Birthday's to share this week : 13th - 19th August 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Taika Waititi does on 16th August - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 42, 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 13th August

• Paul Greengrass - Born 1955, turns 62 - Director | Writer | Producer
• John Slattery - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Director | Writer | Producer
• Sebastian Stan - Born 1982, turns 35 - Actor  

Monday 14th August

• Steve Martin - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer | Songwriter 
• Wim Wenders - Born 1945, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor 
• Antonio Fargas - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor 
• Marcia Gay Harden - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actress
• Halle Berry - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actress | Producer
• Mila Kunis - Born 1983, turns 34 - Actress | Producer  

Tuesday 15th August

• Debra Messing - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Natasha Henstridge - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actress | Producer
• Jennifer Lawrence - Born 1990, turns 27 - Actress | Producer
• Nicolas Roeg - Born 1928, turns 89 - Director | Writer | Producer | Cinematographer
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Born 1963, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Rob Thomas - Born 1965, turns 52 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Ben Affleck - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer  

Wednesday 16th August

• James Cameron - Born 1954, turns 63 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor 
• Timothy Hutton - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Director | Producer 
• Steve Carell - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer 
• Taika Waititi - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actor | Director | Writer | Producer
• Brendan Cowell - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director  
• Angela Bassett - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Madonna (aka Madonna Ciccone) - Born 1958, turns 59 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Actress | Producer | Writer | Director
• Rummer Willis - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actress 

Thursday 17th August

• Robert De Niro - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Sean Penn - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Steven East - Born 1963, turns 54 - Odeon Online Blogger | Film Critic | Editor-in-Chief
• Donnie Wahlberg - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Songwriter | Singer  

Friday 18th August

• Roman Polanski - Born 1933, turns 84 - Director | Writer | Producer | Actor
• Robert Redford - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actor | Producer | Director 
• Denis Leary - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | Singer
• Edward Norton - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Christian Slater - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Madeline Stowe - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actress 

Saturday 19th August

• Jill St. John - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actress
• Kyra Sedgwick - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Peter Gallagher - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor
• Kevin Dillon - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor  
• Matthew Perry - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Writer 

Taika David Waititi aka Taika Cohen was born in Raukokore, a small settlement close to the East Cape in northeastern North Island, New Zealand and as a child was raised there and in Wellington. His mother is of Russian Jewish origin and is a teacher, and his father is Maori. Sometimes Waititi goes by his mother's surname of Cohen in his film and writing work. As a teenager Waititi attended Onslow College - a state co-ed secondary school in Johnsonville, Wellington. From there he attended the Victoria University of Wellington studying drama. In the Maori language Taika translates to 'Tiger'

Whilst at University Waititi was part of a quintet comedy ensemble, titled 'So You're a Man' with other members Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. The show was a 1950's styled mockumentary guide to coping with manhood with the five Actors all playing in flesh coloured nude suits whilst playing the guitar. They met with some success and successfully toured throughout New Zealand and Australia being written up in both the Sydney and New York press. After the troupe disbanded he formed 'The Humourbeasts' with Jemaine Clement, and in 1999 they were awarded New Zealand's highest comedy accolade - The Billy T Award. Around about the same time Waititi begun his film and television acting career appearing in the low budget dark comedy Dunedin film 'Scarfies' in 1999, and then the award winning New Zealand road trip film 'Snakeskin' in 2001, and then the fifteen minute short film that same year, 'A New Way Home'.

In 2002 he scored a television gig on the comedy drama series 'The Strip' which aired over forty episodes between 2002 and 2003 with Waititi appearing in thirteen of those. Other television appearances would follow in 2003 in a single episode on both 'Revelations' and 'Freaky'. Around about the same time, Waititi turned this hand to Writing and Directing his own material. He launched onto the scene as a Director and Writer with the 21 minute short film 'John & Pogo' in 2002, and followed this up in 2004 with the twelve minute short film 'Two Cars, One Night' and the eight minute short 'Heinous Crime'. In 2005 he also Produced, and shared writing, Director and acting credits with Jemaine Clement in the 27 minute short horror comedy film 'What We Do in the Shadows : Interviews with Some Vampires'. In between time there was another short film acting role in 'Toy Boy' and then local RomCom 'Futile Attraction'.

2007 saw Waititi's big screen debut as Writer and Director with comedy romance offering 'Eagle vs Shark' in which he also starred alongside Jemaine Clement. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and picked up six award wins and four nominations in total from around the festival circuit. Later that year Waititi starred in one episode of the 22 episode over two seasons comedy musical television series 'Flight of the Conchords' which starred as its principal cast Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. He also Directed four episodes and wrote two.

