BILL PAXTON - dies aged 61 - R.I.P.

William 'Bill' Paxton, passed away following complications from recent heart surgery on Saturday 25th February. He was just 61 years of age. Born on 17th May 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas to mother Mary Lou Gray and father John Lane Paxton who worked as a businessman, timber wholesaler, museum executive and occasional Actor, the young lad was never far from the spotlight. At age eight he was in the crowd of onlookers and well wishers lining the streets to greet President John F. Kennedy just hours before he was shot and killed on that ill fated day in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Official photographs taken on the day show a young Bill Paxton being lifted above the heads of the crowd for a better view of the passing cavalcade, which is on display at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. In another twist of fate, Paxton attended Arlington Heights High School, in Fort Worth with Lee Harvey Oswald - the alleged assassin of Kennedy, who was in turn shot and killed by Jack Ruby on 24th November 1963 while in Police custody for the murder of the President.

At age eighteen Paxton moved to Los Angeles and landed a job working for Roger Corman's film production company, New World Pictures, as a set dresser. He landed his big screen debut in a Corman picture - 1975's 'Crazy Mama' in an uncredited role Directed by Jonathan Demme. He later moved to New York where he studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. From there he landed a bit part in Ivan Reitman's 1981 'Stripes' with Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis and Warren Oates. From this point on he was never out of work finding small parts on film and television series which kept him busy as a jobbing Actor. He even Directed and Wrote a couple of short films himself - 'Fish Heads' and 'Barnes & Barnes : Love Tap'. His rights of passage included a bunch of B-Grade horror films including 'Night Warning' in 1982, 'Deadly Lessons' and 'Mortuary' both in 1983, and 'Impulse' in 1984.

1984 also gave rise to his first collaboration with Director James Cameron and action hero star Arnold Schwarzenegger in 'Terminator' as a young punk in an early scene as the T-800 Terminator arrives naked in a downtown side street and his first contact with the human race is three knife wielding deadbeats who aren't long for this world. 'Weird Science' followed for John Hughes in 1985 which also starred a young Robert Downey Jnr., and then 'Commando' with Arnie again and then in 1986 in 'Aliens' for Director James Cameron as Private Hudson who uttered those immortal words 'stop yer grinnin' and drop yer linen'! A bunch of television show appearances and films including Katherine Bigelow's 'Near Dark', 'Slipstream' and 'Next of Kin' with Patrick Swayze saw out the '80's.

The new decade launched with 'Brain Dead' in 1990, and the next ten years saw the likes of 'Navy Seals' with Charlie Sheen, 'Predator 2' with Danny Glover, 'One False Move' which reunited him with Writer and Co-Star Billy Bob Thornton, the controversial 'Boxing Helena' with Julian Sands, Western 'Tombstone' with an all star cast that included Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp with Paxton playing Morgan Earp, and then in 1994 a reuniting with Cameron and Schwarzenegger in 'True Lies'.



The following year saw saw Paxton portray real life astronaut Fred Haise in Ron Howard's critically acclaimed retelling of the 'Apollo 13' mission with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris, and the following year saw Jan de Bont's equally acclaimed 'Twister' with Paxton in the lead role as over zealous tornado chaser Bill Harding opposite Helen Hunt. 'Traveller' came next in 1997 followed by another reteaming with James Cameron on his epic 'Titanic', with 'A Simple Plan' for Director Sam Raimi and Co-Star once again Billy Bob Thornton, and 'Mighty Joe Young' with Charlize Theron seeing out the decade in 1998.

2000 brought 'U-571' for Director Jonathan Moscow and Co-Starring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, and Jon Bon Jovi, then K2 mountain rescue drama 'Vertical Limit' for Director Martin Campbell, and in 2001 Paxton made his Directorial debut with the well received 'Frailty' in which he also starred alongside Matthew McConaughey again. 2004 saw the live action big screen adaptation of the classic '60's Jerry and Sylvia Anderson series 'Thunderbirds' with Paxton playing Jeff Tracy, the founder of International Rescue. Paxton turned this hand to Directing again in 2005 with historical biographical golf sports film 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' with Shia LaBeouf in the lead role of champion of the modern game Francis Ouimet. The decade played out with Paxton starring in 55 episodes of HBO's television series 'Big Love' with Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Savigny, Bruce Dern and Harry Dean Stanton. The show garnered Paxton several award nominations including Golden Globe and Satellite Awards over successive years.

