WASP NETWORK : Sunday 21st June 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Wasp Network' which went live on the streaming service on 19th June and which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Sunday 21st June.

'WASP NETWORK' is Directed and written for the screen by Olivier Assayas, the French film maker whose previous credits include 2016's 'Personal Shopper' for which he collected the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, 2014's 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and 2010's 'Carlos' amongst others. Based on the 2011 book 'The Last Soldiers of the Cold War' written by Fernando Morais this is the  true story of the 'Cuban Five'. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice Film Festival in early September last year and thereafter at TIFF, the San Sebastien International Film Festival, the  New York Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival before its release in France in late January this year. Picked up by Netflix in January for distribution on its streaming service, the film has garnered mixed or average Reviews so far.

It is 1990, Havana, Cuba and we meet Rene Gonzalez (Edgar Ramirez), his wife Olga (Penelope Cruz) and their six year old daughter Irma (Carolina Peraza Matamoros). Rene works as a pilot of light aircraft taking parachute jumpers up to circa 13,000 feet and seeing them skydive back down to the ground. It's a living, but he longs for more. After his shift, he goes home to his loving family, and the next day wakes up to complete the same routine all over again. Saying farewell to Olga and Irma in the morning, he drives out to the airport, walks up to the air traffic control tower, sabotages the two way radios, and steals a plane and flies to Miami, Florida to begin a whole new life, leaving his family behind. Quizzed by authorities and the press as to the reason why he has defected, he gives a rational explanation of how he's had it with the authoritarian Castro regime and how Castro's days are numbered with the crippled Soviet Union funding drying up. He goes on to say that he was born in the US and therefore has citizenship, and soon is taken in by a group of Cuban exiles and opponents of the Castro regime and given three months of free accommodation and hooked up with some influential people who offer him a job as a pilot.

Flying for the 'Brothers to the Rescue' run out of Florida and headed up by Jose Basulto (Leonardo Sbaraglia) they operate against the Cuban regime by seeking to destabilise Cuba's tourist industry and operate through covert military means. They frequently breach Cuban airspace which they are warned against every time but are prepared to take the risk of military intervention, which never amounts to anything more than 'sabre rattling'. The 'Cuban American National Foundation' (CANF) also established in Florida and headed up by Jorge Mas Canosa (Omar Ali), together with Brothers to the Rescue drop propaganda leaflets over Havana, lead illegal boat immigrants from Cuba to Florida undetected by the US Coast Guard, drop off supplies to them en route, and also smuggle drugs and weapons in and out of the US. They also engaged in various terrorist activities co-ordinated by Luis Posada Carriles (Tony Plana).

Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura), another Cuban pilot, also defects by swimming to Guantanamo Bay and seeks political asylum at the US Naval Base there. He is granted asylum and arrives in Miami, where shortly afterwards he is introduced to recently divorced Ana Martinez (Ana de Armas). He is also offered a job as a pilot flying for Brothers to the Rescue and CANF, and engaged in various nefarious deeds which pays him very well, as well as being a paid FBI Informer at US$1500 a week, but which he refuses to tell Ana the source of his money, and adds further that he doesn't tell her everything about him. She also asks why is he carrying around a cell phone (remembering that in the early '90's cellphones were only just emerging on the market), and he makes up some excuse to shield her from the truth. Despite such altercations and differences of opinion, they seemingly hit it off and soon enough are married in a very lavish wedding.

About half way through the film we first hear mention of the Wasp Network - a secret Cuban governmental organisation tasked with the highly confidential mission of infiltrating the Miami based paramilitary groups dedicated to reversing the damage inflicted by Fidel Castro's rule over Cuba. The Wasp Network is directed by Gerardo Hernandez aka Manuel Viramontez (Gael Garcia Bernal). As agents working for both sides, the members of the Wasp Network, the Cuban Five (Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez of which the latter three go unmentioned in this film) who had left Cuba and arrived in South Florida to great shakes as they voiced their opinions against the actions of the Cuban government, but back home, those families and friends of the five were placed in at times compromising and awkward positions and made outcasts because of their connection to the apparent traitors.

While the Wasp Network worked undercover, the American government continued its own investigation into the Cuban presence stateside. In February 1996, three Brothers to the Rescue Cessna light aircraft take off from Miami. Flying over Cuban airspace as they had done countless times in recent years, they receive a warning from the Cuban military that they are at risk. Choosing to ignore these warnings, this time two Cuban Air Force MiG fighter jets take down two of the aircraft carrying  a total four personnel. The third aircraft flown by Basulto escaped. The day before the shootdown Roque turns his back on his marriage to Ana and returns to Cuba stating publicly that he was a mole who worked to infiltrate anti-Castro organisations. When asked in a live TV interview what he misses most about his life in Miami he says his Jeep Cherokee, while Ana is watching him on screen from Florida - gobsmacked!

