UNCHARTED : Tuesday 22nd February 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'UNCHARTED' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this American action adventure film is Directed by Ruben Fleischer, whose previous film making credits include his big screen debut in 2009 with 'Zombieland', then 2013's 'Gangster Squad', 'Venom' in 2018 and 'Zombieland : Double Tap' in 2019. The film, based on the video game series of the same name, had its Premier in Barcelona, Spain on 7th February, having been originally set for release on December 18, 2020 but was postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was subsequently released in the UK two weeks ago now and both here in Australia and the US last week. It has received mixed reviews from Critics and has so far grossed US$146M off the back of a US$120M production budget. 

The film opens up with young teenage brothers Sam (Rudy Pankow) and Nathan Drake (Tiernan Jones) attempting to steal the priceless first map of the world made after the Magellan Expedition of 1522.  However, mid-heist they are caught red handed by two Security Officers who escort them back to the orphanage where they are living. Because this is Sam's third strike, he is expelled from the orphanage and ordered to vacate immediately. Nate goes up to the room they share together, and sees Sam climbing out of the window, to pursue life on his own rather than be holed up in someplace he doesn't want to be. Before leaving, Sam promises his little brother that he will return for him. Sam leaves him with a ring belonging to their ancestor Sir Francis Drake, with the inscription 'Sic Parvis Magna', which when translated means 'Greatness from small beginnings'.

Fast forward fifteen years, and Nathan (Tom Holland) now works as a bartender in New York City and pickpockets wealthy patrons. Victor 'Sully' Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) observes Nathan stealing a bracelet from a female customers arm, and confronts him with it at closing time. Sully is a fortune hunter who worked with Sam tracking treasure hidden by the Magellan crew, explains to Nathan that Sam vanished two years ago without a trace after helping him steal Juan Sebastian Elcano's (a crew member of that Magellan Expedition) diary. Nathan, whose only contact with his brother over the years has been through a series of postcards sent from exotic places around the world, agrees to help Sully to find his brother. 

Sully and Nathan attend an auction to steal a golden 15th Century cross linked to the Magellan crew. There, the pair encounter Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), the last descendant of the Moncada family (who funded the original expedition five hundred years ago), and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), leader of a small group of mercenaries hired by Moncada. Nathan is ambushed by Braddock's men, and the ensuing fight creates a distraction for Sully (disguised as an auction attendant) to steal the cross, which is one of a pair which also double up as keys but for locks which are as yet to be discovered. However, not before Sully is held at knifepoint by Braddock, until she is interrupted by a trio of security guards who catch her off guard allowing Sully to make his getaway with the cross.

The pair fly to Barcelona, where they believe the treasure to be hidden, and rendezvous with Sully's contact Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), who has the other cross. Chloe steals the first cross from Nathan and after a foot chase across the roof tops and streets of the city eventually catch-up with her and convince her to work with them. Meanwhile, Moncada confronts his father, Armando (Manuel de Blas), upon learning the family fortune is being donated to charitable causes states that his son is not worthy of inheriting it, and so Moncada orders Braddock to kill him, with his last words to his father as his throat is slit are 'father, please forgive me!' 

Nathan, Chloe, and Sully follow clues in Elcano's diary to the 15th Century church Santa Maria del Pi, finding a secret crypt behind an altar. Nathan and Chloe enter, locating a trap door, but as they open it, the crypt floods with water. Sully, just in time, manages to help them escape before the pair drown, after being ambushed by Braddock. 

Using the two crosses to unlock a secret passage, Nathan and Chloe find a map that indicates the treasure is in the Philippines. Chloe betrays Nathan (having originally been hired by Moncada) by knocking him unconscious and makes off with the map. Sully reunites with Nathan and tells him that after he and Sam recovered Elcano's diary, they were ambushed by Braddock and Sam was shot and Sully narrowly escaped. Sully believes Sam to be dead. Nathan however, believes Sam to be simply lost and not gone, as so agrees to team up with Sully again, and finish what they started. 

