What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 6th July 2023.

The 34th FIDMarseille - the Marseille International Film Festival - launched on Tuesday 4th July and runs through until Sunday 9th July, in the port city of Marseille, in southern France. It offers a programme of about one hundred films consisting documentaries, fiction, short and feature films. FIDMarseille is a reference point for the independent cinema of today and tomorrow, offering a challenging selection to a wide local, national and international audience. Every year the festival attracts professionals from all across the world. The programme of films showcased is also divided into several competitive strands presenting World or International Premieres.

In the International Competition, which carries an award prize of €8K, the following titles are being screened :-

* 'An Evening Song (for Three Voices) - from the USA and Directed by Graham Swon. World Premiere.

* 'Background' - from Germany and Directed by Khaled Abdulwahed. World Premiere.

* 'Twittering Soul' - from Lithuania and Directed by Deimantas Narkevicius. World Premiere.

* 'De Facto' - from Austria and Germany and Directed by Selma Doborac. International Premiere.

* 'Losing Faith' - from Austria and Germany and Directed by Martha Mechow. World Premiere.

* 'The Diagonal Force' - from Belgium and Directed by Annik Leroy and Julie Morel. World Premiere.

* 'The Bus Station' - from Argentina and Directed by Gustavo Fontan. World Premiere.

* 'Undefined Things' - from Argentina and Directed by Maria Aparicio. World Premiere.

* 'Monisme' - from Indonesia and Qatar and Directed by Riar Rizaldi. World Premiere.

* 'The Mariner' - from Portugal and France and Directed by Yohei Yamakado. World Premiere.

* 'Of Girls' - from Japan and the Netherlands and Directed by Wendelien van Oldenborgh. World Premiere.

* 'Ricorda Ti Che E Un Film Comico' - from France and Directed by Cesar Vayssie. World Premiere.

* 'Night Work' - from Spain and Directed by Christian Bagnat and Elvira Sanchez Poxon. International Premiere.

The other competitive sections held at FIDMarseille are the French Competition which carries an award prize of €5K, the First Film Competition awarding a prize of €3K, the Flash Competition €2K and the Cine + Competition €15K. For the entries into these competitive sections, plus a whole lot more besides, you can go to the official website at : https://fidmarseille.org/en/

Turning attention back to this weeks four new movies gracing a big screen Odeon close to home, we begin with the fifth outing in this hugely successful supernatural horror franchise that is a follow on from the second film in the series that sees the father driving east to drop his oldest son off at university, but the son's college dream soon becomes a living nightmare when the subdued demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both. This is followed by an Aussie drama offering set in the 1940's in which a somewhat rebellious nun takes in a nine year old Aboriginal orphan lad. Next up is a French drama film in which a childless woman forms a deep bond with her boyfriend's young daughter; and closing out the week we have an American comedy offering that follows four Asian-American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers.

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

'INSIDIOUS : THE RED DOOR' (Rated M) - this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Patrick Wilson in his Directing debut and is seen as a direct sequel to 2010's 'Insidious' and 2013's 'Insidious : Chapter 2' and is the fifth film in the 'Insidious' series which also consisted 'Insidious : Chapter 3' in 2105 and 'Insidious : The Last Key' in 2018. Based on a story once again written by Leigh Whannell (who also Co-Produces here with James Wan and Jason Blum) those first four films in the series grossed worldwide US$543M off the back of combined production budgets of just US$27M making the continuation of this saga a foregone conclusion. The film is released in the US this week too.

Set ten years following the events of 'Insidious : Chapter 2', Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) heads east to drop his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) off at an idyllic, ivy-league University. However, Dalton’s college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly come back to haunt them both. To end the haunting and to put the demons to rest once and for all, Josh and Dalton must return once again to the Further (a purgatory dimension inhabited by the tortured spirits of the deceased) in order to stop the Lambert nightmare for good. Also starring Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert and Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier. 

'THE NEW BOY' (Rated M) - is an Australian drama film Written, Directed and photographed by Warwick Thornton who made his feature film Directing debut with 'Samson & Delilah' in 2009, and would follow this up with 'The Darkside' in 2013, 'We Don't Need a Map' in 2017 and 'Sweet Country' in 2017 too. This film saw its World Premier showcasing at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, was the Opening Night film at the recent 70th Sydney Film Festival and is released this week here in Australia. Here then, set sometime in 1940's Australia, a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Aswan Reid) is taken in at a remote monastery in the dead of night, run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett who also Co-Produces here with her husband Andrew Upton). Also starring Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. 

'OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN' (Rated M) - this French drama film is Written and Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski who feature film credits take in her debut 'Dear Prudence' in 2010 with Lea Seydoux, then 'Grand Central' in 2013 with Lea Seydoux again, 'Planetarium' in 2016 with Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp and 'An Easy Girl' in 2019. Rachel (Virginie Efira) is forty years old, single and has no children. She is working as a teacher at a middle school. She has a large circle of friends and also keeps in touch with her ex-husbands. Then one day, she falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem) and his four-year-old daughter Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves) also enters her life. Rachel takes care of the toddler, cares for and soon loves it like her own. But she must recognise that the close bond with Leila also harbours a possible risk, especially in relation to her birth mother Alice (Chiara Mastroianni). Rachel doesn't want to put up with just being an 'extra' in Leila's life. Time is also not on her side and she needs to make a decision whether she should have a child of her own at this age. The film saw its World Premier showcasing at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year, went on release in its native France towards the end of September and only now is it released here in Australia having garnered generally positive critical reviews and grossing so far US$2.8M at the Box Office.

'JOY RIDE' (Rated MA15+) - this American comedy film is based on a story jointly conceived by Adele Lim and Co-Produced and Directed by Adele Lim in her Directorial debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at SXSW in mid-March this year, is released Stateside and here in Australia this week and has generated universal critical claim. Here then, childhood best friends Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola), accompanied by Audrey's former roommate Kat (Stephanie Hsu) and Lolo's cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), set out on a journey across China to find Audrey's birth mother. Their epic, no-holds-barred experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are. 

With four 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-

MIDWAY : Thursday 30th January 2020.

I saw the M Rated 'MIDWAY' on its Australian opening night in a movie theatre that was somewhat surprisingly devoid of paying customers. This is a remake of the 1976 film of the same name which charts the Battle of Midway following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Directed and Co-Produced by that master of disaster Roland Emmerich whose previous screen outings take in the likes of 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla', 'The Day After Tomorrow', '10,000BC', '2012', 'White House Down', and 'Independence Day : Resurgence' most recently. The film has been a passion project of Emmerich's since the mid-'90's, but he had trouble getting the necessary financial backing for the film before finally fund raising most of the budget of US100M and officially announcing it in 2017. With that sort of budget, this film is one of the most costly independent films of all time. Released in the US in early November last year, the film has so far taken US$123M at the Box Office and has received generally mixed or average Reviews so far.

On 7th December 1941, Japanese forces launch a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour, the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, so catapulting the US into WWII. In the days immediately following the attack Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) is given command of the severely fractured US Pacific Naval Fleet. He speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Edwin T. Layton (Patrick Wilson) - an intelligence officer of the US Pacific Fleet, about his failure to convince Washington of the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but to stick to his guns when next he needs to confront Washington over a suspected enemy attack.

On 18th April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Dolittle (Aaron Eckhart) led an air raid on the Japanese capital of Tokyo and other places of strategic interest on Honshu Island. It was the first air strike on the Japanese archipelago, and showed that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to an American air attack while serving as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour. Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bomber aircraft take off from the USS Aircraft Carrier 'Hornet' with fifteen aircraft reaching China but all crashed, including Dolittle's while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. As a result the Japanese turn their focus on the Coral Sea in a battle fought from 4th to 8th May 1942, between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia.

In the meantime Commander Joseph Rochefort (Brennan Brown) the Chief Cryptologist of the US Pacific Fleet Radio Unit intercept messages with a Japanese location noted by the call sign 'AF'. Layton speaks with Nimitz, who advises him that Washington believes that 'AF' is a target in the Aleutian Islands. Layton disagrees, believing the intended target to be Midway Atoll. Nimitz instructs the team to find a way to definitively prove that 'AF' is in fact Midway. Needless to say, in time, Rochefort and Layton are able to prove that Midway is the target. In preparation for an ambush of the Japanese fleet, Nimitz orders carriers 'Hornet' and 'Enterprise' to be recalled from the Coral Sea operations and demands that the damaged 'Yorktown' be made ready for combat operations within 72 hours. Attacked by Japanese dive-bombers in the Coral Sea, the 'Yorktown' sustained damage from a bomb which penetrated the flight deck and exploded below decks, killing or seriously injuring 66 men. The bomb also damaged her superheater boilers, rendering them inoperable . . . but only for 72 hours!