After a few years of cutting through lots of red tape and jumping through governmental hoops, Olga and Irma are finally permitted to leave Cuba and join Rene in Miami. Before doing so Viramontez meets with Olga and advises her that her husband is in fact no traitor, but more a hero. He confides in her that Rene is in fact a Cuban intelligence agent who successfully infiltrated CANF, and for the sake of herself, her husband and daughter, her family, friends, himself, the Cuban establishment and the Wasp Network she must maintain this secret to herself and not discuss it with anyone, under any circumstances. She agrees and leaves the office, and the next day is on a plane with Irma (now played by Osdeymi Pastrana Miranda) bound for Florida.

With the three reunited in Miami, it's not long before Olga finds steady work and Irma settles into school, and shortly thereafter Olga announces that she is pregnant with their second daughter, whom they intend calling Ivette. Meanwhile, in El Salvador, Raul Cruz Leon (Nolan Guerra Fernandez) in mid-1997 is recruited by anti-Castroists to place C4 bombs in four Havana hotels - The Copacabana, the Hotel Capri, the Hotel Nacional de Cuba and the Melia Cohiba Hotel with the aim of destabilising the recently resurgent Cuban tourist industry. Whilst the four bombs all successfully detonated in September 1997 there was only one fatality - that of an Italian tourist at the Copacabana and eleven other injuries. The very same day Leon is apprehended by the Cuban Police while exiting another hotel where he was due to collect his money for a job well done - money that he never saw! Thereafter the Wasp Network abandons Leon to his own fate. Carriles admitted to organising the bombings but was never prosecuted.

Finally, some months later by which time Olga has given birth to baby Ivette, the FBI closes in on the Wasp Network and arrests the whole network of agents including Rene Gonzalez and Manuel Viramontez. Combined they face charges of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, drug and gun running and a few other US deemed illegal activities. In a TV interview Fidel Castro admits to his knowledge of Cuban intelligence agents operating on US soil.

While serving out his jail term, Rene is visited often by Olga. He is offered a plea deal by the FBI in exchange for information but refuses to inform on his colleagues and his government. He serves twelve years in prison and was released in late 2011. Olga was arrested and served three months in jail, before being reunited with her daughters and deported back to Cuba. Manuel Veramontez was sentenced to a double life sentence but was freed after fifteen years as part of a spy swap. Raul Cruz Leon is still serving a thirty year jail term for planting the four Havana bombs and Carriles died in 2018, aged 90. Juan Pablo Roque never flew again and had financial difficulties, while his estranged wife Ana sued the Cuban government for punitive damages amounting to US$27M, but has only ever received about US$200K.

I found 'Wasp Network' largely underwhelming which is a disappointment given the credibility and what we're used to from Writer and Director Assayas and his assembled all star cast consisting of Cruz, Ramirez, de Armas, Bernal and Moura. This is a muddled film where the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts, as its offers up too many plot contrivances and then leaves you hanging in mid-air without any closure as it ebbs and flows between too many characters, situations and locations to make for a coherent story. On the positive front, the production values are well realised with some stunning aerial photography of the corridor between US and Florida, shots of Havana from the air and the vibe of the early '90's are all captured thoughtfully. The principle cast especially Cruz as the initially abandoned then all forgiving and loyal dutiful wife, and Ramirez as the focused stoic double agent is so much better here than he was in 'The Last Days of American Crime' reviewed here just two weeks ago, give admirable performances, but the others are all undercooked. And despite all the sabre rattling, political intrigue and the ongoing strain of US/Cuban relations, Castro remained in power as President until 2008 and remained in office until 2011, which makes you wonder what was it all for anyway?

'Wasp Network' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME : Sunday 7th June 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'The Last Days of American Crime' which went live on the streaming service on 5th June and which I saw from the comfort of my own home on Sunday 7th June.

'THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME' is a Netflix Original American action crime thriller Directed by Olivier Megaton whose previous film making credits include 'Transporter 3', 'Colombiana', 'Taken 2' and 'Taken 3' most recently in 2015. The film is based on the 2009 graphic novel of the same name by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini, and has garnered mostly negative Reviews despite topping Netflix's most watched ladder in its first weekend.