Action thriller 'Haywire' for Steven Soderbergh came next in 2011 with an ensemble cast and in 2012 the acclaimed three part post American Civil War mini-series 'Hatfields and McCoys' with Paxton starring alongside Kevin Costner. Paxton was again nominated for several awards including a Primetime Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild. 'The Colony' with Laurence Fishburne, '2 Guns' with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, 'Million Dollar Arm' with Jon Hamm, Doug Liman's Sci-Fi action adventure 'Edge of Tomorrow' with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, Dan Gilroy's excellent 'Nightcrawler' with Jake Gyllenhaal, and then 'The Gamechangers', 'Term Life' and 'Mean Dreams' bring us up to date in terms of movie releases. In the meantime, there had also been six episodes on Marvel's television series 'Agents of 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' the acclaimed five part mini-series 'Texas Rising' - the story of how the Texas Rangers were formed, and most recently on seven episodes of Season One of television series 'Training Day' as Detective Frank Rourke following up the the acclaimed 2001 film of the same name about a rookie cop who buddies up with a corrupt partner.

Due for release in April is 'The Circle' a Sci-Fi thriller with Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega. All up Paxton had 93 acting credits to his name, seven as Producer, five as Director, and several for his early work as Production Designer, Set Decorator, and Art Director. He was nominated for four Golden Globes, a Primetime Emmy, three Satellite Awards, two SAG Awards and in total accumulated six award wins and another thirteen nominations throughout his career. He was also an early musician, having formed a new wave band in 1982 'Martini Ranch' similar in ilk to 'Devo' - they released one album in 1987 - 'Holy Cow'. He was married to Kelly Rowan for a brief time form 1979 to 1980 and then in 1987 he married Louise Newbury with whom he had two children - James born in 1994, and Lydia born in 1997.

Bill Paxton - laid claim to being killed off by a Terminator, an Alien and and a Predator; starred in some of the most iconic films of the '80's and '90's; he played policemen, storm chasers, an astronaut, alien hunters, historical figures, punks, low-life's and men of questionable conduct and standing. Whatever the role, whatever the genre Paxton was convincing, watchable and the consummate character actor who leaves behind a legacy of great films, memorable characters and quotable one liners. He will be missed!


Bill Paxton - Rest In Peace
1955 - 2017

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 25th-31st October 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Gale Anne Hurd does on 25th October - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 60 at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 25th October

• Gale Anne Hurd - Born 1955, turns 60 - Producer | Writer 

Monday 26th October

• Emilia Clarke - Born 1986, turns 29 - Actress
• Rosemarie DeWitt - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actress
• Jaclyn Smith - Born 1945, turns 70 - Actress
• Cary Elwes - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Dylan McDermott - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actor
• Seth MacFarlane - Born 1973, turns 42 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer | Songwriter

Tuesday 27th October

• John Cleese - Born 1939, turns 76 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Roberto Benigni - Born 1952, turns 63 - Director | Producer | Actor
• Ivan Reitman - Born 1946, turns 69 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Wednesday 28th October

• Joaquin Phoenix - Born 1974, turns 41 - Actor | Producer 
• Dennis Franz - Born 1944, turns 71 -   Actor | Writer
• Kevin Macdonald - Born 1967, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Julia Roberts - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer 

Thursday 29th October

• Winona Ryder - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actress | Producer
• Kate Jackson - Born  1948, turns 67 - Actress | Producer 
• Robert Hardy - Born 1925, turns 90 - Actor 
• Ben Foster - Born 1980, turns 35 - Actor | Producer
• Rufus Sewell - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actor
• Richard Dreyfus - Born 1947, turns 68 - Actor | Producer

