BULLET TRAIN : Tuesday 9th August 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BULLET TRAIN' earlier this week and this American action comedy film is Co-Produced and Directed by David Leitch whose previous film making credits include his uncredited debut on 2014's 'John Wick' with Chad Stahelski, then 'Atomic Blonde' in 2017, 'Deadpool 2' in 2018 and 'Fast and Furious Presents : Hobbs & Shaw' in 2019. The film is based on the Japanese novel 'Maria Beetle' by Kotaro Isaka, and was released in the US last week too, having been originally slated for release on 8th April before being delayed to 15th July then again to 29th July and then finally settling on 5th August. It had its World Premiere in Paris, France on 18th July. The film has grossed so far US$72M from its production budget of about US$88M and has garnered mixed or average reviews.

The film opens with a distraught father, Yuichi Kimura (Andrew Koji) looking over his young son laying in a hospital bed in a coma having been thrown off a supermarket roof. His father, The Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada) enters the room and asks his son what was he doing while his son was on the supermarket roof? A father is supposed to look out for their children! Kimura swears vengeance on the person who threw his son off the roof. We then cut to former professional assassin codenamed Ladybug (Brad Pitt), who has recently attended therapy, returns to work with a new positive spin on life. He is tasked by his handler, Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), to complete what appears to be a simple task - to collect a briefcase aboard a bullet train travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto after her usual contact, Carver, is forced to cancel due to illness. Ladybug is at first reluctant, as his notorious years long run of bad luck continues to haunt him every job he gets, resulting in numerous accidental deaths. 

Unknown to Ladybug, three other assassins are onboard - hitmen brothers Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and The Prince (Joey King) a mercenary posing as an English schoolgirl. The former two have been tasked by the ruthless Russian, The White Death, head of the world’s largest crime syndicate, who has taken control of the Japanese criminal underworld by force wiping out everyone who gets in his way. The brothers find their employment to be somewhat suspicious given The White Death specifically contracted them for their participation for a job in Bolivia in which the pair singlehandedly took out sixteen goons and an innocent bystander. 

Having retrieved The White Death’s kidnapped son and the briefcase containing his US$10M in ransom monies, the brothers are delivering both to Kyoto. Meanwhile in the First Class cabins, The Prince summons fellow assassin, Yuichi Kimura, to the train, having pushed his young son off the roof of the supermarket. She has already planted an associate at the hospital ready to finish the boy off, should Kimura fail in any way to cooperate with her plan, which involves rigging the briefcase and Kimura’s gun with explosives to kill White Death, who is known for executing his adversaries by turning their own weapons on them. Successfully stealing the briefcase, Ladybug is ambushed by another assassin, code-named The Wolf (Benito A. Martinez Ocasio), who had arrived seeking revenge for the deaths of his wife and his entire cartel, poisoned at their Mexican wedding. After a brief fight, The Wolf is accidentally killed when his knife thrown at Ladybug ricochet's off the briefcase and straight back into his own heart, and then just to add insult to that injury when he collapses backwards he breaks his neck on the briefcase sitting upright at Ladybug's feet. 

After the brothers find the briefcase to be missing, they also then find White Death’s son dead by apparent poisoning. The Prince convinces Tangerine in believing that Ladybug is responsible, while Ladybug attempts to negotiate with Lemon but is forced to render him unconscious. Ladybug runs into the Wolf’s intended target, The Hornet (Zazie Beetz), the poisoner who massacred his wedding, revealed be the one who killed White Death’s son some 42 minutes earlier. She stabs Ladybug with a syringe of boomslang (a large highly venomous snake) venom in the back of the hand but fails to push down the plunger of the syringe, so he removes the syringe and injects her in the arm, ensuring the venom is all injected. Within thirty second The Hornet is dead having bled out from her eyes, nose and mouth, but not before the Hornet injects him with her only dose of anti-venom. 

Tangerine located Ladybug and the pair get into a fight both inside and outside the train, but eventually reach a stalemate with Ladybug helping Tangerine convince White Death’s men that his son and the briefcase are safe. However, their cunning plan is foiled when Ladybugs run of bad luck exposes their ruse. He then kicks Tangerine off the train. Meanwhile, suspicious of Kimura and the Prince, Lemon shoots Kimura in the stomach but falls victim to an innocent looking bottle of water that was drugged by Ladybug earlier with an extra large dose of sleeping powder. He is shot several times in the chest at close range by the Prince. After literally punching his way back onto the train through the front windscreen, Tangerine finds his brother’s body and confronts the Prince, who had a sticker of Diesel, a locomotive from Thomas & Friends, stuck onto her back. Lemon learned everything he knew about people from watching every episode of Thomas the Tank Engine as a child and so believes that Diesel cannot be trusted. The Prince though manipulates Ladybug into fighting Tangerine, resulting in him being fatally shot in the neck and bleeding out before he could warn Ladybug of The Prince. Kimura’s father, The Elder, boards the train and reveals himself as a former Yakuza lieutenant whose wife and associates were killed in White Death’s rise to power.

