MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' - Tuesday 11th July 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' earlier this week, and this eagerly awaited American action spy film is the seventh film in the 'Mission : Impossible' franchise, and is a sequel to 2018's 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout'. This film is once again Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Christopher McQuarrie who also helmed 'Fallout' and 2015's 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. The first six films in the ever popular franchise grossed worldwide US$3.57B at the Box Office off the back of combined production budgets of US$828M. 'Dead Reckoning - Part Two' is slated for release on 28th June 2024 with Christopher McQuarrie again in the Director's chair with Parts One and Two being filmed back to back. This film cost US$290M to produce, and has so far grossed US$20M.

Here the film opens up on board a Russian nuclear submarine under the pack ice of the Bering Sea - The Sevastopol - with two high ranking naval officers each with one half of an interlocking key forming a crucifix like shape, insert said key into an AI device that renders the submarine invisible to other foreign vessels so allowing it to stealthily potentially invade any other country's naval fleet undetected. Up on the radar screen comes the sighting of a foreign submarine that the Captain gives the order to arm the torpedo tubes and engage. But the foreign vessel has already launched a torpedo attack on the supposed invisible Sevastopol. As the crew prepare for impact in the closing seconds the torpedo's simply disappear, as does the foreign submarine that the Sevastopol had already sent torpedo's toward. The AI device is seen going into overdrive, as its own torpedo's turn around and head back in the direction from whence they came, detonating on impact and killing every crew member on board, many of whom float to the surface only to be trapped under thick sea ice, with the Sevastopol sinking to the bottom of the sea. 

IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, who also Co-Produces here) is assigned to retrieve half of a key from his ally and disavowed MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who has a bounty of US$50M placed on her. He travels to the Arabian Desert, engages in a gunfight during a sand storm with a bunch of bounty hunters and briefly reunites with Ilsa with them both having seen off all the hunters. After staging the scene, he tells her that to all intents and purposes she is now dead, and therefore to lay very low. 

Back in the US, Ethan infiltrates a meeting of the Community, where officials of various intelligence agencies, including former IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes), discuss an experimental AI called the Entity. Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the Entity turned rogue, expanded to potential sentience, and infiltrated all major defence and military systems and intelligence networks worldwide. The worlds key power players are now racing both to prevent sabotage and to gain control of the Entity, which rests with both halves of the key, although no one knows at this point what the key is for!

Ethan firmly believes that the Entity is too powerful for anyone to control, and so he vows to destroy it. He and his teammates Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key. Ethan evades Community agents as well as Gabriel (Esai Morales), an Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past, before losing the half-key to professional thief and expert pick-pocket Grace (Hayley Atwell). Meanwhile, Benji identifies an item of luggage containing a suspected explosive device sent by the Entity, and he races through the back of house baggage conveyer to locate it and defuse it. With the device counting down from four minutes with a series of riddles to answer, Benji is successful in disarming what turns out to be a fake nuclear device. Rattled by the Entity's seeming foresight and the appearance of Gabriel, Ethan goes after Grace alone, and tells Benji and Luther to abort their mission. Ethan is able to dodge past the Community agents with Grace evading Ethan who boards her planned flight to Rome. When in Rome however, she is picked up by the local Police revealing that she is wanted in several countries for theft, extortion, bribery etc. and is in possession of about a dozen different passports all bearing photographs of her likeness. 

In Rome, Ethan tracks down Grace by pretending to be her lawyer, before Community agents and Gabriel close in. After a lengthy high speed car chase through the streets and alleyways of Rome Grace escapes again, but Ethan is picked up by his team and Ilsa. With Benji and Luther providing support, Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a party held by arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), aka 'The White Widow' in Venice, hoping to find the buyer for the complete key, as well as what it unlocks. Grace is also present as is Gabriel. Grace delivers the half-key to Alanna while Ethan fails to talk Alanna out of selling the key. 

