LOCKED DOWN : Tuesday 11th May 2021.

'LOCKED DOWN' is an M Rated romantic comedy heist film which I saw earlier this week. Directed by Doug Liman whose prior film making credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'American Made' and 'Chaos Walking' most recently. The screenplay was written by Steven Knight in July 2020, financed, and filmed entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic over just an eighteen day period in October 2020 for a budget of about US$3M. The film was released in the US on HBO Max in January 2021, and has garnered mixed or average Reviews so far.

And so here, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic in their very cosy modern terrace house somewhere in London, sometime in the first half of 2020. They are a disgruntled couple who have agreed to go their separate ways once the lock down is over, for reasons of having grown apart after ten years together, although the stimulus for the break-up seems to rest more with Linda who has grown weary of Paxton's lack of enthusiasm, lack of focus and constant down at heal, woe is me attitude. For while Linda has climbed the corporate ladder to become the UK CEO of a very successful fashion company, Paxton has struggled to find meaningful work for the last ten years since he was arrested and charged with assault. As a result, his only work is that of a delivery driver, at which he has been furloughed because of the lock down. Paxton is forced to sell his beloved motorbike which he sees as an extension to himself, to make ends meet. 

On a Zoom call with Paxton's half-brother David (Dule Hill) and his wife Maria (Jazmyn Simon) in the US, Linda breaks the news of their pending separation, and we also learn that at some point in the recent past both Linda and Maria got it on together in a wine induced one night stand, which remains a secret between them, and which Linda would rather forget, but not so it seems on Maria's part. Linda meanwhile sets up a Zoom call with four of her UK based senior management team to advise them all that they are being terminated with immediate effect because of the economic downturn and the business being unable to sustain their positions moving forward, although in reality that decision was made pre-pandemic back in December at a company junket in Paris. 

One day while Paxton is feeling especially sorry for himself, his boss Malcolm (Ben Kingsley) calls him with the offer of three days work for £200 per day cash as a driver for high value deliveries, due to the limited number of drivers currently being available. The only catch is that Paxton will have to go under an assumed name because of his prior criminal record. He needs to make a snap decision there and then on the spot, which he does so reluctantly on the condition that Malcolm promotes him afterwards to an office based administrative role, after numerous years of dead end driving. Malcolm says that he'll have his fake security ID and name tag sent over to his home tomorrow (Wednesday) for his first collection from Selfridges on Thursday, Harvey Nichols on Friday and Harrods on Saturday. 

On Wednesday Malcolm contacts Paxton saying the he texted him his assumed name and that the security ID and name badge are on their way over. Paxton retrieves his new identity to discover that he has been given the name of Edgar Allen Poe, as was suggested by Martin (Sam Spruell) a Co-Worker of his who has spent the last seven years working in dispatch and there is absolutely no love lost between the two. Paxton is none too pleased with having to front up with the name of a famous 19th Century American poet and writer, but agrees to proceed nonetheless, surmising that todays 'kids' working security won't have heard of Edgar Allen Poe anyway. Meanwhile, Linda is on a Zoom call with her boss Guy (Ben Stiller) who is locked down in the Vermont countryside in the US together with the other CEO's from around the world. Guy offers her a new position back home in the United States to which she is taken aback and stalls her decision making process until after lock down has lifted to buy herself some time. 

Linda is tasked with clearing out her firms inventory from Harrods on Saturday evening, as there is now no-one else able to complete the task. After arriving home after his first pick up and drop off on Thursday, Paxton reveals that he has a job at Harvey Nichols on Friday and Harrods on Saturday. Linda quickly comes to the conclusion that their delivery schedules at the store overlap, and Paxton would not get past the security protocols that Linda set up three years prior when she worked there. Linda on Friday organises a call with the new Head of Security at Harrods, Michael Morgan (Stephen Merchant) who brings in her former co-worker Kate (Mindy Kaling) who paves the ways for Linda's almost uninterrupted access to the department store after hours the next day. 

Linda discloses to Paxton that there is a £3M diamond in the vault at Harrods that has been sold to an anonymous buyer, and the store keeps a duplicate on-display. That anonymous buyer Linda learns from Essien (Claes Bang) the owner of the company she works for, is a drug dealing, money laundering, probably murdering international criminal king-pin, and once the diamond is returned to a vault on New York's Wall Street will probably remain untouched and unseen by anyone for years. And so Linda and Paxton agree to take the real diamond for themselves and send the fake one to the buyer in New York City, splitting the sale between themselves and the National Health Service, three ways equally at £1M each. 

Upon making it to the famed Knightsbridge department store on Saturday evening, both under separate cover, Linda meets with former co-worker Charlotte (Lucy Boynton) at the security check in, with Paxton waiting outside to be ushered in. After some very loose checking in procedures, Linda and Paxton (Edgar Allen Poe) make their way to Harrods famed food hall which is being cleared out and closed down. There they help themselves to all the lavish ingredients for a £5K picnic up on the rooftop of the store before 7:30pm and their designated time for collection of the inventory and the diamond. 

Linda and Paxton retrieve the diamond from the vault and swap it out with the fake. However, they are confronted by Donald (Mark Gatiss), a former co-worker of Linda's she fired earlier in the week. Donald had alerted the Police after learning of Paxton's fake identity. Linda reveals their plan, and Donald agrees to lie for them, out of respect and love for Linda and being anti-establishment (especially at this time!). 

