VIOLENT NIGHT : Tuesday 13th December 2022.

To get myself into the Christmas spirit, I saw the MA15+ Rated 'VIOLENT NIGHT' this week. This American Christmas fantasy black comedy action film is Directed by Tommy Wirkola whose previous feature film making offerings include 'Dead Snow' in 2009, 'Hansel & Gretel : Witch Hunters' in 2013, 'Dead Snow 2 : Red vs. Dead' in 2014, 'What Happened to Monday' in 2017 with Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe, and 'The Trip' in 2021 with Noomi Rapace again. This film saw its World Premiere at the New York Comic Con on 7th October and was released here in Australia and the US on the 1st and 2nd December respectively. It cost US$20M to produce, has so far grossed US$46M and has generated largely positive reviews.

The films opens up on Christmas Eve in a pub somewhere in Bristol, England, with Santa Claus (David Harbour) sat at the bar lamenting the fact that children have become increasingly materialistic, and increasingly unaware that he actually does exist. He's chatting to the barmaid and another (faux) Santa Claus who has just come of his shift, when he decides to leave saying that he still has much work to do but seriously under the influence of a few too many pints of beer. He goes up to the roof of the bar and there waiting for him is his sleigh and reindeer. As he takes off the barmaid appears on the roof to see Santa circling above, when he vomits over the side of his sleigh right on to the upturned barmaids face. 

In Greenwich, Connecticut, Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell), his separated wife Linda Matthews (Alexis Louder), and their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) visit his mother Gertrude's (Beverly D'Angelo) mansion set in its own gated community to celebrate Christmas with his alcoholic sister Alva (Edi Patterson), her new boyfriend and wannabe-action movie star Morgan Steel (Can Gigandet), and Alva's online influencer young teenage son Bertrude (Alexander Elliot). 

Following a somewhat frosty and strained Christmas Eve reception Jason and Linda take Trudy to bed, but Linda berates her estranged husband for not taking their daughter to the Mall this year to see Santa, so how can he know what presents to bring her. Jason asks for five minutes while he goes down to the games room, and rummages through a cupboard containing their old games and toys. He returns minutes later with an old walkie talkie for Trudy to talk directly to Santa, but for her to be mindful that he may be too busy to reply. They bid their daughter goodnight, and listen in at the door as Trudy asks Santa for just one wish - for the family to get back together again.

Continuing his journey to deliver Christmas gifts, a somewhat drunken Santa eventually arrives at the Lightstone estate. Parking his sleigh and reindeer on the roof of the mansion, he descends down the chimney stack and is greeted by a glass of skimmed milk and home baked cookies. He takes one sip of the milk and instantly discards it, helping himself instead to an aged whiskey from the bar in which he finds himself whilst chomping down on the cookies. The caterer's meanwhile, hired to lay on a lavish food and beverage spread for the evening, reveal themselves to be a group of highly trained and motivated mercenaries led by one Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo), who set about killing the household staff and taking the family hostage. Santa is discovered by one of the mercenaries, whose rapid gunfire through the ceiling scares away the reindeer. The pair fight until Santa knocks him out of a window to his death. Stranded, Santa decides to save Trudy and her family from Scrooge, who demands the US$300M in cash that is sitting in the mansion's vault. Santa gets into another fight and kills another henchman and takes his radio, coming across Trudy's channel, and finds the mercenaries on his magical naughty scroll. 

Trudy's walkie-talkie is later  discovered, and Jason tells their captors for fear of him being tortured that she is simply playing make-believe and declares that Santa is not real, causing her to run and hide in the attic. Santa reassures Trudy over the radio that he is indeed real, and revealing that he was once Nikamund the Red, a bloodthirsty Viking warrior, and how he now finds solace in his thousand plus years of marriage to Mrs. Claus. One of the henchman, Krampus (Brendan Fletcher), forces the family to hand out their gifts to Gertrude, who is surprised by a card from Jason, and keeps his message to herself choosing not to share his words with Alva. Wounded, Santa is captured by Scrooge, who bears a childhood grudge from when he was ten or eleven, against Christmas. Santa's knowledge of their real identities convinces two other lead mercenaries Gingerbread (Andre Eriksen) and Candy Cane (Mitra Suri) that he is real, and he uses his magic to escape up through the chimney.

