What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 20th April 2023.

The Belmont World Films 21st International Film Series is currently in full swing having launched on Monday 27th March and running though until Monday 15th May. Belmont is a town in Massachusetts, USA and is a western suburb of Boston and forms part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. Belmont World Film, is a nonprofit corporation which creates cultural exchanges and understanding through the screening of the world’s top films followed by discussions led by expert speakers. Founded in 2001 Belmont World Film began with the premise that foreign-language film is not only a vehicle for hearing another language in action, but it can also foster an emotional understanding of other cultures. Since the series began in Spring 2002 films have been shown from such familiar European countries as the UK, France, Germany, Scotland, Italy, Belgium and Finland, as well as less familiar countries, such as Bhutan, Bulgaria, Romania, Cuba, Bolivia, Iraq, Mongolia, Iceland, Singapore and Luxembourg. Other speakers have included UN envoys, international filmmakers, academic experts on international relations, languages and humanities, journalists, film stars and documentary film subjects.

This years theme is 'Complicated Identities' and features eight of the world's top films, immediately followed by discussions with filmmakers, film subjects or expert speakers. The films are screened each Monday evening throughout the duration of the series, are are as detailed below :-

* Monday 27th March : the Opening film was 'A MAN' from Japan and Directed by Kei Ishakawa. When a lawyer’s former client asks him to investigate a woman’s late husband’s past, he begins to discover that her husband had been living a double life.

* Monday 3rd April : 'LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG' from Ukraine and Directed by Antonio Lukich. When identical twin brothers — who couldn’t be more different —hear that their long-absent father is sick in Luxembourg, they set out on a journey to see him one last time. Will the man they find be the bad-ass father they remember?

* Monday 10th April : 'THE WORST ONES' from France and Directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. Four teenagers from a working-class neighbourhood in the north of France are selected to act in a feature film. The film within a film walks a remarkably fine line between fact and fiction, allowing the young performers to give star-making turns as 'themselves' while considering the ways in which ostensibly well-meaning documentary and fiction films can exploit non-performers in the name of authenticity. This film won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

* Monday 17th April : 'BURNING DAYS' from Turkey and Directed by Emin Alper. A young prosecutor is newly posted in the remote provincial town in Anatolia, Turkey, which is marred by corruption, nepotism, and other shady power dynamics ahead of a local election for the mayoral seat. This town also suffers from a severe water shortage and giant sinkholes caused by the excessive use of groundwater for agricultural purposes, which the local officials refuse to address.

* Monday 24th April : 'FAREWELL MR. HAFFMANN' from France and Belgium and Directed by Fred Cavaye. After the Nazi occupation of Paris, a talented jeweller, Joseph Haffmann, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers one of his employees the chance to take over his store until the conflict subsides. The agreement turns into a Faustian bargain, one that will forever change everyone involved.

* Monday 1st May : 'CHILE '76' from Chile and Argentina and Directed by Manuela Martelli. In 1976, a bourgeois housewife heads to her beach house on the coast of Chile to supervise its renovation, only to be interrupted by a request from the priest at the church where she does charity work, to take care of a young revolutionary — a man he is secretly giving asylum to — who has just been hurt. The woman steps into unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to living.

* Monday 8th May : 'THE BEASTS' from Spain and France and Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. A French couple move to a small village in Galicia in order to practice ecologically responsible agriculture and to restore abandoned houses to facilitate the town’s re-population. Everything should be idyllic but for their opposition to a wind turbine project that creates a serious conflict with their neighbours.

* Monday 15th May : the Closing Film is 'PEACEFUL' from France and Directed by Emmanuelle Bercot. Here, an overbearing mother to her son Benjamin, a 'failed actor' turned acting teacher, who’s given a terminal cancer diagnosis. He seeks advice from Dr. Edde, who plays guitar and leads his staff members in singalongs.

For further information about the 21st Belmont World Film Series you can go to the official website at : https://belmontworldfilm.org/international-film-series/

Turning the attention back to this weeks five new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, with launch with a dark comedy horror drama film which, following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafka like journey back home. Next up we have a drama film about a young woman whose life falls apart after her involvement in a fatal accident in which two people died. This is followed by a twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most evil version of family imaginable. Then we turn to a drama based on a true story of a national spiritual awakening in the early 1970's and its origins within a community of teenage hippies in Southern California; before closing out the week with a biographical documentary exploring the intertwined fates of trees and humans in this poetic portrait of this Australian environmentalist and political activist, and the Forest.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 coming week.

