A HAUNTING IN VENICE : Tuesday 19th September 2023

I saw the M Rated 'A HAUNTING IN VENICE' earlier this week, and this American supernatural mystery film is Co-Produced, Directed and stars Kenneth Branagh and is based on the 1969 novel 'Hallowe'en Party' by Agatha Christie. The film serves as the sequel to 2022's 'Death on the Nile' which was itself a sequel to 2017's 'Murder on the Orient Express' in which Branagh portrays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, as well as serving as Director on those two previous outings. The film was released in the US and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$42M off the back of a US$60M production budget and has garnered generally positive critical reviews.

The film opens with Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) waking up startled from a nightmare. He is living a life of retirement in 1947 Venice, Italy having become disillusioned with God and humanity having witnessed first hand the cruelty man can bestow upon his fellow man. Poirot employs local retired Police Officer Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) as his bodyguard. Having visited the local market later that morning and procured himself his supply of breakfast pastries, there comes a knock at his apartment door. Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) is at the door - Poirot's long term friend and novelist who has penned thirty books so far of which twenty-seven were best sellers but the last three not so much. It is Halloween, and Oliver persuades Poirot to attend a seance at the palazzo of renowned opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) and help expose psychic medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) as a fake.

Later that night, Poirot, Ariadne and Vitale are all taken by gondola along the canals of Venice to Rowena's palazzo, where there is a children's Halloween party in full swing, and we learn through this that the palazzo is on the site of a former children's hospital at which there were numerous children's deaths and the ghosts of those children still haunt the place to this day. After the children have all left for the evening, the adults that remain are Rowena's guests for the seance - they are Joyce Reynolds who Rowena has hired to help her communicate with her daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), who committed suicide after her fiance, chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), broke off their engagement; Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin); the Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his nine year old son Leopold (Jude Hill) and Reynolds' assistant Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird). 

At midnight all the gathered guests assemble in Alicia's bedroom which has remained exactly as she left it the day she died. During the seance, Poirot quickly deduces that Reynolds has not one assistant but two, revealing Desdemona's half-brother Nicholas (Ali Khan) hiding in the chimney of Alicia's bedroom and manipulating a typewriter with a magnetic device that is all part of Reynolds ruse. Reynold's then speaks to Rowena in Alicia's voice, revealing that she was murdered, and states the killer is one of the guests present in the room. Poirot attempts to confront Reynolds about her act, who gives him the brush off and puts her mask and cloak on him and tells him to lighten up. Taking this advice and while attempting to bob for apples, while nobody is watching, Poirot is nearly drowned by an unknown assailant. Reynolds is then found impaled on a statue in the courtyard minutes later. 

Meanwhile, a storm gathers momentum outside, which ultimately cuts off the palazzo until such time as it subsides. Poirot therefore begins his investigations by interviewing the guests, during which time he hallucinates seeing Alicia's ghost, and hears the sound of a female singing, although no one else can hear it. The investigation yields baffling results, namely that Leslie, who is severely traumatised from his experiences at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, is secretly in love with Rowena. Leopold says he hears the voices from the spirits of children who were left to die back when the palazzo was a plague hospital.
Maxime, who was a last minute addition to the guest list broke off his engagement because he felt Rowena did not approve of him and that Alicia was obsessed with keeping her happy; and Nicholas and Desdemona, both Romani refugees, have been stealing from Joyce and intend to use the money to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, which they fell in love with after seeing the first half of the film 'Meet Me in St. Louis' at a displaced persons camp.

Shortly after, the guests come across a previously hidden basement containing the skeletal remains of the dead children, and Leslie suffers a panic attack and nearly kills Maxime. He is locked inside the music room to recover, with Rowena handing Poirot the only key. After examining Maxime's invitation, Poirot deduces Oliver sent it and that she and Vitale conspired to bring him to the palazzo. Vitale explains he investigated Alicia's death and fished her out of the canal, while Oliver admits she hoped to use Poirot's incapability of explaining the seance as a plot for her next book. Leslie is soon afterward found stabbed to death in the music room to which Poirot had the only means of access.

Poirot brings the remaining guests together, and exposes Rowena as the murderer. She was obsessed with keeping Alicia to herself and, after learning she planned to reconcile with Maxime, used honey extracted from poisonous rhododendron blooms to weaken her, using small doses at a time. When Olga unknowingly gave Alicia tea containing a large fatal dose, Rowena staged Alicia's suicide to prevent exposing herself. When she began receiving blackmail threats, Rowena suspected either Joyce or Leslie. She pushed Joyce to her death after mistakenly attempting to drown Poirot and forced Leslie into stabbing himself via the palazzo's internal phone line, threatening to kill Leopold if he refused. Rowena flees to the roof garden in an attempt to escape, followed by Poirot, but Alicia's ghost seemingly appears from behind and pulls Rowena down, causing her to fall to her death in the canal below. 

