DESTROYER : Wednesday 27th March 2019.

'DESTROYER' which I saw this week stars Nicole Kidman playing 110% against type in a much talked about role the likes of which we have never seen her play before, and, she delivers in spades. Directed by American film and television Director Karyn Kusama who's previous film making credits take in 2000's highly acclaimed debut 'Girlfight' and thereafter 'Aeon Flux', 'Jennifer's Body' and most recently in 2015 'The Invitation'. 'Destroyer' saw its World Premier screening at the Telluride Film Festival back in late August last year, saw its US release on Christmas Day, and now its gets a go in Australia last week. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews, has so far recouped just over US$5M of its US$9M production budget, and has received two award wins and another twelve nominations from around the circuit including a Golden Globe, a Satellite and an AACTA nod for Best Actress for Kidman.

As a young cop, Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) went under cover with her former partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) to infiltrate a gang in the California desert with tragic life changing consequences. Bell continues to work as a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department, but feelings of bitterness and remorse leave her down trodden and overtaken by guilt. As the film opens we see Bell coming around from a night of sleeping rough in her car under a viaduct - woken by the nearby sound of skateboarders practising their jumps. She saunters in a half stupor to the crime scene to be greeted by two other Detectives looking over a dead body face down with three bullet hole exit wounds in its back. After a brief exchange of less that friendly words between Police Officers, Bell turns and walks away saying that she knows who the murderer is.

Back at her Police station, Bell receives in the mail a $100 bill half marked in purple dye from an exploding dye pack. Using an old contact at the FBI who seemingly was responsible for sending her deep undercover almost twenty years ago, she is able to confirm that the $100 bill hails from an armed robbery by the Californian gang that she and Chris were embedded in back in the day. She advises her superiors that the bill and the dead body found earlier, are all the proof necessary that the gang's leader Silas (Toby Kebbel) is back on the scene, still active, and picking up where he left off.

To learn of Silas's whereabouts Bell must sift her way through the remaining gang members - gang members that she and Chris were once close with, but all of whom have now gone their separate ways. She begins with Toby (James Jordan), serving time in prison but released for compassionate reasons and now living with his mother serving out his time at home on his death bed - for he has terminal cancer and has only a matter of weeks to live. In return for a sexual favour, Toby gives Bell the whereabouts of Arturo (Zach Villa) who is now trying to live the straight and narrow by giving pro bono legal advice and guidance to immigrants. After a foot chase, Bell catches up with Arturo who spills the details of Dennis DiFranco (Bradley Whitford) - a lawyer who has been laundering the money from the original robbery. Bell deduces that Silas must be active once more because the money from that heist is almost all gone. After a beating at the hands of DiFranco's minder, Bell gets the upper hand and threatens DiFranco at gun point to give her the details of the next money drop off, which is to be collected by Silas' girlfriend Petra (Tatiana Maslany).

Bell catches up with Petra and follows her, camping outside her apartment overnight in her car keeping watch. The next morning Petra and a male friend drive into the city and take part in a heist orchestrated by Silas and his new gang. Bell sees this unfold, calls for back up, and ventures into the bank aided by two recently arrived Police Officers. The three of them lay siege to the armed robbery by now in full swing. In an exchange of rapid gunfire the gang retreat, and Bell catches up with Petra after a foot chase and an exchange of savage punches, kicks and body blows to both sides. Bell however, overcomes Petra and bundles the heavily bloodied woman into her car boot.

In a number of flashbacks we see Bell and Chris develop a loving relationship towards each other. In time, Bell falls pregnant with Chris's child. Bell convinces Chris to become legitimate participants in a bank heist being planned by Silas. Bell's plans is too take their share of the money, report into their Police HQ that after time they lost contact with the gang, lay low for a few months and then resign the Police Force and live happily ever after.

However, come the day of the robbery and Silas changes the plan. Instead of having Bell and Chris as the two getaway drivers, Silas orders Arturo to take Chris' place and for Chris to join him inside the bank at the very scene of the crime. All goes reasonably well, until just outside the bank Silas is carrying a hold-all stashed full of cash which explodes suddenly covering him and the contents of his bag in a haze of purple dye. This pisses Silas off and he returns to the teller and shoots her dead at point blank range. Chris re-enters the bank revealing himself to be FBI and is promptly shot dead by Silas. Bell is distraught and drives off in a rage plunging her van headlong into a dumpster killing the other gang member travelling with her, who by now suspects her of being a Police Officer. Bell hides her share of the stolen cash to retrieve it later. She then returns to active Policing not disclosing her original plan of her share of the heist monies.

Back in the present day, we see Bell in a cafe with her sixteen year old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn) with whom she has a very strained relationship. Bell is attempting to make her peace with her estranged daughter who is in a relationship with a 23 year old guy whom Bell disapproves of vehemently, and whom we see attempting to pay off with a cash sum of US$11K to move to Spokane and never darken her daughters doors again . . . . ever, by phone, letter, social media, in person - never, ever!

Bell does make peace with her off the rails daughter in a round about way, saying that she is far better off with Ethan (Scoot McNairy) with whom Bell struck up a relationship after Chris died but that relationship too is now fractured although the pair are still on good terms. Shelby considers Ethan to be her father, seeing as though she never knew her real father, Chris. Bell and Shelby share a quiet moment together in a diner recounting a fond memory from when Shelby was seven years of age, after which Bell stands up, tells her daughter that she loves her, kisses her on the forehead, and leaves.