In exiting the store, a repeated message comes across the internal Public Address system for Edgar Allen Poe to return to the security gate immediately. Fearing the worst that the Police are lying in wait, the pair make a hurried dash for a security guarded rear entrance when Security Guard Mark (Marek Larwood) approaches brandishing Paxton's security ID that he left earlier at the main entrance, and promptly hands it over saying that he'll need it to gain access to Heathrow to put the diamond on the plane to New York. Linda and Paxton breathe a sigh of relief, and ride off into the night on Paxton's motorbike home via Heathrow Airport. 

The pair, who originally had planned to go their separate ways post lockdown, decide to reevaluate their relationship, now that they are each £1M better off and the burden of money woes, and both being stuck in jobs from which they gained no satisfaction, is effectively over. Then, on Paxton's birthday, the COVID lockdown is extended by another two weeks.

On the plus side 'Locked Down' works because of the chemistry and obvious good time that our two principle Actors, Hathaway and Ejiofor, clearly had during the making of this film, and watching a bunch of other A-listers phone in it via Zoom calls - Stiller, Bang, Kingsley and Merchant all adds a weight to the proceedings which should not be under estimated. The zeitgeist too is captured pretty well too with businesses shuttered, company layoffs, working from home, forced isolation, Zoom technical challenges, pot-clanging tributes, and the frustrations, anxieties and boredom of being holed up for two weeks and more in a confined space with the same person. On the down side the film really labours the ever declining relationship between Linda and Paxton during the first two-thirds, and then seems to remember that somewhere in the plot there is a diamond heist that needs to be crammed into the remaining third, and when it comes it is so underwhelmingly delivered and hurriedly conceived that it feels like an afterthought. But then I guess to write a script, get it financed and green lit, amass a cast and crew, go into production, shoot, edit and release a major motion picture in just about six months flat speaks volumes about what Director Doug Liman has been able to pull off, but also is telling as to what this film might have been given more time. It's not a great film, but it's also not that bad either.

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

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th May 2021.

The 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards were held two days before the Academy Awards on Friday 22nd April at the Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California and hosted by the American actress, stand-up comedian, impressionist, visual artist, and singer Melissa Villasenor. Founded in 1984, this years awards honoured the best independent films and television series of 2020 with the winners initially presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the bare budgets of independent films. Since 2006 however, winners have received a metal trophy depicting a bird with its wings spread sitting at the top of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole. The show is produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organisation, and Film Independent members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards.

For the full list of this years winners, and the runners-up, refer below :-

Best Feature

* Awarded to 'NOMADLAND', beating out 'First Cow', 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', 'Minari' and 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'.

Best Director

* Awarded to CHLOE ZHAO for 'NOMADLAND', beating out Lee Isaac Chung for 'Minari', Emerald Fennell for 'Promising Young Woman', Eliza Hittman for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' and Kelly Reichardt for 'First Cow'.

Best First Feature

* Awarded to DARIUS MARDER for 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out Radha Blank for 'The Forty-Year-Old Version', Heidi Ewing for 'I Carry You with Me', Edson Oda for 'Nine Days' and Channing Godfrey Peoples for 'Miss Juneteenth'.

Best Documentary Feature

* Awarded to 'CRIP CAMP', beating out 'Collective', 'Dick Johnson Is Dead', 'The Mole Agent' and 'Time'.

Best International Film

* Awarded to 'QUO VADIS, AIDA?' from Bosnia and Herzegovina, beating out 'Bacurau' from Brazil, 'The Disciple' from India, 'Night of Kings' from the Ivory Coast and 'Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time' from Hungary.

Best Male Lead

* Awarded to RIZ AHMED for 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out Chadwick Boseman for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Adarsh Gourav for 'White Tiger', Rob Morgan for 'Bull' and Steven Yuen for 'Minari'.

Best Female Lead

* Awarded to CAREY MULLIGAN for 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN', beating out Nicole Beharie for 'Miss Juneteenth', Viola Davis for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Sidney Flanigan for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always', Julia Garner for 'The Assistant' and Frances McDormand for 'Nomadland'.

Best Supporting Male

* Awarded to PAUL RACI for 'SOUND OF METAL', beating out Colman Domingo for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Orion Lee for 'First Cow', Glynn Turman for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' and Benedict Wong for 'Nine Days'.

Best Supporting Female

* Awarded to YOUN YUH-JUNG for 'MINARI', beating out Alexis Chikaeze for 'Miss Juneteenth', Yeri Han for 'Minari', Valerie Mahaffey for 'French Exit' and Talia Ryder for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'.

Best Screenplay

* Awarded to EMERALD FENNEL for 'PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN', beating out Lee Isaac Chung for 'Minari', Eliza Hittman for 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always', Mike Makowsky for 'Bad Education' and Alice Wu for 'The Half of It'. 

Best First Screenplay

* Awarded to ANDY SIARA for 'PALM SPRINGS', beating out Kitty Green for 'The Assistant', Noah Hutton for 'Lapsis', Channing Godfrey Peoples for 'Miss Juneteenth' and James Sweeney for 'Straight Up'.

Best Cinematography

* Awarded to JOSHUA JAMES RICHARDS for 'NOMADLAND', beating out 'She Dies Tomorrow, 'Bull', 'The Assistant' and 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'.

