ALIEN : ROMULUS - Tuesday 20th August 2024.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'ALIEN : ROMULUS' earlier this week, and this American Sci-Fi horror film is Co-Written, Executive Produced and Directed by Fede Alvarez, whose previous film making credits take in 2013's 'Evil Dead' in his feature Directorial debut, then 'Don't Breathe' in 2016, 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' in 2018, and now this film. It is the seventh instalment in the 'Alien' series and serves as a standalone film set between the events of 1979's 'Alien' Directed by Ridley Scott, and 1986's 'Aliens' Directed by James Cameron. The first six films in the franchise grossed at the global Box Office US$1.35B off the back of combined production budgets of US$376M, with Ridley Scott returning to Direct 'Prometheus' in 2012 and 'Alien : Covenant' in 2017, with him taking a Producer credit on this film. Costing US$80M to produce, the film has so far grossed US$122M and has generated largely favourable reviews.

The film opens with a scene of a Weyland-Yutani space probe investigating the wreckage of the Nostromo which has laid dormant and drifting in space for a couple of decades now. From the Nostromo they collect an inanimate albeit organic rock like structure that the crew set about lasering until it breaks open revealing a Xenomorph. 

Meanwhile, on the mining space colony Jackson's Star, Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) an orphan, works with her adoptive brother Andy (David Jonsson), an android reprogrammed by her father before he passed away succumbing to years of working the mines. After her contract is forcibly extended by Weyland-Yutani for another ten years, she agrees to join her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux) to a derelict spacecraft to retrieve cryostasis chambers. These chambers will allow Rain and her friends, Tyler, his pregnant sister Kay (Isabela Merced), cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn's girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu) to in turn escape to the planet Yvaga. Andy's ability to connect with the onboard computer system is crucial for the mission. Rain is hesitant to send Andy but is convinced by Tyler and Andy to allow him to assist.

They fly Tyler's hauler the Corbelan to the derelict spacecraft, which is revealed to be a station divided into two parts, Romulus and Remus. While retrieving the stasis chambers from the bitterly cold spacecraft, Tyler, Bjorn, and Andy accidentally revive frozen facehuggers when the temperature starts to rise dramatically, and triggers a lockdown. To override the lockdown, Rain installs a chip from a damaged android, Rook (voiced by Daniel Betts and based on the physical likeness of Ian Holm who portrayed the android Ash, in the original film), into Andy, granting him access to the station while also updating his thought processing and general efficiency. Unknown to the others, this also changes his 'prime directive', making him loyal solely to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

With the group fleeing the chamber, a facehugger connects onto Navarro. Rain reactivates a dismembered Rook, who states that the station's crew was killed by the Xenomorph and its clones. While Tyler tries to remove the creature by freezing its tail, which proves successful, while Rook warns it may have implanted a 'seed' inside her. Despite Andy's attempts to stop him, Bjorn flees with a now coherent Navarro on the Corbelan. A short time later a chestburster hatches from Navarro's rib cage, killing her. The Corbelan, with Kay and Bjorn aboard, crashes into the Romulus hangar, putting at risk the station's orbit and leaving less than an hour before it collides with Jackson's planetary rings. Kay is knocked unconscious from the impact and the chestburster escapes into the ship. She regains consciousness and runs into Bjorn, who discovers and attacks the Xenomorph gestating into its adult form before dying from its acid blood which rained down on him from above. 

Rain, Tyler and Andy navigate to the bay while carefully avoiding the facehuggers. Kay escapes the Corbelan but is stalked by a Xenomorph trying to lure the others into a trap. Andy refuses to unlock the door so as not to put everyone at risk, and they watch helplessly as Kay is attacked and dragged away. Andy finds vials of a compound scientists had extracted from the Xenomorphs, which Rook calls the 'Prometheus fire', which it is intended to 'perfect' humans. Rook insists the samples must be brought to the colony and prevents the Corbelan from leaving without them. 

Rain and Tyler rescue Kay from a cocoon, but Tyler is killed and Andy is incapacitated. Badly injured, Kay injects herself with the compound during their escape. Rain returns to the Romulus, helps Andy by removing the control chip, thus returning his loyalty to Rain, and disables the ship's gravity in order to shoot the Xenomorphs while keeping their acidic blood away from the hull. They make it back to the Corbelan with moments to spare before the station crashes into the rings, and destroying Rook.

As Rain and Andy ready themselves for their journey to Yvaga, Kay, affected by the compound injection, gives birth to a rapidly growing human Xenomorph hybrid (Robert Bobroczkyi). The hybrid kills Kay and injures Andy, but Rain manages to eject the creature into Jackson's rings. She places Andy in a chamber saying that she will fix him, and records a log about their wished for arrival at Yvaga before entering stasis herself.