Bell is then seen visiting a lock up storage facility where she aims to retrieve her share of the stolen money amounting to some US$300K and which she has not touched since the robbery. Her intention was to give the money to Ethan so that he can look after Shelby and give her the upbringing that she never could. However, upon opening the holdall bag in which is contained her stash of cash it is revealed that the majority of the bank notes are stained with the same purple dye.

She later receives a text message from Silas arranging a meeting at a viaduct, where she promptly shoots him three times at close range, so avenging the death of Chris. The next morning we see Bell sauntering up to the scene of the crime to be greeted by two Detectives looking over the murder victim. The slumped body is revealed to be the same body which Bell looked over at the start of the film bringing the story full circle. We then cut to Erin back in her car with those skateboarders practising their jump tricks. Up rocks her partner Antonio (Shamier Anderson), whom she hands an envelope to saying that all is self explanatory. In it she confesses to her sins giving Petra's location, the stained dollar bills, and a the key to her lock up. After Antonio leaves, we see Bell lift up her shirt revealing an extended stomach with severe bruising and internal bleeding sustained from several heavy beatings during the course of her investigations. She is finally at peace and resigned to her fate.

I have to say that I quite enjoyed 'Destroyer' but not as much as I thought I would. On the positive side Nicole Kidman gives a transformative performance that is so left field of her usual character choices that she deserves all the kudos afforded her for her quite possibly most unrecognisable role to date. And, in that respect she certainly delivers as the once good cop turned bad cop now with a massive chip on her shoulder, a grudge to society and as the weather beaten down trodden chewed up spat out nothing to lose LA cop. And the plot weaves between the past and the present in a way that makes sense and helps you join the dots come the end. But, for all of that this is a fairly procedural cops and robbers genre piece that we have seen before, interspersed with some moments of gripping action, emotional turmoil and revelation. This is Kidman's movie make no mistake supported by a convincing Sebastian Stan, but as for the other characters of Silas and Ethan especially, these are undercooked. 'Destroyer' is certainly worth the price of your cinema ticket for Kidman's performance if nothing else.

'Destroyer' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard form a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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

Perhaps if you are a film aficionado living in the US you may well have heard and even visited The Ann Arbor Film Festival, but if you live outside America you could be forgiven for never having heard of said festival. Well, for the sake of the uninitiated, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, now in its 57th year, is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. State of Michigan, this year running from 26th March through until 31st March. Established in 1963, it is the fourth oldest film festival in North America and the oldest experimental film festival. It has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and experimental filmmakers to showcase their work. Created as an alternative to commercial cinema, the annual week-long festival remains true to its original mission of promoting film as an art form. The Ann Arbor Film Festival also fosters the growth of emerging and established film and video makers. The festival is open to film and video of all lengths and genres, including experimental, narrative, animation, documentary, and genre hybrids. The festival's mission is to underpin bold, visionary filmmakers, promote the art of film and new media, and provide communities with remarkable cinematic experiences.

The festival features experimental, documentary and animated short films in competition ranging from anywhere from one minute in length up to twenty or so minutes duration, of which there are sixteen separate screening sessions over the span of the festival, with each session containing at least six shorts. In the 'Features in Competition' section there is :
* 'LAST DAYS OF CHINATOWN' Directed by Nicole Macdonald and telling the story of Detroit's Cass Corridor, one of the roughest areas in the city for the past one hundred years, is now experiencing a complete overhaul, as long-awaited development finally sweeps the area. Exploring who and what remains in the Corridor, we see how residents survived, how they sometimes didn't, who fled the area and why, as gentrification now redefines the Corridor, long home to the poor and disenfranchised as well as to the artists and visionaries of the city.
* 'CLOSING TIME' Directed by Nicole Vogele, it is 3:00am along the Zhongzheng Road in Taipei. The traffic of a 24/7 society throbs through the metropolis in constant waves. Mr. Kuo and his wife, Mrs. Lin, cook for the city’s sleepless. They work at night and sleep through the days, trying to keep afloat. Their eatery is a pit stop, a place of refuge, a warm bowl of rice. Described as a kaleidoscopic journey that relies on colours, sensations, animals, typhoons, and a dark lilac sky—the materials of life.
* 'WONDERS WANDER' Directed by Shu Lea Cheang this is a location-based mobi-web serial with four fictional episodes set in Madrid exploring the off-the-mainstream nouveau-queer generation that includes refugees, migrants, functional diversity, transfeminista, transfeminism, open family, subversive motherhoods, sustainable living, and the rise of auto-defense practices for self-empowerment.
* 'CABALLERANGO' Directed by Juan Pablo Gonzalez, a family here reflects on a young man’s disappearance in a Mexican village under the watchful eyes of the horse that saw him last.
* 'TWO A.M.' Directed by Loretta Fahrenholz, here Sanna is pitted against an overbearing family of mind-reading 'Watchers'. As a telepathic Police state manipulates social unrest in a city in flames, Sanna attempts to reconnect with her sister Algin, a blacklisted pop singer. On the run from her unpredictably sinister Watcher cousins, Sanna is soon joined by her lover Franz. But just as the possibility of freedom seems finally within reach, a drug-fueled party takes a turn for the worse.
* '<3' Directed by LNZ Arturo and described as a sixty-minute selfie; a coming-of-age story in a technological communications revolution where love gets uploaded, digitally dislocated, unseen, and lost, bit by bit, into an asynchronous Internet landscape.
* 'NOTHING OR EVERYTHING' Directed by Gyeol Kim and set in both the past and the present, two people walk deep into a mountain forest. For these two women born and raised in the city, there is no place more unfamiliar. Here, two people in the present climb the mountain, following two people from the past. The film unfolds with past and present overlapping in the same space, depicting two heartbroken women.
* 'MY FRIEND THE POLISH GIRL' Directed by Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek, here an experimental documentary told through the eyes of Katie—an amateur filmmaker and American rich kid— who is lensing a film about Alicja, an erratic unemployed Polish actress. Set in a post-Brexit London, Katie colonises and disrupts Alicja’s life, mirroring the treatment of migrants in the U.K. at first welcomed, used, and then discarded.
* 'VULTURE' Directed by Philip Hoffman, this film sets its sights on farm animals and their surrounding flora. Static shots and slow-moving zooms follow the grazing animals in their minute interspecies exchanges.
* 'HOW WE LIVE : MESSAGES TO THE FAMILY' Directed by Gustav Deutsch the film undertakes its journey via amateur film recordings, not only producing a community between various people from various places, but also establishing a timeless togetherness, allowing generations of filmmakers to speak to one another and, via the medium of the movie screen, to us.

