BEAST : Tuesday 13th September 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BEAST' this week at my local multiplex, and this is an American survival thriller film Directed by Baltasar Kormakur whose prior Directorial outings take in the likes of his big screen debut 'Go LazyTown' in 1996 then 'A Little Trip to Heaven' in 2005, 'Inhale' in 2010, 'Contraband' in 2012, '2 Guns' in 2013, 'Everest' in 2015 and 'Adrift' in 2018. The film was released in the US in mid-August, here in Australia three weeks ago now, has so far taken US$54M from its US$36M production budget and has generated mixed or average Reviews.

The films opens up with a bunch of guys pulling up in their all terrain vehicles in the dead of night, guns raised and traipsing through the undergrowth so not to disturb their quarry, which it is revealed is a pride of lions. The lions are feeding on a snared animal, so are distracted enough to be not to worried about the approaching gunmen, who all begin firing their rifles and slaughtering the pride. However, one lion has escaped and run into the surrounding undergrowth, and is pursued by two of the poachers, leaving the others to bundle the dead lions into the back of one of their trailers. The two poachers who went in search of the lion, pretty soon end up very dead at the claws of the now rogue big cat, as do a handful of other poachers in the party. 

We then cut to a light aircraft seen flying over the Mopani Reserve in South Africa, in which are being carried Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two young daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Sava Jeffries) who are on a holiday with the hope that the father can reconnect with his daughters following the recent death of Nate's wife and the mother of their two girls, from cancer. Nate reunites with his long term friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley) - a biologist and manager of the Mopani Reserve, and who initially introduced Nate to his (future) wife. Martin takes Nate and the girls to the small village where Nate's wife was born and raised. The next morning, Martin, Nate and the girls drive out on a tour of the reserve's restricted areas. Martin shows them a local lion pride and plays with two mature lions that he raised from young cubs and then returned to the wild. He notices that one of the lioness' has a bloodied paw and suspects a bullet wound from a poacher. 

At a close by Tsonga village, Martin discovers most of the population is dead having been clawed and bitten to death. He surmises that a rogue lion is responsible, and rushes back to his 4WD truck to radio in and report the finding. On the drive back to their base camp, they encounter an injured Tsonga man on the road. Nate goes to his aid but is unable to save him, while Martin tracks the lion. Martin is subsequently mauled by the lion, and takes shelter under a tree beside a lake, but is suffering from a brutal leg injury and is losing a lot of blood. The lion then ambushes Nate, who takes cover in the 4WD with his two girls. Meredith jumps into the drivers seat and speeds away, but crashes into a tree above a rocky outcrop thereby stranding them there, with a vehicle that now won't start. 

Martin is able to barely communicate with Nate via a walkie-talkie, as he is slipping in and out of consciousness because of his excessive blood loss, but nonetheless warns him to stay away, saying the lion is using Martin as bait to coax the others out. As the radio is out of range to contact help, Nate assembles a tranquiliser rifle. He confronts the lion, hoping to subdue it with a dart for a few hours - just long enough to recover Martin and make the trek back to civilisation. The lion attacks Nate who takes shelter underneath the 4WD and repeatedly kicks the lion in the head, with little or no effect. 

Meredith meanwhile takes advantage of the distraction to locate and save Martin. Norah stabs the lion with a tranquiliser dart after it knocks the tranq gun from Nate’s hands, causing the lion to retreat. Meredith brings Martin back to the car and using the First Aid kit Nate treats his leg wound and stitches him up having stemmed the bleeding. As nighttime closes in, Martin who has come round, believes that the lion went rogue after poachers killed its pride. 

Soon after, headlights appear behind them and the poachers arrive in search of the lion. Nate pleads with them to take them to safety and they initially agree to transport the group to the village in exchange for US$5,000 which Nate agrees to pay. However, tensions soon arise after the poachers spot Martin in the back of the 4WD, and as a firm anti-poacher and having shot dead three of their kind, they are none too impressed and all bets are off. The lion then attacks and scatters the poachers, killing or badly maiming most of them. Nate manoeuvres his way past the lion and locates the poacher with the truck keys, who is in a bad way. He also grabs the poachers rifle. Back at the 4WD, Martin holds the lion off long enough to allow the sisters to escape. The lion charges at the car causing it to topple off the rocky outcrop and fall into a ravine, taking the lion with it. The lion quickly recovers itself and limps off while Martin is sat upright with the 4WD now resting on its side as petrol rains down on him. The lion returns and with its head now inside the missing windscreen Martin sacrifices himself by igniting his Zippo lighter so setting off an explosion from the leaking petrol, severely burning the lion. Nate starts the poachers truck and races away with Meredith and Norah, but notices that Meredith has sustained a deep laceration to her side.

They pull up at an abandoned schoolhouse as Nate is fearful that he going to run out of fuel. Upon gaining entry they see that the poachers used the old school building as their base. Nate treats Meredith's wound with gauze he found in an old First Aid kit and a bottle of alcohol to wash his hands and clean the wound. The lion appears and stalks the girls, but Nate returns and scares it off by firing a few rounds at it from the gun he retrieved from the dying poacher. 

Locking his daughters inside a room, Nate promises to return after subduing the lion, armed only with a knife. Luring it out into the open, Nate attracts the local lion pride which they had seen the day before and which Martin helped raise. In the ensuing struggle, the lion mauls Nate several times slashing his skin with its sharp claws and biting him fiercely, nearly killing him, until the two Alpha males of the pride intervene and kill the rogue lion. A Mopani worker arrives and saves Nate as he loses consciousness. 

