Birthday's to share this week : 28th June - 4th July 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Margot Robbie does on 2nd July - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 25, 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 28th June

• John Cusack - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Mel Brooks - Born 1926, turns 89 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Bruce Davidson - Born 1946, turns 69 - Actor | Director
• Kathy Bates - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actress | Director
• Mary Stuart Masterson - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actress | Producer | Director

Monday 29th June

• Nicole Scherzinger - Born 1978, turns 37 - Actress | Singer
• Gary Busey - Born 1944, turns 71 - Actor

Tuesday 30th June

• Vincent D'Onofrio - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer

Wednesday 1st July

• David Gulpilil - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actor | Writer
• Dan Aykroyd - Born 1952, turns 63 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• David Prowse - Born 1935, turns 80 - Actor
• Trevor Eve - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actor | Producer
• Liv Tyler - Born 1977, turns 38 - Actress
• Pamela Anderson - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer
• Genevieve Bujold - Born 1942, turns 73 - Actress | Writer

Thursday 2nd July

• Margot Robbie - Born 1990, turns 25 - Actress
• Lindsay Lohan - Born 1986, turns 29 - Actress | Producer

Friday 3rd July 

• Connie Nielsen - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actress
• Tom Cruise - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actor | Producer

Saturday 4th July

• Gina Lollobrigida - Born 1927, turns 88 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director
• Eva Marie Saint - Born 1924, turns 91 - Actress

Margot Elise Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, Australia to mother Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, and her father a former farm owner. She was raised by her single mother on Queensland's Gold Coast with her sister and two brothers, spending her childhood between the beach on the Gold Coast and her grandparents farm in Dalby. She attended the private Somerset College in Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast where she studied drama, and after graduating in 2007 she moved to Melbourne to begin her professional acting career.

Within a year the young Robbie has starred in two Aash Aaron Directed films - 'Vigilante' and 'I.C.U.' From here her attentions and opportunities were drawn to television work with the initial episode of the ABC's 'Review, with Myles Barlow', and then two episodes on 'The Elephant Princess', and one on 'City Homicide' before the role that really set her on a career path with over 300 episodes of 'Neighbours' between 2008 and 2011. During this time too she appeared in various Channel Ten programmes including 'Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation'.

Leaving 'Neighbours' behind in 2011 she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career Stateside where she auditioned for the new TV Series of 'Charlie's Angels' but missed out, instead clinching ABC's 60's drama 'PanAm' with Christina Ricci. The series ran for just 14 episodes and was cancelled after its first season due to declining ratings despite its positive reviews.

From here Robbie returned to the big screen securing a role in the Richard Curtis Directed romantic comedy drama 'About Time' with Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson and Rachael McAdams. The film was generally a critical success and fared well commercially bringing in US$87M off US$12M to make. In turn this led to Martin Scorsese casting her as the wife to Leonardo DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' in 2013. Her role as Naomi Lapaglia was highly praised and garnered her an MTV Movie Award nomination and an Empire Award win. The film became Scorsese's biggest commercial success to date.

'Focus' came next earlier this year with co-star Will Smith playing a rookie grifter, and although the film received mixed reviews, her performance was again praised. Although released at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year 'Z for Zachariah' has yet to be released in Australia. This Sci-Fi thriller filmed in New Zealand is Directed by Craig Zobel and also stars Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Due this year too is 'Suite Francaise', a WWII drama romance Directed by Saul Dibb and co-starring Kristen Scott Thomas and Michelle Williams. Coming up too is the David Yeats big screen adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burrows 'Tarzan' with Robbie starring as Jane Porter alongside Alexander Skarsgard in the title role with Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Djimon Hounsou and John Hurt and due for a mid-2016 release. 