You can get the whole run down on the Ann Arbor Film Festival at the official website at : https://www.aafilmfest.org/

This week we have five new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a live action retelling of a classic Disney animated feature from 78 years ago that tells a modified story but still retains the touchstones of that much loved film about a certain young elephant with an exceptional talent. We then have a change of pace from a second time Director who has already established himself as a master of the genre in this psychological horror thriller about a family invaded by a group of doppelgängers. This is followed by two romantic dramas - the first telling the story of two teenage kids with Cystic Fibrosis who must keep a safe distance for fear of spreading infection to each other, and the second of two teenage kids in WWII Germany who come from very different backgrounds and who fall for each other despite the mortal dangers this puts them both in. We then wrap up the week with a historical retelling of a particular moment of tragedy in English history that ultimately brought about change for good, but at the expense of those who died and were wounded in the process, which ran into hundreds.

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.

'DUMBO' (Rated PG) - with this American fantasy adventure film, Walt Disney Studios continues with its live action reimagining of some of its classic animated features that has already taken in 'The Jungle Book' with 'Alladin' and 'The Lion King' coming later this year too. Inspired by the 1941 Disney animated classic of the same name and based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, the 1941 film was the fourth animated feature film put out by Disney after 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'Pinocchio' and 'Fantasia'. Costing US$950K to make the film grossed US$1.6M at the Box Office making it the most financially successful movie of that decade for the studio. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'.

And so to this live action treatment as Directed by Tim Burton. Here the owner of a small and struggling circus, Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a war veteran and former circus star to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughing stock in the already ailing circus. But when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, persuasive and ruthless entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and a French trapeze artist named Colette Marchant (Eva Green) swoop in to make the peculiar pachyderm a star and exploit its talents. Also starring Alan Arkin, the film is released in the US this week too.

'US' (Rated MA15+) - and so Jordan Peele here brings us this highly anticipated and already critically acclaimed American psychological horror thriller film, which he also Co-Produced with Jason Blum, and wrote. Following hot on the heels of his previous also acclaimed debut feature 'Get Out' in 2017, here Peele Directs Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke as married couple Adelaide Wilson and Gabriel 'Gabe' Wilson together with their son Jason (Alex Wilson) and daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) who plan on spending some quality family time at their beach house. The family plan on spending this time with good friends Kitty and Josh Tyler (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker respectively) and their twin kids Gwen and Maggie (Cali and Noelle Sheldon), but their peaceful retreat is shattered when tension and chaos erupts with a group of evil strangers, known as 'The Tethered' who look identical to them, arrive to cause all manner of ill will, mayhem and upset most foul. The film was made for US$20M got its World Premier screening at South by South West on 8th March and went on release in the US last week.

'FIVE FEET APART' (Rated M) - this romantic drama film is Directed by Justin Baldoni and centres around seventeen year old Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) who spends most of her time in hospital as a Cystic Fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control. However, all of this is put to the test when she meets Will Newman (Cole Sprouse), an impossibly charming teen who suffers from the same illness. There's an instant attraction, even though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them - five feet no less. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace their relationship. The film cost US$7M to make, has so far recouped US$35M following its release in the US on 15th March and has so far garnered mixed or average Reviews.