'BEAU IS AFRAID' (Rated R18+) - is an American black comedy horror film Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Ari Aster whose previous feature film making credits are 'Hereditary' with Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne in 2018 and 'Midsommar' in 2019 with Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor. The film saw its World Premier screening in New York on 1st April, before it limited release to selected IMAX screens in LA and New York on 14th April, and before its wider release worldwide from this week. It costs US$35M to produce and has so far grossed US$321K.

Here then, Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix), a mild-mannered, extremely anxious, paranoia-ridden but pleasant enough looking man who has a fraught relationship with his overbearing mother Mona (Patti LuPone) and never knew his father, makes the journey home when his mother dies to attend her funeral. However, along the way he must confront his greatest fears involving some wild supernatural threats. Also starring Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Parker Posey, Richard Kind, Hayley Squires and Michael Gandolfini.

'A GOOD PERSON' (Rated MA15+) - this American drama film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Zach Braff whose prior feature film making credits are his debut in 2004 with 'Garden State', then 'Wish I Was Here' in 2014 and 'Going in Style' in 2017. Allison (Florence Pugh) is a young woman with a wonderful fiance, a blossoming career, and supportive family and friends. However, her world crumbles in the blink of an eye when she survives an unimaginable tragedy, emerging from recovery with an opioid addiction and unresolved grief. In the following years, she forms an unlikely friendship with her would-be father-in-law Daniel (Morgan Freeman) whose daughters life was taken in that earlier tragedy. As grief-stricken Daniel navigates raising his teenage granddaughter and Allison seeks redemption, they discover that friendship, forgiveness, and hope can flourish in unlikely places. Also starring Celeste O'Connor, Molly Shannon and Zoe Lister-Jones. The film was released Stateside on 24th March, has so far grossed US$2.4M and has garnered mixed or average reviews. 

'EVIL DEAD RISE' (Rated R18+) - is an American supernatural horror film that is Written and Directed by Lee Cronin in only his second feature film outing following 2019 'The Hole in the Ground'. This film is the fifth instalment in the 'Evil Dead' franchise following 'The Evil Dead' in 1981, 'Evil Dead II' in 1987, 'Army of Darkness' in 1992, all having been Directed by Sam Raimi, and then 'Evil Dead' in 2013 Directed by Fede Alvarez. Those first four films grossed worldwide US$156M off the back of combined production budgets of US$32M. Here then, and following a long journey on the road, Beth (Lily Sullivan) visits her estranged older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), who is struggling to raise three children alone in a small Los Angeles apartment. However, their reunion is interrupted when they find a strange book hidden in the depths of Ellie's building, which unleashes bloodthirsty demonic creatures. The film saw its World Premier showcasing at SXSW on 15th March, is released in the US this week too and has generated largely favourable reviews.

'JESUS REVOLUTION' (Rated M) - this American Christian drama film is Co-Written by Jon Erwin and Directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle, and is based on the book of the same name by Greg Laurie and Ellen Santilli Vaughn. Jon Erwin, together with his brother Andrew, known as the Erwin Brothers, are American Christian film Directors, Screenwriters and film Producers known for such films as 'Woodlawn', 'October Baby', 'Moms' Night Out' and 'I Can Only Imagine'. Inspired by a true movement, the film tells the story of a young Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) being raised by his struggling mother, Charlene (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) in the 1970's. Laurie and a sea of young people descend on sunny Southern California to redefine truth through all means of liberation. Inadvertently, Laurie meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a charismatic hippie-street-preacher, and Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) who have thrown open the doors of Smith's languishing church to a stream of wandering youth. What unfolds becomes the greatest spiritual awakening in American history. Rock and roll, newfound love, and a twist of faith lead to a Jesus Revolution that turns one counterculture movement into a revival that changes the world. The film was released in the US on the 24th February, cost US$15M to produce, has so far grossed US$52M having received mixed or average reviews along the way. 