The film opens up with Graham Bricke (Edgar Ramirez) sitting on the edge of a bathtub while he douses a bound and gagged man in petrol. Naturally, he is after some information from the bound and gagged guy relating to a stash of cash. He lights up a cigar and stuffs it into the mouth of the guy still bound but by now in a state of panic. Bricke gets up and walks out of the bathroom into a neighbouring room where lie three bloodied and very dead corpses. He sits for a while and then leaves. As he exits the apartment building it explodes in a ball of flame behind him. Walking down the street, there is a topless woman dancing on top of a parked car, looters come crashing out of a store, there is gun fire and general mayhem all around. Set in the very near future (2025) we quickly learn that the government are introducing a controversial technological advancement that sends a signal to the brain that prevents anyone from committing a crime. Known as the American Peace Initiative (API), that signal will be activated nationwide in one weeks time, so rendering criminals and the Police Force redundant.

Naturally, the whole country is thrown into chaos as the clock counts down with the criminal world doing all it can to complete any unfinished business, settle old scores, commit that one last job before they physically won't be able to. The Police have all but shut border crossings into Canada, which remains a free country, and have orders to shoot to kill any opportunists trying to make a dash for it - of which there are plenty. Sat in a bar, Bricke who by now we have deduced is a career  criminal, reads a letter from the Prison authorities saying that his beloved little brother Rory (Daniel Fox) had committed suicide while serving time. Enter Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster), an accomplished high level hacker, who quickly seduces Bricke in the very skuzzy mens toilet, and upon exiting is introduced to her fiancee Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt), the heir to the biggest crime syndicate in the city and his daddy's billion dollar+ fortune. Cash states that he served time with Rory and that his death was no suicide, instead being beaten to death by four Prison Guards with batons which he witnessed. Cash offers him one last final big US$5M pay day in which to pull off a heist the moment the API switches on, and to get even with the people who killed his brother, and then to hot foot it across the border to the safe haven of Canada.

Next up, we see Bricke taking covert camera shots of a delivery truck outside some heavily fortified bank vault and deducing that US$1B are contained therein and what a wheez it would be to heist this. All of sudden Cash's US$5M heist pails into insignificance as Bricke's US$1B heist wins the day hands down, and suddenly Bricke is in charge. All the while the clock continues to count down on API go-live day as seen in constant news coverage and digital images on almost every street corner. In the meantime, over the next couple of days there's a lot of toing and froing between Bricke, Cash and Shelby as they bicker, argue and decide on their course of action, leaving very little time in reality to plan a heist in a heavily fortified 'Money Factory' that amounts to US$1B. Bricke also seems to have access to a super desk top printer that is able to print out forged US$100 bills that are so convincing that the only way to tell that they are counterfeit is to burn them - fake money that he intends to bribe the Head of the Money Factory so gaining him access to the vault.

We also witness Shelby telling two heavy set Police Detectives the plans around the mechanics of the heist. They are really after Cash, and have little interest in Bricke. Shelby's motives surround her young sister who the cops are holding in custody until Shelby come forth with sufficient information to convince them to release her and allow her safe passage into Canada. Which they do, with a threat that if Shelby is conning them they will track down her sister and see to it that she pays the ultimate price. What Shelby doesn't know is that Bricke is looking on through the sights of a long range rifle. He later questions her, but is almost dismissive when she states that the cops are after Cash, and the story surrounding her sister. Around about this time Bricke recruits his trusted good friend Ross King (Tamer Burjaq) to be their driver.

Cash meanwhile, is left in charge with securing the wherewithal to detonate the bolts that secure the vault in the depths of the Money Factory. Channelling his best Travis Bickle from 1976's 'Taxi Driver', Cash oggles himself in the mirror stripped down to his trousers waving two cannons into the mirror and admiring himself. He needs to visit his super rich criminal king pin Daddy, whom he is estranged from and with whom he has a love/hate relationship with to secure the explosive devices. He visits his heavily guarded mansion when there is a party going on, with Bricke in tow. They meet with Rossi Dumois (Patrick Bergin), who is more that frosty at the sight of his son visiting saying 'I thought you were dead!'

What ensues is a bullet ballet in which Daddy is speared through the head by his son, Cash's shoots his sister in close range in the stomach, the party guests all flee, leaving Cash and Bricke to make their getaway through an ante-room where all manner of high tech weaponry and explosive devices are stashed, leaving behind a trail of bloodshed and Dumois head henchman Lonnie French (Brandon Auret) hot on his heels. A car chase ensues with all guns blazing, tyres screeching, culminating with the three bullet riddled vehicles all upended on their roofs.

