THE GENTLEMEN : Tuesday 7th January 2020.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE GENTLEMEN' this week from British Director, Producer and Screenwriter Guy Ritchie. He is no stranger to the British crime drama often tinged with a hint of tongue firmly planted in cheek comedy, a la 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch', 'Revolver' and 'RocknRolla' which have helped propel its emerging stars into mainstream success - including Jason Statham, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba and Vinnie Jones. Here Guy Ritchie, is going back to his London gangland genre roots with his latest crime comedy offering that he Directs, Co-Produces, wrote the Screenplay for and also came up with the story with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film was released in the UK last week too, and not in the US until the back end of January, and has so far taken US$8M at the Box Office, and judging by the packed cinema theatre I attended this week, it looks like this is a winner!

Our film opens up with American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) alighting from his chauffeur driven car and walking into a London pub, in what looks like pre-opening time, and orders from the barman a pint of London's finest Gritchie (get it!) ale and a pickled egg. He sits down at a table in the empty pub and calls his wife, saying that's its steak night, dinner later that evening at The River Cafe at 9:00pm, at which point an unknown gunman enters the room unheard, and shoots at Mickey. Cut to the red crimson stuff plastering the table and the pint glass in front of him. Roll the title credits and you could easily be mistaken for thinking that you are watching the latest James Bond offering, as Ritchie here has copied to good effect from the Bond play book.

We then enter the home of Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), Mickey's consigliere and right hand man, and as Raymond prepares to settle in for the night, his peace is disturbed by Fletcher (Hugh Grant) lurking in the shadows in wait. Fletcher is a sleazy tabloid newspaper investigative journalist who has been doing a lot of digging into Mickey's history, his business exploits and his connections and its through an extended interview with Raymond that we learn of Mickey's business empire. Fletcher works for Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), the Editor at the newspaper, who has an axe to grind with Mickey for disrespecting him at a lavish gathering in front of various movers, shakers and high powered associates of his.

And so Fletcher begins to recount everything he knows of Mickey's exploits as though he's prepping a movie script, and in fact he has written one based on what he has come to know of Mickey. And so we learn that Mickey hailed from a dead end family in the US, but despite his less than humble upbringing he gained a scholarship to Oxford University. There he quickly learned that there was a demand amongst the student population for weed, skank, sweet Mary Jane, ganga - marijuana. As his university business began to flourish, so he broadened his horizons and ultimately grew his business but not without getting blood on his hands and taking out those who would oppose him, stand in his way, or try to muscle in on his action. And now after thirty years at the top of England's marijuana supply game, Mickey has decided it's time to retire. Fletcher thinks he's been incredibly cunning and thorough in his investigations and unfurls all of his collected intelligence to Raymond, seeking £20M to keep quiet and ride off into the sunset never to be heard from again. Needless to say Raymond is fiercely loyal to Mickey, and sits intently listening to what Fletcher has to say, occasionally chipping in to neither confirm nor deny the allegations being made, but asking for clarification or responding to a direct line of questioning.

Wanting therefore to liquidate his weed farm empire which is concealed very cleverly within twelve stately homes of the well off and not so well off landed British gentry, spread across the length and breadth of the land, there are two very interested parties circling. Those interested parties are specifically Jewish American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) and young pretender Chinese mobster 'Dry-Eye' (Henry Golding).

Mickey is in favour of selling his business to Matthew and has no time for the Chinese upstart Dry Eye, and so he takes Matthew on a tour of one of his weed facilities buried somewhere in the remote English countryside under the grounds of a stately residence for which Mickey pays the owner of the property £1M annually. Mickey announces to Matthew that he is looking to sell his business for £400M in total including his network of European connections, his distribution channels and the whole caboodle. Matthew doesn't baulk at that figure, when Mickey tells him that ten years from now the business will be worth half a trillion!

Later Dry-Eye pays an uninvited visit on Mickey and states in no uncertain terms that he wishes to buy the business and taps out an undisclosed sum on his smart phone. To which Mickey retorts that his business is not for sale, the sum quoted is an insult anyway, and he should leave as he's busy. Dry Eye persists saying that its a very good offer as Mickey grows increasingly impatient, and is ultimately shown the door, through which Dry Eye exits with one of his henchmen, none too pleased at the dismissal.