'Alien : Romulus' is a welcome nod to the first two films that launched this franchise some 45 and 38 years ago by retaining the very workmanlike look and feel of the crew; the muted visuals; the rampant and marauding facehuggers, chestbursters and Xenomorphs; and the combined sense of dread and urgency that was so effective in those first two instalments. Fede Alvarez has crafted a stand alone film in this franchise with nods aplenty to those first two films, while creating something fresh and interesting to those viewers unfamiliar with the original movies. The performances of Spaeny and Jonsson in particular are on point here, and Alvarez's use of practical effects over CGI adds a sense of realism to the proceedings. My only gripe at the film was how the Xenomorph and the Hybrid went from being hatched/born to being fully grown killing machines each in a matter of minutes, as the whole film plays out over the course of just a few hours - that I have to say stretches the bounds of the imagination just a little too far in my humble opinion. That said, a solid entry into the Alien canon that is worth the price of your cinema ticket.

'Alien : Romulus' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 15th August 2024.

The 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival runs this year from Thursday 15th August through until Wednesday 21st August. Spanning seven days, the relaunched EIFF will honour 70+ years of festival history, showcasing the very best talent in filmmaking in a re-energised format that is rooted in a local Scottish context whilst embracing the international diversity of creative expression. The EIFF’s August fixture now runs in parallel to a host of creative festivals taking place in Edinburgh, including Edinburgh International Festival and the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The EIFF will encourage general audiences, film buffs and industry professionals to make the trip this Summer to Edinburgh, which is universally recognised as a place of beauty, history, discovery and adventure, so reads the official website.

EIFF is poised to accelerate the discovery of new talent through the inauguration of two major competitions, The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence, with significant prize-money awarded to the filmmakers.

This years Opening Night Films are the UK Premiere of 'The Outrun' from Germany and the UK and Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and starring Saoirse Ronan with Saskia Reeves and Stephen Dillane, before kicking off the Midnight Madness screenings with the UK Premiere of Fede Alvarez’s 'Alien: Romulus' starring Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux and Isabel Merced. The Closing Night Films are the World Premiere of documentary 'Since Yesterday : The Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands' Directed by Blair Young and Carla J. Easton, before the Midnight Madness Closing Film being 'The Substance' from the UK and USA and Directed by Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid and Hugo Diego Garcia.

The Competition Features strand is showcasing the following films, all competing for the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Film Excellence and a cash award to fund future projects of the nominated film maker of £50K :-

* 'The Ceremony' - from the UK and Directed by Jack King. World Premiere.

* 'Fugue' - from Belgium, France, Netherlands and Peru and Directed by Benedicte Lienard and Mary Jimenez. World Premiere.

* 'Xibalba Monster' - from Mexico and Directed by Manuela Irene. World Premiere.

* 'To Kill A Wolf' - from the USA and Directed by Kelsey Taylor. World Premiere.

* 'Sunlight' - from the UK and Directed by Nina Conti. World Premiere.

* '*smiles and kisses you*' - from the USA and Directed by Bryan Carberry. World Premiere.

* 'A Shrine' - from Canada, France and Iran and Directed by Abdolreza Kahani. World Premiere.

* 'Lollipop' - from the UK and Directed by Daisy-May Hudson. World Premiere. 

* 'All The Mountains Give' - from Iran and Directed by Arash Rakhsha. World Premiere.

* 'Lillies Not For Me' - from the USA, South Africa and the UK and Directed by Will Seefried. World Premiere.

For the summary of the above named films, plus details of the other strands being showcased and a whole lot more besides, you can visit the official website at : https://www.edfilmfest.org/

This week there are five new movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to you that hail from Australia, the USA, France and Vietnam, and we launch with the seventh offering in this highly successful long running Sci-Fi horror franchise that goes by the tagline 'in space, no one can you hear you scream' with this film set somewhere between the first two instalments that came out 45 and 38 years ago now. This is followed up by an Aussie horror offering that sees the youngest brother believed to be demonically possessed, with the two estranged older brothers having to reunite to confront a dreadful family secret. And sticking with the Aussie theme, we have a documentary film that charts the journey of blind Australian surfer on a personal quest to conquer one of the worlds largest surf breaks. Then we turn to a French film about a woman who on the cusp of turning 50 takes the advise of a stranger and embarks on an affair, only to have numerous suitors knocking on her door. And closing out the week there is a Vietnamese horror movie about a vengeful spirit who lurks within the Mekong Delta who lures unsuspecting children into their watery grave, and one woman's quest to prevent the spirit from taking her daughter.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'ALIEN : ROMULUS' (Rated MA15+) - is an American Sci-Fi horror film Co-Written, Executive Produced and Directed by Fede Alvarez, whose previous film making credits take in 2013's 'Evil Dead' in his feature Directorial debut, then 'Don't Breathe' in 2016, 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' in 2018, and now this film. It is the seventh instalment in the Alien series and serves as a standalone film set between the events of 1979's 'Alien' Directed by Ridley Scott and 1986's 'Aliens' Directed by James Cameron. The first six films in the franchise grossed at the global Box Office US$1.35B off the back of combined production budgets of US$376M, with Ridley Scott returning to Direct 'Prometheus' in 2012 and 'Alien : Covenant' in 2017, with him taking a Producer credit on this film.