French catches up with Bricke and Shelby at his camper trailer, ties him to a chair, beats him senseless and then invites the guy in from the first scene in the bathtub to eek out his revenge. That guy is badly burned and wrapped in ill fitting bandages that reveal the extent of his heavily scolded face and arms from which he seems to have made an almost miraculous recovery given that it was only five or six days ago, and how the Hell he survived God only knows? Anyway, that guy is Hell bent on seeing to it that Bricke goes the same way and douses him in petrol but not before burning his nipple with a cigar. He then lights a compromising photo of Bricke and Shelby and throws it on the fuel before making a quick exit. Needless to say the camper trailer erupts into a ball of flame, just as Ross King emerges to drag Bricke outta there with seconds to spare before the trailer is blown to kingdom come, with Shelby looking on, horrified from the car driven away by French. Meanwhile King has put an end to the bathtub guy.


With all this going on, at the city Police Department the commanding officer is telling a group of gathered Officers that within 48 hours their jobs are basically redundant. With no crime there is no need for law enforcement, except for a select few who will be reassigned. Enter William Sawyer (Sharlto Copley) as the down at heel desk Sergeant who asks his commanding officer if he can be reassigned to a patrol car in the closing days before the API signal goes live. In a heartbeat, he is told yes, and off he drives to patrol the streets, whereupon he is jeered, heckled and his vehicle bombarded with all manner of projectiles from an increasingly volatile public. Back at Police HQ he volunteers to have a chip implanted in his neck that is an instant API signal blocker.

The group of Cash, Bricke, King and Shelby all regroup. The day of the mega heist arrives as the clock is counting down on the final 24 hours. Cash and Bricke make their way to the Money Factory and are allowed access because of the bribe being offered to the head honcho there. Cash is concealed under the vehicle and out of sight. Bricke parks up in the basement and hands over the bribe money. As he walks back towards his car, the head honcho ignites a note to test its authenticity and quickly discovers it's fake. At this point Cash emerges from under the car all guns blazing and a fierce fire fight breaks out with the pair driving the vehicle into a goods lift. Meanwhile, King is driving a truck into the bowels of a neighbouring building. Bricke and Cash end up in the basement vault and using the explosive devices secured from daddy's secret armoury they explode the reinforced hinges off the vault door and gain access to a US$1B payday. King in the meantime has blasted his way through the back end of the vault and forklifts the stash of cash into the back of his waiting truck.

With all of this going on Shelby has infiltrated the API control tower with the aim of disabling the signal for thirty minutes giving the rest of the crew just enough time to load up the truck and get outta Dodge. What Shelby doesn't count on is that Sawyer is on patrol in the building and apprehends her for acting suspiciously when returning from attempting to override the signal from the computer banks. They get into a fight just as the signal goes live, and Shelby is incapacitated. Sawyer overpowers her, they tussle, fight, roll around on the floor, smash through glass shelves and tables, which results in Sawyer falling off a table and getting impaled through the neck by a shard of glass. Shelby then places an explosive devise on the computer banks which control the now live API signal and makes a quick getaway.

With the truck of loot now safely outta there, Cash, Bricke and King reunite at a secret location. There, Cash shoots and kills King, and then shoots Bricke in the stomach. Cash reveals that he has an inbuilt natural immunity, mentally and physically, to the API signal and that it was in fact him who killed Bricke's brother Rory in prison by beating him to death with his bare hands in a fight staged by the Prison Guards who all looked on just for the sport. He also adds that he knows that Shelby and he are screwing, and when he asks Bricke for any comment he blows his left ear off with a shotgun. Bricke is left defenceless by the API signal. What Cash hadn't counted on is that the two cops who Shelby days earlier had informed about the pending heist are waiting just parked out of sight witnessing all of this unfold but within gun shot range. One of the cops takes pot shots at Cash, disabling him, and then finishes him off with another clean round. They walk up to Bricke and seeing the extent of his injuries leave him to die. As the cops sit back in their vehicle celebrating their success in thwarting the robbery and dispensing with the perpetrators, up sidles Bricke and unloads every round of his semi-automatic pistol through the front windscreen riddling the pair in a hail of bullets, dead!