Moncada, Chloe, and Braddock's team depart in a cargo plane to find the treasure, but just as Moncada drinks to their success with the map now in his possession, Braddock betrays and kills him by slicing his throat. Nathan and Sully hide out on the plane in the boot of the prized red sports car given to Moncada on his 18th birthday by his father. Nathan confronts Braddock and a gunfight breaks out while Sully parachutes out. Nathan is knocked out the plane with Chloe behind the wheel of Moncada's sports car, who is trying to make her getaway with the map after Moncada's death. The pair land in the sea just off the coast of a Philippines island at the end of a parachute, where they realise the map does not identify the location of the treasure. 

Checking into a resort hotel for the night, the pair come to the conclusion that Sam may have left a clue in his numerous postcards. Nathan determines the treasure's true whereabouts while Chloe sleeps. Unsure over where Chloe's loyalties lie, Nathan leaves her fake coordinates and finds the Magellan ships and the lost gold, reuniting with Sully. 

Braddock meanwhile follows them, forcing Nathan and Sully to hide as her crew airlift the ships using two heavy lift cargo helicopters from their resting place of the last five hundred years. While escaping, Sully climbs up the rigging and commandeers one of the helicopters, causing Braddock to order the other helicopter to approach for a broadside. Nathan is able to fend off her mercenaries and shoot down the other helicopter with one of the ship's centuries old but still working cannons. Braddock drops that ship's anchor while Nathan climbs to the helicopter with the mercenary in hot pursuit. Sully throws a bag of collected gold at Braddock, who falls into the sea some distance below, and is then is crushed to death when the ship breaks free of its bindings and falls directly on top of her. 

As a Philippine naval boat arrives, Nathan and Sully escape with a handful of pieces of pickpocketed gold treasure, while Chloe (who has followed them by boat) is left empty handed. Sully, looking down on the ship which is now sinking below the surface and breaking up says that the gold, worth an estimated US$5B is now the property of the people of the Philippines. 

Judging by the critical reaction to 'Uncharted' I wasn't expecting too much going in, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised coming out of the movie theatre. Sure there are obvious parallels to the 'National Treasure', 'The Mummy' and Indiana Jones franchises, but this film is a serviceable fun and entertaining enough addition to the big screen video-game adaptation genre that knocks the likes of 'Mortal Kombat' and 'Assassin's Creed' into a cocked hat! The action set pieces are well realised and when they arrive they do so thick and fast; the all to often bickering dialogue between Sully and Nathan grates at times but is interspersed with moments of humour and a real sense of chemistry between the two male leads. As for the villain in the piece, Banderas as Moncada is nothing more than a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out character who seems to be there to simply fill in a few plot holes. I have no prior knowledge of the Uncharted video game and so I had no pre-conceived ideas about the casting, the plot, the action or the look and feel of this film, but I can also guess where die hard fans of the game might be put out by some of those elements in this cinematic rendering. Nonetheless, 'Uncharted' is a fun, safe, well paced and effective action adventure adaptation that is sure to find an audience perhaps unfamiliar with those aforementioned franchises, and for whom this movie will offer up something new and fresh. Remain in your seat for two mid-credits sequences, which set up a sequel.  

'Uncharted' 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 10th January 2019.

The 8th annual AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) International Awards were held at The Mondrian Hotel, Los Angeles on Friday 4th January 2019 and hosted by Australian Television Presenter Renne Bargh. The AACTA International Awards honour the best achievement in film excellence from the previous twelve months irrespective of geography, and as determined by the Australian Academy’s International Chapter who vote across seven award groups. Amidst all the attendant glitterati and glamourati, this years winners and grinners were announced as :

* AACTA International Award for Best Film : 'ROMA' beating out 'A Star Is Born', 'Vice', 'Blackkklansman' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

* AACTA International Award for Best Direction : Alfonso Cuaron for 'ROMA' beating out Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born', Spike Lee for 'Blackkklansman', Warwick Thornton for 'Sweet Country' and Yorgos Lanthimos for 'The Favourite'.



* AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay : Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara for 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out 'A Quiet Place', 'Blackkklansman', 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Roma'. 

* AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actress : Olivia Colman for 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out Glenn Close for 'The Wife', Toni Collette for 'Hereditary', Lady Gaga for 'A Star Is Born' and Nicole Kidman for 'Destroyer'.

* AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actor : Rami Malek for 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' beating out Christian Bale for 'Vice', Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born', Hugh Jackman for 'The Frontrunner' and Viggo Mortensen for 'Green Book'.

* AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actress : Nicole Kidman for 'BOY ERASED' beating out Amy Adams for 'Vice', Emily Blunt for 'A Quiet Place', Claire Foy for 'First Man' and Margot Robbie for 'Mary Queen of Scots'.

* AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actor : Mahershala Ali for 'GREEN BOOK' beating out Timothee Chalamet for 'Beautiful Boy', Joel Edgerton for 'Boy Erased', Sam Elliott for 'A Star Is Born' and Sam Rockwell for 'Vice'.

This week we have three new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with a tale of divided loyalties and mounting pressures in the face of racial injustice as confronting one teenager who must learn to speak up and have the courage of her convictions. This is followed up by a comedy drama of a married couple who in order to fulfil their lives, decide to adopt not one, not two but three siblings with life changing consequences for them all. Wrapping up then, we have a documentary following the lives of five Labrador puppies from birth until two years as they are brought into the world to be trained ultimately to be Guide Dogs for the blind.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three 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 coming week.

'THE HATE U GIVE' (Rated M) - this American drama film is Directed by George Tilman Jnr. whose previous Directing credits include 'Men of Honour', 'Notorious', 'Faster' and 'The Longest Ride'. Based on Angie Thomas's 2017 novel of the same name, and Written for the screen by Audrey Wells who died aged 58 on 4th October - the day before the film saw its theatrical release in the US. The film Premiered at TIFF in early September, was made for US$23M, has so far grossed US$33M, and has been universally acclaimed, in particular for the performance from Amandla Stenberg in the lead role.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) seems to spend her life switching between two worlds - the poor, mostly black neighbourhood of Garden Heights where she lives, and the wealthy, mostly white Williamson Prep School that she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is soon shattered when she witnesses one night the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil Harris (Algee Smith) at the hands of a Police Officer. Facing pressure from all sides of the community, including a local gang 'The King Lords' who control the neighbourhood, Starr must find her voice and decide to speak up for what's right and stand her ground in the face of racial injustice. Also starring Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Anthony Mackie and Common.

'INSTANT FAMILY' (Rated PG) - released in the US in mid-November, this American comedy drama offering is Directed, Co-Produced, and Co-Written for the screen by Sean Anders, cost US$48M to make and has so far grossed US$76M and has been generally well received by Critics. The story here surrounds Pete (Mark Wahlberg) and Ellie (Rose Byrne) Wagner who determine there is a void in their lives and decide to start a family. They subsequently stumble into the world of foster care adoption. Initially hoping to take in one small child, but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious 15-year-old girl Lizzie (Isabela Moner), they find themselves speeding from zero to three kids overnight, including also Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and Lita (Julianna Gamiz). Now, Pete and Ellie must try to learn the ropes of instant parenthood in the hope of becoming a happy family. Also starring Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro as a pair of social workers who guide the Wagners through the foster care process.