Gabriel delivers an ultimatum to Ethan, saying that he must choose which one of Grace or Ilsa is to die. The team scatters, with Ethan being chased down on foot by Paris (Pom Klementieff), a stone cold French assassin working for Gabriel. Ethan faces off in a gated at either end narrow alleyway against Paris and one of her colleagues, overpowering them both, but sparring their lives. Gabriel meanwhile knocks Grace out and kills Ilsa before Ethan arrives on the scene. He is devastated by her loss.

Grace is wracked by remorse over the death of Ilsa and is convinced to join Ethan's team. They prepare to board the Innsbruck-bound Orient Express train where Alanna plans to meet the buyer. Luther leaves for an off-grid location to investigate traces of the Entity on his hard drive. On the train, Gabriel kills the conductor, destroys the brakes and fires up the engine to gain maximum speed. He meets Denlinger, who proposes an alliance between himself and the Entity. Denlinger explains the complete key unlocks the chamber containing the computer of Sevastopol, a Russian submarine sunk by its own torpedo. An early version of the Entity was injected into the system with the task of sabotaging the submarine's stealth capability, but it instead tricked the Sevastopol into destroying itself. This early version is still on the submarine, and whoever can access it can devise the means to either control or destroy the Entity. Gabriel kills Denlinger and attempts to kill Paris to ensure only he knows about the key’s purpose. He further says to Paris that she will betray him to Ethan, because he spared her life. Grace reluctantly agrees to impersonate Alanna, as long as Ethan is standing right beside her in disguise, but the machine which 3D prints their face masks fails as Ethan's masks is being printed. Grace goes it alone disguised as Alanna and brings the complete key to the buyer, who turns out to be Kittridge. Though tempted to betray Ethan for a reward of US$100M and protection for her very good friend Grace, she sides with Ethan just as the bank transfer gives the command to accept or decline the transfer of monies, and so presses decline. She then pickpockets the key from Kittridge, and flees back up the train. 

Ethan, meanwhile, in constant radio contact with Benji is riding his motorbike alongside the Orient Express with the intention of jumping onto it when it slows down to take a bend in the tracks. Little do the pair know that Gabriel has sabotaged the train and it is accelerating uncontrollably. Ethan misses the crossing point and so Benji directs him up to the next point when he can intercept the train. This leads Ethan to ride up narrow mountain paths and fire trails, until he comes to a halt on the edge of a perilous cliff. Benji asks Ethan if he can see the train to which he responds with a yes, and then tells Ethan to jump off the cliff as he has a parachute on his back. And so Ethan does just that, and rides his motorbike off a cliff and successfully lands in the train saving Grace from being shot by Zola Mitsopolis (Frederick Schmidt), Alanna's brother, but Gabriel escapes with the key. 

Ethan overpowers Gabriel on the roof of the speeding train but is prevented from killing him by Community agents Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Gabriel escapes the train and initiates a countdown to detonate the viaduct bridge crossing ahead. Grace and Ethan detach the locomotive from the other carriages and save the passengers, but they are not able to escape. 

Just as they are about to plunge down the broken bridge, they are saved by Paris, who is near death. Paris mutters to Ethan of the Sevastopol before falling unconscious. As Ethan flees the train with a one-man chute, he tells Grace that she can trust Kittridge and that she should join the IMF. Grace then informs Kittridge that she has chosen to join IMF. Ethan meets with Benji when he lands at the bottom of the valley and they drive off with the key that Ethan pickpocketed during the fight with Gabriel, who is seen very angry indeed that his precious key has been replaced with a Zippo lighter. 

With 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' Writer, Producer and Director McQuarrie and Producer and star Cruise have crafted another non-stop, heart pounding action joy ride in this franchise that is now 27 years old, and for which Cruise has been playing the titular lead character for almost half his life. And at age 61 now, Tom Cruise does not seem to be letting up on the action set pieces as he prefers to work all his stunts, firmly in the belief that this is what the audience wants to see, and it's what gets bums on seats. And who can argue with that, because it seems to be paying off as 'Top Gun : Maverick' and early reviews of this latest 'M:I' offering would attest to. The film boasts a stellar cast who are all on point, a plot-line that is firmly planted in the present, well choreographed action set pieces that will keep you glued to the screen, stunning locations, a smattering of suspense, some occasional wry humour, and at a run time of just above 160 minutes that flies by and will never leave you wanting. My only criticism is all the angst ridden dialogue around 'The Entity' which if it is mentioned once, it is referenced a hundred times rendering it more like gobbledegook mumbo jumbo rather than the creation of a whole new world order that is implied. That said, next years 'Part Two' can't come soon enough.