'WHERE HANDS TOUCH' (Rated M) - here British Ghanaian Director, Screenwriter and Actress Amma Asante brings us this fictionalised historical WWII romantic coming of age drama film in which 15 year old Leyna (Amandla Stenberg), daughter of a white German mother Kerstin (Abbie Cornish) and a black French-African soldier father stationed in Germany after the end of the First World War, who lives in fear because of the colour of her skin. When she and her mother relocate to Berlin for safety reasons Leyna meets Lutz (George MacKay), the son of a prominent SS officer and a compulsory member of the Hitler Youth, the two fall helplessly in love, ultimately placing both their lives in danger. Seen through the eyes of a bi-racial teen as she witnesses the persecution of Jews and those deemed 'non-pure', the film has received generally poor Reviews to date, saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the US in mid-September and has so far taken less than US$70K at the Box Office.

'PETERLOO' (Rated M) - Mike Leigh, that highly acclaimed British Writer and Director of such notable fare over the years as 'Secrets & Lies', 'Topsy-Turvy', 'Vera Drake' and 'Mr. Turner' most recently, here delivers us this British historical drama recounting the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. To put some historical context around the event, on 16th August 1819, a crowd of some 60,000 people from Manchester and the surrounding towns and villages gathered in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester to demand Parliamentary reform and an extension of voting rights. The gathering had been peaceful but in the attempt to arrest a leader of the meeting, the armed government militia panicked and set upon the crowd. As many as fifteen people were killed and up to seven hundred were wounded. The immediate effect of the massacre was a crackdown on reform, as the authorities feared the country was heading towards armed rebellion. The film was screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year, went on release in the UK in early November, gets its US release on 5th April, and has generated largely favourable Reviews. The film stars Rory Kinnear, Tim McInnerny, Patrick Kennedy and Maxine Peake.

With five 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-

HOTEL MUMBAI : Wednesday 20th March 2019.

'HOTEL MUMBAI' which I saw earlier last week, is an Australian, Indian and American Co-Produced thriller Directed, Co-Produced, Written and Edited by Aussie Anthony Maras in his feature length film debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was screened at the Adelaide Film Festival in October and went on release first here in Australia last week and the US at the end of this month. Based on the 2009 Documentary 'Surviving Mumbai' by Victoria Midwinter Pitt, the film is of the 2008 Mumbai attacks where a group of terrorist attacks occurred in November 2008, when ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, carried out a series of twelve coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. At least 174 people died, including nine of the ten terrorists involved, and more than three hundred were wounded. This film centres around the attack in particular on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The film has generated largely favourable Reviews.

The film opens up with ten disparate men travelling by dinghy along the waterways leading into the heart of the city, all the while listening intently to the ramblings of their leader as he espouses the virtues of the horrific crimes they are about to commit. They come ashore and split up into three taxis, all heading for a different destination upon which to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populace. The first pair head to a central railway station, the next group head off to a cafe and restaurant precinct, and the next group of four head to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, always in close communication with their leader who continually reminds them of the importance of their mission against the western infidel and how they will be rewarded in the kingdom of their God.

We first see the attack on the central rail station where literally thousands of commuters are going about the daily travel routines and how many are gunned down with semi-automatic weapons on a whim. We then cut to a cafe in which an English backpacker guy and his Asian girlfriend are caught in the cross-fire of a random attack by armed gunmen and how they narrowly escape amidst the death and destruction bestowed upon other diners in that unfortunate eatery. We then follow them as they join the wave of fleeing escapees as they seek refuge in the seemingly safe harbour of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel . . . how wrong could they be?

And so as a wave of devastating terror attacks throughout Mumbai catapult the bustling Indian city of some thirteen million inhabitants into chaos, in the heart of the city’s tourist district, Islamic terrorists lay siege to the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, with ruthless and merciless abandon. The gang of four terrorists arrive undercover together with those others fleeing on foot from the restaurant precinct, and are simply granted access because of the media coverage that has now erupted around the attacks that have so far come to light. Meanwhile, we follow the routine of one Arjun (Dev Patel) who has a young daughter and another child on the way as he rides his scooter to work at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to commence his shift as a Waiter. He receives he pre-service briefing form Executive Chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher) and goes to work in one of the many restaurants where the more dignified guests choose to dine.

Arriving in advance of the shooting party are wealthy Indian Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) who checks into one of the hotel’s opulent suites with her American husband David (Armie Hammer), newborn baby and Australian nanny Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) in tow. Then there is the very demanding and particular Russian businessman Vasili (Jason Isaacs) and various other reasonably high profile guests that you would expect in an establishment of this standing. When the random shootings begin in the hotel lobby, Arjun is attending to the orders of his guests in the nearby hotel restaurant. He immediately takes charge ordering everyone to get down under the tables and seek cover, not knowing for sure himself what the hell is going on outside the restaurant doors.

And so what follows is a four day long battle for survival as hotel staff who have a firmly upheld belief that the Guest is King, the guests who all succumb in some way either directly or indirectly to the acts of the terrorists, and the authorities who are at first almost defenceless against ten mere, albeit heavily armed and ruthless mortals having to wait it out for days while the special forces arrive from 800 miles away. Needless to say the tension mounts as Big Bull (the recurring voice in the ear piece of the terrorists) continues to blurt out his specific instructions and how they will be rewarded in the kingdom of their God.

