MEN IN BLACK : INTERNATIONAL - Tuesday 18th June 2019.

'MEN IN BLACK : INTERNATIONAL' which I saw earlier in the week is the fourth film in the ever popular science fiction action comedy franchise and is Directed by F. Gary Gray whose previous Directorial outings take in the likes of 'The Negotiator', 'The Italian Job', 'Be Cool', 'Law Abiding Citizen', 'Straight Outta Compton' and 'The Fate of the Furious'. The first three films in the series were Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, in 1997, 2002 and 2012, grossed collectively approaching US$1.7B on the back of combined production budgets of US$495M and starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as our alien crime fighting duo Agent J and Agent K respectively. This instalment is a sort of sequel, sort of spin-off that cost around about US$100M, was released Stateside last week too, has so far recovered US$113M in Box Office receipts and has garnered generally lacklustre critical Reviews so far.

Back in the mid-'90's and young Molly Wright sees her parents being neuralysed by a couple of Men in Black Agents who are on the hunt for a pesky up to no good alien, that Molly helps escape. Molly herself escapes being neuralysed by averting her eyes from her bedroom window up above the street where her parents are talking to the Agents. Fast forward some twenty years and Molly (Tessa Thompson) is unsuccessful in her attempts to join the FBI and the CIA on the basis of her wild conclusions that alien life forms live among us, and she really wants to help combat them having made it her life goal to do so.

Molly is able to track down a crashed alien space craft and follows the MiB vehicles with captured alien in custody, back to their secret headquarters. She successfully manages to infiltrate the HQ but is captured by the hi-tech security scanning devices and is subsequently questioned by Agent O (Emma Thompson) upon whom Molly makes a sufficient enough impression to be granted probationary agent status as Agent M, and is instantly assigned to the London branch of the MiB. Once there she is quickly introduced to High T (Liam Neeson) who heads up the UK Division.

There Agent M is assigned to Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) the most highly regarded Agent working out of the London Office who saved the world back in 2016 with High T atop the Eiffel Tower when they prevented 'The Hive' from gaining access through a wormhole there with potentially catastrophic consequences for our planet.

Later that evening both Agents meet up with Vungus the Ugly (Kayvan Novak) in night club. Vungus is a member of an alien Royal Family who is a long term good friend of H. Upon leaving, Vungus' car is attacked by alien twins ('Les Twins' aka Larry and Laurent Bourgeois) who are able to harness the power of pure energy making them almost indestructible. Vungus is seriously wounded, but on this occasion the twins are thwarted (but only temporarily) by the might of the high tech weaponry readily available to our pair of protagonists from their vehicle.

Moments before dying Vungus passes a multi-dimensional purple coloured crystal on to M, claiming that he cannot trust H with it as he has changed since they last met some years ago. In a debrief meeting in High T's office Agent C (Rafe Spall) openly shows his contempt for H's actions. M however, has concluded that only a handful of people knew Vungus' location when he was attacked, which leads her to believe that Vungus' location was betrayed by one of their own agents. Reeling at the impact of a traitor within the MiB ranks, High T assigns C and M to conduct an investigation while H is assigned to driving his desk. Further investigations seem to determine that the twins may have had DNA traces of the Hive, a parasitic race who invade other planets by merging with the DNA of the conquered species. M learns that H and High T were responsible for driving off a Hive invasion in Paris in 2016, but since then H's attitude has gone downhill, showing a slack approach to his work and seemingly only holding on to his job because of his relationship with High T and his past track record.

H convinces M to join him in chasing up a lead in Marrakesh, where they come across 'Pawny' (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), the sole survivor of a small group of aliens who were attacked by the Twins. Pawny pledges his loyalty to M, as his new Queen, but they are then attacked by MiB agents coordinated by C, who has recovered CCTV footage of Vungus handing the crystal to M, and as a result now believes that she is the traitor in their midst.

