WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING : Tuesday 26th July 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING' earlier this week, and this American mystery drama film is Directed by Olivia Newman and is based on the 2018 best selling novel of the same name by Delia Owens. This is Olivia Newman's second feature film outing following the 2018 release of 'First Match' on Netflix. The film is Co-Produced by Reece Witherspoon and the title song is written and sung by Taylor Swift. It cost US$24M to produce, has so far grossed US$49M, and has garnered mixed Reviews from Critics while audiences have been kinder. The film was released last week too Stateside. 

The film opens up with the body of a Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) laying face up dead at the base of a fire tower with the local Sheriff Jackson (Bill Kelly) and his Deputy Joe Purdue (Jayson Warner Smith), looking over the corpse and climbing up the somewhat delapidated fire tower in an attempt to ascertain did he fall by accident, did he jump or was he pushed. We are in the marshlands of North Carolina not far from the coast and it is 1969. 

We then jump back in time to the 1950's and young girl Catherine 'Kya' Daniel Clark (Jojo Regina) is growing up in those same marshlands in North Carolina. She is a resourceful young girl, and she and her three older siblings and her mother and father live in shack located off the beaten track in the marshlands. Her father 'Pa' Clark (Garret Dillahunt) is an abusive alcoholic who fritters what little money away that they have. As her mother 'Ma' Clark (Anha O'Reilly) and older siblings, one by one, flee his physical abuse, Kya is ultimately left alone with him. In time, her father softens but he too one day just ups and leaves her, without warning. Now she has to become self sufficient and learn to live her life on her own. She starts pulling fresh mussels out of the sand along the coastline early every morning and selling them by the fresh bag load to the local general store owner and his wife James 'Jumpin' Madison and Mabel Madison (Sterling Macer Jnr. and Michael Hyatt respectively). A few weeks later she spends her only day ever, at school, and runs away crying because of the taunts she receives from the other children. The local townspeople of Barkley Cove know very little about young Kya, nicknaming her 'The Marsh Girl'.

On the day that her father left, Kya takes his boat to the edge of the ocean but gets lost while trying to find her way home. Fortunately, she comes upon a slightly older boy named Tate Walker (Luke David Blumm), who is fishing and who guides her home safely. He was a friend of her older brother Jodie, and had known Kya since she was a very little girl. Tate then begins visiting her in the marsh, and they become good friends throughout their teenage years. He teaches her to read, write and count, and lends her books to read. They both share a keen interest in the local flora and fauna of the marshlands and in time their friendship grows into something more. However, Tate (now Taylor John Smith) subsequently learns that he has been accepted to a prestigious College and as such will be leaving Barkley Cove but vows to return in four weeks so that they can watch the July 4th fireworks from a secluded beach. However, Tate fails to honour his commitment leaving Kya distraught. 

Over the next few years, her intricate drawings and paintings of the local flora and fauna and knowledge of biology grow, Kya sends her nature drawings and research writings to a publisher, as previously encouraged to do by Tate before he left for college. She also learns that the 350 acre marshland that her property stands on is hers by inheritance, but that anyone who pays the property taxes on it, becomes the lawful owner. There is US$800 in unpaid taxes outstanding. The US$5,000 income from the book helps her keep her family's property, and keeps the developers away. The publishing of Kya's book leads to her reuniting with her older brother Jodie (Logan Macrae), now a military veteran. He informs her that their mother had wanted to track down the other children but she became sick and died from leukemia. Jodie promises to visit her when he can. 

It is now 1965, and the nineteen year old Kya becomes entangled in a relationship with Chase Andrews, Barkley Cove's popular quarterback, who promises to marry her. When Kya discovers that Chase is already engaged to another girl, she furiously ends their relationship. Meanwhile, Tate returns to Barkley Cove, wanting to apologise to Kya for abandoning her and rekindle their romance, but Kya is at first angry with Tate and very reluctant to enter into a relationship with him again. Chase, meanwhile continues to pursue Kya, but she rebuffs him. He then violently attacks and tries to rape her at a secluded beach but Kya successfully fights him off and strikes him to the head with a rock, repeatedly kicks him and loudly vows to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. This threat is overheard by a local fisherman.

Later, we go back to the opening scene in which Chase is found dead at the bottom of the fire tower from which he has fallen. The tower is located in a wet and muddy marsh that floods at high tide, so wiping out any footprints and no fingerprints were found on the tower. A shell necklace Kya had given Chase was missing from his body, and he had been wearing it the evening of his death as reported by his mother who had dinner with him that night.  The very next day, Kya is charged with murder and overwhelmingly prejudged by the over zealous and suspicious townsfolk.