'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DUNE : Tuesday 7th December 2021.

'DUNE' which I saw at my local independent movie theatre this week is an M Rated American epic Sci-Fi film Directed, Co-Written for the screen and Co-Produced by Denis Villeneuve whose previous feature film offerings take in 'Incendies' in 2010, 'Prisoners' in 2013, 'Sicario' in 2015, 'Arrival' in 2016 and 'Blade Runner 2049' in 2017. This film is based on the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert and is the first instalment in a planned two part adaptation with 'Dune : Part Two' now slated for an October 2023 release. Originally scheduled for a late November 2020 release, the film was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, instead having its World Premier at the Venice International Film Festival on 3rd September this year ahead of its international release in mid-September. It was then released in US cinemas and streaming on HBO Max on 21st October, and went on general release in Australia only last week. The film has so far generated largely positive critical acclaim and has so far grossed US$383M off the back of a US$165M production budget. 

Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) of House Atreides, the ruler of the planet Caladan, is assigned by the Emperor of the Universe Shaddam Corrino to replace House Harkonnen as fief rulers of the planet Arrakis. House Harkonnen have presided over Arrakis for the past eight hundred years and so this news comes as a bitter disappointment to them needless to say. Arrakis is a harsh desert planet and the only known source of 'spice' in the universe, a valuable substance that bestows its users greater vitality and expanded consciousness. It is also critical for interstellar travel as it allows Spacing Guild Navigators to use a limited form of foresight to safely navigate through interstellar space. The reality is however, that Shaddam is scared and jealous and intends to have House Harkonnen stage a violent and bloody coup to retake the planet with the aid of the Emperor's Sardaukar troops, eradicating House Atreides once and for all, whose influence threatens Shaddam's control. Leto is reluctant but but can see the political advantages of controlling the spice planet and forming an alliance with its native population, skilled desert dwelling fighters known as the Fremen.

Leto's mistress Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is a disciple of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusive sisterhood whose members possess advanced physical and mental capabilities. As part of their centuries-long breeding regime, the Bene Gesserit instructed Jessica to bear a daughter whose son would become a male Bene Gesserit, a messianic superbeing with the power of second sight necessary to guide humanity to a better future. Instead she gave birth to a son, Paul (Timothee Chalamet). Throughout his life, Paul is trained by Leto's aides, Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), and the Mentat Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson), while Jessica trains Paul in the ways of the Bene Gesserit. 

Paul confides in Jessica and Duncan that he has recurring dreams of the future. Because of these dreams, the Emperor's Truthsayer the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) visits Caladan and subjects Paul to a deadly test to assess his impulse control, which he passes. Mohiam instructs House patriarch Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) to spare Paul and Jessica during his coup on Arrakis, to which he responds that he, will not harm them. 

Some two weeks later, House Atreides arrives at Arrakeen, the fortress stronghold on Arrakis, where Duncan and an advance party have been learning all they can about the planet and the Fremen. It is unknown who remained on Caladan to oversee and protect the Atreides home planet in the meantime. Leto negotiates with the Fremen's chieftain Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and meets the Imperial ecologist and Judge of Change Dr. Liet-Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Kynes informs Leto, Paul, and Halleck of the dangers of spice harvesting, including giant sandworms which can grow up to four hundred metres long and which travel under the desert sands and are attracted by vibrations and sounds on the surface. During a flight, they spot a sandworm approaching an active spice harvester with a stranded crew on board. Leto and his team rescue the workers with barely minutes to spare before the sandworm swallows the harvester. Paul's exposure to the spice-laden air triggers more intense visions of the future.