Helped by one of his alien contacts, H is able to acquire a rocket-powered hover bike and escape with M and Pawny. Successfully evading their marauding colleagues, they crash land on the dunes out in the desert, where they learn that the crystal Vungus gave M actually conceals an all powerful weapon generated by a compressed blue giant. As they repair the damaged bike, H's alien contact who had stowed away in a drink bottle, manages to steal the crystal and take it to Riza Stravos (Rebecca Fergusson), an alien arms merchant with whom H had a relationship in the past.

Having repaired the jet propelled hover bike, the gang of three travel by speed boat to Riza's island fortress where they attempt to infiltrate the base and recover the weapon, but are caught by Riza and her bodyguard. M gets caught in a fight with Riza while H gets beaten up in no uncertain terms by the alien bodyguard, but always somehow miraculously manages to get back up (just like Thor!) However, this bodyguard turns out to be the very same alien that M rescued as a child, and recognising each other, he returns the favour by allowing them to leave while he keeps Riza apprehended. While attempting to get off the island the three are attacked by the Twins once again, but they are killed by High T and a group of Agents freshly arrived on the scene.

And so case closed, or is it? Back at London MiB HQ at a celebratory party, both H and M have a moment of clarity and realise that the Twins' passing comments could mean that they wanted the weapon to use against the Hive rather than to use it for them. This resonated especially when the only evidence of Hive DNA was provided by High T. Agent C concedes that the evidence points to the notion of a deception by High T, and so permits H and M to follow High T to the Eiffel Tower. En route to the wormhole, M questions H's memory of his defeat of the Hive revealing that he was probably neuralysed, which is confirmed when they confront High T atop the Eiffel Tower. The Hive transformed High T into one of their own and neuralysed H so that he could be seen as the 'hero' and to mask their true intentions. The High T/Hive 'hybrid' manifests itself and is able to launch a wormhole that will draw the Hive to Earth. As H and the hybrid fight it out, H is able to draw out High T's true personality just long enough for M to use the weapon to destroy High T and the encroaching Hive infestation.

With the case now well and truly closed, Agent O joins H and M in Paris, where she grants M full agent status and appoints H as probationary Head of MiB's London branch until such time as a new head is found.

Aside from the fairly obvious chemistry that Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson share together on screen, and Hemsworth flexing his emerging comedic chops once again, there is little else going for this effects laden albeit pedestrian, play it safe, by the numbers fourth instalment in this flagging franchise. I honestly had expected more from 'Men in Black : International' but emerged from the theatre feeling totally underwhelmed by a film that relies all to heavily on its CGI set pieces, which have by now all become far to commonplace to create any point of difference here, at the expense of any real storyline, and what thinly veiled storyline there is you can see coming from ten miles away. This is predictable fluff that does nothing for the franchise other than seal its fate like the final nail in the coffin, and its disappointing to see fine acting talent like Hemsworth, Thompson, Thompson, Neeson and Spall succumb to the dredging that this film has so far garnered, despite the best intentions no doubt of F. Gary Gray. All style over substance.

'Men in Black : International' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - Tuesday 7th August 2018.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT' which I saw at my local multiplex this week is the sixth instalment in the Tom Cruise action franchise based on the popular '60's television series, that since 1996 has been dusted off every five years or so with another big budget high octane screen offering. The franchise launched with Brian De Palma's first film adaptation in 1996, followed by John Woo's Directed 'Mission : Impossible 2' in 2000; then J.J. Abrams took over Directing duties with 'Mission : Impossible III' in 2006, then Brad Bird assumed the mantle in 2011 with 'Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' followed by Christoper McQuarrie in 2015 with 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. These first five films have grossed at the worldwide Box Office a combined US$2.8B from a collective Budget of US$650M. Now in 2018 Christoper McQuarrie returns to the Directors chair for 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' which he also wrote. Tom Cruise Produces too, as he has all other films in the series to date. The film has received universal acclaim from Critics, with many praising it as the best in the series so far with the cinematography, action set pieces, stunt work, storyline and cast performances as being particularly credit worthy. The film cost US$178M to Produce and has so far raked in US$360M since its release Stateside last week.