What unfolds is a case of catch us if you can, as one hundred or so guests are held captive in their luxury hotel as four terrorists go about their business of gunning down remorselessly and without blinking so much as an eye basically anyone who moves, gets in their way or doesn't comply with their demands. They patrol the corridors, hallways and rooms armed to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons, pistols and hand grenades and are not afraid to use them in the name of their cause. Sally is left holding the new-born baby as Zahra and David are caught in the crossfire in the restaurant four storeys below, as is Vasili on a neighbouring table. They crouch under a table frantically trying to text Sally who is taking a shower oblivious to the scenes of murder and mayhem unfolding within the hotel. David takes it upon himself to go back to their suite to locate Sally and the baby and in the process has a close call with two of the terrorists but manages to evade them in a lift, thanks to the cover afforded by an abandoned upright food trolley.

David reunites with Sally and the baby in their suite, but then decide to join the other guests now being led by Head Chef Oberoi to a Club Lounge within the hotel that is secure and has no windows. However, in doing so he is captured by the terrorists and taken hostage, with instructions from Big Bull to later execute him and any other captured Westerners in front of all the worlds media looking on. Sally and the baby evade capture by stowing away in a broom cupboard out of sight. Arjun meanwhile is leading his restaurant patrons along the fire exit to the Club Lounge where Head Chef Oberoi has already congregated with several dozen other guests and Hotel staff. Here Vasili comforts Zahra as best he can under the circumstance having lost all contact with David, Sally and her baby.

Meanwhile the local Police force have gathered outside together with the local and international news channels. Four daring cops decide to go in, given that Special Forces are en route but their ETA is still hours away. Needless to say they come to a sticky end in a hail of bullets and a grenade, but not before one of the terrorists is shot in the leg while he tries to break into the Club Lounge having discovered that by now there are about one hundred or so guests and staff holed up inside. The terrorist shot in the leg is sent to rest up and guard the now steadily increasing number of high value largely American hostages, whom they all plan to kill. The other three in the meantime go in search of an alternative entry to the Club Lounge, whilst setting fire to random points within the Hotel. The world watches on via the news channels of explosions within the Hotel, muffled distant machine gun fire, and bursts of flame and billowing smoke from the rooftop and windows.

Before the four cops were gunned down they came across Arjun in the emergency exit stairwell. They asked him to lead them to the surveillance room and then left him safely inside. While watching the terrorist activities on a live feed via closed circuit cameras he observes them trying to gain access again to the Club Lounge via the main entry. Using a grenade to blow the doors Arjun warns Head Chef Oberoi via mobile phone that the terrorists are soon to be upon them. Oberoi orders the one hundred or so guests to use the fire escape which takes them straight out onto the street several floors below. The terrorists gain entry and begin shooting just as Oberoi ducks out of sight - the last through the emergency doors. In a mad scramble to get free, many of the guests are shot as the terrorists randomly fire at them from the stairwell above. Vasili, Zahra and a handful of other guests decide to take a detour via the Hotel Lobby only to be gunned down and taken hostage. Here Zahra and Vasili are reunited with David, bound and lying face down on the floor.

By now the Special Forces have arrived and are readying themselves to launch an attack on the terrorists. The one guarding the hostages is in conversation with Big Bull who tells him that the time has come to kill the hostages without mercy and that he will be rewarded. Systematically he begins shooting the hostages. Vasili who puts up a noble struggle as much as he is able with his hands tied behind his back, is shot and killed, then David, leaving only Zahra who begins singing a Muslim song. This perplexes the terrorist who is confused by a western woman chanting a Muslim song, and despite the demands of Big Bull to put a bullet in her head, the terrorist does not. He leaves to join his colleagues, leaving Zahra to make her escape, which she does through a window which she smashes to draw attention to her whereabouts and to avoid smoke inhalation. She is rescued and taken to safety. Meanwhile the escaping guests and staff have reached the ground floor and spill out onto the street as the Special Forces go in all guns blazing. Included in those guests is Sally carrying Zahra's baby. They reunite in the back of a bus. Arjun is also out. Without any attention he slinks off to find his motor scooter and rides home to meet his wife and young daughter, who needless to say is very relieved to see him safe and well.

The terrorists are forced back into the Hotel Lobby surrounded by the heavily armed Special Forces. It all ends abruptly for the terrorists who are by now cowering behind the Reception desk, rapidly running out of ammunition, but still in communication with Big Bull. A member of the Special Forces makes a dash for the Reception desk, tosses a grenade over the top bringing a swift end to the terrorists and their siege on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. We subsequently learn that all but one of the ten terrorists survived, and of the fatalities over the four days half were Hotel personnel. The Hotel reopened its doors as good as new some thirteen months later, and many of that Team who survived also returned to their place of work to resume their old jobs.

'Hotel Mumbai' is a gripping true story that is well crafted and faithfully recreates real archival footage with the Directors vision, and that vision is unrelenting in its depiction of terror, wonton death and destruction at the hands of a small group of well armed committed activists who firmly believe in what they are doing. Whilst there are some action thriller cliches the film maintains the interest throughout, albeit uncomfortably so at times because the killing is so relentless and ever present. What is must be like to live through such an experience, and not knowing if your next breath will be your last, God only knows, but Director Anthony Maras pretty much takes you there offering a candid view of Hotel guests and staff, those poor unfortunates caught in the cross fire, those in the wrong place at the wrong time and of course the ten perpetrators as well, and it's not pretty and doesn't end well for many of them. The film has so far taken just under US$1M since its Release in the US last week too, and is certainly worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Hotel Mumbai' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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

With the Film Festival circuit now well and truly underway, following the likes of the 'Sundance Film Festival' which took place between 24th January and 3rd February, the '69th Berlin International Film Festival' which took place between 7th and 17th February, we now have the 33rd annual 'South By Southwest' (abbreviated to 'SXSW') a yearly conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that takes place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987, and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year, this year taking place between 8th and 17th March. The official website, states that 'for nine days, creatives of all stripes gather for the acclaimed SXSW Film Festival program to celebrate raw innovation and emerging talent from both behind and in front of the camera'.