On 4th June the Japanese launch an air attack against Midway. Early attempts by US land based aircraft to strike at the Japanese fleet carriers fail. After a downed B-26 narrowly misses striking a carrier's bridge, the Japanese crew are stunned, believing the aircraft was attempting a suicide run, although Admiral Chuichi Nagumo (Jun Kunimura) nervously infers that the plane was most likely out of control due to battle damage. 'Nautilus', a US submarine, successfully locates and attacks an enemy carrier but the torpedo narrowly misses its target. The destroyer 'Arashi' keeps the submarine pinned down with depth charges so the carriers can escape. Meanwhile, US carrier planes are launched in an effort to destroy the Japanese carriers. After reaching the last known location of the Japanese fleet the US forces discover that the carriers have moved. Upon sighting the 'Arashi', the Lieutenant Commander of the Air Group of the 'Enterprise', Wade McClusky (Luke Evans), correctly infers the Japanese destroyer is rushing back to join the main Japanese fleet and leads his planes to follow its course and attack.

As Nagumo's personnel switch out their aircraft ordnance for an anti-ship attack, US carrier-based planes appear suddenly. 'Enterprise' squadron Commanders McClusky and Richard Best (Ed Skrein) successfully lead their planes through the anti-aircraft fire and destroy the Japanese carriers 'Kaga' and 'Akagi', and squadrons from the 'Yorktown' destroy the 'Soryu'. Attempting to salvage the battle, 'Hiryu' commanded by Tamon Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) attempts to rally the remaining Japanese aircraft for an assault against the US carriers. Locating 'Yorktown', the Japanese bomb and disable the carrier scoring three direct hits.

Upon returning to the 'Enterprise', Best learns that half of his squadron is either missing in action or destroyed. Informed that there is a surviving Japanese carrier, Best rallies what pilots he can and sets off to attack the 'Hiryu'. Japanese anti-aircraft fire fails to stop the attack, but Best in his typical no fear gung-ho do or die dive bombing raids scores a critical hit that destroys the 'Hiryu'. 

Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance (Jake Weber), informed of the destruction of the last Japanese carrier, decides to withdraw for the night rather than test his luck. Informed of the loss of his carriers in battle, Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) orders his fleet to withdraw from the battle rather than risk his battleships without sufficient air cover, effectively bringing the Battle of Midway to a conclusion. Upon returning home in a wheelchair Best is reunited with his wife Anne (Mandy Moore). He informs her that he inhaled a large dose of caustic soda into his lungs instead of oxygen to aid with high altitude flying, and as a result he will never fly again. 

The closing credits reveal what became of those US wartime heroes depicted in the film, as well as the Japanese reprisals following the battle. Dennis Quaid also stars as Vice Admiral William Halsey the Commander of Carrier Division Two aboard his flagship carrier 'Enterprise'. Halsey led a series of hit-and-run raids against the Japanese, striking the Gilbert and Marshall islands in February, Wake Island in March, and carrying out the Doolittle Raid in April 1942. Halsey returned to Pearl Harbour from his last raid on 26th May 1942, in poor health due to an extremely serious bout of Shingles brought about by stressful conditions at hand, and as such missed out on the Battle for Midway, which he later described as his greatest disappointment.

In remaking 'Midway' Director Roland Emmerich here takes a valuable lesson in history that he presumably made for a whole new audience either unfamiliar with that 1976 film, or indeed the decisive battle in the Pacific, or both, and on that basis I guess the story had to be told, again! And whilst the CGI effects are commendable, and the action set pieces well executed, what we have here boils down to Uncle Sam beating his chest once again and spraying a can of whoop ass all over the cookie cutter Japanese. The cast are all largely one dimensional as is the heavily cliched dialogue, and I felt the film was bereft of any emotional weight or the chance to get really invested in the characters. There is very little by way of suspense or tension here either, and you just know that in Ed Skrein's Dick Best flying ace, that he's going to win the day and get back to his girl, shaken but not stirred! Ultimately this is a WWII drama set in the 1940's, with the look and feel of a 1970's war time epic, boxed up with all the CGI of 2020, and on that basis the film delivers, but left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

'Midway' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 9th June 2016.