The film opens up with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) woken from his slumber in a Belfast safe house. He is delivered the ubiquitous package detailing his next mission . . . .  should he choose to accept it. Set two years following the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation' in which Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) was captured with what remains of his secretive anarchic organisation 'The Syndicate', reformed into a terrorist group operating across the world known as 'The Apostles'. Hunt's mission is to prevent the sale of three plutonium cores to the group on behalf of their client, one John Lark whose true identity remains a mystery. Hunt's pre-recorded message self destructs within five seconds, and next we find him in Berlin where he meets up with colleagues Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to arrange the purchase of said plutonium cores. However, the mission goes awry, leaving Hunt a choice to either sacrifice the cores or sacrifice Luther being held at gunpoint. He chooses to save Luther's life, and lo and behold the cores disappear into the night, courtesy of The Apostles.

The team quickly home in on Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner) and set an elaborate trap to make him confess his involvement and hand over the blueprints for his three portable nuclear weapons as well as releasing valuable information relating to The Apostle's next move. Director of CIA Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) instructs Special Activities Division operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium, much to the distrust of IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Hunt and Walker HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) parachute jump into Paris, where they infiltrate a fundraiser party at a lavish venue where John Lark is set to buy the cores from The Apostles. They track a man whom they suspect to be Lark to a Gents WC, where a fight breaks out between Lark, Hunt and Walker in which Lark gains the upper hand over the other two, but is shot dead unexpectedly by the emergence of Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson).

To ensure the successful execution of the mission, Hunt impersonates Lark and meets with an arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) acting as a broker, on the basis that she will not be aware of the true identity of Lark. Agents of The Apostles have been sent to kill John Lark and The White Widow, but she and Hunt escape from the private party in a hail of bullets, knives and fist fights with a room full of guests and panicked onlookers. The White Widow has fallen for Hunt's rouse.

Believing Hunt to be Lark, and in order to secure the plutonium, The White Widow tasks him with extracting Lane from an armoured convoy transporting the fugitive through Paris. She hands over one of the plutonium cores as a payment in kind for the mission. Hunt and his team attack the convoy but not as planned, pushing the armoured vehicle into the Seine so saving the lives of numerous Police Officers who would have been collateral damage, and sending the perpetrators into complete disarray. A straight jacketed Lane is extracted from the now completely submerged armoured vehicle by Benji Dunn and bundled into the back of a waiting speed boat and Luther Stickell.

Walker and Hunt drive a panel van as part of their getaway chased down the back streets of Paris by The White Widows henchmen. They then decamp to getaway motorcycles as the van becomes wedged at the end of a narrow street. Successfully evading the Police, but only narrowly, Hunt is picked up in the speed boat by Dunn and Stickell and a hooded and still straight jacketed Lane.

The team of three and a captured Lane now make for a lock up garage in which is stowed their getaway car - an olive green BMW from yesteryear. Upon raising the garage door they are greeted by a random female Police Officer who suspecting that something is not quite right pulls her gun and orders the three and their hooded and bound captive to freeze. Whereupon four of The White Widows goons arrive to take charge of the situation and reclaim Lane. In the standoff the Police Officer is shot but in a non-life threatening way, and the four goons are all rapidly dispensed with courtesy of Hunt. A high speed car chase ensues across Paris, with Hunt skillfully dodging traffic, pedestrians, motorcyclists and all manner of obstacles while also avoiding The White Widow's forces, the Police and Ilsa, who is under orders to kill Lane to fulfil her mission for MI6 and to be able to walk free following her exploits of two years ago when she joined the IMF and Hunt's team. The mission to extract Lane remains successful, whereupon The White Widow instructs the team to deliver Lane, and Ilsa, to London.

Meanwhile, also in Paris, Walker has secretly met with Erica Sloane and spun her a yarn how Hunt is in fact the elusive Lane, and has framed him by doctoring the evidence found on the man they believed to be Lane and who they killed at the party earlier. Walker hands over the dead mans mobile phone containing all the 'evidence' that Sloane needs to incriminate Hunt. Sloane needs little convincing and orders Walker to put an end to the mission by whatever means necessary, even if it means taking Hunt, and his team, out.