Best Editing

* Awarded to CHLOE ZHAO for 'NOMADLAND', beating out 'The Invisible Man', 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always', 'Residue' and 'I Carry You with Me'.

In addition, Special Awards are given as follows :-

* John Cassavetes Award given to the best feature made for under US$500K - recipients are the Writer, Director, and Producer and awarded to 'RESIDUE'.

* Robert Altman Award given to its film Director, Casting Director, and ensemble cast and presented to 'ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI . . .'.
* Producers Award given to emerging Producers, who despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to create quality independent films. The winner receives a US$25K unrestricted cash grant, and presented to GERRY KIM.

* Someone to Watch Award given to a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The winner receives a US$25K unrestricted cash grant, and presented to EKWA MSANGI for 'FAREWELL AMOR'.

* Truer than Fiction Award given to an emerging Director of non-fiction features who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The winner receives a US$25K unrestricted cash grant, and presented to ELEGANCE BRATTON for 'PIER KIDS'.

For the complete summary of awards winners from all categories, including TV, plus a whole lot more, you can visit the official website at : https://www.filmindependent.org/spirit-awards/

And so, turning the attention back to this weeks five latest release new films coming to an Odeon near you, we kick off with a thriller about a successful married man, who after a one night stand finds himself entangled in a cunning police detective's latest investigation. This is followed up with a story about a couple whose relationship is on the rocks and growing worse during a pandemic lock down, who attempt a high-risk, high-stakes jewellery heist at a renowned London department store. Next up is an Aussie tale about a woman who, after being given a medical miracle, has a few days to bring her estranged children together, bring the family business back from the brink of ruin and potentially reignite an old flame. Then comes a French biopic set in 1940 when France collapses to Germany and a newly appointed two star General heads to London to establish the resistance while his wife and children look to get the hell outta Dodge! And we wrap up the week with a determined young Saudi doctor's surprise run for office in the local city elections sweeps up her family and community as they struggle to accept their town's first female candidate.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new movies 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 week ahead.

'FATALE' (Rated MA15+) - this American thriller film is Directed and Co-Produced by Deon Taylor whose prior film making outings include 2010's 'Chain Letter', 2018's 'Traffik', and 2019's 'The Intruder' and 'Black and Blue'. It was initially scheduled to be released in late June 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then scheduled to be released in late October 2020, however, it was then pushed back to 2021 before being moved up to a mid-December 2020 release which ultimately became 8th January 2021 via VoD. The film has so far grossed close to US$7M and has generated mixed or average Reviews. 

After a wild one-night stand, Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy), a successful sports agent, watches his perfect life slowly disappear when he discovers that the sexy and mysterious woman he risked everything for, is a determined police detective Valerie Quinlan (Hilary Swank) who entangles him in her latest investigation. As he tries desperately to put the pieces together, he falls deeper into her trap, risking his family, his career, and even his life. Also starring Mike Colter and Damaris Lewis. 

'LOCKED DOWN' (Rated M) - is a romantic comedy heist film Directed by Doug Liman whose prior film making credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'American Made' and 'Chaos Walking' most recently. The screenplay was written by Steven Knight in July 2020, financed and filmed entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic over just an eighteen day period in October 2020 for a budget of about US$3M. The film was released in the US on HBO Max in January 2021, and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. And so here, waiting to go their separate ways after the end of a lockdown, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a disgruntled London-based couple, attempt a high-risk heist at the Harrods department store that surprisingly brings them closer together. Also starring Stephen Merchant, Mindy Kaling, Lucy Boynton, Mark Gatiss, Claes Bang, Ben Stiller, and Ben Kingsley.

'JUNE AGAIN' (Rated M) - this Australian comedy drama is Directed and Written by J.J. Winlove in only his second feature film outing following 2015's 'Life Is Risky'. During an all too fleeting bout of lucidity from her dementia, June Wilton (Noni Hazlehurst) has precious little time to reconnect with her estranged now adult children Ginny (Claudia Karvan) and Devon (Stephen Curry) and subsequently learns that things have not gone quite according to plan. With limited time on her hands she sets about putting everything and everyone back on track including her children, while attempting to save the family business, and rekindle an old flame, but she quickly discovers that in fact she needs help from the very people she was trying to rescue. Also starring Nash Edgerton. 

'DE GAULLE' (Rated M) - Written and Directed by Gabriel Le Bomin here it is May 1940, where the war between Germany and its neighbours has intensified. Shockingly, the French army collapses, and Hitler seizes Paris. The government is in panic and considers accepting defeat, but recently promoted two-star General Charles de Gaulle (Lambert Wilson), wants to change the course of history. His wife, Yvonne (Isabelle Carre), is his first support, but very quickly events spiral out of control and separate them – she and their three children Anne, Philippe and Elisabeth (Clemence Hittin, Felix Back and Lucie Rouxel respectively) set out on the roads of exodus, as Charles travels to London to meet with Winston Churchill (Tim Hudson). He wants to make another voice heard, that of resistance! 