Gertrude's private extraction team, also known as her own private 'kill squad', arrive, led by Commander Thorp (Mike Dopud), but they are in cahoots with Scrooge and kill Morgan as he attempted to escape. Opening up the vault, Scrooge and Thorp discover it empty. In turn Scrooge threatens Linda, and Jason confesses that he stole the money and was planning to flee with his wife and daughter, which he explained in his Christmas card to his mother. He reveals the money hidden in a nativity scene outside in the grounds. Gertrude forgives his treason as a family rite of passage. Retreating to a shed, Santa finds a sledgehammer and one by one brutally slaughters the kill squad. Trudy creates booby traps inspired by the 'Home Alone' film which she saw the previous day, which leads to Gingerbread's death, and as Candy Cane prepares to shoot Trudy, she is killed by Santa. Scrooge gives the order to kill the hostages, but Alva, Linda, and Bert manage to kill Krampus instead by beating him to death with fireside tools and stabbing him through the neck with a poker. 

Scrooge and Thorp flee into the woods on snow-mobiles with the bags containing the money and a captive Gertrude, chased down by Santa. Linda kills the last mercenary back at the nativity scene, and Trudy sees her parents reunite with a kiss. Lured by Scrooge, Santa crashes his snow-mobile into a cabin, and Scrooge finds himself on the naughty list and acknowledges Santa is real, but is determined to kill him and put an end to Christmas once and for all. They fight, and Scrooge gains the upper hand, but Santa uses his magic to drag him up the cabin's chimney stack, crushing and eviscerating Scrooge.

Santa is shot several times by Thorp, who is in turn shot through the head by Gertrude. As Santa lies dying in the snow, he remarks that he feels cold for the first time in a very long time. Jason burns a few hundred thousand dollars of the cash to keep him warm much to Alva's disgust, but Santa falls victim to his wounds. Trudy inspires her family to all declare their new found belief in Santa, and he is revived, admitting that he still does not really understand how Christmas magic works. His reindeer return, and Santa bids farewell to Trudy before flying off to finish delivering gifts, his faith in the spirit of Christmas restored.

I have to say that going into this movie my expectations were not particularly high, but I was pleasantly surprised by 'Violent Night' and the lashings of comedy, interwoven with over the top action and violence and bloodthirsty horror that make for a more than satisfying antidote to all the festive fun and frolics. David Harbour as a sledgehammer wielding Santa whose heart is firmly in the right place is perfectly cast, and John Leguizamo as Scrooge is sufficiently over the top as the villain in the piece who ultimately gets his comeuppance in the most gruesome of ways. This film doesn't add anything new to the genre that we haven't already seen in 1990's 'Home Alone' and 'Die Hard 2 : Die Harder' films, but for a bone crunching blood soaked tongue in cheek alternative Christmas offering that is a morality story at heart, you can add this to your Christmas stocking wish list and be entertained. 

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

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE MENU : Tuesday 6th December 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE MENU' this week, which is an American black comedy horror film Directed by Mark Mylod whose prior feature film making efforts are his debut in 2002 with 'Ali G Indahouse', then 'The Big White' in 2005, with 'What's Your Number?' in 2011 being his last big screen offering before this one. In the meantime he has also Directed multiple episodes of 'The Royle Family', 'Entourage', 'Game of Thrones', 'Shameless' and 'Succession'. This film saw its World Premier screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September this year, before its release in the US in mid-November and here in Australia from 24th November. The film cost US$30M to produce, has so far grossed US$49M at the Box Office and has received generally positive critical press.