Friday 30th October

• Kevin Pollak - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer  
• Henry Winkler - Born 1945, turns 70 -  Actor | Producer | Director | Writer

Saturday 31st October 

• Peter Jackson - Born 1961, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Stephen Rea - Born 1946, turns 69 - Actor  
• Rob Schneider - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Dermot Mulroney - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actor | Director
• Piper Perabo - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actress | Producer

Gale Anne Hurd was born in Los Angeles, California to mother Lolita Espiau and father Frank Hurd, an investor. Growing up in Palm Springs, she graduated from Stanford University with a BA Degree in economics and communications in 1977. She joined New World Pictures which later came to be owned by 20th Century Fox and although now effectively defunct it exists in the dim & distant recesses of 21st Century Fox. That said, back in the day she joined as an Executive Assistant to Producer. Director and Actor Roger Corman who was also President of the Company. Progressing through various administrative roles, eventually she became involved in Production.

Resulting from this she created Pacific Western Productions from which she Produced a number of Box Office classics including 'The Terminator' in 1984 which she also co-wrote with James Cameron, then 'Aliens' in 1986 and 'The Abyss' in 1989. The common denominator here was James Cameron who Directed all three films, and who she was married to from 1985 to 1989.

From there she went on to Produce the likes of 'Tremors' in 1990, 'Terminator 2 : Judgement Day' in 1991, 'The Ghost and the Darkness' in 1996, 'The Relic' and 'Dante's Peak' in 1997 and 'Armageddon' in 1998 to largely see out the decade.

The new decade brought more Sci-Fi and action fare including 'Clockstoppers' in 2002, 'Hulk' and 'Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines' in 2003, 'Punisher' in 2004, 'Aeon Flux' in 2005, 'Welcome to the Jungle' in 2007, 'The Incredible Hulk' in 2008 before the first season of the positively excellent landmark series commencement of 'The Walking Dead' in 2010.








With first husband James Cameron she is responsible for bringing us one of the most recognised film characters in popular culture and cinema history, as well as launching the career of one Arnold Schwarzenegger into the stratosphere  - and for this alone Hurd deserves recognition. 'The Terminator' franchise which she wrote the original screenplay for with Cameron has endured for over 30 years and lives on after five successful films already and a television series, with two further 'Terminator' films announced for release in 2017 and 2018 to follow up this years 'Terminator : Genisys'. The first five films have raked in a global Box Office haul of a combined US$1.84B with 'T2' being the most successful to date, followed by this years 'Genisys'.

As well as acting as Executive Producer on so far 70+ episodes of 'The Walking Dead' and this years spin off series 'Fear The Walking Dead', there has been 'The Wronged Man', 'Last Man Standing', 'Very Good Girls' and 'Horizon' before her latest television offering 'Hunters' currently filming for its 2016 release. Hurd has 45 Producer credits to her name and nine Writer credits with twelve award wins and two other nominations. She has had an esteemed career which includes accolades for the 'Women in Film Crystal Award' for helping to advance the role of women in the entertainment industry 'The Telluride Tech Festival Award for Technology', she is a governor of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She is described as the 'First Lady of Sci-Fi' and her company Valhalla Entertainment is very active in both big and small screen production with 'The Walking Dead' topping many ratings worldwide and has received critical acclaim. After divorcing James Cameron in 1989, she was married to Brian De Palma from 1991 to 1993 with whom she has a daughter Lolita born in 1991, and she is presently married to Director and Screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh and has been since 1995.

Gale Anne Hurd - successful, influential and respected movie and television business woman; responsible for creating a huge film, and, television franchise; entrenched in the Sci-Fi and horror action world and shows no sign of letting up, and, we love you for it - Happy 60th Birthday to you - from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

COWBOYS AND ALIENS : archive from 31st August 2011.