'PICK OF THE LITTER' (Rated G) - this documentary feature film is Directed by Don Hardy and Dana Nachman who between them also Produce, Wrote and take Cinematography credits. The film charts the life story from birth of five Labrador puppies as they undergo the lengthy training process on the journey to become guide dogs for the blind. Named Patriot, Potomac, Primrose, Poppet and Phil the five guide dogs in training were born on the campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind’s San Rafael, California campus. Barely a day old before their training begins, and eight weeks later, each young pup is farmed out to 'puppy raiser' - individuals or families who’ll foster them through up to sixteen months of socialisation training and other preliminary preparations for lifelong roles in the service of a blind or vision impaired person. After their period of fostering, the dogs head back to the campus for ten weeks of 'formal guide work' with an assigned staff member who often wears a blindfold to test the dogs’ reactions to obstacles, traffic hazards and verbal commands. The successful canine graduates are then matched with the lucky few among some 1,100 applicants per year in the US alone. The film was released in the US in late August last year, has done the festival circuit, and has received generally widespread acclaim. Cute and heart warming, this is a story for dog lovers everywhere.

With three 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-

PATRIOTS DAY : Tuesday 14th February 2017.

'PATRIOTS DAY' is another real life dramatic thriller Co-Written for the screen and Directed by Peter Berg who also brought us last years 'Deepwater Horizon' and 'Lone Survivor' in 2013 which both also starred, like this offering, his go to actor for playing the uniformed ordinary everyman caught up in extraordinary circumstances - Mark Wahlberg. Based on the book 'Boston Strong' by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge this tells the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Costing US$45M to make the film has so far recovered US$38M since its US release at Christmas time. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews from critics and film goers alike.

The film opens up with Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) busting down a door with his leg to get to a drug dealer inside a seedy downtown apartment. The bust goes according to plan, except that Saunders has hyper-extended his leg and now walks with a limp and a knee brace for the rest of the film. Immediately following the bust his superior officer, Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) arrives and orders that Saunders reports for Marathon Supervision duties the next day wearing his Police Uniform. He tries to argue back but is quickly brought down a peg by Davis reminding him of some earlier misdemeanour for which he is serving out time on dead beat duties, and tomorrow is his last day of servitude and then he has a clean slate again thereafter. He arrives back home in the early hours of the morning having had a few beers with the boys, wakes his wife Carol (Michelle Monaghan) who dismisses him, and settles onto the sofa with another beer - he has to be up for Marathon duty in less than five hours. The next day, April 15th 2013, with his Police Uniform neatly pressed and high viz jacket on, the pair kiss and bid their farewells.

The next day cuts to an apartment where radical Islam brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) are making final preparations for a bomb attack on the Boston Marathon. Using home made devises loaded with all manner of harm inflicting shrapnel, they load the improvised explosive devices into two back-packs and make off for their destination. We trace their journey to the proximity of the finish line, negotiating their way through the crowds of onlookers and revellers out enjoying the Patriots Day public holiday. They weave in and out of spectators young and old, security personnel, Police, and other officials and then lay their back packs at their feet, turn around and depart from whence they came. No one suspects a thing. Pacing up and down the street meanwhile is Tommy Saunders taking it all in and sharing a joke with his on-duty fellow Police Officers. Then boom, as an explosion rips through the crowd just a block away quickly followed by another with smoke billowing out from the side of the street close to the finish line.

With widespread panic all around, Saunders and his fellow Officers are close at hand to issue orders, call in all necessary emergency support and provide assistance to the injured. It's a scene of carnage as the low positioned bombs radiated out their deadly shrapnel on most victims from the waist down. There are badly lacerated legs, ankles and feet, and severed lower limbs lying on the blood soaked pavement - it's a picture of death and destruction. We follow ambulance crews and paramedics attending to the injured and needy and then move to several hospitals where emergency surgery is being performed to amputate legs - on young husband and wife Patrick Downes (Christopher O'Shea) and Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) separated after the blast and taken unconscious to separate hospitals.