Here then, the story surrounds a group of young space colonists who, while scavenging a derelict space station, come face to face with the most terrifying life form in space. Starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fern and Aileen Wu. The film is released this week too in the US and UK. Early critical reviews have been positive. 

'THE DEMON DISORDER' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian horror film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Steven Boyle in his screen debut although he has a long credit list of world class production in the arena of Special FX. The film tells the story of Graham (Christian Willis), Jake (Dirk Hunter) and Phillip (Charles Cottier) Reilly and their deceased father George (John Noble). Their pasts collide when a family secret is discovered, leading their father's garage to become the site of revenge from beyond the grave. The film is released this week in cinema's before streaming on Shudder from September. 

'THE BLIND SEA' (Rated PG) - is an Australian documentary film Written, Directed and Edited by Daniel Fenech in his feature length debut, and tells the inspirational and breathtaking story of Australian Matt Formston, Paralympian and 4x World Champion blind surfer. Diagnosed with Macular Dystrophy at age five, Matt shares some of his processes that have enabled him to succeed at the highest level - both in and out of the water, despite facing a lifetime of judgment and prejudice. With only 3% vision remaining, Matt aims to inspire the next generation as we follow him around the world, as he pushes his mettle to the limits and attempts his most fearsome and dangerous challenge yet, breaking the world record for a blind surfer and surfing the monster waves of Nazare in Portugal. 

'IRIS AND THE MEN' (Rated M) - aka 'IT'S RAINING MEN' - this French romantic dramedy is Co-Written and Directed by Caroline Vignal in only her third feature film outing since 'Girlfriends' in 2000 and 'My Donkey, My Lover and I' in 2020. Iris (Laure Calamy) has a seemingly flawless husband Stephane (Vincent Elbaz), two wonderful daughters Anna (Zoe Richard) and Lili (Daphne Crepieux), a dental practice with a relentless stream of customers, a nice apartment in an area she loves, friends who understand her, and pretty soon she'll be 50. And then a stranger plants a seed in her head - 'take a lover'! Iris open Pandora's box and candidates emerge as if from nowhere - as if it were raining men. The film was released in its native France in early January this year, and only now does it get a limited release in Australia.

'MA DA : THE DROWNING SPIRIT' (Rated M) - is a Vietnamese made horror film with English subtitles, that is Directed by Nguyen Huu Hoang in his third feature film outing following 'Murder in the Lens' in 2018 and 'Song Song' in 2021. Here, Corpse collector Le confronts MA DA, the vengeful drowning spirit that lures unwary children into their watery graves, after it abducts her daughter. Determined to save her child, Mrs. Le (Viet Huong) embarks on a desperate rescue to prevent her child's ghostly fate that lurks beneath the surface of the Mekong River. 

With five new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB : Tuesday 13th November 2018.

'THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB' which I saw this week, is the fourth instalment in the 'Millennium' series of novels and films. This film franchise first kicked off with the originator of the international best seller series Stieg Larsson who penned 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' - all of which were made into successful films in their native Sweden, launching the movie career of Noomi Rapace as lead character Lisbeth Salander in those first three films. In 2011, David Fincher made an American version of the first film starring Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist as an investigative journalist and occasional lover to Salander. When Stieg Larsson died in 2004 aged 50, having completed the three novels, David Lagercrantz carried the torch having penned two follow on novels so far, the first of which continues with this instalment. This time Directed by Fede Alvarez whose previous Directing credits include the 2013 version of 'Evil Dead' and  2016's 'Don't Breathe'. The film saw its Premier at the Rome Film Festival in late October, cost US$43M to make and has so far recovered US$18M, was released in Sweden at the end of October, was released here in Australia and in the US last week and has so far received generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so to the story. The film opens with the young child Lisbeth and her sister Camilla playing a game of chess on the floor of her fathers snow fortress home somewhere in the foothills of Stockholm. A servant enters the room where they play and commands that the girls go see their father in his bedroom. In making their way down the corridor, a heavily tattooed naked woman is seen walking into another room. Their father insists that the girls join him on his bed, as he unbuttons his shirt. It is clear that at this point that his intentions are far from honourable. Lisbeth hangs back as Camilla approaches her father. Lisbeth wants nothing of this and in a moment of distraction throws herself off the balcony and into a blizzard. Surviving the fall on an embankment of freshly fallen snow, the young Lisbeth is seen running off into the forest below. She chooses not to venture back to the house as long as her father remains alive.

We then fast forward twenty or so years to the present day. We are in an ultra modern apartment overlooking the Stockholm skyline. Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) is lurking in the shadows of the library, and has come to the rescue of an abused wife from her wealthy, successful and respected businessman husband, who has just beaten her bloody and is now trying to make up to her as she lays on the floor propped up against a kitchen bench. Lisbeth dressed in black with a hoodie and white make up contrasting her eyes appears as an avenging angel against the backdrop of a statue in the darkened room. Pretty quickly she has trussed the husband up in a wire lasso and has him dangling upside down from the ceiling. Meanwhile, she has hacked into his bank account and proceeds to empty it distributing his wealth in favour of his wife and child, and the two prostitutes he previously beat up, and which she plays him back on her smart phone, threatening to go public with the footage if he dare to come after her, or is wife and child ever again.

