What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 15th May 2014.

Following last weeks bucket load of new releases, this week we have slightly slimmer pickings to choose from, but nonetheless plenty of block buster action, independent offerings, formulaic big studio fluff and foreign language outings still doing the rounds to keep you occupied on a cooler autumnal evening in May. This week, we do have another mega budget monster action flick to numb your senses; we have cinema's auteur of the weird, wonderful and whacky with a new unique offering; there is a thought provoking film that might just leave you thinking about the existence of heaven & hell; and a Romanian offering for those that like their films served with subtitles.

GODZILLA - this big scary all chewing all stomping lizard creature first appeared on big screens in 1954 courtesy of Japan's Toho Studio's, and since then there have been 28 films dedicated to this scaly monster of all monster's. Last seen in 1998 courtesy of the master of disaster movies, Roland Emmerich, this 2014 outing should bear no resemblance to that turkey! For this film to be endorsed by Toho Studio's it must be getting something right, and Director, Gareth Edwards, has taken us back to the source of the original film to stay true to that early premise. That is, that Godzilla is born out of a nuclear incident, and that the action takes place mostly in Japan. And so it does, and we have Bryan Cranston as the physicist based in Japan investigating with his Navy bomb disposal expert son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) a nuclear incident dating back to 1999 to uncover the real truth of what happened and why. Needless to say along the way the truth is uncovered, whole city blocks are trashed and they duly discover some big shit going down . . . really big, like, monstrously big!

THE ZERO THEOREM - Terry Gilliam is back, and thank God! He knows how to spin a yarn; create something fantastical; weave the whacky, weird and wonderful; and assemble a convincing cast to deliver a movie experience that is a feast for the senses, will play with your mind, and will make you think! He keeps on delivering such films going back to 'Time Bandits', 'Brazil', '12 Monkeys' and more recently 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus' all of which take us to an alternative universe, another dimension, some future dystopian world yet somehow grounded in what we know with a sense of familiarity. Here we have Christoph Waltz taking the lead with Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Ben Wishaw and David Thewlis all supporting as our eccentric computer hacker mathematics whizz Waltz, works away on a project set by the mysterious 'Management', with the end game being to determine if there is a purpose to human existence. . . The Zero Theorem! This will be quirky to the nth degree, visually mesmerising, and totally immersing - a must see for fans of Gilliam's work.

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL - Greg Kinnear, Thomas Haden-Church, and Kelly Reilly star in this story of a family coming to terms with the ramifications of their four year old son's life changing near death experience. Playing the small town father, Kinnear witnesses the impact of his son's fleeting moment in Heaven after he died briefly on the operating table, and has to come to terms with what he saw, who he met and what was said when he was on 'the other side'. This film could test your faith, it will be thought provoking, and it will leave you wondering 'what if'? Needless to say this film has created a bit of a sensation across America's bible belt - watch it and decide for yourself.

CHILD'S POSE - A Romanian film about justice being sought by the family of a young child killed following a car crash involving the son of a Romanian socialite. The child killed in the car accident and the family are polar opposites, simple folk, peasants almost. The mother of the man at the wheel of the car is overbearing toward her son, engulfing him with love and affection at every turn and firmly believing he is innocent of any crime despite all the evidence to the contrary. What follows when families meet is satirical, the Police are sidetracked, the truth is covered up and this overbearing mother will do just about anything to protect her son. This won the 'Golden Bear' at the Berlin Film Festival and was an Oscar contender for Best Foreign Language Film earlier this year.

A mix then this week of monster action, future adventure, family drama, and emotional imbalance. Check one out at least, and let me know what you think!

Movies . . . see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-