'THE GIANTS' (Rated M) - is an Australian biographical documentary film Written and Directed by Rachel Antony and Laurence Billiet, that is a long overdue biopic of Australian environmentalist Bob Brown, a National Living Treasure, the first openly gay member of parliament in Australia and leader of the world’s first Green party. It’s also about the life of Trees, which scientists are only starting to understand. The film goes from Bob story to the trees’ story - revealing just how closely intertwined they are. Brown’s fifty year trailblazing life helps narrate the exhilarating rise of the environmental movement in Australia from the successful Franklin River campaign in 1983 to today's fight for the Tarkine rainforest in northwest Tasmania. The film is a poetic exploration of his motivations and his actions that began, like Greta Thunberg, with a few lone acts of protest; and of his spiritual connection to nature that continues to sustain him. 

With five new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE COMEBACK TRAIL : Tuesday 17th November 2020.

'THE COMEBACK TRAIL' which I saw this week is an M Rated American crime comedy film Written and Directed by George Gallo who has twenty-two Writer credits, ten as Producer and sixteen as Director to his name including 'Double Take', 'Local Color', 'Homeland Security', 'Middle Men', 'Columbus Circle' and 'The Poison Rose'. This film is a remake of the 1982 film of the same name Directed by Harry Hurwitz. Featuring an ensemble cast, this film saw its Premiere screening at the 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival in California in mid-October this year and now gets a run in Australia ahead of its originally slated release Stateside in mid-December which has subsequently been pushed back to sometime next year. 

The film opens in 1974 Hollywood with grindhouse movie Producer Max Barber (Robert De Niro) sat at a cafe table with his business partner and nephew Walter Creason (Zach Braff) reading the latest Review for their new movie about to have its World Premier screening at a cinema just down the street. That movie is titled 'Killer Nuns' and lobbying the theatre in protest is a group of nuns parading up and down the street with placards chanting to boycott the film. They have sold no tickets to the World Premier event and Walter coyly says to Max that perhaps its time to give up on the movie making business. But Max is an old hand at the film game and he reminds his nephew that their company 'Miracle Motion Pictures' lives by the motto 'If it's Good, It's a Miracle' and as miracles happen every day they just need to watch out for one to land their way, and it will, such is Max's optimism.  

When Max arrives back at his home, which is right under the flightpath of an airport so the house shakes violently every time a plane lands or takes off, he is greeted by Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman) a mob boss whom he is indebted to to the tune of US$350K for financing 'Killer Nuns'. As the movie has bombed, Reggie wants his money back and straight away. After exchanging some dialogue about classic movies and Actors, Reggie gives Max three days to come up with the money, otherwise he's dead meat!

In the office of 'Miracle Motion Pictures' Max and Walter contemplate their futures and their next production. Walter picks up a script of a movie called 'Paradise' which Max wrote years ago, and which rival film producer James Moore (Emile Hirsch) who once worked for Max, has been keen to get his hands on for years, and is prepared to pay handsomely for it. But Max is very attached to 'Paradise' saying that it is Oscar material, the dialogue is top notch and that he has in mind certain production values and certain casting decisions to make the film - only he can't possibly afford the US$1M+ price tag to put his movie and his script into production. Max visits James Moore at his lavish home and asks for a loan of US$350K to pay off his debt to Reggie. Moore is prepared to write a cheque on the spot for the US$350K on one condition! And that is that Max sells him the rights to his 'Paradise' screenplay for which after some bidding toing and froing Moore ups the ante to US$1M, with the US$350K as a downpayment. Max is tempted, but still refuses to budge on his beloved script. 

After visiting the set of Moore's latest US$1M action movie starring the much loved and highly regarded Hollywood Actor Frank Pierce (Patrick Muldoon), at which Max and Moore are still at loggerheads over his 'Paradise' script, they witness Pierce fall to his death from six storeys up while preparing for a stunt. Later back home, the news of Pierce's deaths is all over the news channels, saying that as the Actor performed all his own stunts the studio will receive a US$5M pay out from the insurance company. Whilst Max is livid at Moore's good fortune in financing a film that had a budget of US$1M, he's going to get back US$5M and had less that one days film footage in the can. But, a light goes on inside Max's head. 