'THE PERFECT CANDIDATE' (Rated PG) - this Saudi Arabia drama offering is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Haifaa al-Mansour whose previous film making credits include 'Wadjda' in 2012, 'Mary Shelley' in 2017, and 'Nappily Ever After' in 2018. This film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival back in late August 2019 where it was in competition for the Golden Lion, before its initial release in Spain in March 2020, has so far taken US$1.2M at the Box Office, now gets a limited release in Australia and has garnered generally positive critical acclaim so far. When Dr. Maryam Alsafan (Mila Al Zahrani) a hardworking young doctor in a small-town clinic, is prevented from flying to Dubai for a conference without a male guardian's approval, she seeks help from a politically connected cousin but inadvertently registers as a candidate for the municipal council. Maryam sees the election as a way to fix the muddy road in front of her clinic, but her campaign slowly generates much broader appeal. 

With five new release films 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 in the coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CHAOS WALKING : Tuesday 9th March 2021.

I saw 'CHAOS WALKING' at my local multiplex this week. This M Rated American Sci-Fi action adventure film is Directed by Doug Liman whose prior film making credits take in the likes of 'Swingers' in 1996, 'The Bourne Identity' in 2002, 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' in 2005, 'Fair Game' in 2010, 'Edge of Tomorrow' in 2014, and 'The Wall' and 'American Made' both in 2017. This film is based on the Sci-Fi trilogy 'Chaos Walking', adapting its first book, 2008's 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness. First announced in 2011, the film had undergone several rewrites with Liman later announced as the Director in 2016, with principal photography fully started and finished around 2017. Originally set for release on 1st March 2019, it was removed from schedule to accommodate the films' reshoots in April 2019 following poor audience test screenings. It saw its World Premiere in South Korea on 24th February this year and was released in the US and Australia last week. Costing US$100M to produce, the film has so far grossed US$7M and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. 

Our film opens up on a distant habitable world (not unlike planet Earth), known as New World in the year 2257 AD. We are first introduced to Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) walking through the woods with his trusted dog in tow. On the path into Prentisstown, where he lives he comes across Aaron (David Oyelowo) a radical preacher riding his horse. Aaron gets down off his horse and thumps Todd squarely in the face sending him reeling backwards. This is because of 'The Noise' - a force that puts everyone's thoughts on display and for everyone to see and hear. Clearly Aaron was none too pleased at the noise emanating from Todds head. Aaron mounts his horse and heads onward, leaving Todd to collect his thoughts and continue into Prentisstown. Once there Davy Prentiss Jnr. (Nick Jonas) siddles up on horseback and chastises Todd who retaliates with the thought of huge snake rising up against him which causes Davy's horse to buck throwing him off. Appearing shortly afterwards is David Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) the Mayor of Prentisstown, who tells the two young lads to stop playing, and commends Todd for his clever snake thought.  

Returning to his farm that night and over dinner with Ben Moore (Demian Bechir) and Cillian Boyd (Kurt Sutter) his adoptive fathers, Ben tells Todd that he is needed to work the farm the next day. The next morning while Todd goes to the barn in search for some tools, he spies a mystery figure dressed in orange jump out of a barn window and leg it into the woods. Todd gives chase and comes across the scene of a recently downed spacecraft whose wreckage is strewn over a large area. His thoughts are to immediately advise David Prentiss of his findings, who rapidly organises a search party for the mystery man. 

Returning to the crash site David Prentiss, Todd and a bunch of other men scour the scene salvaging what serviceable technology they can, whilst searching for a girl, Prentiss has quickly determined. Gingerly seeking out the mysterious figure Todd comes across a girl (Daisy Ridley), and is taken aback because he has never seen a girl before. It turns out that the alien species who inhabited New World, known as the Spackle, released a germ that killed all the women and unleashed 'The Noise' on the remaining men. Todd's own mother was killed by the Spackle shortly after he was born. The girl does not speak, but chooses to run in a bid to escape. 

It's not long before David Prentiss and his men catch up with the girl, and take her back to Prentisstown. There she is questioned and we learn that her spacecraft burned up on entry into New World's atmosphere and the rest of her crew all perished. David has ulterior motives for his line of questions - in particular his interest in the mother ship which carries four thousand people and its means to get them off New World. Following an incident in which the girl is left alone with Davy Jnr., the girl again escapes and from under the building where she is hiding she can easily overhear a conversation David is having with some others saying that it is in everyone's interests to capture the girl, to do it quickly before she is able to contact the mother ship, and that she poses a threat to them all. 

While David is off organising a search party, the girl lays low in the barn of Todd's farm, unbeknownst to him. He goes inside and discovers her, and tells her that he doesn't want to harm her, is there to help her and to remain out of sight. He then tells his fathers Ben and Cillian, who reluctantly agree to harbour the girl, but tell Todd that he needs to get far away from Prentisstown and to go to Farbranch another community some distance away. Ben shows him a map which Todd commits to memory, and is told not to tell anyone at Farbranch that they are from Prentisstown. It's not long however, before David arrives at the farm demanding to know the whereabouts the girl. Todd gives away the girls location in the barn through his noise. Inside the barn the girl has hot-wired a motorbike and makes her escape on it. Todd jumps on a horse and follows in hot pursuit, duly followed by a posse of David's men. David meanwhile shoots Cillian in the stomach and he lies there dying in Bens arms.

After falling down a steep gully in the woods, the motorbike is trashed and the horse suffers a broken leg which sees Todd put his trusted steed out of its misery. They continue on foot, and camp out in the rain overnight. The girl introduces herself to Todd as Viola Eade and says she has never seen or felt rain before. It took her mother ship sixty-four years to travel from Earth to New World. She was born on it, as were her parents who have subsequently died, and it was her grandparents who set forth from Earth all those years ago in search of new worlds to colonise. 