'The Taliban Shuffle' (aka 'The Fun House') is a comedy set within the backdrop of a war stricken Afghanistan and Pakistan and co-stars Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Tina Fey and Alfred Molina and is also due in mid-2016. Filming right now too is the DC Comics adaptation of Supervillain offering 'The Suicide Squad' as Directed by David Ayer with Robbie playing Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn - the first live action outing for this character. The film will also star Will Smith, Jared Leto, Joel Kinsman, Jai Courtney and Viola Davis and is set for August 2016. Also confirmed are her roles in 'Dangerous Odds' and 'Violent Talent' due further down the track. 

To date Robbie has 15 acting credits and a Producer credit on her early 'I.C.U.' offering. She has one award win for the 'Wolf of Wall Street' and eight other nominations including the BAFTA Rising Star Award this year.

Robbie lives in London with a bunch of mates and is romantically linked to Tom Ackerley - a British Assistant Director.

Margot Robbie - blond, blue eyed, beautiful - a star on the rise and increasingly in demand - as a little girl from country Queensland you done good! Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 5th March 2015.

Friends, readers and film followers - this is my first update from Adelaide in South Australia where I have recently started a new day job that will keep me active when I'm not writing about cinema, movies, the film world and what goes on in it, on it and around it! The other news of significance is that Summer here has given way to Autumn, and with it comes a slew of new films as if to herald a new season.

This week then we have a deep black sea submariners sunken treasure adventure thriller and there is no Johnny Depp or Jack Sparrow in sight; a sleight of hand daze & confuse 'em rob 'em blind action adventure that is glossy, sexy and features beautiful people of course; a fantasy epic where your lucky number seven is sure to spell action, adventure and peril most evil; a work gig to a distant land where three hapless salesmen encounter more challenges than they thought; and a time travelling mind bending history changing conundrum that could end very badly for the world as we know it!

Whatever you choose to spend your movie going dollar on in the week ahead, choose wisely from one of the new releases as below, or any of those Previewed in previous weeks and still on general release. There remains plenty of choice, and when you've sat through your selection, drop us a note in the Comments sections below this, or any Post, and share your thoughts with the ever expanding readership at Odeon Online. Enjoy your film!

BLACK SEA (Rated M) - Directed by Kevin MacDonald who also Produced, this is an all too familiar story of a bunch of greedy men who go off to sea in search of sunken riches only to turn against each other before the final pay-off leaving more booty to divide amongst fewer shipmates, which of course is all good if you happen to be one of the few still left breathing! What separates this from all other other familiar tales that have trodden a similar path, or sailed into similar uncharted waters, is that at the helm is Kevin MacDonald who has a track record in tightly written, tautly filmed action adventure ('Touching the Void', 'How I Live Now', 'State of Play', 'The Eagle') and this time we are set in the confines of a submarine with a rag tag bunch of unscrupulous misfit salty sea dogs.

This bunch are led by Captain Robinson (Jude Law) - a former naval office turned salvageman who lost that gig and now accepts a job with a backer lurking in the shadows that we know little about and trying to win back favour with a former employer all the while secretly plotting his revenge. The task is to venture forth to the Black Sea and salvage a WWII German U-Boat that was sunk in those waters somewhere, and is rumoured to contain a stash of gold bullion. The crew that Captain Robinson assembles are made up of British and Russian seafarers that include Ben Mendelssohn (Fraser), Scoot McNairy (Daniels) and Grigorly Dobrygin (Morozov) amongst others all adding a touch of authenticity to the claustrophobic underwater tin can conditions. Of course tensions rise when Brits and Ruskies, language and cultures clash leaving Captain Robinson to mediate and smooth over troubled waters. Solid submariner stories are few & far between on the big screen, but by all reports this has the tension, the intensity, the thrills and the characterisation to make this a winner and a worthy addition to the canon.

