A SIMPLE FAVOUR : Tuesday 25th September 2018.

I saw 'A SIMPLE FAVOUR' earlier in the week, and this American mystery comedy thriller is Directed and Co-Produced by Paul Feig whose previous feature film Director credits include 2016's 'Ghostbusters', 2015's 'Spy', 2013's 'The Heat' and 2011's 'Bridesmaid's' as well as numerous episodes of television series including 'The Office', 'Arrested Development', 'Weeds' and 'Nurse Jackie'. Here, he adapts for the big screen the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell. The film was released in Australia and the USA two weeks ago, has received generally positive Reviews especially for its plots twists and turns and the performances of its two principle female cast, and has so far generated US$46M off the back of its US$20M production budget outlay.

We are first introduced to Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), a widowed single mother, via her on screen vlog which she runs from the comfort of her own kitchen to an audience of Mum's preaching the gospel according to her helpful household crafts, cooking and essential arsenal of basic home skills that every Mum should possess. She digresses, and begins to recount the story of how her very best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) disappeared four days ago seemingly without a trace, and just how worried she is for her friends safety and wellbeing. In flashback, we learn how Stephanie and Emily first became acquainted, through their sons Miles (Joshua Satine) and Nicky (Ian Ho) respectively who attend the same junior school together. Emily is a busy working Mum, working as the PR Director for fashion guru Dennis Nylon (Rupert Friend).

Through their children who coerce their Mum's into play dates, Stephanie and Emily quickly bond and become firm friends, with Emily frequently inviting Stephanie back to her lavish household for afternoon martini's while the kids amuse themselves at play. On one such occasion, after several rather large and potent martini's the girls trade their deepest secrets.

Emily goes first stating her frustration at the lack of success of her husband, Sean Townsend (Henry Golding), an English professors' writing career (it's been ten years since his first and last book), and their poor financial situation which has them up to the eyeballs in debt despite their apparent wealth. Despite Emily's frustration and derision of her husband, she seemingly loves him and is very openly affectionate towards him in front of a slightly embarrassed Stephanie. Then it's Stephanie's turn to come clean with her deepest darkest secret and she admits that as a teenager, after her father died, she had sex with her half-brother, Chris (Dustin Milligan), which Emily playfully teases her about calling her a 'BrotherFucker'.

One day, Emily calls Stephanie asking a simple favour of her. She asks if Stephanie could collect Nicky from school and look after him for a few hours as she has a work crisis to deal with which requires her urgent attention in the city. Stephanie as cordial and obliging as always is only happy to help out her good friend, particularly as her husband Sean is in London attending to his own sick mother. However, time marches on and not having heard from Emily for two days, despite voicemail and text messages left, she calls her employer who tell her that Stephanie is in Miami for a few days.

Stephanie also calls Sean, who tells her that Emily has a history of just disappearing unannounced for a few days, but they both agree to alert the Police. While talking with two Police Officers, Sean indicated that Emily had no family, while she previously told Stephanie she had a sister, and that they had matching tattoos on their wrists. Stephanie mentions to Sean that she learned Emily hated having her photo taken, and Sean confirms a similar incident, but neither know the reason for this.

And so Stephanie turns Super Sleuth and goes to the Dennis Nylon headquarters in the city and sneaks into Emily's office and finds a photo of her, captioned with 'Gotta Have Faith' in handwriting below. Stephanie uses the photograph to create a missing person poster which she distributes around the town. The Police Officer handling the case, Detective Summervile (Bashir Salahuddin) reports to Sean that Emily lied about taking a trip to Miami, and instead rented a white Kia in Michigan. A fan of Stephanie's vlog reports seeing someone fitting Emily's description and vehicle in Michigan, and the car is discovered near the Squaw Lake Bible Camp. Upon closer inspection, the Police discover her drowned body in the water.

Sean mourns the loss of his wife despite her foibles, quirks, idiosyncrasies and flights of fancy and Stephanie grieves the loss of a her best friend. Sharing their collective grief, and whilst taking care of their two young boys, the pair grow close and begin a relationship, resulting in Stephanie moving in with Sean to his former matrimonial home. Following an autopsy of Emily's body, Detective Summerville reveals that Emily had sever liver damage, was overdosed on heroin and that only weeks before her death Sean had taken out a US$4M life insurance policy on his wife.

Emily however, it seems is alive and has been spying on Sean and Stephanie from afar. Upset by how events have transpired she sends a 'BrotherFucker' note to Stephanie. This spurs Stephanie to continue with her investigations, so she seeks out Diana Hyland (Linda Cardellini) who a few years back painted a rather provocative portrait of a naked Emily. Diana states that the girl in the portrait, who posed with her hair dyed raspberry red was named Claudia and described her as a con artist and her muse all in the same sentence. She just disappeared after that never to be heard of again - until now. Diana gives Stephanie a clue to a Summer Camp which she attended as a teenager, and so the vlogger turned Super Sleuth drives there, where she trawls through various year books in search of further clues.