After an attempt on Paul's life by a Harkonnen agent, Leto places his army on high alert. Suk doctor Wellington Yueh (Chang Chen) disables Arrakeen's protective shields which allows Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops to overwhelm the Atreides forces, and ultimately destroy Arrakeen. Yueh incapacitates Leto and tells him he had no choice but to make a deal to deliver him to the Baron Harkonnen in exchange for freeing his captive wife. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule and is killed by the Baron after delivering the Duke. As Leto lies naked in  chair at the end of a long table and in an incapacitated state he murmers, and the Baron leans in to listen. Leto bites down on the fake tooth and releases the poison gas, killing himself and members of the Baron's court almost immediately, but the Baron survives. 

Duncan escapes and steals an ornithopter (a flying machine with the body of a helicopter but the wings that oscillate rapidly like a dragon fly). Harkonnens soldiers capture Paul and Jessica and take them into the desert where they will be dumped to die. However, Paul and Jessica overpower and kill their captors using a Bene Gesserit ability known as 'the Voice', a means of controlling the actions of others through verbal commands. Finding a survival kit left for them by Yueh, Paul and Jessica spend the night in a tent, which by daybreak is buried under the sand. Paul experiences more dreams, this time of a 'holy war' raging across the universe in his name. The next morning, they make their way out of the buried tent and continue their journey in search of the Fremen.

The Baron, recovering from the poison gas attack, gives command of Arrakis to his over zealous nephew Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista) and orders him to sell spice reserves while the price is still at a peak and restart production to recover the cost of the coup. Paul and Jessica are found by Duncan and Kynes and head to an old unused aquifer station but are quickly tracked by Sardaukar. Duncan and a number of the Fremen sacrifice themselves to allow Jessica, Paul, and Kynes to escape the aquifer on foot. Kynes separates and is ambushed by three Sardaukar soldiers, so she lures a sandworm by thumping with her fist on the sand. The sandworm duly arrives and quickly devours them along with her. Paul and Jessica escape in an ornithopter and fly through an 800kph sandstorm, ultimately crash landing deep in the desert. 

Running to a rocky outcrop they manage to evade a sandworm and there meet a group of Fremen, among them Stilgar and Chani (Zendaya), the girl seen by Paul's in his dreams. Fremen warrior Jamis (Babs Olusanmokun) protests their admission into thier encampment and is killed by Paul in a ritual duel to the death. Against Jessica's wishes, Paul insists on joining the Fremen to fulfil his father's goal of bringing peace to Arrakis, and preventing a holy war spreading across the universe in his name. 

'Dune' is an epic film in just about every sense of the term. From the stunning visuals, the action set pieces, the character development, the cinematography, the ensemble cast, the world building and the Hans Zimmer composed thumping soundtrack this ticks all the boxes and must be seen on a big cinema screen to truly appreciate the scale and spectacle of what Director Denis Villeneuve has delivered. At over two-and-a half hours in length, sure the movie lags in places but it moves along at a swift pace and never leaves you wanting, and whilst some critics have commented that it only covers half of Frank Herbert's novel, that is the Director's intention as the opening credit says 'Dune : Part One'. Aside for being a Sci-Fi spectacle for the ages and all ages, the film has emotional heft and delves into the human psyche as much as it does the grandeur of the set designs and the manner in which the action scenes play out. For a universe set some eight thousand years into the future however, one thing that left me scratching my head was why, oh why, with all their advanced technology, world building prowess and interstellar travel capabilities, do they still go into hand to hand battle with swords and daggers? Clearly, ours is not to reason why . . . ! Bring on 'Part Two'.

'Dune' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DOCTOR SLEEP : Tuesday 12th November 2019.

'DOCTOR SLEEP' which I saw earlier this week at my local multiplex is an MA15+ Rated American horror film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Stephen King, which is a sequel to King's 1977 novel 'The Shining'. The film, set several decades after the events of 'The Shining', combines elements of the 1977 novel and its 1980 film adaptation of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick. 'Doctor Sleep' is Written, Directed, and Edited by Mike Flanagan whose previous credits take in such horror offerings as 2011's 'Absentia', 2013's 'Oculus', 2016's 'Hush', 'Before I Wake' and 'Ouija: Origin of Evil' and 2017's 'Gerald’s Game' again based on a Stephen King novel. Flanagan also created, Directed, Produced, Wrote, and Edited the Netflix supernatural horror series 'The Haunting of Hill House' in 2018, and he is currently developing a stand-alone second season, titled 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'. The film was released last week too in the US and Canada, cost about US$50M to make, has so far bought in US$37M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews with Critics praising the performances and the eerie atmospherics especially.