Coming round in a hospital bed sometime later, a heavily bandaged up yet recovering battle weary Nate tells his daughters he loves them. Sometime later, the three return to the reserve, this time as a unified family, and recreate the photo Nate's late wife took of herself standing under her favourite tree.

'Beast' is an OK movie, it's not great, but entertaining enough to warrant you spending 93 minutes sitting on the edge of your seat and biting your nails as an apex predatory lion stalks Idris Elba and Co. The cinematography is first rate, the special effects of the rampaging lion are well executed, the story is grounded in a sense of reality, and the four lead roles are convincing enough in their performances to keep it relatable and believable. That said, the film is fairly predictable nonetheless, the characters all make some lousy questionable decisions, and going in you know exactly what you're gonna get, and in that respect this film doesn't disappoint. 

'Beast' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME : Sunday 7th June 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'The Last Days of American Crime' which went live on the streaming service on 5th June and which I saw from the comfort of my own home on Sunday 7th June.

'THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME' is a Netflix Original American action crime thriller Directed by Olivier Megaton whose previous film making credits include 'Transporter 3', 'Colombiana', 'Taken 2' and 'Taken 3' most recently in 2015. The film is based on the 2009 graphic novel of the same name by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini, and has garnered mostly negative Reviews despite topping Netflix's most watched ladder in its first weekend.

The film opens up with Graham Bricke (Edgar Ramirez) sitting on the edge of a bathtub while he douses a bound and gagged man in petrol. Naturally, he is after some information from the bound and gagged guy relating to a stash of cash. He lights up a cigar and stuffs it into the mouth of the guy still bound but by now in a state of panic. Bricke gets up and walks out of the bathroom into a neighbouring room where lie three bloodied and very dead corpses. He sits for a while and then leaves. As he exits the apartment building it explodes in a ball of flame behind him. Walking down the street, there is a topless woman dancing on top of a parked car, looters come crashing out of a store, there is gun fire and general mayhem all around. Set in the very near future (2025) we quickly learn that the government are introducing a controversial technological advancement that sends a signal to the brain that prevents anyone from committing a crime. Known as the American Peace Initiative (API), that signal will be activated nationwide in one weeks time, so rendering criminals and the Police Force redundant.

Naturally, the whole country is thrown into chaos as the clock counts down with the criminal world doing all it can to complete any unfinished business, settle old scores, commit that one last job before they physically won't be able to. The Police have all but shut border crossings into Canada, which remains a free country, and have orders to shoot to kill any opportunists trying to make a dash for it - of which there are plenty. Sat in a bar, Bricke who by now we have deduced is a career  criminal, reads a letter from the Prison authorities saying that his beloved little brother Rory (Daniel Fox) had committed suicide while serving time. Enter Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster), an accomplished high level hacker, who quickly seduces Bricke in the very skuzzy mens toilet, and upon exiting is introduced to her fiancee Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt), the heir to the biggest crime syndicate in the city and his daddy's billion dollar+ fortune. Cash states that he served time with Rory and that his death was no suicide, instead being beaten to death by four Prison Guards with batons which he witnessed. Cash offers him one last final big US$5M pay day in which to pull off a heist the moment the API switches on, and to get even with the people who killed his brother, and then to hot foot it across the border to the safe haven of Canada.

Next up, we see Bricke taking covert camera shots of a delivery truck outside some heavily fortified bank vault and deducing that US$1B are contained therein and what a wheez it would be to heist this. All of sudden Cash's US$5M heist pails into insignificance as Bricke's US$1B heist wins the day hands down, and suddenly Bricke is in charge. All the while the clock continues to count down on API go-live day as seen in constant news coverage and digital images on almost every street corner. In the meantime, over the next couple of days there's a lot of toing and froing between Bricke, Cash and Shelby as they bicker, argue and decide on their course of action, leaving very little time in reality to plan a heist in a heavily fortified 'Money Factory' that amounts to US$1B. Bricke also seems to have access to a super desk top printer that is able to print out forged US$100 bills that are so convincing that the only way to tell that they are counterfeit is to burn them - fake money that he intends to bribe the Head of the Money Factory so gaining him access to the vault.

We also witness Shelby telling two heavy set Police Detectives the plans around the mechanics of the heist. They are really after Cash, and have little interest in Bricke. Shelby's motives surround her young sister who the cops are holding in custody until Shelby come forth with sufficient information to convince them to release her and allow her safe passage into Canada. Which they do, with a threat that if Shelby is conning them they will track down her sister and see to it that she pays the ultimate price. What Shelby doesn't know is that Bricke is looking on through the sights of a long range rifle. He later questions her, but is almost dismissive when she states that the cops are after Cash, and the story surrounding her sister. Around about this time Bricke recruits his trusted good friend Ross King (Tamer Burjaq) to be their driver.

Cash meanwhile, is left in charge with securing the wherewithal to detonate the bolts that secure the vault in the depths of the Money Factory. Channelling his best Travis Bickle from 1976's 'Taxi Driver', Cash oggles himself in the mirror stripped down to his trousers waving two cannons into the mirror and admiring himself. He needs to visit his super rich criminal king pin Daddy, whom he is estranged from and with whom he has a love/hate relationship with to secure the explosive devices. He visits his heavily guarded mansion when there is a party going on, with Bricke in tow. They meet with Rossi Dumois (Patrick Bergin), who is more that frosty at the sight of his son visiting saying 'I thought you were dead!'

What ensues is a bullet ballet in which Daddy is speared through the head by his son, Cash's shoots his sister in close range in the stomach, the party guests all flee, leaving Cash and Bricke to make their getaway through an ante-room where all manner of high tech weaponry and explosive devices are stashed, leaving behind a trail of bloodshed and Dumois head henchman Lonnie French (Brandon Auret) hot on his heels. A car chase ensues with all guns blazing, tyres screeching, culminating with the three bullet riddled vehicles all upended on their roofs.

