LAST SEEN ALIVE : Tuesday 24th May 2022

I saw the American mystery action thriller 'LAST SEEN ALIVE' at my local multiplex this week, and this M Rated film is Directed by Brian Goodman in this third feature film making outing following 'What Doesn't Kill You' in 2008 and 'Black Butterfly' in 2017. He has been busy in the interim however, racking up, so far, sixty-one screen acting credits in feature films and TV series. The film is set for a release in the US on 3rd June, and was released here in Australia on 19th May and has generated mixed or average Reviews along the way. 

The film opens up with Will Spann (Gerard Butler, who also Co-Produces here) and his wife Lisa (Jaimie Alexander) travelling by car from Manchester, in New Hampshire to the rural community of Emmerson. The atmosphere in the car between the two is a little tense, as Will is driving his wife to her parents home, where she intends to take a two week break from him, in order to clear her head and gain a little perspective on her life going forward. Fifteen minutes outside of Emmerson, and Will announces that he needs to pull over to refuel his car, lest Lisa wants to get out and push, to which she politely declines. It is 9:30am. At the petrol station, Will gets out and begins to refuel, while Lisa goes inside the shop, visits the toilet and buys a bottle of water. Lisa walks out of the shop, and as she is approaching the forecourt she is motioned by a man, walks in his direction, just as a big rig truck obscures Will's view. When the truck moves on there is no sign of Lisa. 

Will waits beside his car and getting impatient goes inside the shop, looking for his wife, but she is nowhere to be seen. He asks the assistant at the pay desk but he says that he has not seen anyone fitting her description. Will goes outside, by now becoming increasingly agitated. He attempts to call Lisa's mobile phone several times but the line diverts to voicemail each time. He drives around the entire petrol station precinct but there is no sign. He goes back inside and asks the assistant again, getting the same response as before. After twenty minutes he calls 911 and gets through to the local Police Department, and one Sergeant Patterson (Russell Hornsby) who tells him to stay put and he'll either send a squad car there or will come out himself. 

While waiting, Will decides to drive the fifteen minutes to Lisa's parents home in the hope that she may have chosen to walk there. Needless to say Lisa is not there and her parents are somewhat suspicious to say the least that Will is being truthful with them, that perhaps the pair had a fight, and that he is covering something up. Will leaves and heads back to the petrol station. By now it is 10:30am and Sergeant Patterson pulls up. Will tells him that he has been to her parents home, much to Patterson's chagrin. They go inside the shop and speak with Oscar, the pay desk assistant, who reiterates that he has no recollection of seeing Lisa. Patterson asks to see the CCTV footage but Oscar says that it hasn't been working for some weeks now. After asking a few more questions Patterson leaves and Will thanks him for his time and the assistance. Walking back outside Will observes that a security camera pointing directly at the doors of the shop is flicking red, indicating that it is working. He goes back inside and confronts Oscar. A brawl ensues in which Will gains the upper hand very quickly over Oscar, and rips out the hard drive which has the recorded CCTV footage, and promptly delivers it to the Police Department into the hands of Patterson. They look at the footage and notice the unknown man motioning towards Lisa just as the truck passes blocking out the view. Will takes a photo of the unknown man. 

Patterson than asks Will to step into an interview room to answer a few questions. Patterson asks what line he is in, to which Will replies that he is in Real Estate Development, with his own business. Patterson asks is there have been any disgruntled employees, is their marriage steady, to they fight, have either one of them ever had an affair, to which Will responds that Lisa did, about six months ago, but he never has, and what was their purpose for coming to Emmerson. Free to leave, Will goes back to Lisa's parents home and shows her Mum the photo of the unknown man who is believed to have abducted Lisa. They recognise the man as Knuckles who has been doing some odd jobs around the parents home and who is an old school friend of Lisa's, and she also recognises the car into which Lisa was bundled, saying that she recalls seeing it about five miles down the road in a rural community. 