One evening under cover of darkness, Mickey's farm that he had previously shown to Matthew is raided by five beefed up tracksuit wearing youths who do their very best to beat up and overpower several of Mickey's more sturdy, yet older workers, and rob Mickey of many of his marijuana plants. The lads in question all record this and live stream it over the Internet, and in no time, Mickey, Raymond and Mickey's wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery) are witnesses to the robbery and the beatings unfolding before their very eyes from the comfort of a sofa far away. Outraged Mickey and Raymond go on the hunt for the perpetrators, and who could have revealed the location of his underground marijuana bunker.

Enter Coach (Colin Farrell) who runs a boxing gym for disadvantaged youths and to get the youngsters off the streets and away from a life of crime. It just so happens that the gang who raided Mickey's premises, are a group of lads under Coach's mentorship. When Coach finds out that it was his lads who were at the centre of the robbery, he is none too pleased, having heard of Mickey's reputation with those who dare cross him. Coach tracks down Raymond, seeks his forgiveness and says that he will do whatever it takes to make amends for his boys misdeeds, as long as Mickey agrees not to take revenge on them. Raymond says he'll consider it, if Coach can uncover who ordered the robbery.

In no time at all, Coach has the robbery organiser Phuc (Jason Wong) bound and gagged in the boot of his car, and delivered to Raymond. Phuc is manhandled out of the boot, and quickly makes a run for it, jumps over a high wall and lands several metres below straddling a railway track, only to be promptly run over by a speeding intercity express train, with Coach and Raymond looking on from above.

By now, Matthew is getting agitated over the recent incident at one of Mickey's farms and is starting to show signs of cold feet. Meanwhile, Mickey has visited another of his farms and learned that the property owners drug addled pop star teenage daughter is shacked up somewhere doing hard drugs with a bunch of no hopers. Mickey offers to help find the daughter Laura Pressfield (Eliot Sumner), and tasks Raymond with tracking her down, which he is reluctant to do. Needless to say, Raymond is successful with two of his henchmen in tracking down the group and Laura to a tenement block, but in an ensuing scuffle a Russian lad who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time gets thrown out of the window several storey's up and crashes to the ground stone dead. All this is filmed on smart phones by a group of local likely lads hassling Raymond's driver in the street below. The men give chase through the estate to retrieve the smart phones and the potentially damning evidence against them, eventually catching up with the youths and 'persuading' them to part company with their phones. We learn that the Russian lads father is a former high ranking official from the KGB, now resident in England, where his son attended private school. Laura is returned safe to her family.

Fletcher is still laying out all these facts that he has witnessed and has photographs of to Raymond to further reinforce his case for his £20M hush money. Dry Eye is still putting pressure on Mickey, and so Mickey and Raymond pay a visit to his ageing Uncle who runs a cocaine and heroin pushing business at arms length so that there is no comeback on him. Mickey threatens the uncle with exposure and further less subtle repercussions if Dry Eye doesn't get off his back. When the uncle speaks with Dry Eye and tells him to ease off, Dry Eye shoots uncle in the back, dead.

Fletcher reveals one last video clip of Matthew sat next to Dry Eye at a football game in which they are seen and heard to be collaborating together to drive down Mickey's asking price to rock bottom. When he is done with his story telling to Raymond, he gives him 72 hours to come up with the £20M, and leaves. Over the course of the next couple of days, Mickey is heard speaking with Rosalind over the phone from the office of her all female very upmarket auto repair shop, in which Dry Eye is present with the intention of kidnapping her to put pressure on Mickey to comply. Mickey senses something is not right, and here we go back to the very opening scene where the blood is spattered all over Mickey's pint and pickled egg. The man who pulled the gun on Mickey is a Russian who was shot in the back of the head by Raymond who arrived just in the nick of time.

Mickey is involved in a head on collision with a truck en route, from which he scrambles out of the upturned car and races to the auto shop, only to find that Rosalind has shot two of Dry Eye's henchmen in the forehead with a small gifted twin chamber hand gun. Dry Eye is furious and he fights with Rosalind gaining the upper hand and has her pinned down on a desk when Mickey arrives and shoots him dead.

Later Mickey is in conversation with Matthew at one of his refrigerated distribution outlets discussing the deal. Matthew states that Mickey's business is now worth £120M and not the £400M as originally discussed because of the events that have unfolded since the raid, that all twelve of his farms are impacted by this, and that it will take three years for the business to re-establish itself. Mickey turns the tables on Matthew showing him the footage of him conversing with Dry Eye at the football game, and says that he knows it was him who turned over the location of the farm that got raided. Mickey also reveals the now hanging and frozen body of Dry Eye behind a pile of boxes in a freezer container, and says that Matthew has one hour to transfer £100M into his bank account and to give up a pound of his flesh for all the hurt he has caused his business, which is no longer for sale.

