What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th February 2019.

Finally, after all the hype, the melodrama, the controversy over a Host, the wranglings over what awards should be televised and those that shouldn't, whether all five best original songs should be performed live or just a proposed two, and the inclusion of a new populist film award, the 91st Academy Awards were held on Sunday evening 24th February 2019 at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. This years ceremony was the first in three decades, since the 61st Academy Awards in 1989, to be conducted with no Host after the withdrawal of Kevin Hart as the 'chosen one' due to past jokes and adverse comments about certain demographics ten years ago came back to haunt him. Sad but true!

Now the dust has settled on this years Oscar's gig, in case you missed all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood's Night of Nights, here is the list of those winners and grinners who walked away with a golden statue, and those that didn't!

* Best Picture : won by 'GREEN BOOK', beating out 'Black Panther', 'BlacKkKlansman', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Favourite', 'Roma', 'A Star Is Born' and 'Vice'.
* Best Director : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA' beating out Spike Lee for 'BlacKkKlansman', Paweł Pawlikowski for 'Cold War', Yorgos Lanthimos for 'The Favourite' and Adam McKay for 'Vice'.

* Best Foreign Language Film : won by 'ROMA' (Mexico), beating out 'Capernaum' (Lebanon), 'Cold War' (Poland), 'Never Look Away' (Germany) and 'Shoplifters' (Japan).
* Best Documentary Feature : won by 'FREE SOLO', beating out 'Hale County This Morning, This Evening', 'Minding the Gap', 'Of Fathers and Sons' and 'RBG'.
* Best Animated Feature : won by 'SPIDER-MAN : INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE', beating out 'Incredibles 2', 'Isle of Dogs', 'Mirai' and 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'.

* Best Actor : won by RAMI MALEK for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY', beating out Christian Bale for 'Vice' as Dick Cheney, Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born' as Jackson 'Jack' Maine, Willem Dafoe for 'At Eternity's Gate' as Vincent van Gogh and Viggo Mortensen for 'Green Book' as Frank 'Tony Lip' Vallelonga.

* Best Actress : won by OLIVIA COLMAN for her portrayal of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out Yalitza Aparicio for 'Roma' as Cleodegaria 'Cleo' Gutiérrez, Glenn Close for 'The Wife' as Joan Castleman, Lady Gaga for 'A Star Is Born' as Ally Maine and Melissa McCarthy for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Lee Israel.
* Best Supporting Actor : won by MAHERSHALA ALI for his portrayal of Dr. Don Shirley in 'GREEN BOOK', beating out Adam Driver for 'BlacKkKlansman' as Philip 'Flip' Zimmerman, Sam Elliott for 'A Star Is Born' as Bobby Maine, Richard E. Grant for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Jack Hock and Sam Rockwell for 'Vice' as George W. Bush.

* Best Supporting Actress : won by REGINA KING for her portrayal of Sharon Rivers in 'IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK', beating out Amy Adams for 'Vice' as Lynne Cheney, Marina de Tavira for 'Roma' as Sofía, Emma Stone for 'The Favourite' as Abigail Masham and Rachel Weisz for 'The Favourite' as Sarah Churchill.
* Best Original Screenplay : won by 'GREEN BOOK' Co-Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly, beating out 'The Favourite', 'First Reformed', 'Roma' and 'Vice'.

* Best Adapted Screenplay : won by 'BLACKKKLANSMAN' Co-Written for the Screen by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee and based on the book by Ron Stallworth, beating out 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs', 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'A Star Is Born'.
* Best Original Score : won for 'BLACK PANTHER', beating out 'BlacKkKlansman', 'If Beale Street Could Talk', 'Isle of Dogs' and 'Mary Poppins Returns'.



* Best Original Song : won for 'SHALLOW' from 'A STAR IS BORN' by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, beating out 'All the Stars' from 'Black Panther', 'I'll Fight' from 'RBG', 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' from 'Mary Poppins Returns' and 'When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings' from 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'.
* Best Cinematography : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA', beating out 'Cold War', 'The Favourite', 'Never Look Away' and 'A Star is Born'.

* Best Visual Effects : won by 'FIRST MAN' beating out 'Avengers : Infinity War', 'Christopher Robin', 'Ready Player One' and 'Solo : A Star Wars Story'.
* And in the remaining categories, 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' won Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing; 'BLACK PANTHER' won for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design; and 'VICE' won for Best Make Up and Hair Styling.

