MINAMATA : Tuesday 8th June 2021.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'MINAMATA' at my local independent movie theatre earlier this week. This US and UK Co-Produced drama film is Directed and Co-Produced by Andrew Levitas who has sixteen Actor credits to his name, twenty as Producer, three as Writer and two as Director, with his previous film making offering being 2014's 'Lullaby' which starred Garrett Hedlund, Richard Jenkins, Anne Archer, Amy Adams, Terrence Howard and Jennifer Hudson. Based on the book of the same name by Eugene Smith and Aileen Mioko Smith, the film saw its World Premier screening at the Berlin International Film Festival back in late February 2020, was released in the US in early February this year, here in Australia last week and not in the UK until early August. It has so far generated mixed or average Reviews. 

Eugene Smith, here portrayed by Johnny Depp who also Co-Produces, was an American photojournalist who lived from 1918 until 1978 and has been described as 'perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay'. His major photo essays include World War II photographs, the dedication of an American country doctor and a nurse midwife, the clinic of Dr Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa, the city of Pittsburgh, and the pollution which damaged the health of the residents of Minamata in Japan.

The film opens up with Gene Smith, living in his rented New York apartment, processing black and white photographic images in his make shift dark room. It is 1971, he's at a low ebb in his life, he's drunk, smokes like a chimney, in debt, hasn't seen his children in years, is compelled to sell his photographic gear and accept an endorsement deal from a photographic film maker even though he has never taken a colour photo, ever, preferring the 35mm black and white medium which has been the mainstay of his career. 

He resorts to snapping away at the locals in his neighbourhood through cuts outs in his blacked out windows, until one day Aileen (Minami), a Japanese woman comes knocking on his door. She is hoping that the famous photographer will be able to assist her in raising awareness of mercury poisoning in the small Japanese town of Minamata, at the hands of chemical manufacturing giant Chisso Corporation that is dumping its toxic chemical by-products directly in to the local water supply. She hands him an envelope, and asks him to take a look.

At first Gene is dismissive, but then later that night when he can't sleep he studies the photographs and scant newspaper articles that Aileen left him earlier in the day, and is convinced that there's a story in there that needs to be told on a worldwide scale and that he should take up the job. He pitches the idea to Robert Hayes (Bill Nighy) the Editor of Life Magazine, and although the pair have worked together for the past twenty-five years, their relationship it seems is on the brink of collapse due to Gene's lack of responsibility and reliability and the mounting pressure on Hayes to keep his magazine relevant with the ever increasing emergence of television. Any way, Hayes, commits to Gene that he can fly to Japan and investigate the matter further, but not to leave him hanging and to report back with photographic evidence within two weeks when the next deadline is up.

Upon arriving in Minamata, Gene and Aileen are almost straightaway confronted with evidence of chemical poisoning - in the bent arms and legs, gnarled hands and deformed facial features of many of the children and adults they come across. Whilst Gene is out with his camera snapping away it quickly becomes apparent that many of the locals don't want to be photographed - probably out of fear of reprisal from the corporate Chisso organisation, on whom many of them are either directly or indirectly dependent for jobs. Later Gene, Aileen and local organiser Mitsuo Yamazaki (Hiroyuki Sanada) gain access to the local hospital where they secretly infiltrate the wards and research labs where many of Chisso Corp. patients are being treated for mercury, and whatever else, poisoning. Whilst there, Gene, with permission from the patients, takes photographs of deformed limbs and faces. 

Later, during a protest staged outside the main entry to the Chisso manufacturing plant, Gene is invited in by the CEO of the company Junichi Nojima (Jun Kunimura) for a tour of the facility and an explanation of exactly what they do there - heavily sanitised of course! Towards the end of the tour, and on an upper catwalk away from prying eyes and ears Nojima hands Gene an envelope containing US$50K to hand over all of his negatives, forget the plight of the locals, and head back to New York no further questions asked by either party. Needless to say Gene tells him in no uncertain terms to go forth and multiply!

A few days later undercover of darkness Gene's makeshift dark room which had been set up by Yamazaki as a near replication of his home dark room back in New York, is torched and all of his prints and negatives are burned to the ground. At that Gene rebels against Aileen and Hayes back in New York whom he calls in a drunken stupor in the dead of night, wakes from his sleep and tells him that he can't carry on, that's he's had enough and that all his images have been destroyed. However, 24 hours later, he returns and asks the gathered locals to help him so that he can help them. He asks them for unrestricted access to their homes and their families to take photographs of their deformed sons and daughters and family members yet done with the utmost respect, care and integrity. They all agree with a unanimous show of hands. 