This years line up includes ten World Premiers, in Narrative Feature Competition being : 'Alice' (France), 'Extra Ordinary' (Ireland), 'Go Back to China' (China, USA), 'Mickey and the Bear' (USA), 'Ms. White Light' (USA), 'Pig Hag' (USA), 'Porno' (USA), 'Saint Frances' (USA), 'South Mountain' (USA), and 'Yes God Yes' (USA).








In the Headliners section, big names and big talent grace red carpet Premiers and Gala Screenings with major and rising names from the world of cinema. Those films featured here are : 'The Beach Bum' (also getting its World Premier) with Matthew McConaughey; 'Booksmart' (World Premier) featuring Kaitlyn Dever; 'The Curse of La Llorona' (World Premier) with Linda Cardellini; 'Good Boys' (World Premier) with Jacob Tremblay; 'The Highwaymen' (World Premier) with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson; 'Long Shot' (World Premier) with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron; 'Pet Sematary' with Jason Clarke; 'Stuber (Work in Progress)' with Dave Bautista and 'Us' with Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke.

Also receiving their World Premier screening in the Narrative Spotlights section are included : 'Adopt a Highway' with Ethan Hawke; 'The Art of Self-Defence' with Jesse Eisenberg; 'The Day Shall Come' with Anna Kendrick; 'I'm Just F*cking With You' with Keir O'Donnell; 'The Peanut Butter Falcon' with Shia LaBeouf; 'Run This Town' with Damian Lewis; 'Villains' with Bill Skarsgard and 'The Wall of Mexico' with Jackson Rathbone.

You can get the whole line-up of last weeks 'SXSW' festival, and more, by visiting the website at : https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/film/

This week there are four latest release movies coming to your local Odeon. We launch with a gritty crime drama starring an oft awarded Actress in an acclaimed role the likes of which we have never seen her portray before, as a downtrodden LAPD cop living on the edge and with a past, and she pulls it off with conviction. We then turn to a true story about a family with wrestling in its blood, and how the young daughter rises to stardom on the WWE circuit. Next up is another true true story transplanted from Sweden to England that sees a bunch of hapless middle aged men infiltrate a generally female led sport that takes them to the world championships, and for many of them doubtless a form of redemption too. And the week wraps up with a CGI sequel featuring an impressive voice cast and many characters you have grown up with all assembled brick by brick for your family entertainment pleasure.

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.

'DESTROYER' (Rated MA15+) - Nicole Kidman here plays 110% against type in a much talked about role the likes of which we have never seen her play before, and, she delivers in spades. Directed by American film and television Director Karyn Kusama who's previous film making credits take in 2000's highly acclaimed debut 'Girlfight' and thereafter 'Aeon Flux', 'Jennifer's Body' and most recently in 2015 'The Invitation'. 'Destroyer' saw its World Premier screening at the Telluride Film Festival back in late August last year, saw its US release on Christmas Day, and now its gets a go in Australia this week. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews, has so far recouped just over US$2M of its US$9M production budget, and has received two award wins and another twelve nominations from around the circuit including a Golden Globe, a Satellite and an AACTA nod for Best Actress for Kidman.

As a young cop, Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) went under cover with her former partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) to infiltrate a gang in the California desert with tragic life changing consequences. Bell continues to work as a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department, but feelings of bitterness and remorse leave her down trodden and overtaken by guilt. When Silas (Toby Kebbel) the leader of that gang suddenly re-emerges, Bell embarks on an obsessive quest to find his former associates, bring him to justice one way or another and finally make peace with her tortured past. Also starring Bradley Whitford and Scoot McNairy.

'FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY' (Rated M) - Stephen Merchant here Directs, Dwayne Johnson Executive Produces and stars in this biographical sports comedy drama film based on the 2012 documentary 'The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family' by Director Max Fisher, depicting the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) career of English professional wrestling personality Paige (aka Saraya-Jade Bevis). The film saw its Premier screening at this years Sundance Film Festival, went on release in the US at the end of February, cost US$11M, has so far grossed US$29M and has met with a favourable critical response. Born into a close knit wrestling family, Saraya 'Paige' Knight (Florence Pugh) and her brother Zak (Jack Lowden) are ecstatic when they are granted a once-in-a-lifetime chance to try out for the WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training programme, she must bid farewell to her loved ones and face the new highly contested world alone. Paige's journey forces her to dig deep and ultimately prove to the world that what makes her different is the very thing that can make her a star. Also starring Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, Stephen Merchant and Dwayne Johnson.