At this point the API tower has exploded so rendering the signal defunct. This enables Bricke to mount the truck and drive towards the boarder with Canada. Shelby meanwhile is walking bloodied, and dazed out the API tower followed by a number of armed guards all demanding that she halts in her tracks. As she crosses the road with six or so guards stood to her rear, all pointing their weapons at her, Bricke rocks up in his truck and takes out parked cars, concrete bollards and the armed guards all at once. Shelby gets in the truck and they make their way across the border into Canada but not before crashing through Police cordon's, border patrol and heavily fortified check points to come to rest at the docks as the sun rises. Bricke is drained and near death, and sure enough just after Shelby announces her undying love for him he dies at the steering wheel. Shelby makes a getaway with a holdall full of cash and the ashes of Rory. We later see Shelby and her younger sister reunited, with the pair down by some isolated lake in the Canadian mountain wilderness as Shelby scatters Rory's ashes.

I couldn't help reading the many Reviews of 'The Last Days of American Crime', which for the most part absolutely annihilate this offering, before watching it for myself to see what all the fuss was about. And sure enough, those Reviews pretty much have nailed it. At a running time of nigh on two and a half hours, the Director clearly believes that 'more is more', when in fact 'less is more' by trimming a good 45 minutes would have made a more efficient, coherent film. The film has been panned by Critics for its depiction of Police brutality, violent content and the fact that its release couldn't have come at a worse time when the world has gone into protest over the George Floyd killing at the hands of the Minneapolis Police on 25th May. The first half of the film plods along at a snails pace where little happens and by the time the second half clicks into gear its all too much, all too late by which time you've already checked out! Often incoherent; the plot has more holes in it than Swiss cheese; the dialogue is at times both completely non-sensical and boring; there is little chemistry between the three principle characters; and the storyline is derivative, formulaic, unimaginative and we have seen this kind of stuff a hundred times already, only done much better. Watch it at your peril because you may just end up as incapacitated mentally and physically as if you had been zapped by the API yourself.

'The Last Days of American Crime' merits one clap of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BRIGHT : Wednesday 27th December 2017.

'BRIGHT', released worldwide by Netflix on 22nd December, is available to subscribers of this service, and was Produced by the company as an original film at a cost of US$90M, and represents the most expensive movie undertaking ever put out by the company. So I sat and watched 'Bright' from the comfort of my own sofa at home. Described as a fantasy action crime film it is Directed by David Ayer (whose previous credits include 'Street Kings', 'End of Watch', 'Fury' and 'Suicide Squad' amongst others) and Written by Max Landis, this film mashes up several genres in an alternate modern day world where Orcs, Elves, Fairies and various other worldly mythical creatures co-exist with humans in what is best described as an uneasy love/hate alliance.

Thousands of years ago Humans, Orcs and Elves all fought to rule over each other, and in the present day there is peace between them - but only just. In Los Angeles, a veteran Police Officer Daryl Ward (Will Smith) has five years to go before retirement and is trying to maintain his clean slate so that he can retire on a much needed Police pension. He is partnered up, much against his will and to the disdain of his fellow Officers and fellow Orcs, with the city's first Orc Police Officer Nick Jakoby (an unrecognisable Joel Edgerton). On a routine trip out in their patrol car, Ward forces Jakoby to watch another Orc being beaten to the ground by fellow Police Officers, in an attempt to ascertain and reinforce exactly where Jakoby's loyalties need to lie. They are then called to a public disturbance in the street with a sword wielding man, who they are able to disarm easily enough and place him under arrest in the back of the patrol car. The man starts talking Orcish which Ward cannot understand, but Jakoby does. He tells them of a prophecy they will both become involved in and how Ward is blessed, but when pressed by his partner about what he said, Jakoby just replies that the man was talking nonsense.

Later the man arrested by Ward and Jakoby is interrogated by a senior Elf working for the FBI's Magic Division - Kandomere (Edgar Ramirez) who learns that he is part of a fringe militant group known as The Shield of Light that is preparing for the return of The Dark Lord, that will see billions wiped off the face of the Earth, and the survivors thrown into slavery.

That night, Ward and Jakoby respond to a call about a disturbance in what turns out to be a Shield safe house. Investigating they come across a number of freshly incinerated corpses, enough guns, bombs and ammunition to arm a small army, and the body of an Elf woman half embedded in a wall and bleeding badly.

The pair apprehend a young Elf named Tikka (Lucy Fry) who possesses a wand with fantastical magical powers. When back-up arrives in the form of four other Police Officers they take it upon themselves to steal the wand for their own gain, but to cover their tracks they need to kill either Jakoby or them both and make it look as though one or both died heroically in the line of duty - it is up to Ward to decide the outcome! Ward ventures outside to where Jakoby is waiting having agreed under extreme duress to murder his Orc partner, but then in a moment of clarity turns his gun on the four Officers who have now assembled in the doorway and are looking on. He kills three of them outright and badly injures the fourth. Jakoby is outraged by what he has seen not knowing of the conversation that had previously taken place, but Ward is able to convince him that his intentions were genuine.