French catches up with Bricke and Shelby at his camper trailer, ties him to a chair, beats him senseless and then invites the guy in from the first scene in the bathtub to eek out his revenge. That guy is badly burned and wrapped in ill fitting bandages that reveal the extent of his heavily scolded face and arms from which he seems to have made an almost miraculous recovery given that it was only five or six days ago, and how the Hell he survived God only knows? Anyway, that guy is Hell bent on seeing to it that Bricke goes the same way and douses him in petrol but not before burning his nipple with a cigar. He then lights a compromising photo of Bricke and Shelby and throws it on the fuel before making a quick exit. Needless to say the camper trailer erupts into a ball of flame, just as Ross King emerges to drag Bricke outta there with seconds to spare before the trailer is blown to kingdom come, with Shelby looking on, horrified from the car driven away by French. Meanwhile King has put an end to the bathtub guy.


With all this going on, at the city Police Department the commanding officer is telling a group of gathered Officers that within 48 hours their jobs are basically redundant. With no crime there is no need for law enforcement, except for a select few who will be reassigned. Enter William Sawyer (Sharlto Copley) as the down at heel desk Sergeant who asks his commanding officer if he can be reassigned to a patrol car in the closing days before the API signal goes live. In a heartbeat, he is told yes, and off he drives to patrol the streets, whereupon he is jeered, heckled and his vehicle bombarded with all manner of projectiles from an increasingly volatile public. Back at Police HQ he volunteers to have a chip implanted in his neck that is an instant API signal blocker.

The group of Cash, Bricke, King and Shelby all regroup. The day of the mega heist arrives as the clock is counting down on the final 24 hours. Cash and Bricke make their way to the Money Factory and are allowed access because of the bribe being offered to the head honcho there. Cash is concealed under the vehicle and out of sight. Bricke parks up in the basement and hands over the bribe money. As he walks back towards his car, the head honcho ignites a note to test its authenticity and quickly discovers it's fake. At this point Cash emerges from under the car all guns blazing and a fierce fire fight breaks out with the pair driving the vehicle into a goods lift. Meanwhile, King is driving a truck into the bowels of a neighbouring building. Bricke and Cash end up in the basement vault and using the explosive devices secured from daddy's secret armoury they explode the reinforced hinges off the vault door and gain access to a US$1B payday. King in the meantime has blasted his way through the back end of the vault and forklifts the stash of cash into the back of his waiting truck.

With all of this going on Shelby has infiltrated the API control tower with the aim of disabling the signal for thirty minutes giving the rest of the crew just enough time to load up the truck and get outta Dodge. What Shelby doesn't count on is that Sawyer is on patrol in the building and apprehends her for acting suspiciously when returning from attempting to override the signal from the computer banks. They get into a fight just as the signal goes live, and Shelby is incapacitated. Sawyer overpowers her, they tussle, fight, roll around on the floor, smash through glass shelves and tables, which results in Sawyer falling off a table and getting impaled through the neck by a shard of glass. Shelby then places an explosive devise on the computer banks which control the now live API signal and makes a quick getaway.

With the truck of loot now safely outta there, Cash, Bricke and King reunite at a secret location. There, Cash shoots and kills King, and then shoots Bricke in the stomach. Cash reveals that he has an inbuilt natural immunity, mentally and physically, to the API signal and that it was in fact him who killed Bricke's brother Rory in prison by beating him to death with his bare hands in a fight staged by the Prison Guards who all looked on just for the sport. He also adds that he knows that Shelby and he are screwing, and when he asks Bricke for any comment he blows his left ear off with a shotgun. Bricke is left defenceless by the API signal. What Cash hadn't counted on is that the two cops who Shelby days earlier had informed about the pending heist are waiting just parked out of sight witnessing all of this unfold but within gun shot range. One of the cops takes pot shots at Cash, disabling him, and then finishes him off with another clean round. They walk up to Bricke and seeing the extent of his injuries leave him to die. As the cops sit back in their vehicle celebrating their success in thwarting the robbery and dispensing with the perpetrators, up sidles Bricke and unloads every round of his semi-automatic pistol through the front windscreen riddling the pair in a hail of bullets, dead!

At this point the API tower has exploded so rendering the signal defunct. This enables Bricke to mount the truck and drive towards the boarder with Canada. Shelby meanwhile is walking bloodied, and dazed out the API tower followed by a number of armed guards all demanding that she halts in her tracks. As she crosses the road with six or so guards stood to her rear, all pointing their weapons at her, Bricke rocks up in his truck and takes out parked cars, concrete bollards and the armed guards all at once. Shelby gets in the truck and they make their way across the border into Canada but not before crashing through Police cordon's, border patrol and heavily fortified check points to come to rest at the docks as the sun rises. Bricke is drained and near death, and sure enough just after Shelby announces her undying love for him he dies at the steering wheel. Shelby makes a getaway with a holdall full of cash and the ashes of Rory. We later see Shelby and her younger sister reunited, with the pair down by some isolated lake in the Canadian mountain wilderness as Shelby scatters Rory's ashes.