When Mickey gets into his car and is driving off, it is revealed that it's not his usual driver behind the wheel but two smiling Russians, one pointing a pistol directly at Mickey. In the meantime, Fletcher has returned to Raymond's place after 72 hours expecting to collect on his £20M, only for the pair to be greeted by two more Russian henchmen wielding guns. Fletcher runs off. The two Russians are taken out by Coach, who by now has more than made good on his commitment to Raymond. Coach's track suited boys meanwhile, follow Mickey's car in a minivan before it leaves the premises, overtake the car, and open fire from the back all guns blazing killing outright the pair of Russians seated in the front, so allowing Mickey to escape out the back unharmed.

Fletcher is last seen pitching his movie script to a Producer at Miramax Studios in London. The Producer ask what happens to Mickey, to which Fletcher responds, 'that's for the sequel'. Fletcher excuses himself as he has an appointment in LA with another Studio and must catch a flight. As he gets into a London cab, Raymond reveals himself to be the driver. Mickey and Rosalind settle down for a cozy night at home.

With 'The Gentlemen' Guy Ritchie has returned to form following an averagely received but nonetheless US$1B+ live action remake of Disney's 'Aladdin', the disastrous 'King Arthur : The Legend of the Sword' and the lacklustre 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E'. The film features stand out performances from the principle cast especially Hugh Grant channelling Michael Caine, has fast paced wise cracking razor sharp foul mouthed dialogue, tangled plots, twists aplenty, snappy editing, racial insults that come thick and fast, faux English gentry, good crims and bad crims and those of just about every nationality and cultural background, some real laugh out loud moments, and just enough deaths and beatings and tongue in cheek humour to satisfy any fan of the genre and Ritchie's much earlier works. It's witty, a lot of fun, very entertaining, contains many of Ritchie's touchstones and well worth the price of your cinema ticket.

'The Gentlemen' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

A SIMPLE FAVOUR : Tuesday 25th September 2018.

I saw 'A SIMPLE FAVOUR' earlier in the week, and this American mystery comedy thriller is Directed and Co-Produced by Paul Feig whose previous feature film Director credits include 2016's 'Ghostbusters', 2015's 'Spy', 2013's 'The Heat' and 2011's 'Bridesmaid's' as well as numerous episodes of television series including 'The Office', 'Arrested Development', 'Weeds' and 'Nurse Jackie'. Here, he adapts for the big screen the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell. The film was released in Australia and the USA two weeks ago, has received generally positive Reviews especially for its plots twists and turns and the performances of its two principle female cast, and has so far generated US$46M off the back of its US$20M production budget outlay.

We are first introduced to Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), a widowed single mother, via her on screen vlog which she runs from the comfort of her own kitchen to an audience of Mum's preaching the gospel according to her helpful household crafts, cooking and essential arsenal of basic home skills that every Mum should possess. She digresses, and begins to recount the story of how her very best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) disappeared four days ago seemingly without a trace, and just how worried she is for her friends safety and wellbeing. In flashback, we learn how Stephanie and Emily first became acquainted, through their sons Miles (Joshua Satine) and Nicky (Ian Ho) respectively who attend the same junior school together. Emily is a busy working Mum, working as the PR Director for fashion guru Dennis Nylon (Rupert Friend).

Through their children who coerce their Mum's into play dates, Stephanie and Emily quickly bond and become firm friends, with Emily frequently inviting Stephanie back to her lavish household for afternoon martini's while the kids amuse themselves at play. On one such occasion, after several rather large and potent martini's the girls trade their deepest secrets.

Emily goes first stating her frustration at the lack of success of her husband, Sean Townsend (Henry Golding), an English professors' writing career (it's been ten years since his first and last book), and their poor financial situation which has them up to the eyeballs in debt despite their apparent wealth. Despite Emily's frustration and derision of her husband, she seemingly loves him and is very openly affectionate towards him in front of a slightly embarrassed Stephanie. Then it's Stephanie's turn to come clean with her deepest darkest secret and she admits that as a teenager, after her father died, she had sex with her half-brother, Chris (Dustin Milligan), which Emily playfully teases her about calling her a 'BrotherFucker'.