The action now moves to a London safehouse in which Alan Hunley confronts Hunt about being John Lark, based on the fabricated evidence presented by Walker to Sloane. Hunt denies these accusations naturally and incapacitates Hunley to continue with their mission. Benji Dunn masks up as Lane for the purposes of the trade with The White Widow, leaving the real Lane under the charge of Walker while Hunt and his crew go off to make the deal. After being asked to monitor Lane, Walker unwittingly reveals himself to be the real John Lark, in association with Lane. But Benji Dunn and the real Lane did the switcheroo and pulled a fast one on Walker which they recorded for all posterity, with Sloane watching in remotely, while Hunt, Stickell and the real Lane were still in the building.

At this Sloane has instructed a shadow CIA team to take Lane, Walker, and Hunt’s team in. The CIA team though has been infiltrated by The Apostles and Walker orders them to attack the IMF team. Hunley is stabbed and killed in the ensuing fight by Walker, who then escapes on foot across London.  Hunt, after bidding a fond farewell to a dying Hunley, chases Walker on foot aided by Benji Dunn guiding him remotely as a result on implanting a tracking device in Walker's neck during the fracas at the safehouse. Walker leads Hunt on a chase across roof tops to the Tate Modern art gallery, where Walker escapes with Lane in a waiting helicopter on the rooftop, but not before making a threat against Hunt's ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) as added security for Hunt to no longer meddle.  

Using the tracking device still in Walker's neck leads the team to a medical aid camp somewhere in the foothills of Kashmir. Faust deduces that Lane intends to detonate the two remaining nuclear devices at a river that crosses the borders of China, Pakistan and India so contaminating the water supply to a third of the world's population. Upon arrival at the camp, Hunt comes face to face with Julia and her new husband Patrick (Wes Bentley) who are both working as Doctors providing voluntary medical aid to the locals. Walker had set up Julia to be there to raise the incentive for Hunt. 

Lane activates the nuclear weapons choosing to stay behind as his work is now done, but seeing to it that Walker leaves quickly so as to be out of harms way when the atomic blasts come, which is counting down to fifteen minutes hence. Lane hands the detonator key to Walker who exists in a helicopter. Hunt takes off in a second helicopter clinging to a payload hanging below, leaving Dunn, Stickell and Faust to locate the two nuclear devices and attempt to disarm them within the next fifteen minutes. Hunt clambers up the dangling payload and into the cockpit of the helicopter dispensing with the pilot and co-pilot before taking the controls. All the while Hunt is negotiating mountainous terrain, cavernous ravines, glacial landscapes and deep valleys under a barrage of machine gun fire from a mightily pissed off Walker in hot pursuit. 

Hunt and Walker continue to engage in aerial combat each from their own helicopter, before Hunt uses his chopper to ram Walker's helicopter out of the sky, causing the two downed aircraft to come to rest on a snow covered cliff edge. Narrowly escaping the remnants of two destroyed helicopters, the pair fight high up on a flattened cliff edge, where Hunt eventually kills Walker by sending him to his death wearing a helicopter necklace that explodes in a ball of flame a couple of hundred metres below. Ethan gains control of the detonator while Stickell, Dunn, Faust aided by Julia, deactivate the bombs with one second to spare. With the two cores safely recovered, Sloane arrives on the scene having sent a rescue helicopter to air lift Hunt off the precipice. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 aided by The White Widow who has secretly been working undercover for MI6 to infiltrate Lane and his network. Faust is cleared of any wrongdoing and is off the hook with MI6. Hunt, Stickell and Dunn can say Mission : Accomplished, and the world is safe, for another day at least!