In 1980, a short time after the events unfolded horrifically at The Overlook Hotel in the remote Colorado Rockies young Danny Torrance (Roger Dale Floyd) and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) have relocated to sunny Florida, with the desire to never see snow again! Still reeling from those recent events, Danny continues to be haunted by the ghost of the rotting woman from Room 237 who now manifests herself in his new home bathroom. The ghost of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) who was the Head Chef at The Overlook Hotel and who also possessed the 'Shine' now mentors Danny and one day teaches the young lad to securely lock away such ghosts in imaginary boxes inside his mind. In the meantime, a small yet powerful group of un-dead semi-immortals known as 'The True Knot' led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) feed off the 'steam' expelled in the dying moments of those with the Shine, in order to prolong their lives by slowing down their ageing process.

We then fast forward to 2011, and Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has climbed inside a bottle and become a down and out alcoholic in an attempt to subdue his memories from his traumatic childhood and his time at the Overlook Hotel. He moves to a small town and forms a strong bond with Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), who gets him a job and becomes his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. The AA group that Dan joins is headed up by Dr. John Dalton (Bruce Greenwood) who also gets Dan a job as an orderly working three nights a week at the local Hospice. Dan remains committed to his AA group and begins to rehabilitate. One night while on duty at the Hospice, Dan sees a white cat who goes to a patient who is near death - a sure sign that the end is nigh remarks the aged and frail patient. Dan uses his Shine abilities to comfort a number of dying patients over the years, who give him the nickname 'Doctor Sleep'.

At about the same time Dan begins receiving telepathic communications from a young girl named Abra Stone (Dakota Hickman), whose Shining capabilities are even more powerful than his own. Meanwhile, Rose recruits a fifteen year old teenager named 'Snakebite Andi' (Emily Alyn Lind) into her cult after observing her ability to telepathically control people, and on the pretext of immortal life.

We now fast forward to the present day and Dan has been 'dry' for eight years now. The True Knot clan are in starvation mode, and running short on the necessary steam to sustain themselves. Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon) who is Rose's lover, right hand man, and long term member of the group, is homing in on a young ten year old baseball protege who also possesses the Shine, Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay). The group abduct Bradley and torture him so as to extract as much steam from him as they can, and then bury his corpse in a shallow grave in the grounds of a disused power plant. A now teenage Abra (Kyliegh Curran) senses Bradley's torture and death, and her distress alerts both Dan and Rose from afar.

Rose, having now sensed the extent of Abra's Shine, sets her sights on Abra, planning to extract her all powerful steam to sustain the cult. Realising that Rose is after her, Abra visits Dan, who insists that she stay away for her own safety sake, and avoid drawing attention to herself. Dan turns his back on Abra and feeling dejected she returns home after bunking off school for the day.

Later that night, Rose astral-projects into Abra's mind, but is out witted when the teenager manages to trap her and enter Rose's mind albeit briefly. With a severely wounded hand, badly shaken and emotionally stirred, Rose returns to her body and sends The True Knot to capture Abra, while Crow Daddy persuades Rose to hang back and recuperate, and gather back her strength. 

One night while on duty at the Hospice, the white cat leads Dan to an empty room where he has another visit from Hallorann, who instructs him to protect Abra. Abra tells Dan what happened with Rose and says she can track the cult if she can touch Bradley's baseball glove, knowing that one of The True Knot handled it. Dan confides to Billy about the Shining and asks him to suspend all disbelief and to have faith in what he is telling his friend as the truth. Billy agrees and they travel to the murder scene and exhume Bradley's body to retrieve his glove. They then go to Abra's house, where they recruit her initially disbelieving father Dave (Zackary Momoh) and devise a plan. Using an astral projection of Abra as bait, Dan and Billy lure the cult members out into a remote forest clearing and shoot most of them dead, although Snakebite Andi telepathically manipulates Billy into killing himself before she dies.

