Birthday's to share this week : 27th September - 3rd October 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Alicia Vikander does on 3rd October - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 27 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 27th September

• Gwyneth Paltrow - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actress
• Meat Loaf - Born 1947, turns 68 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter
• Denis Lawson - Born 1947, turns 68 - Actor

Monday 28th September

• Naomi Watts - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actress | Producer
• Hilary Duff - Born 1987, turns 28 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Mira Sorvino - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer
• Brigitte Bardot - Born 1934, turns 81 - Actress | Singer

Tuesday 29th September

• Luke Goss - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer
• Ian McShane - Born 1947, turns 73 - Actor | Producer
• Nicolas Winding Refn - Born 1970, turns 45 - Director | Producer | Writer

Wednesday 30th September

• Eric Stoltz - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Angie Dickinson - Born 1931, turns 84 - Actress
• Marion Cotillard - Born 1975, turns 40 - Actress | Singer
• Monica Bullucci - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress

Thursday 1st October

• Julie Andrews - Born 1935, turns 80 - Actress | Singer
• Randy Quaid - Born 1950, turns 65 - Actor | Producer
• Zach Galifianakis - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Writer

Friday 2nd October

• Sting - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter

Saturday 3rd October

• Clive Owen - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actor | Producer
• Denis Villeneuve - Born 1967, turns 48 - Director | Writer
• Neve Campbell - Born 1973, turns 42 - Actress | Producer
• Alicia Vikander - Born 1988, turns 27 - Actress

Alicia Amanda Vikander was born in Gothenburg, Sweden to mother Maria Fahl, an actress, and father Svante Vikander, a psychiatrist. At five months old her parents separated and for the most part thereafter was raised by her mother, although she had access to her father every other weekend with whom she would grow up enjoying the company of his other five children. She studied ballet at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Gothenburg from the age of nine and at fifteen moved to Stockholm where she trained to become a principal dancer. At the Gothenburg Opera she appeared in several musicals including 'Les Miserables' and 'The Sound of Music'. By the age of sixteen she was travelling the world to fine tune her acting craft. Due to injuries over the subsequent years her career in dancing became sidelined as her career in acting began to take hold, although for a short time she was considering a move into the legal profession gaining a place at law school, which she also sidelined in favour of acting - a wise choice in the long term it would appear!

At home in Sweden she gained early work on a number of television shows and made for TV movies - 'Min balsamerade mor' in 2002, 'En decemberdrom' for three episodes in 2005, the mini-series 'Levande foda' in 2007 and then on the longer running 'Andra Avenyn' for 39 episodes from 2007-2008.

From 2007 there were a number of short films in her native country launching with 'Darkness of Truth' and 'The Rain', 'My Name is Love' in 2008, and 'Susans Iangtan' in 2009. Her feature film debut came in 2010 in the acclaimed 'Pure' for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards - the equivalent there of the Academy Awards or the BAFTA's.

After this was her lead role in 'The Crown Jewels' in 2011, however, international recognition came in 2012 playing the role of Kitty in the Joe Wright Directed British adaptation of 'Anna Karenina' alongside Keira Knightly, Jude Law, Domhnall Gleeson and Emily Watson. The film picked up numerous awards including a Breakthrough Performer Award for Vikander at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She followed this up that same year with the Danish period piece 'A Royal Affair' with Mads Mikkelsen which gained a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the 2013 Academy Awards. That year, she was also nominated at the BAFTA's for a Rising Star Award but missed out to Juno Temple.

2013 saw her star in Bill Condon's 'The Fifth Estate' about the rise of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. The film also starred Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie and David Thewlis. Next up was the Swedish film 'Hotell' for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Marrakech International Film Festival.

'Testament of Youth' came next with Vikander in the lead role as Vera Brittain recounting her WWI memories as a war time nurse. This was followed up that same year with Aussie crime drama 'Son of a Gun' with Ewan McGregor and Brenton Thwaites, and then 'Seventh Son' with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, and Djimon Hounsou. 'Ex Machina' came earlier this year in the Alex Garland Directed film in which she stars as humanoid robot Ava, alongside Domhnall Gleeson again, and Oscar Isaac. Most recently there has been 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' Directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as the reprised 60's Agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin respectively.

