BEAST : Tuesday 13th September 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BEAST' this week at my local multiplex, and this is an American survival thriller film Directed by Baltasar Kormakur whose prior Directorial outings take in the likes of his big screen debut 'Go LazyTown' in 1996 then 'A Little Trip to Heaven' in 2005, 'Inhale' in 2010, 'Contraband' in 2012, '2 Guns' in 2013, 'Everest' in 2015 and 'Adrift' in 2018. The film was released in the US in mid-August, here in Australia three weeks ago now, has so far taken US$54M from its US$36M production budget and has generated mixed or average Reviews.

The films opens up with a bunch of guys pulling up in their all terrain vehicles in the dead of night, guns raised and traipsing through the undergrowth so not to disturb their quarry, which it is revealed is a pride of lions. The lions are feeding on a snared animal, so are distracted enough to be not to worried about the approaching gunmen, who all begin firing their rifles and slaughtering the pride. However, one lion has escaped and run into the surrounding undergrowth, and is pursued by two of the poachers, leaving the others to bundle the dead lions into the back of one of their trailers. The two poachers who went in search of the lion, pretty soon end up very dead at the claws of the now rogue big cat, as do a handful of other poachers in the party. 

We then cut to a light aircraft seen flying over the Mopani Reserve in South Africa, in which are being carried Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two young daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Sava Jeffries) who are on a holiday with the hope that the father can reconnect with his daughters following the recent death of Nate's wife and the mother of their two girls, from cancer. Nate reunites with his long term friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley) - a biologist and manager of the Mopani Reserve, and who initially introduced Nate to his (future) wife. Martin takes Nate and the girls to the small village where Nate's wife was born and raised. The next morning, Martin, Nate and the girls drive out on a tour of the reserve's restricted areas. Martin shows them a local lion pride and plays with two mature lions that he raised from young cubs and then returned to the wild. He notices that one of the lioness' has a bloodied paw and suspects a bullet wound from a poacher. 

At a close by Tsonga village, Martin discovers most of the population is dead having been clawed and bitten to death. He surmises that a rogue lion is responsible, and rushes back to his 4WD truck to radio in and report the finding. On the drive back to their base camp, they encounter an injured Tsonga man on the road. Nate goes to his aid but is unable to save him, while Martin tracks the lion. Martin is subsequently mauled by the lion, and takes shelter under a tree beside a lake, but is suffering from a brutal leg injury and is losing a lot of blood. The lion then ambushes Nate, who takes cover in the 4WD with his two girls. Meredith jumps into the drivers seat and speeds away, but crashes into a tree above a rocky outcrop thereby stranding them there, with a vehicle that now won't start. 

Martin is able to barely communicate with Nate via a walkie-talkie, as he is slipping in and out of consciousness because of his excessive blood loss, but nonetheless warns him to stay away, saying the lion is using Martin as bait to coax the others out. As the radio is out of range to contact help, Nate assembles a tranquiliser rifle. He confronts the lion, hoping to subdue it with a dart for a few hours - just long enough to recover Martin and make the trek back to civilisation. The lion attacks Nate who takes shelter underneath the 4WD and repeatedly kicks the lion in the head, with little or no effect. 

Meredith meanwhile takes advantage of the distraction to locate and save Martin. Norah stabs the lion with a tranquiliser dart after it knocks the tranq gun from Nate’s hands, causing the lion to retreat. Meredith brings Martin back to the car and using the First Aid kit Nate treats his leg wound and stitches him up having stemmed the bleeding. As nighttime closes in, Martin who has come round, believes that the lion went rogue after poachers killed its pride. 

Soon after, headlights appear behind them and the poachers arrive in search of the lion. Nate pleads with them to take them to safety and they initially agree to transport the group to the village in exchange for US$5,000 which Nate agrees to pay. However, tensions soon arise after the poachers spot Martin in the back of the 4WD, and as a firm anti-poacher and having shot dead three of their kind, they are none too impressed and all bets are off. The lion then attacks and scatters the poachers, killing or badly maiming most of them. Nate manoeuvres his way past the lion and locates the poacher with the truck keys, who is in a bad way. He also grabs the poachers rifle. Back at the 4WD, Martin holds the lion off long enough to allow the sisters to escape. The lion charges at the car causing it to topple off the rocky outcrop and fall into a ravine, taking the lion with it. The lion quickly recovers itself and limps off while Martin is sat upright with the 4WD now resting on its side as petrol rains down on him. The lion returns and with its head now inside the missing windscreen Martin sacrifices himself by igniting his Zippo lighter so setting off an explosion from the leaking petrol, severely burning the lion. Nate starts the poachers truck and races away with Meredith and Norah, but notices that Meredith has sustained a deep laceration to her side.

