What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 7th November 2019.

In October, the world bid a fond farewell to a 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 . . . . Stephen Moore, Diahann Carroll, Rip Taylor, Ryan Nicholson, Juliette Kaplan, Robert Forster, Patrick Ward, Bill Macy, Robert Evans, Anne Phelan and John Witherspoon.

* Stephen Moore - born 11th December 1937, died 4th October 2019, aged 81. Moore was an English Actor and one time Director, who worked in film, television and the stage since the early 1960's amassing 109 acting credits to his name. His feature film roles took in the likes of 1977's 'A Bridge Too Far' with an all star cast, 1980's 'Rough Cut' with Burt Reynolds, 1984's 'Laughterhouse' with Ian Holm, 1986's 'Clockwise' with John Cleese, 1991's 'Under Suspicion' with Liam Neeson, 1996's 'Brassed Off' with Ewan McGregor, 2002's 'Claim' with Billy Zane, and 2009's 'The Boat That Rocked' with Philip Seymour Hoffman. His small screen roles over the years, of which there were many, included recurring appearances in TV series 'Woodtsock', 'Rock Follies', 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 'Solo', 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole' and its follow up season 'The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole', 'The Last Place on Earth', 'Small World', 'Middlemarch', 'Black Hearts in Battersea', 'And the Beat Goes On', 'Harry Enfield and Chums', 'The Peter Principle', 'Fish', 'The Queen's Nose' and 'Merseybeat' amongst others.

* Diahann Carroll - born Carol Diann Johnson on 17th July 1935, died 4th October 2019, aged 84. Carroll was an American Actress, Singer and Model who was active in the entertainment industry for seven decades beginning her career in Otto Preminger's 'Carmen Jones' in 1954 with Harry Belafonte.  Two years later she starred in an Otto Preminger production again - this time 1956's 'Porgy and Bess' alongside Sidney Poitier. 1961 saw 'Paris Blues' with Paul Newman, and then in 1967 another Otto Preminger offering with 'Hurry Sundown' with Michael Caine and in 1968 'The Split' with Ernest Borgnine. 1974 saw 'Claudine' with James Earl Jones and then 'The Five Heartbeats' in 1991, 'Eve's Bayou' in 1997 with Samuel L. Jackson, 'Peeples' in 2013 and 'The Masked Saint' in 2016 which was to be her last acting role. Of her total 58 acting credits, there were also appearances on television shows over the years including 86 episodes on 'Julia', 74 episodes on 'Dynasty' and seven episodes on spin-off series 'The Colby's', nine episodes on 'A Different World', seven episodes on 'Lonesome Dove : The Series', multiple episodes on 'Grey's Anatomy', 'Diary of a Single Mom', and 25 episodes on 'White Collar' most recently. Carroll also amassed forty soundtrack credits during her career, was nominated for an Oscar for 'Claudine', won the Golden Globe for 'Julia' and received two other nominations, had four Prime Time Emmy nods and all up garnered eight award wins and a further 13 nominations. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black cast members, and in 1962, Carroll won a Tony Award for Best Actress, a first for a black woman, for her role in the Broadway musical 'No Strings'. Carroll was married four times and had long term relationships also with acclaimed Actor Sidney Poitier and the English TV host and journalist David Frost. She made a full recovery form breast cancer in 1997 and co-founded the charity Celebrity Action Council working with women in rehabilitation from problems with alcohol, drugs, or prostitution.

* Rip Taylor - born Charles Elmer Taylor Jnr. on 13th January 1935, and died on 6th October 2019, aged 88. Taylor was an American Actor and Comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache and toupee. The Hollywood Reporter called him 'a television and nightclub mainstay for more than six decades' who made thousands of nightclub and television appearances. With 52 acting credits to his name, his career launched in 1964 with a small part in the film 'I'd Rather Be Rich' and from there he appeared in two episodes of 'The Monkees', on thirteen episodes of 'Sigmund and the Sea Monsters', on eight episodes of 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour', lending his voice talents on thirteen episodes of 'Popeye and Son', on 21 episodes of 'The Addams Family' animated series and on seventeen episodes of 'The Emperor's New School' animated series. In between time there were film appearances on the likes of 'Chatterbox', 'The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington', 'The Gong Show Movie', 'Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York', 'Indecent Proposal', 'Wayne's World 2', 'The Boys Behind the Desk', 'Alex & Emma', 'The Dukes of Hazard' and 'Silent But Deadly' his last screen appearance in 2012. Taylor's first big live show was in 1966, when he went on a tour with Judy Garland and Eleanor Powell in Las Vegas. In 1981, Taylor appeared on Broadway when he replaced Mickey Rooney in the burlesque-themed musical comedy 'Sugar Babies'. He was a frequent co-star with Debbie Reynolds in her live shows in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Taylor was also a close personal friend of entertainer Liberace, spent time with him, and knew him well.

* Ryan Nicholson - born sometime in 1971, died 8th October 2019, aged 47. Nicholson was a Canadian special effects make-up artist, Director, Writer, Producer and Actor who was self-taught and ran a special-effects shop called Flesh & Fantasy for a number of years before he began Directing, Producing, Writing and starring in a number of his own feature films mostly in the horror genre space through his Production Company, Plotdigger Films. These included 'Torched' in 2004 which was followed up by 'Live Feed', 'Gutterballs', 'Hangar', 'Star Vehicle', 'Famine' and 'Collar' most recently in 2014. Nicholson had 138 make up and special FX credits to his name on such film and TV shows as 'Millennium', 'Stargate SG-1', 'The 13th Warrior', 'Double Jeopardy', 'Reindeer Games', 'Final Destination', 'Scary Movie', 'The Pledge', 'Replicant', 'Dreamcatcher', 'Agent Cody Banks', 'The Chronicles of Riddick', 'Blade : Trinity', 'The Keeper', 'Ghost Rider', 'Warcraft', 'Blair Witch', 'Altered Carbon', 'Deadpool 2', 'The Predator' and 'Puppet Killer' this year for which he won an award for Best Special FX, as well as being twice nominated and a one time winner of a Gemini Award for Best Achievement in Make-Up.