Quickly afterwards various law enforcement authorities began to gather at the scene while the emergency services go about their business. With Saunders giving orders to his fellow Police Officers on the ground, so arrives Commissioner Ed Davis, with FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) who survey the fall out and determine if this was a terrorist attack. Upon initial inspection DesLauriers is uncertain, but his mind is soon made up when he picks up a cluster of small blood soaked ball bearings. At this point DesLauriers assumes command and is in charge of operations. For now though he places a widespread embargo on any communication with the press or the media about a possible terrorist attack pending investigations and to avoid the news frenzy associated with acts of terror, especially on American soil.

Within no time a Command Centre is established in an abandoned warehouse where all manner of technological hardware, state of the art software, a reconstruction of the street scape and blast zone, and a whole army of analysts, surveillance experts and officials are mobilised to track down whoever did this. They begin by tapping into every camera lining the streets and those inside shops, cafes, bars and restaurants; using all the abandoned mobile phones from the scene and scanning text messages, photos and videos; and talking to witnesses at the scene, including those hospitalised. Saunders goes home to his wife, emotionally distraught at the sights he has witnessed over the preceding fourteen hours or so. In no time however, he receives a call to come into the Command Centre. There Saunders knowledge of the city and camera locations is put to the test as a person of interest is identified from the footage of the blast zone immediately before the explosions. Tracking the suspects possible whereabouts they trace back his journey in an attempt to get a clear photograph of the individual and any accomplice. It's not long before they do!

With clear photos of the two suspected bombers DesLauriers remains reluctant to go to the press without further hard evidence, but is hand is forced when Fox News announces that they have leaked photos of the suspects that they are going to release on their news channels soon. With photos of the perpetrators out there on all the news channels, the authorities hope that the people of Boston will come forward with information leading to a prompt capture . . . but it doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, the Tsarnaev brothers attempt to lay low while preparing for their next attack - in New York, but they have to get there first. They load up a car with their makeshift explosive devices in two boxes, and head out late at night. They need another weapon with which to protect themselves and so happen upon young Police Officer Sean Collier (Jake Picking) who is on night watch at a University Campus. They ambush him at gun point in his parked patrol car and shoot him twice in the face and attempt to steal his Police issue weapon, but Collier fights back from his drivers seat but is eventually overpowered with several more rounds shot into him at point blank range.

On the outskirts of the Campus, texting while parked in his new Mercedes SUV, Chinese student Dung Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) is car jacked by the two brothers and held captive at gun point. It is now 18th April, late at night, and the brothers brag to their captive that it was they who committed the Boston Marathon bombing and intend to do so again in New York. Meng is fearful for his life at the hands of the two bombers who now have him captive in his own car en route to New York. At a petrol station where the brothers stop to refill for fuel and food, Meng spies his chance to make a bolt for it and does so across the street into a convenience store and immediately calls the Police crouched behind the cashiers desk.

Saunders arrives at the scene and meets with Meng who, in his panicked pigeon English, reveals what the bombers said to him, and the number of his cars GPS tracking device so that they can follow the Mercedes. In Watertown the Mercedes is tracked down to a side street and a passing Police patrol car recognises the vehicle from the alert put out and goes in pursuit. The Mercedes is parked up in a quiet side street, that is about to turn very bloody and very noisy as an all out gun battle ensues between the two armed brothers and the gathering Police force including Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K.Simmons). The brothers also use their stash of homemade bombs and in the ensuing firefight several Police Officers are injured, vehicles trashed, but Tamerlan is shot by Pugliese and then ran over by his brother who makes his getaway in the Mercedes. Tamerlan dies on the operating table a short time afterwards in the hospital from his wounds.

The next day the decision is made to lock down the city completely with a house to house search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Saunders is back on the beat aiding the house to house investigations with the full force of the Police, and the military, as marshall law is declared temporarily and for the safety of Boston's citizens. A local man discovers someone hiding under the protective sheet covering his motor cruiser boat, and blood stains at the entry point at the boats rear. He calls the authorities, who converge on the property with Saunders and a colleague being the first to arrive at the scene. It's not long before the might of Uncle Sam reins down on the occupant of the boat who is indeed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is promptly arrested after a brief stand-off, and the closing credits reveal that he is sentenced to death by lethal injection and is still awaiting an appeal in federal prison.