One day, Emily calls Stephanie asking a simple favour of her. She asks if Stephanie could collect Nicky from school and look after him for a few hours as she has a work crisis to deal with which requires her urgent attention in the city. Stephanie as cordial and obliging as always is only happy to help out her good friend, particularly as her husband Sean is in London attending to his own sick mother. However, time marches on and not having heard from Emily for two days, despite voicemail and text messages left, she calls her employer who tell her that Stephanie is in Miami for a few days.

Stephanie also calls Sean, who tells her that Emily has a history of just disappearing unannounced for a few days, but they both agree to alert the Police. While talking with two Police Officers, Sean indicated that Emily had no family, while she previously told Stephanie she had a sister, and that they had matching tattoos on their wrists. Stephanie mentions to Sean that she learned Emily hated having her photo taken, and Sean confirms a similar incident, but neither know the reason for this.

And so Stephanie turns Super Sleuth and goes to the Dennis Nylon headquarters in the city and sneaks into Emily's office and finds a photo of her, captioned with 'Gotta Have Faith' in handwriting below. Stephanie uses the photograph to create a missing person poster which she distributes around the town. The Police Officer handling the case, Detective Summervile (Bashir Salahuddin) reports to Sean that Emily lied about taking a trip to Miami, and instead rented a white Kia in Michigan. A fan of Stephanie's vlog reports seeing someone fitting Emily's description and vehicle in Michigan, and the car is discovered near the Squaw Lake Bible Camp. Upon closer inspection, the Police discover her drowned body in the water.

Sean mourns the loss of his wife despite her foibles, quirks, idiosyncrasies and flights of fancy and Stephanie grieves the loss of a her best friend. Sharing their collective grief, and whilst taking care of their two young boys, the pair grow close and begin a relationship, resulting in Stephanie moving in with Sean to his former matrimonial home. Following an autopsy of Emily's body, Detective Summerville reveals that Emily had sever liver damage, was overdosed on heroin and that only weeks before her death Sean had taken out a US$4M life insurance policy on his wife.

Emily however, it seems is alive and has been spying on Sean and Stephanie from afar. Upset by how events have transpired she sends a 'BrotherFucker' note to Stephanie. This spurs Stephanie to continue with her investigations, so she seeks out Diana Hyland (Linda Cardellini) who a few years back painted a rather provocative portrait of a naked Emily. Diana states that the girl in the portrait, who posed with her hair dyed raspberry red was named Claudia and described her as a con artist and her muse all in the same sentence. She just disappeared after that never to be heard of again - until now. Diana gives Stephanie a clue to a Summer Camp which she attended as a teenager, and so the vlogger turned Super Sleuth drives there, where she trawls through various year books in search of further clues.

At the Summer Camp, Stephanie comes across a year book entry showing two twin sisters aged sixteen or so - unmistakably Emily with her sister, but that their real names are recorded as Faith and Hope McLanden.

Stephanie later reaches out to Emily through a series of cryptic messages on her vlog which she knows that Emily is monitoring. They meet at the cemetery where Emily is supposedly buried, and sip on martini's for old times sake. Emily explains that in their teens they ran away from home to escape their abusive and controlling father, then went their separate ways agreeing to meet up again when the dust had settled on their disappearance, but never did. In the intervening years Faith wasted away her life, got drunk, addicted to heroin, had a string of dead end relationships and is living on the edge with no money to her name. Hope however, carved out a successful career, married well and settled down to family life. Now some sixteen years on, and Faith reached out wanting to reconnect, and bribing Emily for US$1M otherwise she'll blow the lid on their disappearance and their reasons behind it, all those years ago. Hope had little alternative under the circumstances but to dispense with her sister, which she did in the lake by drowning her while the both swam, recounting memories from those bygone days.

Emily spins a yarn and tells Stephanie that it was Sean's idea to fake her own death, realise the insurance monies, skip the country and live happily ever after. Stephanie reluctantly agrees to help Emily reappear having won the support of Stephanie's vlog audience and frame Sean for physical abuse (which she manufactures evidence of) and insurance fraud. Sean is promptly taken into custody, charged and released on bail. Stephanie secretly changes her mind about Emily's antics and proposed plan, and invents an argument with Sean in front of Emily to incriminate her, while Police listen in on microphones planted in the room. Emily however, did not come down in the last rain shower, and after sidling up to Sean all lovey dovey predicts their ruse, and renders the microphones useless beforehand. Emily confesses to her crimes, holds the pair at gunpoint, tells them she will kill them both and make it look like a murder-suicide. She shoots Sean in the shoulder and turns the gun on Stephanie. Stephanie then reveals that she has a hidden camera concealed as a button in her blouse and is live-streaming the whole event through her vlog. Emily never saw that coming and runs into the street trying to make a quick exit, where she is hit by a car, and is then arrested by Police Officers who arrive at these scene with her crawling along the street unable to walk.