At the Summer Camp, Stephanie comes across a year book entry showing two twin sisters aged sixteen or so - unmistakably Emily with her sister, but that their real names are recorded as Faith and Hope McLanden.

Stephanie later reaches out to Emily through a series of cryptic messages on her vlog which she knows that Emily is monitoring. They meet at the cemetery where Emily is supposedly buried, and sip on martini's for old times sake. Emily explains that in their teens they ran away from home to escape their abusive and controlling father, then went their separate ways agreeing to meet up again when the dust had settled on their disappearance, but never did. In the intervening years Faith wasted away her life, got drunk, addicted to heroin, had a string of dead end relationships and is living on the edge with no money to her name. Hope however, carved out a successful career, married well and settled down to family life. Now some sixteen years on, and Faith reached out wanting to reconnect, and bribing Emily for US$1M otherwise she'll blow the lid on their disappearance and their reasons behind it, all those years ago. Hope had little alternative under the circumstances but to dispense with her sister, which she did in the lake by drowning her while the both swam, recounting memories from those bygone days.

Emily spins a yarn and tells Stephanie that it was Sean's idea to fake her own death, realise the insurance monies, skip the country and live happily ever after. Stephanie reluctantly agrees to help Emily reappear having won the support of Stephanie's vlog audience and frame Sean for physical abuse (which she manufactures evidence of) and insurance fraud. Sean is promptly taken into custody, charged and released on bail. Stephanie secretly changes her mind about Emily's antics and proposed plan, and invents an argument with Sean in front of Emily to incriminate her, while Police listen in on microphones planted in the room. Emily however, did not come down in the last rain shower, and after sidling up to Sean all lovey dovey predicts their ruse, and renders the microphones useless beforehand. Emily confesses to her crimes, holds the pair at gunpoint, tells them she will kill them both and make it look like a murder-suicide. She shoots Sean in the shoulder and turns the gun on Stephanie. Stephanie then reveals that she has a hidden camera concealed as a button in her blouse and is live-streaming the whole event through her vlog. Emily never saw that coming and runs into the street trying to make a quick exit, where she is hit by a car, and is then arrested by Police Officers who arrive at these scene with her crawling along the street unable to walk.

The closing commentary as the credits roll pick up the story six months down the track explaining that Emily was sentenced to twenty years in prison - a life she seems to be reasonably well adjusted to. Sean was cleared of all charges and has became a successful professor at a major University somewhere out of town where he lives with his son, Stephanie's vlog expanded to one million subscribers, and her success in handling Emily's case led her to becoming a part-time private detective which she has an aptitude for having brought thirty criminals to justice already.

I enjoyed 'A Simple Favour', a lot, and was very pleasantly surprised by this school Mum's neo-noir dramedy offering that has a simple enough story that is well told, if a little drawn out towards the end; has plenty of twists and turns interspersed with just the right amount of humour; and very well acted out by Kendrick and Lively especially, ably supported by the emerging Golding. The film looks good, has a thumping French pop soundtrack, is smart and slick and pretty much throughout Lively looks a million bucks and has the attitude to go with it in spades, providing the perfect foil for Kendrick's plain Jane, unassuming stay at home Mum who finds herself thrust into extraordinary circumstances and relishing in them. Catch it while you can.

'A Simple Favour' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th September 2018.

The dust has now settled on the 43rd annual 'Toronto International Film Festival' ('TIFF') which closed its doors and lowered its curtains this year on 16th September, with the closing night film being 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' Directed by Justin Kelly. TIFF has grown to become one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people each year. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has become a permanent destination for film culture operating out of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This year, the winners and grinners arising out of the festival were :
* The People's Choice Award is the award presented to the film rated as the years most popular with the film going audience and went to the comedy drama 'Green Book' Directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali and Linda Cardellini. The first and second runners up were 'If Beale Street Could Talk' by Barry Jenkins and 'Roma' by Alfonso Cuaron respectively.
* The People's Choice Award : Documentary was presented to 'Free Solo' by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and profiles rock climber Alex Honnold, on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan, a vertical 900meter high rock wall located in Yosemite National Park.
* The People's Choice Award : Midnight Madness went to 'The Man Who Feels No Pain' an Indian Hindi language action comedy film written and directed by Vasan Bala. The first and second runners up prizes were awarded to 'Halloween' by David Gordon Green and 'Assassination Nation' by Sam Levinson.
* The Platform Prize which is presented to the film which demonstrates high artistic merit and a strong Directorial vision was awarded this year to 'Cities of Last Things' a Chinese, Taiwanese, French and US Co-Production Directed, Co-Produced and Written by Ho Wi Ding.
* The FIPRESCI Discovery Prize (International Federation of Film Critics) was this year awarded to 'Float Like a Butterfly' by Director and Writer Carmel Winters and centres around a young Irish Traveller girl who idolises Muhammad Ali and aspires to become a boxer.
* The FIPRESCI Special Presentation went to biographical drama 'Skin' and is Directed, Co-Produced and Written by Guy Nattiv and charts the life of former skinhead group member Bryon 'Pitbull' Widner.