2010 saw a return to the big screen with his written, Directed and starring role in the coming of age comedy drama 'Boy'. At the time 'Boy' became the highest grossing New Zealand film at the local Box Office and broke records for its first week of Box Office takings. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, and in all took out thirteen award wins and nine nominations form around the worldwide festival circuit. Sketch comedy series 'Radiradirah' ran for one season over eight episodes, in which Waititi appeared in all.

The next few years saw Waitiki assuming the role of Consulting Producer on eleven episodes of the popular comedy teen series 'The Inbetweeners' of which he also Directed five episodes, a writing credit on the Nash Edgerton Co-Directed, Co-Written and Co-Starring six minute short film 'The Captain', and then a Director credit along with 41 others on the 42 minute omnibus of short films by auteur Directors based on dreams, titled '42 One Dream Rush'. There was also a further Director credit on six episodes on the two season comedy series 'Super City' and an acting credit too on the 2011 Martin Campbell Directed Superhero film 'Green Lantern' with Ryan Reynolds in the title role and also starring Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison, Angela Bassett and Blake Lively.

2014 saw Waitiki Produce, Co-Direct, Co-Write and star in the full length feature film offering of his earlier 2005 short film 'What We Do in the Shadows' with frequent collaborator Jemaine Clement. This mockumentary horror comedy film about a group of vampires who live together in a Wellington house Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, cost US$1.6M to make and returned US$7M at the Box Office. Along the way the film picked up 25 award wins and another 18 nominations. A sequel is allegedly in development centering around the werewolves shown in the film, with the working title at this stage 'We're Wolves'. It was also announced toward the back end of last year that a police procedural comedy series is in the works based on the cops who had minor roles in the film. Called 'Paranormal Event Response Unit', the series will initially run for six episodes of thirty minutes and will air in New Zealand to begin with.

In 2016 Waitiki released his fourth feature film again taking a Producer credit as well as Writer, Director and Actor in 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' based on the Barry Crump book about a rebellious young boy Ricky (Julian Dennison) and his foster Uncle Hec (Sam Neill) who go missing in the New Zealand mountain wilderness prompting a national manhunt. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, cost US$2.5M to make and grossed US$23M at the Box Office. The film garnered twenty award wins and a further 25 nominations from around the traps, and broke Box Office records for a New Zealand film in its opening weekend.

Next up for Waititi is his Hollywood debut in the Marvel Studio's third outing for 'Thor' in the big budget Superhero offering that will be the seventeenth film instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 'Thor : Ragnarock' stars an ensemble cast including Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as the crown prince of Asgard and his fifth outing as the character, with Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo reprising his role as Bruce Banner/Hulk, and Benedict Cumberbatch reprising his role as Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange. Waititi also has a role to play as Korg, a friend to Thor and a Kronan being with a body made of a durable silicon based substance that grants him superhuman strength, stamina and durability. Wiatiti plays the character through Mo-Cap performance. The film is due in cinemas in November this year.

All up Waititi has twenty-two Acting credits to his name, sixteen as Director, fifteen as Writer and nine as Producer. He has 57 award wins under his belt so far and 27 other nominations including an Academy Award nod for Best Live Action Short Film 'Two Cars, One Night'. Waititi is married to New Zealand film Producer Chelsea Winstanley and together they have a daughter born in 2012 - Te Kainga o Te Hinekahu Waititi. In 2017 he was awarded New Zealander of the Year. He is also an accomplished Director of television commercials with a prolific back catalogue for clients including Pot Noodle, Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Steinlager, Old Navy, Samsung, Tesco, The New Zealand Transport Agency and Air New Zealand, as well as number of music videos to his name too.

Taika Waititi - as well as a proven Writer, Producer, Director and Actor you also have fashion design, painting, photography and illustration within your Resume . . . is there anything you can't do? By his own admission he wants to do 'weird things and big budget things and no budget things', and at age 42 he can now say that he has accomplished all of these and more, with plenty more room for the weird stuff and now that he's broken into Hollywood, the big budget stuff too, and along the way doubtless small independent local fare too. We wish you well Taika, and we'll keep watching your exploits with interest. Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 4th September 2014.

This week with Spring in the air, a spring in our step and the promise of longer days, warmer evenings and more new cinematic offerings to tempt us, we have another diverse palette ranging from the comedic horrific, the big action disaster epic, a fly-on-the-wall real life fictional doco-drama charting the growing pains of one family (and yes, you read that right!), and a story of a life or death decision . . . literally! Of course, there is plenty of filmic content still doing the rounds from previous weeks, which when combined with this weeks latest releases will give you plenty of reasons to visit a warm dark place with a bunch of strangers and sit in wonder at the oral, aural and visual wonder unfolding on a giant screen right there in front of you! What's not to like?

So get out there sometime over the coming week - do your part to keep cinema alive, and then drop me a comment at Odeon Online to share your moviegoing experience with my other reader! Enjoy your big screen experience!