You can catch all the highlights, the reports, the stories and the clips, at the official website at : oscar.go.com

This week then there are four latest release films coming to your local Odeon. Kicking off with a bunch of old codgers with a plan to commit an audacious cash & jewellery heist over the Easter long weekend, their plan is successful until their infighting afterwards leads to distrust and their ultimate demise. We then have a horror drama that plays out with a young good Samaritan returning a seemingly lost handbag to its older rightful owner, leading to an instant bond between the two but all is not as it seems as the older lady here starts to reveal a sinister pre-meditated agenda. Next we turn to a true story of a displaced man's best friend and that canine friend trekking over four hundred miles and several adventures later to get back to its rightful owner; and we then close out the week with a psychological thriller of a Police Emergency Call Centre operative taking a call from a distraught female with a cryptic clue that she has been abducted by her ex-husband, and so begins this real time taughtly woven game of cat & mouse.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four 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. 

'KING OF THIEVES' (Rated M) - Directed by Brit James Marsh whose previous film making credits include 'Man On Wire', 'Project Nim', 'The Theory of Everything', 'The Mercy' most recently and now this true life British crime drama. The film tells the story of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Burglary that took place over the Easter long weekend back in 2015. To give some context, this was an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area which is a commercial precinct in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, close to the City of London's boundary. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who established a mansion in the area. Hatton Garden is famous as London's jewellery quarter and the centre of the UK diamond trade. This speciality established itself in the early 19th Century, to the point where today there are nearly 300 businesses in the jewellery industry and over 55 shops, representing the largest cluster of jewellery retailers in the UK.

A famous thief in his younger days, 77 year old widower Brian Reader (Michael Caine) pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in their 60's and 70's except for one, use their old-school thieving skills to plan the heist over the Easter long weekend. Posing as gas repairmen, they enter the deposit, neutralise the alarms, and proceed to drill a hole into the wall of the safe. Two days later, they manage to escape with allegedly over £200M worth of stolen jewels and money, although court reports later on reduce that sum down to £14M, which was described as the 'largest burglary in English legal history'. Nonetheless, when the Police arrive on the scene and the investigation begins, the cracks between the misfit gang members begin to emerge as they argue over how to share the spoils with brutal greed and then a fierce distrust of each other begins to set in. Also starring Ray Winstone, Tom Courtney, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Cox. The film was released in the UK back in September 2018, and has garnered mixed Reviews.

'GRETA' (Rated MA15+) - this horror drama offering is Directed and Co-Written by Neil Jordan whose previous big screen credits over a long and distinguished career take in 'The Company of Wolves', 'Mona Lisa', 'We're No Angels', 'The Crying Game', 'Interview with the Vampire', 'Michael Collins', 'The End of the Affair' and 'The Brave One' amongst others. The film saw its World Premier screening at last years TIFF in early September, and only now does it get a release in Australia, and in the US this week too. Here Frances McCullen (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds a handbag on the New York subway and dutifully returns it to Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher who loves tea and classical music. Having recently lost her mother, the young Frances grows closer to the kindly widow. Within no time, the the two become firm friends, but Greta's maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta's life is quite what it seems and she must now end the rapidly changing relationship before things spiral out of control. Also starring Maika Monroe, Stephen Rea and Colm Feore.

'A DOG'S WAY HOME' (Rated PG) - here Actor, Writer and Director Charles Martin Smith brings us this family adventure story based on the true story as recounted in the book of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. The film was released in the USA in early January and has so far grossed US$69M off the back of its US$18M production budget and has generated mixed or average Reviews. As a puppy, Bella (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) finds her way into the arms of Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King), a young man who gives her a good home in Denver, Colorado. When Bella becomes separated from Lucas, she soon finds herself on an epic 400-mile journey from Farmington, New Mexico back to Denver to reunite with her beloved owner. Along the way, the lost but spirited dog touches the lives of an orphaned mountain lion, a down-on-his-luck veteran and some friendly strangers who happen to cross her path on this epic journey that will take two years to complete, if she can survive that long. Also starring Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, and Alexandra Shipp.

