow a hole into it using explosives to gain entry. Retreating to a safe distance they detonate but when the smoke clears there is not even a scratch on the surface. At which point the heavily armoured, mechanised and standing upright the towering machine unleashes all hell on the recruits, at first scanning the area for signs of life and then delivering with pin point accuracy a hail of high tech bullets, fire and bombs.

What follows is a mission to survive this marauding monster killing machine, as a number of recruits are taken out, or die when falling end over end down a steep cliff face or attempting to traverse a fast flowing river, or driving through a steep rocky valley while being chased down by said machine that is hell bent on taking out every last one of them. In the end it is #81 who saves the day at a mine site using a giant bulldozer and several sticks of dynamite to thwart the machine once and for all, and he does so successfully . . . of course! 

Walking back to camp carrying another recruit #7 (Stephan James) who suffered a compound fracture to his leg he slumps down at the finish line, but the 24 hour period has since long lapsed. He is greeted by Sheridan and Torres who explain that they lost 75% of their men in an attack by these machines and that they have appeared the world over destroying everything and everyone in their wake. Sheridan asks #81 if he can shed any light on how to overcome these machines, to which he responds in the affirmative saying that if you block off the top of the machine with rocks or sand for example, just as he did at the mine site, then this causes them to over heat dramatically, and ultimately explode. Sheridan says that he may just have saved the planet. 

#81 is seen then giving a pep talk to a team of Rangers to motivate them as they go into battle to save Earth, before joining them aboard a Blackhawk helicopter, and promptly falling asleep as the pilot asks the other Rangers if anyone knows his name.

With 'War Machine' Writer and Director Patrick Hughes hardly reinvents the wheel here, but he does lean heavily into the macho all guns blazing man versus otherworldly being movies that trademarked the late 1980's and early 90's, and in particular I'm thinking the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner 'Predator' here. Alan Ritchson plays the stoic no-nonsense by the book DFQ wannabe Ranger with a sense of realism and believability, and the action sequences are staged in real terrain to add to the authenticity of the scenes being played out. This is not an original film by any stretch, but it does offer the viewer 107 minutes of blood, sweat, tears, explosions and high octane action to warrant your consideration, if this kind of movie floats your boat. and is polished enough to satisfy the harshest critic in this era of green screen technological wizardry that seems to bombard our screens all too frequently these days. 

'War Machine' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE SUBSTANCE : Tuesday 24th September 2024

I saw the R18+ rated 'THE SUBSTANCE' earlier this week and this UK and French Co-Production is a satirical body horror film Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by Coralie Fargeat in only her second feature film outing following her 2017 debut with 'Revenge'. This film screened in the Palme d'Or main competition at this years Cannes Film Festival, where Fargeat won the award for Best Screenplay. It was released here in Australia, the US and the UK last week and in France from 6th November, cost almost US$18M to produce, has so far grossed US$6M and has generated positive critical acclaim.

The films opens with a small handful of workmen seen laying a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the name of Elisabeth Sparkle emblazoned upon it. Over time with literally hundreds of thousands of feet walking over it, the star becomes cracked and somewhat tarnished. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), is a former Academy Award winning Actress and now is renowned for a popular TV aerobics show which has been running for many years. On her 50th birthday she is fired by her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) who wants to relaunch the show with a much younger, more virile, more attractive host. On the drive home she is distracted by workers tearing down a billboard of her show, and her vehicle is T-boned by another car and ends up on its roof. Elisabeth is hospitalised but miraculously suffered no injuries, but amid her distress and anxiety a young nurse gives her a flash drive labeled 'The Substance' - a black market product which promotes a mystery supplier's invention - a serum that, when injected, creates a younger, more beautiful, more 'perfect' version of the user, though the two are still connected as one. 

After plugging in the flash drive to her TV and watching the brief ad she initially discards the drive in the bin, but after some deliberation comes back to it. She orders the product and the next day receives a message that her package is ready for collection from a nondescript location seemingly in the arse end of town. Arriving back at her apartment she injects the product - a single use 'Activator' resulting in a younger version of herself in her 20's (Margaret Qualley) being violently and quickly born from a large slit running the length of her spine.