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' is by far and away the best in an escapist action franchise that just keeps on improving with age. Here the Cruisemeister just reaffirms his position at the top of the ladder in terms of balls out epic big screen action commercial cinema where he chooses to do all his own practical stunts for added realism instead of giving way to green screen CGI enhanced effects, and all credit to ya Tom. He jumps, leaps, runs, climbs, clings, fist fights, kicks, shoots and is involved in a foot chase, a car chase, a motorcycle chase, a helicopter chase, jumps from a plane at 25,000 feet and saves the world all in the space of two and half hours of action packed adrenalin fuelled high octane fast paced drama. All the while, the story is believable, the action sequences of which there are many are delivered with a deft touch, the locations spectacular, and Hunt is presented as human after all with emotions, regrets, feelings and a vulnerability that perhaps we have not seen in previous instalments. This is a well rounded film in every respect - from the performances, the pacing, and the practical effects and the McQuarrie/Cruise combo has proved a sure fire winner here that elevates this franchise much further up the food chain. See it on the big screen while you can - you won't be disappointed.

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' warrants five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE SNOWMAN : Tuesday 24th October 2017.

'THE SNOWMAN' which I saw earlier this week is potentially the first in what may turn out to be new film franchise for this Norwegian crime fighting detective Harry Hole, based on the Oslo Crime Squad character created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo in the popular series of novels that have been translated into forty languages, and having sold over thirty million copies worldwide. Harry Hole appears in eleven novels so far, first launched in 1997 with 'The Bat', taking us up to 2017 with the release of 'The Thirst'. 'The Snowman' upon which this film is based is the seventh book in the series and was published in 2007. This film is Directed by Tomas Alfredson, whose previous Directing credits include the acclaimed 'Let The Right One In' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. The film cost US$35M to bring to the big screen and has so far recouped US$23M, and has garnered generally lacklustre Reviews.

Research reveals that Harry Hole (here portrayed by Michael Fassbender) is a brilliant and driven detective prone to using unorthodox methods in his work, a classic loose cannon in the police force. Hole is unmarried and he has few close friends. He frequently makes enemies among his colleagues who, nevertheless, grudgingly respect him. He is a chain smoker and heavy drinker, although for the most part has his reliance on alcohol under control. The effects of his problems however, sometimes bring him into repeated conflict with his superiors, and some colleagues. Hole is also one of just a handful in the force to have undertaken special interrogation techniques and firearms training with the FBI.

Our film opens up on a desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling. Up pulls a VW Golf Police car, and out steps an overweight getting on in years man who delivers two gas cylinder bottles to the house, stashes them away inside and then sits down at the dining table with the mother of the household and her young teenage son. It is presumed to be sometime in the early 80's. The man tests the young lad on notable dates in history, and when the boy falters or answers incorrectly the women gets a stern beating. One such wrong answer sends the mother crashing backwards off her chair and onto the floor. Next up the young lad is spying on the mother and the man through the bedroom window as they have sex. When the boy is seen, the man hurriedly gets up out of the bed, gets dressed, storms out of the house ranting as he does so and speeds off in his car. The mother and boy give chase in the car across the spartan snow covered landscape. At some point the mother releases her hands from the steering wheel and the car careers off the road onto a frozen lake. The boy is screaming at his mother but she doesn't hear, her gaze fixed firmly on the road ahead, emotionless. The boy pulls on the handbrake and the car skids to a halt. He gets out of the passenger side door hearing the ice crack beneath the vehicle. His mother sits motionless as the boys struggles to open the drivers side door to free his mother. But she doesn't want to be freed as the vehicle slowly sinks into the icy depths below and disappears.

We then cut to the present day and waking up from a drunken stupor in a park shelter is Detective Harry Hole of the Oslo Police. He has been absent without leave for the past week or so, and meanders into the office to check on his mail, and is greeted by his superior officer with a reminder of leave protocols, a quick slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. He then ventures outside to a smoking balcony where he meets new recruit Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Fergusson) who has been assigned to his office. They exchange social niceties and go their separate ways, only to meet up hours later when Hole sees Bratt leaving for the day and catches a ride. She is on her way to a reported missing persons case, and Hole tags along. Meanwhile, in Hole's stash of mail is a handwritten cryptic letter sent directly from a supposed killer with a picture of a snowman at the bottom of the page - its plays on Hole's mind momentarily, but then he seems to dismiss it.