Enter Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones) a washed up aging depressed old drunk who back in the day was a renowned Actor famed for playing a gun totting fearless cowboy. Now he resides all alone in a nursing home for retired Actors and once every day puts a single bullet in his six shooter pistol, spins the chamber and places the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger, thus far unsuccessfully. Max and Walter track down Duke and offer him the lead role in their new upcoming movie 'The Oldest Gun in the West'. 

Unbeknownst to Walter however, is the fact that Max has an ulterior motive in hiring Duke. Willing to perform all his own stunts, Max intends to kill off Duke during a stunt, and claim a hefty insurance payout. After hiring a suitable Director to helm the film project, Megan Albert (Kate Katzman), and bringing Reggie in on the scam just as his three day deadline is about to lapse, the movie goes into production. 

Reggie calls Max after the first day of filming to enquire about Duke's demise, but Duke survived his first stunt when his horse stalled at a burning wagon tossing him through the flames sending him crashing down to the ground on the other side, on fire. On the second day, Reggie calls again hoping for more favourable news that the lead Actor is well and truly dead, but Max reports that Duke survived another stunt involving a sabotaged rope bridge across a deep ravine with a fast flowing river below. On the third day after receiving further similar news of another survived stunt, Reggie decides to take the law into his own hands and visit the set and kill the sucker himself.  

In the meantime Max and Walter review the dailies and with Megan agree that the footage in the can so far has 'hit' written all over it. Walter is more excited about the prospect of them having their first sure fire hit on their hands than Max is, whose only interest is in killing off his star and claiming the insurance. In the meantime, Max just about survives a number of very near misses himself including getting kicked in the chest by Duke's stunt horse, Butterscotch. 

Reggie and a couple of his henchmen arrive on the set just as Duke is about to shoot a crucial scene involving him and a bunch of native Indian Americans standing off against a town's Sheriff, with both sides poised to draw their guns. Reggie walks straight in on the scene as Megan calls 'cut' with his own pistol drawn ready to gun down Duke for real. Sensing the commotion, Duke mounts Butterscotch, hauls up Max onto his back and gallops off, leaving Reggie to give chase in his car. They arrive at an abandoned drive in movie theatre where Max ordered Walter to grab a roll of film and project it on to the screen, so that Reggie could see some of the unfinished footage for himself. At the crucial moment the film rolls, and Reggie gazes up at the screen with a big smile on his dial. He also thinks that the film is going to be a hit, and orders Max to finish the movie. 

With the film in the can, we fast forward some months to the World Premier of 'The Oldest Gun in the West' with the audience at capacity and the media in attendance conducting red carpet interviews with cast and crew. Max, Walter, Reggie, Megan and James Moore are all present with Reggie interrupting an interview with Max saying that he is from this point forward going to Co-Produce every one of Max's movies. Duke arrives on his trusted steed, but refuses to be interviewed or to watch the World Premier screening saying that he doesn't like big crowds or being couped up indoors. He'd rather be outside riding his horse, and off he gallops as we see him riding through the foothills under the Hollywood sign. 

This film seemingly has pretty much divided audiences and Critics alike, and its easy to see why. On the one hand it has a strong cast of De Niro, Jones, Freeman, Braff and Hirsch who don't deliver any laugh out moments but do manage to raise a chuckle every so often, and who genuinely look as though they're having a good time on screen by hamming up the movie industry of yesteryear with cornball jokes and pratfalls. On the other hand the script is a little ho hum, the plot is predictable but at a fairly brisk running time of just over one hundred minutes, the film moves along at a good pace. It's not great, but it's not that bad either. 

'The Comeback Trail' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 20th April 2017.