'THE GUILTY' ('DEN SKYLDIGE') (Rated M) - this Danish psychological thriller known as 'Den Skyldige' in its native tongue, is Directed by first timer Gustav Moller, saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January 2018, was selected as the Danish entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards, in total has so far won 27 awards around the festival and awards circuit and been nominated for another 31, and has received widespread Critical acclaim. Here Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) is a Policeman who’s been demoted temporarily to working the phones in the emergency call centre of his local Police Force after one too many at-work misdemeanours. When a terrified woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage) calls him to say she’s being abducted by her ex-husband and the call is then suddenly disconnected, Asger will need to use every bit of his ingenuity and policing skills to find her before it's too late. Taking place entirely within the confines of Asger’s secluded and enclosed emergency services room, and in real time, this film has been praised for ramping up the tension, the sound design and for Cedergren's compelling performance.

With four new release movies 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-

ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL : Tuesday 19th February 2019.

I saw 'ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL' earlier in the week. This American cyberpunk action film is Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by James Cameron based on the Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro graphic novel 'Gunnm' (aka 'Battle Angel Alita'). Going back to 2000, Kishiro's manga was brought to the attention of James Cameron by Guillermo del Toro who so liked what he saw and read that he immediately registered a domain name for the film, and by 2003 was announced as Director on a feature length live action film. Then Cameron's 'Avatar' got in the way and it was then slated for a 2009 release. In 2010 Cameron stated that the film was still in development but no plans existed as to a release date. In 2013 he set a Production start date of 2017 and in the meantime Robert Rodriguez was in discussions to Direct if he could condense Cameron's script and sizeable notes into a workable Screenplay. Filming began in late 2016 with Rodriguez Directing with Cameron Producing, and a budget of somewhere between US$150 and 200M. Digital effects were provided by Peter Jackson's New Zealand based Weta Digital, amongst others. The film was released in the US last week too, has so far recouped US$156M of its circa US$180M production budget, and has generated largely mixed or average Reviews so far. If the film proves commercially successful ultimately, this will be the first instalment in a franchise that will see at least two sequels reportedly.

Set some five hundred years in the future, following the catastrophic global war known at 'The Fall' of some three hundred years previously, the abandoned disembodied 'core' of a female cyborg, with a still intact human brain, is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor. Ido takes the remnants of the upper body back to his workshop come lab and fits her out with a new body, one he had previously built for his disabled daughter, who died before he was able to give it to her.

When the girl awakens in an upstairs bedroom, she is surprised by her fully functioning body and takes a few moments to find her feet and get accustomed to her new and strange surroundings. She ventures downstairs and is greeted by Ido and his assistant. The cyborg girl has no recollection of her past life at all, not even her name. Ido calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar) - after his dead daughter.

Ido takes Alita out into the street where she gets her first taste of her new world and all the hustle and bustle of the metropolis that is Iron City. Pretty quickly Alita befriends Hugo (Keean Johnson), who harbours dreams of moving to the wealthy sky city of Zalem that hovers just a few kilometres above Iron City. A few days later Hugo introduces her to the competitive sport of Motorball - the street version as opposed to the grand spectator arena battle royale race where cyborgs fight to the death (kind of a more up to date take on 1975's 'Rollerball').

One day Ido comes home with a badly injured arm. A few nights later, Alita follows Ido as he leaves the house carrying a huge case and subsequently discovers that Ido is a 'Hunter-Warrior' when they are set upon by three cyborg assassins led by Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). In the ensuing attack Ido is injured. Alita's instincts click in and she attacks the cyborgs, killing two of them and severely damaging Grewishka, who retreats underground. Despite Alita re-igniting her skill in the ancient martial art of 'Panzer Kunst', Ido discourages her from becoming a Hunter-Warrior. 

Later, out on an expedition with Hugo and two of his friends to the outskirts of the city and through a forest Alita is taken to a downed space ship resting overgrown and half submerged in a lagoon. Hugo tells her that it is a relic of 'The Fall' but Alita is drawn to the ship, jumps in the lagoon and seeks to gain entry. She does and emerges on the inside where the controls of the ship spring to life as if Alita is a charged battery needed to power it up. In it, she finds and brings home to Ido a 'Berserker body' which Alita begs Ido to fit onto her. Ido refuses, saying it is a relic of the past, she now has a new life and besides its an unknown quantity that could do more harm than good. This angers Alita, so she promptly registers herself as a Hunter-Warrior.