INTO THE STORM (Rated M) - of course this is another Mother Nature doing her thing disaster flick that uses the full force of the elements to destroy property, landmarks, crucial infrastructure, whole city blocks, towns, villages, and needless to say human and animal collateral damage too. You'll be thinking that we have seen this before in 'Twister' - that 1996 offering that perhaps set the tone of tornadoes rampaging across the US countryside. Then there was 'The Perfect Storm' in 2000 that did the same thing out in the Grandbanks with giant tides and hurricane winds trashing a local fishing community and a few of its favourite sons! And of course you would be right when you throw this into the mix with '2012', 'The Day After Tomorrow', 'Dante's Peak' etc. etc. etc. So how is this any different? Well to start, we are further advanced in our CGI technology now than we were then so bringing the effects up closer, making them bigger, bolder and more brazen, and at the helm of this wet & windy movie we have Steven Quale who has learned his craft from a certain James Cameron shooting second unit on 'Avatar' . . . not bad credentials really!

This story centres around a 24 hour period in the town of Silverton, Oklahoma that gets hit with the full force of several tornadoes and cyclones, and the ensuing fall-out on the townsfolk - those that try to take shelter and find some refuge, and those thrill seekers who want to face the action and record it for posterity. It is this point upon which the 'found footage' visuals of this film are conveyed - through the CCTV, video cameras, mobile phones, and GoPro's of those caught in the maelstrom. Along the way are a band of storm chasers of course, and other principle characters who have to run, hide, chase, save and brave it out until the storm passes - most notably Richard Armitage (Gary Fuller - the Vice-Principal of the local High School) and Sarah Wayne Callies (Alison Stone, storm chasing Meteorologist). The shorts look impressive enough up on the big screen, and if you like this kind of thing - then this is for you! Take your raincoat!

If I Stay (Rated M) - the young and talented Chloe Grace-Moretz stars in this drama of young and talented cello player who needs to decide to pursue her musical aspirations at Juilliard, or pursue her life with her true love, Adam. One day, out on a drive in the country with her family everything changes for ever when a head-on collision hurls Mia Hall (Moretz) out of the car and leaves her in a coma. Mia however, is caught between this life and the next, between life and death for one day in which she must decide her own fate. She is having an out of body experience during which she witnesses her family unravel at the sight of her still comatose body, learns of the fate of the other family members, undergoes surgery, and must reconcile her relationship with Adam (Jamie Blackley) amongst all of this tragedy before deciding on her ultimate fate to stay in this world, or cross-over into the next!

BOYHOOD (Rated M) - Director and Screenwriter Richard Linklater has been working on this opus for some twelve years now having conceived the idea back in 2001 or so. Since then he has filmed at regular intervals the growing up of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) who we join at the films outset at the age of six. He lives with his mother (Patricia Arquette) and sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), and dad (Ethan Hawke) has left the relationship only recently. The film therefore charts the fictional life of the family, but at the same time we see Mason grow up on screen in front of our eyes over  twelve year period. This family experiences what every family experiences - love, loss, drama, good times, bad times, birthdays, Christmas, school, discovery, excitement and so much more besides, and we see this too through Mason's eyes as he too experiences these things as he grows from young childhood through adolescence and onto young adulthood. This has had big reviews so far for this rare achievement in film making, it's subject matter and what it explores and reveals about all of us.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (Rated M) - set in a quiet peaceful suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, this comedy horror brings together a trio of Vampires  - Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi) and Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) - each  of them still very much human-like but centuries old and living together in a shared house with all the mundane rituals associated with 21st Century life - except that their blood lust lives on in their immortality, which they must conduct behind closed doors for fear of venturing out into the sunlight or catching themselves reflected in a mirror.  When various human interlopers arrive they are either dispatched via puncture wounds to an accessible artery to provide the necessary sustenance, or are welcomed to provide support to the cosy homestead. But lurking in the cellar is a fourth inmate - the 8,000 year old inhuman vampire Petyr (Ben Frensham), that becomes the subject of a Vampire search & destroy. . .  and is! Later on at a ball - our trio meet other Wellingtonian night crawlers - zombies, werewolves, witches and warlocks, with whom they at first fight, but then reconcile themselves together to fend off the trials and tribulations of their 21st Century existence with some degree of understanding and harmony. This is Directed, Written and stars 'Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and is therefore sure to resonate with those followers of this troupe and their unique brand of comedy . . . and a good dose of horror and gore thrown into the mix!

There you have it for the week ahead! Four very differing offerings that are sure to please, surprise and delight, and tempt you out to a multiplex or local independent cinema on an early Springtime afternoon or evening. Get amongst it and let me know what you thought.

Movies . . . see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-