Come sun up and the case cracked open in a few short hours, Poirot bids goodbye to Oliver, elects not to turn Vitale in to the local Police for his involvement in the seance, and privately exposes Leopold as the blackmailer. Leopold explains he understood the poisoning signs his father missed and made the connection after realising Rowena's first starring role was in an opera whose lead character was known as the 'king of poisons'. Poirot suggests to Leopold and Olga that to clear their consciences they should use the blackmail money to help Desdemona and Nicholas start a new life in St. Louis before returning home to accept a new case.

Three Agatha Christie big screen adaptations in, and Director and lead Actor Kenneth Branagh has more than settled in to his routine of bringing Hercule Poirot to life, with all his eccentricities and idiosyncrasies firmly intact. Branagh has crafted a solid enough film here that is sure to please those that enjoy a good whodunnit, Venice is shot beautifully, the cast is more than up for the task, and this Gothic inspired supernatural thriller for me sits between 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'Death on the Nile' that offers the audience a more grounded view of Poirot's methods of deduction, even if at times it defies logic. All within the space of four of five hours Poirot is able to solve not one, not two, but three murders and tie up a whole bunch of loose ends very neatly before moving on to his next case before breakfast - if you can believe it!

'A Haunting in Venice' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE : Tuesday 3rd May 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE' earlier this week, as Written, Directed and Co-Produced by 'Daniels' - aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert whose only other feature film credit together is 2016's 'Swiss Army Man' with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano. This American Sci-Fi comedy film saw its World Premier screening at the South by Southwest film festival in mid-March before going on wide release in the US in early April and in Australia from 14th April, having so far returned US$43M at the Box Office from a production budget of US$25M and has garnered widespread critical acclaim. Jay and Anthony Russo also serve as Co-Producers here.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a first generation Chinese-American woman who runs a large laundromat with her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). Tensions are running at fever pitch because the laundromat is being audited by the IRS. As well, Waymond is trying to serve Evelyn divorce papers; Evelyn's demanding father, Gong Gong (James Hong), has just arrived from China; Evelyn's daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), has been trying to get her mother to accept her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel), and there's a party planned for later that evening to celebrate Chinese New Year to which all the regular customers are invited.

While at the IRS building for a meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis), Waymond's personality changes when his body is briefly taken over by Alpha Waymond, a version of Waymond from the Alpha Universe aka 'Alphaverse'. Alpha Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist, since every choice made creates a new universe. The people of the Alphaverse, led by the late Alpha Evelyn, developed 'verse-jumping' technology that allows people to access the skills, memories, and body of their alternate universe counterparts by fulfilling specific conditions. 

He goes on to further explain that the multiverse is being threatened by Jobu Tupaki, formerly Alpha Joy. Her mind was splintered after Alpha Evelyn pushed her to extensively verse-jump. Jobu Tupaki now experiences all universes at once and can verse-jump and manipulate matter as she sees fit. With her godlike power she has created a black hole-like 'everything bagel' that has the potential to destroy the multiverse.

Evelyn is given verse-jumping technology, which she is very reluctant to accept at first, to fight Jobu Tupaki's verse-jumping goons, who converge on the IRS building. Evelyn learns of Waymond's plans to divorce her and discovers other lives where she made different choices and was successful, such as by becoming a kung fu master and movie star instead of leaving China with Waymond, who becomes a successful but lonely businessman. Alpha Waymond comes to believe that Evelyn, as the greatest failure of all Evelyns of the multiverse, has the untapped potential to defeat Jobu Tupaki. Alpha Gong Gong instructs Evelyn to kill Joy to hinder Jobu Tupaki, but Evelyn refuses. She decides she must face Jobu Tupaki by gaining the same powers as her, so she verse-jumps repeatedly while battling Jobu Tupaki's henchmen and Alpha Gong Gong's soldiers. Evelyn's mind splinters and she discovers other, bizarre universes such as one in which humans have hot dogs for fingers and she is in a romantic relationship with Deirdre, and another where she works alongside a teppanyaki chef who is secretly puppeteered by a raccoon. She learns that Jobu Tupaki created the everything bagel not to destroy everything, but to destroy herself, and has been searching for an Evelyn who can understand her. Jobu Tupaki feels that because there are so many vast universes and unending chaos, nothing really matters.