The younger form, stitches up Elisabeth's back and adopts the name 'Sue', and is instructed by the mystery supplier to inject a 'Stabiliser' serum extracted from the unconscious Elisabeth each day. The two are instructed to switch bodies every seven days without fail, with one resting unconsciously and drip fed liquid food while the other lives life as normal. Harvey initiates his talent scouts to begin a search for a new host and when Sue is auditioned she is almost instantly hired back onto Elisabeth's old show and fairly quickly reaches the giddy heights of fame and admiration. When Elisabeth is forced to switch bodies with her, however, she continues to struggle with a heightened sense of inadequacy, loneliness and low self-esteem.

The differences between Elisabeth and Sue become ever more obvious, as Elisabeth begins indulging in overeating and alcohol while Sue addictively extracts more Stabiliser to avoid having to switch bodies, causing Elisabeth to age rapidly at first with a dishevelled index finger, then her left leg with her hair thinning and greying and age spots appearing on her face. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who tells her that she can either keep obeying the switches or terminate the Substance, neither of which will restore her past appearance. Elisabeth relents and continues to abuse the Substance as Sue.

Weeks pass by as Elisabeth is reduced to a haggard, bent over old woman due to Sue's ongoing addiction. When Sue is invited to host a highly anticipated TV network New Year's Eve special, she extracts enough Stabiliser from Elisabeth's spine to be used for the next couple of months. However, on the eve of the special, Sue runs out of Stabiliser and is forced by the supplier to switch back to Elisabeth. To her abject horror, she is now a hairless and deformed hunchback. 

Desperate, Elisabeth calls the mystery supplier again and asks for the Termination serum. She disguises herself in heavy clothing, goes to the nondescript address and obtains a new serum to end Sue's existence. However, still yearning for that feeling of fame and admiration, she stops at the last second and revives Sue, severing their connection. Upon seeing the near-empty serum, Sue is angered by Elisabeth's actions and repeatedly slams her head against the bathroom mirror. Elisabeth crawls to the lounge room where the pair fight with Sue kicking Elisabeth across the room to leave her in a crumpled heap on top of a shattered glass coffee table only for Sue to repeatedly kick Elisabeth to death until she bleeds out. Sue then leaves to go host the New Year's Eve show.

Unable to stabilise herself as a result of Elisabeth's death, Sue's body begins to rapidly deteriorate backstage. First one of her teeth drops out then more leaving gaping holes in her mouth and then her finger nails begin dropping off too. In a frantic bid to save herself, Sue rushes back to the apartment and disobeys the supplier's instructions and tries to create a new version of herself with leftover Activator. Instead, she inadvertently creates 'Monstro Elisasue', a grotesque hybrid monster of the two. Meanwhile, Harvey and his Board of Directors are excitedly keen to see Sue take to the stage and wow the American TV audience on NYE. 

Monstro goes to take Sue's place and shocks the audience into stunned silence as they take in the scene before them at the live broadcast. The horrified spectators quickly descend into violent chaos, culminating in Monstro's head getting decapitated, grotesquely regenerating and bursting with blood. As the audience becomes drenched in Monstro's blood, the hybrid manages to escape outside before collapsing into a bloody heap of viscera.

The face of the original Elisabeth emerges from the remains as a blob, slowly crawling toward her neglected star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Elisabeth finds solace by positioning herself on the star, eventually merging with it as she melts away. The next morning, her bloody remains are cleaned up by a floor scrubber. 

You have to hand it to Coralie Fargeat who for only her second feature film outing has here written and Directed a script that has something to say about the manner in which we perceive beauty, try to cling on to it as we age, and the ever present impact of the media (in all its forms) on how that beauty is viewed. At the same time Fargeat doesn't shy away from the blood and guts that literally spew forth in the third act that make for a mesmerising watch - the like of which you will have trouble seeing anywhere else this year. Demi Moore gives a no holds barred performance which is probably her finest role in a couple of decades, and is ably supported by Margaret Qualley as two sides of the same coin. If your fan of body horror, blood and entrails aplenty all wrapped up in a neat storyline, then this movie is for you . . . and if not there's plenty of other films at your local Odeon to choose from.