This week there are five new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a true story of a man who became wheelchair bound at age 21 only to subsequently discover his talent for sketching cartoons which brought him notoriety and acclaim. Next up is an adventure tale possibly of the origins of mans best friend. This is followed by a story of an Australian soldier who seeks forgiveness from the family of a man he killed while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. We then turn to a French language film about a bitter divorce and the warring couple's eleven years old son caught in the crossfire, before wrapping up the week with a comedy about a no hoper forced to attend evening classes to attain the high school certification which he turned his back on all those years ago.

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

'DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT' (Rated M) - this biographical comedy drama offering is Directed, Written for the screen, and based on the story adapted by Gus Van Sant and John Callahan from Callahan's own memoir of the same name. Gus Van Sant's previous Directing credits include 'Drugstore Cowboy', 'My Own Private Idaho', 'To Die For', 'Good Will Hunting', the frame for frame remake of the Hitchcock classic 'Psycho', 'Finding Forrester', 'Elephant', 'Milk' and 'The Sea of Trees'. The film saw its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, went on release Stateside in mid-July, has so far taken US$3M at the Box Office and has generated generally favourable Reviews. John Callahan FYI, was a cartoonist, artist, and musician in Portland, Oregon, most noted for dealing with macabre subjects and physical disabilities. He became a quadriplegic following a car accident at the age of twenty-one when after a day of drinking, his car, in which he was a passenger at the time, was being driven by a man with whom he was bar hopping was involved in a collision in which Callahan's spinal cord was severely injured. Following the accident, he became a cartoonist, drawing by clutching a pen between both hands, having regained partial use of his upper body. His visual artistic style was simple and often rough, although still legible. He died in July 2010, aged 59.

And so after nearly dying in the aforementioned car accident, the last thing that slacker John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) intends to do is give up alcohol. Encouraged by his girlfriend Annu (Rooney Mara) and a charismatic sponsor Donnie Green (Jonah Hill),  Callahan reluctantly enters a treatment program and discovers that he has a knack for drawing. The emerging artist soon finds himself with a new lease of life when his irreverent and edgy newspaper cartoons gain a national and loyal following. Also starring Jack Black and Mark Webber.

'ALPHA' (Rated PG) - here we have a historical adventure film set some twenty thousand years ago in the Old Stone Age, and is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Albert Hughes otherwise known as one half of the Hughes Brothers who have Co-Directed such films as 'Menace II Society', 'Dead Presidents', 'From Hell' and 'The Book of Eli' before going their separate ways and each doing their own thing. The film has garnered generally favourable Reviews and has so far taken US$91M off the back of its US$51M budget outlay since its release in the US in mid-August. The story here surrounds young teenager Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who is sent by his father Tau (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) on a rites-of-passage hunting trip with another young friend. When the young friend is taken by a large sabre tooth tiger, Keda is left to his own devices and must fend for himself and find his way home before the harsh Winter season takes hold. Having sustained an injury, he is attacked by a pack of wolves which he manages to fend off but not before injuring one of their own, which they leave for dead. Soon however, Keda and the young wolf form a bond as he nurses Alpha (the name he has given to the wolf) back to strength. But before they reach home, there are several other challenges that wait them calling for each to come to the rescue of the other. You could say this is an origin story for how the dog became man's best friend.

'JIRGA' (Rated M) - Directed, Written and Photographed by Aussie Benjamin Gilmore, this Australian film is set three years after an Australian army helicopter raid on a small Afghanistan village led to the killing of an unarmed man (which is seen through night vision goggles in flashback). Former Australian soldier Mike (Sam Smith) who killed the civilian, returns to Afghanistan to find the victim’s family. Doggedly, he sets off on a perilous journey over the sparse mountainous terrain where both the Taliban and ISIS are active. Mike is however, determined to make amends and seek forgiveness, and so puts his life in the hands of the Jirga – the village justice system. Filmed on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Director and his leading man shot the film using a camera purchased in some Pakistan shopping mall, and were in constant danger of being kidnapped or killed themselves. The film runs for a very efficient 78 minutes only, but is described as a sensitive and compassionate depiction of the true cost of war, on all sides.

'CUSTODY' (Rated M) - this French foreign language drama offering is the feature length debut by Xavier Legrand and was screened in main completion of the 2017 Venice Film Festival where it took out the Silver Lion Award. Here Miriam (Lea Drucker) and Antoine Besson (Denis Menochet) have divorced, and Miriam is seeking sole custody of their eleven year old son Julien (Thomas Gioria) to protect him from a father she claims is abusive and violent. Antoine pleads his case as a scorned, downtrodden father whose children have been turned against him by their vindictive mother. Unsure who is telling the truth, the appointed Judge passes a ruling of joint custody. Caught right in the middle of the ever increasing conflict between his warring parents, Julien is pushed to the edge to prevent the worst from happening. This hard hitting, confronting roller coaster of a film has received widespread Critical acclaim.