In other universes, the Wangs are about to lose their laundromat due to errors in the tax returns; Alpha Waymond is killed by Jobu Tupaki; and businessman Waymond rejects movie star Evelyn after decades apart. Evelyn is nearly swayed to Jobu Tupaki's cause and stabs her universe's Waymond. She almost joins Jobu Tupaki in entering the bagel, but stops when she hears Waymond's calls to be kind and have hope. 

Evelyn defeats Jobu Tupaki's goons by using her multiverse knowledge to find what is hurting each of them and gives them joy and happiness instead. Evelyn reaches Jobu Tupaki and tells her that she is not alone and that Evelyn will always choose to be with her, despite everywhere else she could be. Meanwhile, in parallel universes, Evelyn confronts Gong Gong and reconciles with Waymond and Joy, and Waymond convinces Deirdre to let the Wangs resubmit their taxes. Jobu Tupaki initially rejects Evelyn, but returns to her, and they hug.

And so the family's relationships has improved, Becky is now part of the family, and they return to the IRS building on a second chance to file their taxes. As Deirdre talks, Evelyn's attention is momentarily drawn to her alternate selves and the multiverse, before she is brought back to the here and now by Deirdre who explains that she is pleased that their taxes now seem to be in order, although there remains one problem . . . fade to black!

'Everything, Everywhere All at Once' is certainly a unique, inventive and original film, albeit weird, peculiar, absurd and confusing, wacky and witty all at the same time. This is a frenetically paced film that defies genre pigeon-holing with stand-out performances by Yeoh, Quan and Curtis (donning a fat suit) especially, who with the Daniels have delivered a story about the struggle of living the best life you can yet still finds hope in living the worst life even if you have to travel through various multiverses to come full circle. Whilst this film didn't really do it for me, I'm sure that for those who did this will offer up something that viewers will be able to latch onto and ultimately relate to that successfully melds Sci-Fi, fantasy, martial arts action, comedy, emotion and family drama all at once. 

'Everything, Everywhere All at Once' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

'SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS' : Tuesday 12th October 2021

Finally, Greater Sydney has come out of three months+ of COVID-19 enforced lockdown on Monday 11th October, and with it movie theatres have reopened. As such, a whole slew of films released elsewhere in Australia and across the world are now available for the avid moviegoer to play catch-up on some of those more recent cinematic releases. The first film that I saw post-lockdown at my local multiplex earlier this week is 'SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS' - the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous film making credits take in 'Short Term 12' with Brie Larson and Rami Malek in 2013, 'The Glass Castle' in 2017 with Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson and 'Just Mercy' in 2019 with Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson. This film has so far grossed worldwide US$404M off the back of a circa US$180M production budget and has generated positive Critical acclaim. 

And so the film opens up setting the scene for how the ten rings came about. It seems that one thousand years ago (plus or minus a few years) Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) discovers the mystical ten rings which grant the owner of said rings immortality and other worldly powers. He forms the Ten Rings organisation, over throwing kingdoms and toppling governments throughout history to accumulate wealth and power. Fast forward to 1996, and Wenwu searches for Ta Lo, a village that exists in a different dimension and reportedly harbours mythical creatures. He travels through a magical thick bamboo forest to the village entrance but is stopped by guardian Ying Li (Fala Chen). After an initial (sort of) fight between the pair, the two fall in love, and Wenwu foregoes the Ten Rings for a life of normalcy with his new wife and children Shang-Chi (Jayden Zhang) and Xialing (Elodie Fong). When Shang-Chi is seven years old, Li is murdered by Wenwu's enemies, the Iron Gang. Wenwu goes in search of the Iron Gang with the young Shang-Chi and massacres them all except for the leader who was not present at the time. Wenwu then resumes leadership of his organisation again. He makes Shang-Chi undergo brutal martial arts training, but does not allow Xialing to train so she teaches herself in secret, having observed Shang-Chi's training techniques and replicating them, only better! When Shang-Chi is fourteen (Arnold Sun), Wenwu sends him to assassinate the Iron Gang's leader. After fulfilling his mission, a disheartened Shang-Chi runs away to San Francisco and takes on the name of 'Shaun'.