They pull up at an abandoned schoolhouse as Nate is fearful that he going to run out of fuel. Upon gaining entry they see that the poachers used the old school building as their base. Nate treats Meredith's wound with gauze he found in an old First Aid kit and a bottle of alcohol to wash his hands and clean the wound. The lion appears and stalks the girls, but Nate returns and scares it off by firing a few rounds at it from the gun he retrieved from the dying poacher. 

Locking his daughters inside a room, Nate promises to return after subduing the lion, armed only with a knife. Luring it out into the open, Nate attracts the local lion pride which they had seen the day before and which Martin helped raise. In the ensuing struggle, the lion mauls Nate several times slashing his skin with its sharp claws and biting him fiercely, nearly killing him, until the two Alpha males of the pride intervene and kill the rogue lion. A Mopani worker arrives and saves Nate as he loses consciousness. 

Coming round in a hospital bed sometime later, a heavily bandaged up yet recovering battle weary Nate tells his daughters he loves them. Sometime later, the three return to the reserve, this time as a unified family, and recreate the photo Nate's late wife took of herself standing under her favourite tree.

'Beast' is an OK movie, it's not great, but entertaining enough to warrant you spending 93 minutes sitting on the edge of your seat and biting your nails as an apex predatory lion stalks Idris Elba and Co. The cinematography is first rate, the special effects of the rampaging lion are well executed, the story is grounded in a sense of reality, and the four lead roles are convincing enough in their performances to keep it relatable and believable. That said, the film is fairly predictable nonetheless, the characters all make some lousy questionable decisions, and going in you know exactly what you're gonna get, and in that respect this film doesn't disappoint. 

'Beast' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING : Tuesday 6th September 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING' at my local independent movie theatre this week. This dark fantasy film is Co-Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by George Miller, whose previous feature film making credits include his 1979 debut with 'Mad Max', then 'Mad Max 2', 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome', 'The Witches of Eastwick', 'Lorenzo's Oil', 'Babe : Pig in the City', 'Happy Feet' and 'Happy Feet Two', with 'Mad Max : Fury Road' his most recent offering before this one, and with the 'Mad Max' spin-off 'Furiosa' currently filming and due for a 2024 release. This film is based on the 1994 short story by A.S.Byatt titled 'The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'. It saw its World Premiere showcasing at this years Cannes Film Festival in late May, was released in the US on 26th August, here in Australia on 1st September, cost US$60M to produce, has so far earned back US$9M and has garnered generally positive reviews from critics.

The film introduces us to a storyteller, narrativist and scholar Dr. Alithea Bonnie (Tilda Swinton), who by her own admission is a lonely soul, perfectly comfortable in her our company and who has no parents, no siblings and no husband (although she once did have, but he left her for a more outgoing model). Once or twice a year she travels with her work to places like China, Japan and on this occasion to Turkey to speak at a conference. She also suffers from hallucinations of demonic beings - one of which manifests itself to her while she's up on stage addressing the audience at the conference. She passes out, but quickly recovers and tells her good friend and colleague that it's nothing to worry about. Later that same afternoon, she is out shopping at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and she purchases a small ornate bottle with distinctive blue markings that captured her interest. I'm sure it has an interesting story to tell she says to the shopkeeper as he carefully wraps the bottle in tissue paper. 

The next morning at her hotel having just stepped out of the shower and ordered room service breakfast she sets about cleaning the bottle with her electric toothbrush and dislodges the glass stopper unleashing a Djinn (Idris Elba) that was trapped within it. Djinn offers to grant Alithea three wishes if they are her heart’s desire, but Alithea argues that because she's a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong, and accuses Djinn of being a trickster. 

The Djinn takes umbrage at the accusations and proceeds to tell her three tales of his past and how he ended up trapped in the bottle on three separate occasions lasting some three thousand years. The Djinn recounts his story of the Queen of Sheba (Aamito Lagum), the most beautiful woman in the whole world, his cousin and lover, being wooed by King Solomon (Nicolas Mouawad), who imprisons the Djinn in a bottle so that he can have Sheba for himself. 

