Birthday's to share this week : 5th-11th June 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Peter Dinklage does on 11th June - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 47, 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 5th June

• Kathleen Kennedy - Born 1953, turns 63 - Producer
• Mark Wahlberg - Born 1971, turns 45 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter

Monday 6th June

• Paul Giamatti - Born 1967, turns 49 - Actor | Producer
• Jonathan Nolan - Born 1976, turns 40 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Robert Englund - Born 1947, turns 69 - Actor | Director
• Jason Isaacs - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actor | Producer
• Sandra Bernhard - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actress | Writer

Tuesday 7th June

• Liam Neeson - Born 1952, turns 64 - Actor
• Karl Urban - Born 1972, turns 44 - Actor
• William Forsythe - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Ronald Pickup - Born 1940, turns 76 - Actor
• Bill Hader - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Michael Cera - Born 1988, turns 28 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Composer | Singer  

Wednesday 8th June

• Jerry Stiller - Born 1927, turns 89 - Actor | Producer
• Griffin Dunne - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Producer | Director  

Thursday 9th June

• Michael J. Fox - Born 1961, turns 55 - Actor | Producer
• Johnny Depp - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Director | Singer
• David Koepp - Born 1963, turns 53 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Aaron Sorkin - Born 1961, turns 55 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor
• Natalie Portman - Born 1981, turns 35 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director 

Friday 10th June

• Jeanne Tripplehorn - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress
• Elizabeth Hurley - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actress | Producer
• Leelee Sobieski - Born 1983, turns 33 - Actress | Producer
• Andrew Niccol - Born 1964, turns 52 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Jurgen Prochnow - Born 1941, turns 75 - Actor  

Saturday 11th June

• Gene Wilder - Born 1933, turns 83 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer
• Hugh Laurie - Born 1959, turns 57 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer | Songwriter
• Peter Dinklage - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Shia LaBeouf - Born 1986, turns 30 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director

Peter Hayden Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey to mother Diane Dinklage, an elementary school music teacher and father John Dinklage, an insurance salesman, now retired. He was born with 'achondroplasia' - a common cause of dwarfism whereby those with it are effected by short stature typically being an average height of 130 cms, or 52 inches, for men and generally associated with late paternal age or inherited as a genetic disorder. Dinklage has a brother, a violinist, who is of normal build and stature. All that said, the young Dinklage got his first stab at theatre success in a school production of Margery Williams 1922 book 'The Velveteen Rabbit' playing the lead role of the young boy given the said rabbit as a present. He graduated from the private Roman Catholic all boys prep-school, Delbarton School in Morristown in 1987 having honed his acting talents throughout his school life. He then went on to the private arts college - Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, from which he graduated in 1999 with a degree in drama.

He got his first break in the 1995 film 'Living in Oblivion' - a film about film making starring Steve Buscemi, Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener with Dinklage playing a dwarf actor complaining about being typecast. After a couple of uncredited roles, 1998 saw 'Safe Men' with Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo, Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn and comedy 'Pigeonholed' closing out the decade. A couple of appearances on television series episodes followed before 'Never Again', and then for Director Michael Gondry came 'Human Nature' with Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans and Patricia Arquette in 2001, and then '13 Moons' a year later with Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell, Peter Stormare and Jennifer Beals, and 'Just a Kiss' that same year.

His breakout role however, came in 2003 with Tom McCarthy's 'The Station Agent' with Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Williams and John Slattery. For his performance as Finbar McBride, Dinklage won numerous awards and further nominations. 'Tiptoes' followed that same years with Gary Oldman, Matthew McConaughey, Patricia Arquette and Kate Beckinsale, with Jon Favreau's 'Elf' with Will Ferrell, James Caan and Edward Asner as Santa closing out that year.

In the years that followed there were a number of short films, television series appearances, and made for TV movies with feature films in between such as 'The Baxter', 'Escape Artists' a remake of 'Lassie', 'Fortunes', 'The Limbo Room', true Mafia courtroom drama 'Find Me Guilty' for Sidney Lumet with Vin Diesel, 'Little Fugitive', and 'Penelope' with James McAvoy, Richard E. Grant, Reece Witherspoon and Christina Ricci, with seven episodes on 'Nip/Tuck' closing out 2006.