I couldn't help reading the many Reviews of 'The Last Days of American Crime', which for the most part absolutely annihilate this offering, before watching it for myself to see what all the fuss was about. And sure enough, those Reviews pretty much have nailed it. At a running time of nigh on two and a half hours, the Director clearly believes that 'more is more', when in fact 'less is more' by trimming a good 45 minutes would have made a more efficient, coherent film. The film has been panned by Critics for its depiction of Police brutality, violent content and the fact that its release couldn't have come at a worse time when the world has gone into protest over the George Floyd killing at the hands of the Minneapolis Police on 25th May. The first half of the film plods along at a snails pace where little happens and by the time the second half clicks into gear its all too much, all too late by which time you've already checked out! Often incoherent; the plot has more holes in it than Swiss cheese; the dialogue is at times both completely non-sensical and boring; there is little chemistry between the three principle characters; and the storyline is derivative, formulaic, unimaginative and we have seen this kind of stuff a hundred times already, only done much better. Watch it at your peril because you may just end up as incapacitated mentally and physically as if you had been zapped by the API yourself.

'The Last Days of American Crime' merits one clap of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GRINGO : Tuesday 5th June 2018.

'GRINGO' which I saw this week at my local multiplex sat in a near empty theatre is brought to us by Aussie Stuntman, Actor and only second time Director of a full length feature film, Nash Edgerton who brings us this American comedy crime caper, which he also Co-Produced. Nash Edgerton is the older brother of Actor, Director, Writer and Producer Joel Edgerton. Nash's previous feature length Directing credit was the 2008 Australian thriller 'The Square', and he has worked as Stunt Coordinator or Stuntman in numerous Hollywood movies over the years and occasionally acts too. For this film Nash has assembled an all star cast that takes in David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Harry Treadaway, Paris Jackson and brother Joel amongst others. The film was released in the US in early March, has received mixed or average Reviews, and has so far taken US$10M at the Box Office.

Here, hapless mild-mannered and unassuming Nigerian born U.S. businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) works for a Chicago based medical technology firm that has developed the 'weed pill' (a medical marijuana that has been simplified into a pill format). Harold's bosses, CEO Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton) and Co-owner Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron) are interrupted having office sex by a telephone call from a frantic Harold claiming that he has been kidnapped in Mexico and that his captors are demanding a ransom of US$5M. This news takes Richard and Elaine off guard who are understandably unprepared for such an eventuality, and cut the phone call short to buy them some thinking time.

We then rewind two days and find Harold going about his business for the company he works for, Promethium, seemingly happily married to his wife Bonnie (Thandie Newton). In a coffee shop meeting over a latte, Harold meets with his Accountant, who shows him that he is verging on bankruptcy largely because of Bonnie's reckless spending habits and her huge business overheads for servicing one single Client. The Accountant also alerts Harold to the fact that he shouldn't trust his employer and that the word on the street is that the company is going to merge with another.

Harold sees that all of a sudden his livelihood is at risk, despite his long lasting and close friendship with Rusk. Arriving back at the office Richard announces unexpectedly that he, Elaine and Harold are to fly down to Mexico the next day to attend an important business meeting with the manufacturer of the weed pill, and to cease supply to a Mexican drug lord which up to now has proved very lucrative for all parties, but it must now stop for fear of jeopardising the planed merger - a fact that Harold is unaware of officially, and when quizzed, Richard is very coy about.

Meanwhile, in a city guitar shop run by Sunny (Amanda Seyfried) and her boyfriend Miles (Harry Treadaway), Nelly (Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael, in her screen debut) enters the shop to tell Miles that someone down Mexico way wants him to smuggle a small consignment of drugs into the U.S. He refuses the initial offer of US$10K for the project and then reluctantly agrees when the ante is upped to US$20K, and decides to take Sunny with him.

Harold, Richard, and Elaine arrive in Mexico where they are met at the airport by Angel (Yul Vasquez), a friend of Harold's from his previous visits. They meet with their company rep named Celerino Sanchez (Hernan Mendoza). Richard and Elaine enter his office while Harold is ordered that his presence at the meeting is not required. Richard delivers the news to cut off, forthwith, any and all supply to the Cartel, and that he isn't afraid of the idle threats of some little wannabe drug lord. The meeting is over very quickly, although Sanchez is noticeably shaken by the prospect of having to deliver this news to the head of the Cartel.

Later that night, after a stilted and hastily abandoned dinner, Harold is on a Skype call with Bonnie, where she announces that she doesn't want to be married to him anymore, and that she has met someone else, but wouldn't disclose who. She hangs up the call, leaving Harold distraught. Elsewhere in the city, Sunny and Miles have arrived. Miles maintains contact with his Mexican connection, while Sunny is oblivious to his intentions. Sanchez drives out later that night to the estate of Cartel leader Villegas, aka 'The Black Panther' (Carlos Corona). Sanchez advises Villegas about the latest development by Promethium. The drug lord is led to believe that Harold is the boss of the company, and therefore the only person equipped to open the vault at their manufacturing facility. He orders his henchmen to go locate Harold after having them cut off Sanchez's toe with bolt cutters to show that nobody messes with The Black Panther.

With Richard and Elaine having departed for Chicago early the next morning, Harold is left in Mexico to attend to business, with the Cartel now hunting him down. Harold fakes his disappearance from the hotel leaving his clothes, mobile phone, laptop, suitcase and still made up bed in the room, as though he left in a hurry. He checks into a downbeat motel in the arse end of town run by a couple of young Mexican likely lad brothers whom he later convinces to create background threatening sound effects while he calls Richard with the news of his kidnapping. After their meeting down in Mexico the previous day, Richard and Elaine are now fearful that the Cartel are catching up with them, and believe Harold's story. Richard has a plan, and calls his brother Mitch (Sharlto Copley) who is experienced at taking people out and high level extractions having served as a mercenary, but now reformed and doing humanitarian work in Haiti. Mitch agrees to the safe extraction of Harold for US$200K.