Here then, young couple Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) are waiting patiently on a jetty awaiting the arrival of a private boat to take them and a bunch of other selected guests to a remote island to eat at Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant run by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). We are quickly introduced to the other guests, those being Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer) a famed food critic and her Editor, Ted (Paul Adelstein); George Diaz (John Leguizamo) a self-centred washed up Actor and his assistant and girlfriend Felicity (Aimee Carrero); a trio of tech business executives Soren (Arturo Castro), Bryce (Rob Yang) and Dave (Mark St. Cyr); and Richard Liebbrandt (Reed Birney) and his wife Anne (Judith Light). After disembarking the boat the restaurant maitre'd Elsa (Hong Chau) while conducting a quick roll call, notes that Margot was not Tyler's originally designated guest for the evening, which causes her some consternation. Elsa then guides the guests through the grounds on foot pointing out their herb and vegetable gardens, their Norwegian smokehouse, the house where Chef Slowik resides that is out of bounds for everyone and the living quarters where the kitchen brigade and front-of-house staff live. They are also advised that there is no mobile phone reception on the island.

Dinner begins, with first an amuse bouche then the first, second, third, a palette cleanser and then the fourth and fifth course all accompanied by the finest of wines. As each course unfolds Slowik claps his hands together to gain everyone's undivided attention, and his accompanying introductory monologues to each course gradually becoming more disconcerting and violent. On Slowik's orders, he calls upon Sous Chef Jeremy Louden (Adam Aalderks) at the start of a course he's titled 'The Mess' and tells everyone that Jeremy has aspirations to be him, but he is only good, not great, and never will be great. Slowik, kisses each cheek of his Sous Chef, who then pulls out a pistol, places it in his mouth and pulls the trigger. Hence 'The Mess', which Lilian Bloom quickly dismisses as part of Slowik's showmanship.

At this horror the guests try to leave, with Richard Liebbrandt being the first to the door but is halted by some burly looking floor staff and Elsa. She asks him, which hand - the left or the right, but Richard looks on quizzically. Out comes a chef with a kitchen knife and promptly cuts off his wedding ring finger, returning his bloodied wedding ring to his wife. Slowik then asks the guests to look out of the window to see the restaurant's main investor, and the boss of Soren, Bryce and Dave, while strapped to a harness with angel wings, is slowly lowered into the water and drowned in front of the guests.

Later all the guests are asked to step outside the restaurant, with the male guests given a forty-five second headstart and the opportunity to flee, but all are caught in no time and returned by the staff. Slowik declares all the guests were selected because they either contributed to him losing his passion for his craft or because they make a living off exploiting the work of artisans like him, then announces that the night will end with everyone on the island dead. Since Margot's presence was unplanned, Slowik gives her the choice of dying with either the staff or the guests, and she has fifteen minutes in which to decide. 

Slowik turns his attention to Tyler, revealing that he was invited personally eight months ago and knew all along that the dinner would end with everyone's death. This enrages Margot. It is revealed that Margot is in fact an escort named Erin whom Tyler has hired for the evening, knowing full well she would die, since the restaurant does not serve parties of one. Slowik humiliates Tyler further by forcing him to cook in front of the guests and staff, chastising his dish of leeks, shallots and lamb all roughly cut up and cooked up hastily in a frying pan. Slowik whispers in Tyler's ear who then leaves the kitchen and commits suicide by hanging in a storeroom. Slowik decides that Erin belongs with the staff and asks her to collect a barrel that is required for dessert from the smokehouse, falsely claiming that Elsa forgot it. 

After going to the smokehouse to retrieve the barrel, Erin sneaks into Slowik's house, only to be attacked by Elsa. After a scuffle in another commercial kitchen Erin kills Elsa in self-defence by stabbing her in the neck with a kitchen knife. Using a key found on Elsa's now lifeless body, Erin gains entry in Slowik's private quarters. After seeing newspaper clippings of Slowik's past life in his sparsely decorated office, and a photograph of the man from back in 1978 when he was flipping burgers at the dawn of his career Erin finds a radio, calls for help, and returns to the restaurant with the barrel. A Coast Guard officer soon arrives from his boat, bringing hope to the guests of their rescue. The officer recognises George from a movie he once saw him in and asks for his autograph. George nervously complies and pens the words Help Us and folds up the piece of paper. As the officer turns and is ready to leave he opens up the paper to reveal the message and promptly holds Slowik at gunpoint, commanding him to get down on his knees. The officer then reveals himself to be a line cook in disguise and returns to the kitchen, much to the guests astonishment.