They venture deeper into the forest trying to find the path to Farbranch. They come across a clearing and a Spackle alien. Todd and the Spackle fight with Todd gaining the upper hand and holding the Spackle's head under the water of a nearby stream and stabbing away furiously at the alien. Viola urges Todd to stop. He does so reluctantly, as the Spackle gets up, recovers himself and walks away nonchalantly glancing back over its shoulder as it does so. 

Eventually they come to Farbranch and they are surprised to find a community that has sheep in a paddock, grapes growing on trellised vines, and a big contingent of women and girls. The mayor of the town is female too - Hildy Black (Cynthia Erivo) who takes in the pair and provides them with safe harbour, despite the ruling that any man from Prentisstown entering Farbranch will be given the rope (ie. hanged). When Todd lets slip through his noise that he is in fact from Prentisstown, the menfolk want to string him up immediately, but Hildy says that he's just a boy and therefore the rule doesn't apply. It's here we learn one evening that Ben slipped Todd's mothers journal into his pack before he set off. He confesses to Viola that he cannot read and was never taught, in the belief that hearing others mens thoughts was all the education he would ever need. So Viola reads the journal and it is revealed that David Prentiss engineered the execution of all the woman, because the menfolk couldn't bear the women knowing their every thought, while the men couldn't bear not knowing what their women were thinking. The next day David rocks up to Farbranch with his posse and a stand-off ensues with Hildy and her community. 

David demands to know the location of the girl, and sends Ben in to retrieve her from a storage facility. Ben uses his noise to project an image of Viola to appease David momentarily so giving her and Todd the opportunity to escape. Hildy had previously told Todd that the next community, Haven, contains a means of communicating with the mother ship, so they venture forth. In the meantime, Todd and Ben argue saying that he now knows the truth behind the slaying of all the women and why did Ben lie to him all these past years. Ben is distraught, and offers to make amends to allow their escape, even if it means sacrificing himself. They come to a river bank upon which is tied a two man barge. They see this as a means of evade their pursuers but Aaron catches up with them on horseback and follows them into the river. Viola can't swim, and approaching a set of rapids Aaron latches onto Viola and drags her off the barge with Todd attempting to beat off the preacher. In the white water Viola is dragged under the upturned barge and she is separated from Todd and Aaron. Todd resurfaces and rescues Viola while Aaron emerges on the other side of the embankment and holds Todd's dog under the water drowning it. 

Collecting themselves and gathering their thoughts, they continue onwards coming to the remains of a downed mother ship that was the first in the fleet that landed initially on New World years ago. It is half buried and completely wrecked, but Viola says that there is a means of communicating two levels down that will still be active. They both climb down into the bowels of the former ship and locate the communication device, but there is no signal as the antennae is down. Todd offers to climb up several levels to reconnect the antennae, which he does successfully, but from on high notices David's posse approaching. In the meantime Aaron has re-emerged and gets into a fight with Viola as she is attempting to reconnect. Needless to say its doesn't end well for Aaron who is last seen screaming that he has been baptised by fire - literally! Viola connects with her mothership once the antennae is restored. Todd has clambered down and is confronted by David. Todd attacks David with a knife, David shoots Todd in the shoulder as he is running for cover, and Viola appears and pushes David over the edge of a badly damaged wing sending him falling several storeys below into the guts of the spaceship - presumably to his certain death. 

Viola's mothership then appears in the sky above them. Todd comes round on the mothership having been out of it for several days, his shoulder wound having been treated and almost healed with Viola looking on. They both look down on New World and see a new community in the throes of construction. 

'Chaos Walking' isn't a bad film, but it's also not that great. For a start there is very little by way of world building here given that this film is set 230+ years into the future and New World has the look and feel of our very own planet Earth, even though it is supposedly sixty-four years away. And this Sci-Fi, dystopian action drama part Western is a muddled concoction of teenage angst, wannabe romance and a wilderness survival movie that is aided along by the pairing of two young talented screen actors in Holland and Ridley intent on going their own way following their big budget franchise outings of recent years. And Mads Mikkelsen who is always watchable despite his character being undercooked does manage to be the glue that binds the film together, with mostly surplus to requirement performances from Oyelowo and Erivo regrettably. As for the Spackle who supposedly inflicted the Noise on the male population, well they barely get a look in save for one sequence when a fist fight breaks out between Todd and an one armed indigenous alien that ends as quickly as it started - enough said (and seen) it seems! Doug Liman who has enjoyed many successes throughout his career here offers up an interesting premise, with well enough realised set pieces but it lacks energy, urgency and emotion and ends up being conventional, predictable and lacking in substance, clearly not helped by its troubled shoot and protracted delays. 

'Chaos Walking' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 4th March 2021.

The 78th Golden Globe Awards honour the best in American television of 2020, as well as the best in film in 2020 and early 2021, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The ceremony took place on 28th February, nearly two months later than usual, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema and on television. This was the first virtual bi-coastal ceremony, with Tina Fey Co-Hosting from the Rainbow Room in New York City, and Amy Poehler Co-Hosting from The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. This year marks the fourth occasion that Fey and Poehler have Co-Hosted the ceremony. 