With the release of 'Raw' this week (as Previewed below), I thought I'd spend a few sentences overviewing the Cannibal genre of exploitation films. This sub-genre would sit right up there as the most controversial, most often banned as 'video nasties', and most often depicting acts of graphic violence more often than not dispensed with cannibalistic natives in some far away remote jungle in the deepest darkest depths of the Amazon, or Papua New Guinea, or Vietnam, or some secluded island. Films exploring flesh eating cannibals preying on lost tourists or anthropologists, geologists and scientists on some kind of fact finding mission first began to emerge in the early '70's courtesy of Italian and Spanish filmmakers. The first film to emerge in the genre as it has come to be widely known today was 1972's 'Man from the Deep River' by Italian Director Umberto Lenzi, who also went on to helm 'Eaten Alive!' in 1980 and 'Canbibal Ferox' in 1981. Another Italian Director  famed to starting the genre is Ruggero Deodato who released 'Jungle Holocaust' (aka 'The Last Cannibal World') in 1977, and followed this up with 1980's infamous 'Cannibal Holocaust' which is considered one of the most controversial and brutal movies in the history of cinema, and which was seized, banned or heavily censored in many countries, and still to this day remains on the banned list in fifty countries. He released 'Cut and Run' in 1985 too. The late '70's and early '80's were the 'golden era' of cannibal movies that included 'The Hills Have Eyes' in 1977, 'Mountain of the Cannibal God' in 1978, 'Cannibal Apocalypse' and 'The Cannibals' in 1980, 'C.H.U.D.' in 1984 and 'The Green Inferno' in 1988 by which time the cannibal genre had almost become a thing of the past. Mainstream cinema picked up the genre, dusted it off, polished it up and started to throw more money and bigger names at these productions in the '90's which saw the likes of 'Silence of the Lambs' and its various spin-offs all featuring one Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Then there was 'Alive', 'Delicatessen', 'Ravenous', 'The Road', 'We Are What We Are' and most recently 'Bone Tomahawk' and 'The Neon Demon', and in between time reboots of 'The Hills Have Eyes', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Green Inferno'. Of course there are a heap of others to dine out on at your leisure, and if your thing is sinking your teeth into a nice juicy rare steak with a glass of Chianti, then you may want to start with 'Raw'! Read on for more.

This week there are six new cinema releases to tempt that movie going dollar from out of your wallet, kicking off with a French acclaimed coming of age horror film that might just convince you to turn vegan . . . or maybe not! Then there is a backpacker thriller as a young Aussie lass gets banged up somewhere in Germany with little hope of escape it seems, before three octogenarians decide to take the law into their own hands by staging a daring bank heist to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. We then turn to a WWII film within a film as the Brits turn their hand to propaganda to lift the hearts and minds of their war torn country, followed up by disparate and dateless wedding guests bonding when they least expected it, and wrapping up with a bunch of early teenage kids and the rapidly growing product of an experiment gone wrong.

Be cordially reminded that when you have sat through your film of choice in the week ahead to share your movie going experience with your like minded cinephiles here at Odeon Online. Leave your relevant, pertinent and concise thoughts, opinions and views in the Comments section below this or any other Post as to any of those films as Previewed here, or as Previewed and Reviewed between these earlier Blog Pages. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your film.

'RAW' (Rated R18+) - this highly acclaimed French/Belgian coming of age horror film is Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau, cost just US$3.8M to make and was Premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the International Critics Week section where is took out the FIPRESCI Prize (International Federation of Film Critics). Since then the film has picked up another nine award wins and seven nominations from around the festival circuit, and was released in the US in early March, and in France a week later. Despite its 'horror' tag much praise has been heaped on this film that is as much about family, relationships, and discovery as it is about carnivorous cannibalistic tendencies. The film is fairly graphic in its content which may be shocking for some viewers, but needs to be taken in the context of the films subject matter.

The story here centres around shy, introverted life long vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) who upon arriving at veterinary school for her first day at College is subjected to a hazing ritual with all the other new freshers that sees her amongst other things doused in blood and having to wear blood soaked whites to her lectures, and consume a lump of raw meat that she is told is a rabbits kidney. This marks the beginning of Justine's transformation from vegetarian to meat eater, but her carnivorous cravings start to go much deeper than sausages, burgers and fillet steak as she develops a taste for human flesh that starts with her sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) accidentally snipping off her own finger with Justine being on hand to have a taste of the dismembered digit. From this point there is no looking back at those by gone days of baba ganoush and felafels, as Alexia shows Justine the means of satisfying her hunger. In the meantime, there is Justine's sexual awakening, the bond and in turn the rivalry that develops between the sisters upon discovering their mutual interest, the revealing truth about their parents, the backdrop of young adult life at College and Justine's evolution as she discovers her true identity in life.