'NIGHT SCHOOL' (Rated M) - this comedy offering is Directed by Malcolm D. Lee whose previous credits include 'Undercover Brother', 'Soul Men', 'Scary Movie 5', 'Barbershop : The Next Cut', and 'Girls Trip' and is Co-Produced, Co-Written and stars Kevin Hart. Here, Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) who works as a fast food restaurant mascot, sees his life take an unexpected turn when he accidentally blows up his place of employment. Forced to attend night school to get his GED (General Equivalency Diploma tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills) he must now deal with a group of misfit students (Rob Riggle, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Anne Winters, Romany Malco and Al Madrigal), a feisty teacher Carrie (Tiffany Haddish) who doesn't think he's too bright and Principal Paterson (Taran Killam) who presides over the school with a fist of iron. Sounds like a barrel of laughs!

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

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE PREDATOR : Thursday 20th September 2018.

I finally caught 'THE PREDATOR' earlier this week, two weeks after its release in Australia. It has been 31 years since the cult classic alien man hunting character 'Predator' emerged onto our cinema screens with the titular action hero of that era Arnold Schwarzenegger going head to head and toe to toe with the said Predator in some undisclosed Central American jungle territory. With a crack team of hardened military rescue types who get picked off most gruesomely and violently one by one, it's Arnie who is the last man standing to face off against the menacing alien foe and save the day. That film was Directed by John McTiernan for US$18M and it took at the Box Office US$99M. On the strength of 'Predator' three sequels have so far materialised including this one. In between time there was 1990's 'Predator 2' Directed by Stephen Hopkins and then 2010's 'Predators' as Directed by Nimrod Antal and now 'The Predator' Directed by Shane Black. A crossover with the 'Alien' franchise produced the 'Alien vs. Predator' films, which to date have seen 'Alien vs. Predator' released in 2004 and 'Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem' released in 2007. This instalment was made for US$88M and has so far grossed US$68M and has garnered mixed Reviews generally.

Shane Black who Co-Starred in the original film back in 1987, and who Directs here and also Co-Wrote the Screenplay has stated that the film would be a sequel set in the present day, following on from the events of the first two films, but set before the events of the 'Predators'. He has also indicated that he looked for plot details from the previous Predator movies that he could retrospectively link back to the new film, and that if this instalment performs well, it could be the first in a planned trilogy.

The opening scene sees a spaceship hurtling through space and bursting through a wormhole emerging the other side with planet Earth in the distance. It crash lands somewhere on the outskirts of suburbia in a woodland area. Meanwhile Army sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) has assumed the undercover sniper position with a hostage retrieval situation going on down below, with his aim squarely on one of the antagonists about to make an exchange. He is communicating with four of his other colleagues all in position somewhere in the dense undergrowth. Just then the spaceship comes into view flying low over head and coming to a crashing halt somewhere close by. McKenna is caught off guard, fires a shot killing one of the goons below and then falls down an embankment coming to rest eventually not far from the stricken ship. He ventures to explore further and finds various pieces of hardware and technology, when a colleague arrives who is quickly dispensed with by an alien creature who strings him up and then slices him in half at the waist. This gives McKenna a split second to incapacitate the alien creature and make his get away.

Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) is a Government Agent and Director of the 'Stargazer Project' which has been monitoring the aliens comings and goings since their arrival in 1987, then in 1997 and more frequently with each passing year. He captures McKenna and interrogates him, but not before McKenna has mailed off the retrieved items of alien hardware to somewhere safe. Traeger has also captured the alien which he has termed a 'Predator' because it seems to hunt its prey for sport, and has it heavily sedated and bound in a laboratory for observation, testing and doubtless experimentation. He recruits Dr. Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) an evolutionary biologist to aid the research team with their studies of the alien being. But of course its not long before the captured Predator breaks free of its shackles like they are dental floss, and promptly and with bloody efficiency dispenses with everyone wearing a white lab coat, or in a security uniform brandishing a firearm.

McKenna meanwhile is escorted out of the same premises and onto a bus with a rag tag bunch of other ex-soldiers all suffering from PTSD. This bunch are made up now of McKenna, ex-Marine Gaylord 'Nebraska' Williams (Trevante Rhodes), military veterans and war buddies Coyle and Baxley (Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Jane respectively), Blackhawk helicopter pilot Nettles (Augusto Aguilera) and former Marine Lynch (Alfie Allen). Witnessing the alien escape across the roof top of the facility they are now exiting from, the bunch now believe what McKenna was telling them about visitors from outer space and promptly take over the bus over powering the two escorting security guards and the driver.