Alita and Hugo then make for the Kansas Bar, a local hang-out for the Hunter-Warrior community to ask others to help her take out Grewishka, but they refuse. There Zapan (Ed Skrein) an acclaimed cyborg Hunter-Warrior picks a fight with Alita and comes off worse. As a fight breaks out and mayhem ensues across the crowded bar, an upgraded Grewishka storms into the bar and challenges Alita to a rematch, stating that he had been ordered by Nova, his boss, to destroy her. At the same time Ido arrives on the scene.

Despite her bravery and proven fighting skills, Alita's body is sliced up by Grewishka's bladed fingers before she blinds him with her left arm. Ido, Hugo, and McTeague (Jeff Fahey), another Hunter-Warrior who leads a pack of robot killer dogs, force him to retreat. Ido has no option now but to transplant Alita onto the Berserker body, which automatically begins to interface with her core system.

Kitted out with her brand new shiny all singing all dancing Berserker body, Alita enters a Motorball tryout race as a means to send Hugo to Zalem with the winners proceeds. Ido discovers that the other contestants are Hunter-Warriors and wanted cyborgs hired by Vector (Mahershala Ali), an entrepreneur working under Nova, a powerful Zalem scientist, to kill her. He warns Alita, and as the race gets underway, she dispenses with many of the contestants with her superior combat skills and evasive techniques.

Meanwhile, Hugo is being hunted by Zapan, after he frames Hugo for murdering a cyborg - a charge punishable by death. Hugo calls on Alita for help. She locates Hugo just as Zapan arrives and reveals to her that Hugo has been attacking cyborgs and stealing their body parts for Vector to transplant onto other contestants in his Motorball games. Zapan mortally wounds Hugo and cordially informs Alita that Hunter-Warrior law dictates that she must either now kill Hugo or let Zapan finish him off.

Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), Ido's ex-wife, also a master cyborg engineer and in cahoots with Vector as a means to relocate herself to Zalem, is looking on, and is prompted by a flood of emotion to save Hugo by attaching his head to Alita's all powerful cyborg heart in order to keep his brain functioning. Zapan attempts to stop Alita from leaving and she slices part of his face off with his prized sword, which she claims as her own.

Back at Ido's cyborg surgery, he transplants Hugo's head onto a cyborg body, and then promptly advises Alita that Hugo's actions were based on the fact that he would be able to eventually buy his way into Zalem, which quite simply was not the case. Ido confides that this was a lie fabricated by Vector for his own ends, and that citizens of Iron City are unable to gain entry into Zalem unless they become a Motorball champion. Alita decides to confront Vector, who is being mind-controlled by Nova. Alita arrives at Vector's high rise penthouse suite and through Vector, Nova reveals to Alita that Chiren has been harvested for her vital organs and then orders Grewishka who has scaled up the outside of the building to reach them, to kill her. Alita battles Grewishka again and this time, thanks to her new powerful Berserker body, finally kills him by slicing his re-modified body clean in half, then stabs Vector, communicating with Nova through Vector's dying eyes that he made the mistake of underestimating her.

Ido communicates to Alita that Hugo has fled and is desperately attempting to climb one of the supporting tubes that binds Zalem to Iron City, in a seemingly vain attempt to reach the place of his dreams. Alita gives chase, catches up and pleads with Hugo to return with her. Hugo ventures ever upward and in doing so Nova releases a razor spiked defencive ring that slices through Hugo's body sending his various body parts into the air. Leaping after him, Alita is unable to prevent Hugo from falling to his death. Some months later, and Alita is the star champion of the Motorball arena. As she walks into the packed stadium greeted by the cheering crowd of spectators, she points her sword towards Zalem, while Nova (unmasked for the first time to reveal Edward Norton in an unspeaking cameo role) watches her from above. 