The closing commentary as the credits roll pick up the story six months down the track explaining that Emily was sentenced to twenty years in prison - a life she seems to be reasonably well adjusted to. Sean was cleared of all charges and has became a successful professor at a major University somewhere out of town where he lives with his son, Stephanie's vlog expanded to one million subscribers, and her success in handling Emily's case led her to becoming a part-time private detective which she has an aptitude for having brought thirty criminals to justice already.

I enjoyed 'A Simple Favour', a lot, and was very pleasantly surprised by this school Mum's neo-noir dramedy offering that has a simple enough story that is well told, if a little drawn out towards the end; has plenty of twists and turns interspersed with just the right amount of humour; and very well acted out by Kendrick and Lively especially, ably supported by the emerging Golding. The film looks good, has a thumping French pop soundtrack, is smart and slick and pretty much throughout Lively looks a million bucks and has the attitude to go with it in spades, providing the perfect foil for Kendrick's plain Jane, unassuming stay at home Mum who finds herself thrust into extraordinary circumstances and relishing in them. Catch it while you can.

'A Simple Favour' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CRAZY RICH ASIANS : Monday 3rd September 2018

'CRAZY RICH ASIANS' which I saw at a packed out theatre earlier this week is based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. This romantic comedy drama is Directed by Jon M. Chu whose previous Directing credits include 'Step Up 2 : The Streets', 'Step Up 3D', 'G.I.Joe : Retaliation' and 'Now You See Me 2', and is the first major Hollywood studio film to feature an Asian American cast in a modern day setting since 'The Joy Luck Club' released twenty-five years ago now. The film has so far taken US$144M at the Box Office from its Budget outlay of $30M and has garnered generally positive press. With this Box Office and critical acclaim, a sequel is already in development, and so watch out for follow on films, as Kwan has written two sequel novels - 'China Rich Girlfriend' and 'Rich People Problems'.

After an early set up in 1995 in which we are first introduced to just how rich the Young family really are, we are quickly fast forwarded to the present day New York. Here Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is a Professor of Economics at New York University who is in a steady relationship with Nick Young (Henry Golding), also a Professor at the same University. Over a bite to eat after a days work, Rachel accepts an invitation by Nick to fly to Singapore to accompany him to his best friend's wedding, at which he is to be the Best Man to Colin and his bride Araminta (Chris Pang and Sonoya Mizuno respectively). The trip presents the perfect opportunity for Rachel to meet Nick's family, and catch-up with her old mate from school Peik Lin (Awkwafina). On board the plane, Rachel is expecting to fly cattle class and is somewhat taken aback when the Hostess ushers the couple to their private first class cabin. Nick let's on after being questioned by Rachel, that his family are reasonably well off and comfortable.

Upon arrival in Singapore Nick and Rachel are greeted at the airport by Colin and Araminta and they spend the remaining day eating and drinking their way around Singapore's street food markets. The next day, Rachel visits her former school buddy Peik Lin at her grand and opulent family residence. There she learns from Peik Lin and her family over a lavish dinner at home hosted by Peik Lin's father Goh Wye Mun (Ken Jeong), that Nick is in fact Singapore's most eligible bachelor and that the Young family are super rich, and how they came by their money in real estate development when they relocated from China back in the late 19th Century when Singapore was nothing more that rice paddies.

Later that evening Peik Lin joins Rachel at a party at the Young estate, attended by the entire Young clan and a Who's Who of Singapore's A-Listers. At the lavish party Rachel is introduced to Nick's domineering mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), who has quickly formed a less than favourable opinion of his American Chinese girlfriend. However, upon meeting the matriarch of the family, Nick's grandmother Shang Su Yi (Lisa Lu) that welcome reception goes off a lot more favourably.