Coming soon is 'Burnt' with Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Uma Thurman and Emma Thompson due before the end of the year, as is 'The Danish Girl' with Eddie Redmayne and Ben Whishaw. 'Tulip Fever' is currently in post-production for 2016 and stars Dane DeHaan, Christoph Waltz and Judy Dench, 'The Light Between the Oceans' due next year too and starring Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz, and currently filming is the fifth instalment in the Bourne franchise as Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne with Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent Cassel and due in mid-16.

Vikander has 26 acting credits to her name and has won seven awards and another seven nominations to date - she expects big things from next years Academy Awards too where she may have multiple films in contention. Recently split from Michael Fassbender, Vikander seems more intent on keeping busy, chasing the Oscar dream and polishing her celebrity status as her star continues to rise.

Alicia Vikander - young, beautiful, talented, determined, committed, hard working, in demand, already much praised and with the Hollywood world at your feet - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 16th October 2014.

This week we have four new offering to tempt the more mature audiences amongst us with decidedly dramatic intentions and featuring some big names to pique your interest. Not much here for the younger viewer it must be said, but that's OK, because there is always plenty of left-over cinematic content still doing the rounds to appease those needing that fix! And so we have an ageing English Hollywood action star reprising (possibly) his character from another franchise out for revenge and retribution of a different kind this time; we have a tale of overnight memory loss that you might just think you saw 14 years ago with an aspiring Director and Actor just starting out on their careers on the way to the big time; a breakout Australian made prison/heist movie from a first time Director and Writer; and a Swedish offering exploring family values, relationships and trust with the backdrop of a skiing holiday gone horribly wrong!

So when you have ventured out over the coming week to see something new on the big screen, drop your pearls of wisdom and your own Review in the 'Comments' section immediately following this Post, or any other, and let me and my other interested Reader know what you think. Don't be shy - your feedback is warmly encouraged! Enjoy your movie!

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Rowan Joffe this film is based on the best selling book of the same name by Author S. J. Watson and stars at its leads Nicole Kidman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth and Anne-Marie Duff. It was shot in London. The story will get you thinking about Christopher Nolan's 'Momento' released in 2000 and follows along similar-ish lines, but don't think you are just seeing a rehash of that film. The story surrounds Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) who every morning wakes up in bed with a strange man who has to explain that he is her husband, Ben Lucas (Colin Firth), who she is, where they are, and what is going on in her/their life. This is all the result of anterograde amnesia, which she has suffered from for over 20 years as a result of a car accident in her early 20's. For Christine this means that every night her brain erases the memories of the previous day while she sleeps, and she awakes in the morning with no recollection of those events.

What unfolds we learn is that Christine is under the daily medical care of Dr. Nash (Mark Strong) who tells her that her condition is the result of an attack that left her for dead at an airport hotel. Dr. Nash also gives Christine a camera to record her daily thoughts and experiences on film, but which he must remind her every morning to play it back, so that in some way she can piece together her life and gain some clarity around her situation. Conflicting stories arise as the plot twists and turns on this largely suburban ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances with no memories of what occurred 24 hours ago to guide her, comfort her or inform her as more uncertainty, betrayal and gaps appear in what Christine knows, or is led to believe. Arriving on the scene too is a blast from the past that Christine starts to gain some faint memories of, Claire (Anne-Marie Duff), and when they reunite, more confusion, mixed messages and possible danger ensues. Who can she really trust therefore, and possibly, not even herself! A taught psychological drama that will make you think just how lucky you are to have your memories intact, as Kidman puts in a strong performance of the memory challenged everywoman - just as another up & coming Australian Actor did 15 years ago - Guy Pearce!