'BERLIN SYNDROME (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Australian Cate Shortland, and based on the novel of the same name by Melanie Joosten, this film tells of Aussie backpacker Clair (Teresa Palmer) who arrives in Germany and meets up with handsome local guy Andi (Max Riemelt) and has a one night stand. Waking up the next morning however, she soon discovers that the charming, gregarious Andi is not all he seems as he keeps Clair locked up in his apartment while he goes off to work as a teacher. Clair's nightmare of forced captivity and Andi's obsession with the holidaymaker soon spills over  as Clair comes to realise that he has no intention of ever letting her go. Filmed in Melbourne, Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, released in Australia this week, the US in early May and the UK in early June, this film has so far received generally positive Reviews.

'GOING IN STYLE' (Rated M) - here Actor, Producer, Screenwriter, Comedian and Director of this film Zach Braff offers us a remake of the 1979 film of the same name that was back then Written and Directed by Martin Brest and starred George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg. Made for US$25M the film has so far grossed US$35M and stars three senior citizens with an average age of 80+ as played by Michael Caine as Joe, Alan Arkin as Albert and Morgan Freeman as Willie who are also life long best buddies. When their respective pensions are cancelled as a result of their former employer being bought out and restructured, the three old guys face new challenges. Joe faces the prospect of homelessness with his daughter and granddaughter and Willie is suffering from kidney failure and needs surgery. Joe witnesses a back robbery and is so inspired by it that he hatches an idea to rob the very bank that holds their pension funds and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. Aided by John Ortiz as Jesus, a man of questionable background but who is prepared to show them the means of conducting a bank heist, Matt Dillon as Agent Hamer who investigates bank robberies, Christopher Lloyd as Milton their ultimate alibi and Anne Margaret as Annie, Albert's love interest, this film shows that there's life in the old codgers yet, and that you can teach old dogs new tricks.

'THEIR FINEST' (Rated M) - Directed by Lone Scherfig and based on the Lissa Evans 2009 book 'Their Finest Hour and a Half', this WWII drama film is a film within a film as The British Ministry of Information set about making a morale boosting propaganda film about the evacuation of Dunkirk during the Battle of Britain and Hitler's devastating bombing raids on London. As bombs continue to rain down on London, the cast and crew of the film work frantically to produce their film designed to lift the spirits of the nation, boost confidence in the war effort, and spur the country on to victory. Gemma Arterton stars as Catrin Cole, the scriptwriter hired to brings a woman's touch to the proposed film, and Jack Huston as Ellis Cole her husband; Sam Claflin as Tom Buckley, the dashing film Producer; Bill Nighy as Ambrose Hilliard the former screen idol Actor with Richard E. Grant and Eddie Marsan all adding weight to this highly praised film.

'TABLE 19' (Rated M) - unlike the eagerly awaited often frequented 19th Hole at a golf course, 'Table 19' is the complete opposite for a bunch of disparate no hoper wedding guests relegated to the back where single and dateless entities are confined to the last table in the room farthest away from the official wedding party, who secretly hoped they would decline their invitations. And so it is with this comedy offering Directed by Jeffrey Blitz, Produced by Shaun Levy, Written by Jay and Mark Duplass and made for just US$5M. Here Eloise McGarry (Anna Kendrick) is one of those guests who was unceremoniously dumped two months before the big day by the Bride's brother and Best Man, Teddy (Wyatt Russell). Deciding to attend, having been the original choice as Bridesmaid she duly finds herself transplanted to the back of the room with five other guests - Jerry and Bina Kepp (Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow respectively), Renzo Eckberg (Tony Revolori), Jo Flanagan (June Squibb) and Walter Thimble (Stephen Merchant) - all of whom have a story to tell and their own reasons for attending the wedding. As these stories are revealed, Eloise comes to realise that she has things to learn from her fellow disenfranchised guests, and that you can't judge books by their covers! The film was released in early March in the US, has so far grossed US$4M and received mixed Reviews.