The missing person in question is Birte Becker (Genevieve O'Reilly) a married mother of a six or seven year old daughter. The night before her disappearance we see her car being followed by another on the way home from work. She arrives and is greeted by the young child, but the waiting father Filip Becker (James D'Arcy) is angry at her being late and he storms out of the house with bags packed on his way to some important business meeting out of town, leaving mother and daughter alone in the house. The next morning, the child wakes up and mother is gone. No sign of her, and a neighbour alerted the Police who send Bratt along to investigate. Outside in the garden is a squat snowman, with twigs for arms and coffee beans for a wry smile, gazing up the house.

The next case of a missing person requires a drive out to some remote farmstead for a case of a missing Sylvia Ottersen (Chloe Sevigny), but when they arrive Sylvia Ottersen is alive and well and shrugs it off as a prank call form her jilted boyfriend. Hole and Bratt leave from whence they came, only to be alerted over the Police band radio that Sylvia Ottersen has been reported missing . . . two minutes ago! They hastily turn around and return to the farmstead to be greeted by Ane Pedersen (Chloe Sevigny), Sylvia's identical twin, only to find the decapitated corpse of Sylvia Ottersen on the ground in the chicken shed. At this point Hole and Bratt surmise that the Snowman is playing with them and that he must have been watching them all along, calling in that Sylvia was missing even before she was butchered. Hole surveys the surrounding buildings and locates the head of Sylvia perched on top of a snowman at the bottom of a frozen abandoned silo.

In between time we catch glimpses of a back story featuring some Bergen based ace detective who came close to uncovering the Snowman murders some ten or fifteen years back. Detective Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer) was a drunken no nonsense kinda guy who met with a very sticky end at the hands of the Snowman, that was cleverly masked over to make it look like a suicide. When Hole goes to Bergen to investigate he is met by DC Svensson (Toby Jones) who simply reports that it was a plain and simple suicide and was therefore not investigated further. Hole, however, thinks there was more to it and examines further. His closer examination reveals a connection between Rafto and Bratt.

Another side story involves Arve Stop (J.K. Simmons) as an unscrupulous sinister media mogul who is spearheading Oslo's bid for the Winter Olympic Games which is about to be announced. Bratt has a feeling in her bones about Stop and goes undercover to investigate further, installing a hidden camera in his hotel room where she intends to proposition herself to him. Stop had dealings with Frederick Aasen (Adrian Dunbar) back in 2006 involving some kind of industrial development that went tits up leaving Aasen very bitter indeed. Needless to say it doesn't end well for Bratt as the Snowman gets to her first before Stop retires to his room for the night, and the Snowman has erased all footage from the hidden camera, and any evidence of a struggle.

The final plot scenario is the story of Hole's on again off again long term relationship with his ex-partner and art dealer Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her teenage son Oleg (Michael Yates) by her first marriage. Hole feels more than a semi-fatherly connection to Oleg despite Rakel's husband Mathias (Jonas Karlsson) also playing adoptive father duty who works as a medical consultant specialist that sees him away quite often on business or attending conferences, so giving Rakel the chance to rekindle with Hole, albeit temporarily - a fact that Mathias seems to accept.

Meanwhile back to the chilling killing as the body count rises and dismembered corpses turn up in all manner of locations, there seems little to connect the murderous spree other than motherhood, by neglect, abortion, jealousy etc. while their mysterious vanishings seems to coincide with fresh snow fall. Hole seems to do little actual detective work here, leaving all the investigative work to Bratt only to come along at the end and join the dots and bish bash bosh the serial killer is out in the open and exposed back where it all began in that desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling where Rakel and Oleg's lives are hanging in the balance. Hole sits across the table from his two loved ones almost powerless having to answer questions that determine whether the electric motorised garrote held by the Snowman is tightened or loosened around Rakel's neck. Needless to say, it comes down to a face off on a frozen lake with Hole shot to the ground and the Snowman approaching ready to plug him again at close range to finish the job.