There is no doubt that 'Alita : Battle Angel' is a feast for the senses, a visual spectacle, and an achievement in world building that offers the audience all the latest in CGI technology writ large with enough slicing and dicing violence and flailing body parts to keep any genre die hard fan in clover.  And, on that level the film delivers in spades. Rosa Salazar puts in a convincing enough performance too as our rebirthed and then born again protagonist Alita, but as for the other human characters they are under cooked, and the others are nothing more than human heads perched atop various heavily customised cyborg killing machines. The story is nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before and as such plays out predictably saved only by various digitally rendered action set pieces to help things move along apace. All that said, this film is a worth a look and worth catching on the big screen - just don't go in with too high an expectation. Michelle Rodriguez and Jai Courtney also cameo.

'Alita : Battle Angel' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 21st February 2019.

Continuing with my synopsis of this years awards season, the 72nd annual BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards were held at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday evening 10th February 2019. Honouring the best national and foreign films of 2018, accolades were presented for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2018. For the second year running, the ceremony was Hosted by British Actress, Author, Television Presenter and Activist Joanna Lumley.

In summary therefore, given below are the winners and grinners from that notable awards ceremony attended by the Who's Who of talent both in front of the camera and behind it, together with the also rans, who made it onto the nominees list :-

* Best Film : won by 'ROMA', beating out 'BlacKkKlansman', 'The Favourite', 'Green Book', and 'A Star Is Born'.
* Best Film Not in The English Language : won by 'ROMA', beating out 'Capernaum', 'Cold War', 'Dog Man' and 'Shoplifters'.
* Best Director : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA' beating out Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born', Yorgos Lanthimos for 'The Favourite', Spike Lee for 'BlacKkKlansman' and Paweł Pawlikowski for 'Cold War'.
* Outstanding British Film: won by 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out 'Beast', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Stan & Ollie' and 'You Were Never Really Here'.
* Best Documentary : won by 'FREE SOLO' beating out 'McQueen', 'RBG', 'They Shall Not Grow Old' and 'Three Identical Strangers'.
* Best Animated Film : won by 'SPIDER-MAN : INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE' beating out 'Incredibles 2' and 'Isle of Dogs'.
* Best Actor in a Leading Role : won by RAMI MALEK for 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY', beating out Christian Bale for 'Vice', Steve Coogan for 'Stan & Ollie', Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born' and Viggo Mortensen for 'Green Book'.
* Best Actress in a Leading Role : won by OLIVIA COLMAN for 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out Glenn Close for 'The Wife', Viola Davis for 'Widows', Lady Gaga for 'A Star Is Born' and Melissa McCarthy for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'
* Best Actor in a Supporting Role : won by MAHERSHALA ALI for 'GREEN BOOK' beating out Timothée Chalamet for 'Beautiful Boy', Adam Driver for 'BlacKkKlansman', Richard E. Grant for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' and Sam Rockwell for 'Vice'
* Best Actress in a Supporting Role : won by RACHEL WEISZ for 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out  Amy Adams for 'Vice', Claire Foy for 'First Man', Margot Robbie for 'Mary Queen of Scots' and Emma Stone for 'The Favourite'.
* Best Original Screenplay : won by DEBORAH DAVIS and TONY MCNAMARA for 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out 'Roma', 'Green Book', 'Cold War' and 'Vice'.
* Best Adapted Screenplay : won by SPIKE LEE, KEVIN WILLMOTT, DAVID RABINOWITZ and CHARLIE WACHTEL for 'BLACKKKLANSMAN' beating out 'A Star Is Born', 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'First Man'.
* Best Cinematography : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA', beating out 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Cold War', 'The Favourite' and 'First Man'.
* Best Original Music : won by LADY GAGA, BRADLEY COOPER and LUKAS NELSON for 'A STAR IS BORN' beating out 'BlacKkKlansman'', 'If Beale Street Could Talk', 'Isle of Dogs' and 'Mary Poppins Returns'.
* Best Production Design : won by 'THE FAVOURITE' beating out 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald', 'First Man', 'Mary Poppins Returns' and 'Roma'.



* Best Special Visual Effects : won by 'BLACK PANTHER' beating out 'Avengers : Infinity War', 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald', 'First Man', and 'Ready Player One'.
* Best Sound was won by 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'; Best Costume Design was won by 'THE FAVOURITE'; Best Hair and Make-Up was won by 'THE FAVOURITE'; and Best Editing was won by 'VICE' and finally as voted by members of the Public, the EE Rising Star Award was awarded to LETITIA WRIGHT. 