'MY PET DINOSAUR' (Rated G) - released in Australia on 22nd April, this Aussie family film is Directed, Produced and Written by Matt Drummond, was filmed largely in and around the Blue Mountains area west of Sydney, and tells the story of young lad Jake (Jordan Dulieu) who accidentally creates a new friend when an experiment he is working on goes awry. The creature of his creation begins to grow at an alarming rate, and it become increasingly difficult to keep his new pet a secret from his fellow townsfolk. Together with his friends and new girl in town Abbie (Annabel Wolfe), Jake and Co. it seems are not the only people who have an active interest in this mysterious cheeky dinosaur, but so too are some others keen to get their hands on it. Also starring David Roberts, Beth Champion and Joanne Samuel.

Six Easter holiday week films to keep you entertained at your local multiplex or independent cinema that range from very adult horror but all done in the best possible taste, to tense confinement thriller, to senior citizens on heist duty, to war time propaganda film making within a film, to unlikely guests at a wedding learning a thing or two about themselves and each other, and wrapping up with a family offering of dinosaur proportions. Share your movie going thoughts with us here, and in the meantime, I'll see you somewhere sometime in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 18th September 2014.

This week with the advent of school holidays just about to click in, and the sun shining now more on a regular basis as Springtime takes hold across Australia, there is a plethora of new releases in the week ahead that will offer something for everyone - from the young, to the not so young. There are animated features, action Sci-Fi, graphic novel noir, a coming of age tale and a family introspective dramedy from a second time Director.

There is much to like in the week ahead and plenty to tempt you out once again from in front of the small screen to in front of a big screen with the eye-popping hi-def and ear piercing surround sound that only the movie going experience can provide. When you've been out to your local multi-plex this coming week and sat in the dark for two hours watching the film of your choice, drop me a line at Odeon Online, in the comments box immediately following this regular weekly feature, and let me and my other frequent reader know what you thought! Enjoy your cinema experience!

SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR (Rated MA15+) - it has taken Co-Directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez almost ten years to bring the second 'Sin City' instalment to our big screens. Once again based on the graphic novel written by Frank Miller, it's predecessor the 2005 film 'Sin City' has become a cult classic and performed well at the box office given its gritty subject matter, its interwoven stories, strong cast and its excellent dark, noir, brooding look on screen - the likes of which we had never seen before. Fast track to 2014 and Miller and Rodriguez have amassed the budget and the cast to do it all again, this time combining four stories from the Sin City series whilst retaining all the key elements from that original outing, but enhanced digitally given that technology has marched on another decade since the first film.

This time around we once again have a stellar cast with a few names reprising their roles from earlier. The grizzled hard boiled citizens of Basin City that make up an unsavoury but nonetheless entertaining bunch of killers, criminals, thugs, pimps, prostitutes, pushers and losers consist of Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Powers Booth, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, Dennis Haysbert and Jeremy Piven with our femme fatales made up of Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson and Eva Green . . . and even Lady Gaga gets a gig somewhere in there too! With four stories - 'Just Another Saturday Night', 'The Long Bad Night - Parts 1&2', 'A Dame to Kill For' and 'Nancy's Last Dance' these stories twist and turn and are interwoven with the unscrupulous Senator Roarke (Powers Booth) being the glue that sticks it all together. If you liked the first instalment; are a follower of the genre, the cast and the film makers; and want another unique visual experience following closely in the footsteps of the first - then this is a must watch over the coming weeks!

THE MAZE RUNNER (Rated M) - adapted from the 2009 book of the same name by James Dashner this is likely to be the first in a trilogy if it performs well enough, and there is every chance it will given its storyline, its visuals and its targeted audience (largely in the same vein as 'Divergent', and 'The Hunger Games'). Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) awakes in a lift not knowing how he got there or why, only to be deposited in a corn field with sixty or so other teenage boys all glaring down at him. We learn that these boys have been there for two years or so, that a new boy arrives every thirty days and they are living in a completely enclosed environment surrounded by very high walls that keep them in a state of captivity. Their only means of escape is through their surrounding maze, but no one has yet been successful, the maze is ever changing and lurking out there are nightmarish mechanical creatures ('Grievers') preying on would-be escapists. Then, when they least expect it a girl arrives carrying a note saying she is 'the last one ever' and things begin to change for Thomas and the group as they seek to escape and find answers to their past and their future confronting much adversity, danger and adventure along the way.