Will drives out to the location where Knuckles allegedly is, and breaks into the caravan where Knuckles is hurriedly packing up. The pair get into a fist fight, with Will gaining the upper hand again and beating Knuckes senseless. He binds Knuckles hand up with gaffa tape but not before getting the man to speak where Lisa is. He says that she is with a Frank, and gives Will his location. Will then bundles Knuckles into the back of his car. Driving down the freeway, his speed is clocked at 86MPH by a Highway Patrol car who pulls Will over. After checking his drivers license and can registration documents the Officer motions for Will to get out of the car. Feeling uneasy, he is asked to open the boot, and which point Will does a runner and makes a quick exit into the nearby woodland. Now on foot and traipsing through the undergrowth, Will's SatNav tells him that he is two miles away from his destination. He continues on foot and eventually comes to a road which leads him to Frank's covert crystal meth manufacturing plant. By now its about 3:30pm in the afternoon. 

Will snoops around the compound trying to remain out of sight and inconspicuous. Eventually, he makes his way into the makeshift crystal meth lab where he sees Frank (David Kallaway) talking to his henchman Larry (Alphonso A'Qen-Aten Jackson). They are stood besides a shipping container which Will surmises that Lisa is locked in. Pointing his gun (which he took from Knuckles when he over powered him) at Frank and Larry, he orders them to open the doors of the container. Larry does so, while Frank backs away. In peering inside Larry attacks Will, but sustains a fatal shot to the gut. Trapped inside the container Frank now opens fire on Will, who manages to make a run for it and so begins a game of cat and mouse between the two, until Franks shoots at Will who randomly returns fire in the general direction of Frank . . . and then silence. Will discovers Franks dead body and leaves the lab, not noticing that a small fire has broken out from a tipped over bunsen burner. 

Meanwhile Patterson has Knuckles handcuffed in the back of a Police patrol car, and it is 5:00pm. Patterson coerces Knuckles into telling him where Lisa is and even if she is still alive. Knuckles says that she is dead and buried behind Franks house. Patterson, immediately gets himself over to the compound. Will, in the meantime, has ventured back outside and is greeted by Oscar pointing a gun at Will, who in turn is pointing his gun at Oscar. The pair agree to lower their weapons and discuss where Lisa is. Oscar says that he will take Will to her for US$20K, but he wants the money now, as he throws Lisa's mobile phone down on the ground at Will's feet. At that the meth lab explodes in a huge ball of flame incinerating Oscar in the process and sending Will flying backwards. 

In the aftermath, Patterson arrives on the scene as Oscar's charred remains are zipped up in a body bag. There is still no sign of Lisa. Patterson orders Will to rest up, while he goes around to the back of Frank's house. There he comes across a hole in the ground covered up with sheets of corrugated iron. He reluctantly lifts the sheets to reveal the grave empty. Will, sitting on a bench seat, hears a banging noise and goes to investigate the sound coming from a shack. Inside Lisa is bound and gagged but very much alive. He picks up his wife, cradling her in his arms as she sobs uncontrollably. 

In the closing scene, Lisa is at her parents home, with Will outside slumped over the bonnet of his car. Patterson drives up and the pair both exchange their gratitude to one another. Patterson says that it looks as though gunfire was exchanged between the two dead bodies recovered from the burned out lab, but replies to himself 'those that live by the sword . . . '. Will says thanks again, as Patterson leaves. Lisa comes out and she and Will embrace as they walk inside the house just as it starts to rain. 

The trailer for 'Last Seen Alive', tells us that Will Spann 'is a simple man, no special skills, no Secret Service, no Special Forces' - well you coulda fooled me because this protagonist is pretty useful with his fists, a gun and a crowbar and is able to snoop around a busy drug compound in broad daylight undetected! That said, there are some moments of genuine tension in this film that help elevate it from other similar movies of the genre, the humour is particularly thin on the ground, the dialogue is exactly what you would expect, and the action takes a back seat to the emotion, anxiety, and the dilemma that Will finds himself in, but when the action does come, it's brutal. Gerard Butler plays it convincingly enough, in his usual tough guy persona, but Jaimie Alexander undercooks her role as she fails to show any depth of humanity or modicum of compassion for a man she still has feelings for, until the closing scene. The Director Brian Goodman, has done a good job at making a relatively inexpensive movie look greater than the sum of its parts, although some elements are a bit too obvious including two shots that home in on barrels of 'flammable' liquid that you just know what is coming next . . . and yes, you guessed it, that CGI rendered explosion as the meth lab erupts in a ball of flame. All of that said, this a reasonable entry into the genre, but it's not great, and at a running time of ninety-five minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. 