They see that Bracket has given chase across the roof top in hot pursuit of the Predator wielding a tranquilliser gun like she's Lara Croft. Traeger's Security Guards give chase and are ordered to kill her, but she is rescued by McKenna and his team who ride off on stolen motorcycles headed for the home of his ex-wife Emily (Yvonne Strahovski) and autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay) whom he mailed his package to of retrieved alien tech.

Arriving there, McKenna searches Rory's room for the tech but only finds the empty box. Rory has however, as it's Halloween, gone trick or treating down to the local neighbourhood, wearing the alien helmet and gauntlet in an attempt to avoid detection form a couple of nasty school bullies who seem intent on making Rory's life a misery. McKenna and his team split up roaming the streets searching for Rory, when an explosion in the distance alerts them to there being something amiss in da hood. They arrive to find Rory in a deserted floodlit football field in a standoff with two huge Predator dogs approaching menacingly.

Thwarting the dogs and rescuing Rory, the team make off into the seemingly safe harbourage of a nearby school. The Predator chases them in and corners McKenna, Rory and Bracket. Just as McKenna is about to return the alien tech to the Predator in a seemingly vain attempt to save his life, another much larger Predator bursts through the wall and begins to fight with the first, eventually throwing it onto the roof of a car and ripping off its head and extracting its spinal column in the process. The team escape while the Predators do battle with themselves, leaving the second larger more dominant and seemingly more advanced Predator to now locate the lost technology.

Bracket somehow deduces that the Predators are attempting to rapidly evolve themselves with the superior DNA of humans and other inhabitants of planets across the galaxy. The team regroups at an old barn, but Traeger tracks them down, captures them, and shares his thoughts that the Predators foresee that climate change within the next two generations at most will end their ability to retrieve human DNA for their ongoing hybridisation, so they are scrambling to retrieve it now before time and mankind runs out. Rory sketches a map to the spaceship and so Traeger takes the boy away to that location to use his autistic skills to unlock access to the ship. The team escapes and goes after him with the help of a Predator dog suddenly turned tame and obedient, recognising that it is really mans best friend who holds the upper hand in the food chain.

And so now all the interested parties gather at the crashed Predator ship - McKenna and his team, Traeger and his crew, and the second Predator having killed Lynch who was lurking in ambush but was outsmarted by the Predator. Traeger has set up translation equipment to convert Predator speak into the Queen's English, and so the pesky Predator explains through the translation software that it intends to blow up the ship to keep it out of their hands and then give them all a head start of a full seven-and-a-half minutes before it hunts them down predator like and mercilessly dispenses with them all. Needless to say, the Predator quickly kills off most of the team with what's left of McKenna's team and what's remaining for Traeger's crew both heading off in opposite directions in a seemingly futile attempt to thwart the bloodthirsty intergalactic alien antagonist. Traeger tries to use a Predator weapon on the alien but stupidly kills himself in the process.

The Predator captures Rory, believing that his autism is an advancement in human evolution and is consequently worthy of further Predator hybridisation. The Predator takes off in his ship. As it does so McKenna, Nebraska, and Nettles jump onto the ship's exterior hoping to gain access some how, but the Predator activates a force field that slices through Nettles at the waist and his upper body tumbles off the ship. Nebraska is caught on the outside of the force field, while McKenna is underneath it. Nebraska already injured and sensing no further hope, sacrifices himself into one of the ship's turbine engines, causing it to loose power and crash land. McKenna sneaks into the ship and attacks the Predator but is overcome by the strength and power of the alien. Bracket arrives, and with Rory, the three manage to overpower and kill it.

So, there are a few nods back to the first two instalments in this franchise which for the purposes of continuity and consistency are no bad thing. The quips and deadpan humour are here too which adds a certain levity to the violence and gore, and the cast are strong enough and evenly matched, although for me the young Jacob Tremblay is the stand out here displaying all the ticks and idiosyncrasies of a brilliant yet challenged mind. As for the story - well that's pretty shallow, with the audience expected to take huge leaps of faith for example with the apparent overnight programming of alien language translation technology; the rapid deduction that the Predators are harvesting human and other superior alien DNA to enhance their own evolution; and the reason they have visited our humble little blue planet is because of climate change. And there are other plot holes and other storylines that defy explanation too, but suffice to say, Shane Black has crafted a film that is entertaining enough, there is ample blood letting and dismembered bodies, and The Predator as portrayed here by Brian A. Prince, is a convincing antagonist, but you can leave your brain at the door, sit back and enjoy the rapid fire quips & quirks, and violence aplenty, but that's all that this reboot has going for it . . . rather disappointingly.

'The Predator' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 20th September 2018.

It really is film festival season with the 45th 'Telluride Film Festival' having run from August 31st through until September 3rd, the 43rd 'Toronto International Film Festival' as reported last week running from September 6th until 16th, and the 75th 'Venice International Film Festival' running concurrently from August 29th through to September 8th.