'The Substance' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

STRAYS : Tuesday 22nd August 2023

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'STRAYS' earlier this week, and this American adult comedy film is Co-Produced and Directed by Josh Greenbaum whose debut as a feature film maker was 'The Short Game' in 2013, which he would follow up with 'Becoming Bond' in 2017, 'Too Funny to Fail : The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show' in 2017 and 'Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar' in 2021. The film was released in the US and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$12.5M off the back of a production budget of US$46M and has generated mixed or average critical reviews. 

Reggie is an over trusting Border Terrier dog (voiced by Will Ferrell) living with his owner Doug (Will Forte), a down and out drug addict who spends his time smoking bongs, jacking off to internet porn and getting drunk. Despite Doug only keeping him around to spite an ex-girlfriend he himself cheated on, Reggie is under the impression that Doug really loves him and does everything he can to make him happy, much to Doug's constant frustration. 

After Doug is served an eviction notice on the run down shack he calls a home, Reggie accidentally knocks over some packing boxes and in the process destroys Doug's favoured bong. Doug makes several attempts to ditch Reggie in the wild, which Reggie views as a game called 'fetch and fuck' with Doug lobbing the ball into the bush for Reggie to 'fetch' and then he brings the ball home and drops it at Doug's feet he is always greeted with 'oh fuck!' And so Doug in a final attempt to rid himself of Reggie once and for all, drives a long way from home to a big city, lobbs the ball down an alleyway and then drives off as Reggie is chasing his ball. 

Losing track of Doug, Reggie runs into a street-wise Boston Terrier dog named Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx), who looks sympathetically upon Reggie and takes him under his wing. After a night out on the town as part of Reggie's initiation into the world of stray dogs with an Australian Shepherd dog named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a therapy Great Dane dog called Hunter (voiced by Randall Park) who permanently wears a plastic cone around his head, Reggie gradually comes to realise that Doug was not the nice owner he believed him to be. And so Reggie decides to get revenge on Doug by ripping his dick off, with the other strays agreeing to join him for support. However, he hardly knows the way home, with his only clues being a giant hamster wheel (a county fair Ferris wheel), a giant cone (a hill), and a devil floating in the sky (a billboard advertising a picture of a mail delivery man).

During the journey, the group begin to bond as they get into a number of crazy situations, culminating in them getting caught by Animal Control after a hunger induced frenzy caused them to chow down on magic mushrooms which results in them hallucinating and mauling a family of rabbits to death, thinking they were stuffed toys. 

During their captivity, Bug admits that he used to have a family own him, but was forced to escape when they tried to put him down after he bit the daughter on the ankle after she trod on his paw (though he fails to comprehend what he did wrong). Following a rousing speech by Reggie to get all the other dogs in the pound to band together to hatch a plan to escape, they all shit on the floor knowing that Willy (Brett Gelman) the Animal Control Officer will be forced to enter the pound to clean up their mess. But Willy is overwhelmed by the smell and the sheer sight of all those dog turds that he slips up and ends flat on his back so leaving the all the strays the opportunity to make a bolt for it, and they do. 

After escaping the pound, Reggie's bad habits from Doug's abuse resurface when a hallucination of Doug from the high he experienced convinces him that his mistreatment was somehow his fault, leading to a falling out between Bug and him, with Maggie and Hunter left to witness the fallout. And so Reggie goes off in search of Doug to make amends, Bug ventures off on his own into the nearby forest, leaving Maggie and Hunter to begin the long walk home back to the big city. 

Reggie makes his way back to Doug, but Doug, having grown very tired of having to put up with the dog, does what he can to kill Reggie outright with a baseball bat. Fortunately, Bug, Hunter and Maggie arrive in the nick of time. Hunter shakes off his plastic cone and attacks Doug pining him down with his front paws while Maggie and Bug each grab a leg prising them apart so that Reggie can successfully rip Doug's dick off. Hunter turns round and takes a dump straight into Doug's mouth as he writhes around while Reggie bites on his dick. In the meantime, the house has ignited, and a bloodied Doug comes stumbling out the front door with his bloodied crotch, his face covered in dog poo and his house ablaze. The dogs decide it's time to get the hell outta Dodge, as a telegraph pole comes crashing down on Doug's pick-up truck.