Turning to this weeks three latest release movies coming to an Odeon near you, we have a biographical dramedy about the latter years and final British touring swan song of perhaps the worlds greatest comedy double act, and then two musicals (of sorts) each of which couldn't be more polar opposite if they tried! First is a film of survival in the music business in the current era with success shaped by personal tragedy which eighteen years later, after fame and fortune have been established, comes back to haunt; and we then wrap up the week with the story of what and who shaped the Norwegian black metal music sub-genre of the mid-'80's and the lines that become blurred between what is real and what is the bands stage act.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three 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 coming week.

'STAN & OLLIE' (Rated PG) - here we have a much hyped biographical comedy drama Directed by the Scot Jon S. Baird whose previous big screen Directorial outings are 'Green Street Hooligans', 'Cass' and 'Filth'. The film tells the story of the latter years of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (aka Laurel & Hardy) - quite possibly the most famous comedy duo the world has seen. Stan Laurel was an Englishman who lived from 1890 until 1965 and his partner in slapstick comedy Oliver Hardy was American who lived from 1892 until 1957. The pair officially became a team in 1927 having already established themselves in the silent movie business. They went on to star in 32 short silent films, forty short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films as well as twelve guest or cameo appearances. The film Premiered at the British Film Institute London Film Festival in late October, went on release in the US in late December, in the UK in early January and now it gets a general release in Australia. The film cost US$10M to make, has so far grossed US$18M, has generated largely favourable Reviews and has so far picked up two award wins and another twenty nominations from around the awards circuit including a Golden Globe nod and three BAFTA nominations.

And so this film tells the story of Laurel & Hardy (Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly respectively) , one of the world's great comedy double acts, as they embark on a Variety Hall Tour of post-war Great Britain in 1953. With their age beginning to take its toll coupled with their golden era as the Kings of Hollywood comedy now behind them, the pair face an uncertain future. However, as their polished performances charm audiences up and down the country, they steadily re-connect with their adoring fans, but nonetheless Stan & Ollie can't quite shake off the long shadow of their past glory years; their long-buried ghosts that come back to haunt them, coupled with Oliver's failing health which combined starts to drive a wedge through their trusted partnership. Through all of this upheaval they become aware that they are fast approaching their swan song years and in doing so attempt to reconcile their differences and rediscover just how much they really mean to each other. Also starring Danny Huston as American film and television Producer, Director and Actor Hal Roach, Rufus Jones as Russian-American theatre impresario Bernard Delfont, Shirley Henderson as Lucille Hardy and Nina Arianda as Ida Laurel.

'VOX LUX' (Rated MA15+) - this American drama film is Written and Directed by Brady Corbet who has carved out a career both in front of, and behind the camera. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival back in September last year and went onto the festival circuit thereafter before being released in the US in early December. Having garnered generally positive Reviews so far, the film has taken just US$728K. Here, teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor 'Ellie' Montgomery (Stacy Martin) survive a school shooting on Staten Island, New York in 1999, and are catapulted into stardom after writing and then performing a song about their experience at the memorial service. Tracing Celeste's career as she draws the attention of a passionate manager (Jude Law) and rises to worldwide fame, now in 2017, the 31-year-old Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own, Albertine (Raffey Cassidy again) and is preparing for a massive comeback concert while dealing with the media fallout of a terrorist attack using her own iconography as well as her own personal struggles and pitfalls of fame at a young age. Also starring Jennifer Ehle, Christopher Abbott and the narrative voice of Willem Dafoe.

'LORDS OF CHAOS' (Rated R18+) - here is a Norwegian horror thriller film Directed and Co-Written by Jonas Akerlund which Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2018, was released Stateside earlier this month, gets a limited showing in Australia from this week and is released in the UK at the end of March. The film is based on the 1998 non-fiction book of the same name written by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind. Opening in the mid-'80's in Oslo, seventeen year-old Euronymous (Rory Culkin) becomes fixated on creating a genre defining 'true Norwegian black metal' with his newly formed band Mayhem. The other band members are Necrobutcher (Jonathan Barnwell), Manheim  and Maniac on bass, drums and vocals respectively. Maniac and Manheim leave and are soon replaced by new drummer Hellhammer (Anthony De La Torre) and a new vocalist from Sweden called Dead (Jack Kilmer), Euronymous mounts shocking publicity stunts to put the band's name on the map, but the lines between show business and reality begin to blur with horrifying consequences for all ultimately leading to death, destruction and imprisonment. Based on a true story. Also starring Emory Cohen and Sky Ferreira.