The Elder in the meantime has ensured that his grandson in hospital is safe by having The Prince's associate minding him killed. He and Ladybug find Kimura and Lemon still alive, with the former nursing a shot to the gut and the latter having worn a bulletproof vest, as he always does. They then all prepare themselves for the ambush awaiting them at their Kyoto destination. 

The train arrives in Kyoto, and Ladybug is met by White Death (Michael Shannon) and his henchmen. The Prince, revealed to be White Death’s very angry daughter, tries to goad him into shooting her with Kimura’s booby-trapped gun, but he instead tells her she was never part of his plan. The White Death goes on to explain that he hired all the assassins aboard the train as revenge for the murder of his wife.

Following the massacre of sixteen of his men by Tangerine and Lemon during 'The Bolivia Job', his wife was called to bail their son out of jail and was killed by Carver (Ryan Reynolds in a blink and you'll miss it cameo), who was meant to take out her husband. The only surgeon that could have saved his wife was poisoned by the Hornet, thereby almost guaranteeing her death. Blaming the brothers, Carver, the Hornet and his own son, White Death had arranged for all the assassins including the Wolf, and Ladybug, who unwittingly replaced Carver on the bullet train to kill each other and his son. However, before White Death can kill Ladybug, the briefcase bomb is triggered by a pair of hapless henchmen, knocking them both back onto the train, which Lemon starts up again at full speed ahead.

As the train hurtles along the tracks out of control, the Elder battles it out with White Death while Kimura and Ladybug fight off his numerous henchmen. Lemon tackles a goon off the train as it traverses a bridge and the both fall into the river below. The train ultimately runs out of tracks and derails, crashing through a forest and then into a nearby town destroying everything, and it, in its path. Ladybug is held at gunpoint by White Death who has The Elders Samurai sword buried deep in his shoulder. He attempts to shoot Ladybug, but is killed himself when Kimura’s gun explodes, ripping off half his face. Ladybug, Kimura, and his father, as they hobble through the wreckage and after The Elder has retrieved his sword from the White Death's shoulder, are confronted by the murderous Prince, who gloats that her luck is what resulted in the White Death’s undoing. As she proclaims herself to be the new White Death, poised with an assault rifle pointed squarely at the three of them, the Prince is mowed down by Lemon driving a truck carrying tangerines. Maria arrives to rescue Ladybug, who has consequently immersed himself in a more optimistic outlook on life and fate.

'Bullet Train' is an entertaining piece of action comedy with the emphasis on the action and less so on the comedy although I did find myself chuckling several times as both the verbal and the sight gags landed. The action comes thick and fast in kinetically choreographed fight sequences, and the melee of characters means you really need to concentrate on who's who in the zoo, but they are all in some way a necessary addition to the at times convoluted and over exaggerated plot. Messrs Pitt, Taylor-Johnson and Tyree Henry carry this film along on their coats tails with a deft touch at the action comedy genre that is as much a nod to Quentin Tarantino as it is to Guy Ritchie, with whom Brad Pitt has worked with both Directors in the past. And in David Leitch, he has once again proven his Directing chops with a fast paced, adrenalin fuelled colourful action fest full of memorable characters, an ensemble cast and a number of great cameo's along the way (including Ryan Reynolds and David Leitch himself), who all look as though they were having a blast shooting this movie. 

'Bullet Train' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE LOST CITY : Tuesday 7th June 2022

I saw the M Rated 'THE LOST CITY' at my local multiplex this week some seven weeks after its release date in Australia of 14th April. This American action adventure comedy film is Co-Written and Directed by Adam and Aaron Nee whose previous feature film credits take in their debut offering in 2006 with 'The Last Romantic' and 'Band of Robbers' in 2015. This film saw its World Premier at South by Southwest in mid-March before its cinema release Stateside at the end of March, having so far grossed US$186M off the back of a US$68M production budget and garnering mixed or average Reviews along the way.

Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock, who also Co-Produces here) is an acclaimed author who writes fictional romantic-adventure novels based around a heroine, Dr. Angela Lovemore (also played by Sandra Bullock), and her romantic interest, Dash McMahon (Channing Tatum). To promote the latest and twentieth book in the series, her publisher, Beth Hatten (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), insists that Loretta embark on a book tour with Alan Caprison (also played by Channing Tatum), the book's cover model for Dash, despite her reclusiveness since the death of her husband. Sage has grown tired of turning out 'schlock' novels featuring Lovemore and McMahon despite the obvious benefits that the trappings of her success has brought her, and so she decides it's time to kill off Dash. On the book tour, Dash is asked to remove his shirt by several women in the audience, much to Sage's chagrin, and needless to say their exploits onstage does not end well for either of them.

And so, following a less than successful start to their book tour Loretta is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), a billionaire who has deduced that Loretta based her books on actual historic research conducted with her late archaeologist husband. He discovered a lost city on a remote island in the Atlantic and is convinced the 'Crown of Fire', a priceless crown of sixty encrusted red diamonds, is located there. When she declines to help decipher part of an ancient map believed to pinpoint the treasure, Fairfax, fearing an active volcano will destroy the site within days potentially, chloroforms and takes Loretta to the island aboard his private jet. 

Alan, who is secretly infatuated with Loretta, witnesses her kidnapping. He recruits Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), a former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative and now a seemingly one man army for hire, whom he met at a mind and body retreat to connect with one's inner being, to meet him on the island and coordinate a rescue. Jack, with absolutely no help from Alan, breaches Fairfax's compound and overcome's many of Fairfax's henchmen singlehandedly in close quarter hand to hand combat, and frees Loretta, but is shot in the head before they can make it to the airport, forcing Loretta and Alan to flee into the jungle.

After leaving Alan where he fell, and fleeing in his Baja Qute car which ends up falling over a cliff, and then camping out in a hammock overnight, Loretta and Alan spend the next day fending off Fairfax's henchmen before reaching a nearby village, where Loretta calls Beth and leaves a message for her to tell her she's alive, and Alan dances with the locals. Upon hearing an old folk song from a local, Loretta deduces that the crown is hidden in a sinkhole somewhere in the jungle. Before they can leave however, Fairfax captures her again. Alan gives chase to save Loretta on a old motorcycle that he traded his wrist watch for, and catches them up. The pair then fight and struggle to gain the upper hand, before  being forced to share the treasure's location with Fairfax.

Upon reaching the location within the sinkhole, they discover the tomb is not a monument to Taha and Calaman's power, but a hiding place for the queen to grieve over her husband. Her Crown of Fire was made of red seashells gathered by him as a sign of his love for her. The actual treasure of the legend was not a priceless diamond encrusted jewel but the inseparable love between the king and his queen. Angered beyond belief, Fairfax forces Loretta and Alan into the tomb and closes it firmly shut as the volcano erupts, but Rafi (Hector Anibal), one of the henchmen and an island local, has a change of heart and leaves a crowbar to help them escape. Running ahead of Fairfax to escape the molten lava floe, Rafi abandons Fairfax on the island by heading off on his motor boat. Beth arrives with the local coast guard and rescues Loretta and Alan who swam underwater through a series of tunnels to safety, and Fairfax is duly arrested having been picked up looking lost and innocent. Loretta's next book, based on her adventure with Alan, is a hit, as they kiss at the end of their next book tour. 

Remain in your seat for a mid-credits sequence in which Jack, having survived the bullet to his head and having been presumed very dead, attends a yoga class with Loretta and Alan, surprising them both. 

'The Lost City' is almost an updated version of 1984's 'Romancing the Stone' with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito and so in that respect this film offers up nothing particularly new that we haven't seen before. However, that said, this film will be aimed at a whole new audience unfamiliar with that earlier film, and in that respect the chemistry that obviously exists between Bullock, Tatum, Radcliffe and Pitt (for the brief scenes that the latter plays out) helps elevate this feature above the also-rans. The script is a little thin on the ground, but the sense of humour and the quips often delivered in dead-pan fashion make up for this, while some of sweeping vistas of the Dominican Republic (where this movie was filmed) all add up to a film that is greater than the sum of its parts. Sure, its not going to reinvent the action adventure Rom-Com genre but it does at least provide a satisfying screwball comedy that reminds us why we go to the movies.

'The Lost City' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE UNFORGIVABLE : Tuesday 30th November 2021.