The winners and nominees for the main feature film awards are as given below:-

Best Motion Picture : Drama

* Awarded to 'NOMADLAND', beating out 'The Father', 'Mank', 'Promising Young Woman' and 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'.

Best Motion Picture : Musical or Comedy

* Awarded to 'BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM', beating out 'Hamilton, 'Music', 'Palm Springs' and 'The Prom'.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama : Actor

* Awarded to CHADWICK BOSEMAN for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', beating out Riz Ahmed for 'Sound of Metal', Anthony Hopkins for 'The Father', Gary Oldman for 'Mank' and Tahar Rahim for 'The Mauritanian'. 

Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama : Actress

* Awarded to ANDRA DAY for 'The United States vs. Billie Holliday', beating out Viola Davis for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', Vanessa Kirby for 'Pieces of a Woman', Frances McDormand for 'Nomadland' and Carey Mulligan for 'Promising Young Woman'. 

Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy : Actor

* Awarded to SACHA BARON COHEN for 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm', beating out James Cordon for 'The Prom', Lin-Manuel Miranda for 'Hamilton', Dev Patel for 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' and Andy Samberg for 'Palm Springs'.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy : Actress

* Awarded to ROSAMUND PIKE for 'I Care a Lot', beating out Maria Bakalova for 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm', Kate Hudson for 'Music', Michelle Pfeiffer for 'French Exit' and Anya Taylor-Joy for 'Emma'.

Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture : Actor

* Awarded to DANIEL KALUUYA for 'Judas and the Black Messiah', beating out Sacha Baron Cohen for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7', Jared Leto for 'The Little Things', Bill Murray for 'On the Rocks' and Leslie Odom Jnr. for 'One Night in Miami'. 

Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture : Actress

* Awarded to JODIE FOSTER for 'The Mauritanian', beating out Glenn Close for 'Hillbilly Elegy', Olivia Coleman for 'The Father', Amanda Seyfried for 'Mank' and Helena Zengel for 'News of the World'.

Best Director

* Awarded to CHLOE ZHAO for 'Nomadland', beating out Emerald Fennell for 'Promising Young Woman', David Fincher for 'Mank', Regina King for 'One Night in Miami' and Aaron Sorkin for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'. 

Best Screenplay

* Awarded to AARON SORKIN for 'The Trial of the Chicago 7', beating out Emerald Fennel for 'Promising Young Woman', Jack Fincher for 'Mank', Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for 'The Father' and Chloe Zhao for 'Nomadland'. 

Best Original Score

* Awarded to TRENT REZNOR, ATTICUS ROSS and JON BATISTE for 'Soul', beating out Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for 'Mank', James Newton Howard for 'News of the World', Alexandre Desplat for 'The Midnight Sky' and Ludwig Goransson for 'Tenet'.

Best Animated Feature Film

* Awarded to 'SOUL', beating out 'The Croods : A New Age', 'Onwards', 'Over the Moon' and 'Wolfwalkers'.

Best Foreign Language Film

* Awarded to 'MINARI' from the USA, beating out 'Another Round' from Denmark, 'La Llorona' from Guatemala, 'The Life Ahead' from Italy and 'Two of Us' from France.

For the complete run down of all the glitz, the glamour, and the television awards too, you can visit the official website at : https://www.goldenglobes.com

This weeks three latest release new movies coming to your local Odeon, kick off with a Sci-Fi action adventure offering set in the near future but on a different planet but not unlike our own where women have been wiped out leaving only a population of men who live with the constant 'Noise' . . . until that is a female arrives on the scene and changes everything! Next up is a Swedish film in which a female voice tells the everyday stories of different people - a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality. And we wrap up this week with an animated feature from the House of the Mouse where in a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilisation, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release new movies 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.

'CHAOS WALKING' (Rated M) - is an American Sci-Fi action adventure film Directed by Doug Liman whose prior film making credits take in the likes of 'Swingers' in 1996, 'The Bourne Identity' in 2002, 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' in 2005, 'Fair Game' in 2010, 'Edge of Tomorrow' in 2014, and 'The Wall' and 'American Made' both in 2017. This film is based on the Sci-Fi trilogy 'Chaos Walking', adapting its first book, 2008's 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness. First announced in 2011, the film had undergone several rewrites with Liman later announced as the Director in 2016, with principal photography fully started and finished around 2017. Originally set for release on 1st March 2019, it was removed from schedule to accommodate the films' reshoots in April 2019 following poor audience test screenings. It saw its World Premiere in South Korea on 24th February this year and is set to be released in the US this week too. 

In Prentisstown, sometime in the not too distant future, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) has been brought up to believe that the Spackle released a germ that killed all the women and unleashed the 'Noise' on the remaining men. After discovering a patch of silence out in the swamp, his surrogate parents immediately tell him that he has to run, leaving him with only a map of New World, a message, and many unanswered questions. He soon discovers the source of the silence, a girl, named Viola Eade (Daisy Ridley), and so in this dangerous landscape, Viola's life is threatened and as Todd vows to protect her, he will have to discover his own inner power and unlock the dark secrets of New World. Also starring Mads Mikkelsen, Demian Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas and David Oyelowo. The film cost US$100M to produce.