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (Rated MA15+) - this too is a film based on a book of the same name by Lawrence Block, and Directed by Scott Frank. This film stars at its lead Liam Neeson, and you would be forgiven for thinking that with such a title this is just another 'Taken' or 'Unknown' or 'Non-Stop' that Neeson is turning out every 18 months or so in order to pay the bills. He has become adept and clearly the go-to grizzled ageing actor that can still play act at convincingly defending his corner with an arsenal of sharp wits, gadgets and household implements (a little like Robert McCall in the recent 'Equalizer' me thinks!) That said, here he is an ex-NYPD Officer (Matthew Scudder) who in 1992 shot dead a seven year old girl by mistake during a shoot out with low life crims. He discharged himself from the force, crawled inside a bottle and in 1999 we find him attending AA and moonlighting as a private investigator for hire. He is duly hired by a man who's wife was kidnapped and then chopped up into little pieces and sent back to him, even though he paid the $400K ransom demanded. And so Scudder goes on the man hunt, and discovers more than he bargained for. He is not one here though for physical violence - more good old fashioned policing preferring to pound the beat for clues, talk to suspects and witnesses in a low-key considered way, and use his diplomacy and tact to avoid confronting situations. He is also battling his own demons too and he must bring this, and those he is searching for under control before it's too late for everyone. Rated as a solid performance from Neeson, and a notch up from those previously mentioned Neeson outings this may be a pleasant surprise that might just spawn a sequel for Actor and Director based on other Scudder character books in the series.

SON OF A GUN (Rated MA15+) - written and Directed by Julius Avery this is the debut feature film for the Pemberton born award winning moviemaker. This story takes us to a violent Western Australian prison wherein resides a Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor) who is doing time as criminal mastermind and Australia's Public Enemy numero uno. Convicted of a petty crime 19 year old JR (Brenton Thwaites) finds himself doin' time on a six month stint with Lynch who quickly takes the young impressionable lad under his wing and tutelage. This of course comes at a price which will have to be repaid later on in the film. And so in the meantime a daring air-escape from the prison is planned which takes JR, Lynch and fellow cohorts Sterlo (Matt Nable) and Merv (Eddie Baroo) over the fence and to their freedom to pitch a daring heist on a gold mine masterminded by criminal kingpin Sam (Jacek Korman) which is set up to make them all millions! As JR gets pulled into the web of Lynch and his underworld gang members a father/son relationship starts to unfold, but in the aftermath of the heist as things start to unravel and go belly up so a cat & mouse game ensues which will take JR and Lynch on a collision course which will test their trust, loyalty and relationship with each other. Featuring some daring action set pieces, Western Australian locations, and an of the moment prison escape story with a solid central character this might just surprise and delight over and above those films seen before of the same genre.

FORCE MAJEURE (Rated M) - a Swedish film about a Swedish family who travel to holiday in the French Alps for a spot of skiing and family bonding. The sun shines, the snow lays fresh and thick on the ground and the scenery is spectacular. Lunching in a nearby hostelry the family sit in idyllic surroundings gazing in wonder at the mountain ranges before them, when an avalanche strikes sending snow cascading down the mountain side . . . in their general direction. When the realisation dawns that  tonnes of snow is about to impact their peaceful lunch and engulf their very existence all patrons flee for their lives. When mother Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) tries to protect her children Vera and Harry (Clara and Vincent Wettergren respectively) and calls out for husband Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) he is no where in sight having been seen hot tailing it outta there in the opposite direction with not a care in the world except for his own skin! When the reality of the situation clears and the avalanche did not strike the peaceful lunchtime venue and all souls are saved, the hilarity of the matter soon turns to anger, resentment and a questioning of family values and priorities with all eyes on Dad! With the family's lives now turned asunder, a marriage in question, and the place of the man as the patriarch of the family in doubt, Tomas is left to struggle to regain his place in the family pecking order; win back confidence, respect and love; and prove himself worthy to continue being part of this family unit. Comedic, dramatic, questioning and bold this film won the Jury Prize at this years Cannes Film Festival, it appeared in the Special Presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and is the Swedish entry for Best Foreign Film at the 2015 Academy Awards.

That's it then - four movie marvels making for tough decisions dependant on where your film tastes and preferences lie. Plenty to enjoy nonetheless, and be sure to share your cinematic experience when you're done. Movies - see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-