All this commotion attracts the attention of a local gang who come out in force demanding the wand be handed over to them, as it was found in their neighbourhood and they control the hood. Ward, Jakoby, Tikka with the wand flee the scene in their patrol car and are given chase by gun totting hoodlums armed to the hilt intent of getting hold of said magical wand. Meanwhile, back at the Shield safe house, the owner of the wand and Dark Elf Leilah (Noomi Rapace) has arrived back to discover that the wand and Tikka are both missing. Leilah slits the throat of the Elf embedded in the wall who was tasked with killing Tikka with the wand - failed on both counts!

The trio flee on foot after their car is crushed by an invisible force that prevents the wand from travelling a certain distance from its owner. They exchange their Police uniforms for plain clothes and enter a strip joint, but are still pursued by the same hoodlums they tried to shake off earlier. Seriously out numbered and outgunned Ward and Jakoby decide to go out all guns blazing, but before doing so Leilah arrives with her two henchelves and slaughter everyone in the place, allowing the three to escape again on foot.

This time the three take refuge in a petrol station to clean up their wounds and take stock of their unfolding situation. Ward establishes contact with a friend from the Sheriffs Office - Sheriff Rodriguez (Jay Hernandez) believing that he can be trusted. The Sheriff contacts Kandomere, and Ward speaks with him asking for him and Jakoby to be free from prosecution if they can keep the wand out of the wrong hands. Little to do they know that their phone conversation is being monitored by Leilah, who is tracking their whereabouts, and within a few short minutes arrives at the petrol station to cause carnage in their attempt to kill Tikka and retrieve the wand. The petrol station explodes in a ball of flame causing enough of a distraction for the three to escape again on foot.

The three are in turn captured by an Orc Clan, beaten to within an inch of their lives and dragged in front of their leader, demanding the whereabouts of the wand. When no satisfactory answer is forthcoming, the leader shoots Jakoby, killing him and sending his falling into a deep pit. Following a further struggle, Tikka shows that she is a 'Bright' (the name given to a special individual able to wield a magical wand safely) and removes the wand from inside her sleeve and uses its magical powers to resurrect Jakoby. Witnessing this great revelation the Orc Clan let the three go free, but Tikka is badly injured from her ordeal and is rapidly loosing strength and the will to live.

They only way to save Tikka is to venture back to the safe house and place her in a magic pool of water. Leilah has however, anticipated this and is waiting for them there with her two henchelves. There are sufficient small arms, large calibre rifles and artillery to dispense with the bad guys despite their strength, agility and fortitude. Ward and Jakoby are able to overpower the three and kill them, but not realising that Leilah has the power to self heal, she quickly counterattacks the two Officers and incapacitates them. Struggling to stand up, Ward grips the wand which he believes will disintegrate them all if handled with his bare hands, but he is prepared to sacrifice them all if it means an end to Leilah and the pending arrival of The Dark Lord. Just as it is revealed that Leilah is Tikka's sister whom she now wants dead for her treachery, Ward holds up the wand safely revealing that he too is a 'Bright'. In doing so he points the wand at Leilah who disintegrates, and Tikka disappears as the building catches fire and is quickly engulfed in flame. Jakoby makes it out safely, but then ventures back into the burning building to retrieve his partner.

The next day, the pair come round in an isolated medical ward. Kandomere arrives and Jakoby immediately blurts out the circumstances that brought them to this point much to Ward's chagrin. Ward eventually gets a word in edgeways stating that there was no magical involvement or Police corruption at play, as Kandomere is keen to keep a lid on the whole incident. The pair are then awarded a commendation for their bravery and action by the city, and as Ward looks up, he sees Tikka in the crowd of onlookers passing by.

I have to say all credit goes to Max Landis for coming up with an original storyline that melds the buddy cop crime drama with the worlds of Tolkien and dumps them into an alternate modern day world where crime, discrimination, intolerance and prejudice are rife. And credit goes also to Joel Edgerton for his unrecognisable prosthetic performance as rogue Orc turned good with a conscience to uphold the law no matter what - he is the cornerstone of this film. As for the rest of it, that's where the credit dries up! Rarely are Ward and Jakoby seen without their arms raised, weapons pointed and their pistols cocked, or one effing and blinding at the other or some perpetrator, or involved in another foot chase across LA culminating in a bullet ballet, close quarter kicking and punching acrobatics or shit getting blown up. The pace is often frenetic, the storyline at times incoherent and despite its impressive line up of four A-Listers - Smith, Edgerton, Rapace and Ramirez, this is just a jumbled up mess that struggles to make sense and is all substance over style. Watch this on the small screen from the comfort of your armchair at home and save yourself the price of ticket, assuming you can find an Odeon screening it.