The next day Rachel and Nick head off in opposite directions - Rachel attending Araminta's Hens Weekend celebrations on a remote luxury island, and Nick attending Colin's Stag Weekend party aboard a container ship. Things don't go too well for Rachel as she is quickly branded a 'gold digging bitch' by the other jealous girls who all consider themselves a better catch for Nick's affections. Similarly Nick and Colin both want off the container ship and all its over the top 'entertainment' and manage to engineer their escape to a private bolt hole somewhere by the waters edge with a few beers. While alone Nick tells Colin of his plans to propose to Rachel, and even produces the engagement ring. Colin is naturally happy for his best buddy, but is equally worried that Nick's family's disapproval of Rachel and the couple's cultural differences will be too much for the relationship to withstand in the long term.

Meeting up after their respective weekends away Nick asks Rachel how she went with the other girls. Rachel confides that it was a nightmare and the reasons why. Nick apologises to Rachel but is fairly matter of fact and grateful that no one got hurt, and that it could have been a lot worse than some verbal sledging from a bunch of shallow jealous wannabe girls. He also apologises for concealing his families wealth and takes her to make dumplings by hand with his family - a tradition that has been handed down from generation to generation.

Whilst gathered around the table making dumplings Rachel admires Eleanor's distinctive engagement ring. Eleanor tells her that Nick's grandmother disapproved of her and denied Nick's father the family ring, and so he had the one she is wearing made specially. She goes on to say that Rachel will never be good enough for Nick after which Rachel considers leaving Singapore. Peik Lin however, convinces her to stand her ground with Eleanor, and giving Rachel a therapeutic glamorous makeover before the wedding with help from Nick's cousin Oliver (Nico Santos).

At Colin and Araminta's lavish ceremony Rachel outsmarts Eleanor at the wedding by impressing Malay Princess Intan (Kris Aquino). Afterwards at the Reception, Nick's mother and grandmother confront Nick and Rachel with some undercover covert investigations that they have been conducting into Rachel's family history. Eleanor reveals that Rachel was conceived through an adulterous affair, after which Rachel’s mother, Kerry (Tan Kheng Hua) abandoned her husband in China and fled to settle in America with the infant Rachel. They forbid Nick from seeing Rachel for fear of their family getting involved in a scandal.

Rachel does a bolt and shacks up with Peik Li for a few days to take stock of her predicament. Kerry arrives in Singapore unannounced and explains herself to her daughter and why she left behind her abusive husband. She became pregnant by an old classmate while still married, and left China for a fresh start in America, never once contacting Rachel's real father for fear of reprisals. She reveals that Nick asked Kerry to visit and paid for her flight, and urges Rachel to see him. She does, and Nick proposes marriage. Later, Rachel asks Eleanor to meet her at a Mahjong parlour. Over a game, Rachel tells Eleanor that she declined Nick's marriage proposal, but advises that any future marriage Nick has with Eleanor's approval will only be possible because Rachel allowed it. Eleanor wins the Mahjong hand, but Rachel reveals in standing up to leave that she threw the hand, as a metaphor for their conversation - that she allowed Eleanor to win, this time! Kerry was sitting nearby out of sight, and as she leaves the table mother and daughter embrace, and leave arm in arm, with Eleanor watching on. 

Rachel and Kerry board an economy flight home making their way down the back end of the plane amid the hustle and bustle of cattle class passengers. Nick arrives on the plane and negotiates his way through the hubbub of boarding passengers, and proposes again on bended knee in the cramped and very public aisle, but this time, with Eleanor's ring. Rachel accepts and they stay in Singapore an extra day for an engagement party.

In essence 'Crazy Rich Asians' is a story we have seen a thousand times before. Here a middle class girl of questionable cultural upbringing falls for a handsome Prince, and against all the odds he whisks her away to some far away land and they live happily ever after, Amen. And so it goes! I'm not big on comedies and whilst this film raised a few smiles, there were hardly any memorable comedic laugh out loud moments that I can recall. At its heart this film is about the power of love overcoming adversity, it's about acceptance and it's how the super rich live their lives and the power and influence they wield. Good on Hollywood for making a mainstream film largely centred around women and wholly centred around Asians and for wrapping it up in a feel good, warm hearted, inoffensive romance that has colour, a modicum of emotion, strong performances, a thumping Asian soundtrack but is entirely predictable and saccharin sweet. See it for all the opulence, extravagance, luxury, wealth and trappings of the super successful and mega rich and their wannabe hangers on, and how they spend their time and money in this art imitating life fairytale offering.

'Crazy Rich Asians' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, At Odeon Online-