The Djinn's second story surrounds Gulten (Ece Yuksel), a young concubine in the palace of Suleiman the Magnificent (Lachy Hulme). After finding the Djinn's bottle, Gulten wishes for Suleiman's son, Mustafa (Matteo Bocelli), to fall in love with her and subsequently wishes to bear his child. However, Mustafa is murdered by his paranoid father, causing Gulten to hide the Djinn's bottle under a heavy flagstone and flee. Despite the Djinn’s attempts to pursue and save her, the pregnant Gulten is also killed on Suleiman’s orders before she is able to make her final wish. The Djinn wanders around the royal palace for over one hundred years, invisible and intangible due to the bottle remaining hidden and out of sight. 

Meanwhile, the bottle is eventually found by royal brothers Murad IV (Kaan Gulder) and Ibrahim (Hugo Vella), but as they are young children they are unable to lift the heavy flagstone. Some twenty years later Murad IV goes into war, where he becomes a vicious and ruthless ruler, and later dies a lonely man from alcoholism. Ibrahim reluctantly becomes the new sultan and finds himself entangled with a bevvy of obese concubines, including Sugar Lump (Anna Adams), who falls backwards onto the flagstone crushing it beneath her weight and manages to retrieve the bottle. The Djinn appears to her and desperately begs her to make a wish but Sugar Lump, scared and confused, wishes for the Djinn to return to his bottle and for the bottle to be thrown into the sea, which it is.

In the Djinn's final story, he tells of Zefir (Burcu Golgedar), the young wife of an older Turkish merchant, who is gifted the bottle after it is recovered during the mid-19th Century. Zefir is intelligent enough in her own right but wishes for knowledge, which the Djinn grants in the form of literature on mathematics, the sciences, history, astrology and astronomy and her second wish to understand the world as djinns do. Despite the Djinn's growing feelings toward Zefir and the fact she is now pregnant with his child, in time she becomes increasingly hemmed in by his presence and her newfound knowledge. The Djinn offers to reside in his bottle whenever she wishes, but Zefir wishes to forget she ever met the Djinn, so imprisoning him once again.

The Djinn's final story moves Alithea to the point where she wishes for Djinn and herself to fall in love. The next day Alithea must return home to London and so she and the Djinn board a flight with the Djinn residing temporarily in a crystal salt shaker. One day, Alithea returns home and discovers that the Djinn is gradually becoming weaker due to the effects of being out of his bottle for a prolonged period of time and the apparent effects of modern telecommunications transmissions. She uses her second wish to get the slowly disintegrating Djinn to speak again, apologises for using her wish to deny them the chance to fall in love naturally, and uses her third and final wish to set the Djinn free, so he is able to return to 'The Realm of Djinn'. Though she never expects to see him again, the now-healthy Djinn visits Alithea three years later and periodically again afterwards throughout her lifetime, and the arrangement suits Alithea just fine. 

'Three Thousand Years of Longing' is Director George Miller's modern and more adult take on the more child friendly 'Aladdin' of old, and with it he has crafted a film of stunning set visuals, effects and cinematography, four compelling stories all woven into one neat package, of the power of storytelling, love, loss and hope for the future. The two leads in Swinton and Elba are spot on, and to see them riff off each other as they verbally spar with one another wearing nothing but white bathrobes in a hotel room is a joy to watch and helps keep the story grounded in the here and now. The final, after the pair return to London, feels a little rushed in an attempt to tie the whole story together and bring it to a satisfying conclusion, but that would only be a minor observation in a film that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

'Three Thousand Years of Longing' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 19th October 2021.

I finally got around to seeing 'THE SUICIDE SQUAD' on the big screen now that cinema's have reopened across greater Sydney in the past ten days or so, following almost four months of COVID-19 forced lockdown. Written and Directed by James Gunn, this standalone sequel to 2016's 'Suicide Squad' (Directed by David Ayer) is the tenth film in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). Gunn's previous film making offerings include his directorial debut in 2006 'Slither', 'Super' in 2010, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in 2014 and 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' in 2017, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' currently filming and due in 2023. 'The Suicide Squad' was released in the UK in late July, and in the US in early August while streaming on HBO Max for a month starting the same day. It has generated positive critical reviews, although has been a Box Office let down recouping just US$168M so far from its production budget outlay of US$185M.

Here then, A.R.G.U.S. Director (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles two Task Force X teams, known as the Suicide Squad that consist Belle Reve penitentiary inmates (a high security metahuman prison), who reluctantly agree to carry out missions for Waller in exchange for having ten years shaved off their sentences, while at the same time having explosive devices injected into their necks which Waller can activate at any given time should the need arise. The teams are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese, located off the South American coast, after its government is overthrown in a military led coup by an anti-American regime. They are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory, Jotunheim, which holds a secretive experiment known as 'Project Starfish' as well as conducting clandestine experiments on human subjects, led for the past thirty years by lead scientist Gaius Grieves aka The Thinker (Peter Capaldi). 