With three 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-

COLD PURSUIT : Tuesday 12th February 2019

'COLD PURSUIT' which I saw this week is an American action thriller Directed by Norwegian film maker Hans Petter Moland whose previous Directorial credits include 'Zero Kelvin', 'Aberdeen', 'The Beautiful Country' and 2014's 'In Order of Disappearance' - which marked his fourth film with Stellan Skarsgard. And so in 2019 for an English speaking audience, we have a sort of remake of 'In Order of Disappearance', his own film from five years ago and based on the script penned by Danish Writer, Illustrator and Screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson. The film was released in the US and Australia last week, and in the UK on the 22nd of this month, has received generally positive press, and has recouped US$20M of its US$60M production budget so far.

And so to the plot. Here Nelson 'Nels' Coxman's (Liam Neeson) quiet life as a snowplough driver in his Canadian Rocky Mountains remote resort hometown of Kehoe is bittersweet. First up, as the film opens we see him getting dressed up in collar & tie, shirt & cufflinks aided by his wife Grace (Laura Dern), to attend a ceremony to be awarded Kehoe's 'Citizen of the Year'.

Then a few days later comes the tragic news that his beloved son Kyle (Michael Richardson) has died under mysterious circumstances, which the autopsy soon reveals was a heroin overdose. But Nels states that his son was no druggie, so how can that possibly be. After the funeral, Grace becomes distant from Nels upon discovering things about their son they never knew - that he had a social media account, the music he liked to listen to, his favourite films and so on, which makes them wonder how well they really did known their son. Ultimately, in her grief, Grace leaves Nels.

A few days later, Nels is in his snowplough shed, contemplating suicide. He puts a loaded rifle in his mouth poised to pull the trigger when he is interrupted by a young man, badly beaten up and who had taken shelter in the shed from the harsh snow conditions. It turns out that this young man worked with Kyle at the airport as a baggage handler, and got caught on the wrong side of a local drug cartel resulting in his death by lethal heroin injection. Nels coerces the young man to give him a name of who did this to his son - Speedo (Michael Eklund) he mutters out of a bloodied mouth. The next night Nels drives to nearby Denver to track down Speedo and does so to a local nightclub. There Nels confronts Speedo, who comes off considerably worse in the car park where Nels turns vigilante and gets the next name from the criminal before strangling him dead.

That name is Limbo (Bradley Stryker) who works in a boutique wedding outfitters. This time armed with a sawn off shotgun concealed under this jacket, Nels saunters into the shop under the guise of wanting a new Tux with which to wear when he renews his wedding vows with his wife. Limbo is suspicious and pulls a gun only to be beaten to it by Nels, who beats him to the ground with the butt of his shotgun. Wanting another name, Limbo by now has several teeth missing and can hardly speak but blurts out a name before being shot and killed point blank . . . . . that name is Santa.

Santa (Michael Adamthwaite) some time later drives through thick deep snow heading toward Kehoe, followed menacingly close behind by Nels driving his snowplough. Nels takes a right turn and disappears out of sight much to Santa's relief, only to emerge some minutes later ahead of Santa's vehicle and now blocking his way. Nels siddles up to Santa's car and orders him to back up so that he can pass, but instead Santa offers him a couple of hundred dollar bills to move his snowplough, Of course this only serves to annoy the hell out of Nels who through the side window smashes Santa's head against the steering wheel and then pulls him out onto the blade of his snowplough and proceeds to beat the crap out of him with his bare fists, ultimately using his shotgun to dispense with the perpetrator. Nels then slices open ten one kilo bags of cocaine and lets each one blow away in the wind and onto the driven snow.

Meanwhile whilst Nels has been preoccupied with some random killings all linked it seems to his sons death, Trevor 'Viking' Calcote (Tom Bateman) - a local drug lord based out of Denver, has grown very suspicious over the sudden and as yet unexplained disappearance of three of his henchmen. Viking has a young son Ryan (Nicholas Holmes) who attends private school, and whom he shares custody with this estranged wife Aya (Julia Jones) who argue and bicker every time they see each other mostly over visiting rights and the manner in which her soon to be ex-husband chooses to raise their son. Viking lives in a very modern sprawling house, seemingly with a small army of his henchmen who are at his beck and call, and who came through the ranks of the family 'business' when it was ruled over by Viking's revered father.