Saw 'COWBOYS and ALIENS' last night! Based on a lesser known comic book this film cost US$163M to make and bring to the big screen and in the final analysis made just a little more than that at US$175M despite the pedigree of its Director and lead cast. Here we have Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford; James Bond and Indiana Jones; the Old West and the Final Frontier battling it out in an 1873 Arizona setting where them pesky good for nothing aliens is holed up in dem dar mountains gettin' up to all sorts of no good! Time to assemble a posse, saddle up the horses and take care of business!

So I'm thinking - has this genre ever been done successfully on the big screen before and I'd be hard pressed to answer that question let alone say 'yes'! That said, John Favreau puts in a solid effort as Director eeking out a strong enough FX laden old west tale underpinned by a fistful of dollars to make the action and the storyline convincing and two 'A' listers to give it gravitas - but judging by the worldwide take, audiences stayed away!

This is a simple enough story of Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) who is on the run from the law and suffering a bad dose of memory loss. Waking up in the desert Lonergan is wearing a strange bracelet and has an odd looking wound and no recollection of how he acquired either. After dispensing with some low life drifters Lonergan heads for the nearest one-horse town of Absolution to have his wounds treated and to gain some R&R. He is noticed as a wanted man and subsequently a scuffle ensues with Sheriff John Taggart (Keith Carradine) resulting in him being knocked unconscious by a mystery woman Ella Swanson (Olivia Wilde). Being locked up with local drunk Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) in no time Dolarhyde's father and local wealthy cattleman Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) arrive to have young Percy set free, and in the process so too Lonergan.

At this point there is an alien attack and all intergalactic hell breaks loose in the street, and which Lonergan's shiny new bracket falls off his wrist and becomes the weapon of choice to thwart them darn pesky aliens! During this conflagration an alien ship is downed and an injured alien makes an escape, hotly pursued by a posse of men wanting to know what just happened! Meanwhile Lonergan slinks away unseen into the night.

What follows are a series of alien attack set pieces and derring-do as humans and aliens are picked off on either side and often in gruesome bloody fashion. Throughout this Lonergan's memory starts to come back with images of stolen gold, double crossing his gang and perhaps where the aliens are holed up. The aliens it seems are mining gold resources and experimenting on humans to understand their weaknesses and in turn eradicate all human life on planet earth. The aliens are however, not indestructible and can be overcome with Lonergan's bright shiny bracelet thingy, a deftly thrown hunting knife, and a few fatally delivered gun shot wounds. And so it's on for young & old to move the alien varmints outta town and off the planet, and so the gathered posse heads for the hills to find the alien lair and kill or be killed.

Needless to say casualties ensue on either side but in the final analysis it's Humans 1/Aliens 0 and there is butt kicking and plenty of fun to be had as those aliens get their comeuppance. Surviving the onslaught Lonergan walks away free with Dolarhyde Senior and the Sheriff attempting to persuade him to stay and help rebuild the town. Declining the invitation but still a wanted man the Colonel and the Sheriff promise him that they will claim that he was killed in the alien attack, and so Lonergan rides off into the sunset . . . and all is good again, in the Wild West!

This is a good fun, entertaining sub-genre offering mashing up a Wild West yarn with some Sci-Fi hokey-pokey alien shenanigans and certainly worth the price of a ticket! Of course this is now out on DVD and BluRay and whilst it won't go down in history as genre defining, it's a little out of the box and still a little gritty, hard-nosed and rough edged to make it a worthwhile viewing in front of your own small screen at home.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE DARKEST HOUR - archive from 1st February 2012.

Saw 'THE DARKEST HOUR' at my local multiplex last night. Another shoot 'em up Sci-Fi actioner that does have some redeeming features. Directed by Chris Gorak and Produced by Timur Bekmambetov ('Nightwatch', 'Daywatch' & 'Wanted'), this has all the latter Director/Producer trademarks all over it. Set in Moscow rather than the staple New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or San Fran this features a largely invisible alien foe who descend upon our planet and immediately set about vapourising our population to rob us of our natural mineral resources.