* Juliette Kaplan - born Marlene Juliette Kaplan whose married name was Marlene Hoser was born on 2nd October 1939 and died on 10th October 2019, aged 80. Kaplan was an English Actress who was perhaps most famous for playing the role of battle-axe Pearl Sibshaw in the BBC comedy 'Last of the Summer Wine' across 226 episodes from 1985 to 2010. Her acting career took off in 1958 with the feature film 'A Voice Crying in the Wilderness' and then came the aforementioned 'Last of the Summer Wine' series which kept her occupied, until 2010 with interim appearances in feature films taking in 'The Death of Klinghoffer' in 2003, 'Are You Ready for Love?' in 2006, and 'Don't Let Go' in 2013 with eight episodes on 'Coronation Street' in 2015 and the short film 'You Are Whole' also in 2015 and her final screen appearance.

* Robert Forster - born Robert Wallace Forster Jnr. on 13th July 1941, and died on 11th October 2019, aged 78. Forster was an American Actor, three time Producer and one time Director, who amassed 186 acting credits during his career which spanned from 1967 right up until the present day. His big screen debut came in John Huston's 1967 film 'Reflections in a Golden Eye' with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, and from this point on there was no looking back. The '70's brought the likes of 'The Don is Dead' with Anthony Quinn, 'Stunts', 'Avalanche' with Rock Hudson, and Disney's 'The Black Hole' with an all star cast. The '80's kicked off with marauding monster movie 'Alligator', and then 'Vigilante', 'The Delta Force' with Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin, and 'Hollywood Harry' which he also Produced and Directed in 1986. The '90's saw a bunch of direct-to-video movies and largely B-Grade features taking in 'American Yakuza', 'Original Gangstas', 'American Prefekt', 'Psycho' and of course his highly acclaimed role as bail bondsman Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's 'Jackie Brown' which gained him an Academy Award nod for Best Supporting Actor. The new decade kicked off with 'Me, Myself and Irene' with Jim Carey, 'Mulholland Drive', 'Charle's Angels : Full Throttle', 'Firewall' with Harrison Ford, 'Lucky Number Slevin' with Bruce Willis, 'Cleaner' with Samuel L. Jackson, 'Touching Home' with Ed Harris, 'Thick as Thieves' with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas and 'Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past' with Matthew McConaughey. 'The Descendants' with George Clooney followed in 2011 and then 'Olympus Has Fallen' and its follow up 'London Has Fallen' both with Gerard Butler, 'The Confirmation' with Clive Owen, 'Acts of Vengeance' with Antonio Banderas, 'What They Had' with Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon, and finally 'El Camino : A Breaking Bad Story' that was released on Netflix the day of Forsters death. His TV appearances are too numerous to mention, albeit some of the more notable series he appeared included 'Banyon' in the title role over sixteen episodes form 1971 through 1973, five episodes of 'Police Story', then 'Magnum P.I.', 'Murder, She Wrote, 'Walker, Texas Ranger', 'Desperate Housewives', on ten episodes of 'Heroes', then 'Breaking Bad', and on ten episodes of 'Twin Peaks' in 2017. All up Forster had three award wins and a further thirteen nominations, and he was also a member of the 'Triple Nine Society' - an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardised test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population.

* Patrick Ward - was born on 4th January 1950, died 14th October 2019, aged 69. Ward was an Australian Actor of film and television who had 51 credits to his name in a career spanning from 1972 through until 2011. He saw his small screen debut on five episodes of the long running Australian series 'Number 96' in 1972, and from there went on to have appearances on 'Matlock Police', on thirteen episodes of 'Catch Kandy' in 1973, and then in 1974 a role on the big screen adaptation of 'Number 96', followed by a role in the cult Aussie renegade motorcycle gang film 'Stone' that same year. 'Sidecar Racers' followed in 1975 and then sixteen episodes on 'The Unisexers', 26 episodes on 'Cop Shop' and 35 episodes on 'Arcade'. The films 'The Chain Reaction', 'Fantasy Man', 'Warming Up', 'Running from the Guns' and 'The Crossing' saw out the '80's with turns in the meantime on TV shows including 'The Love Boat', 'A Country Practice', 'Runaway Island', 'Anzacs', then mini-series 'Fields of Fire', 'Fields of Fire II' and 'Fields of Fire III', and a single episode on 'Mission : Impossible'. From the '90's onward his career began to slow down with turns on thirteen episodes of 'My Two Wives', five episodes of 'Home and Away', then 'All Saints', 'Farscape' and two features 'Jindalee Lady' and 'Restraint' with the six minute short film 'Facade' in 2011 on which he also acted as Cinematographer, Editor and added the digital effects being his last.

* Bill Macy - born Wolf Martin Garber on 18th May 1922, died 17th October 2019, aged 97. Macy was an American Actor of film, television and stage who amassed 82 screen credits to his name from 1966 up to 2010. He worked as a cab driver for a decade before being cast as Walter Matthau's understudy in 'Once More, With Feeling' on Broadway in 1958, and he went on to portray a cab driver on the soap opera 'The Edge of Night' in 1966 - his screen debut. From there he took an uncredited role on Mel Brooks 'The Producers' in 1967, with his following big screen roles over the years including the likes of 'Oh! Calcutta!', 'The Jerk' with Steve Martin, 'My Favourite Year' with Peter O'Toole, 'Bad Medicine' with Steve Guttenberg, 'Sibling Rivalry' with Kirstie Alley, 'The Doctor' with William Hurt, 'Me Myself and I' with George Segal, 'Analyze This' with Robert De Niro, 'Surviving Christmas' with Ben Affleck, 'The Holiday' with Kate Winslet,  and 'Mr. Woodcock' with Billy Bob Thornton. His small screen appearances took in the role of Walter Findlay on 137 episodes of 'Maude' which ran from 1972 through 1978, and then 'St. Elsewhere', 'The Love Boat', 'L.A. Law', seven episodes on 'Nothing in Common', 'Murder, She Wrote', 'NYPD Blue, 'Chicago Hope', 'Seinfeld', 'ER', 'How I Met Your Mother', 'My Name Is Earl' and 'Hawthorn' was to be his last screen appearance in 2010.