Harold spends the night feeling sorry for himself in some local cantina getting steadily drunk. The bartender who has a connection to the Cartel, alerts them and soon afterwards two of Villegas's henchmen descend upon Harold and take him for a ride home. Being able to speak Spanish, Harold recognises the banter going on between his two new 'friends' and quickly comes to his senses, when he spies one of them with a pistol resting on his lap, poised to use it in the event of any trouble. Harold in a state of panic, struggles with the armed man for the gun causing a single shot to fire out killing the driver with a bullet to the head. The car veers out of control, crashes down an embankment and comes to rest in a crumpled heap. The next morning, Harold is limping dazed and confused down a country road, when who should happen by but Sunny and Miles driving their small little compact car. Sunny urges Miles to stop, and he reluctantly does so, just as Harold passes out on the roadside. Coincidentally, all three are staying in the same motel, which is how Sunny recognised Harold.

Back at the motel, Sunny nurses Harold back to consciousness and tends to a head wound. Sunny from this point on calls Harold, Harry, because there are more famous Harry's in the world than Harold's. At this point the two likely lads in charge of the motel, attempt to kidnap Harold to claim a reward for his delivery to Villegas. Wearing full face masks and at gunpoint, they storm Harold's room. Within no time, Mitch is on the scene taking out the two would be kidnapper brothers and Miles in the process. Mitch manhandles Harold outta there and reassures him that by this time tomorrow he'll be safely back in Chicago.

At the airport Harold does a runner just before checking in believing that he is being kidnapped again, and Mitch gives chase. Mitch catches up with him and takes him back to his room where he injects him with a nano tracking device to know where he is at all times. Mitch makes a deal with Harold to try and get Richard to pay a larger sum of money for Harold's return - a share of the US$2M kidnap insurance payout. When Mitch calls Richard to make that deal, Richard tells him that the company is planning to collect a life insurance claim on Harold if he were to end up dead which is valued at US$5M. Unbeknownst to Harold, Mitch agrees to take him up on that offer for a US$2M share. To celebrate their freedom and their insurance windfall, Harold and Mitch go out on the streets where they are seen by the two brothers from the motel. In a moment of clarity, Mitch admits Richard's plan with the insurance payout. Mitch is then struck by a car driven by the brothers and winds up face down in the river. Harold is then taken to see Villegas.

The brothers rock up to the Villegas estate with a bound Harold in tow. Villegas promptly shoots dead each of the brothers, and reassures that no harm will come to Harold, as they merely want access to the drug company's vault to take a stash of surplus weed pills for themselves. Meanwhile Miles, is making his way toward the same location for his own stash of what he came for. Upon arrival the Cartel henchmen get involved in a huge firefight with the Police and Security guards with casualties inflicted on all sides. Harold recognises Angel, who reveals himself to be an undercover DEA Agent who has infiltrated both the Cartel and Promethium and has nothing good to report about either organisation.

Making their getaway outta Dodge City, Harold and Angel are run off the road by Villegas henchmen with their car ending up on its roof by the side of the road on the outskirts of town. Harold and Angel crawl out of the upturned car just as the henchmen turn back towards them. Another firefight ensues in which Harold takes out one and Mitch (who has recovered from his near death experience) having tracked Harold, takes out another, only to be shot in the head by the first henchmen who was not quite dead yet, until Harold finishes him off. Harold gives Angel a stickdrive with the information he secretly uploaded from Richard's computer a few days earlier containing the data needed to take Richard down. Harold admits he can't return home since he no longer has a job or a wife to return to, now knowing that Richard was carrying on with Bonnie in a relationship that has subsequently gone south. Angel replies that people simply vanish in Mexico all the time, and that he will turn a blind eye to allow Harold to fake his own death. Harold briefly mourns over Mitch's lifeless body before taking the taxi he commandeered, which contained several rolls of US$100 bills and forged passports, one of which was ready for 'Harry' to skip Mexico under a new identity.

In the washup, Villegas and his Cartel, along with Miles, are all arrested by Angel and the local authorities. Harold is declared dead back home, and a funeral is held for him, which a now remorseful Bonnie attends. Richard is arrested and sentenced to fifteen years jail time, and Elaine takes over the company pleading ignorance to Richard's nefarious ways. Somewhere on the Mexican coast at a deserted beach Harry has opened up a bar. He maintains contact with Sunny and sends her a message on her birthday. He looks directly at the camera with a wry smile on his dial.

Despite its impressive cast which promises so much, the film under delivers and offers nothing new that we have not seen in other similar genre movies. The characters are largely lifeless, except for Charlize Theron's Elaine who has the pick of the rapid fire one liners and delivers some great dialogue that is too risqué to reproduce here, but great fun nonetheless and to see her so brazenly flaunt her sexuality as the take no prisoners, potty mouthed, full of herself, opinionated and super confident corporate exec. is the highlight of an otherwise predictable by the numbers film. There is a lot going on in this film as story threads get compounded and short changed, never being full fleshed out until everyone gets their payday in the last five minutes. In summary, the black comedy really failed to materialise for me, it's violent in places but not overly so, and its a crime caper of sorts only - all of which failed to manifest in any real meaningful way. You don't have to see this on the big screen and can easily wait for the BluRay, DVD, digital download or streaming service to catch it from the comfort of your own home.

'Gringo' merits two claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 31st May 2018.

In May, the world bid a fond farewell to number of stars of the silver screen and the small screen. In brief, shown below, is my passing tribute to those stars who leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, and in particular the world of film and television. May you all Rest In Peace, and thanks for the memories.

