What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 13th January 2022.

And so the 2022 award season has officially launched following the postponement of the American Film Institute Awards on 7th and the Critics Choice Awards on the 9th January due to the ongoing ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the 79th annual Golden Globe Awards were held on January 9th honouring the very best in film and American TV from 2021 and as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This year, the awards are marred by controversy as various media outlets including regular US broadcaster NBC, Netflix, Amazon, WarnerMedia, Actors, and other creatives planned on boycotting the ceremony over the HFPA's lack of action to increase the membership diversity of the organisation. The HFPA still went ahead with a ceremony behind closed doors. This marked the first time since the 36th Golden Globe Awards in 1979 that there was no telecast, and the 65th Golden Globe Awards in 2008 that there was no traditional ceremony. 

This years winners, grinners and also rans in the feature film categories are as given below :-

* Best Motion Picture, Drama - presented to The Power of the Dog, beating out Belfast, CODA, Dune and King Richard. 

* Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - awarded to West Side Story, beating out Cyrano, Don't Look Up, Licorice Pizza, and Tick, Tick . . . Boom!.

* Best Motion Picture, Animated - presented to Encanto beating out Flee, Luca, My Sunny Maad and Raya and the Last Dragon.

* Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language - awarded to Drive My Car from Japan, beating out Compartment No. 6  from Finland, Russia and Germany, The Hand of God  from Italy, A Hero from France and Iran, and Parallel Mothers from Spain.

* Best Director, Motion Picture - presented to Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog, beating out Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter, Steven Spielberg for West Side Story and Denis Villeneuve for Dune.

* Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama - awarded to Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos, beating out Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, Lady Gaga for House of Gucci and Kristen Stewart for Spencer.

* Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - presented to Rachel Zegler for West Side Story, beating out Marion Cotillard for Annette, Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza, Jennifer Lawrence for Don’t Look Up and Emma Stone for Cruella.

* Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture - awarded to Ariana DeBose for West Side Story beating out Caitriona Balfe for Belfast, Kirsten Dunst for The Power of the Dog, Aunjanue Ellis for King Richard and Ruth Negga for Passing.

* Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama - presented to Will Smith for King Richard, beating out Mahershala Ali for Swan Song, Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog and Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth.

* Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - presented to Andrew Garfield for 'Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, beating out Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up, Peter Dinklage for Cyrano, Cooper Hoffman for Licorice Pizza and Anthony Ramos for In the Heights.

* Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture - awarded to Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog, beating out Ben Affleck for The Tender Bar, Jamie Dornan for Belfast, Ciaran Hinds for Belfast and Troy Kotsur for CODA.

* Best Screenplay, Motion Picture - awarded to Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, beating out Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog, Adam McKay for Don’t Look Up and Aaron Sorkin for Being the Ricardos.

* Best Original Score, Motion Picture - presented to Dune by Hans Zimmer, beating out The French Dispatch by Alexandre Desplat, Encanto by Germaine Franco, The Power of the Dog by Jonny Greenwood and Parallel Mothers by Alberto Iglesias.

You can get the full low down on all the recipients and nominees of this years Golden Globe Awards in both the movie and television categories, by visiting the official website, at : https://www.goldenglobes.com/

Turning attention back on this weeks four new release movies, we launch with a biopic that tells the true story of how a pair of sibling tennis superstars became who they are after the coaching from their determined father. Next up is a spy drama about a top-secret weapon falling into mercenary hands, and so a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who's tracking their every move. This is followed up by an Aussie survival thriller that tells the story of two men who uncover the biggest gold nugget ever found in the harsh Australian desert, who must then find a way to extract the nugget from the ground. And we close out the week with the fifth film in a slasher franchise that is set twenty-five years after the original series of brutal murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and a former resident and survivor must return to uncover the truth.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or 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 RICHARD' (Rated M) - this is an American biographical drama film Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green whose feature film debut came with 'Monsters and Men' with John David Washington in 2018 which he followed up in 2020 with 'Joe Bell' with Mark Wahlberg. The film was originally scheduled for release in late November 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year and was released in mid-November 2021 Stateside in cinemas and on HBO Max. Having garnered largely critical acclaim, this has failed to materialise into Box Office receipts, having taken so far US$27M off the back of a production budget of US$50M. 'King Richard' has so far picked up twenty-one award wins and a further eighty-four nominations from around the awards and festival circuit, with many of those nods still pending a final outcome. 

Based on the true story, this film follows the journey of Richard Williams (Will Smith), an undeterred father instrumental in raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time, who will end up changing the sport of tennis forever. Driven by a clear vision of their future and using unconventional methods, Richard has a plan that will take Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton) from the streets of Compton, California to the global stage as legendary icons of the tennis world. Also starring Jon Bernthal and Dylan McDermott. Will Smith also Co-Produces here with both Venus and Serena Williams serving as Executive Producers. 