* Robert Evans - born Robert J. Shapera on 29th June 1930, died 26th October 2019, aged 89. Evans was an American Film Producer and Studio Executive. Evans began his career in a successful business venture with his brother, selling women's clothing. By accident in 1956 he fell into the screen acting business, but by 1962 he decided to go into Film Producing instead, using his accumulated skills and wealth from the clothing business. And so began a stellar rise in the movie making industry. In 1967 he had risen to be the head of Paramount Pictures where he turned around the company's failing financial position, and by 1974 he chose to step down in order to Produce his own pictures. In 1980, Evans' career, and his personal life, took a downturn after he pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and as a result over the next 12 years, he Produced only two films, but come 1993, he began to produce films on a more regular basis. At Paramount, he Produced amongst others 'Barefoot in the Park', 'The Odd Couple', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Italian Job', 'True Grit', 'Love Story', 'Plaza Suite', 'Harold and Maude', 'The Godfather', 'Serpico', 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Conversation'. As a Producer in his own right, he was responsible for the likes of 'Chinatown', 'Marathon Man', 'Urban Cowboy', 'Popeye', 'The Cotton Club', 'The Two Jakes', 'Sliver', 'The Phantom', 'The Saint' and 'How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days' which was to be his last feature film in 2003. All up Evans had 21 Producer credits, fifteen as Actor and two as Writer and he picked up nine award wins and two nominations throughout his career. Evans was married seven times, five wives were Actresses - Sharon Hugueny, Camilla Sparv, Ali McGraw, Phyllis George and Catherine Oxenberg - the latter marriage having been annulled after just nine days. In 1998 at a dinner party Evans suffered a stroke while proposing a toast. He flatlined in the ambulance but was resuscitated. He then suffered two further strokes in quick succession, was left paralysed to his right side and completely unable to speak. He eventually regained his ability to talk and returned to Producing. From 2013, he was dependant on a cane for shorter walks and had limited mobility.

* Anne Phelan - born 2nd August 1948, died 27th October 2019, aged 71. Phelan was an Australian Actress of the theatre, television and cinema who amassed sixty acting credits during her career which launched in 1973 on a single episode of private detective TV drama series 'Ryan'. From there she starred in six episodes of 'Matlock Police' before scoring her first feature film role in Fred Schepisi's 'The Devil's Playground' in 1976. Between 1974 and 1977 Phelan starred in 523 episodes of the Australian soap opera 'Bellbird' before her next film role 'Hard Knocks' in 1980. There were then occasional roles on the likes of 'A Country Practice', 'Sons and Daughters' and then 128 episodes on 'Prisoner' leading into her next big screen role on 'I Live with Me Dad' in 1985. The successive years brought regular appearances on TV shows including 'The Flying Doctors', seven episodes on 'Col'n Carpenter', then 'Law of the Land', 'Blue Heelers', on 320 episodes of 'Something in the Air', on fourteen episodes of 'Marshall Law', on fourteen episodes of 'Neighbours', and on 42 episodes of 'Winners & Losers' which was to be her final screen appearance. In the meantime there were three further film roles on 'The Craic', 'Charlie & Boots' and 'Inanimate Objects'. During her career she also starred in numerous theatre productions across Australia. In 2007, Phelan was awarded the O.A.M. (Order of Australia Medal) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the arts as an Actress, and to the community, particularly through support for women living with the HIV virus and for asylum seekers and refugees. She was a Member of Actors for Refugees, an Ambassador for Alzheimer's Australia Victoria, a Patron of Positive Women (Victoria), and a Recipient of the Oz Showbiz Cares / Equity Fights AIDS 2002 Activist of the Year Award.

* John Witherspoon - born 27th January 1942, died 29th October 2019, aged 77. Witherspoon was American Actor and Comedian who had 84 acting credits to his name spanning a career that launched on two episodes of 'The Richard Pryor Show' in 1977. From there he worked on other notable TV shows including 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Barnaby Jones', 'WKRP in Cincinnati', 'Hill Street Blues', 'L.A. Law', on ten episodes of 'Townsend Television', 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', on 101 episodes of 'The Wayans Bros.', on eighteen episodes of 'The Tracy Morgan Show', on 55 episodes of the animated adult series 'The Boondocks', on 28 episodes of 'The First Family', and on 31 episodes of 'Black Jesus' most recently. His film acting credits took in the likes of 'The Jazz Singer' in 1980 (his first big screen appearance), then 'Ratboy', 'Bird', 'House Party', 'Boomerang', the first of the 'Friday' stoner comedy franchise which launched with 'Friday' in 1995 that saw two sequels with 'Next Friday' in 2000, 'Friday After Next' in 2002 and 'Last Friday' which was in Pre-Production at the time of Witherspoon's death. In between there was also 'Vampire in Brooklyn', 'Bulworth', 'Little Nicky', 'Little Man', 'After Sex' and 'Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen' which was in Post-Production at the time of his death.

This week we have six latest cinematic releases coming too your local Odeon, and we kick off with a sequel to a 1977 novel adapted into a classic horror film in 1980 by both a highly acclaimed and prolific author, and a regarded Director. This sequel picks up the story a few decades later with the young lad of that initial instalment now a grown man still fighting a few demons from his tormented childhood in a remote isolated Hotel during the Winter months, whilst coming to the aid of a young girl with similar powers to his own to combat a deadly foe. We then turn to a Spanish foreign language film about an ageing and ailing film Director who recounts his past life in order to seek some salvation for his future years. Next up is the first Christmas offering to herald in the festive film season with his love story about a hapless girl who seems to be unlucky in love and equally as unfortunate in life, but her life takes on an unexpected upturn when she meets a man, that leads her to question whether it's all too good to be true. And we close the week with a trio of Australian films, the first a film about loss and love set in the far outback of western New South Wales when a young local girl befriends an emu and the unlikely pair become firm friends; before a slasher horror offering about eight women who are hunted down in a deadly game of cat and mouse and all in the name of sport by eight crazed stalker killers, and finally a documentary shining a light on mens health from five very different characters living, working, surviving and doing their thing in very different environments.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six 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 most welcome 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.

'DOCTOR SLEEP' (Rated MA15+) - is an American horror film based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Stephen King, which is a sequel to King's 1977 novel 'The Shining'. The film, set several decades after the events of 'The Shining', combines elements of the 1977 novel and its 1980 film adaptation of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick. Doctor Sleep is Written, Directed, and Edited by Mike Flanagan whose previous credits take in such horror offerings as 2011's 'Absentia', 2013's 'Oculus', 2016's 'Hush', 'Before I Wake' and 'Ouija: Origin of Evil' and 2017's 'Gerald’s Game' again based on a Stephen King novel. Flanagan also created, Directed, Produced, Wrote, and Edited the Netflix supernatural horror series 'The Haunting of Hill House' in 2018, and he is currently developing a stand-alone second season, titled 'The Haunting of Bly Manor'. The film is released this week too in the US and Canada.

Struggling with alcoholism, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) remains traumatised by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel in the remote Colorado Rockies when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a teenager who shares his extrasensory gift of the 'shine'. Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat (Rebecca Fergusson) and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in order to become immortal. Forming an unlikely partnership, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra's innocence and fearless embrace of her shine force Dan to call upon his own powers as he has never had to do before facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts that he thought were firmly locked away in his closet. Also starring Cliff Curtis, Bruce Greenwood, Carl Lumbly and Alex Essoe.