A few days later, dismissed from the National Security Agency, Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) recruits expert hacker Lisbeth to steal 'FireFall', a computer programme that can access codes for nuclear weapons worldwide from a single device, and which he developed in the first place. He has come to realise that it's really not such a clever idea to leave FireFall unattended in the hands of the U.S. government, and so wants it destroyed. Lisbeth, using her advanced IT hacking skills is able to move the programme from the NSA's tightly guarded and high security computer vault. However, accessing the programme once it is in her possession is no easy feat, involving the answering of very cryptic questions, that we learn later on that Balders six year old savant son August (Christopher Convery) only has the answers to.

Edwin Needham (LaKeith Stanfield) is a former computer hacker of some repute and has now turned specialist techie geek for the NSA, and he traces the opening of FireFall to Stockholm. So off he jets on the next available flight. Upon landing he is picked up by the Swedish Secret Service authorities and told in no certain terms by Gabriella Grane (Synnove Macody Lund), the Deputy Director, to keep out of their business and that he has no jurisdiction other than being a tourist, and any contravention will result in his immediate deportation back from whence he came. Of course he ignores this directive immediately and goes off in search of Lisbeth.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth is living in secret in an abandoned warehouse, replete with all her computer gadgets and wizardry that enables her to hack her way into any computer system anywhere in the world with just a couple of clicks . . . a skill that more than proves its worth on multiple occasions throughout the film. Whilst relaxing in her bath however, her apartment is broken into by a group of unscrupulous masked men looking for the programme, who end up torching her digs in a ball of fire. Lisbeth, naturally survives although not unscathed, and has recorded the antagonists down to her computer located in her fire and explosion proof panic room. As for the rest of the apartment, it is well and truly torched.

As Lisbeth quickly salvages what she can from the burnt out ruins of her former abode, the Police begin to arrive to check on all the commotion. Lisbeth rides out on her motorbike and is chased along the waterfront by three Police cars in hot pursuit, but she is able to make her getaway across a frozen river.

With her computer containing the FireFall programme now in the hands of some nefarious underworld organisation, Lisbeth turns to her old friend Michael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) to get handy with some deep diving investigative work to uncover the masked perpetrators. Meanwhile she sets up covert surveillance of Balders safe house expecting that those perpetrators will eventually hunt him out wanting the access code. In the meantime, Blomkvist has traced one of the masked men through a distinctive spider tattoo, and has learned that 'The Spiders' are the secretive powerful and often violent Russian outfit behind Lisbeth's woes.

Via the covert surveillance camera placed strategically overlooking the Balder residence, Lisbeth is able to see the Russians infiltrating the household, brutally killing the guards on security duty and soon enough too Frans, taking August prisoner and setting up a drugged up Lisbeth to make it look as though she shot Frans through the head at very close range. Able to execute a fairly swift getaway, although only semi-conscious, Lisbeth recovers her senses and gives chase in an unmarked Police car. After a high speed car chase involving hand brake turns, wheel spins and jumps she eventually rescues the young lad from the clutches of them pesky no good Russians and leaves them high and dry on an elevated snow covered bridge, with Lisbeth on one side glaring at her evil long lost believed dead sister Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks).

Decamping to a secret hideaway on the outskirts of the city, Lisbeth and August make off in a hacked Lamborghini. They meet up with Blomkvist there, but within 24 hours Camilla and her Spider cohorts arrive and take back August. In the meantime, Needham has been arrested at the scene of the crime at the Balder household and Grane promptly orders that he be shipped back to 'Disneyland' post haste. Lisbeth goes to the airport to retrieve Needham from his heavy security entourage and does so by hacking into every surveillance camera, every electronic door locking device and every possible security measure to make his exit from there as easy and as fast as possible.

Arriving back afterwards with Needham safe elsewhere, Lisbeth is greeted by Camilla and her henchmen, and an unconscious Blomkvist. Once again there is a scuffle as Lisbeth and Blomkvist's lives are threatened, but she is able to escape, but not before the Spiders make off with August. With Blomkvist, Lisbeth visits Plague (Cameron Britton) a close associate of hers and a computer expert, where Needham is also holed out. Lisbeth is instantly able to trace August's location through a tracking device she planted on him earlier in the day.

Camilla and crew make for her childhood home, which now sits empty and run down. Inside, Camilla has set up camp with all the hi-tech gadgetry and computer screens necessary to unleash FireFall on an unsuspecting world. August is bound and tied in a separate room. She sneaks her way in, hacking the security cameras for Plague who is parked in his surveillance van down the road. Lisbeth makes reasonable progress through the house thwarting various bad dudes, but Camilla has anticipated her arrival and has set a trap for Lisbeth, which she falls into but not before putting up a fight.