Come the day of a shareholders meeting at Chisso and some 500 protesters are gathered outside the main gates of the chemical plant, with about fifty having infiltrated the main building and lie in wait outside the meeting room to confront Nojima in the hope of making him see sense and agree to financial compensation. 

Outside the main gates, things escalate quickly as protesters and security guards clash. In the ensuing melee Gene and Aileen become separated and Gene is man handled to within the factory gates and is then punched repeatedly to the face, kicked to the stomach and his hands trodden on. He falls in a heap on the ground. Meanwhile, inside the meeting room, the gathered protesters speak their mind some of which recount their own personal stories of the impact of the mass chemical poisoning which has inflicted their children. Nojima is speechless. After reaching an impasse, Nojima excuses himself to consult with his Financial Manager as to the possibility of monetary compensation, but returns saying there are no funds available and that's the end of it. 

Gene later comes round in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around both arms and hands and across his head covering one eye. A man enters the room whom Gene recognises as the man who beat him to the ground earlier. While trying to shield himself from the possibility of another attack, the man thrusts into his hands a thick package which upon inspection reveals to contain all the negatives and many of the prints believed to have been destroyed when his dark room was torched. Discharging himself from his hospital bed, he and Aileen go back to Minamata and take what is regarded as the centrepiece photograph of Gene's photo essay into exposing Minamata Disease 'Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath' depicting the severe deformation of a child in her mother's arms in a traditional Japanese bath together after the child was exposed to the effects of Chisso's contamination of the water supply. 

Gene sends his collection of black and white photographs to Hayes at Life Magazine just in time to meet the deadline, and the magazine goes to print with his stark images for all the world to see. A copy lands on Nojima's desk, who then finally relents and agrees that his company must pay compensation. In a final scene, the protesters are seen outside a court building rejoicing that they won their case against Chisso, but stating that while the battle was won, the war was not yet over. Afterwards Gene and Aileen were married. Gene died in mid-October 1978 with his injuries sustained in the factory attack being a contributing factor to his passing. 

Johnny Depp is barely recognisable in his portrayal of William Eugene Smith with his grey beard, grey hair, facial blood spots and his gaunt expression brought about by a doubtless poor diet and excessive alcohol and cigarette consumption, but he is right on cue with his performance and about as far removed from any character he has played in quite some time. This is hardly an uplifting film, but neither is its subject matter which Director Levitas plays it as he sees it without too much nuance, subtlety or care for what the viewer may think of the bent contorted bodies seen on screen, or the corporate giant waging a war of denial against the locals over its 34 year long pollution of the water supply. Instead this is clearly a passion project for the Director who himself rose through the art world as a painter, sculptor, and photographer and who here has crafted a story that needs to be told which is at times an emotional heart felt film that pays tribute to Smith and the victims of this tragedy while still being as highly relevant today as it was fifty years ago. And to this end, during the closing credits we are reminded, by way of stills photographs, of the all too many acts of negligent pollution by governments and corporations that have impacted populations around our fragile planet throughout very recent history.

'MINAMATA' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th May 2018.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival which opened on 8th May drew to a close on Saturday evening 19th May. This year, Cate Blanchett acted as the Jury President for those twenty-one feature films competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The opening film was by Iranian Director and Screenwriter Asghar Farhadi with his Spanish language psychological thriller 'Everybody Know's' starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, with the closing film, and screening out of competition, was Terry Gilliam's lifetime in gestation on again off again passion project 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' starring Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver.

The prestigious Palme d'Or was awarded out of twenty-one films in competition to 'Shoplifters' - a Japanese family drama edited, written, and Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Set in Tokyo, this film centres on a family who rely on shoplifting as they cope with a life of poverty, whilst unofficially adopting a seemingly abused homeless girl with the Police beginning a search for the missing child. Beating out the competition in this category were the likes of 'Burning' from South Korea and starring Steven Yuen; 'BlacKkKlansman' from the USA, Directed by Spike Lee and starring Adam Driver, Topher Grace and Harry Belafonte, which took out the second most coveted award - the Grand Prix; 'Everybody Knows' as aforementioned; 'Under the Silver Lake' from the USA and starring Andrew Garfield, Topher Grace, and Riley Keough; and 'The Image Book' a French/Swiss Co-Production Directed by Jean-Luc Godard which won the Special Palme d'Or. Judges for this award also included Ava DuVernay, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve and Andrey Zvyagintsev.