'PAIN AND GLORY' (Rated MA15+) - is a 2019 Spanish drama film Directed and Written by the highly acclaimed and much awarded Spaniard Pedro Almodovar. The film was released in its native Spain in late March this year, saw its international debut at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where the film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, while Banderas won the award for Best Actor and Alberto Iglesias won for Best Soundtrack. 'Pain and Glory' has been selected as the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. The film tells of a series of reencounters experienced by Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a film Director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered: his childhood in the 60s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in the Madrid of the 1980's, the pain of the breakup of that love, writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable, the early discovery of cinema, and the void, the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he also finds his salvation. Also starring Penelope Cruz, Asier Etxeandia and Leonardo Sbaraglia, the film was released in the UK in late August, in the US in early October, has so far grossed US$31M and has garnered mostly positive Reviews.

'LAST CHRISTMAS' (Rated PG) - in this British RomCom Directed by American film maker and Actor Paul Feig whose previous Directorial movie outings take in 'Bridesmaids', 'The Heat', 'Spy', 'Ghostbusters' and 'A Simple Favour', with numerous television Directing and acting gigs in the meantime. Co-Produced, Co-Written for the screen and based on a story by Emma Thompson here we find a young woman named Kate (Emilia Clarke), who has been continuously unlucky and plagued by poor decisions, accepts a job as Santa's elf in a department store during the Christmas holidays. When Kate meets Tom (Henry Golding) on the job, her life takes an unexpected turn, but is it all too good to be true. Also starring Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson, this film costs US$30M to make, and is released this week too in the US and next week in the UK.

'EMU RUNNER' (Rated PG) - this Australian drama film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Imogen Thomas in her feature film debut and tells the story of the impact a mother's death has on an Aboriginal family living in an isolated community in western New South Wales, which is perched on an ancient river and surrounded by sprawling plains. The story is seen through the eyes of Gem (Rhae-Kye Waites), a spirited eight year-old girl, who deals with the grief of her mother's death by forging a bond with a wild emu, a mythical bird of her ancestors. This spiritual dreaming is a bond she will do anything to keep, but one that puts her at odds with the new social worker, and her loving father Jay Jay (Wayne Blair) who is at a loss on how to handle her somewhat wayward young daughter whose new found interest seems to be her only interest.

'THE FURIES' (Rated R18+) - here Australian Director and Writer Tony D'Aquino helms his first full length feature film, in the form of this Aussie outback horror slasher flick that is sure to please lovers of the genre. In it, we find a pair of rebellious high school students Kayla (Airlie Dodds) and her best friend Maddie (Ebony Vagulans) are stalked and abducted by a sinister presence while out bombing their neighbourhood with graffiti. Waking up in the woods, bound, disoriented and confined within a claustrophobic coffin-like box, Kayla's first thought is of Maddie. It's easy enough for her to breakout from her confines, but before she has a chance to ponder what fate has befallen her and her friend, Kayla notices a terrifying masked man fast approaching, armed with a razor-sharp axe. As a chase ensues, it soon becomes clear that Kayla and her pursuer are not alone. There are six more young women, each with a masked stalker assigned to them, hell-bent on murder. As the threat of more rampaging killers closes in, she races to save as many girls as she can in a deadly game of cat and mouse. But when the girls turn on each other, Kayla's killer instinct in unleashed and she does whatever it takes to survive and seek revenge on her abductors. Also starring Linda Ngo, Taylor Ferguson, Danielle Horvat, Jessica Baker, Kaitlyn Boye and Harriet Davies as the six other woman being hunted, with Steve Morris, Ben Toyer, Leon Stripp and Dean Gould as the stalking killers.

'HAPPY SAD MAN' (Rated M) - here Australian film maker and Co-Producer Genevieve Bailey brings us this documentary (which she also Edited and acted as Cinematographer) of men exploring their emotional selves. Here we journey from Bondi Beach to the outback; we laugh and cry alongside a war photographer travelling between global conflict zones (Jake), we visit a farmer and outreach worker from country Victoria (Ivan), an ageing hippie musical nomad and the inspiration behind the film (John), the founder of a non-profit surf community raising awareness of mental health (Grant), and a sensitive dog-loving artist (David). Each portrait is an intimate and heartwarming look into vulnerability, friendship and compassion. 'Happy Sad Man' is Bailey's second feature length documentary following 2011's 'I am Eleven' which was filmed in fifteen countries and in twelve languages over a period of six years to explore the lives of eleven year old children in different environments. It received critical acclaim and a theatrical release in Australia spanning more than eight months and was named New York Times Critic’s Pick when it opened across US cinemas. The film became the highest grossing Australian documentary to be released theatrically in the US – playing extended seasons and reaching over 100 cities. It won Best Documentary of the Year at the IF Awards in Sydney and awards in the US, France, Spain and Brazil.

With six new release movies 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. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

IT : CHAPTER TWO - Tuesday 10th September 2019.

'IT : CHAPTER TWO' is Rated MA15+  and here it is - the sequel to the hugely popular and successful 'IT' supernatural horror film of 2017 based on the 1986 Stephen King novel of the same name, which I saw earlier this week. That first instalment raked in US$701M at the global Box Office off the back of a production budget of US$35M making it the highest-grossing R-Rated horror film of all-time, the highest-grossing horror film internationally and the highest-grossing horror film of all time. The film also received positive reviews, with many Critics calling it one of the best Stephen King adaptations, and along the way it picked up eight award wins and a further 43 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit. This film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles at the end of August, and went on general release in the US and here in Australia last week. Off the back of a Production Budget of circa US$70M, the film has so far grossed US$221M and has generated for the most part positive Press. Both instalments have been Directed by Argentinian Andy Muschietti.

It is 2016 and we open up at the Derry Carnival at night, with fair ground rides, side stalls and attractions aplenty to occupy anyone and everyone. At the carnival we are introduced to Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) and his boyfriend Don Hagarty (Taylor Frey) who are attacked by a group of homophobic youths on their way home. Beating the pair up on the street out of view from the general public, the youths man handle a semi-conscious Mellon over a bridge and into the fast flowing river below. Hagarty, distraught, gives chase to his struggling boyfriend only to see him rescued from the river by Pennywise, who in turn kills him. Hagarty looks on helpless and horrified from the opposite riverbank. And so, twenty-seven years after the Losers Club defeated Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard), IT returns to terrorise the town of Derry, Maine once again. Later that same night Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) overhears the incident on a Police scanner of a dismembered body found down by the riverbank, and rushes to the scene.