On the stand in the courtroom, Kya is represented by local retired Lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn) who had always treated Kya, even as a young child, with respect and kindness. Despite the knowledge that Kya had been in Greenville to meet with a book publisher the night of the murder and the following day, the police speculate that she could have disguised herself and made a quick, round-trip, bus tour back to Barkley Cove and the fire tower during the night. The police have little evidence to go on other than their unproven theory, the missing shell necklace, along with the testimony from the fisherman, and do not have a strong case, so she is ultimately found not guilty at her trial in 1970.

Though Kya and Tate never formally marry, they live together as loving partners in the same shack that she grew up in, albeit subsequently fitted out with many mod-cons that her book publishing income and royalties paid for. Over the years, Kya (now Leslie France) publishes more illustrated books about the local nature, and she is often visited by Jodie and his family. After her death in her mid-70's, Tate (now Sam Anderson) finds the missing necklace at the back of a diary she had hidden. It was the only evidence that could have convicted her. Tate then leaves the shell from the necklace in the water, forever hiding Kya's secret in her beloved marsh.

I had not read the 2018 best selling novel upon which this film is based, and so can't comment on whether this is a fair adaptation or not. That said, it's an entertaining enough murder mystery, coming of age romantic emotional court room drama film that is elevated by Edgar-Jones performance and an assembled cast of fine acting talent, but the script has so many plot holes, loose ends and unanswered questions that I left the theatre feeling somewhat shortchanged. The film does, however, look the part capturing all the beauty of the marshlands, and is reminiscent of the big picture romantic drama's of the 1990's that have been more noticeably absent from our cinema screens in recent years.

'Where the Crawdads Sing' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ARMY OF THE DEAD : Tuesday 6th July 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown, and as a result all cinema's closed until July 16th at least, once again as with the same time last year I'll be reviewing a few of the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. As such, I finally got around to seeing the Zack Snyder Directed, Co-Produced, Co-Written, lensed and based on a story he created zombie heist offering 'ARMY OF THE DEAD' earlier this week. It seems that Snyder thought up the idea for 'Army of the Dead' as a spiritual successor to his 2004 debut film 'Dawn of the Dead' which was itself a remake of George A. Romero's classic film of the same name from 1978. That project was originally announced back in 2007 but spent the subsequent twelve years languishing in development hell before Netflix picked up the distribution rights in 2019, with photography kicking off mid that year. With a budget somewhere in the vicinity of US$80M, the film was released in select cinemas Stateside in mid-May this year, and was released on Netflix on 21st May. 'Army of the Dead' went on to become one of the most watched original Netflix films with an estimated 72 million viewers within its first month of release. Two prequels are slated - a film titled 'Army of Thieves' on which production wrapped in December 2020 with Netflix due to release later this year, and an anime series titled 'Army of the Dead : Lost Vegas' scheduled to be released on Netflix too. A potential sequel could also transpire if the planets align. The film has garnered mixed or average Critical Reviews with many criticising the films run time at 148 minutes.

And so the film opens with a US military convoy escorting a heavily guarded crate out of Area 51 along a deserted highway at dusk. The convoy has a head on collision with a car outside of Las Vegas, causing the crate to be jettisoned down the highway a hundred or so metres. When the military personnel approach the crate with automatic weapons raised, the cargo contained therein, a zombie, breaks free, rapidly killing and infecting the majority of soldiers in the detail. The zombie makes it to the outskirts of the city, and accompanied by the now zombified soldiers systematically begin infecting most of the Las Vegas populace. Following a military strike on the city which fails, the government quarantines the city behind huge walls.

Subsequently casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his associate Martin (Garret Dillahunt) approach former mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) who now works as a line cook in some rundown burger joint, about a job to recover US$200M from his casino vault in Las Vegas before the military sends in a tactical nuclear strike on the city. Ward agrees with the promise of a massive pay day and enlists his former crew Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) and Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), together with expert helicopter pilot Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro), German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighofer), and sharpshooter Mikey Guzman (Raul Castillo), who brings along his associate Chambers (Samantha Win). Martin joins the team so they have access to the casino. Ward's estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), who works at a quarantine camp, points them towards Lily (Nora Arnezeder), a smuggler familiar with the city, who also recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), an over zealous quarantine camp security guard. When Kate learns Lily escorted her friend Geeta (Huma Qureshi) into Las Vegas, Kate insists on joining the team over her fathers staunch objection.

Fairly soon after leaving the quarantine station the group come across a zombified tiger (a undead surviving big cat of the famed Siegfried & Roy Las Vegas shows) upon entering the city. Lily shoots Cummings in the leg and states that a group of intelligent zombies known as 'Alphas' will permit them safe passage in exchange for a sacrifice. 