In the Un Certain Regard category this year, in which eighteen films were showcased and overseen by Jury President Benicio del Toro, the Un Certain Regard Award was bestowed upon Swedish drama film 'Border' Directed and written for the screen by Ali Abbasi. This film staved off competition from the likes of 'Angel Face' from France starring Marion Cotillard; 'Donbass' from the Ukraine and the opening film in this selected category; 'The Dead and the Others' from Portugal and Directed by Joao Salaviza and Renee Nader Messora which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize; 'Rafiki' from Kenya; 'Girl' from Belgium; 'Long Day's Journey into Night' from China; 'Manto' from India; and 'Die, Monster, Die' from Argentina.

For more, you can go to : www.festival-cannes.com

This week we have just two new release movies coming to your local Odeon, and they couldn't be more polar opposite if they tried! First up is the second stand alone film in a massive movie franchise spanning now forty years about a young up & coming space cowboy from a galaxy far far away who many of us have grown up with - and this is his origin story. We then have a change of pace and coming back down to Earth, to rural England in the late '50's and one woman's dream of opening her own country book store which is thwarted by many of the local residents who have very different ideas.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the two 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 here cordially invited 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 meanwhile, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY' (Rated MA15+) - described as a 'Space Western' this second film in the Star Wars standalone anthology series follows on the heels of 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' released in 2016 and is set prior to the events in 'A New Hope'. That first standalone instalment was Directed by Gareth Edwards and took in excess of US$1B at the global Box Office off the back of a US$200M Budget outlay. This film Premiered in Los Angeles on 10th May, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 15th May and gets its US release this week too. Filming began in January 2017 under the Directing leadership of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and after almost five months of principle photography were fired from the set due to creative differences. They were replaced by Ron Howard who completed the last four weeks or so of principle photography and about another five weeks of reshoots. Lord and Miller are credited as Executive Producers. Made for a reported US$250M, early Reviews have indicated generally positive press.

This film, as the name implies, centres on a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and his adventures with his Wookie partner, best friend and first mate aboard the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). Also starring Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, a smuggler on the rise and whom Solo meets with for the first time; Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, a criminal and mentor to Solo; Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra, a long time childhood friend of Solo's; with Paul Bettany as crime lord Dryden Vos, and Thandie Newton as Val. Jon Favreau voices Rio Durant, Linda Hunt voices Lady Proxima and Anthony Daniels cameo's as Tak.

'THE BOOKSHOP' (Rated PG) - this British, German and Spanish Co-Production is based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Penelope Fitzgerald and is helmed and Written for the Screen by Spanish Film Director Isabel Coixet. The film Premiered at the Valladolid International Film Festival in Valladolid, Spain in late October last year, has received generally positive Reviews picking up twelve Award wins and a further 32 nominations from around the film festival circuit and so far grossing US$3.5M in Box Office receipts. Set in the English coastal town of Hardborough, in Suffolk in 1959, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) a middle aged widow, decides to open a book shop in 'The Old House', a rather dilapidated damp abandoned old residence that's said to be haunted by numerous ghosts. After much local opposition and many sacrifices, she eventually opens the doors on her bookshop which goes well for the first year and then sales begins to wane. Edmund Brandish (Bill Nighy), a local, is Florence's best customer and meanwhile Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson) also wants The Old House in which to set up an Arts Centre. What ensues is a political minefield spearheaded by Gamart's nephew, an MP, that Florence must navigate through if she is to preserve her beloved book shop, or succumb to local pressures that may leave her little choice but to move on.

With just two new release films out 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-

THEIR FINEST : Wednesday 3rd May 2017.

'THEIR FINEST' which I saw mid-last week is Directed by Lone Scherfig and based on the Lissa Evans 2009 book 'Their Finest Hour and a Half'. The film was first screened at TIFF in September last year, and had its US release in early April and its UK and Australian release toward the back end of April. The film has received generally positive critical Reviews, but this has yet to materialise in hard dollar return on its US$39M budget investment.

This WWII drama film is a film within a film as The British Ministry of Information set about making a morale boosting propaganda film about the evacuation of Dunkirk during the Battle of Britain and Hitler's devastating bombing raids on London. Set in a 1940 war torn London, we are first introduced to screen writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) as he stands eating hot chips out of a newspaper wrapping while watching a film about the British war effort in a packed cinema. But the audience are paying little attention, and laughing at the on screen antics that they should be taking seriously. Such is the quality of the acting, the film-making and the messages being conveyed.

We then move to Welsh lass Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton), an out of work Secretary who is summonsed to the Ministry of Information to attend for an interview to help write script for short information films to be played at cinemas across the land in between the main features. She lives with her husband Ellis Cole (Jack Huston) a moody artist who is unable to gain work or an exhibition for his paintings of dark industrial Britain, and who avoided the conscript due to an old Spanish Civil War leg wound. They are unable to pay the rent, so she accepts the gig at the Ministry for two pounds a week, but Ellis belittles Catrin's contribution and threatens to send her back to her home to the Welsh valley's under the smokescreen of protecting her from the Blitz. Needless to say, Catrin will have none of this and stands firm in her determination to take the job and the money that goes with it.