Mike quickly realises that 'IT' has returned. He calls the other members of the Losers Club who have now all gone their separate and independent ways and have carved out successful careers for themselves away from Derry, all except Mike who has remained in Derry throughout all the passing years. He calls Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) now a successful mystery thriller writer based in LA and married to a famous Actress; Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) now a successful stand-up comedian also based in LA; Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) now a successful architect living in Nebraska and having slimmed down and toned up from the fat kid that he was; Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) who is now a successful risk assessor working for a major firm in New York City; Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) who is now a successful accountant working in Atlanta; and Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) who has become a successful fashion designer working in Chicago. They all take Mike's call, although need prompting to remember who Mike is as most are forgetful about their childhoods and disturbed by the calls, but agree to return given that they all swore a blood oath to reunite in Derry if Pennywise ever resurfaced. Stan, however, commits suicide after his call by slashing his wrists while taking a bath at home. Without knowing of Stanley's recent death, the Losers reunite at a local Chinese restaurant in Derry and slowly begin to remember their past over a few beers and a meal together, but then become terrified by a relentless onslaught of disturbing visions and horrific taunts implanted in their sub-conscious but seemingly very real, created by IT.

Once outside the restaurant after the horrifying visions have subsided, Beverly tries to connect with Stanley only to reach his distraught wife who informs her that he committed suicide. Richie and Eddie have already seen and heard enough, and decide to leave while Mike reveals to Bill that he met with a Native American tribe who showed him a vision of IT arriving to Earth from the stars decades ago, and informed him of the 'Ritual of Chud', the means to destroy IT forever. Bill and Mike are able to convince Richie and Eddie to stay and finish what was started. Henry Bowers (Teach Grant), having survived his apparent death, had been confined to a mental hospital for killing his father and two friends back in 1989, and with the help of IT, he escapes, intent of seeing off the Losers Club finally, one by one.

For the Ritual of Chud to be successful, each Loser must find an artifact of some personal significance from their past. Beverly goes to her old home and finds the love letter Ben wrote for her, though she still believes Bill wrote it. A Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) now lives there - a seemingly sweet and gentle old lady who invites Beverly in for a nice cup of tea, but minutes later it turns out that Mrs. Kersh is anything but, as an insidious monster manifests itself and rampages through the house attacking Beverly who hallucinates other visions of Pennywise before finally escaping.

Bill meanwhile comes across a second hand shop where in the window is his old bike from when he was a kid. He goes into the store and is greeted by the shop keeper played in cameo by Stephen King who sells Bill back his bike for US$300 - steep, but as a successful author he knows that he can afford it. Bill then cycles back to his former house and goes to the storm drain where his younger brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) was killed in October 1988 and recovers his paper boat before meeting a boy named Dean (Luke Roessler), who tells Bill that he lives in Bill's old house and often hears voices coming up through the drain in the bath. 

Ben goes to the town's high school and finds his old yearbook page, which Beverly was the only person to sign. Eddie goes to a pharmacy and recovers an inhaler. Richie goes to an abandoned arcade where he finds a game token, but afterwards is confronted in the town's park by Pennywise whose taunts him with threats to reveal his dirty little secret to the world. After all have managed to evade individual encounters with IT, the Losers use a shower cap retrieved from their secret forest childhood clubhouse for Stan, and Mike finds the rock that started their fight against the Bowers gang all those years ago.

Back at the guesthouse where all but Mike are staying, Bill and Beverly share a kiss before a skateboard caked in blood and with a message written on the underside comes rolling down the staircase. Bill recognises the board from his earlier encounter with young Dean, and realises that IT is going after Dean, and chases him to the carnival in an attempt to save the boy. He sees Dean disappear into the Clown Funhouse, and into a maze of mirrors and glass panels. There he comes across Dean but on the other side of a glass panel and therefore out of reach, as Pennywise appears on the other side of Dean, also separated by a glass panel. Pennywise repeatedly slams his head against the glass panel so cracking it and so giving him access to the boy, who then devours him. 

Traumatised by his failure to save both Georgie and Dean, he returns to the run down abandoned house at 29, Neibolt Street, to murder IT alone. Bowers attacks and wounds Eddie by stabbing him in the face with his knife, but survives and in turn pulls the knife from his severely bloodied cheek and stabs Bowers in the chest. Mike is at the library waiting for the other Losers to rendezvous with him there, and is attacked by Bowers but is killed by Richie arriving just in time. The rest of the Losers depart for the Neibolt house to aid Bill, as they had always vowed to stick together to thwart IT.

Once inside the house, it is seen to have fallen further into a state of disrepair and seemingly horrors awaiting at every turn and in every decrepit room. After confronting various horrors all conjured up by IT, the group descends into an extensive cavern buried deep beneath the house and through the sewers in order to complete the Ritual. 

In forming a circle, holding hands and repeating a chant directed by Mike, the group seem to have early success, until IT reveals that he is able to withstand the Ritual, unaffected. IT takes on a giant, spider-like form with Pennywise's head, and pressures Mike into revealing to the Losers that the Natives who attempted the Ritual in the past all died in the process. 

The Losers are then all individually thrown into nightmarish scenarios that they must endure, but from which they all manage to escape from before arriving back inside the cavern from whence they came. Richie is hypnotised and elevated by IT's hypnotic 'deadlight' eyes and is about to be killed, but Eddie comes to his rescue and is immediately impaled by IT's razor sharp spider legs in the process. 

The Losers regroup and come to the realisation that IT can be killed if they stand up to IT, face their fears, show IT that they are no longer afraid and make IT feel smaller than he actually is. They surround and berate IT repeatedly with a barrage of insults making IT shrink physically and weaken mentally until they are able to tear out IT's heart and crush it so extinguishing all life from IT. At this point, the cavern begins to implode and Eddie dies from his injuries despite Richie's attempts to save him. The remaining group now need to race against time to exit the rapidly crumbling cavern and get back to the surface before it all comes crashing down around them and on top of them. They do so just about, and exit through the front door of 29, Neibolt Street, before the house collapses in on itself in a heap of old timbers and dust. 

The remaining Losers return to the quarry where they once swam together and jump in from the cliff top high above the lake to wash off the dust, the dirt, debris and blood. Sometime later, the Losers all individually receive posthumous letters from Stanley, detailing that he thought he would've held them back, but knew they could defeat IT if they were brave enough without him. Mike is seen to be packing up his belongings into his car as he decides to move out of Derry to start a new life.