I enjoyed 'Patriots Day' and felt it was respectful to those that died and were injured in the attack, and the authorities, first responders, survivors and investigators who all played a part in the concerted effort to bring the Tsarnaev brothers to justice as quickly as they did. The film has clearly been meticulously researched and is professionally played out without over dramatising the events or glamourising the subsequent manhunt. This is a procedural Police investigative story that holds true to the timeline, and is told from several different perspectives splicing actual footage from the event into the film that adds authenticity to the suspense and the drama of one of the most sophisticated and celebrated manhunts in history that helped reunite the people of Boston.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 2nd February 2017.

Moving right along with the film and television awards season this year, Sunday evening 29th January saw the announcements of the 23rd annual edition of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Held at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California during a two-hour ceremony, Awards in six film and nine television categories were given. Unlike other awards shows like the Oscars and Golden Globes, this one does not have a host, which helps it move along more swiftly. From the world of film the winners and grinners were :

* Outstanding performance by a Male Actor in a Lead Role : Denzel Washington for 'FENCES' (released in Australia on 9th February)
* Outstanding performance by an Female Actor in a Lead Role : Emma Stone for 'LA LA LAND'
* Outstanding performance by an Male Actor in a Support Role : Mahershala Ali for 'MOONLIGHT'
* Outstanding performance by a Female Actor in a Support Role : Viola Davis for 'FENCES' (released in Australia on 9th February)
* Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture : 'HIDDEN FIGURES' (released in Australia on 16th February)
* Outstanding action performance by a cast in a motion picture : 'HACKSAW RIDGE'
* The Lifetime Achievement Award : Lily Tomlin.

This week there are just three new filmic offerings coming your way that start off with a critically acclaimed film of grief, loss and suffering as old wounds are re-opened in this small coastal community. We then turn to a real life and very recent terror attack staged during a community event and the aftermath as the antagonists were brought to account and that affected community came together again, stronger, united and more resilient than ever. We then wrap up with an '80's era tale of geologists, gold and greed as a down on his luck prospector hits pay dirt in the jungles of Borneo and has to fend off the power brokers in the jungles of Wall Street.

As is generally the way, when you have sat through your movie of choice in the week ahead, you are cordially invited to leave your own summary of your movie going observations, thoughts and opinions by posting your relevant, pertinent and brief Comment below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your film, wherever you might be.

'MANCHESTER BY THE SEA' (Rated MA15+) - Written and Directed by Kenneth Lonergan, Co-Produced by Matt Damon and Starring Casey Affleck in an award winning turn, this feature costing just US$8.5M to make has gained universal acclaim, brought in over US$43M since its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and subsequent tour around the festival circuit before its release Stateside at the end of November last year. The film has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and three Best Actor nods for its three lead players (Affleck, Williams and Hedges), plus six BAFTA's nominations. Casey Affleck won the Best Actor Golden Globe for his lead performance, and it has accumulated a further 93 wins and 194 nominations, with the Oscar and BAFTA winners & grinners yet to be announced of course. Manchester-by-the-Sea is a real place by the way, located in Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts with a population of just over five thousand and just 40kms northeast of Boston.

In a career defining performance the film centres around Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) who works as a janitor in an apartment block in Boston. He's quiet, reserved, goes about his business by day and picks fights in bars by night. One day he receives a phone call from a family friend advising that brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has suffered a heart attack. Before Lee can get to the hospital, Joe dies. Lee then travels to his home town of Manchester-by-the Sea to give the news of Joe's passing to his sixteen year old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). In returning to Manchester however, Lee must face the memories of an even greater loss that threaten to re-open even greater wounds of a personal tragedy that he thought were behind him, and in so doing might just tip him over the edge forever. Michelle Williams also stars as Randi - Lee's former now re-married wife. Masterfully Directed, gracefully acted this is a film of sadness, loss, grief, self-loathing and suffering and how it impacts everyday folk in a small seaside community.