'THE UNFORGIVABLE' which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week is an M Rated American and German Co-Produced film Directed by Nora Fingscheidt following 2019's 'System Crasher' which picked up thirty-three wins and another twenty-five nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. This film is based on the 2009 British three-part mini-series 'Unforgiven' by Sally Wainwright, and is Co-Produced by the films star Sandra Bullock and Veronica Ferres. The film went on a limited release from last week before streaming on Netflix from 10th December, and has generated mostly average Reviews.

The film opens up with Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) being given back her belongings and the sum of US$40 upon her release from prison after serving the bulk of her twenty year sentence for the shooting murder of Policeman Mac Whelan (W. Earl Brown) at her home on the outskirts of Seattle, when he arrived to enforce her eviction from her childhood home. She is collected from the prison gates by her parole officer Vincent Cross (Rob Morgan) and deposited at a hostel somewhere near Chinatown where she has to share a room with three other women. Whilst inside, she studied carpentry and has certificates to prove it, and has lined up work on a building site. Cross gives Slater a card from a fish processing plant and a guaranteed job there should things not work out. Needless to say, they don't work out, and so she ends up gutting, boning and prepping salmon to earn a crust and assimilate back into society. She has to report back to Cross every Tuesday at 11:00am, without fail. 

Slater, wants to connect with her much younger sister Katie (Aisling Franciosi) who was only five years of age when she was sent to prison, and has not heard from or seen in the past almost twenty years, despite writing hundreds of letters over the years. Katie seemingly has very little memory of her older sister other than sudden flashbacks of a woman cradling her in her arms. Katie now lives with her adoptive parents Michael and Rachel Malcolm (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond respectively) and their own daughter Emily (Emma Nelson), and has grown to be piano playing prodigy. 

Slater visits a library and goes on-line in an attempt to track down her sister. She decides to visit her old house and the scene of the crime to find that it has been recently purchased and upgraded by John and Liz Ingram (Vincent D'Onofrio and Viola Davis respectively) who now live there with their two teenage sons. Slater is seen standing in the grounds looking at the property by Liz who calls to John to go and investigate who the mystery woman is. Slater tells John that she once worked on the property, and John invites her in to have a look around. As she is about to leave, John offers her a lift to the bus station. In the car they talk and John believes that something is not quite right with Slater. She comes clean and tells him that she in fact lived in the property and has been in 'the system' for the last twenty years and is trying to track down her sister. It turns out that John is a corporate lawyer, and he gives her his business card with an offer to help.

While all this is going on, the two now adult sons of the murdered Policeman, Keith Whelan (Tom Guiry) and Steve Whelan (Will Pullen) are none too pleased that Slater is out and free. Keith wants to exact his revenge on Slater but Steve is dead set against the notion saying that he has a job, a life, a wife and a young child to consider. 

Slater contacts John Ingram and asks for his help in contacting Katie via her parents, and a meeting is set up between the four. Needless to say that meeting doesn't end well with the Malcolm's saying what good would it possibly serve Katie to be reunited with her sister, and Slater going off the rails at the prospect of them standing between Katie and her being reunited after all this time. 

In the meantime, Slater has got a carpenters job at a Chapel that is being converted by a NGO into a Community Hall for the homeless, as well as keeping down her job at the fish processing plant. At the plant she has developed a close relationship with fellow fish gutter Blake (Jon Bernthal), to whom she comes clean one day over a coffee and a plate of pancakes about her prison time and the fact that it was for murder. He is taken aback and distances himself from her, and later blabs about it to one of his fellow co-workers who then beats up Slater in the workplace for being a cop killer. Blake later comes clean telling her that he too is an ex-convict and was released eighteen months ago, and apologises. 

Meanwhile, Liz has learned of Slater's history and is furious at John for keeping this vital piece of news from her. Emily also overheard her parents talking about the pending meeting with Slater and John, and one day when the house is empty rummages through the basement looking for clues. She comes across boxes of the letters written by Slater to Katie which were never given to Katie. One such letter written most recently, contains Slater's mobile phone number. Emily calls Slater and arranges a meeting in a public place. Emily and Slater connect and after a brief chat, Emily tells her that she can see Katie at 4:00pm that afternoon at a piano recital. They part ways and little do the pair know that Steve Whelan is following Emily. Slater meanwhile tries to contact John Ingram to determine if she is legally allowed to visit the concert hall where Katie is playing later that afternoon, but she is told by his office that he is out traveling for the week on business. Slater visits their home again to try and track down John, and is met by Liz who promptly orders Slater off the property and reaffirms that John is away on business. The pair exchange words with Slater proclaiming that Katie was only five years old, and Liz having an 'oh shit' moment! 