'Last Seen Alive' 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 19th May 2022.

The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival kicked off earlier this week on 17th May and runs through until 28th May. The Opening Night film is 'Final Cut' - a French ZomCom Directed, written for the screen, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Michel Hazanavicius and is a remake of the 2017 Japanese film 'One Cut of the Dead'. In competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or award there are twenty-one feature films for whom the onerous task of selecting the eventual winner falls to Jury President Vincent Lindon, the French Actor, ably supported by Rebecca Hall, Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols, Noomi Rapace, Joachim Trier, Asghar Farhadi, Jasmine Trinca and Deepika Padukone. 

And so in main competition for the Palme d'Or are included the following feature films :-

* 'Armegeddon Time' from the USA and this drama film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by James Gray and stars Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong.

* 'Broker' from South Korea, this drama film is Directed, Written and Edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

* 'Brother and Sister' from France and Directed and Co-Written by Arnaud Desplenchin and stars Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poudpaud.

* 'Close' from Belgium, Netherlands and France, this drama film is directed and Co-Written by Lukas Dhont and stars Lea Drucker and Emilie Dequenne. 

* 'Crimes of the Future' from Canada, Greece and France is Directed and Written by David Cronenberg and this SciFi body horror film stars Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart. 

* 'Decision to Leave' from South Korea and Directed, Co-Written and Produced by Park Chan-wook. 

* 'Leila's Brothers' from Iran and Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Saeed Roustayl, this drama film stars Taraneh Alidoosti in the title role. 

* 'Showing Up' from the USA and Directed and Co-Written by Kelly Reichardt this drama film stars Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch, Andre Benjamin and Amanda Plummer.

* 'The Stars at Noon' from the USA and France and Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Claire Denis this romantic thriller film stars Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Danny Ramirez, Benny Safdie, and John C. Reilly.

* 'Tchaikovsky's Wife' is a Russian and French historical drama film Directed and Written by Kirill Serebrennikov, starring Alyona Mikhaylova in the title role and Odin Biron at Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

* ' Tori and Lokita' from Belgium and Directed, Written and Co-Produced by the Dardenne brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc, and this drama film stars Pablo Schils and Mbundu Joely in the title roles respectively. 

* 'Triangle of Sadness' from Sweden, the UK, the USA, France and Greece, this dark comedy film is Directed, Written and Co-Edited by Ruben Ostlund and stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean and Woody Harrelson.

Out of competition, being showcased are also 'Elvis' from Baz Luhrmann, 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' from George Millar and 'Top Gun : Maverick' from Joseph Kosinski. Additionally Forest Whitaker is to be awarded the Honorary Palme d'Or.

For all the other sections and those films featured therein, plus a whole lot more from the 75th Cannes Film Festival you can go to the official website at : https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/

This week then to tease you out to your local Odeon, we have six new movies from all corners of the world to choose from, kicking off with an American actioner about an average guy as he searches for his wife, who vanished without a trace while the two were at a petrol station. Next up is an Aussie film about a middle aged woman who sets up a house cleaning business staffed by good looking hunky male cleaners, with benefits. This is followed by a UK/Estonian offering about a handsome, soulful young soldier who embarks on a clandestine sexual affair with a charismatic fighter pilot on a Soviet Air Force Base at the height of 1970's Communist rule. Then we turn to a Norwegian supernatural thriller about a group of young children, who during the bright Nordic summer, reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren't looking. Up next is a French drama about an elderly father who suffers a stroke, and his daughter rushes to his bedside; sick and half-paralysed in his hospital bed, he asks his daughter to help him end his life. And we close out the week with a Russian and Hungarian animated film about a wooden puppet hero who is a skilled circus acrobat who longs to become human when he falls for the ringmaster's daughter.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 coming week.