The first team is led by Waller's subordinate Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and comprises Brian Durlin aka Savant (Michael Rooker), George 'Digger' Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Cory Pitzner aka T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid) (Nathan Fillion), Gunter Braun aka Javelin (Flula Borg), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Richard 'Dick' Hertz aka Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and Weasel (Sean Gunn). They are almost entirely wiped out by the Corto Maltese military upon landing, with only Harley Quinn and Rick Flag escaping the fray. This distraction allows the other team to enter the country undetected, from a beach on the other side of the island. The second team is led by assassin Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who accepted the mission in order to prevent his daughter Tyla (Storm Reid) from being incarcerated at Belle Reve, and consists of Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Abner Krill aka Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and Cleo Cazo aka Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior). 

After Flag is deemed to be still alive albeit being held captive, Bloodsport and his team systematically kill all those guarding the campsite only to discover that Flag is sat relaxing and enjoying a cold beer with the leader of a group of rebel soldiers fighting the resistance against the new regime Sol Soria (Alice Braga). Despite all of Soria's foot soldiers and resistance fighters being killed off, she agrees to assist them. 

Harley Quinn survives the attack on the first team and is taken captive by the Corto Maltese government, after killing the new President Silvio Luna (Juan Diago Botto) with whom she had a one night stand during which she learned from him of the new regime's plans to use Project Starfish against other nations, most notably America, Russia and China. Mateo Suarez (Joaquin Cosio) the Major General of Corto Maltese interrogates Quinn by having her strung up and goaded with an electric cattle prod to the stomach. In the Corto Maltese capital, the second team captures the Thinker, the lead scientist in charge of Project Starfish, in a bar and is ushered out the back door by Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man just as the military arrive and detain Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the three military guards escorting their three new prisoners in the back of an armoured vehicle or the two upfront in the driver and passenger seats. Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, the Thinker and Milton (an Associate of Task Force X) arrive in a beat up old Toyota bus to retrieve Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag.

Meanwhile, Quinn using the power of her thighs strangles her interrogator and using the dexterity of her foot retrieves the padlock key from the now dead interrogator, turns herself upside down, inserts the key into the padlock and turns the key so unlocking it and freeing herself. She then goes on a killing spree wiping out every guard who happens to be in her path either in a hail of bullets, or using the golden javelin bequeathed to her by Javelin just before he died on the beach a couple of nights ago, or by breaking necks from some accurately landed high kicks or savage punches. You never should underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned! 

And so Harley successfully escapes and joins the others, who use the Thinker to gain access to Jotunheim. As the Squad rigs up the facility with explosives, Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the laboratory with the Thinker, where they witness the fruits of all of his clandestine human experiments. He tells them that Project Starfish is Starro the Conqueror, a giant alien starfish that is able to create thousands of smaller versions of itself to kill people and take control of their minds and bodies. Starro was brought to Earth by the US government, who have been secretly funding experiments on him in Corto Maltese for the past thirty years and using thousands of its citizens as test subjects. Upon learning this, Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this news but is killed by Peacemaker who is under secret orders from Waller to cover up the US's involvement in the experiments, and the existence of Starro.

Meanwhile, a skirmish between the Squad and the Corto Maltese military lead by Major General Suarez results in Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As the facility slowly begins to implode and fall apart, Peacemaker catches up with Ratcatcher 2 and is poised ready to kill her for knowing the truth about Starro, but Bloodsport shoots him instead and takes the drive, so sparing Ratcatcher 2. 

Starro escapes from the now destroyed laboratory, kills the Thinker and the majority of the military personnel on the ground, and begins taking control of the island's population by releasing thousands of smaller starfish which latch onto the faces of the victims, so suffocating them almost immediately before taking control of their minds and bodies at which point they are revived - zombie like. Waller tells the Squad that their mission is complete now that Jotunheim is destroyed, but Bloodsport chooses to ignore her and leads his teammates in battling Starro, while Waller is knocked out by one of her subordinates using a golf club across the back of the head, back at Task Force X HQ to prevent her from executing the squad. 

During the battle, Polka-Dot Man is killed, Harley pierces a hole in Starro's eye using the javelin, and Ratcatcher 2 summons the city's rats to chew the alien to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government by gunning down all of the corrupt officials and pledges democratic elections. Bloodsport forces Waller to release him, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark from their imprisonment, and to swear not to go after his daughter Tyla, in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential to which she has little choice but to agree. The remaining Squad is airlifted out of Corto Maltese.