Because of Erin's betrayal, Slowik tells her that she belongs with the guests, but Erin turns the tables and mocks his dishes and complains that she is still hungry. Having previously seen a photo of a young, happy Slowik working in a burger joint, Erin asks him for a cheeseburger and fries. Moved by her simple request, Slowik says that he'll fix her up the best cheeseburger she's ever tasted and asks if she wants crinkle cut fries or julienne. He then prepares the meal to her requirements. Erin takes a bite and praises his food, and then asks if she can get it 'to go'. Slowik packs the food for her and lets her leave, but not before she has paid ten bucks for her burger and fries. Erin takes the Coast Guard boat docked nearby and flees from the island.

The dinner culminates with dessert, for which Slowik pays tribute to the popular campfire treat in the US and Canada of s'mores, by covering the guests with coats made of marshmallows and hats made of chocolate. The kitchen brigade meanwhile adorn the floor space and table tops around the guests with decorative patterns of seemingly flammable ingredients. He then sets the restaurant ablaze, killing the guests, staff, and himself as Erin watches on from the now drifting boat off shore while chomping down on her cheeseburger. 

'The Menu' is deliciously entertaining from its strong performances of Fiennes, Taylor-Joy and Chau, to the very black dead-pan humour, to the social commentary about chefs as celebrities, up themselves critics, over zealous fans, the fear of missing out fiends and wealth and capitalist privileged consumerism writ large. And all of this is wrapped up in a tongue-in-cheek offering that is as much about the unfolding horror the guests increasingly find themselves in as it is about the gastronomic delights served up to them by the unwavering and dedicated team of cooks working the kitchen. The storyline is a feast for the senses and here Director Mark Mylod serves us up film packed with all the right ingredients to offer the viewer something fresh, mouthwatering and tasty. 

'The Menu' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 2 - Tuesday 23rd May 2017.

'JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 2' which I saw earlier this week tells the ongoing story of the hirsute hitman character of John Wick as played by Keanu Reeves who first burst onto our screens all guns blazing in 2014 and proved to be a critical success, whilst grossing US$89M off its US$20M budget. It was therefore inevitable that a sequel would follow, and now in 2017 our titular forced out of retirement assassin seeking vengeance and dispensing his own kind of justice down the barrel of a gun, is back. Keanu Reeves reprises the role he so successfully made his own from the get-go, and Director Chad Stahelski is back in the chair with this film that saw its initial release in the US in early February and here in Australia only on the 18th of this month. The film has so far made US$167M from its US$40M budget and has received much critical praise.

Set four days following the end of the first film, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has tracked down his prized 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 to a warehouse chop-shop where various criminal underworld activities are ongoing overseen by Russian gangster Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare) whose brother Viggo and his son Iosef were both killed by John in the first film.

As John fires up the engine to his beloved vehicle, all manner of heavies quickly come out of the woodwork, and a kinetic car chase is on for one and all that culminates back in the warehouse where it all started with John taking out each and every one, before bursting in on Tarasov, who can only shake his head in disbelief. John siddles up to Tarasov, words unspoken, pours them both a neat glass of vodka, toasts peace between them, and walks away, sparing the Russian's life. He gets back into his now heavily trashed Ford Mustang and drives home.

Back home John attempts to settle back down to a quiet life of retirement. But his best laid plans are thwarted when he is visited by Italian gangster Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) who presents John with a 'Gold Marker' which binds him via a never to be broken blood oath to an earlier commitment for a past favour granted. There is clearly some history between the two gentlemen as they have done 'business' together in the past which enabled John to retire to marry Helen (Bridget Moynahan, in flashback only) but now D'Antonio wants his payback. John refuses, saying that those days are behind him, he's retired, and he's not that man anymore. This doesn't sit well with D'Antonio who is holding the Marker with John's bloodied thumb print inside it. The two part company, but before driving away D'Antonio promptly blows John's home to pieces using a grenade launcher - John is blown clear out of the house and his new best friend, the dog with no name escapes unhurt too, but John's luxury home is totalled.