-Steve, at Odeon Online- 

Birthday's to share this week : 19th March - 25th March 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Edgar Ramirez does on 25th March - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 40, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 19th March

• Ursula Andress - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actress
• Glenn Close - Born 1947, turns 70 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Harvey Weinstein - Born 1952, turns 65 - Producer | Director | Writer
• Bruce Willis - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Singer  

Monday 20th March

• Carl Reiner - Born 1922, turns 95 - Director | Producer | Actor | Writer
• William Hurt - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor
• Spike Lee - Born 1957, turns 60 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• David Thewlis - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Michael Rappaport - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Holly Hunter - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actress | Producer
• Ruby Rose - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actress

Tuesday 21st March

• Rosie O'Donnell - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Singer
• Timothy Dalton - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor
• Gary Oldman - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Matthew Broderick - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Director | Singer
• Scott Eastwood - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actor | Producer  

Wednesday 22nd March

• William Shatner - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• M. Emmet Walsh - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actor
• Bruno Ganz - Born 1941, turns 76 - Actor
• Matthew Modine - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director | Cinematographer
• Reese Witherspoon - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actress | Producer | Singer   

Thursday 23rd March

• Amanda Plummer - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actress
• Catherine Keener - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actress | Producer
• Michelle Monaghan - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
• Jaume Collet-Serra - Born 1974, turns 43 - Director | Producer
• Daniel Espinosa - Born 1977, turns 40 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Friday 24th March

• Patrick Malahide - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actor | Writer
• Jim Parsons - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actor | Producer
• Kelly LeBrock - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actress
• Lara Flynn Boyle - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actress | Producer
• Jessica Chastain - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actress | Producer
• Keisha Castle-Hughes - Born 1990, turns 27 - Actress 

Saturday 25th March

• Sarah Jessica Parker - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actress | Producer | Singer 
• Paul Michael Glaser - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Edgar Ramirez - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Producer
• Lee Pace - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actor

Edgar Filiberto Ramirez Arellano was born in San Cristobal, Tachira, Venezuela, South America to mother Soday Arellano, a lawyer, and father Filbert Ramirez, an officer in the military service. He graduated from the Andres Bello Catholic University - a private and one of the largest universities in Venezuela, with its main campus in Caracas, in 1999 with a degree in mass communication. He had intended to pursue a career in international relations, and whilst at university he worked as a would-be journalist, reporting mainly on politics. He then became an Executive Director of 'Dale al Voto' - a foundation in Venezuela set up to engage and build the political understanding and reach of young people. For this, Ramirez and his team created campaigns that would appear on radio, television and in cinema. He also took charge of international promotions for the Viart Film Festival - a short film festival held in Caracas open to all students from Spanish speaking countries. Around about that time, Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga was invited to attend the Viart Film Festival, and he saw Ramirez work in a short film being presented. He was so impressed that he offered Ramirez the chance to audition for 'Amores Perros' which he declined. The film Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu went on to international acclaim. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! At this point Ramirez decided to reignite his interest in an acting career.

During the '90's Ramirez appeared sporadically in a number of television and film roles locally in Venezuela - kicking off with short lived television series 'Cuando Ilega el amor' in 1990, then 'Aqui esp-p-pantan', a horror fantasy comedy from 1993 involving ghosts terrorising a young couple who have recently moved into their house, and this was followed up in 1999 by '. . . sol y lluvia' about a young Venezuelan woman's dreams and aspirations of becoming Miss Venezuela. 2002 saw 'Plan B' a Venezuelan action crime drama in which Ramirez gained his first lead role. In 2003 he followed this up with a string of appearances on the romantic drama telenovela 'Cosita Rica' which ran from 2003 through 2004 for a total 270 episodes. In 2003 there was also Christmas drama 'Yotama se va volando', and then 'A Dot and a Line' the following year,

2005 saw Ramirez break into the Hollywood scene with his appearance in Tony Scott's 'Domino' inspired by the bounty hunting exploits of Domino Harvey, with Keira Knightley in the lead role, with Mickey Rourke, Delroy Lindo, Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken, Jacqueline Bisset, Mo'Nique and Ramirez as Choco - Domino's love interest. In 2006 he appeared in action crime offering 'El Don' and then Mexican film 'Elipsis' with Ramirez in the lead role once more.