It's easy to see where Director James Gunn filtered away a production budget of US$185M, and it's equally as easy to see why this film has yet to recoup that initial investment. 'The Suicide Squad' is a silly film full of largely one dimensional characters that we have very little investment in by way of back story apart from one or two glib sentences in passing from the main characters; there is plenty of cussing and swearing; the humour seems aimed mostly at fifteen year old boys; there is lots of blood and gore; and the action sequences are so over the top that it really does remind you that you're watching a comic book adaptation after all. As for the giant alien starfish, Starro, well that reminded of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the 1984 'Ghostbusters' film, just a little more menacing. On the positive side, Gunn's absurdist direction shines through in this no holds barred, fast paced, ultra violent, piece of nonsense that doesn't take it self too seriously, has moments of sardonic humour, and is visually everything you would expect from a movie such as this. Worth watching on a big cinema screen just for the spectacle of the action sequences which Gunn delivers with aplomb and of which there are plenty to satisfy the most die hard fans of the genre. The film also stars Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher, the father of Ratcatcher 2 who is dead but is seen in memory flashbacks by his daughter. Also, remain in your seat for the post-credits sequence.

'The Suicide Squad' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 25th October 2018.

The Adelaide Film Festival drew to a close last Sunday 21st October after eleven days of showcasing the finest cinematic content from Australia and internationally. Included in the formalities were ten films all in official competition vying for the University of South Australia Feature Fiction Award and a AU$20K cheque to the winning Director in recognition of their creative achievement. The awarding jury bestowed importance upon bold storytelling, creative risk-taking, idiosyncratic voices, and overall fabulous films in the award to the successful film. You can learn a whole lot more from the official Adelaide Film Festival website at : https://adelaidefilmfestival.org/

In competition this year, were :-
* 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' - Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
* 'Beautiful Boy' - Directed by Felix Van Groeningen.
* 'Burning' - Directed by Lee Chang-dong.
* 'Celeste' - Directed by Ben Hackworth, and an Australian production.
* 'Capharnaüm' - Directed by Nadine Labaki.
* 'Emu Runner' - Directed by Imogen Thomas, and an Australian production.
* 'Girl' - Directed by Lukas Dhont.
* 'Memories of My Body' - Directed by Garin Nugroho.
* 'ROMA' - Directed by Alfonso Cuarón.

* 'The Seen and Unseen' - Directed by second time feature film maker Kamila Andini who trained in Melbourne and grew up in Indonesia, this Australian, Indonesian, Netherlands and Qatar co-production took out the University of South Australia Feature Fiction Award and pocketed a cheque for AU$20K.

This years award winning film tells the story of inseparable 10-year-old twins Tantri (Ni Kadek Thaly Titi Kasih) and Tantra (Ida Bagus Putu Radithya Mahijasena) living in Bali, who are as equally at home playing in the fields as they are stealing hens eggs from the local shrines. When, however, Tantra gets seriously sick and falls into a coma, and with her brother's life teetering on a knife edge, Tantri escapes into her night-time dreams where the two young siblings bid their fond farewells through costumed play, song, dance and shadow puppetry.

This week we have six new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with a slasher horror offering that is the eleventh in the franchise, but ignores the events of the previous nine films and establishes a timeline that is set directly forty years after the events of the first film. Featuring that same Actress portraying that same character ready and waiting for the return of the masked serial killing machine, but is she smart, quick and strong enough to thwart the evil murdering menace? Sticking with the Halloween theme, we have a lauded British horror offering that draws its inspiration from the '60's and '70's era and is a collection of three separate chilling and sinister stories that all link back to one man. We then change pace completely with a story of a father and son relationship that is well & truly tested by the teenage sons drug addiction, the the lengths that the father will go to in order to save his son. Then we have an Aussie dark comedy about an English teacher about to sign his first book, but rather than bask in the celebration, his world may just come crumbling down around him for a whole raft of reasons. We then move a story of a teenage lad who forges an unlikely relationship with an out to pasture has been race horse and their voyage of discovery and adventure across the vast American landscape together, before concluding the week with an '80's set crime drama featuring Jamaican crims on the lam in London in this offering from an acclaimed Actor who is here Directing his first feature film.

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 week ahead.