'SWIMMING WITH MEN' (Rated M) - this British comedy offering is Directed by Oilver Parker whose previous credits include 'Othello', 'An Ideal Husband', 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'St. Trinian's' and its sequel 'The Legend of Fritton's Gold', 'Dorian Grey', 'Johnny English Reborn' and 'Dad's Army' most recently. This film saw its Worldwide Premier at last years Edinburgh International Film Festival and went on general release in the UK in early July last year. Only now does it get a limited release in Australia. Based on the true story of a group of Swedish men who competed in the synchronised swimming world championships which was made into a 2010 documentary by Dylan Williams titled 'Men Who Swim', this film transplants the action to England and tells the story of Accountant Eric Scott (Rob Brydon) who is suffering a mid-life crisis and is trying to win back the heart and mind of his wife Heather (Jane Horrocks). This ultimately sees him finding a new purpose in his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged, amateur synchronised swimming team. Together they make a bid to compete at the unofficial Male Sync-Swimming World Championships in Milan, and doubtless take a shot at personal redemption en route. Also starring Rupert Graves, Daniel Mays, Thomas Turgoose, Jim Carter, Charlotte Riley and Adeel Akhtar.

'THE LEGO MOVIE 2 : THE SECOND PART' (Rated PG) - here we have the fourth instalment in the 'Lego Movie' franchise following 2014's 'The Lego Movie', and 2017's 'The Lego Batman Movie' and 'The Lego Ninjago Movie'. Those first three films grossed at the global Box Office the sum total of US$904M off the back of a combined production budget of US$215M. This film is a direct sequel to that earlier 2014 movie and is Directed by Mike Mitchell with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (who both wrote and Directed the first film) taking Producer, Story and Screenwriter credits this time around. Here this computer animated family adventure comedy follows on from the events of the first film, in as much as the citizens of Bricksburg face a dangerous new threat when LEGO DUPLO space invaders start to wreak havoc on everything that stands in their path. The battle to defeat the enemy and restore harmony to the LEGO universe takes Emmet (voiced by Christ Pratt), Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett) and the rest of their friends to faraway, unexplored worlds that puts their courage and their creativity to the test. Also starring the voice talents of an impressive ensemble cast that takes in Tiffany Haddish, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Jason Mamoa, Cobie Smulders, Richard Ayoade, Ralph Fiennes, Will Forte and Bruce Willis. The film cost US$99M to bring to the big screen and has so far recouped US$172M since its release Stateside in early February, and has received generally positive Reviews.

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-

CAPTAIN MARVEL : Tuesday 12th March 2019.

Here we have the twenty-first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 'CAPTAIN MARVEL', and the first film in the MCU to feature a female led Superhero. This much hyped eagerly anticipated film which I saw earlier this week, is said to be the second most keenly awaited blockbuster of 2019 behind 'Avengers : End Game' with advance ticket sales placing it in third place of any MCU film to date behind 'Avengers : Infinity War' and 'Black Panther'. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for US$152M, development of the film began in 2013 and was officially announced in late 2014, with Brie Larson publicised as Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) at San Diego's Comic-Con in 2016. The film saw its Worldwide Premier in London on 27th February, its US Premier in Hollywood on 4th March and went on general release in Stateside on 8th March, two days after its Australian release. The film has so far grossed US$525M and has garnered generally favourable Reviews.

Set in 1995 on the Kree Empire (a scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic alien race resembling humans almost exactly) planet of Hala, Starforce (a crack team of super-powered individuals) member Vers (Brie Larson) has recurring visions of an older woman with whom she shares some sort of affinity. Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) is mentor and commander to Vers, and head of Starforce. He trains her to control her fighting abilities, while the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Benning) an artificial intelligence and ruler over the Kree prompts Vers to maintain her emotions in check.

Following a little pep talk with the Supreme Intelligence (whom Vers recognises as the same woman from her visions) she is granted her first mission with Starforce, accompanied by Korath (Djimon Hounsou), Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan), Att-Lass (Algenis Perez Soto), Bron-Char (Rune Temte) and of course Yon-Rogg. Together they venture to the planet Torfa to rescue a Kree scout named Soh-Larr who has infiltrated a group of Skrulls (alien shapeshifters who can transform themselves into exact replicas of other beings at will).

This leads to a Skrull ambush led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) which results in Vers being captured, separated from the rest of her group and taken aboard an Earth bound ship and subjected to a probe of her memory. After successfully thwarting her sworn enemy, Vers manages to escape in a pod which crash lands on Earth through the roof of a Blockbuster Video Store late at night.

Early the next morning this overnight activity has attracted the attention of desk jockey S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg, both of whom were de-aged by 25 years for the purposes of the 1995 setting), whose questioning of Vers is interrupted by an attack by several recently arrived Skrulls on the hunt for their escaped prisoner.

During the chase involving Vers hunting down the shapeshifting Skrulls both of whom are being hunted down by Fury and Coulson, Vers recovers a crystal containing her extracted memories dropped by a Skrull she tussled with aboard the subway train, while Fury kills a Skrull replicating Coulson. Talos meanwhile has assumed the identity of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Keller, and after performing an autopsy on the dead Skrull, orders Fury to work alone to learn more of this shapeshifting alien race, although of course he has ulterior motives for doing so.