* Clint Walker : Norman Eugene 'Clint' Walker was born on May 30th 1927 and died on May 21st 2018, aged 90. He was an American Actor and Singer who gained his first big screen role in an uncredited appearance in the 1954 film 'Jungle Gents' as a Tarzan type character. Thereafter he came to the attention of Cecil B. DeMille who cast him alongside Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Edward G. Robinson in the epic 'The Ten Commandments'. Next up he was cast in the role for which he is perhaps best remembered as Cheyenne Bodie in 1957 in two episodes of hit Western television series 'Cheyenne' edited together too make a feature length film 'The Travellers'. The TV series 'Cheyenne' ran over seven series from 1955 through to 1963 with Walker playing the title character in all 108 episodes. He also appeared as that same character in a 1960 episode of 'Maverick', in the 1991 made for television film 'The Gambler Returns : The Luck of the Draw' and in a single episode of 'King Fu : The Legend Continues' in 1995. The Actor would go on to star in many Westerns over the following years including 'Fort Hobbs', 'Yellowstone Kelly', 'Requiem to Massacre', 'Gold of the Seven Saints', 'The Night of the Grizzly', 'More Dead Than Alive', 'Sam Whiskey', 'The Great Bank Robbery', 'Yuma', 'Hardcase', 'The Bounty Man', 'Baker's Hawk', 'The White Buffalo' and in a single episode of the epic television series of 1978's 'Centennial'. In the meantime, he also starred in Frank Sinatra's only Directorial effort, the WW2 actioner 'None But The Brave' in 1965, and then there was also his role as Samson Posey in the classic wartime 'The Dirty Dozen' in 1967 with an all star cast; the short-lived TV series spanning just thirteen episodes in the title role of 'Kodiak' as Alaskan State Patrolman Cal 'Kodiak' McKay, and his last screen role lending his voice to the character of Nick Nitro in 1997's 'Small Soldiers'. All up Walker had 42 Acting credits to his name in a career spanning five decades. He was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 2004.

* Margot Kidder : Margaret Ruth Kidder was born on October 17th 1948 and died on May 13th 2018, aged 69. She was an American/Canadian Actress and a political, environmental and anti-war Activist. Kidder gained her big screen debut in the 1969 docudrama 'The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kalahari'. This was followed up a year later by Norman Jewison's 'Gaily, Gaily' and then Brian de Palma's 'Sisters' in 1973, slasher horror flick 'Black Christmas' in 1974 and 'The Great Waldo Pepper' alongside Robert Redford in 1975. However, it was to be her role cast as Lois Lane in the 1978 'Superman' movie alongside Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent (aka 'Superman') that really propelled Kidder into the limelight. She reprised the role alongside Reeve in 1980's 'Superman II', 1983's 'Superman III' and 1987's 'Superman IV : The Quest for Peace'. 1979 saw another big ticket outing in the shape of the 'The Amityville Horror' in which Kidder starred alongside James Brolin as real life Kathy and George Lutz respectively. That film recouped US$87M from its US$5M Production Budget and spawned numerous sequels and reboots over the years. Following her mainstream success with the 'Superman' franchise and 'Amityville' her career took a somewhat stagnant pause although she remained active in feature films and television throughout the '80's, '90's and 2000's up until last year, but mostly in B-Grade features, made for television films, guest appearances on single or several episodes of TV series and the theatre. Her last four films were for Writer and Director Frank D'Angelo - these being 2014's 'The Big Fat Stone', 2015's 'No Deposit', 2016's 'The Red Maple Leaf' and 2017's 'The Neighbourhood' which was to be her final acting role. All up Kidder amassed 135 Acting credits to her name, and was the recipient of seven award wins and a further eight nominations.

This week there are just three new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with the second Directorial outing for this Aussie jobbing stuntman that also features his younger brother and an all star cast in a comedy crime offering about an unassuming businessman who gets into a spot of bother down Mexico way with the local drug cartel while learning that his wife back home is carrying on with one of his bosses who has hired his ex-Mercenray brother to keep him safe. We then move to a French foreign language biographical film about a famed painter at the turn of the last century who takes a leave of absence to escape Paris for the far flung remote reaches of Tahiti to rediscover his mo-jo . . . and that he does in more ways than one! And the week wraps up with a historical retelling of a 1976 passenger aeroplane hijacking that had the world on the edge of its seat before it all ended abruptly in a hail of bullets one week later.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here warmly invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'GRINGO' (Rated MA15+) - here Aussie Stuntman, Actor and only second time Director of a full length feature film, Nash Edgerton brings us this American comedy crime caper, which he also Co-Produced. Nash Edgerton is the older brother of Actor, Director, Writer and Producer Joel Edgerton. Nash's previous feature length Directing credit was the 2008 Australian thriller 'The Square', and he has worked as Stunt Coordinator or Stuntman in numerous Hollywood movies over the years and occasionally acts too.  For this film Nash has assembled an all star cast that takes in David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Harry Treadaway, Paris Jackson and brother Joel amongst others. The film was released in the US in early March, has received mixed or average Reviews, and has so far taken US$6M at the Box Office.

Here, mild-mannered U.S. businessman Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo) works for a medical technology firm that has developed the 'weed pill' (a medical marijuana that has been simplified into a pill format.) Harold's bosses, Elaine Markinson (Charlize Theron) and Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton), travel with him to Mexico to handle the mass production of the product. Harold fakes his own kidnapping in order to reap benefit from the company policy of paying out US$2M if anything was to happen to him in Mexico during a business trip. He learns too that his wife has left him as she is having an affair with Richard. While out drunk, Harold gets kidnapped for real by the cartel, who hold a grudge against his bosses and the company for cutting them out of their plans. Richard hires his brother Mitch (Sharlto Copley), who just happens to be an ex-mercenary, to keep Harold safe. Crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal, Harold must survive an increasingly dangerous situation that asks the question whether he is in over his head, or two steps ahead?