An Alpha female known as the Queen (Athena Perample) arrives shortly afterwards and takes Cummings away to the Olympus casino, where the Alpha leader Zeus (Richard Cetrone) infects him. Lily leads the team through a building full of hibernating, normal zombies. Using glow sticks to guide them Ward creates a path through the sleeping zombies. When Chambers accuses Martin of ulterior motives for accompanying them, he diverts her off the path, and she inadvertently disturbs the zombies, waking them. She is quickly overcome and bitten. Guzman shoots at the petrol canister on her back used for fuelling her flame thrower, killing her and the surrounding zombie horde in the resulting explosion. 

After negotiating the city's desolate landscape the group make it to Bly's casino. Ward and Kate turn on the power, Peters prepares a trashed helicopter which they were told would be waiting on the roof but she didn't expect it to be such poor mechanical condition, and Dieter sets about working on the vault with his second-to-none safe cracking expertise. 

Martin and Lily stay outside to maintain watch but instead lure the Queen out into the open. Martin snares her, beheads her and stuffs her still alive head in to a bag saying that it will be invaluable for research purposes. Zeus discovers her headless body and returns her to the Olympus casino, revealing that the Queen was pregnant with a zombie foetus. Enraged, Zeus directs the Alphas to Bly's casino. The team hear of a news bulletin reporting that the government has brought forward the nuclear strike to ninety minutes hence, adding a new sense of urgency to the whole operation. As Dieter opens the vault, Ward discovers Kate had left to look for Geeta. As Ward and Cruz go in search for her, Alphas appear and kill Cruz.

Martin traps the team in the basement, stating that Bly is only interested in the zombie head, which is worth more than the money in the vault, as the government seeks to create a zombie army. When he steps outside the casino, he discovers Lily exchanged the Queen's head for something of a similar weight and size. The zombified tiger approaches, looks him and up and down and then pounces mauling him to death. Vanderohe attempts to fight Zeus but is easily overpowered. Dieter sacrifices himself to enable Vanderohe safe refuge inside the vault. Ward, Lily, and Guzman make it to the casino lobby, where zombies attack them from all directions and pounce on Guzman, who detonates his grenades, killing himself, the zombies and destroying the stash of cash he carried. Zeus confronts them on the roof as Peters prepares the helicopter for take-off. 

Lily distracts Zeus with the Queen's head as Ward and Peters escape. Zeus impales Lily to the wall, who in her death throes drops the Queen's head off the roof sending it careering down to the ground below where is shatters in a bloody mess. Peters takes Ward to the Olympus casino in a bid to locate Kate. Inside, Kate finds Geeta and kills the infected Cummings. Ward finds Kate and Geeta and together they exit the scene aboard the helicopter. Zeus jumps onto the helicopter and a fight breaks out between him and Ward. Zeus overpowers Ward and bites him. As the nuke lays waste to Las Vegas, Zeus is momentarily distracted by the bomb flash, giving Ward the opportunity to kill him and throw him out. The resultant shockwave causes the helicopter to crash, killing Peters and Geeta. Kate survives and finds Ward who had been thrown clear but is badly injured. Ward produces a stash of cash from his inside pocket that he had secretly hidden away and gives Kate the money to begin life anew, before turning into a zombie. Kate kills him as a rescue helicopter arrives. 

In the closing scene, Vanderohe survives the blast and exits the vault emerging somewhere on the outskirts of the city with two holdall's of cash. He drives to Utah and rents a private plane, paying well over the odds in cash of course, to take him to Mexico City. On the flight, he discovers that he has been bitten.

I have to say that I enjoy a good zombie flick, and 'Army of the Dead' doesn't disappoint. Sure it's run time of close to two and a half hours is overstretched, but what Zack Snyder delivers here is plenty of rapid fire action, enough bloodshed and gore to satisfy those with a taste for such things, sufficient character development to appease those wanting some emotional heft and a palette of a post zombie apocalyptic Las Vegas that is spot on. The cast led by Dave Bautista seemed to have a ball making this film, the production values are top notch and the end result is a satisfying gore fest, that won't go down in the history books as the greatest zombie film ever made, but you can leave your brain on remote and just watch the spectacle unfold and be entertained for 148 minutes. Snyder is back to form here following perhaps his most successful outings since his debut with 'Dawn of the Dead' in 2004 and his successive films with 2006's '300' and 2009's 'Watchmen', by doing what he does best - living it up with the undead! It's just a shame that this movie didn't get the big screen surround sound cinematic release it deserves to truly appreciate the scale of Snyder's vision.

'Army of the Dead' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-