'PATRIOTS DAY' (Rated M) - this film is another real life dramatic thriller Co-Written for the screen and Directed by Peter Berg who also brought us last years 'Deepwater Horizon' which also starred, like this offering, his go to actor for playing the ordinary everyman caught up in extraordinary circumstances - Mark Wahlberg. Based on the book 'Boston Strong' by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge this tells the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Costing US$45M to make the film has so far recovered US$32M since its US release at Christmas time. April 2013, and during the annual Boston Marathon two bombs are detonated in the crowd of onlookers causing widespread chaos and panic. In the aftermath of the attack Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg), Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman) and FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) join forces with survivors, other investigators and those first on the scene for the manhunt to bring the perpetrators to justice before they strike again. Also starring J.K.Simmons as Police Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese, and Michelle Monaghan as Carol Saunders. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews.

'GOLD' (Rated M) - Directed and Co-Written by Stephen Gaghan, Co-Produced and starring Matthew McConaughey, and a strong supporting cast, this film had a limited release in the US on  December 30th before its wider release this week. Set in the 1980's, down on his luck and desperate prospector Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) teams up with geologist Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) to search for a hidden seam of gold deep within the Indonesian jungle of Borneo. They eventually hit gold, and the biggest strike of the decade that seems easy work compared to keeping hold of their new found wealth when the Wall Street power brokers begin to circle wanting a piece of the action. Also starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, Craig T. Nelson and Rachel Taylor. McConaughey for his role transformed himself once again with a pot belly, balding comb over and crooked teeth - a sight to behold . . . let's hope it's not 'Fool's Gold'!

With three big pictures to tempt you out on a hot Summer day or night sometime in the week ahead, together with those still doing the rounds and out on general release as Reviewed and Previewed between these humble pages in previous weeks, you really don't need any excuse! Get amongst it at your local multiplex, and I'll see you sometime, somewhere in the coming week, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DEEPWATER HORIZON : Wednesday 5th October 2016.

I caught at an advance screening last week of 'DEEPWATER HORIZON', which for those who don't know, was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea the rig was leased to the British Petroleum Company (BP) from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 10,700m in the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 400kms southeast of Houston, in 1,300m of water. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an uncontrollable blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 65kms away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing oil at the seabed and causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. The oil spill that resulted continued until 15th July 2010 when it was finally capped off. Subsequently, BP have made it known that they have had to pay of US$55B in clean up costs and fines and that aside from themselves, Halliburton, the services contractor, and Transocean as the rig operator were also at fault.

This film charts that story as Directed by Peter Berg and made for US$156M that takes place in the Gulf of Mexico with the events leading up to that massive human, social, ecological and financial disaster. Starring Mark Wahlberg as chief electrician and oil rigger Mike Williams (whom Peter Berg has Directed previously in 'Lone Survivor' and the upcoming 'Patriots Day') who returning from some family time with his wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and ten year old daughter Sydney (Stella Allen) is looking at a three week shift on the Deepwater Horizon rig. He helicopter's in from the mainland, a journey that takes about 45 minutes, and upon arrival before he has even had time to get changed out of his civvies, he is thrust into an argument about rig safety tests and all the equipment malfunctions and maintenance requirements that need urgent attention. This sets the scene for the disaster that is to come a few short hours later!

Arriving with other shift starters there is Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) as the only female on the crew, Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) as the rig's chief supervisor and a couple of corporate type executives from BP Head Office arriving for a show & tell of the rigs operations and to determine why the drilling programme is 40+ days behind schedule at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Soon afterwards we are introduced also to Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien) as the rig's youngest crew member, and Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) as the BP engineer and rig supervisor, all joining the 120 or so crew members on board the rig.