This is a disjointed film where, alas, the sum of its parts are not greater than the (Harry) Hole. With a strong ensemble supporting cast who for the most part are left wanting to do more with the little screen time and dialogue afforded them, the film meanders from one grizzly killing to the next while Hole and Bratt join the seemingly simple dots to expose the serial killer. Fassbender and Ferguson are well cast, but that alone can't save this film that is too busy with side stories that go nowhere and add little value instead of getting down and dirty with the detective work and concentrate on what drives The Snowman to commit his unthinkable crimes. When the quality of Scandinavian police driven crime drama film and television is so good, despite the snow covered Norwegian vistas, this film feels like a hurried by the numbers affair that I'm sure will leave the legions of fans of the source novel thinking WTF! If Harry Hole does return to the big screen in another adaptation, and Fassbender could do so easily, let's hope that the lessons learned from this first instalment bode well for any follow-up as there is just enough of a foundation to do so.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

LIFE : Tuesday 28th March 2017.

I was keen to see 'LIFE' which I caught earlier on in the week. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, whose previous credits include 'Child 44' and 'Safe House', this Horror Sci-Fi, was made for US$58M, was released in the US and Australia on 23rd March, has so far grossed US$32M and garnered average reviews. This I have to say, I find a little surprising because I, for one enjoyed this isolated space station romp that has elements of 'Alien', 'Gravity' and 'Sunshine' in its make-up, and serves as a pre-cursor to the eagerly awaited much grittier 'Alien : Covenant' due in May this year, courtesy of franchise originator Ridley Scott.

The film is set entirely aboard an International Space Station sometime in the near future where the six-man crew successfully intercept an off course satellite probe returning from Mars with soil samples inside.

The crew is tasked with analysing that sample for what may prove to be the first signs of extra terrestrial life. British biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) who is expert in life forms beyond Earth, is able to extract a single cell from the soil samples, and sparks it into life by making adjustments to the nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide mixture he exposes it to, together with a dose of glucose. As time goes on the cell quickly grows into a multi-celled organism that begins to react to external stimulus.

Upon further analysis, and given the rate of growth Derry and British Quarantine Officer Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Fergusson) determine that each cell in the organism is a highly evolved muscle, brain and eye, all at once. As the days pass and become a couple of weeks the crew go about their normal space station routines - they eat, sleep, exercise, joke around and celebrate the birth of Japanese Systems Engineer Sho Murakami's (Hiroyuki Sanada) baby which he viewed live on screen. The next day or so there is an atmospheric leak in the lab where the organism is securely contained, causing it to become dormant. Derry attempts to reanimate it using a mild electric shock.

In so doing, after a number of seemingly unsuccessful attempts, the organism latches onto Derry's hand with an inordinate strength and wraps itself increasingly tightly around his lower arm. As Derry struggles to break free, so the vice like grip worsens. Derry's Space Station colleagues look on in horror from the other side of the lab containment wall, fearful of what action to take. Eventually Derry breaks free, but his hand is crushed, limp and bloody.

The organism breaks free from its contained examination cube, demonstrating its intelligence, and into the secure lab where Derry is nursing his crushed hand. American engineer and pilot of the International Space Station Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) enters the room in an attempt to rescue his colleague. By now the organism has devoured a lab rat and has grown further in size almost instantly. Sensing the presence of another human, the organism attaches itself to Adams leg and begins to crawl upwards. At this point all Hell has broken out. American Senior Medical Officer Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) locks Rory inside the lab, so securing the organism, which Adams then attacks with a handheld incinerator device. But the organism it seems is able to withstand intense heat, and evades Adams attempts to kill it, by manoeuvering itself around the enclosed room with speed and agility. When the incinerator runs out of gas, and Adams attempt to foil that pesky alien critter have failed, that organism attaches itself to his face and slides into his mouth - killing Adams from the inside. Minutes later, with Adams body contorted and spitting globules of blood from his mouth, the organism emerges, having grown bigger again. Using an emergency fire suppression vent as a means of escape, the organism breaks out of the lab, and now has the run of the Space Station.