When Lisbeth comes around she is kneeling on the floor with her hands tied behind her back, and in front of her sits August. Camilla orders Lisbeth to command August to reveal the access code to his fathers FireFall question. Seeing the situation as being hopeless and with a particularly nasty injection aimed squarely at a now also captive Blomkvist, Lisbeth says to August to release the code. And this he does, and within a few minutes FireFall goes live. Camilla then promptly wraps up Lisbeth in a black latex sack and sucks all the air out of it, so slowly suffocating her sister who by now resembles a vacuum packed bag of chicken portions. Meanwhile Needham has set up a sniper position with a high powered long range rifle and is dependant on Plague giving him the coordinates of the henchmen within the house. One by one Needham with a carefully trained eye takes out the unsuspecting henchmen through windows, walls and doors. Camilla, leaves her sister to suffocate slowly in her vacuum sealed confines, as she makes a fast exit.

Driving out of there at speed in a Maserati but with her computer at her side, Camilla believes she is in the clear, when the car hits a blinded Jan Holster (Claes Bang), Camilla's trusted accomplice and deliverer of very bad deeds. The car spins out of control, veers off the road and crashes into the trees. Lisbeth arrives having made her escape from the confines of her latex wrapping to find the driver dead, and Camilla's bloodied hand print on the back seat, but the door open and no sign of her.

Not before long Lisbeth has caught up with Camilla limping through the forest clutching her computer and bleeding heavily from her side. She veers up a rocky outcrop with the house in the distance. The pair exchange words, as tears well in both their eyes. As Lisbeth lowers her gun, Camilla throws down the computer onto the snow and steps back off the cliff edge falling to her death below. Needham arrives to find no sigh of Lisbeth, but the computer lying still in the snow. He opens the laptop to reveal a message from Lisbeth, that she has moved the FireFall programme as it is what Balder wanted. Mission : Accomplished! Needham makes good on his promise to Lisbeth for engineering his escape from the authorities by returning August safely to his mother in San Francisco.

The opening credits sequence of 'The Girl in the Spiders Web' reminded me a lot of the opening titles sequence in just about every Bond movie, which kinda set the tone for the rest of the film. Here Lisbeth Salander is a mash up of a feminine hard hitting Bond or Bourne, and a black clad superhero who gets kicked, punched, drugged, stabbed, gassed, blown up, shot at and vacuum packed but every time manages to bounce right back and kick more ass in the process. And the relative ease with which Lisbeth is able to hack into the seemingly most advanced computer systems with just a couple of clicks and faster that you can say 'computer hacker extraordinare' seems completely incongruous. The plot is repetitive in places and therefore becomes a tad predictable, but all that said Claire Foy makes for a respectable Lisbeth in her third big screen outing this year after 'Unsane' and 'First Man'. The action set pieces are delivered with imagination, but the character of Blomkvist is here sidelined as is his Millennium publication, and in penning this story the writer/screenwriters seem to have lost their way compared to the set up that Larsson so expertly and emotionally charged his character with. This is a good movie, but its not a great movie. On the strength of this instalment however, I would be easily persuaded to venture back to my local Odeon for the next Lagercrantz instalment 'The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye', which hopefully Claire Foy will return for.

'The Girl in the Spiders Web' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a  potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 8th November 2018.

The 'Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma' (aka 'International Rome Film Festival') was held in Rome, Italy, from 18th through until 28th October 2018 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, and other venues around the ancient city. This festival of film was only founded in 2006 and whilst still quite young and new compared to many others, the importance of the hosting city as well as the strong economic investment has placed the Rome Film Festival among the world's most important film festivals, with huge media coverage and world-renowned artists attending. This year there were 266 screenings of 91 films in total from thirty countries represented.

The festival's closing film was 'Notti Magiche' ('Magical Nights') by Director Paolo Virzi. Set in Rome in 1990, the film centres around three aspiring young Screenwriters who are suspected of the murder of a famous film Producer on the night that Italy's national football team is ousted from the World Cup by the Argentinian side. The final day of this years Rome Film Festival ended with screenings of films from the official lineup in cinemas around the city, plus a concert of film scores by master composers and multi-award winning Ennio Morricone and Nicola Piovani.

'Il Vizio della Speranza' ('The Vice of Hope') Directed by Edoardo De Angelis was the winner of the People’s Choice Award, as audiences voted via app and web for their favourite film of the 2018 festival. Set in the drug-infested Castel Volturno outside Naples, the film follows Maria (Pina Turco), a trafficker of surrogate mothers whose closest companion is her pitbull terrier dog. She moves women from place to place along the river where they give birth, and then a powerful and unscrupulous madam sells their babies to the highest bidder. When one woman disappears, determined to keep her unborn baby, Maria is tasked with tracking her down, however, now pregnant with her own child, Maria begins to question her role in the illicit business.

James Gardner’s Directorial debut with 'Jelly Fish' won the Best Film award, with star Liv Hill also winning a Special Jury Prize. The Special Jury Prize for Best Film went to Peter Hedges’ 'Ben Is Back' with Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, and the Jury Prize for Best First Film went to the psychological drama 'The Harvesters' Written and Directed by Etienne Kallos.