And so we fast fast forward to the present day and Shaun (Simu Liu) is working as a hotel valet car parking attendant with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina), who knows nothing of his past life. Travelling on a bus together, the pair are attacked by members of the Ten Rings organisation, with Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu) who has a machete blade for his right hand, stealing a pendant that Li gave to Shang-Chi when he was a young boy that gives him access to Ta Lo. Wenwu anonymously provides Shang-Chi with the location of Xialing in Macau and, fearing that the Ten Rings will go after Xialing's matching pendant from Li, Shang-Chi decides to go in search of her. Katy, not wanting to be left out and having survived the vicious attack on the bus, imposes herself on Shang-Chi, who reveals his past to her on the flight over to Macau. They find Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) at an underground fight club in Macau, which she formed after escaping from Wenwu. The Ten Rings attack the fight club with Wenwu arriving to capture Shang-Chi, Xialing and Katy. Wenwu takes his daughters pendant.

The three are helicoptered into the Ten Rings compound, where Wenwu uses the pendants to reveal a magical water map leading to Ta Lo. Wenwu explains that he has heard his wife, Li, calling to him and believes she has been held captive in Ta Lo behind a vast sealed gate. He plans to destroy the village by burning it to the ground, unless they agree to release her. When Shang-Chi and Xialing object saying that he must accept that their mother and his wife is dead, he imprisons them with Katy. In an ante-room to the cell where they are locked up, the three meet former actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) who previously took on the guise of the Mandarin and was abducted by the Ten Rings for impersonating Wenwu, now becoming a 'court jester' or Shakespearean fool for Wenwu. They also meet his hundun (a legendary faceless furry animal the size of a wombat with wings from Ta Lo) that Slattery has named Morris, who offers to guide them back to his village.

The group escapes in Razor Fist's souped up 4WD and drive through the bamboo forest with the trees rapidly closing in behind them en route to Ta Lo. They drive through a portal hidden within a water fall which sees them exit in a separate dimension and into Ta Lo, with a myriad of Chinese mythological creatures all around them. There they meet Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh), Li's sister, and aunt to Shnag-Chi and Xialing. Nan explains the history of Ta Lo, saying that thousands of years ago, the village was attacked by the soul-eating Dweller-in-Darkness and its guardians, but was saved by a Chinese dragon called the Great Protector who helped seal the Dark Gate to the Dweller's world. Nan further states that the Dweller-in-Darkness has been influencing Wenwu to believe Li is still alive so that he will open the Dark Gate. Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy join the villagers in training and preparing for Wenwu's imminent arrival, using weapons they have fashioned from dragon scales. 

Wenwu and the Ten Rings heavies arrive and attack the villagers. Wenwu overpowers Shang-Chi and forces him into the nearby lake where he slowly sinks to the bottom unconscious. Wenwu then attacks the Gate with the rings. This gives some of the Dweller's guardians the chance to escape, and through the onslaught the Ten Rings heavies, now abandoned by Wenwu, join forces with the villagers to fight them off. Shang-Chi is revived by the Great Protector, which flies out of the lake to battle the marauding guardians. Wenwu and Shang-Chi come head to head once again and Shang-Chi gains the upper hand, but chooses to spare Wenwu. The Dweller-in-Darkness bursts out of the weakened Gate and attacks Shang-Chi. Wenwu saves Shang-Chi, bequeathing him the rings before being killed by the Dweller-in-Darkness. Shang-Chi, the Great Protector, Xialing, and Katy battle and kill the Dweller-in-Darkness. Afterwards, Shang-Chi and Katy return to San Francisco where they are summoned by the sorcerer Wong (Benedict Wong) to the Sanctum Sanctorum, with more divulged in the mid-credits scene. 

With nods to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' in some of the fight sequences, the return of Trevor Slattery apologising for the misstep of the racial stereotypes of his impersonation of The Mandarin in 'Iron Man 3', and the reference to the Sanctum Sanctorum in the final mid-credits scene, together with the well crafted action set pieces, the usual dose of MCU humour, emotion and a smattering of pathos all make for an enjoyable Asian-centric addition to the MCU canon. The performances by Leung especially as the antagonist with heart is the stand out role for me, with Liu, Zhang and Awkwafina all giving solid enough performances but still clearly finding their way, which will undoubtedly come in subsequent Shang-Chi instalments, and cross-over films within the ever expanding MCU. And in the Director's chair, Cretton here makes effective use of flashbacks to move the story arc forward in a way that most other Marvel films have not, while keeping this origin story grounded and relatable. The ending when it comes however, feels protracted and over the top with too heavy a reliance on CGI dragons, mythical creatures, and a battle in which not a drop of blood is shed and everyone who dies does so off screen. The film does not reach the dizzy heights that 'Black Panther' did in 2018, but nonetheless, as your first visit to the cinema post-lockdown you could do a lot worse. 

'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CRAZY RICH ASIANS : Monday 3rd September 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Steve, At Odeon Online-