'THE 355' (Rated M) - is an American spy film Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Simon Kinberg whose only other directorial credit is 'Dark Phoenix' (of the 'X-Men' franchise) in 2019. He has however, written and/or produced numerous other mainstream pictures taking in 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'X-Men : Days of Future Past', 'The Martian', 'Deadpool', 'X-Men : Apocalypse', 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'The New Mutants'. Originally slated for a release in mid-January 2021 the film was delayed by a whole year to mid-January 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving up by a week to 7th January in the US and this week in Australia. The film cost in the region of US$70M to produce and has so have recovered just US$2M following mostly negative or average Reviews. When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason Brown (Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival German agent Marie (Diane Kruger), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Lupita Nyong'o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Penelope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan), who is tracking their every move. As the action takes us around the world from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the opulent auction houses of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world, or get them killed. Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez and Jason Flemyng also star. In case you were wondering, 'The 355' derives its name from the codename of a female spy for the Patriots during the American Revolution between 1765 and 1791. 

'GOLD' (Rated M) - this Australian survival thriller film is Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced and also stars Anthony Hayes who has ninety screen acting credits to his name and five as Director taking in his debut feature in 2002 with 'New Skin' and then 'Ten Empty' in 2008, with 'Stingray' due for a future release. Filmed in South Australia, this tells the story of two men (Zac Efron and Anthony Hayes) who stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever discovered while travelling through a remote desert. The two men hatch a plan to protect and excavate the nugget with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment to pull it out of the earth. The other man remains and must endure harsh desert conditions, preying wild dogs and mysterious intruders, whilst battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his own fate. Also starring Susie Porter. 

'SCREAM' (Rated MA15+) - is an American slasher film Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett whose previous film making credits take in 'The Devils Due', 'Southbound' and 'Ready or Not'. It is the fifth instalment in the 'Scream' film series which began in 1996 and which over the first four films grossed US$605M off the back of combined production budgets of US$118M. Though billed as a relaunch of the film series, the film is a direct sequel to 2011's 'Scream 4' and the first in the series not to be directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Set twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, California, a new killer wears the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past. The film stars franchise newcomers Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, and Jack Quaid, with Marley Shelton, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, and Roger L. Jackson reprising their roles from previous instalments.

With four new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DANGER CLOSE : THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN - Tuesday 13th August 2019.

'DANGER CLOSE : THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN' is an MA15+ Rated Australian Vietnam War film, which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed by Kriv Stenders whose previous film making credits include 'Red Dog', 'Kill Me Three Times', 'Red Dog : True Blue', 'Australia Day' and the made for TV movie remake of 'Wake in Fright' most recently. Made for US$35M the film charts the story of of the Battle of Long Tan on 18th August 1966 which took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tan, in South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. The action was fought between the Viet Cong and People's Army of Viet Cong units and elements of the 1st Australian Task Force, with both sides claiming victory in the aftermath. The operation had ended by 21st August. The film has garnered mixed Reviews since its release last week. The term 'danger close' is a military term which refers to close air, artillery, mortar, and naval gunfire support and is included in the method of engagement of a call for supporting fire from a distance which indicates that friendly forces are within close proximity of the target.

As the film opens up it is mid-August 1966 with career officer Major Harry Smith (Travis Fimmel) of Delta Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, on operation in Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy Province in South Vietnam. He is distracted from writing a letter presumably to his wife and young family back home somewhere in Australia, by mortar and rocket attacks on his camp in the early hours of the morning. Smith we soon learn is an ex-Special Forces man, and is seemingly done with babysitting green, still wet behind the ears young conscripts from Australia and New Zealand most of whom are no older than twenty-one years of age.

Smith ventures into the tent of his commanding officer Brigadier David Jackson (Richard Roxburgh) seeking a transfer to the frontline and his former regiment but his request is given short shrift and instantly rejected, instead sending him out the next morning to locate enemy positions. Before he goes, Smith calls in to his tent a recently arrived and cocky private, Paul Large (Daniel Webber), and quite literally almost throttles him, for inadvertently firing off a single round from his rifle while on watch that night, and therefore running the risk of revealing their location.

Other soldiers including Sergeant Bob Buick (Luke Bracey) command more respect from Smith than the young Private, and as soon as Smith separates the company into patrolling scouting platoons, Buick finds himself under fierce enemy gunfire and in command, pinned down with a useless shot out radio. Meanwhile, the men on patrol are all mightily hacked off because they're missing out on a concert back at base camp featuring the specially flown in none other than Col Joye (Geoffrey Winter) and Little Pattie (Emmy Dougall) who all have to be flown out pretty damn quick smart when the ensuing exchange of mortar bombs and gunfire gets a little too close for comfort.