'ABOUT ENDLESSNESS' (Rated M) - this 2019 Swedish drama film is Directed by Roy Andersson who has been making feature films, short films and documentaries since 1967 with his feature film output taking in 'Songs from the Second Floor' in 2000, 'You, the Living' in 2007 and 2014's 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence'. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September 2019 where it won the Silver Lion for Best Directing, among its total haul of four award wins and another twelve nominations. The film is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by a female narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple float over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter's shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, presenting all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence. The film has garnered widespread critical acclaim.

'RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON' (Rated PG) - is an American computer animated action adventure fantasy film Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Animation Studios and is Directed by Don Hall (whose previous directorial outings are 2011's 'Winnie the Pooh' and 2014's 'Big Hero 6') and Carlos Lopez Estrada (whose previous film making credits are 2018's 'Blindspotting' and 2020's 'Summertime'). Long ago, in the world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, five hundred years later, those same monsters have returned and it's up to a lone warrior, Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), and her pet pill bug companion Tuk Tuk (voiced by Alan Tudyk), to track down the last dragon in order to finally stop the Druun for good. However, along her journey, she'll learn that it'll take more than dragon magic to save the world—it's going to take trust as well. Also starring the voices of Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Sandra Oh and Benedict Wong. The film is released Stateside this week too and will also be concurrently available on Disney+ with Premier Access.

With three new release films 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 in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AMERICAN MADE : Tuesday 5th September 2017.

I saw 'AMERICAN MADE' earlier this week, and here we have a biographical drama film Directed by Doug Liman whose previous credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Fair Game', 'Edge of Tomorrow' and the very recently released 'The Wall'. This story surrounds the life and times of Adler Berriman 'Barry' Seal - an American smuggler of drugs and arms, aircraft pilot, dealer, and money launderer who flew flights for the Medellín Cartel, being an organised network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated throughout the '70's and '80's in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Central America, and the USA, Canada and Europe. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled tons of cocaine each week into countries all over the world and brought in up to US$60M daily in drug profits. For a time, the Medellín Cartel supplied at least 84% of the United States and 80% of the global cocaine market. Barry Seal was employed by the Cartel as a pilot and drug smuggler transporting numerous shipments of cocaine from Colombia and Panama to the USA and earned as much as US$500K per flight. This is that outrageous albeit true story. Released in the UK and Australia in late August, and not in the US until the end of September, the film has so far met with generally positive Reviews, and cost a budgeted US$80M to bring to the big screen, and has so far grossed US$22M.

So history lesson over, here Barry Seal is portrayed by Tom Cruise a former TWA commercial pilot who flew for the company from 1966 through until 1974. We join Seal as he is flying regular short haul flights across the USA and Canada. He has got to know his routes and his in-flight procedures, and the plane he flies like clockwork, so much so that he almost treats his passengers with a familiar contempt.

One day at an overnight stopover, Seal is seen loading several large boxes of Cuban cigars into his briefcase as he is about to exit the cockpit. On arriving at his hotel he hands the briefcase over to a contact behind the Reception desk. Later that evening the airline crew and enjoying drinks at the hotel bar, where Seal takes a seat at a quiet table. On a neighbouring table he notices a man going through the very briefcase he handed over the Reception desk as short while earlier, and examining the boxes of Cuban cigars. The man calls out Seal's name, and Seal acknowledges warily, before the man takes a seat at his table. The man, who introduces himself as Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) seems to know everything about Seal's history, his family and his cigar smuggling scam. Schafer says that the organisation with whom he works (assumed to be the CIA) could use a pilot of Seal's experience and skills. Schafer says that he works for the IAC (Independent Aviation Contractors), and that if Seal were to join them, it could prove to be very lucrative for him.

Seal accepts, and before you know it he has resigned his long term position with a steady salary and employee benefits with TWA and is running his own business under the guise of IAC. Schafer takes Seal to an aircraft hangar in which is a brand new twin prop jet equipped with cameras for taking aerial photographs. He tasks Seal with flying low clandestine reconnaissance flights over Central and northern South America and photograph the various rebel communist camps that are known to exist in secret forest locations. He does this successfully over numerous occasions taking clear overhead photographs (despite getting shot at during almost every fly over by armed rebel forces) that are very well received by Schafer's superiors.

As time passes, Seal finds himself acting as a courier between Schafer's CIA and General Manuel Noriega (Alberto Ospino) in Panama. Seal repeatedly delivers a brown envelope full of cash for Noriega in exchange for secret dossiers on persons and activities of interest to the US Government. Seal sees himself as just a dependable delivery boy who gets things done no questions asked, and this is just another job, done with the full backing and support of the CIA.

During a refuelling stop over in Colombia, Seal is intercepted and escorted by members of the Medellín Cartel, and taken to meet one Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejia) and his cohorts. They know of Seal's exploits over their neighbouring countries and territories, and seek his co-operation in flying out their cocaine on his return trips to the US, in a deal that is worth US$2,000 for every kilo he transports. Seal quickly does the maths and decides that this is an offer he simply can't refuse. And so Seal accepts their terms and starts flying routine trips back across Louisiana where he dumps each shipment of cocaine out of the plane as it flies low over scrubland into the hands of eagerly awaiting drug smugglers.