FOCUS (Rated MA15+) - touted as a romdramedy (romantic drama comedy) this package stars Will Smith as Nicky Spurgeon a long-time gifted and successful confidence trickster who gets himself tangled up romantically with young Jess Barratt (Margot Robbie). Things seem to be going well for the couple and so Nicky begins to introduce the young & talented Jess to his world and all the tricks and grifting skills that go with it. However, when Jess gets too close Nicky breaks things off and can smell a rat and so the two go their separate ways. Fast forward three years and Jess has now risen through the ranks of Nicky's world, and they find themselves in Buenos Aires both on opposite sides of the same con. This time though the stakes are very high with the target a billionaire race car owner, and in rekindling that old flame Nicky's personal and professional life are thrown into disarray at a time when he most needs to be on his game! Produced for US$100M and Directed and Written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa this also stars Rodrigo Santoro, some exotic locations, fast cars and all the glitz & glamour of the high life.

SEVENTH SON (Rated M) - this is another epic fantasy adventure based on the book of the same name as Directed by Sergei Bodrov on a production budget of US$95M. With a solid cast this film has taken over two years to get to the big screen after a slew of mishaps and misadventure occurred after production wrapped way back when. The story centres around a young Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) who is the fabled seventh son of a seventh son who works on some farm minding his own business, tending to the land and having no idea on God's green Earth what fate holds in store for him. He is taken under the wing as an apprentice by John Gregory (Jeff Bridges) - a Spook who has long since defended the Earth from evil malevolent forces, and who back in the time of yore captured and imprisoned wicked witch Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore). However, a once in a hundred year event is about to occur that will allow the wicked with of the west to morph dragon like and escape from captivity and wreak her revenge on this who would stand in her way. Enter John Gregory who has only until the next full moon to train up his seventh son apprentice into a finely tuned witch slaying machine to overcome the dark forces - a process that would ordinarily take years. Of course things don't go easily for the dynamic duo as they are distracted along their journey and have to ward off various other evil entities before the final showdown. You have seen this kind of stuff before but with two heavyweight Oscar winners in top billing it could be worth a look!

UNFINISHED BUSINESS (Rated MA15+)) - this dramedy is Directed by Ken Scott and is likely to do for the corporate sales world what 'The Hangover' did for Bucks Nights/pending weddings! There is a solid cast in the comedy drama offering that takes in Vince Vaughn as Dan Trunkman, a small hard working conscientious business owner, and a couple of his close business associates - Mike Pancake (Dave Franco) and Timothy McWinters (Tom Wilkinson). When the three comrades in arms need to travel to Europe to close the biggest and most important deal of their lives against stiff competition, you could be mistaken for thinking that the guys would have their fate sealed, their homework done, their PowerPoint Presentations finely honed, and their sales pitch perfect! But of course, the world of business sales never runs smoothly and inevitably what could go wrong does go wrong in the extreme! Also starring Sienna Miller and Nick Frost, it could just be that this solid cast might save the plot and create an enjoyable business trip on the company's expense account!

PROJECT ALMANAC (Rated M) - this film was released here in Australia last week, but flew under my radar . . . and perhaps that is hardly surprising! You have seen this film before under the guises of a hundred different time travelling movie offerings where the past catches up with the future, and those in the future must go back into the past to safeguard the future! Make sense? This found footage style of film-making as applied to 'PA' is starting to wear a little thin but Director Dean Israelite and big time action Producer (and Director too) Michael Bay tell a story of a group of late teenage buddies who discover the plans for a time machine buried in the basement of one of theirs houses. Needless to say the adventurous scientific time bending nerds decide that it would be a whizz to build the thing, and so they do . . . successfully, and in so doing use the device for their own personal gain and adrenalin rush. But of course, in travelling back to the past, they change the future destiny of the world and themselves . . . and not necessarily for the better! Getting back to the future they soon confront the error of their ways and so have to go back again, several times, to fix the past in order to prevent certain future events from occurring that could have far reaching consequences for them as individuals, as a group, and for the world at large. Time travel is always an interesting premise, but I'm not sure this has anywhere near the makings of last years excellent 'Predestination'! Made for just US$12M it has already grossed US$30M.

That's it then - five new offerings to get you out in front of a big screen - no excuses! Share your thoughts, observations and emotions - good, bad and ugly at Odeon Online.

Movies - see some this week!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-