Liz drives Slater to the concert hall in time for the 4:00pm recital, when Slater receives a call from Steve Whelan saying that he has Katie, with the sounds of muffled screams in the background. He orders Slater to come over immediately to his place of work. Liz drives Slater there and upon entering the designated building finds Emily tied and bound on the floor with Steve Whelan holding a gun to her head. Meanwhile, Katie has begun her piano recital with her parents looking on in the audience. 

Whelan orders Slater to lay down on the ground and then points the gun at her, saying that he is going to take her life away just as she took his fathers. However, in the final analysis, Whelan can't  go through with his revenge plan, and falls to the ground sobbing. Slater gets up, frees Emily and the pair leave just as the Police arrive, ordering Slater to get down on the ground. She is handcuffed, and Whelan is seen being walked out of the building by two Police Officers also handcuffed. A short time later Cross arrives and states his claim to his parolee and says that unless they intend to charge Slater then she is free to go, and she is. 

Walking back to his car, Michael, Rachel and Katie are by Emily's side as she is being tended to by an Ambulance crew. Slater observes this, Katie turns and the sisters make eye contact. Katie walks up to Slater, and the pair embrace. 

Throughout most of the almost two hour run time, Sandra Bullock's Ruth Slater parades around on screen with a solemn, sullen and scowl faced expression, only twice, from memory, barely breaking into what at best can be described as a smile. Here she is just about as far removed from her 'Miss Congeniality' character as you could imagine, and Viola Davis is completely wasted in the few meagre scenes she is afforded. The plot here clearly worked better as a three-part TV mini-series than it does in a feature length film with the series running for an extra twenty-five minutes in which to flesh out more character development, more of the back story and more of the several plot contrivances which in this film are hurried, all too fleeting, bordering on the nonsensical and with too many questions left unanswered by the time the end credits roll. On the plus side, Bullock, despite her dour expression throughout most of the film, here again proves her acting chops with more dramatic roles as she goes unkempt, sans make-up and portraying a truly broken character seeking redemption. 

'The Unforgivable' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BIRD BOX : Friday 21st December 2018

I saw 'BIRD BOX' from the comfort of my own living room watching the film on Netflix the day of its worldwide release on 21st December. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, the film is Directed by Susanne Bier whose most recent outing as Director was for the highly acclaimed television series 'The Night Manager'. Made for US$20M the film has a limited theatrical run from 14th December before being released on the Netflix streaming service on 21st December. Within a week, Netflix had claimed that the film had seen the biggest seven-day viewership for any of its original movies to date, with over 45 million viewers. The film has received mixed or average Reviews from Critics, although Sandra Bullock's performance as the lead character has been praised.

The film opens up with a mother, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) kneeling down and speaking quickly and anxiously to her two young children. She informs them that they are about to go on a journey down a river and its going to be dangerous, and if they don't listen to her every word they will die. She also tells them that if they get separated they will die, and if they run off or cause a distraction they will die, and if they remove their blindfolds for as much as a fleeting minute they will die.

We then go back in time five years and Malorie is an expectant mother who is visited in her home painting studio by her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson). Before setting off to the local hospital for a routine pregnancy check-up, they see reports on television that some sort of strange phenomenon across Europe and Russia is causing mass suicides on a seemingly alarming scale. The pair dismiss the story and go to the hospital. Upon leaving the clinic the pair witness a woman in the corridor smashing her head repeatedly against a plate glass window, smashing the glass and her head and face. Malorie realises that perhaps there was more to that news story than they gave it credit for. As they attempt to race away from the hospital, they see chaos erupt in the streets all around them as more and more people suicide. Distraught by the scenes and carnage unfolding in front of them, Malorie reaches into the back seat to retrieve her ringing phone, when Jessica is unnerved by something up ahead. Jessica crashes the car which comes to halt upside down. They both clamber out. Injured, Malorie is unable to stop her sister stepping in front of an oncoming speeding truck and is killed instantly.

Malorie is swept along by a fleeing crowd of people all running away from something that no one can seemingly see, hear or understand. She is pulled to safety by a group of strangers holed up in house, but in the ensuing chaos, one of those residents walks out into the street and sits in a burning car very quickly engulfing herself in flames. That was the the wife of Douglas (John Malkovich) the owner of the house. After collecting their thoughts as much as they are able under the dire circumstances, they draw the conclusion that just by virtue of looking at the creatures can cause humans to go insane and commit suicide. They cover the windows with newspapers and blankets to hide themselves from the chaos and creatures on the outside.