'HALLOWEEN' (Rated MA15+) - and here we have the eagerly anticipated, much hyped and long awaited 'recalibration' of the famed and iconic slasher horror franchise that introduced an unsuspecting world to maniacal killer Michael Myers and teenage babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) way back in 1978. That film, aptly titled 'Halloween' was Written, Directed and Scored by the legendary John Carpenter, cost a paltry US$325K to make and grossed worldwide US$70M, and defined the genre that has been imitated ever since. That 1978 film saw an equally standup sequel in 1981 titled 'Halloween II', but after that instalment the franchise was on the skids. There have been a succession of films ever since - eight others in fact, with the latter two being remakes in 2007 and 2009 titled again 'Halloween' and 'Halloween II' with both of the instalments being Directed by Rob Zombie that collectively grossed US$120M off the back of a combined budget of US$30M whilst remaining reasonably true to the original source films. In between time Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role as a more mature Laurie Strode in 1998's 'Halloween H2O : 20 Years Later' and again in 2002 in 'Halloween : Resurrection'.

And so to this 2018 offering as Directed and Co-Written by David Gordon Green which is the eleventh film in the franchise and a direct sequel to the the original 1978 film, disregarding completely the sequels and the continuity that have come in between time. Set forty years after the events of the first film, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis playing the character now for the fifth time), has been preparing all this time over the ensuing years for the return of Michael Myers (Nick Castle from the original film and James Jude Courtney) in what she believes will be her final confrontation with the masked and relentless serial killer when he returns to Haddonfield, Illinois, to dispense with her once and for all for escaping his killing spree on Halloween night back in 1978. But this time, she is better prepared. Also starring Judy Greer, Andi Matichak and Will Patton. The film was also scored once again by John Carpenter, cost US$10M to make through Blumhouse Productions, has received generally positive press, was released Stateside last week and has so far taken US$96M at the Box Office.

'GHOST STORIES' (Rated M) - also out just in time for Halloween is this British horror anthology Written and Directed by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson and is based on their 2010 Westend stage play that ran through until 2015 before taking the production to Australia where it ran countrywide for a year. The film Premiered at the London Film Festival in October 2017, went on general release in the UK in early April, has so far taken US$4M and has garnered generally positive Reviews. Here Professor Phillip Goodman (played by Co-Director and Co-Writer Andy Nyman) devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural and other worldly goings on in his popular television show. His scepticism however, soon is tested when he gets word of three chilling and inexplicable cases featuring disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in a forest and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier though is the fact that each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the Professor's own life. Described more as a horror of British yesteryear in keeping with Hammer and Amicus rather than the slasher and body horror offerings of the present day, the film also stars Martin Freeman, Paul Whitehouse and Alex Lawther.

'BEAUTIFUL BOY' (Rated MA15+) - this American biographical drama film is Co-Written for the Screen and Directed by Belgian film maker Felix Van Groeningen in his English language debut. Based on the memoirs 'Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction' by David Sheff released in 2008, and 'Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines' by Nic Sheff the film was made for US$25M, Premiered at TIFF last month, went on release in the US on 12th October and has received generally positive Press. Telling the real life story of teenager Nicolas Sheff (Timothee Chalamet) who seems to want for nothing in his life - he's a good student attaining solid grades at school, he's the Editor of the school newspaper, an aspiring actor, a keen artist and a promising athlete. However, when Nic's addiction to meth threatens to destroy him, his desperate father David Sheff (Steve Carell) will resort to whatever means he can to save his son, and his family. Also starring Amy Ryan, Maura Tierney, Timothy Hutton and LisaGay Hamilton.

'BOOK WEEK' (Rated CTC) - here we have an Australian dark comedy drama filmed in the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, and Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Heath Davis in only his second feature length film, following 2016's 'Broke'. When it looks like his novel is going to be published after his sixth attempt, High School English teacher Nicholas Cutler (Alan Dukes) thinks his life is finally about to turn the corner. But what is meant to be the best week of his life quickly spirals out of control and turns into the week form Hell. A girlfriend’s ultimatum, a student in trouble with the Police, a very sick brother-in-law and the prospect of living a life of unfulfilled dreams, force Mr. Cutler to re-examine just what’s most important in his life. Also starring Nicholas Hope, Steve Bastoni, Steve Le Marquand and Susan Prior.