Consulting with Winston (Ian McShane) at New Yorks' Continental Hotel who reminds John that if he does not accept the 'Marker' he will be breaking one of the two cardinal rules of the underworld - the first to not kill or conduct 'business' within the grounds of a Continental Hotel, and the second that all Markers must be honoured. John reluctantly meets again with D'Antonio and accepts the task, which is to travel to Rome to take out his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini) who sits on the council of high level crime lords, so that he can take her place.  D'Antonio sends his own assassin and mute personal bodyguard, Ares, (Ruby Rose) to keep a watchful eye on John to ensure that he delivers on his commitment and to tie up any loose ends.

In Rome, John's checks into the Continental Hotel there, managed by Julius (Franco Nero) and then sets about suiting up and tooling up, using all the specialist suppliers of custom made bullet proof tailored suits and hitman special weapons that a gold coin or six can buy. He then infiltrates Rome's catacombs to get close to Gianna's celebration party, and confronts her alone, stating that he is there to complete his Mark as ordered by her brother. Rather than die unexpectedly at the hands of another, she chooses to die her own way, committing suicide. After she has passed, John fires a single point blank shot into her head and walks away.

Whilst retreating back through the labyrinth of underground tunnels, John is ambushed by D'Antonio's henchmen and Ares, wanting to tie up those loose ends. Needless to say it will take more than a few dozen heavily armed heavies to dispense with a well prepared bullet proof suit wearing tooled up arse kicking John Wick. Just when he thought he was in the clear, Gianna's personal bodyguard Cassian (Common), having discovered her limp lifeless body, comes out seeking revenge having seen John earlier at the party and asked if was 'working'. They fight on the streets of Rome late at night in a savage close quarter kicking, punching, gouging, knifing and shooting fight eventually crashing through a window into the Reception of the Rome Continental Hotel, which also allows no 'business' to be conducted on its grounds. Under strict compliance of the rules, the pair share a drink in the bar, and John tells Cassian who ordered the hit on Gianna and that he had no choice. Cassian swears revenge for her death, and leaves to fight another day, having paid for the drink 'out of professional courtesy'.

Following her death Santino places a US$7M bounty on the head of John as a smoke screen to avenge her death leading every assassin in New York to come out to kill John and claim the reward. John dispenses with the attacks of several assassins, but Cassian is once again on his tail, and confronts John in the subway. They board a crowded subway train and maintain their distance until the next stop when the passengers disperse leaving them access to each other while the remaining passengers look on in disbelief as their fight breaks out within the confines of the subway carriage. John overpowers Cassian, pushing a knife into his aorta and sitting him down on a seat, stating that if he pulls the knife he will bleed out and quickly, and that 'out of professional courtesy' he let him live.

Injured and running out of options John seeks out an underground crime lord that John had previously taken a hit on, but who he also let live, albeit with a potentially life threatening injury, The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburn, in their first screen pairing since 'The Matrix' trilogy). After exchanging social niceties, The Bowery King reluctantly agrees to help John and leads him to D'Antonio's whereabouts armed with a revolver and a magazine containing seven rounds only.

Here John confronts D'Antonio and his several dozen henchmen with Ares who are all on hand to protect their leader. After more close quarter gun fighting in which heads explode with gushes of the crimson stuff against marble white walls, culminating in a dizzying bevy of fist fights and gun battles in a hall of mirrors, John overcomes Ares who stays behind allowing D'Antonio to flee to The Continental, and safe harbour. John tracks his quarry to the Hotel, where D'Antonio is very self assured that John will abide by the strict rules of the Hotel, and that he can stay indefinitely in very comfortable surroundings. John needless to say has very different ideas.

The next day, Winston sends for John, and explains that the High Table at which Gianna and subsequently Santino sat for a very brief time, has doubled the bounty on John's head and issued it globally. Winston also advises that John is now considered 'excommunicado' from The Continental, and in so being loses all special privileges and access to the resources of the underworld that he has hitherto enjoyed and taken advantage off. He is out on his own in the world, with every assassin in the known universe now hot on his tail. Winston however, gives him a one hour head start before the bounty goes live, and in so doing hands him a Marker for his future use should he ever need it. As John races through the streets of New York on foot with his trustee no name dog bounding beside him, John hears mobile phone messages sounding all around him, as hitmen & women are alerted to John's new status.