Days and presumably a few weeks pass by and food supplies in the house are running short. Malorie and the other holed up residents Charlie (Lil Rel Howery), Tom (Trevante Rhodes), Lucy (Rosa Salazar) and Douglas agree to drive to a local supermarket on a supply run. They paint out the windows, and use the vehicles GPS and proximity sensors to detect obstacles in the road and to guide them to their destination. Arriving at the store, but not before encountering the creatures which they manage to successfully evade with some nifty driving skills, they find an almost fully stocked supermarket which Charlie happens to work at. In the drinks aisle Douglas is in his element having found a stash of Scotch Whisky and votes to remain there indefinitely. The others however, reject his notion. Malorie comes across a bird cage containing a pair of birds, which she decides to adopt. The birds quickly validate themselves when a man crying for help from behind the loading dock door wants to gain entry. Upon opening the door the birds yelp and flap their wings violently indicating they are an early warning system against the creatures. The man allowed entry quickly attacks the group as he is seemingly under the influence of the creatures and is out to infect other humans. Charlie sacrifices himself so that the others can make a getaway.

Some time later Lucy and Felix (Colson Baker) steal the vehicle and decide to go it alone, leaving those left in the house without any means of transportation. Soon after, another heavily pregnant survivor Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) allows a seemingly unaffected and innocent wanderer, Gary (Tom Hollander) into the house against Douglas's wishes, for which he is locked up in the garage lest he should try to injure or kill their latest resident. Seemingly speaking from first hand experience, Gary refers to infected survivors who are insane and are compelled to force unaffected humans to look at the creatures, of which he has numerous pencil drawings contained in a satchel. When both Olympia and Malorie go into labour, Gary reveals himself to be one of the insane people he described. He then proceeds to remove all the coverings from the windows and attack the others within the house. Gary murders Douglas and forces Olympia, having just given birth, and another survivor Cheryl (Jackie Weaver) to look at the creatures, resulting in their deaths by suicide. Tom is able to kill Gary with a shotgun and save Malorie and the two newborns, leaving all the other survivors in the house, dead.

Fast forward five years, and Tom and Malorie are living together with the children in a seemingly relatively safe haven. Malorie calls the now five year olds only Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair). One day they receive a return radio transmission from a survivor stating that they are well and safe at a community two days downriver and that they are welcome to join them. Tom wants to go to the community despite the dangers of the river, but Malorie fears it could be a trap.

Following the transmission, Malorie flees with the two children when a group of infected survivors locate them and attempt to kill them. Tom manages to kill all the infected, but in doing so glimpses the creatures which results in him turning his gun on himself. Blindfolded, Malorie takes the children, also blindfolded, and the two birds wrapped in a shoe box to a rowboat next to a river.

Their journey is dangerous as described by the voice at the other end of the radio transmission. After some two days having survived raging rapids, an insane infected man, and even capsizing their boat in the rapids, they are washed ashore but by now separated. The creatures tease the children and Malorie to remove their blindfolds by mimicking the voices of loved ones but are unsuccessful as the three are reunited by the sounds of each others voices, and make it through dense woodland to the community guided by the sounds of tweeting birds, just as the voice had instructed.

Upon arriving Malorie and the two children are quickly taken in, and removing her blindfold very gingerly, sees that the compound is an old school for the blind, and most members of that community are blind, rendering them immune to the creatures. She kneels down and gives the children names, Olympia for the girl and Tom for the boy, and releases the birds from their box to join the many others flying above in an enclosed atrium, that have kept them free from harm for these past five years.

This film evoked memories of M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'The Happening' and more recently John Krasinski's 2018 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'A Quiet Place'. This film is below par compared with the latter, and would rate just about the same as the former elevated only by the performance of Sandra Bullock who once again turns it on as the everyday woman determined to overcome adversity and look fear in the face and say FU! The film falls somewhat short on suspense, scares and any real horror elements and lingers too long in the past, not long enough in the present and not at all in the intervening five years. As for the fate outside of Malorie's small little world, we are left but to wonder, and why certain individuals are left to roam free as 'carriers' of the creatures curse but not victims of suicide, also remains unclear. If post apocalyptic thrillers are your thing, and if during these extended school Summer holidays you are looking for two hours to sit and watch such an offering from the comfort of your own lounge, you could do worse than tune into 'Bird Box', but equally there's more compelling viewing out there too.  

'Bird Box' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-