Fury mentions to Keller that he has a lead on Vers and tracks her down to a remote bar, which she had seen before in her visions and which clearly holds some significance. There the pair sit around the table while they both fire questions at each other seeking some clarification of one anothers history, motivations and what next having made their acquaintances. Using his S.H.I.E.L.D. Security clearance he takes Vers to the classified Pegasus US Air Force Base that she has memories of from her visions. Once there, they forcibly break into the archives room and Vers learns from various retrieved files that she was an Air Force pilot presumed dead in 1989 after crashing a plane with an experimental engine designed by a Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Benning), whom she recognises as the woman from her visions.

Talos, disguised as Keller, arrives at the Pegasus Air Force Base with a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents who quickly hunt down Fury and Vers, but the pair successfully manage to evade capture and escape in a cargo jet together with Dr. Lawson's stowaway cat, Goose. They fly to Louisiana to meet with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) a former fellow Air Force Pilot who flew with Vers, and who was the last person to see Vers and Lawson alive. Vers and Fury arrive at the Rambeau homestead to be greeted by Rambeau's eleven year old daughter Monica (Akira Akbar) who refers to her supposedly dead friend as Carol Danvers and sets about recounting her backstory to the long lost friend. Shortly afterwards Talos arrives at the Rambeau family home and reveals that he comes in peace and that the Skrulls are refugees searching for a new home and Lawson was a Kree renegade helping them.

Talos persuades Danvers, Fury and Rambeau to listen to the recovered black box recording from Lawson's plane, prompting Danvers to regain her memories of that fateful day and remember the events leading up to, including and after the experimental plane went down. Lawson tried to destroy the engine's energy-core before being killed by Yon-Rogg for working with the Skrulls. When Danvers destroyed it she absorbed the energy from the explosion and lost all of her memory in the process.

Talos then leads the group, including Goose the cat, to Lawson's cloaked lab ship orbiting Earth, where numerous Skrulls are in hiding and protecting the Tesseract, the source of the energy-core. By now Yon-Rogg and his Starforce team are hot on the heels and infiltrate the lab ship capturing Danvers, where she is connected up remotely to the Supreme Intelligence to await her fate. During their conversation which is very one sided against the mere human Danvers taken in and nurtured by the Kree, Danvers is able to remove a Kree implant that was suppressing her powers giving her full access to her abilities. 

During the ensuing battle, Fury retrieves the Tesseract and Goose, who is revealed to be a Flerken, an alien creature resembling the common house cat, but which have a pocket dimension inside their mouths which can be used to consume and store almost anything. She swallows the Tesseract before scratching Fury's left eye and blinding him. Yon -Rogg orders the support of Kree official Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) who fires a series of intergalactic ballistic warheads towards Earth, which forces Danvers in her shiny new red and blue livery to defend against with all her might. This forces Ronan the Accuser to flee to another dimension stating that he will be back to finish the job he started on another day.   

Meanwhile, an escaping Yon-Rogg darts off in an escape pod chased by Danvers who forces her quarry to crash land some where in the desert on Earth. She quickly overpowers him and has him return to Hala against his will, empty handed and with a warning to the Supreme Intelligence not to mess with her or the Skrulls again. Danvers flies off to help the Skrulls find a new homeworld, and gives Fury a modified pager to contact her in the event of any dire emergency. Meanwhile, back at his desk Fury drafts an initiative paper aimed at targeting other heroes like her, because if there's one out there, there's sure to be more. He changes the name after finding a photo of Danvers in her Air Force jet, which bears her call sign 'Avenger'.

Watch out for the Stan Lee cameo appearance, and in whose name this film is dedicated, and the mid-credits and end-credits sequences too, which bring us forward to the present day and take us back to Fury's 1995 empty desk, and that cat!

'Captain Marvel' is a worthy addition to the MCU, and an enjoyable mid-'90's romp aided and abetted by a feel good 'buddy cop' partnering between a younger and still finding his feet Nick Fury and the emerging super powers of Carol Danvers coming to terms with her destiny. In this time of the 'MeToo' movement, this film resonates with female empowerment, overcoming adversity and women finding their place in the world, and for that reason it strikes a chord that couldn't be more relevant. There's also just the right amount of humour between Fury and Danvers to provide a grounded levity before the action set pieces click in. Whilst the story backs and forths to the point of near confusion in the first half, hold tight, because it does all come together in the end and makes sense. What didn't make sense to me however, is unlike all the other Superheroes we have seen on the big screen - both MCU and DCEU, Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers aka Vers is indestructible and wields unprecedented power it seems. She can glide effortlessly through great balls of fire, survive unharmed and unscathed by even the biggest explosions (refer intergalactic ballistic warheads), live to tell another day from falling out of an escape pod somewhere above the Earth's atmosphere and hurtle towards the Earth crashing into bed rock and simply dusting herself off, she can thwart photon blasts, being buried under crashing iron and steel infrastructure, kicked, punched, thrown aloft and never, does she have a torn piece of clothing or a hair out of place. She well and truly might just be the saviour of the known universe, and perhaps the only match for Thanos! Watch this space! Certainly worth the price of your ticket, worth seeing on the big screen, and it's great to see Samuel L. Jackson looking so much younger, leaner and fresher, and for the most part with both eyes intact.

'Captain Marvel' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-