The following year saw Ramirez appear alongside Matt Damon in the hugely successful Jason Bourne series in 'The Bourne Ultimatum', Directed by Paul Greengrass, in the role of Paz, a Blackbriar assassin, and later that same year in 'Cyrano Fernandez' in the lead role in this romantic action drama offering loosely based on the French play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. The year after, 2008, he appeared in Steven Soderbergh's 'Che' - the biopic of the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara with Benicio del Toro in the title role, and Ramirez appearing with an all star cast as Ciro Redondo (a Cuban revolutionary who fought amongst Ché Guevara). 'Vantage Point' followed that same year with again an all star cast including William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Forest Whittaker, Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver, with Ramirez cast as Javier, an ex-special forces soldier forced to kidnap the American President in order to get his brother back.

Ramirez saw the decade out with his turn as 'Carlos' about the life of the 1970's Venezuelan revolutionary Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez), covering his first series of attacks in 1973 until his arrest in 1994. This highly acclaimed three part mini-series which ran out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for its full five and half hour run time, garnered many award wins and nominations along the way, including Best Actor Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and SAG nods for Ramirez and multiple wins too, including France's Cesar Award for Most Promising Actor.

Up next in 2011 was Colombian vengeance action drama 'Greetings to the Devil', followed by the sequel to 2010's 'Clash of the Titans' with 'Wrath of the Titans' in which Ramirez plays Ares, the God of War, alongside Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Toby Kebbel, Bill Nighy and Rosamund Pike. French film 'An Open Heart' was next in 2012 with Juliette Binoche, before his turn in Kathryn Bigelow's multiple award winning 'Zero Dark Thirty' with Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong and James Gandolfini.

2013 saw Ramirez star in Venezuelan historical biopic 'The Liberator' - the story of Simon Bolivar as portrayed by Ramirez, who fought in over one hundred battles against the Spanish Empire in South America, rode over seventy thousand miles on horseback in the process and his military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. He never once conquered in battle, instead, he liberated, believing in freedom for all! Working with Director Ridley Scott came next in 'The Counsellor' with Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz, and then 'Deliver Us from Evil' for Director Scott Derrickson with Eric Bana playing real life New York Police Officer Ralph Sarchie investigating a number of paranormal crimes who joins forces with Ramirez Mendoza character - a somewhat unconventional Priest versed in the way of exorcism and demonic possession.

Extreme sport crime drama actioner remake of the classic Kathryn Bigelow 'Point Break' opened 2016, with Ramirez playing the Bodhi character previously portrayed by Patrick Swayze, with Luke Bracey playing Johnny Utah as played by a young Keanu Reeves back in 1991. The film received less that favourable Reviews generally and made US$134M from its US$105M budget outlay. David O'Russell's biographical dramedy 'Joy' followed with Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano the inventor of the miracle mop, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper with Ramirez playing Tony Miranne, Joy's ex-husband.

'Hands of Stone' was released last year with Ramirez playing Panamanian former professional boxer Roberto Duran. The film received a fifteen minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival last year, but this and Robert De Niro, John Turturro, Usher and Ellen Barkin also starring wasn't enough to save it from mixed critical Reviews and poor Box Office taking back just a quarter of its US$20M budget. Also last year came 'The Girl on the Train' with Emily Blunt and most recently 'Gold' with Matthew McConaughey bringing us up to date.



Next up for Ramirez is Sci-Fi crime fantasy 'Bright' for Director David Ayer and with Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace due later this year, then 'Love Child' for Director Todd Solondz with Penelope Cruz, and then television true crime series 'American Crime Story' with Ramirez set to play Gianni Versace in Season Three. Recently announced for 2018 is the pilot season for 'Black or White, Never Grey' running over thirteen episodes of the crime drama offering set in 1989.

Ramirez supports the 'Don't Shoot' campaign for Amnesty International which strives to eliminate the number of injuries and deaths caused by the irresponsible use of guns. He also took part in '5 Senses of Action' - an organisation which benefits children with special needs, and he has acted as the United Nations Children's Fund Goodwill Ambassador in the past too. All up Ramirez has 34 acting credits to his name and five as Producer. He has eleven award wins and a further ten nominations including Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG nods for 'Carlos'.

Edgar Ramirez - fluent in five languages - Spanish, English, French, Italian and German; had his US$150K watch collection stolen from his home in Caracas; has a deep fascination with human nature and all its virtues and flaws; is disciplined, structured, organised; believes in God, kindness and love; and is able to channel his personal feelings and beliefs into the roles he portrays with a convincing realism. Happy 40th Birthday to you Edgar, from Odeon Online.

-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-