As reported last week, started in 1954, this year sees the 62nd Sydney Film Festival launching on 8th June with 'Goldstone' opening the festival at Sydney's State Theatre, and closing with 'Love & Friendship' on 19th June. In the meantime, there are films in competition, special screenings, European Cinema, international documentaries, family films, short films, a retrospective of ten Scorsese films selected by David Stratton, and more. There are twelve films in the Official Competition, which is 'presented in recognition of the most courageous, audacious and cutting-edge new cinematic creations from around the world' and celebrating 'that rare but thrilling kind of film that truly moves the art form forward'. This years chosen dozen up for a stab at a cash prize of AU$60K are :

• 'APPRENTICE' - English/Malaysian, Australian Premier, Directed by Boo Junfeng
• 'AQUARIUS' - Portuguese, Australian Premier, Directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho
• 'CERTAIN WOMEN' - Australian Premier, Directed by Kelly Reichardt, with Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern and Michelle Williams
• 'THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER' - English/French, Australian Premier, Directed by Brady Corbet, with Robert Pattinson, Liam Cunningham and Berenice Bejo
• 'THE ENDLESS RIVER' - Australian Premier, Directed by Oliver Hermanus, with Clayton Everton, Crystal-Donna Robers and Nicolas Duvauchelle
• 'GOLDSTONE' - World Premier, Directed by Ivan Sen, with Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell and Jackie Weaver
• 'IT'S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD' - French, Australian Premier, Directed by Xavier Dolan, with Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Gaspar Ulliel
• 'LAND OF MINE' - English/German/Danish, Australian Premier, Directed by Martin Zandvliet, with Joel Basman, Louis Hofmann and Roland Moller
• 'LETTERS FROM WAR' - Portuguese, Australian Premier, Directed by Ivo M. Ferreira
• 'NOTES ON BLINDNESS' - Australian Premier, Directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, with Dan Skinner and Simone Kirby
• 'PSYCHO RAMEN' - Hindi, Australian Premier, Directed by Anurag Kashyap
• 'VIVA' - Spanish, Australian Premier, Directed by Paddy Breathnach

In Special Presentations exclusively at Sydney's State Theatre are fifteen films all receiving their Australian Premier, these are 'Blood Father' with Mel Gibson; 'Captain Fantastic' with Viggo Mortensen; 'Demolition' with Jake Gyllenhaal; 'Down Under' getting its World Premier for Director Abe Forsythe; 'Elvis & Nixon' with Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey respectively; Richard Linklater's 'Everybody Want's Some'; the Jim Jarmusch tribute to Iggy Pop and the Stooges 'Gimme Danger'; 'A Journey of a Thousand Miles : Peacekeepers'; 'Julieta' by Pedro Almodovar; 'Maggie's Plan' with Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore and Greta Gerwig; 'Mahana' by Lee Tamahori with Temuera Morrison; 'Saint Amour' with Gerard Depardieu; 'Sing Street' by John Carney with a thumping 80's soundtrack, big hair, wide lapels and fashion faux-pas we'd rather forget; 'Suburra' - an Italian Mafia/political/religious thriller; and 'War on Everyone' by John McDonagh with Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena. For more on the 2016 Sydney Film Festival you can go to : www.sff.org.au

This week however, there are just three new films to get you out to your local Odeon kicking off with a sequel to a franchise that has been going strong for thirty or so years featuring your favourite pizza chomping heroes in a half shelf doing their ninja best to save the world . . . again! Then a supernatural horror sequel based on a real haunting in a London suburb back in the 70's as investigated by psychic investigators that its seems the genre and this franchise owe much to. And wrapping up, an English language Spanish dramedy offering featuring badass aid workers, a corpse, a well and a length of rope.

As always, when you have sat through your movie of choice in the week ahead - be it one of these as Previewed below, or any one of those Reviewed or Previewed in previous Posts, share your views and opinions with your like minded cinephiles by leaving a Comment in the space provided below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy your film.

'TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES : OUT OF THE SHADOWS' (Rated M) - the 'TMNT' or 'Ninja Turtles' go back thirty plus years to 1984 when they first appeared in comic books published by Mirage Studios. In case you didn't know, they are four fictional teenage anthropomorphic turtles who are named after four Renaissance Italian artists - Donatello (Donnie), Michelangelo (Mikey), Leonardo (Leo), and Raphael (Raph). They were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei (Splinter) in the art of ninjutsu. Over the years there have been a long succession of comic books, animated television series, an anime series, live action series, and the first round of feature films in 1990 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' then 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze' in 1991 and 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III' in 1993 with a CGI animated feature 'TMNT' in 2007. Fast forward to 2014 and Michael Bay Produced a reboot at a cost of US$125M which made just shy of US$500M which Jonathan Liebesman Directed, making a sequel almost inevitable. And so two short years later, here it is with Michael Bay once again Producing with the Director credit going this time to Dave Green with a US$135M budget. The film opened in the UK on 30th May, in the US on 3rd June and has so far recovered US74M of its outlay.

So this time around we have our intrepid gang of four pizza loving, scene stealing, vigilante do gooders in the half shell who go head to head with an escaped from custody Shredder (Brian Tee) who then teams up with Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) an unhinged scientist with god-like tendencies hell bent on world domination. To do their dirty work are two henchmen Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Stephen Farrelly) who are turned into powerful animal mutants using a mutagenic compound given to Stockman by the evil alien warlord Krang (Brad Garrett), who also has his own agenda for planet Earth that our turtle friends must contend with too. But what these bunch of nasties clearly didn't count on were the four ninja turtles and there own allies in the form of April O'Neil (Megan Fox), Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett), Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) and Police Chief Rebecca Vincent (Laura Linney) who together, are gonna save all humanity!

'THE CONJURING 2 : THE ENFIELD POLTERGEIST' (Rated MA15+) - another sequel of the supernatural horror kind is haunting a cinema near you this week and following on from the 2013 hugely successful 'The Conjuring' as Directed back then by James Wan and made for US$20M and grossing a staggering US$318M making it one of the most commercially successful horror films of all time, and critically well received too. That first film was set in 1971 on Rhode Island, and this follow up sees the same couple - paranormal investigators and writers Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively) reprise their roles but travel from a self-imposed sabbatical to Enfield, in London, England in 1977 to help out Peggy Hodgson (Frances O'Connor) an overwhelmed and distraught mother of four who believes that something evil lurks in her Enfield Council house. Based on their own experiences and what they encounter within the house they believe that one of the Hodgson girls is possessed by demonic forces, and as they try to help, so they become the target! Based on a true story as investigated by the real Ed and Lorraine Warren into the alleged poltergeist activity in the Enfield house between 1977 and 1979, this sequel is once again Directed by James Wan who also co-wrote the Screenplay.

'A PERFECT DAY' (Rated M) - this English language Spanish comedy drama film is Written and Directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa, and was screened in Cannes during the Directors Fortnight a year ago in May 2015, before its Spanish release in late August last year, and now it winds up on Australian shores. This tells the story of a bunch of aid workers based on the book by Spanish physician Paula Farias who worked for 'Doctors without Borders' in The Balkans back in 1995. Here Mambru (Benicio del Toro), B (Tim Robbins) and Sophie (Melanie Thierry) and joined by their interpreter Damir (Fedja Stukan) as they seek to retrieve a corpse dangling down a well somewhere in the former Yugoslavia after the conflicts there have ended and the UN Peacekeeping forces have taken up residence. What seems like a routine 'extraction' proves to be more challenging and complicated than they initially thought. Joined by Mambru's former lover Katya (Olga Kurylenko) and a young local lad Nikola they face obstacles, defy death, overcome the absurdness of war, challenge authority, and traipse through a war torn landscape in search of a length of rope to complete the 'extraction' before the corpse contaminates the valuable water supply at the bottom of the well. A slow burning film underpinned by a strong cast that has received mixed Reviews, one award win and another eighteen nominations from around the circuit.

Three films this week that offer up something for the kids and something for the adults, and with plenty of other choice doing the rounds and still on general release as Reviewed and Previewed on these humble pages, there is no reason at all not to get out to your local multiplex or independent theatre. I'll see you, at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-