With a quick run down of this years 75th Venice International Film Festival, Mexican Director, Producer and Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro was named as the President of the Jury, with 'First Man', Directed and Co-Produced by Damien Chazelle, being chosen to open the festival. Joining del Toro on the Jury panel this year, amongst others, were Naomi Watts, Christoph Waltz and Taika Waititi.

Of the twenty-one films in competition, among them were '22 July' Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Paul Greengrass; 'At Eternity's Gate' Directed and Co-Written by Julian Schnabel and with Willem Dafoe, Mads Mikkelsen, Oscar Isaac and Rupert Friend; 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Joel and Ethan Coen with Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Tyne Daly and Brendan Gleeson; 'The Favourite' Directed and Co-Produced by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Nicholas Hoult; 'First Man' Directed and Co-Produced by Damien Chazelle and with Ryan Gosling, Jason Clarke and Claire Foy; 'The Mountain' Directed and Written by Rick Alverson with Jeff Goldblum and Tye Sheridan; 'The Nightingale' Directed and Written by Jennifer Kent and starring Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin and Ewen Leslie; 'Non-Fiction' Directed and Written by Olivier Assayas with Guillaume Canet and Juliette Binoche; 'Peterloo' Directed and Written by Mike Leigh with Alastair Mackenzie and Rory Kinnear; 'Roma' Directed, Written, Co-Produced, Photographed and Co-Edited by Alfonso Cuaron; 'The Sisters Brothers' as Directed and Co-Written by Jacques Audiard and starring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rutger Hauer; 'Suspira' Directed and Co-Produced by Luca Guadagnino with Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth and Chloe Grace Moretz; and 'Vox Lux' Directed and Written by Brady Corbet and starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle and Willem Dafoe. The competition winner taking out the prestigious Golden Lion Award was 'Roma'.

The other winners and grinners in official competition were : Grand Jury Prize going to 'The Favourite'; the Silver Lion awarded to 'The Sisters Brothers'; the Volpi Cup for Best Actress to Olivia Colman for 'The Favourite'; the Volpi Cup for Best Actor to Willem Dafoe for 'At Eternity's Gate'; the Best Screenplay Award to 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'; and the Special Jury Prize was bestowed upon 'The Nightingale'. Something for everyone almost it seems.

The Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to David Cronenberg and Vanessa Redgrave. There were also plenty of other award winners and lots more films that are too numerous to mention here. For a greater insight, you can go to the website at : labiennale.org/en/cinema

Turning attention to this week, we have six new movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch the week with a blood drenched revenge action horror film set in the backwoods of the Californian mountains in the mid-'80's that sees this often maligned Actor of questionable film choices and output at the top of his game, and giving his total crazed commitment to dispensing with the adversaries that have done  him wrong in the most gruesome manner possible. For a change of pace and a change of decade we go back to the '50's and a fantasy offering about an orphan, his Uncle, his neighbour and a mystery time piece located somewhere within the walls of a rambling old house. We then stick in the '50's with an Aussie film about a group of women working in an upmarket Sydney department store and the impact that a young girl who joins the team has upon them all. Next up is the third instalment in an English spy spoof franchise that draws its inspiration form James Bond and Mr. Bean in equal measure. Then we turn to an Aussie documentary about a Sydney man trying to track down his absent father for more than twenty years while he engages in certain paranormal activities the result of which he uncovers a whole lot more than he could have imagined. And we wrap up the week with an animated feature turning the legend of Bigfoot on its head.

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

'MANDY' (Rated MA15+) - here we have a bloody revenge action horror offering that was Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, was shown at Cannes in May, was released in the US last week and has received widespread Critical acclaim so far, most notably for its principle lead, Nicolas Cage, and the production values that easily stand beside its Hollywood counterparts. Directed, Co-Written for the Screen and based on an original story by Italian/Canadian Panos Cosmatos whose previous Directing credit is 2010's 'Beyond The Black Rainbow', the film cost somewhere in the region of US$6M.

Set somewhere in the unforgiving wilderness of the Shadow Mountains in Eastern California in 1983, Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) has fallen head over heels for the deceptively charming Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough). However, the life he has made for himself in a log cabin in the tranquillity of the woods, comes suddenly and horrifically crashing down around him, when a vile band of ravaging cultists and supernatural like creatures desecrate his idyllic home with a swift and vicious fury at the hand of Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). A broken man, Red now exists with one sole purpose in life - to hunt down those maniacal villains and exact swift bloody violent vengeance on them all.

'THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS' (Rated PG) - it's hard to imagine Eli Roth Directing this mainstream fantasy offering based on the 1973 juvenile novel of the same name by John Bellairs, given this Writer, Producer, Actor and Director's leaning towards the horror genre with such titles as 'Cabin Fever', 'Hostel', 'Hostel : Part II', 'Grindhouse', 'The Green Inferno' and 'Knock Knock' firmly established in his Directing portfolio. That said, here he is, with the story of ten year old recently orphaned Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) who goes to live with his well intentioned but Warlock nonetheless, Uncle Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black) in a creaky old house in 1953 in New Zebedee, Michigan, that emits a mysterious ticktocking noise from somewhere within its walls. When Lewis inadvertently wakes the dead, the town's sleepy facade magically springs to life with a secret world of Witches and Warlocks and its up to Lewis, Jonathan and their neighbour Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) - who is secretly a good Witch, to save the day and quite possibly the world too in the process. The film is released Stateside also this week.

'LADIES IN BLACK' (Rated PG) - this Australian comedy drama is adapted from the best selling 1993 book of the same name by Australian author Madeleine St. John who passed away in 2006 at the age of 64. Directed and adapted for the screen by Aussie Bruce Beresford whose previous film making credits include 'The Adventures of Barry McKenzie', 'Breaker Morant', 'Puberty Blues', 'Tender Mercies', 'Her Alibi', 'Driving Miss Daisy', 'Paradise Road' and 'Mao's Last Dancer' amongst a whole swathe of others. Here, the scene is set in the Summer of 1959, with the advent of European settlers and the rise of women’s liberation about to change the face of Australia forever. A shy schoolgirl Lisa Miles (Angourie Rice) takes a Summer school holiday job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the 'ladies in black', who will have a marked impact upon her life. Beguiled and influenced by Magda Szombatheli (Julia Ormond), the vivacious manager of the high-fashion floor, and befriended by fellow sales ladies Patty Williams (Alison McGirr) and Fay Baines (Rachael Taylor), Lisa is introduced to a world of possibilities. As Lisa grows from a bookish schoolgirl to a glamorous and positive young woman, she herself becomes a catalyst for a cultural change in everyone’s lives. Also starring Shane Jacobson and Susie Porter as Lisa's parents, Ryan Corr, Noni Hazelhurst and Vincent Perez.

'JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN' (Rated PG) - this is the the third outing for our titular anti-hero and MI7 Secret Agent Johnny English as portrayed once more by Rowan Atkinson. The bumbling British spy who is the antithesis of James Bond, first burst onto our screens in 2003 in the self titled 'Johnny English' and then again in 2011 in 'Johnny English Reborn' and here he is up to his usual inept undercover antics again in 2018. The two former films each grossed US$160M off the back of a combined budget outlay of US$85M. And so this British action spy comedy spoof is Directed by David Kerr and kicks off when a cyber attack reveals the identity of all active undercover agents in Britain, leaving Johnny English as the Secret Service’s last and only hope. Coaxed out of retirement, English delves head long into action with his sole purpose being to find the mastermind hacker. As a man with few skills and out dated methods, Johnny English must learn to accept and overcome the challenges of modern technology in order to accomplish his mission. Also starring Ben Miller, Olga Kurylenko, Emma Thompson as the Prime Minister and Jake Lacey, the film is not released in the UK until early October and in the US in late October.

'GHOSTHUNTER' (Rated M) - here a physically imposing Western Sydney Security Guard with a facial scar, and part-time Ghosthunter Jason King, has spent the last twenty of or so years searching for his absent father. This documentary feature film is Written and Directed by Ben Lawrence and was made for just shy of AU$1M, and Premiered at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year, where it took out the Documentary Foundation Australia Award. This real life drama of Jason King, as the survivor of childhood trauma and violence, is compelled to uncover the truth behind his father’s longtime absence, to reconcile his fractured memories and reclaim what he can of his lost childhood years. This search for the truth, however, ignites a Police manhunt and ultimately brings him into close contact with a dark legacy and its numerous victims. Described as a truly unique documentary that navigates otherworldly mysteries alongside very real trauma and abuse, this is an Aussie Doco like no other.

'SMALLFOOT' (Rated PG) - is an American CGI animated feature film from Warner Animation that is Directed and Written for the Screen by Karey Kirkpatrick and based on 'Yeti Tracks' by the Spanish Animator and Screenwriter Sergio Pablos. The story here twists the legend of 'Bigfoot' on its head, by following a group of Yeti who stumble across a real live human being with each species believing the other was just a myth. Featuring an all star voice cast that includes Channing Tatum as Migo - a yeti scientist out to prove the existence of the Smallfoot; James Cordon as Percy Patterson - a former television personality trying to regain his rightful place in front of the spotlight; and Zendaya, Common, Danny DeVito, LeBron James, Jimmy Tatro and Gina Rodriguez all as members of the yeti clan. The film is released in the US next week.

With six new release films 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 in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS : Tuesday 11th September 2018.

'THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS' which I saw earlier this week is an American documentary film Directed by Tim Wardle. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year where it took out the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling. The film has generated widespread praise from Critics and audiences alike and has so far taken just over US$11M at the Box Office since its late June release in the US.