Also starring as their younger selves are Jaeden Martell (aka Jaeden Lieberher) as the younger Bill,  Sophia Lillis as the younger Beverly, Jeremy Ray Taylor as the younger Ben, Finn Wolfhard as younger Richie, Chosen Jacobs as younger Mike, Jack Dylan Grazer as younger Eddie and Wyatt Oleff as younger Stanley. All those portraying their younger selves reprise their roles from the first film.

I did enjoy 'IT : Chapter Two', but not quite as much as Chapter One and felt that it meandered somewhat and at a running time of two hours and 49 minutes could have done with  little more scrutiny in the editing suite I thought. That said, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise remains as menacing and as devilishly dastardly as he did in the first instalment, and the now adult members of the Losers Club are well cast and seem to share a nervous chemistry that just heightens their on-screen presence, interspersed with flashbacks to their younger selves that serves to recapture the essence of the first film. Director Andy Muschietti doesn't hold back on the gore, the monster effects, and the horror scares that you can see coming from a mile away but still deliver the necessary jolt to maintain the interest throughout. Certainly worth the price of your movie ticket to see the conclusion to the story that comes full circle, albeit a little too long, melodramatic at times and just a tad predictable in places.

'IT : Chapter Two' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 4th April 2019.

In March the world bid a fond farewell to a 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 . . . . Luke Perry, Larry Cohen and Jan-Michael Vincent.

* Luke Perry, born Coy Luther Perry III on October 11th 1966, died March 4th 2019, aged 52. Perry moved to Los Angeles shortly after high school in 1984 to pursue a career in acting. Come 1988, and Perry had already auditioned for 256 acting gigs before receiving his first accepted role. After moving to New York, his earliest roles were on daytime soap operas - one episode on 'Loving' and ten episodes on long running NBC series 'Another World'. In 1990 he scored his breakout role as Dylan McKay on the popular 'Beverly Hills, 90210' until 1995 and then he reprised this role for the closing three seasons from 1998 to 2000 starring in 199 episodes overall. In the meantime Perry took roles in feature films including 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'The Fifth Element' and 'The Florentine'. During this time he also lent his voice talents to multiple animated series including 'Biker Mice from Mars', 'Mortal Kombat : Defenders of the Realm', 'The Incredible Hulk' and 'The Night of the Headless Horseman'. The 2000's saw a raft of direct to video release films with a few limited theatrical releases including 'Dishdogz', 'Redemption Road', 'Red Wing' and his last film due for release mid year this year is Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'. During these years he also starred in a raft of television series with recurring roles, taking in ten episodes on 'Oz' and 35 episodes in its follow up series 'Jeremiah', thirteen episodes on 'Windfall', ten episodes on 'John from Cincinnati', five on 'Body of Proof' and most recently on three seasons over 48 episodes of 'Riverdale' with a fourth season announced just weeks before his death. All up Perry had 95 Acting credits to his name, seven as Producer, one as Director and one as Writer. He was the recipient of two award wins and another six nominations.

* Larry Cohen, born Lawrence George Cohen on July 15th 1936, died March 23rd 2019, aged 92. Cohen was an American film Producer, Director and Screenwriter perhaps best known as a B-movie auteur of horror and science-fiction films mostly during the 1970's and '80's. During his career he amassed 86 film and television writing credits, twenty Producer credits and 21 as Director. His Directing credits included the likes of 'It's Alive' and its 1978 sequel 'It Lives Again' and its follow up 1987 'It's Alive III : Island of the Alive'. Then there has also been 'The Stuff', 'A Return to Salem's Lot', 'Deadly Illusion', 'The Ambulance', 'As Good As Dead' and his last feature length film 1996's 'Original Gangstas'. His Screenwriting career launched back in the late '50's and continued right through until 2009 taking in such credits more recently as 'Phone Booth', 'Cellular', 'Captivity', 'Connected' and 'Messages Deleted'.

* Jan-Michael Vincent - was born July 15th 1945, died February 10th 2019, aged 73, although his death was not made public until March 8th. He was an American Actor, probably most well known for his role in four seasons of television series 'Airwolf' which ran from 1984 though to 1987 as Stringfellow Hawke opposite Ernest Borgnine. Additionally, perhaps his most famed film roles were in 1972's 'The Mechanic' opposite Charles Bronson, and 1978's Californian surfing classic 'Big Wednesday'. In a career that launched in the late '60's Vincent starred in the likes of 'Damnation Alley', 'Hooper', 'Defiance', 'Hard Country', 'Last Plane Out', 'Hit List' and 'Buffalo '66'. Among his television work he appeared in single and multiple episodes of 'Dragnet', 'Lassie', 'Bonanza', 'The Survivors', 'Tribes', 'The Persuaders', 'Police Story', mini-series 'The Winds of War', 'Hotel' and 'Nash Bridges'. Vincent battled drug and alcohol addiction for much of his life. He was arrested for possessing cocaine in 1977, '78, and '79 and in 1984 and '85 was arrested for taking part in two separate bar brawls. He was charged with assault in 1986 but acquitted, was arrested for drunk driving in 1988, and during the '90's was involved in three serious car accidents which almost cost him his life. In 2000 he violated his probation, appeared drunk in public three times, assaulted his future wife and was sentenced to sixty days jail time. He was involved in another car accident in 2008. In 2012 he had his right leg amputated just below the knee after contracting a leg infection. He walked thereafter with a prosthetic limb. All up Vincent had 84 acting credits to his name, and he collected two award wins and another five nominations including two Golden Globe nods.

Turning attention then to this week, we have five latest release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with another Superhero offering, this time from the DC Extended Universe that introduces us to a new character  - a young teenage kid who is able to turn into an adult Superhero version of himself just by uttering one simple word. Then we turn to the second rendition of this horror film based on a story by acclaimed and prolific horror author Stephen King that gets a new updated treatment compared to the 1989 film version about a mysterious burial ground found in the woods behind a rural home. Next up we have a crime thriller set back in the late '80's which sees a former hit man now dying of cancer on the run from his former Boss, as he tries to get back to his home town with a former hostage whom he has rescued in tow. This is followed by a mid-'90's set coming of age story about a young lad who gets involved with a group of skateboarders and is led astray. We then wrap up the week with a biographical drama about the last three years of this famed Irish poet at the end of the 19th Century, who despite his fame and popularity was disgraced and died practically friendless and penniless.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five 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 most welcome 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.