The Official Selection line-up this year included such titles as 'American Animals' 'Bad Times at the El Royale' which also served as the opening film, 'Beautiful Boy', 'Fahrenheit 11/9', 'The Girl in the Spiders Web' (as Previewed below for its Australian release this week), 'Green Book', 'Halloween', 'The Hate U Give', 'The House with a Clock in its Walls', 'If Beale Street Could Talk', 'Kursk', 'The Little Drummer Girl', 'Monsters and Men', 'The Old Man & The Gun', 'A Private War', 'Stan & Ollie', 'The Vice of Hope' (winner of the People's Choice Award), 'They Shall Not Grow Old', 'Three Identical Strangers', 'Boy Erased' (also Previewed below for its Australian release this week), 'The Miseducation of Cameron Post' and 'Dead in a Week : Or Your Money Back'.

This week then we have six new release movies coming to an Odeon near you. We kick off with a new instalment in an already successful film franchise taken from the pages of an equally successful set of novels featuring our titular heroine with a distinctive tattoo, her occasional lover - an investigative journalist, and a bunch of criminal types who all deserve what they've got coming. We then turn to a remake of a classic 1977 Italian horror film set in a Berlin dance academy where everything is not quite as it seems when it revealed that the academy may just be run by a coven of witches. Next up we have a black comedy set in small town America when its citizens go on the rampage when a mystery hacker releases countless personal text messages about the town's folk. This is followed up by a coming of age story of a nineteen year old lad who is sent away to gay conversion therapy by his concerned and steadfastly religious parents, and what unfolds thereafter. Next is a WWI story of a bunch of soldiers in the trenches on the front line in war torn France, who must endure a week of waiting to go on the offensive to their certain death. And we then wrap up the week with a British comedy offering about a down on her luck young woman whose life changes in unexpected ways when she inherits a pug dog.

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

'THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB' (Rated MA15+) - this is the fourth instalment in the 'Millennium' series of novels and films, that first kicked off with the originator of the international best seller series Stieg Larson who penned 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' - all of which were made into successful films launching the movie career of Noomi Rapace as lead character Lisbeth Salander in those first three films. In 2011, David Fincher made an American version of the first film starring Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist as an investigative journalist and occasional lover to Salander.  When Stieg Larson died in 2004 aged 50, having completed the three novels, David Lagercrantz carried the torch having penned two follow on novels so far, the first of which continues with this instalment. This time Directed by Fede Alvarez whose previous Directing credits include the 2013 version of 'Evil Dead' and  2016's 'Don't Breathe'. The film saw its Premier at the Rome Film Festival in late October, cost US$43M to make, was released in Sweden at the end of October, is released here and in the US this week and has so far received generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so to this story. Dismissed from the National Security Agency, Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) recruits hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) to steal FireWall, a computer program that can access codes for nuclear weapons worldwide, and which he developed in the first place. The download pretty quickly gains the attention from NSA agent Edwin Neeham (LaKeith Stanfield) who traces the activity to Stockholm. Further problems arise when the Russians steal Lisbeth's laptop and kidnap a computer geek who can make FireWall functional. Now, Lisbeth and an unlikely ally must race against time to recover the codes to avert disaster, overcome corrupt government officials, thwart cyber criminals and unravel a web of spies whilst saving the kidnapped geek. Also starring Sverrir Gudnason as Mikael Blomkvist, Sylvia Hoeks and Claes Bang.

'SUSPIRIA' (Rated MA15+) - way back in 1977 the acclaimed Italian Director, Producer and Screenwriter Dario Argento, perhaps best known for his work in the horror film genre during the '70's and '80's, released what was to become one of his most successful films - 'Suspiria', partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay 'Suspiria de Profundis' ('Sighs from the Depths'). Now some forty years later this supernatural horror film gets a makeover courtesy of Italian Director and Co-Producer Luca Guadagnino. Costing US$20M to make, the film saw its World Premier at the Venice International Film Festival in early September, went on release in the US last week, and the UK next week, and has so far generated largely favourable Reviews. The story here unfolds as young American dancer Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) arrives in West German Berlin in 1977 to audition for the world famous Helena Markos Dance Company. When she vaults to the position of lead dancer, the woman she replaces breaks down and accuses the company's female Directors of witchcraft. Meanwhile, an inquisitive psychotherapist Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton) and another member of the dance troupe uncover dark and sinister secrets as they probe the depths of the studio's hidden underground chambers that lead them to believe that the academy is controlled by a coven of witches. Also starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Mia Goth and Jessica Harper who starred as Susie Bannion in the original film. Tilda Swinton plays three roles in the film.

'ASSASSINATION NATION' (Rated MA15+) - this American black comedy thriller is Written and Directed by Sam Levinson (son of Barry Levinson), received its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, was released in the US and the UK towards the end of September, has received mixed or average Reviews and has so far grossed just US$2M. Here, the story unfolds in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, where High School senior students Lily Colson (Odessa Young) and her three best friends Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), Bex (Hari Nef) and Em (Abra) live in a malaise of text messages, social media posts, selfies and online chats, pretty much like the rest of the 'civilised' world. However, their small town world gets turned upside down and inside out when a mystery anonymous hacker starts to reveal personal messages and secrets of thousands of people. As anger spills over into full-blown violence, the four girls soon find themselves fighting for their lives and for their survival against an armed and very angry mob. Also starring Bill Skarsgard, Maude Apatow and Joel McHale. 