In the aftermath, the strays begin to move on. Maggie begins training as a Police Dog and starts a relationship with Hunter, Bug is adopted by a missing Girl Scout he helped rescue, and Reggie resigns himself to being a stray and helps other new strays adjust to their life on the streets. In a mid-credits sequence Doug is seen in hospital all bandaged up. The Doctor says that they found faecal matter in his mouth and throat and that they were unable to reattach his penis, to which Doug shouts out 'oh fuck!'. 

'Strays' will not be for everyone, and for this movie you definitely want to be leaving the kids at home. This film is filled with more F-bombs and more dogs peeing and pooping and humping than anything I have ever seen before. Not that there's anything wrong with that if taken in the context of the film and the antics of these everyday stray mutts. As a dog owner myself I found myself chuckling at some of the sight gags and the one liners that I can easily relate to, but as for laugh out loud comedy then this film, for me, failed to hit those high notes. That said, this film has heart and an endearing emotional core that help elevate it above an also-ran movie, and with a brisk run time of 93 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome - unlike Reggie! Also starring Josh Gad, Rob Riggle, Sofia Vergara and a cameo appearance by Dennis Quaid playing Dennis Quaid.

'Strays' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MIDWAY : Thursday 30th January 2020.

I saw the M Rated 'MIDWAY' on its Australian opening night in a movie theatre that was somewhat surprisingly devoid of paying customers. This is a remake of the 1976 film of the same name which charts the Battle of Midway following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Directed and Co-Produced by that master of disaster Roland Emmerich whose previous screen outings take in the likes of 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla', 'The Day After Tomorrow', '10,000BC', '2012', 'White House Down', and 'Independence Day : Resurgence' most recently. The film has been a passion project of Emmerich's since the mid-'90's, but he had trouble getting the necessary financial backing for the film before finally fund raising most of the budget of US100M and officially announcing it in 2017. With that sort of budget, this film is one of the most costly independent films of all time. Released in the US in early November last year, the film has so far taken US$123M at the Box Office and has received generally mixed or average Reviews so far.

On 7th December 1941, Japanese forces launch a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour, the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, so catapulting the US into WWII. In the days immediately following the attack Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) is given command of the severely fractured US Pacific Naval Fleet. He speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Edwin T. Layton (Patrick Wilson) - an intelligence officer of the US Pacific Fleet, about his failure to convince Washington of the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but to stick to his guns when next he needs to confront Washington over a suspected enemy attack.

On 18th April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Dolittle (Aaron Eckhart) led an air raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo and other places of strategic interest on Honshu Island. It was the first air strike on the Japanese archipelago, and showed that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to an American air attack while serving as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bomber aircraft take off from the USS Aircraft Carrier 'Hornet' with fifteen aircraft reaching China but all crashed, including Dolittle's while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. As a result the Japanese turn their focus on the Coral Sea in a battle fought from 4th to 8th May 1942, between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia.

In the meantime Commander Joseph Rochefort (Brennan Brown) the Chief Cryptologist of the US Pacific Fleet Radio Unit intercept messages with a Japanese location noted by the call sign 'AF'. Layton speaks with Nimitz, who advises him that Washington believes that 'AF' is a target in the Aleutian Islands. Layton disagrees, believing the intended target to be Midway Atoll. Nimitz instructs the team to find a way to definitively prove that 'AF' is in fact Midway. Needless to say, in time, Rochefort and Layton are able to prove that Midway is the target. In preparation for an ambush of the Japanese fleet, Nimitz orders carriers 'Hornet' and 'Enterprise' to be recalled from the Coral Sea operations and demands that the damaged 'Yorktown' be made ready for combat operations within 72 hours. Attacked by Japanese dive-bombers in the Coral Sea, the 'Yorktown' sustained damage from a bomb which penetrated the flight deck and exploded below decks, killing or seriously injuring 66 men. The bomb also damaged her superheater boilers, rendering them inoperable . . . but only for 72 hours!