'LEAN ON PETE' (Rated M) - this British drama film is Written for the Screen and Directed by Andrew Haigh who previous offering was 2015's highly acclaimed '45 Years'. The film screened in main competition at the Venice International Film Festival back in September 2017, was released in the US in early April this year, the UK in early May, was made for US$8M and has so far grossed US$2.5M and has generated generally favourable Reviews. Based on the 2010 novel of the same name by American author Willy Vlautin, the story here surrounds Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) a fifteen year old lad living with his single father Ray Thompson (Travis Fimmel), who finds casual work caring for an ageing and ailing racehorse named 'Lean On Pete'. When his father dies, likely pushing him into foster care, and he learns that Pete is bound for the slaughter house, Charley and the racehorse begin a journey of adventures and challenges across the new American frontier in search of a long lost aunt, and a new place to call home. Also starring Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn and Chloe Sevigny.

'YARDIE' (Rated MA15+) - this British crime drama offering is based on the 1992 highly acclaimed novel of the same name by Victor Headley, and is Directed in his feature film debut by renowned Actor, Producer, Musician and DJ Idris Elba. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, and went on release in the UK in late August. Now it gets a limited released in Australia having garnered generally mixed or average Review along the way so far. Reeling from his brother’s death in a shooting when he was a child in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica in the 1970's Dennis Campbell, aka 'D' (Aml Ameen), is hired by Jamaican crimelord and reggae producer King Fox (Sheldon Shepherd) ten years later to deliver a package of cocaine to British gangster Rico (Stephen Graham) who resides in the London suburb of Hackney. But when Dennis finds out that the man who killed his brother all those years ago is also living in England, he is torn between revenge against the murderer, and the duty he has sworn to do.

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-

MOLLY'S GAME : Tuesday 6th February 2018.

'MOLLY'S GAME' which I saw on Tuesday evening this week is Written and Directed, in his fimmmkaing debut, by Aaron Sorkin, who has here based his first film on the memoir 'Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker' by Molly Bloom. The Molly Bloom in question here is a former American poker entrepreneur who in April 2013 was charged with running a high-stakes poker game that originated in the Viper Room in Los Angeles and attracted wealthy individuals and business tycoons, sports figures, Hollywood celebrities including Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Macauley Caulkin amongst others, and the Russian Mob. She was cleared of many charges and sentenced in 2014 to one year of probation, a $1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. The film Premiered at TIFF back in early September last year, and went on release in the US on Christmas Day 2017 and has received much critical acclaim for Sorkin's screenplay and the performances of its principal cast. Costing US$30M to make, the film has so far grossed US$50M, has received much positive press, and has garnered so far three wins and 33 other nominations, some which are still at the decision pending stage including the Academy Award and BAFTA nod for Best Adapted Screenplay. Aaron Sorkin's other big screen writing credits include 'A Few Good Men', 'The American President', 'Charlie Wilson's War', 'The Social Network' (for which he won an Academy Award), 'Moneyball' and 'Steve Jobs', as well a television's highly successful 'The West Wing' series amongst others.

And so based on a true story, this crime drama stars Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, a world class moguls skier who while qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games suffers a serious injury so ending her Olympic aspirations. Licking her rounds and instead of moving to law school as was her original plan, she moves to Los Angeles and gets a job as a bottle service waitress at a night club. She's making an OK wage plus tips, and in time meets Dean (Jeremy Strong) who runs an unsuccessful real estate business by day, but a hugely successful underground poker game by night. At first Molly becomes his office manager and Girl Friday, running chores and needless errands, but soon he gets her involved in running his poker games, all in secret and not to tell a soul. Going in she is clueless about the game, but quickly learns the language, the hands, the stakes and the personalities involved in Dean's games which include the rich and famous, movie stars, sports players, music personalities, wealthy businessmen from whom she starts to earn big tips.

As Molly begins to ingratiate herself to the regular players so the tips become from more frequent and more sizeable. She is good at what she does and keeps everything above board, maintaining meticulous records and strong (strictly business) relationships, all the while learning the intricacies of the game and the players. The most successful of whom is Player X (Michael Cera) playing a composite of some high profile Hollywood A-List Actor types. Molly aims to keep on the right side of Player X, for he has the pulling power to attract more high wealth players to Dean's games. In time however, Dean observes that Molly is becoming more independent at managing and running the games and is making plenty of money in tips - a fact that he is secretly jealous with. And so Dean delivers Molly an ultimatum, which is not to her liking, and so Dean fires her.