'GAUGUIN' (Rated M) - this biographical French foreign language offering is Directed and Co-Written by Edouard Deluc and recounts the story of French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (Vincent Cassel) who lived from 1848 until 1903. Here, it is Paris, 1891 and feeling decidedly smothered by the political and bourgeois atmosphere underlying Paris at the time, with everything seemingly artificial and conventional, the artist decided that he needed to review his motivation and find a realism to renew his art. Failing to convince his wife Mette (Pernille Bergendorff) and his five children to follow him to the island paradise of Tahiti, he sets out alone. Upon arrival, he elects to settle down in Mataiera, a village far from Papeete, debunking himself to a native straw and mud hut. He soon finds his mo-jo, painting and carving in a style close to the primitive art specific to the island. During his two-year stay (he came and went over a ten year period during his latter life) Gauguin experienced solitude, poverty, heart problems and other trials and tribulations, but also happiness in the arms of Tehura (Tuhei Adams), a beautiful young, thirteen year old, native girl who helped regenerate his zest for life and had a lasting impact on his art.

'ENTEBBE' (Rated CTC) - aka '7 Days In Entebbe' in the US, this is an American crime drama Directed by Brazilian Jose Padilha (also known for the Brazilian crime drama films 'Elite Squad' and 'Elite Squad : The Enemy Within' and the 2014 'RoboCop' reboot.) This film concerns 'Operation Entebbe' - a successful counter terrorist hostage rescue mission carried out by Commandos of the Israel Defence Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4th July 1976. The events of this hostage situation have been committed to film on three previous occasions - 1976's 'Victory at Entebbe', 1977's 'Raid on Entebbe' and the Israeli 1977 film 'Operation Thunderbolt'. Here, in this dramatisation, two Palestinian and two German terrorists, Brigitte Kuhlmann (Rosamund Pike) and Wilfried Bose (Daniel Bruhl) hijacked Air France Flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Paris, France via Athens, Greece. They held the 248 passengers and crew hostage at Entebbe Airport and demanded a ransom of US$5M for the aeroplane and the release of 53 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants, forty of whom were prisoners in Israel. After relocating all hostages to a disused airport building, the hijackers separated all Israelis and several non-Israeli Jews from the larger group and forced them into a separate room. Over the following two days, 148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown out to Paris. Ninety-four, mainly Israeli passengers along with the twelve Air France crew, remained hostage and were threatened with death. The rescue operation mounted by the Israel Defence Force took a week to plan and just ninety minutes to execute. This that true story. Also starring Eddie Marsan as Shimon Peres, Lior Ashkenazi as Yitzhak Rabin and Angel Bonanni as Yonatan Netanyahu and Nonso Anomie as Idi Amin. The film has generated mixed or average Reviews at best and grossed so far US$7M since its release in the US in mid-March.

With three new release films out this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. Meanwhile, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 17th - 23rd September 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Neill Blomkamp does on 17th September - check out my tribute to this Director, Writer and Producer Birthday Boy turning 38, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 17th September

• Baz Luhrmann - Born 1962, turns 55 - Director | Writer | Producer | Songwriter
• Bryan Singer - Born 1965, turns 52 - Producer | Director | Writer | Actor
• Kyle Chandler - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Neill Blomkamp - Born 1979, turns 38 - Director | Writer | Producer  

Monday 18th September

• Tim McInnerny - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actor
• Mark Romanek - Born 1959, turns 58 - Director | Writer | Producer
• Don Hany - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actor | Producer
• Jason Sudeikis - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Patrick Schwarzenegger - Born 1993, turns 24 - Actor
• Jada Pinkett Smith - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director  

Tuesday 19th September

• David McCallum - Born 1933, turns 84 - Actor 
• Jeremy Irons - Born 1948, turns 69 - Actor | Producer  
• Paul McGuigan - Born 1963, turns 54 - Director | Producer

Wednesday 20th September

• George R.R. Martin - Born 1948, turns 69 - Writer | Producer
• Gary Cole - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actor
• Chad Stahelski - Born 1968, turns 49 - Stuntman | Director | Actor | Producer | Writer
• Jon Bernthal - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor   
• Sophia Loren - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actress | Singer
• Asia Argento - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actress | Director | Writer  

Thursday 21st September

• Jerry Bruckheimer - Born 1943, turns 74 - Producer 
• Stephen King - Born 1947, turns 70 - Writer | Producer | Actor | Director
• Bill Murray - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer | Director
• Ethan Coen - Born 1957, turns 60 - Writer | Director | Producer | Editor
• Angus Macfadyen - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Director
• David Wenham - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director  
• Luke Wilson - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director

Friday 22nd September

• John Woo - Born 1946, turns 71 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Editor
• Nick Cave - Born 1957, turns 60 - Writer | Composer | Singer | Songwriter | Actor
• Scott Baio - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer
• Tom Felton - Born 1987, turns 30 - Actor | Director  

Saturday 23rd September

• Jason Alexander - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• Alex Proyas - Born 1963, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer 
• Anthony Mackie - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor 

Neill Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg, South Africa where he attended the independent and private co-educational Redhill High School located in Morningside, Johannesburg. It was there that he met Sharlto Copley at the age of sixteen. Copley gave Blomkamp the use of computers to pursue his passion and growing talent for animation and design, and in return Blomkamp helped Copley in creating 3D work for proposals on various projects that Copley was working on/interested in. At the age of eighteen, Blomkamp and his family relocated to Vancouver, where he attended the Vancouver Film School.