Straight away it is clear that there are some hostilities between the guys on the rig employed to drill for oil and supervise the proceedings and ensure everything runs tightly and safely, and the suited and booted executives who are chasing their Profit & Loss statements, and asking questions of the financial kind. The executives don't like hearing the truth about safety concerns and inadequate testing regimes, when they have to answer to their superiors back in London. With drilling set to commence, Harrell seeks a test to check on the integrity of the cement casing of the seabed rig which the BP executives give the all clear for, but Harrell is adamant he wants the test. As so a 'negative pressure' test is conducted which initially causes concerns but Vidrine provides a scientific explanation for which Williams and Harrell find plausible. Still not satisfied that everything is as it should be, a second test is ordered which proves positive and so an order is given to commence drilling operations.

Williams and Harrell go about their business - Williams connects with his wife via a Skype call and Harrell freshens up in the shower, after being presented with a safety award and a bottle of Scotch for his exemplary safety record. By now the evening is wearing on. At 9:45pm during the last stages of drilling an exploratory well, a geyser of seawater erupted from the marine riser onto the rig, shooting over seventy metres into the air and up the rig. This was soon followed by the eruption of a slushy combination of drilling mud, methane gas, and water. The gaseous element of that slushy mixture quickly formed into a fully gaseous state and then ignited into a series of explosions that tore through the rig and its living quarters. The resultant firestorm quickly took hold ripping out vital technical, safety and communications infrastructure and killing several men in the process.

Whilst all hands seek to escape the firestorm and head for the lifeboats, Williams recovers from being blown backwards in the explosion but protected by a door that falls across him. Harrell, was showering when the explosion ripped through his quarters and he is semi-conscious, naked, covered in broken glass and shrapnel, and blinded. Williams searches him out, and together they make it to the Bridge amidst ongoing explosions all around the them and the collapse of the rigs infrastructure, where Fleytas is alerting the Coast Guard and Vidrine has just arrived looking the worse for wear too. With power fluctuating, Williams agrees to make an attempt to fire up the emergency generators with the help of a volunteering Holloway. After several attempts they succeed for long enough for Harrell to operate a kill switch so detaching the drill from the rig, and to reposition the rig itself. The final defence to prevent an oil spill, a device known as a blind shear ram, was also activated but failed to plug the well.

As moments tick away the majority make it to the life boats to be picked up by a nearby vessel that has been stationed close by to take on board all the mud sludge pumped up as a by product of the drilling process. In the end this leaves just Williams and Fleytas on the fiercely burning rig that is rapidly disintegrating all around them in balls of flame, big explosions and twisted metal. The surrounding sea is also ablaze, and so the two need to make it to the helipad to be sure of a clear jump into the sea below and so avoiding being engulfed by flame. After some hesitation on Fleytas part, Williams man handles her off the rig and into the boiling sea below - to be picked up moments later and taken to safety.

We then cut to the next day with the survivors from the rig all holed up in a hotel with a media frenzy going on around them. Williams, Harrell, Holloway, Vidrine, and Fleytas made it out alive luckily, thanks largely to the bravery of Williams, but eleven men were less fortunate. Williams breaks down emotionally in his hotel room and is comforted by Felicia and Sydney, before making his exit from the hotel. On his way out he meets Harrell, stitched and bandaged up and now visibility restored, and he exchanges knowing glances with Holloway too.

Here Wahlberg plays the grounded everyman thrust into extraordinary circumstances to help rescue some of his co-workers while his family and the world watch on as ultimately the Deepwater Horizon  disappears into the ocean into a deep fiery grave. Featuring a top cast who do not overplay the heroics, top notch effects and a story that is a believable, authentic telling of human courage in the face of adversity writ large. For a relatively short running time of under two hours, the action when it come is immersive, gripping and well executed. It takes you right into the centre of the action as though you, the viewer, are there back then on April 20th 2010. See it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed, and well worth the price of your ticket.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-