Molly has made a substantial sum in tips over the years, and so is hardly destitute. Musing over her new unemployed status, she decides that she is good enough at running such poker games, has a network of players who would gladly follow her, and has the credibility to make a real go of it. And so she rents a penthouse in a hotel, hires the tables and the staff to run the games, organises the catering and a well stocked bar and begins to secretly spread the word about her high stakes poker games. Player X, along with those others from Dean's games, defect over to Molly's game, and she becomes increasingly successful amassing more money from tips. All is good, until she learns that Player X has covertly been covering the losses of an initially conservative but increasingly compulsive poker player who has lost up big in recent weeks, ultimately costing him his marriage. Molly is none too pleased with Player X's unethical behaviour and the two fall out. Player X returns to Dean's game, taking all the other players with him. Overnight, Molly has gone from hero to zero!

Molly decides upon a change of scenery and heads to New York to begin a new underground poker game with a new bunch of high net worth individuals. Again, Molly proves successful, amassing enough players to be able run multiple games every week. However, in time things begin to take their toll. Despite her apparent success Molly is unable to cover her losses, when players lose and cannot afford to pay up. Her dealer convinces her to begin taking a percentage of large pots so as to be able to recover her potential losses - a fact that she is at first reluctant to undertake, but sees the sense in it and agrees.

One of her players is arrested and convicted for running a Ponzi Scheme which in turn leads to an investigation into Molly's poker games and who the other players involved were/are. At about this time, the pressure is mounting and Molly takes to drugs and alcohol to settle her nerves and ease the stress. Another player, Douglas Downey (Chris O'Dowd) who is infatuated with Molly, introduces wealthy individuals from the Russian Mafia to her game, although Molly is unaware of their mob connections. At the same time Molly is approached by the Italian Mafia who offer to coerce money from players who have racked up debts with Molly, but she politely declines. A few days later at the start of the two week Christmas break period, Molly is attacked in her apartment where she is held at gunpoint, badly beaten, robbed of her cash and jewels and her mother threatened with her life.

Having nursed her wounds and remained holed up in her apartment for two weeks over the Christmas break gradually healing, Molly is ready to return to her poker games. A phone call comes through from Downey in a panic warning her that the FBI is about to descend upon her, as a result of his informing on her. All of her assets are seized and she returns home to live with her mother Charlene (Claire Rankin).

Two years later, and Molly has published her book recounting her story, her rise, her downfall and naming a number of names associated with her games. In the meantime, Molly is arrested by the FBI together with thirty or so others as part of a money laundering scheme and illegal sports gambling operation in cahoots with the Mafia. She seeks out the support of Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) a high profile and very expensive New York lawyer who is reluctant at first to take her case. He however, agrees to help her after learning that she has over US$2M in unclaimed gambling debts and after reading her book which indicates to him that there is insufficient evidence pointing to criminal activity or wrongdoing to warrant a prison sentence.

While this is going on and the trial is awaited, Molly's estranged father Larry (Kevin Costner) who is a noted clinical psychologist, seeks out Molly having read about, and heard about her case in the news, in an attempt to reconcile with his only daughter. He admits that he was over bearing, domineering and demanding of her as a child, but that it was out of love and wanting the best for her in life. However, Larry has a skeleton in his cupboard that only Molly knew about, albeit subconsciously, and this is why he treated her differently to his two older sons who have both gone on to carve out very successful careers for themselves.

Bloom was looking down the barrel of a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, and a US$1.5M fine. On the day of the court hearing, Molly pleads guilty to a lesser charge for her involvement in the operation and was sentenced to a years probation, a US$1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service much to her and Larrry's surprise, with the Judge practically dismissing the case on the grounds that there was little evidence to demonstrate any real criminal activity.

'Molly's Game' is a solid Directorial debut for Sorkin and has all his usual trademarks of rapid fire dialogue; sports, celebrities and underworld dealings; a strong female protagonist in Chastain and an equally strong support from Idris Elba. The film runs long at 140 minutes, but it moves along at a good pace and seldom leaves you wanting. You do however, need to pay attention as the film darts back and forth from the present day back to Molly's early childhood years learning to perfect her skiing moves under her ever present, demanding and relentless father, and her rebellious teenage years that influenced what she was to become. Then there is the language of the game itself and the images that flick up on the screen of winning hand combinations; then not to forget the confident quick paced dialogue delivered by lawyer Charlie Jaffey in conversation with Molly or defending her case to the Prosecutor's or plea bargaining; and then finally the back to front nature by which the film plays out which we see in flashbacks. The film is entertaining enough and well worth the price of your ticket entry for Chastain's performance alone if nothing else, and to see her sparring with Idris Elba, but in between the moments of razor sharp quickly delivered narrative and exposition, and the action of the poker table and its myriad of players, the film does drag its heels somewhat which elevates the film to the ranks of top card game movies, but doesn't surpass them.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-