'SHAZAM' (Rated M) - here comes the seventh instalment in the DC Extended Universe based on the DC Comics of the same name which first appeared in 1939 under his original name 'Captain Marvel' and subsequently changed to 'Shazam' in 1972 due to trademark conflicts over another character named 'Captain Marvel' owned by Marvel Comics. He is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a boy who, by speaking the magic word 'SHAZAM' (an acronym of six 'immortal elders', being Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury), can transform himself into a costumed adult with the powers of superhuman strength, speed, flight and various other abilities. The film cost in the region of US$100M to bring to the big screen, is Directed by David F. Sandberg, is released in the US this week too and has so far received generally favourable Reviews with some describing it as one of the best Superhero films.

One year after Steppenwolf's invasion (last seen in 'Justice League') troubled fourteen year-old orphan Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is set to move in with the Vazquez family and their other five foster kids. One day, Billy gets on a subway car and finds himself transported to a different realm where the ancient wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) seeking a successor, gives him the power to transform into a godlike adult superhero (Zachary Levi) by uttering the word 'Shazam!' Billy and his new foster brother and best friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) must discover Billy's new powers and how to use them to prevent the villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who has powers of his own, from committing various dastardly deeds.

'PET SEMATARY' (Rated MA15+) - based on the 1983 horror novel of the same name by Stephen King, this is the second adaptation of that novel - the first coming in 1989 also titled 'Pet Sematary' which was made for US$11.5M and grossed US$58M which spawned a sequel in 1992 'Pet Sematary Two' which grossed just US$17M. Now in 2019, based on the source material with a new treatment, this offering is Directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, saw its World Premier at SXSW recently and has garnered generally positive Reviews with some Critics hailing it as one of King's best movie adaptations. Here the story follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children, Ellie and Gage, from Boston to small town Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the forest near the family's new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbour, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), that sparks a perilous chain reaction that sets forth an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences! The film is released in the US this week too.

'GALVESTON' (Rated MA15+) - this American crime thriller saw its World Premier screening at South by Southwest back in March 2018, got a release in the US back in October last year and only now does it gain a limited showing in Australia. Directed by French Actress, Screenwriter, Director, singer and pianist Melanie Laurent in her English language Directorial debut, here she weaves a story set in 1988 centering around Roy (Ben Foster), a heavy-drinking criminal enforcer and mob hit man whose boss set him up in a double-cross caper not knowing that he had been diagnosed earlier with terminal lung cancer. After killing his would-be assassins before they could kill him, Roy discovers Rocky (Elle Fanning), a young escort being held captive, and reluctantly takes her with him on his journey back to his hometown of Galveston. Determined to find safety and sanctuary there, Roy must find a way to stop his boss from pursuing them while trying to outrun the demons from his and Rocky's past lives. The film has a fairly short running time of just 94 minutes and has generated mixed or average Reviews.

'MID90s' (Rated MA15+) - here this American coming of age comedy drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jonah Hill in his Directorial debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at TIFF back in early September, went on general release in the US in October, has so far grossed US$8M and has garnered largely positive Reviews so far. Set in the mid-'90's, we join thirteen year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic) who lives in Los Angeles with his aggressive, fitness-obsessed older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges) and single mother Dabney (Katherine Waterston). One day Stevie rides his bike past Motor Avenue Skateshop, admires the macho mateship of skateboarders outside, and returns the next day. Back home, Stevie trades with his brother for a skateboard, brings it to the shop and befriends young skater Ruben (Gio Galicia), who introduces him to the others in the group -  Ray (Na-Kel Smith), 'Fuckshit' (Olan Prenatt) and 'Fourth Grade' (Ryder McLaughlin). Although an inexperienced skater, Stevie is drawn to the group and aspires to imitate their daredevil behaviour and anti-social attitudes. This is his story.

'THE HAPPY PRINCE' (Rated MA15+) - recounting the final three years in the life of Oscar Wilde, here Rupert Everett Directs, Writes and stars in his Directing debut as Oscar Wilde, the famed Irish poet and playwright. Following his highly publicised trial in 1895, in which Wilde was convicted of 'gross indecency' he was sentenced to two years prison hard labour. During this time the majority of his friends turn their back on him. In 1897 he was released, and he went into exile in France suffering from poor health and died three years later, practically without friends and destitute. The films title is a reference to the children's story by Wilde 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales' first published in 1888, which the poet would read out loud to his children. Also starring Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and John Standing, the film saw its Premier at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2018, was released in the UK mid-last year and only now does it get a turn in Australia. The film has made US$2.2M and has received generally favourable Reviews.

With five new release movies 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. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

IT : Tuesday 12th September 2017.

'IT' which I saw earlier this week is the Stephen King penned remake of the 1990 two part television mini-series, based on his acclaimed and best selling 1986 horror story 'It'. Since 2009 this film has been in development, with Cary Fukunaga first announced to Direct and Co-Write the film, but subsequently dropping out in 2015 due to disagreements with Production Company, New Line, over the direction that he wanted to take the film in. Subsequently Argentinian Director, Andres Muschietti was announced to Direct, whose previous credit was his debut feature with 2013's supernatural horror offering 'Mama' with Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. 'It' was released in the US last week too, and cost a budgeted US$35M, and has so far grossed US$218M breaking numerous Box Office records in the process too. The film has been critically acclaimed as perhaps the best and most faithful to the source material of all Stephen King's works thus far committed to celluloid. As the end credits tell us, this is 'IT - Chapter One' - the first instalment in a two part series.

The film kicks off with a rain soaked day in October 1988 in the small community of Derry, Maine with young teenager Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) making a sailboat out of note paper and waxing it to make it waterproof, for his young seven year old brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) to go and play with in the pouring rain. Georgie releases the boat into the gutter and it sails away at a rate faster than he can keep up, eventually washing down into a storm drain.

As young Georgie peers after his lost boat into the narrow drain inlet, he is startled by a man dressed as a clown who introduces himself as 'Pennywise, the Dancing Clown' (Bill Skarsgard). The clown states that the storm washed the circus, and him, down into the sewers, and he offers the young lad his boat back, saying that he should reach in to take it. As Georgie reaches in to the drain to retrieve his boat, his arm is bitten off at the shoulder by Pennywise. Falling backwards out of shock, and scrambling around in the pouring rain, Georgie is dragged backwards by his legs into the storm drain . . . never to be seen again, with his blood quickly being washed away by the torrents of rainwater.