'John Wick : Chapter 2' is a frenzied frenetic feast of bullet ballet gun-fu, that raises the body count over a number of very well choreographed action set pieces, whilst providing some clarity surrounding the mythology of the story. This is exactly what you would expect and more from the first instalment, ramping up with a high octane opening car chase in New York somewhere, to an intense and perhaps overly long underground gun battle in the ancient city of Rome, back to the streets and subway of New York, for the final showdown in a city Museum. Director and former stuntman Stahelski, who has worked with Reeves before on 'The Matrix' series, has a keen eye for big screen inventive action and he pulls out all the stops here to deliver a thrill ride that is exciting, at times humorous, well acted by Reeves who carries the whole film on his shoulders, and by McShane and Common especially. John Wick is a man of few words, and he too comes off a little worse for wear, proving that he is not infallible suffering a gun shot wound, a knife stabbing, all manner of kicks and punches but he keeps coming back taking out those that would cross him with a deft touch . . . often at point blank range. Very entertaining, bloody and violent compelling action packed bullet riddled escapism that ticks all the boxes.  Director Chad Stahelski has already stated that a third film in the series in currently in the works, which will lead on from where this instalment ends. Bring it on!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CHEF - Wednesday 14th May 2014.

Given my background it was inevitable that I would see 'CHEF', and so ventured off to the Cremorne Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace last night to see this culinary offering. Serving up the menu in this instance we have Writer, Producer, Director and Star of the film Jon Favreau, who has concocted a simple story of former gastronomic wunderkind Chef Carl Casper who has lost his culinary mojo thanks to Restaurant owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) who shackles him to a menu that is years old and long past its use by date, but still has the customers rolling in . . . but not the critics!

It is one critic in particular, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), who descends on the restaurant, with prior warning, and thanks to Riva's overarching decision is served up the same age old menu that now is tired, lacking imagination, creativity and love, despite what Chef Carl had in mind for that evenings service. And so a few days later the review is revealed to the world via an on-line Blog and a very disappointing two stars only are awarded and our Chef is duly crucified. In the background our Chef is trying to rekindle the relationship with his ten year old son Percy (Emjay Anthony) who introduces his Dad to the world of 'Twitter', and so a war of words breaks out in cyberspace between Chef and Critic which very quickly goes viral. As a result Chef Carl is fired, and can't land a job as a dish pig let alone a Chef!

To the rescue comes ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) with who Chef Carl still has a strong, albeit separated relationship with, and invites him on a conference trip to Miami accompanied by their son. There is a hidden motive here, and that is a meeting with second ex-husband Marvin (Robert Downey Jr.) who just happens to own a beat up 1988 Chevvy Food Truck in need of a new owner and a lot of TLC. And so dad and son set to work to refurbish, upgrade and refit the food truck, quickly joined by good mate and Sous Chef Martin (John Leguizamo) to support the seemingly down trodden no hope cause and because he loves his former boss Chef Carl. Their style of cuisine is honest to goodness, freshly made, value for money quality hand held southern style food with those Spanish, Cajun, Mexican and Cuban influences. What follows is a road trip with the three lads all prepping and serving as they go from Miami, to Atlanta, to New Orleans and various stop offs en route with the money pouring in; customers aplenty thanks to viral marketing courtesy of a ten year old; music, local colour and lights; and lots of laughs and food homage along the way.

This is a feel good movie, with a happy ending where Chef Carl Casper comes good, reconciles with the Critic, the family reunite and everyone lives happily ever after. There is plenty of food porn particularly in the first half where Chef Carl is experimenting with new recipes and showing us his deft knife skills and culinary ability; there is drama from Riva flexing his restaurant owner/operator muscles; there is humour particularly when Chef Carl verbally unloads on to Critic Ramsey Michel publicly in the crowded restaurant, and his later meeting with a hamming it up for all it's worth second-ex Marvin; and there is emotion that comes from son Percy and dad Carl, from Sous Chef Martin, and from ex-wife Inez.

This has the recipe for an enjoyable viewing, and the ingredients that command a second helping! From blockbuster mega budget action fare to a simple story of food, family and freedom Jon Favreau has cooked up a storm with this one - an a la carte offering not to be missed!                                                                                                                                              

  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-