Rose has been able to sense the death of her fellow cult members and becomes increasingly distraught as one by one they are all popped off. In the meantime Crow Daddy who was not at the forest clearing shoot out, has abducted Abra, sedated her to render her Shine dormant, and killed her father Dave. Dan communicates with the drugged Abra, whose sedation is now wearing off, and allows him to possess her temporarily and force Crow Daddy to crash the van that they are travelling in into a tree at high speed. Not wearing a seat belt Crow Daddy is sent hurtling through the windscreen and lands in a heap in the headlights ten meters in front of the crash scene. He dies from his wounds, as Abra looks on, free once more. Dan and Abra reunite, while Rose consumes the cult's remaining stockpile of steam, so instantly giving her renewed strength, healing her wounds and vowing revenge for the deaths of her True Knot friends. 

Dan makes the decision to return to the abandoned Overlook Hotel, believing it will be as dangerous for Rose as it will be for him and Abra. Upon arrival late into the evening on the snow covered mountain, he breaks into the long time abandoned hotel and starts up the hotel's boiler and generators and promptly sets about exploring the building once again, 'awakening' it in the process.

Dan revisits the rooms where his father Jack, influenced by the ghostly and evil apparitions of the Overlook Hotel, attempted to murder him and Wendy all those years ago. At the bar in the hotels grand ballroom, Dan is offered a shot of Jack Daniels by 'Lloyd', a bartending ghost who looks a lot like his father. Dan refuses much to Lloyd's disgust. Just then Abra who has been sat in the car diligently waiting for signs of Rose's imminent arrival calls out to Dan that her cars headlights have been spotted on the approach to the hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Dan and Abra confront Rose, by pulling her into an astral plane, in the shape of the Overlook's vast snow covered hedge maze. Dan attempts to trap her in one of the boxes inside his mind, but fails so releasing Rose from the astral plane. Dan instructs Abra to run before being overpowered by Rose, and incurring a severe axe wound to his femoral artery in his leg. As she drains his steam by applying pressure to his open wound, Dan releases the Overlook's ghosts from the boxes in his mind, who overcome and kill Rose.

However, when done, the ghosts turn on and possess Dan, who begins to hunt for Abra who seeks refuge in Room 237. Dan, wielding the fireman's axe, catches up with Abra who is able to momentarily free him. He tells her to flee the hotel. Struggling with possession, Dan returns to the boiler room which is now working to maximum capacity and becoming overloaded. It quickly becomes engulfed in flames as hot boiler oil spills all over the floor, and as Abra watches helplessly from outside as the hotel burns down, with Dan still inside. The blue and red lights of the fire trucks driving up the mountain side signify that help is at hand and that Abra will be rescued.

Allegedly Stephen King was none too impressed with Stanley Kubrick's 1980 big screen adaptation of 'The Shining' and by the changes he had made to the storyline. So much so that in 1997 Stephen King wrote a new Screenplay which was turned into a three part television mini-series which ended up picking up thirteen award wins and ten further nominations. Fast track to 2013 and King wrote the 'Doctor Sleep' novel and it was left to Writer and Director and long time horror film geek Mike Flanagan to combine the two novels and Kubrick's movie together in this 'Doctor Sleep' film. And I would have to say that I think that Mike Flanagan has by and large succeeded on that front by remaining faithful to that landmark 1977 novel and Kubrick's cult 1980 film. This films works as a stand alone movie where you can easily enough pick up the pieces from its predecessor while also serving as a strong companion piece that complements what went before, without seeming like a Hollywood cash grab for the sake of a late sequel. With strong performances from McGregor, Ferguson and Curran especially, an extended running time that does not linger, and enough emotion, suspense and scares to maintain the interest and please fans of Kubrick's 'The Shining' and King's source novels, this film is well worth the price of your cinema ticket. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

'Doctor Sleep' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-