The story then goes back and forth tracing the skirmishes between four separated and isolated platoons all coming under intense gunfire from a relentless enemy while attempting to establish radio contact with each other; their HQ base where Brigadier Jackson and his subordinate officer Lieutenant Colonel Colin Townsend (Anthony Hayes) argue over whether to dispatch reinforcements which would potentially leave their HQ base exposed to attack; and a crew of artillery men overseen by Bombadier Ray Ngatai (Uli Latukefu) manning short range mortars and responding to shit scared radio operators in the field with coordinates with which to bomb the advancing enemy forces with pin point accuracy and so preventing our boys from being overwhelmed.

There's an air of disobeying orders that seems to be a recurring theme throughout the film. Tensions between Smith and Private Large come to an apex when Smith calls down an artillery bombardment on Buick's position as they face off against overwhelming Viet Cong odds, and, when the dust has settled and the platoon are all presumed dead Large shoves his commanding officer to the ground, enraged that he could give such an order. Smith, in turn, refuses an order to withdraw from Lt. Col. Townsend because it would mean leaving his men behind and as far as Smith is concerned it's one in, all in! Lt. Col. Townsend in turn refuses a direct order from Brigadier Jackson to remain at the camp and safeguard it against enemy attack, instead making a secret getaway to aid those succumbing to an ever advancing Viet Cong in the final contact. And six men make a swift getaway in two helicopters during a monsoonal downpour while risk getting shot down to deliver much needed back-up ammunition to Smith and his men, much to the chagrin of Townsend and Jackson. 

And so as the final battle of Long Tan rages over almost four hours of monsoon drenched blood and guts in a rubber plantation on 18th August as 108 largely inexperienced, Australian infantry men fight for their very existence against almost overwhelming odds, and a 1000+ strong battle hardened and relentless Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers that advance in wave after wave. With their ammunition running out, their casualties mounting and the enemy amassing for a final assault, the whole thing came to an abrupt climax just as night was falling, when a fleet of armoured personnel carriers came barrelling through the woods three hours after the bloody battle had begun and ninety minutes after Smith had requested reinforcements. With their machine guns blazing, the Vietnamese fled, those that didn't perish in the rapid gunfire that is.

The next day, the men are seen clearing the Long Tan battlefield of their dead and wounded and taking a roll call of the survivors. We learn that eighteen Australian soldiers were killed during those intense four hours but casualties on the Vietnamese side ran into the many hundreds, with three taken prisoner. However, both sides claimed victory that day. Smith is told by one of his subordinates that he should head back to HQ for a debrief, but he stoically replies with no, I'm staying . . . to aid in attending to his men - the living, the wounded and the dead.

As the end credits roll, we learn that in May 1968 the members of Delta Platoon were awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation for gallantry by Lyndon B Johnson for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy. South Vietnam awarded them the equivalent. The Australian military hierarchy however, took until 2016 to fully acknowledge the actions of the soldiers by honouring for the first time ten men and upgrading awards for the three previously honoured - an act of vindication lobbied for twenty years by Smith himself.

'Danger Close : The Battle of Long Tan' is probably the most significant Australian battle of the Vietnam War, known by the soldiers who were down in the mud that day clinging to their lives, by their families and loved ones, and by those others serving on the periphery, but to those back home in Australia and watching from much further afield, it has little or no significance in reality. However, don't let this fact detract you from seeing this film, which will no doubt please the veterans from that intense firefight that finally after some fifty years their story has finally been told, and with a high degree of accuracy with the real Major Harry Smith, now aged 86, consulting to the film throughout the production process. Kriv Stenders has here crafted an authentic looking film with Queensland's Gold Coast studios and hinterland towns doubling up as the Vietnamese jungle, the staged battle scenes are intense and effectively realised, and the performances are grounded and believable. This film reflects pure and simply the Australian perspective of Long Tan, and does nothing to portray the faceless yet relentless Vietnamese enemy, the reasons for being there, and the conflicts, disputes and interpretations aired subsequently by the Vietnamese as to their numbers of soldiers who fought and their subsequent body count remains a subject of some conjecture. Some of the dialogue and the emotional heft behind it is by the numbers, and exactly as to be expected from a film such as this, but nonetheless this is a movie that needed to be told and should resonate with audiences as an accurate account of a telling moment in Australian war time history. Also starring Stephen Peacocke, Matt Doran, Alexander England, Nicholas Hamilton, Aaron Glenane and Lasarus Ratuere.

'Danger Close : The Battle of Long Tan' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-