'BOY ERASED' (Rated MA15+) - this American and Australian Co-Production is a coming of age drama based on the 2016 memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, and is Directed, Co-Produced, Written for the Screen and also stars Joel Edgerton. The film saw its World Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival back in early September and went on release in the US last week, where it has garnered generally positive Press. Here, Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) is the son of Marshall (Russell Crowe) a Baptist Pastor and Nancy (Nicole Kidman) living in small town America, who is outed to his parents as gay at the age of nineteen. Jared is quickly pressured into attending a gay conversion therapy programme, or else suffer the consequences and be shunned by his family, friends, and his church. It is within the programme that Jared comes into conflict with its head therapist Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton). The film also stars Joe Alwyn, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan and Flea. 

'JOURNEY'S END' (Rated M) - this British film is an adaptation of the 1928 stage play of the same name by R.C.Sherriff and is the fifth adaptation of that play to grace the big and small screen. Directed by Saul Dibb the film stars an ensemble cast and has so far generated generally positive Reviews since its Special Presentation screening at TIFF way back in September 2017, and its initial release in Ireland in early February this year. Now only does it get a limited release in Australia. The story here occurs in the Spring of 1918 near St. Quentin, France. The war has already dragged on for four years almost, with millions killed in the process and it will continue on for another six months at least, taking out countless lives needlessly as it does. Taking us into the heart of a WWI battle zone we follow fresh-faced teenage Second Lieutenant Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), who gets himself assigned to the command of Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin). The drama plays out amid the tensions, anxieties and camaraderie that unite these men and their infantry colleagues that including cook Mason (Toby Jones) and battle-worn Trotter (Stephen Graham) and Hibbert (Tom Sturridge) as they begin a week where they have already heard that a huge German offensive is expected and soon. They know little else except that they can expect no reinforcements and not to be evacuated . . . . and so they await their fate. Also starring Paul Bettany and Robert Glenister.

'PATRICK' (Rated PG) - here Mandie Fletcher Directs this British comedy offering hot on the heels of her 2016 Directed 'Absolutely Fabulous : The Movie'. The story here unfolds about one Sarah Francis (Beattie Edmondson, daughter of Adrian Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders) who is a young woman whose life is just a tad on the skids. The last thing she is looking for is someone or something else to look after, especially not someone or something who dribbles, snores and eats garbage from the kitchen bin. However, like it or lump it, her Grandmother has left Sarah her prized possession in her will, a very spoilt pug dog called Patrick. As this new canine friend proceeds to wreak havoc in all areas of Sarah’s life, its not long before a sort of miracle happens as Patrick slowly but very surely begins to turn her life around. Also starring Jennifer Saunders, Ed Skrien, Gemma Jones, Bernard Cribbins and Peter Davison.

With six 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-

DON'T BREATHE : Tuesday 6th September 2016.

I saw 'DON'T BREATHE' at my local Multiplex in the week having read much good press about this supposed original horror film. And, I say supposed, because for me this is not a horror film in the traditional sense where we expect shock value, blood and gore, random acts of violence and things that go bump in the night. Directed by Fede Alvarez who brought us 'The Evil Dead' reboot in 2013 here he brings us this suspenseful home invasion psychological thriller film that has received positive reviews since its release and has made US$67M off its US$10M budget outlay. The film is Co-Produced by horror maestro Sam Raimi.

Here the film opens with three Detroit living thieves Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto) breaking, entering and stealing from the homes that are supposedly safely secured by Alex's father's security company. Rocky and Alex go about stealing valuables that can be resold, while Money gets his kicks from vandalising and trashing the houses they gain forced entry into, and keeping a watchful eye out. Their fence gives them well below market value for the goods that Money brings to them, but it is enough for Rocky and her little sister to escape their no hope parents for a life in California by the beach. One day in a meeting with the fence, when Rocky is sounding off about how the risk is all theirs for little reward, he is alerted to an Army Veteran living in a largely abandoned neighbourhood that has recently come into some money - about US$300K from a settlement following the death of his daughter in a car accident, and all that money is in the house, in cash! Later that day Money stakes out the house in a derelict and abandoned suburb of Detroit, and further learns that the man in question is in fact blind.

The three agree that with this kind of pay day, and a blind man holed up in a house alone in an abandoned neighbourhood, that this would be easy pickings that could see them all get outta Dodge once and for all. They agree to go in under cover of darkness at 2:00am in the morning when the blind man is asleep. They drug the guard dog - a Rottweiler, and gain entry by breaking through a first floor bathroom window activating a delayed alarm which Alex is able to disarm using a controller stolen from his father. The threesome scour the house searching for the location of the cash, while the blind man sleeps upstairs, but are unable to find it.