'LAST SEEN ALIVE' (Rated M) - this American action mystery thriller is Directed by Brian Goodman in his third film making effort following 'What Doesn't Kill You' in 2008 and 'Black Butterfly' in 2017, together with sixty-one acting credits over the last twenty-three years. The film is set for a US release in early June. 

Will Spann (Gerard Butler), is driving his soon-to-be ex-wife Lisa (Jaimie Alexander) to her parent's home when she mysteriously disappears without a trace during a stop at a gas station. A frantic Will engages the local police and Lisa's parents in a desperate attempt to find her, but as time passes and suspicion falls on him, he must take matters into his own hands, delving into the town's criminal underbelly while running from the authorities in a race against time to find Lisa.  

'HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN' (Rated M) - this Aussie drama film is Written and Directed by Renee Webster in her feature film making debut. Here, a fifty-something year old woman Gina (Sally Phillips) has a business idea to launch an all-male house-cleaning service. However, when her business grows out of control, she must acknowledge her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself. Also starring Alexander England and Erik Thomson.

'FIREBIRD' (Rated MA15+) - this UK and Estonian romantic war drama film is Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Peeter Rebane in his feature film making debut, and is based on the memoir 'The Story of Roman' by Sergey Fetisov. The film stars Tom Prior (who also Co-Wrote and Co-Produces here too), and tells the story of Sergey Serebrennikov (Tom Prior), a troubled young private, who is counting down the days until his military service ends. His life is turned upside down when Roman Matvejev (Oleg Zagorodnii) a daring fighter pilot, arrives at the base. Driven by curiosity, Sergey and Roman navigate the precarious line between love and friendship as a dangerous love triangle forms between them and Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya), the secretary to the base commander. As the walls close in, they risk their freedom and their lives in the face of an escalating KGB investigation and the fear of the all-seeing Soviet regime. The film saw its World Premiere screening at the 35th BFI Flare : London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival in mid- March 2021, and went on release in the UK at the end of April this year, having so far grossed just US$174K, garnered mixed or average Reviews and has collected six award wins and another two nominations from around the festival circuit. 

'THE INNOCENTS' (Rated MA15+) - is a Norwegian supernatural thriller film Directed by Eskil Vogt in his second film making outing following 2014's 'Blind'. This film had its World Premier screening at The Cannes Film Festival in July 2021 before being released in its native Norway in late August last year, and only now does it get a limited showing here in Australia. Here then, during the bright Nordic summer, a group of four children become friends during the Summer holidays, and while out of sight of their parents and other adults they learn that they each have dark and mysterious powers which manifests itself when their innocent playtime takes on a more sinister turn and strange things begin to occur. The film has so far picked up nine award wins and a further eight nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit.

'EVERYTHING WENT FINE' (Rated MA15+) - this French drama film is Written and Directed by Francois Ozon and is based on the novel 'Everything Went Well' by Emmanuele Bernheim. When Andre (Andre Dussollier), 85, has a stroke, his daughter Emmanuele Bernheim (Sophie Marceau) hurries to her father’s bedside. When he wakes up diminished and dependent, this vital and curious man who loves life asks his daughter to help him end his life. Also starring Charlotte Rampling and Geraldine Pailhas, the film has garnered generally positive Critical reviews since its World Premier showcasing at the July 2021 Cannes Film Festival, and its subsequent release in its native France at the end of September. 

'PINOCCHIO : A TRUE STORY' (Rated PG) - this animated Russian and Hungarian family fantasy film is Directed and Co-Written by Vasiliy Rovenskiy and is based on the Italian book 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' and its Russian version 'Buratino'. Young Pinocchio (dubbed by Pauly Shore in the English version) runs away from his genius creator Jepetto (Tom Kenny) accompanied by the horse Tibalt (Jon Heder) to see the world and joins the traveling circus run by hustler Modjafocco (Dmitriy Iosifov). He falls in love with Bella (Eliza Martirosova) and with the help of Lucilda (Irina Kireeva) longs to become a real human boy and win over the love of his life.

With six new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-