During the late '90's, Blomkamp began working in the film industry as a 3D animator, gaining work on such Sci-Fi television shows as 'Stargate SG-1', 'First Wave' and 'Mercy Point', and earthquake drama miniseries 'Aftershock : Earthquake in New York'. These led to Blomkamp scoring his first gig as Lead Animator on the Sci-Fi action drama series 'Dark Angel' which ran for 43 episodes over two seasons, and then feature film '3000 Miles to Graceland' with Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell in 2001. He then picked up work at two of Vancouver's noted digital effects studios - 'The Embassy Visual Effects' and 'Rainmaker Digital Effects' both companies working on televisions commercials, in television and on feature films. It was however, his work on his own short films that got him noticed by one Peter Jackson, including the two minute short film 'Tetra Vaal' that was Written, Directed, Produced and Edited by Blomkamp - a mock commercial for a third-world Police robot; 'Alive in Joburg' with a five minute running time that was Written and Directed by him too about extra terrestrials marooned in Johannesburg, and then 'Tempbot' and 'Yellow'. 

In 2007 Blomkamp was slated to Direct his first feature length film - an adaptation of the popular video game series 'Halo' after he had Directed three short live action films in 2007 set in the 'Halo' universe and known as 'Landfall'. Funding for the 'Halo' feature fell through and the project was cancelled, but with Producer Peter Jackson on board and a relationship being nurtured, attention was turned to Blomkamp's feature film debut, the Sci-Fi thriller 'District 9' based on his earlier short film 'Alive in Joburg' which Peter Jackson Co-Produced. The film was released in 2009 and starred Sharlto Copley in his first lead role as Wikus van de Merwe. The film was universally acclaimed, recovered US$211M from its US$30M budget outlay, and was nominated for four Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, and seven BAFTA's amongst its total haul of thirty award wins and  another 114 nominations.

2013 saw the release of Written, Directed and Co-Produced Sci-Fi offering 'Elysium' set in an overpopulated and pollution ravaged Earth of 2154 where most of the world populace live in poverty while the rich and powerful live on a luxurious man-made space habitat within Earth's orbit. Starring Matt Damon in the lead role supported by Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, and William Fichtner, the film cost US$115M to make and recouped US$286M and received generally positive press, albeit not nearly on the same scale as for 'District 9'. It picked up one award win and ten nominations.

This was followed up by 'Chappie' released in 2015, based on his own earlier short film 'Tetra Vaal'. This film too was again Written, Directed and Co-Produced by Blomkamp, and starred Sharlto Copley as the artificially intelligent law enforcement robot, affectionally named 'Chappie' by the mob of gangsters who capture him and train him, together with Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Yolandi Visser and Watkin Tudor Jones both of South African counter-culture rap-wave band 'Die Antwoord'. The film cost US$49M to bring to the big screen and raked in US$102M and received mixed to average Reviews.

Back in 2015 Blomkamp announced that he was working on a treatment for an 'Alien' sequel with Sigourney Weaver set to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley. He later went on to confirm that announcement and that furthermore he was planning more than one sequel to the successful franchise. However, the project was shelved later that year when Ridley Scott began shooting 'Alien : Covenant'. Earlier this year the title of the film was said to be 'Alien : Awakening', although Ridley Scott subsequently stated that Blomkamp's film had been officially canned, although the Production Studio may have different ideas yet. The follow up feature to 'Alien : Covenant' is said to be titled 'Alien : Awakening' which is set to go into production for a 2019 release, and Directed once again by Ridley Scott.

Earlier this year, Blomkamp created his own film production company, Oats Studios, with the aim of producing a series of 'experimental' short films to be released via 'Steam' and free streaming on YouTube, with the intention of testing interest and audience acceptance of a given theme, before expanding these notions into full blown feature films. The first such film is a 22 minute offering Co-Written and Directed by Blomkamp and starring Sigourney Weaver, titled 'Rakka' about a dystopian future where an unknown group of aliens have colonised Earth and humans struggle to fight back.

The 27 minute 'Firebase' is a horror Sci-Fi short film also Co-Written and Directed by Blomkamp set during the Vietnam War where both sides face a new kind of terror threat that neither side could have imagined or were prepared for. This was in turn followed up by the four minute 'God : Serengeti' starring Sharlto Copley; and the four episode comedy mini-series 'Cooking with Bill' set as 1980's cooking equipment infomercials in which the cooking demonstrations by the two regular guest presenters go horribly and horrifically wrong.

'Zygote' followed as a 23 minute Sci-Fi horror film starring Dakota Fanning as one of two lone survivors stranded in an Arctic mine who are forced to fight for their lives as they are hunted by a new kind of terror threat. Also Co-Written and Directed by Blomkamp. 'Lima' came next of which details are very scant, and it is believed to be the final experimental short film in 'Volume 1' by Oats Studios.

This brings us up to date in terms of so far published creative output. All up Blomkamp has seventeen credits as Director to his name, fifteen as Writer, eight for his animation and visual effects works, and five as Producer. He has twelve award wins and a further 35 nominations under his belt so far including 'District 9' Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Screenplay, and a Primetime Emmy nod for 'Dark Angel'. Blomkamp is married to Canadian Screenwriter Terri Tatchell with whom she worked with her husband on the scripts for 'District 9' and 'Chappie'. They have one child together.

Neill Blomkamp - known for his seamless amalgamation of natural and photo-realistic computer generated imagery; often threads his own social commentary through the stories he depicts in his films; often works with Sharlto Copley; often shoots his films in his native Johannesburg; and while Sci-Fi is his first love he says that he could easily turn his hand to horror or military conflict. All of that said, based on your maverick style to date, your success, and your imaginative creative approach to story telling, we'll await your next offering with interest and keen anticipation. In the meantime, Happy Birthday to you Neill, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-