They come across a heavily padlocked door, and despite his best efforts with a crow bar, Money is unable to gain entry. He produces a gun to shoot through the reinforced padlock, but Alex is angry that carrying a weapon exposes them to greater criminal charges if arrested, and motions to leave via the rear kitchen door. Money ignores him, shoots the padlock, which awakens the blind man who stumbles down the stairs as if frightened and weak. A tussle breaks out between the two, but not before Money has stated that he is alone in the house and threatens the blind man if he comes close. Underestimating the strength and fortitude of the blind man, Money is overcome and is shot in the head by his own gun. Rocky looks on in silence from a few paces away and by now Alex has returned to see the dead corpse of Money lying on the floor.

The blind man begins to clean up the mess believing he is now alone in the house, whilst Rocky makes a quick retreat in silence into a closet, and Alex darts into the bathroom from where they gained entry. Hiding in a corner, the blind man enters with a sheet of board, hammer and nails and covers up the broken window making the house secure again. He checks all exists and padlocks every door. Rocky and Alex are now locked in. The blind man, walks into the closet where Rocky is in hiding. He removes a secret panel revealing a safe with a digital combination. He opens it revealing a stash of cash that looks a lot more than US$300K. She witnesses the four digit security code as the safe is locked and the blind man disappears to continue his clean up. Alex locates Rocky and then opens the safe, takes the money and stashes it in her back pack.

Meanwhile, with his heightened sense of smell and hearing, the blind man comes across the shoes left in the kitchen by the three burglars so as to make less noise while going about their thieving. He surmises from this that the dead man was not alone, and as such there must be others still in the house. The two evade the blind man by finding a door leading to the cellar under the house. The cellar is a labyrinth of shelves with access corridors between, and anterooms but upon entering the house they notice a storm door which was bolted from the inside. While searching for the storm door they come across a bound and gagged woman in a makeshift padded cell, who they soon realise is the woman who killed the blind mans daughter.

Her name is Cindy and she shows Rocky and Alex a newspaper clipping proclaiming her innocence. She motions to another safe in which are the keys to her restraints. Racing against time, Rocky and Alex set Cindy free. Reaching the storm door Alex opens the lock from the inside only to be greeted by the blind man waiting for them on the outside, looking down and armed. He shoots at Rocky and Alex using the gun retrieved from Money, but accidentally kills Cindy. He is enraged and plunges the cellar into darkness as the three now scrabble around in the dark with the blind man clearly having the upper hand given that he lives in a perpetual state of darkness.

Rocky and Alex manage to escape back upstairs, but find all their exit points blocked and the dog waiting for them. Rocky tries to escape through the house ventilation system, but Alex is pursued by the dog and falls through a window onto the kitchen skylight below. By now the blind man has re-emerged and seeing Alex semi-conscious on the skylight shoots at it missing Alex but shattering the glass so that he falls through. He drags Alex into a utility room where they fight, with the blind man gaining the upper hand and stabbing at Alex with a pair of heavy gardening shears. He impales the dead body of Money believing it to be Alex. The dog in the meantime has turned its attention to Rocky and is in hot pursuit through the house ventilation ducting, but does not escape the clutches of the blind man, who captures her and beats her unconscious.

The girl comes around tied and restrained in the basement where Cindy was held captive previously with the blind man looking on. He tells Rocky that Cindy was carrying his unborn child, and having taken away his daughter it was now up to her to bear him a new one. Now he blames Rocky for Cindy's death, and therefore having taken his unborn child away it was now beholden on Rocky to bear him a child. He tells Rocky that Cindy was a willing participant in her pregnancy on the condition that he let her go upon the birth - a promise he had every intention of keeping, and will do so when Rocky bears him a child. But, as he's not a rapist he intends to artificially inseminate her using a turkey baster and his frozen sperm, which he is defrosting whilst telling her this. Just before the crucial moment, Alex bursts onto the scene and in another scuffle manages to secure the blind man with a pair of handcuffs used to restrain Cindy and Rocky, and free Rocky in the process. They escape back upstairs, but before you know it the blind man has freed himself and emerges at the cellar door with gun, takes aim, shoots and kills Alex.

Rocky makes off and escapes outside pursued by the dog, and finding the parked car a couple of blocks away seeks refuge therein, but no keys. After evading the dog successfully, she gets out of the confines of the now useless car only to be knocked out again by the blind man from behind. She is dragged by the hair down the empty street in broad daylight and dumped on the floor back in the house next to the dead body of Alex. Using the remote intruder alarm controller which she finds close to Alex's body she activates the loud alarm system which disorientates the blind man for long enough for the girl to beat him with a crow bar and send him backwards down into the cellar discharging the gun he is holding into his own stomach. She retrieves her back pack carrying the stash of cash and makes off into the sunlight just as a Police car rounds the corner and up the deserted street.

I enjoyed 'Don't Breathe' and thought that it is up there with that other sleeper hit of the same genre 'The Green Room' from earlier in the year. The story is simple enough, original, well delivered, with a couple of jump scares, a good dose of suspense, an antagonist who just won't back down when his home is invaded by three opportunistic kids and who harbours a dark secret, and, a protagonist who survives against the odds in a deadly game of cat and mouse within the confines of a humble, albeit well secured dwelling. Certainly worth the price of your ticket.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-