The story in question here surrounds three brothers born to a single mother in 1961. At the direction of the Louise Wise Services - a Jewish adoption agency (which is now defunct), the infant triplets were intentionally placed with families of different economic levels — one blue-collar, one middle-class, and one upper-class — which had each adopted a baby girl from the same agency two years previously. The separations were done as part of a scientific 'nature versus nurture' twin study to track the development of genetically identical siblings raised in differing circumstances and environments. The brothers were raised by their respective adoptive families as David Kellman, Bobby Shafran, and Eddy Galland.

The film opens with the talking head of 56 year old Robert (Bobby) Shafran in what is at first a feel good movie with him recounting his first day on campus at his new Community College somewhere in New York State. He was pleasantly surprised and somewhat taken aback when other students whom he didn't know from a bar of soap, came up and seemingly were genuinely pleased to see him, patting him on the back, asking him how his Summer break was, and with girls openly greeting him with welcoming kisses and hugs. However, the then nineteen year old Bobby's initial excitement quickly turned to confusion, when one of the students ventured into his new dorm, and called him Eddy. When Bobby turned around somewhat perplexed, the other student announced that he looked identical to another student from the year before who had made the decision not to return to College that year, hence everyone's surprise at seeing him again. That same student asks Bobby if by chance his birth date was July 12, and whether he was adopted, to which Bobby responds with a 'yes' to both questions.

Within no time the student packs Bobby into a car and they drive to the nearest phone box to call Eddy at his Long Island home, and the suspicions come home to roost at that point. The pair then drive the two hour journey to Eddy's home arriving late at night to discover that Eddy Galland and Bobby are indeed identical twins separated at birth. Their reunion after nineteen years quickly becomes almost an overnight media sensation having been picked up in a number of local newspapers and The New York Post. There is however, another twist to this story that turns it from 'amazing' to 'incredible'!

In just a few short days after the article appeared in The New York Post, Bobby and Eddy were surprised once more by the news that they weren't in fact identical twins but a set of identical triplets, with the third identical brother David Kellman joining the media frenzy after reading about it in The New York Post. The media went well & truly into overdrive with the three identical siblings being the darlings of the New York social scene, chat shows, print media articles and TV appearances. After all, what's not to like about three young fresh faced, good looking broad shouldered cheeky likely lads with black curly locks and a sense of humour.

The three new found brothers became inseparable and throughout the '80's rode the crest of the wave. The boys shacked up in a New York bachelor pad, opened a restaurant called the 'Triplets Roumanian Steakhouse' which turned over US$1M in its first year Bobby proudly announces, and they kinda broke into the movie business too by accident when they were stopped in their tracks on a Manhattan street and asked on the spot to appear in a scene in Madonna's breakout 1985 movie 'Desperately Seeking Susan'.

Following the euphoria of the '80's for the brothers, things began to take a darker turn. Disagreements ensued about work ethics, management style and company decisions surrounding the day to day operations of the restaurant. Furthermore, it also came to light that all three brothers had struggled with depression during their earlier teen years possibly brought about by their separation and the sense of being disconnected. Each spent time in psychiatric hospitals. Added to this, questions were being raised about the Louise Wise adoption agency, why they kept it a secret that each of the brothers had siblings, why all three were not offered up for adoption to a single family, and what about the fate of other twins or triplets born throughout the '50's and '60's that were similarly put up for adoption and have yet to discover their own siblings? And more questions besides.

It further turns out that the Louise Wise Agency was working under the auspices of The Child Development Centre and had deliberately separated the children at birth as part of an extended experiment conducted by the head of the centre, a Freudian specialist named Peter Neubauer, who emigrated to the US after WWII and who died in 2008. The Austrian born Jewish psychiatrist appeared to have been seeking to understand the connections between nature and nurture with the children’s progress, and the attitudes towards parenting of the adoptive parents being tracked and documented over a number of years, with the subsequent reports sealed away not to be opened until 2066. It seems that Neubauer took his secrets to the grave - for the next fifty years or so anyhow! Eddy committed suicide in 1995, with this still weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of Bobby and David who share talking head commentary throughout recounting the good times with the darker ones too, and the many as yet unanswered questions that just add to their frustration, anger and emotional turmoil.

Tim Wardle has here created an intriguing film that starts off as a feel good movie with the joy, excitement and emotion of three young men discovering each other as identical triplet brothers completely by accident, which then slowly burns away to reveal a real life horror story underpinned by scientific experimentation, human lab rats, lies, deceit and lives torn asunder. The story is so outlandish that you would be forgiven for thinking it a work of fiction were it not for Wardle's excellent research and reporting; the compelling nature in which this stranger than fiction story is delivered; the attention to detail and keeping it real; the big reveal and its true life aftershock factor and the questions it raises that will keep you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. The two surviving brothers remain on a journey that to date has been 57 years in the making and still with no real closure - let's hope that they find it soon and can move on . . . finally!

'Three Identical Strangers' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-