All means of communication with Earth suddenly are cut off. Russian crew Commander Katarina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya) takes it upon herself to take a space walk to repair what is believed to be a broken antenna. In repairing the damage she notices that coolant has been drained from a reservoir and assumes that the organism has consumed it as a means of feeding itself. At this point the organism escapes through the antenna valve and promptly attacks Golovkina during her space walk, trying to gain entry through her space suit. In the ensuing struggle, her suits coolant system is ruptured pouring liquid coolant inside her suit - effectively drowning her.  Her limp lifeless body drifts off into space.

The organism gains entry back inside the Space Station. The remaining crew hatch a plan to make the organism dormant again by sealing themselves into one single module and venting all the atmosphere out of the remaining Station. In doing so, Derry goes into cardiac arrest. Jordan and North are able to resuscitate him, but only to see movement under his trouser leg. The organism has attached itself to Derry's leg and is feeding off him. Derry is paraplegic and so had no sense of touch or feeling in his legs. When the organism is revealed it has grown again, and is now a much larger more menacing tentacled creature than before even. It lunges to attack the there remaining crew who all head off in different directions. Sho heads to the sleeping quarters and quickly locks himself inside his sleeping pod with the organism hot on his heels. It attempts to break into the pod by crushing the glass, but is unsuccessful. Jordan and North attempt to tease the organism away from Sho, using the corpse of Derry as bait, and they are successful in locking it inside a module to deprive it of oxygen.

When a Russian Soyuz Capsule docks with the Space Station in response to an emergency SOS call before all communications were lost, Sho makes a dash for it believing this to be a rescue mission. The reality is however, that the Soyuz is there to push the Space Station into deep space, so preventing the organism from ever reaching Earth, where it will wipe out mankind, as it is believed to have done on Mars. The Soyuz Capsule docks against the module where the organism is contained, and in opening the hatch to gain entry, Sho is immediately attacked as are the crew of the Russian craft. Causing a docking breach, the Soyuz capsule is pushed backwards where it spirals out of control and crashes into the Stations vital infrastructure.

The collision causes the oxygen levels and the temperature to plummet very quickly. Jordan has a plan involving two escape pods, each of which are pre-programmed to auto-pilot back down to Earth.  He takes it upon himself to lure the organism into his pod and manually override the auto-pilot command and head out into deep space so sacrificing himself but ensuring that the organism cannot be Earthbound. He fears that the organism would likely survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, and so this is the only option. This will create the necessary distraction to allow North to make a clean getaway in the other escape pod.

Jordan lures the organism into his pod with heat sticks given that the temperatures now on board have dropped to dangerously low levels. Meanwhile North clambers in to hers. Her pod is knocked off course when it hits debris from the earlier collision. The organism attacks Jordan while he is trying to control the trajectory of his pod. At first the pods are side by side, but with the ensuing dilemma confronting both survivors, they soon divert and head off in different directions - one bound for home, and the other for deep space.

There will be obvious comparisons here to Ridley Scott's ground breaking 'Alien' and that would be hardly surprising, especially given the imminent arrival in a couple of months of his 'Alien : Covenant' which is already gaining much publicity. At a brisk running time just on one hundred minutes or so, this film propels you into the action fairly quickly, and layers on the suspense, but there are no jump scares in this film that you might expect from its horror tag. It is well acted, well crafted, looks impressive and delivers exactly what you would expect from a stranded all alone educated and level headed expert crew battling an evil unknown alien foe that is capable of wiping out all humankind, and prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good in the process. We've seen films of this type for decades, and there are a few that deliver a much better result, but equally there are plenty that fall way short of 'Life'. The film works on many levels, and I enjoyed the ride, and it is certainly worth the price of your ticket.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-