The Frank Oz Directed 'Death at a Funeral' saw Dinklage star in this British version in 2007 with Matthew Macfadyen and Ewen Bremner, and then he starred in the US version of the same film in 2010 with Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Kevin Hart, Danny Glover and Keith David. In between time there was 'Ascension Day', 'Underdog', 'The Chronicle of Narnia : Prince Caspian', 'St. John of Las Vegas' with Steve Buscemi again, and then the Aussie RomCom 'I Love You Too', 'Pete Smalls is Dead' with Steve Buscemi once more and 'The Last Rites of Ransom Pride' closing out the noughties.

'A Little Bit of Heaven' with Kate Hudson, Kathy Bates, Whoopi Goldberg and Rosemary DeWitt kicked off 2011. Then came 'A Case of You' with Sam Rockwell once more and Justin Long, 'The Knights of Badassdom' with Steve Zahn again and Ryan Kwanten, then biopic 'Low Down' and 'X-Men : Days of Future Past' as Bolivar Trask.

Following on from these there was 'The Angriest Man in Brooklyn' with the late great Robin Williams, then 'Taxi', 'Pixels' for Chris Columbus with Adam Sandler and Kevin James, and 'The Boss' with Melissa McCarthy bringing us up to date. In the meantime, Dinklage lent his voice talents to 'Ice Age : Continental Drift' as Captain Gutt and 'The Angry Birds Movie' most recently as Mighty Eagle.

Let's of course not forget his multi-awed winning role as Tyrion Lannister on 55 episodes so far of 'Game of Thrones' for which he has won a Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmy's and a Satellite Award rounding out a 'GOT' haul of eight award wins and a further 27 nominations. Next up, currently in post-production of 'Rememory' with Anton Yelchin and Julia Ormond, currently filming is 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' for Martin McDonagh with Sam Rockwell once more, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish and Frances McDormand, and 'The Thicket' in pre-production.

All up Dinklage has sixty-six acting credits to his name, three Producer credits, and he has twelve award wins and 39 other nominations. In 2005 he married Erica Schmidt, a theatre Director with whom he has  daughter born in 2011. He has been a vegetarian since sixteen years of age, is a supporter of the American animal protection organisation 'Farm Sanctuary' and narrated 'Face Your Food' - a film promoting a vegan diet for ethical reasons.

Peter Dinklage - proud to be of shorter stature; proud to be an animal lover; frequently appears with Steve Buscemi and Sam Rockwell especially; a private hermit like person now of world renown thanks to 'GOT'; and clearly now very much in the spotlight and keeping us entertained and glued to the small screen and the big screen too. Good things . . . come in small packages! Happy Birthday to you Peter - from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 14th April 2016.

Over the last few weeks, I have brought you my view of the Top 12 movies to watch out for this remaining year, and last week took that one step further with a 'Best of the Rest' listing another six taking us up to the mid-year this year, with the balance of six for the latter half of the year presented below for your consideration and scrutiny of their cinematic worthiness. These are naturally just my humble opinion for what it's worth and you are of course free to conduct your own research as movies are released into a theatre near you. Check the release dates nearer the time as these may vary of course depending on what territory you are in, and what the studio thinks near the time. Here they are - the remaining six 'Best of the Rest' :-

• 16th June - 'WARCRAFT' - Duncan Jones Directs this big screen adaptation of the world popular action fantasy videogame starring Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Toby Kebbell and Clancy Brown.
• 30th June - 'THE LEGEND OF TARZAN' - Directed by David Yates with Alexander Skarsgard in the role of the ever popular Edgar Rice Burroughs tree swinging character with Samuel L. Jackson, John Hurt, Christoph Waltz and Margot Robbie in the line up.
• 18th August - 'BEN HUR' - this Biblical epic has of course been made once before to great record breaking and award winning effect with the classic 1959 Charlton Heston adaptation.  Here Timur Bekmambetov Directs with all the latest 21st Century gadgetry and technology at his fingertips with Jack Huston in the title role with Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell and Rodrigo Santoro. Curiosity will drag you to this one I think, unless you have no idea what the 1959 film is all about and you go into it completely fresh and unknowing . . . as many will!
• October 14th - 'INFERNO' - no, not of the Towering kind, but of the Dante kind and the Dan Brown kind which sees Ron Howard Directing this authors best selling work once again with Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon the intrepid symbolist, which sees our reluctant hero racing against time to shake of amnesia, clear his name and solve another intricate riddle across the streets, historical locations and hidden chambers of Florence. Felicity Jones, Omar Sy and Ben Foster also star.
• October 20th - 'JACK REACHER 2' - Edward Zwick Directs Tom Cruise in his second instalment as Jack Reacher - a former US Army Military Police Corps Officer and now a loner drifter, based on the Lee Child novel 'Never Go Back'. 
• December 15th - 'ROGUE ONE : A STAR WARS STORY' - Directed by Gareth Edwards this is a stand alone feature not part of any episode seen so far on the big screen, but fitting into the mythology before the time of 'A New Hope' with Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whittaker, Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn starring.