Fast forward to June 1989 and its the last day of term at Derry High School. Bill and a few of his best mates Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff) run into school bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) and his gang, who are intent on picking on the much younger lads and making their life a misery. At the same time Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) is picked on for being the school slut and has a confrontation in the female toilets with another highly opinionated ringleader of a pack of girls. Recovering from this and exiting the school building she runs into Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), a new kid at school, who is also bullied because of his weight problem, but he harbours a secret crush on Beverly. The pair chat for a while, she signs his year book, and they go their separate ways.

Later we see Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) making a delivery to a local Butcher's shop. He has a close terrifying encounter with Pennywise before nearly getting mowed down by Henry Bowers in his car. Bill meanwhile has a theory that Georgie was washed down into Derry's intricate sewer system and would have washed out in an area known as The Barrens. He enlists the help of his mates to check out the exiting storm drain at The Barrens to look for signs of Georgie. Ben visits the school library even though it is now officially the Summer Holidays and studies up on the history of old Derry, learning of the towns mystery with unsolved murders, unexplained disappearances, and strange goings on that have been occurring for centuries. He is lured down into the library basement by a dancing red balloon gliding across the floor and has a close encounter too with Pennywise in the form of a rampaging badly burnt headless boy.

Later Ben runs into Henry Bowers gang, and narrowly escaping them by tumbling down a steep embankment he runs along a riverbed and ends up at The Barrens where Bill and his mates are investigating the storm drain exit. With Beverly's help they get first aid supplies to help clean up Ben from his ordeal at the hands of Bowers. The next day, the group spend swimming in a quarry lake, and afterward while relaxing in the sunshine they recount their experiences with the mysterious and menacing clown. Afterwards Eddie passes by an abandoned ramshackle old house on Neibolt Street, and comes face to face with the clown carrying a bunch of red balloons who then manifests itself into the rotting corpse of a leper who gives chase after him.

Stan later has a terrifying ordeal with the clown who assumes the identity of an animated painting of a disfigured woman that has always given him the creeps; and Beverly hears the distant voices of children calling up to her from the plug hole in her bathroom sink. Upon closer examination she is held fast by her own cut hair as it wraps around her head, her arms and her legs and steadily pulls her in towards the plug hole before an eruption of blood coats her from head to toe and the entire bathroom too. Later that night Bill is awakened by strange noises elsewhere in the house and is lured down into the basement where he confronts Georgie lurking in a corner . . . but it's not Georgie, it's Pennywise from whom he narrowly escapes back up the stairs.

Some weeks later 'The Losers Club', as the now gang of seven affectionately refer to themselves as, have a moment of clarity as they realise that they are all being besieged by the same horrific entity, who seems to feed off their own fears, insecurities and anxieties, and turns these against them. While in Bill's garage viewing photographic slides of old Derry superimposed over a map of current Derry, Ben announces that there is a 27 year pattern going back to the turn of the century of unexplained and mysterious occurrences in their town resulting in death, destruction and disappearances. The slideshow they are watching of the old and new town maps indicates that Derry's Well is the central hub from which the towns sewer systems branches out. That Well is located in the ramshackle abandoned old house on Neibolt Street, and it is this conduit that allows Pennywise to move about town quickly and unseen.

Bill, Richie and Eddie venture upto the Neibolt Street house while the others stand guard outside. Pennywise attempts to pick the three boys off one by one, by luring them into different parts of the house with varying visions. Eddie falls through a hole in the floor to a room below, fracturing his arm in the process. Pennywise emerges from a fridge, and is about to kill Eddie when he is impaled through the head by a metal spike courtesy of Beverly, causing the clown to make a hasty retreat down the Well, but not before slashing Ben in the stomach with his clawed hands.

Outside the house Eddie's over protective and over bearing mother arrives and quickly whisks him way, horrified by the boys antics. Richie, Stan and Mike elect to have no more to do with Bill and his plans to locate Georgie and thwart Pennywise, because its all too dangerous and its the Summer Holidays and they are supposed to be enjoying themselves. Later on, Beverly is abducted by Pennywise, after she knocks out her father for fear of being raped by him. Bill visits the house to find her unconscious father on the bathroom floor with blood oozing from his head, and deduces that Pennywise has Beverly. He quickly rallies The Losers to mount a search and rescue mission.

Back at the Neibolt Street house, The Losers gain entry down the Well and emerge in a labyrinth of sewer tunnels. Stan is separated from the others and Pennywise attacks, but is fended off when the others arrive just in time. They emerge into a huge cavernous underground cooling tower which is filled with what appears to be a mountain of rotting circus equipment, the clothes and personal belongings of Pennywise's victims going back centuries, and hovering mid way up the tower are the suspended floating corpses of missing children. They rescue Beverly from her state of Pennywise induced suspended animation, just as Georgie emerges saying to Bill that it's time to go home. Bill is at first taken in, but then realises that Georgie really is dead, and recognising the ruse shoots Georgie through the head with a captive bolt pistol brought along by Mike, temporarily on 'loan' from his Grandfathers sheep farm. The lifeless body of Georgie then transforms into Pennywise.

The group descend on the clown beating it with a baseball bat, sticks, metal rods and whatever they can find lying around. Pennywise overpowers them taking Bill hostage and offers to trade them Bill for sparing the lives of all the other Losers. Richie seemingly agrees and then turns the tables on Pennywise, which gives The Losers the opportunity to brutally attack the clown and free their friend. Pennywise is mortally wounded, and Bill states that they are no longer afraid of him, that he cannot turn their fears against them, and so he is powerless now against them. The clown backs into the lip of a deep pit and starts to dissolve before falling into oblivion. Bill discovers the yellow raincoat of his younger brother with his name etched on the inside and breaks down, with his friends all comforting him.

One month later when the dust has settled and a degree of normalcy has returned to Derry, The Losers gather and make a blood oath to return to Derry 27 years from now, if It comes back and terrorises the town, and that they will destroy it once and for all.

'It' reminded me to some degree of 'Stand By Me' and the recent popular Netflix series 'Stranger Things' with common themes running through them. This film has some genuine jump scares to keep the tension and the suspense ramped up, and equally some moments of levity with laugh out loud moments, largely delivered by the fast talking potty mouthed Richie Tozier. The young cast are well matched and deliver convincing characterisation, and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise delivers on the maniacal menace with aplomb, although as the film progresses and we see more of The Dancing Clown, the more predictable he becomes and therefore less scary. At 135 minutes running time the film moves along at a good pace and maintains the attention with equal measure of frights and early teenage coming of age emotion. A solid horror offering that does not disappoint given the social media attention the early trailers garnered and the subsequent expectations. Bring on 'It - Chapter Two', which is set up nicely with a post credits audio teaser.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-