This carries on for a couple of years with Seal running trips twice or three times a week for Escobar and the Cartel. The CIA are aware of this and turn a blind eye, but when Seal is arrested and thrown into a Colombian prison as a result of a raid on Escobar's house during one of Seal's stopovers, then Schafer intervenes and throws him a lifeline. Back in the US, Schafer advises Seal that the DEA are hot on his heals and he needs to relocate himself and his family to the Arkansas town of Mena, and quickly, damn quickly, like before sunrise on the morning that he arrives home all beaten and bruised from his time inside. He quickly musters his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and their young family and get the Hell outta Dodge packing up all their worldly possessions into the family station wagon.

Upon arrival at their new CIA organised homestead on the remote outskirts of Mena, Schafer pulls up and takes Seal for a ride to the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport located on 2,000 acres of remote disused real estate, which Schafer announces now belongs in its entirety to Seal together with everything contained therein. This is to be Seal's business headquarters from where he'll fly largely undetected across to Central and South America in the conduct of his business interests with the CIA. In doing so, and based in sleepy little old Mena, Seal amasses such a fortune in cash that he barely knows where to stash it all. He's livin' the dream, making a very large fortune, and all with the knowledge of the CIA. He has to set up various business in the town through which he can launder his money, and the main bank in Mena give over their vault solely to store Seal's vast quantities of cash money.

In time Schafer asked Seal to run guns to the Nicaraguan right wing Contra rebels which were being secretly funded and backed by the US with both financial and military aid. Seal comes to realise that the Contras were not a serious group of rebels, and so he diverts the guns to the Cartel instead. Meanwhile, Schafer and the CIA set up a Contra training camp at Seal's Mena Airport base, and Seal has to fly in the Contra's many of whom quickly flee when they arrive on American soil. By now Seal has expanded his operations to take in four other pilots and jets, all of whom are on frequent picks up and deliveries and wallowing in cash!

Eventually, the CIA shuts down the training camp as quickly as it was set up. Schafer orders the clearing of all evidence that there was a training camp ever in existence, and leaves Seal to his own devices. At the same time Schafer orders the destruction of all records relating to Seal and his covert activities and all evidence linking Seal to the CIA. Seal smells a rat and orders the clearance of his aircraft hanger base of absolutely everything - cocaine haul, the stash of guns, and bag loads of cash amongst other things. But this exercise proves fruitless as the CIA, the DEA, the FBI, the State Police and other sundry law enforcement authorities including local Sheriff Downing (Jesse Plemons) all descend on Seal in unison in the early hours of one morning. They cuff him and take him into custody. Confronted with the DA and life in prison, the phone rings and its Governor Clinton, who orders the release of Seal from custody, and he's free to go, much to the bewilderment of the DA and all those gathered law enforcement officers.

Subsequently Seal makes a deal with the White House who are after hard evidence that the left wing Nicaraguan Sandinistas are trafficking drugs, and they want Seal to obtain photographic evidence that links the Medellín Cartel to the Sandinistas. Seal flies down to Nicaragua with a cargo plane loaded with two Harley-Davidson motorcycles as gifts for Escobar, and plenty of room to load up with an extra large shipment of drugs and contraband for the return flight home. Unknown to Escobar and the Sandinistas, Seal's flying partner on this mission is snapping secret photographs of the shipments being loaded onto the plane, together with all those involved.

Back home after the dust has settled, Seal and his wife Lucy are sat watching the television news and on comes propaganda reports and photographs released by the White House and in particular one National Security Council member, Oliver North, linking the drug Cartel with the Nicaraguan Sandinista's, and front and centre is Barry Seal's smiling face for all the world to see. Needless to say, upon seeing this Escobar orders a hit on Seal for betraying him and the Cartel, and he is also promptly arrested by the US law enforcement authorities because his face is in the photos implicating him in illegal drugs trafficking.

Appearing in court and facing conviction for drug trafficking, gun running, money laundering and who knows what else, Seal is staring down the barrel of a long jail term. Instead the Judge sentences him to one thousand hours of community service, and he is essentially free to go. With his wife and daughter having moved to Baton Rouge, Seal spends his time looking over his shoulder knowing that there will inevitably be a contract out on him. His community service is to be conducted at a Salvation Army Hostel each evening, the same one, and he spends each night staying in a different hotel in an attempt to lure any would-be assassins off his scent. Eventually, however, Barry Seal is shot to death at the wheel of his car outside that Salvation Army Hostel in February 1986. This brings an abrupt end to the DEA's ongoing investigations, and the CIA seize all the evidence linking themselves to drug smuggling and gun running activities, as was documented in numerous video recordings made by Seal leading up to his death, and contained in the trunk of his car.

This is an amazing true story, an adventure writ large for all the wrong reasons that ultimately nearly toppled the Reagan administration, and cost Barry Seal his life. Tom Cruise puts in a solid and compelling performance as our anti-hero in this piece, and despite his wrong doings you can't help feel an empathy for the character who was just presented with an opportunity and ran with it . . . wholesale, and beyond his wildest dreams, while it lasted. The look and feel of the late '70's and early '80's is faithfully recreated here, and Director Doug Liman weaves an engaging larger than life true story that maintains the interest throughout. But, I would have liked to dig a little more below the surface, as research shows that there was a lot more to Seal's activities than is captured here in the under two hour running time, and, I couldn't help feel that the supporting cast were underdone in terms of their contribution and value to the film. All that said, I enjoyed 'American Made' and I think you will too for Tom Cruise, and for the thrilling true life story, and its far reaching impact, that you couldn't make up if you tried.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-