What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 1st January 2015.

The new year is upon us, and with it Odeon Online takes this opportunity to wish all of our readers, film lovers and movie goers heartfelt best wishes for a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015 filled especially with films that will makes us laugh, make us cry, makes us think; that will shock, surprise and delight; and that will inspire, motivate, lift us up and set our hearts racing! Happy New Year to you all!

And so, to the latest offerings to grace our big screens on the first day of what is going to be an exciting year in moviedom. After the tranche of new releases seen in December and the big budget grand scale offerings that opened only last week on Boxing Day, there are just a couple of films to entice us out to a movie theatre in the coming week. The two new releases this week have one thing in common - one English gentlemanly Actor who is getting about a bit right now, and featured as a CGI Dragon only last week in a massive finale to a hugely successful series, and now this week two more new films spinning off the projector reel, and they couldn't be more different! One is an animated feature that is a spin-off from another successful trilogy, and the other is a WWII true story action drama thriller that tells the story of how the Allies war effort was aided by the work of one man and his team in cracking some fairly important Nazi codes at the time.

If it's one of these two you choose, or any of the others great films released in December that appeal, be sure to drop your thoughts down in the Comments section immediately following this Post, or any Post for that matter, and share your views, opinions, and experience with your fellow readers and film followers at Odeon Online. Enjoy your film!

THE IMITATION GAME (Rated M) - the man in question is Benedict Cumberbatch who is touted here as giving a career best performance as Alan Turing in a film that tells his story and how he and his team sought to break the Nazi's ever changing Enigma Code by which the German submarines communicated with each other during World War II. Directed by Norwegian Morten Tyldum, and Written by Graham Moore the story of Turing unfolds from his boarding school years in the latter half of the 1920's where he suffered bullying and emotional turmoil, through to his arrival at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire which was the home of the Government Code and Cypher School and where Turing based himself to work on cracking the German cyphers - Enigma and Lorenz. From there the film traces his eventual down fall in the early 50's as a result of the investigation by the Police into his alleged homosexuality - still illegal at that time!

Grounded in historical fact as much as possible, the film also stars Keira Knightly as Joan Clarke, Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander, Rory Kinnear as Detective Robert Nock, Charles Dance as Commander Denniston and Mark Strong as Stewart Menzies. In life, Alan Turing was never really given the credit he deserved for his efforts in helping to bring an end to the second world war probably two years ahead of time, and possibly four, and he was ostracised from society because of his sexual leanings and in the end paid the ultimate price for it. It wasn't until last year in fact that Turing was 'pardoned' for his 'crimes', and the film will go some way to perhaps setting the record straight, although maybe with a little poetic license thrown in. Made for just US$15M it has so far grossed more than double that but has already garnered 34 awards wins and 60 award nominations, including five Golden Globe nominations and much praised heaped on both Cumberbatch and Knightly. Can you hear the Oscar buzz already?

PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (Rated G) - having starred in three previous CG animation outings of the popular 'Madagascar' franchise, the four hapless penguins now get their own star vehicle in this spin-off that seems sure to please. Produced by those talented guys at Dreamworks and starring the voice talents of Benedict Cumberbatch as Classified, John Malkovich as Dave, Peter Stormare as Corporal and our four friendly penguin characters Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) this sees the penguin chums joining a secret undercover organisation called 'The North Wind' headed up by Classified, but not before the cross paths with the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine (aka Dave, aka John Malkovich) who has had one too many run-ins with penguins in the past at various zoos, and is now hell bent on revenge against all penguins of the world including our band of four. The North Wind who Skipper, Kowalski, Private & Rico have joined forces with have been tracking Dave for some time in an attempt to bring him to justice. The action takes us from Fort Knox to Venice, almost back to Madagascar via the Sahara Desert, onto Shanghai and back to New York City before Dave finally gets his comeuppance at the hands of the four penguins and The North Wind. One for all the family, and having cost US$132M to make, it has already raked in US$232M which says something!

Grab a movie then over new year week and start 2015 as you mean to go on - at the movies, being entertained with escapism, drama, comedy, suspense, thrills, chills and emotion. Whatever your choice, enjoy the experience and do your bit to keep cinema alive! Happy New Year!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-