THE INFINITE MAN (Rated MA15+) - another offering to add to the canon of solid Australian film content to be released in recent times, 'The Infinite Man' is from South Australian Screenwriter and Director Hugh Sullivan and is an original little film with a little cast and a big idea set in the middle of nowhere! Starring Josh McConville as Dean, he is the amateur scientist who takes his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall) away to a remote outback hotel to celebrate their anniversary (filmed in Woomera, of all God forsaken places!). During their little holiday they split up and Lana's ex. Terry also arrives,  (Alex Dimitriadis) just complicating things further leaving Dean to lick his wounds and invent a time-machine (as amateur would-be scientists do!) in an attempt to rectify those wrongs in the relationship and win her back on the same day. Creating a time-travelling devise fashioned from odd bits of audio equipment and a head covering of some sort, the net effect is that multiple versions of Dean are created as he jumps back in time several times to get it right - which only serves to complicate a complicated matter further. With Dean having conversions with his other selves, and all at odds with Terry and Lana this is a set up for complications and confusion aplenty, madness and hilarity, and an original story with a soft core despite the harshness of its surroundings.

WE ARE THE BEST (Rated M) - a Swedish/Danish collaboration this has a limited release. Directed by Lukas Moodysson and based on a comic book written by his wife Coco, this is about three teenage friends growing up in 1982 Stockholm who decide to form a Punk band to prove to themselves and the world that Punk is still alive, kicking and doing the pogo! Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) recruit young guitar legend Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) to their 'band' despite the fact that they have no instruments and negativity from everyone around them. This is a story not of the music, but more of relationships unfolding, the teenage spirit, and youthful innocence that is likely to pull us in just as 'Stand By Me' did in 1986.

WISH I WAS HERE (Rated M) - Directed, written and starring Zach Braff this is his second Directorial outing after 2004's 'Garden State', and sees him as Aidan Bloom a doting father and husband but hapless provider as a budding actor who fails at just about every audition he goes for. At 35 he still lacks meaning and purpose in his life, and when his ageing and sick father (Mandy Patinkin) announces that he can no longer afford the school fees for his two grandchildren, Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and Grace (Joey King), Aidan decides it is time he schooled them at home. Starring Kate Hudson as the wife Sarah, Aidan's journey while home schooling Tucker and Grace lead to some interesting discoveries about himself, love, family, relationships and perhaps the meaning of life!

THE BOXTROLLS (Rated PG) - based on the Alan Snow children's book 'Here Be Monsters' this film is a stop-motion animated feature that looks delightful, has a strong voice cast including Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette and Elle Fanning and is sure to please for its creative, heart-warming, humorous story and visuals. Based in and under the town of Cheesebridge, orphaned lad Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) has been raised by underground dwelling inventors known as 'The Boxtrolls' (surprisingly, trolls who carry themselves around in recycled boxes!). Undercover of darkness and in the dead of night The Boxtrolls clamber up the sewers and ransack the garbage bins of the townsfolk for hidden 'treasures' that they can recycle for their clever inventions. Despite them being largely harmless, fun loving intelligent inventive little creatures the city slickers above ground believe them to be ruthless, child napping, thieving criminals intent on stealing the towns prized cheeses. Above ground Boxtroll Exterminator, Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) is intent on ridding the town once and for all of the evil below ground dwelling menace and taking his rightful place in society.  Eggs, as the only human in the Boxtroll clan, ventures above ground and meets future friend and support Winnie Portly-Rind (voiced by Elle Fanning) to overcome Snatcher and win over the townsfolk once and for all.

PLANES : FIRE & RESCUE (Rated G) - Disney spent US$50M making this sequel to the 2013 'Planes' animated feature so they must consider it a worthwhile exercise to give this another go! With a voice cast that includes Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Stacy Keach and Teri Hatcher we see our avionic hero Dusty (voiced by Dane Cook) given the news that he has terminal engine damage and will never likely race again. He needs to take it easy and so becomes an aerial firefighter joining up with veteran fire and rescue helicopter, Blade Ranger and his team. With a huge bushfire raging wildly out of control Dusty quickly learns what it is to become a real hero! One definitely for the kids on a wet afternoon methinks!

Seven new Odeon offerings to tempt you out this week and again something for almost everyone, and if it's not one of the above, then there is still plenty of cinematic content from previous weeks still doing the rounds and on-show at a theatre near you!

Enjoy the movies - see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-