A largely unknown cast
except for Emil Hirsch and Rachel Taylor the story surrounds two US tech-savvy geeks - Ben and Sean (Max Minghella and Emil Hirsch respectively) who travel to Russia to promote their new social media/party locating software. When they are betrayed by their Swedish partner Skylar (Joel Kinnaman) the disappear to a club to drown their sorrows and meet up with two young holidaying chicks - Natalie from the US (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne from Australia (Rachel Taylor).

Exiting the club all together they witness strange lights up in the sky which then begin to decend to the ground and disappear. After the commotion a policeman standing close by approaches the scene whereupon he disintegrates, as do a number of other close bystanders. The lights as it runs out are alien beings protected by an almost invisible forcefield.

What follows is a fairly standard cat & mouse game as invading aliens wipe out all human life forms on sight, and the invasion is global. Our four friends duck, dive, bob & weave past oncoming alien attackers, through the rubble that once was Moscow, and into a short lived sanctuary where they learn that these pesky no-good alien varmints can in fact be thwarted by microwaves, and that they cannot see through glass.

Coming across various enclaves of hauled up humans fighting the resistance against said alien interlopers, our four heroes continue to fight and pass on their alien thwarting knowledge to others as they pass through. It all ends with a set piece on some Moscow river with a nuclear submarine parked up ready to take them to safety . . . and hope!!

The alien creature FX are well conceived and convincingly rendered, a post apocolyptic Moscow cityscape is impressively visualised, and the action set pieces are good enough . . . but still it lacks something! A little predictable, the 3D does nothing for it either, and there is plenty of other similar Sci-Fi end of the world alien attack fodder out there to choose from too. Costing US$30M to make it brought in US$65M so was only a modest commercial success but fared less well at the time from the critics. You can catch it now on DVD and BluRay.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BATTLESHIP : archive from 13th April 2012

Saw the Blockbuster Season opener last night - 'BATTLESHIP'. It's a loud, proud, in your face gung-ho all action no expense spared American Navy versus the five badass trespassing Aliens ships lured to our distant planet and then stranded here by a freak collision when one ship collides with a communication satellite . . . and then there were four!




You have to see this spectacle on the big screen - the CGI is impressive; the conversion from Hasbro board game to Hollywood actioner is passable as the battle sequences take place out at sea as you would expect, on land and of course in the air. But why are those pesky aliens here and what do they want - this is a question that only the Lord God Almighty knows because there ain't no time for talkin' when the forces of the US Navy, Army and Air Force are wielding their collective cans of 'whoop ass' at them thar pesky varmint aliens!

As those aliens attempt to phone home and muster reinforcements for their ultimate destruction of our small humble planet, the final set piece moves to Pearl Harbour (how fitting!) and would you believe the USS Missouri is very swiftly recommissioned on the spot to do fierce battle and thwart the intergalactic foe.

Liam Neeson adds gravitas as Admiral Shane, Taylor Kitsch provides the muscle as Lieutenant Alex Hopper, Alexander Skarsgard is brother Commander Stone Hopper, and the eye candy is provided by Rhianna (in her first acting role and passable) as Petty Officer Cora 'Weps' Raikes and Brooklyn Decker is Sam who is the love interest for renegade sailor boy Alex! The alien creatures are well realised and the game tie-in works . . . just about! A thumping soundtrack, the Hawaiian backdrop and the immediacy all make for an enjoyable ride. Mix 'Top Gun', 'Transformers' and 'Predator' and you are just about there!

This film cost a massive US$210M to make and brought in for that investment just US$303M. The film picked up three award wins and thirteen nominations, including a Razzie Award for Rhianna as 'Worst Supporting Actor' and four other 'Worst' nominations in those same 2013 Razzie's. Peter Berg Directed who generally has a reasonable touch with wartime action fare, but I guess it just goes to show that with the best high-octane all guns blazing effects and epic budget you still need a half decent believable story to reel the audience in. When there are others out there that have set the benchmark so high, you gotta be on your game - so I guess it's 'Transformers 1 : Battleship 0'.


-Steve, at Odeon Online-