What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 23rd July 2015.

In deepest darkest Adelaide it's mid-Winter, the temperatures are in the lower half of single digits, we relish clear blue skies during the warm day time but it's freakin' cold at night. With the shortest days of the year behind us now it's all down hill to Summer, but in the meantime we can retreat to a warm movie theatre and catch a new film released this week, or any of the other great cinematic content still out there on general release.

This week then there are five new movies to whet your film going appetite with an ageing super sleuth looking back on his life and an unsolved mystery; then an account of a brief time and a singular man who almost changed the course of history back in 1939; next a high school supernatural horror thriller; a Sci-Fi self-help experiment that may not be all its cracked up to be; and in closing a mistaken identity blind date BritRomCom.

As always, you are cordially invited after your filmic experience this coming week to share your personal movie critique with your fellow film fans here at Odeon Online, by recording your comments below this, or any other Post. In the meantime, enjoy your movie.

MR. HOLMES (Rated M) - This crime drama stars the titular Mr. Sherlock Holmes but not of the Robert Downey Jnr. type or out of the Guy Ritchie mould. Instead, this version is based on the 2005 novel 'A Slight Trick of the Mind' written by Mitch Cullin and based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hero and is Directed by Bill Condon. What we have here though is an ageing Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) now in his early nineties, and set in 1947 when the great detective is no longer living in London's Baker Street, but settled down in his retirement in a Sussex farm house shacked up with his housekeeper (Laura Linney) and her young son.

All is not well though as Holmes is unhappy about a recently published article by his former partner Dr. Watson regarding his last case which remains unsolved after many years. Holmes though in his later years has failing memory and is seeking to record his own account of that same case which he knows is different to Watson's version. Along the way as he uncovers the truth through flashback, natural remedies to restore his memory, and his powers of deduction he comes to realise that there is more to life than pure logic and science and sometimes you need to make a human and emotional connection to get to the bottom of things.

SELF/LESS (Rated M) - Here we have a Sci-Fi thriller Directed by Tarsem Singh and made for US$26M and stars Ben Kingsley as big time real estate tycoon billionaire Damian Hayes, who has everything anyone could possibly ask for . . . except his health, because he is dying of cancer. Help is at hand though in the form of a radical medical operation known as 'shedding' in which his consciousness is transplanted into a new healthy body. That body belongs to Mark (Ryan Reynolds) and Damian's newly located consciousness now adopts the alias Edward Hale for his new younger self. As Edward starts his new life in New Orleans he is plagued by flashes of someone else's life. As he digs deeper & deeper into the origins of his new body, he learns that there are those that we going to almost any length to keep it all a secret.

13 MINUTES (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel who brought us the excellent 'Downfall' in 2004 has returned to the world of Nazi Germany once again in this true story of a man who nearly changed the course of world history back in 1939. Johann Georg Elser (Christian Friedel) was a carpenter who set a bomb in a Munich beer hall to take out Adolf Hitler during an assembly he was to hold there. Acting alone Elser set his bomb to explode at a given time, but on the day in question Hitler departed the assembly hall thirteen minutes ahead of schedule, and so lived to live another day . . . and the rest is history that did change the world forever. Eight people were killed however, and another sixty injured, and for the following five years Elser was held in captivity, tortured and then executed at Dachau Concentration Camp for his failed assassination attempt. Ever since then those that know of this man ask 'what if?', and to have this story finally told on the big screen as one of the greatest resistance fighters will help keep his memory and his belief alive.

THE GALLOWS (Rated M) - Here we have another found footage supernatural horror thriller Directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing starring a bunch of largely unknown  wannabes and made for just US$100K and so far grossing in excess of US$22M. The story surrounds a twenty year anniversary of a school play tragedy in which a student actor was killed accidentally on stage while play acting his death by hanging. Looking to mark the anniversary of the tragedy a group of young students re-enact the school play in a misjudged and misguided attempt to mark the occasion. Soon though thing begin to go bump in the night and all is not as it seems in this sleepy small town school and the fight meter ratchets up a few notches and the scares come thick & fast, as the friends come to the realisation that some things should just be left alone.

MAN UP (Rated M) - This BritRomCom is Directed by Ben Palmer and stars affable Simon Pegg as 40 year old recently divorced Jack who in a case of mistaken identity winds up with wrong blind date - Nancy (Lake Bell) - a 34 year old partying happy-go-lucky single girl he meets on a train and mistakes for his 24 year blind date Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond). Deciding to go with the rouse Nancy and Jack hit it off and embark on a whirlwind chaotic, funny, drunken, playful romance before Jack discovers the truth that Nancy was not his intended blind date. What follows is a journey of discovery, choices, decisions, and accepting the consequences of your actions. Rory Kinnear and Olivia Williams also star.

That's it then for the week ahead with horror, comedy, Sci-Fi, wartime drama, and crime drama coming to a movie theatre near you. Get out amongst it over the coming seven days, do yourself a favour and splash out $20 for a movie ticket . . . only at the cinema.

See you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-