This week there are three new cinematic offerings that kick off with the third instalment in a four-part franchise of teenage dystopia taking a new twist as our characters venture over the wall to save the world; then corporate greed coming undone in this comedy of the imprisoned wrongdoer trying to do right upon release; and then wrapping up an Aussie outback doco of music, kids and a teacher on a mission.

With these, and those out there still doing the rounds at your local multiplex, share your movie experience with your friends here at Odeon Online, by leaving your own critique in the Comments section below this or any other Post - we'd love to hear from you. Between now and then, enjoy your movie.

'ALLEGIANT' (Rated M) - the third instalment in the popular teenage dystopian Sci-Fi series of books by Veronica Roth follows on from 'Divergent' and last years 'Insurgent' which made US$289M and US$298M respectively off the back of a combined US$195M budget, so hardly blockbuster status. Like 'Potter', 'Twilight' and 'The Hunger Games' before it, the final book in the Divergent series is split into two films with the final piece of this puzzle 'Ascendant' due for release in June 2017. In the meantime, 'Allegiant' is Directed by Robert Schwentke, who also Directed 'Insurgent', and was made for US$110M and since its release in the US on 18th March has so far made US$137M. The film has so far received largely luke warm reviews, but is likely to find an audience for this so far following the exploits of Tris Prior & Co.

Here we see the same bunch of characters that you by now know, with Tris (Shailene Woodley) escaping the confines of a walled in Chicago of the future with Four (Theo James) for the first time, so leaving behind everything and (almost) everyone she knows and loves. Going in search of an end to the warring factions and the revelations that became known in 'Insurgent' to find a peaceful resolution, her discoveries on the 'outside' cast aside everything she thought she knew before as shocking truths are revealed and a new battle threatens their existence, and that of humanity. Having to work out quickly who they can & can't trust, Tris must also make difficult personal choices to ensure her own safety and future that surround courage, love, sacrifice and where her allegiances lie. Also starring once again, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoe Kravitz, Ashley Judd, Naomi Watts, Daniel Dae Kim and Maggie Q, with Jeff Daniels and Bill Skarsgard joining the crew too. 

'THE BOSS' (Rated MA15+) - Directed, Produced and Written by Ben Falcone (husband of Melissa McCarthy) and Produced, Written and starring Melissa McCarthy this film cost US$29M to make and also stars Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage and Kathy Bates. McCarthy is Michelle Darnell, a champion of industry with a reputation of always getting her way, until the day comes when she is convicted of insider trading and  sent down for a jail term. Having served her sentence, she is released broke, homeless and not liked at all by those she once knew. Tracking down Claire (Kristen Bell), a former employee who seems to be the only person pleased to see her, offers to help her old Boss get back on the gravy train. While staying with Claire and her daughter, Michelle hits upon a idea to launch a new business that will win over the hearts. minds and stomachs of the American people and bring them out on top again but with credibility, integrity and responsibility. But in so doing there are those who are former enemies and would like nothing more than to see Michelle fail.

'WIDE OPEN SKY' (Rated G) -  with the back drop of remote western New South Wales in Australia this is the outback with the highest proportion of 5-14 year olds in the State, has the highest proportion of indigenous children and 40% of the population are classified as low income earners. With little music education in the region, Michelle Leonard formed the Moorambilla Voices Choir some ten years ago - a choral based programme for children aged 8-18 from across the region and sourced from over 55 schools spread across 30 towns, teaching them contemporary, complex and original music rather than the more traditional music taught to most school choirs. The film charts Michelle's story together with that of four young children and an ensemble of 200 others who dare to dream big, who have faith in their teacher, and who want to be part of something bigger when they perform at a concert at Coonamble. Written, Produced and Directed by Lisa Nichol this will be an uplifting, heart warming, passionate story of how important music is, and how it can make such a difference to young lives.

With three new film this week, you can add these to your must-see list together with those still out there on general release and still doing the rounds. After you have sat through your movie(s) of choice, share your thoughts, and in the meantime, I'll see you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-