On 4th June the Japanese launch an air attack against Midway. Early attempts by US land based aircraft to strike at the Japanese fleet carriers fail. After a downed B-26 narrowly misses striking a carrier's bridge, the Japanese crew are stunned, believing the aircraft was attempting a suicide run, although Admiral Chuichi Nagumo (Jun Kunimura) nervously infers that the plane was most likely out of control due to battle damage. 'Nautilus', a US submarine, successfully locates and attacks an enemy carrier but the torpedo narrowly misses its target. The destroyer 'Arashi' keeps the submarine pinned down with depth charges so the carriers can escape. Meanwhile, US carrier planes are launched in an effort to destroy the Japanese carriers. After reaching the last known location of the Japanese fleet the US forces discover that the carriers have moved. Upon sighting the 'Arashi', the Lieutenant Commander of the Air Group of the 'Enterprise', Wade McClusky (Luke Evans), correctly infers the Japanese destroyer is rushing back to join the main Japanese fleet and leads his planes to follow its course and attack.

As Nagumo's personnel switch out their aircraft ordnance for an anti-ship attack, US carrier-based planes appear suddenly. 'Enterprise' squadron Commanders McClusky and Richard Best (Ed Skrein) successfully lead their planes through the anti-aircraft fire and destroy the Japanese carriers 'Kaga' and 'Akagi', and squadrons from the 'Yorktown' destroy the 'Soryu'. Attempting to salvage the battle, 'Hiryu' commanded by Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) attempts to rally the remaining Japanese aircraft for an assault against the US carriers. Locating 'Yorktown', the Japanese bomb and disable the carrier scoring three direct hits.

Upon returning to the 'Enterprise', Best learns that half of his squadron is either missing in action or destroyed. Informed that there is a surviving Japanese carrier, Best rallies what pilots he can and sets off to attack the 'Hiryu'. Japanese anti-aircraft fire fails to stop the attack, but Best in his typical no fear gung-ho do or die dive bombing raids scores a critical hit that destroys the 'Hiryu'. 

Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance (Jake Weber), informed of the destruction of the last Japanese carrier, decides to withdraw for the night rather than test his luck. Informed of the loss of his carriers in battle, Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) orders his fleet to withdraw from the battle rather than risk his battleships without sufficient air cover, effectively bringing the Battle of Midway to a conclusion. Upon returning home in a wheelchair Best is reunited with his wife Anne (Mandy Moore). He informs her that he inhaled a large dose of caustic soda into his lungs instead of oxygen to aid with high altitude flying, and as a result he will never fly again. 

The closing credits reveal what became of those US wartime heroes depicted in the film, as well as the Japanese reprisals following the battle. Dennis Quaid also stars as Vice Admiral William Halsey the Commander of Carrier Division Two aboard his flagship carrier 'Enterprise'. Halsey led a series of hit-and-run raids against the Japanese, striking the Gilbert and Marshall islands in February, Wake Island in March, and carrying out the Doolittle Raid in April 1942. Halsey returned to Pearl Harbour from his last raid on 26th May 1942, in poor health due to an extremely serious bout of Shingles brought about by stressful conditions at hand, and as such missed out on the Battle for Midway, which he later described as his greatest disappointment.

In remaking 'Midway' Director Roland Emmerich here takes a valuable lesson in history that he presumably made for a whole new audience either unfamiliar with that 1976 film, or indeed the decisive battle in the Pacific, or both, and on that basis I guess the story had to be told, again! And whilst the CGI effects are commendable, and the action set pieces well executed, what we have here boils down to Uncle Sam beating his chest once again and spraying a can of whoop ass all over the cookie cutter Japanese. The cast are all largely one dimensional as is the heavily cliched dialogue, and I felt the film was bereft of any emotional weight or the chance to get really invested in the characters. There is very little by way of suspense or tension here either, and you just know that in Ed Skrein's Dick Best flying ace, that he's going to win the day and get back to his girl, shaken but not stirred! Ultimately this is a WWII drama set in the 1940's, with the look and feel of a 1970's war time epic, boxed up with all the CGI of 2020, and on that basis the film delivers, but left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

'Midway' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-