Viking has suspicions that the unconfirmed deaths of his drug dealing and smuggling goons are the work of a Native American drug cartel controlled by White Bull (Tom Jackson), with whom he has earlier avoided conflict due to a deal initiated by Viking's late father many years ago, and which both sides have steadfastly upheld since . . . . . until now! In retaliation, Viking captures White Bull's only son, interrogates him by beating him near to death and then puts a bullet between his eyes. This sparks a gang war between the two factions which is further sparked when White Bull's dead son is strung up on a mileage signpost on the outskirts of town to be discovered by a local young female detective Kimberly Dash (Emmy Rossum) and her ageing partner Gip (John Doman).

With this going on in the background, Nels visits his brother Brock 'Wingman' Coxman (William Forsythe), a former hitman for Viking's father, seeking advice on Viking and how he should best proceed given that he had already dispensed with three of the drug lords men. Brock suggests hiring a hitman which he does at some cost demanding two thirds up front and the balance when the job is done. But 'Eskimo' (Arnold Pinnock), the hired gun, double crosses Nels and goes to Viking with the news that he is his mark and wants to strike a deal. Viking listens intently and is then angered by his moral standards at double crossing his client, and so kills the hitman.

Viking eventually learns that Coxman has killed his men, and tries in vain to call off the gang war which he mistakenly started while not realising that White Bull intends to wreak his revenge through a blood debt - 'blood for blood, a son for a son'. Viking in the interim has mistakenly identified Brock Coxman, instead of Nels Coxman, as the killer of his three henchmen and so goes in search of him, locating him in his mountain side home and taking him for a ride in his Tesla from which he'll never return.  

Meanwhile, Nels kidnaps Viking's son from his prep school in an attempt to draw the drug lord into an ambush. Unknown to Nels, two of White Bull's men were also waiting at the school ready to kidnap Ryan, and seeing Nels walk off with the young lad give chase. Nels manages to evade them and drives the boy to his home. Viking learns that his son has been kidnapped and becomes increasingly agitated by the lack of contact from the kidnapper. Nels decides to let Viking stew until the morning. He also learns from an orderly at the school who witnessed Nels drive off with Ryan and as such was able to identify him, and now sat in front of Viking wants some reward for the information. Viking happily takes the mans intelligence, and then has his henchmen kill him.

Now realising that there is another Coxman, Viking's gang arrive the next day at the snowplough shed ready to dispense with Nels and retrieve his son. Nels plans for the ambush go awry and is unsuccessful, and he is captured alive. White Bull's gang in the meantime arrive shortly thereafter having tailed Viking's convoy with the intention of vengeance.

During the ensuing shootout, most of the gangsters on both sides are killed. Viking's getaway attempt is thwarted when his car is crushed by a rapidly shorn tree trunk dropped on his car from a height, courtesy of a quick thinking Nels, and is then shot in the chest by White Bull. Viking later dies shortly after being found amongst the carnage by the Kehoe Police Detectives Dash and Gip. As Coxman leaves the property in his snowplough to go back to work, White Bull jumps into the cab and the two men drive away together.

In quite enjoyed 'Cold Pursuit' and here you can expect to see Liam Neeson doing absolutely what he does best, a la 'Taken', 'A Walk Among The Tombstones', 'The Commuter', 'The Grey', 'Unknown', 'Run All Night' and 'Non Stop' et al. But Director Hans Petter Moland has crafted a film that combines just the right amount of wit and dead pan gallows humour with a sure footed story of revenge, drug barons, mistaken identity, a hero on the edge, a villain unhinged and a high body count all combined with the backdrop of the snow swept Rockies. It's a fun ride that has some clear underlying messages about racism, minority groups, greed, drugs, money, violence and relationships but because the body count rises so steeply there is barley time to get invested in the characters before they've exited stage left. Nonetheless, certainly worth a look, and Neeson and Moland don't disappoint. Didn't someone once say 'revenge is a dish best served cold' - how true!

'Cold Pursuit' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-