Quickly proving her worth, Catrin is promoted by Roger Swain (Richard E. Grant) the Head of Film at the Ministry of Information to work on a British propaganda film that shows 'authenticity and optimism' to the audience, and designed to lift the spirits and the hearts and minds of the British public at a time when they needed it the most. Catrin's role is to write the 'slop' - the women's dialogue that will appeal and be understood by a largely female audience. Her skills with dialogue and story telling catch the attention of Tom Buckley, who also works as a writer at the Ministry. He takes her under his wing to help work on a feature film about two sisters who supposedly helped rescue wounded British soldiers home from Dunkirk in their drunken fathers ramshackle steam boat across the English Channel back to Southend. Catrin visits the sisters for research purposes and discovers that the alleged 'true' story is subject to some poetic licence, and has to make a decision to report back the fact, or the fiction. She opts for the latter - after all, why let the truth get in the way of a good story!

Fairly soon the two writers aided by Raymond Parfitt (Paul Ritter) as another writer are frantically tapping away at their typewriters devising the foundation of the story, the dialogue, the dramatisation and the characters. They sign up ageing dapper screen lothario Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) much to his disgust having usually played romantic leads but now assigned to a supporting drunken uncle role described as 'a shipwreck of a man, sixties, looks older'. He initially rejects the offer to his Agent Sammy Smith (Eddie Marsan), but when Sammy is killed in an air raid, he is convinced by sister Sophie (Helen McCrory) to take the gig in the absence of anything else, and she becomes Hilliard's new Agent.

Filming starts on the propaganda film down in Devon, and then the team get a summons to attend the Ministry of War offices in London. There they meet with the Secretary of War (Jeremy Irons) who orders the crew to write in a part of an American to give the film an appeal to a US audience. Furthermore, the Secretary has just the man for the job - a very photogenic American-Norwegian fighter pilot Carl Lundbeck (Jack Lacy) who was great in silent films but can't act in the talkies to save his life!

With the Director, the Producers and the Scriptwriters besides themselves over Lundbeck's hamfisted attempts at dialogue, Catrin's persuades Hilliard to give Lundbeck on the run acting lessons in return for enhancements to his role, so saving the picture.

During the location shoot Catrin and Buckley start to develop a fondness for each other, that culminates in him asking her to marry him. Buckley has learnt from another crew member that Catrin isn't in fact married to Ellis, but has taken his name out of propriety. Catrin refuses, and the pair argue.

When shooting returns to London for final studio filming, Catrin has had chance to cool off and spends the evening during an air raid rewriting the closing scenes of the film, and penning a note to Buckley with her change of heart. She leaves the finished script and her letter on Buckley's desk. The next day in the studio Catrin and Buckley share a moment of passion together out of view from the rest of the cast and crew. Buckley found the finished script and says she nailed it, and her letter too. Just when you thought of the happily ever after, a freak accident occurs that has far reaching ramifications for the couple, and which you would never have seen coming.

As the film draws to a close we see Catrin sneak into a packed cinema to see the fruits of her efforts up on the big screen. The film is a huge success and has struck the right chords with its target audience. She is persuaded by Hilliard to write the next screenplay for a film he is being pitched for and for which he has an idea of a character outline - a cat burgling air raid warden. Catrin sits down at her typewriter and begins to tap away with the seed of another film script slowly maturing.

This is a feel good film with just the the right amount of war torn London horrors and emotional upset to keep it real, grounded and believable. Underpinned too by some standout performances most notably from Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy, with Jeremy Irons, Eddie Marsan and Jack Lacy all doing well with the little screen time they have. The film within a film structure allows for all the levity and WWII era filmmaking quirks, tricks and smoke & mirrors camera work that adds an authenticity to this offering and is delivered by a sharp intelligent script, witty dialogue, solid acting all round and a message of the female inequality of the era being overcome by working women out of necessity.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 6th - 12th December 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Bill Nighy does on 12th December - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy, turning 66, 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 6th December

• Judd Apatow - Born 1967, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Nick Park - Born 1958, turns 57 - Director | Producer | Writer | Animator
• JoBeth Williams - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actress | Producer

Monday 7th December

• Ellen Burstyn - Born 1932, turns 83 - Actress
• Nicholas Hoult - Born 1989, turns 26 - Actor
• Jeffrey Wright - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor

Tuesday 8th December

• Dominic Monaghan - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actor | Producer
• Rick Baker - Born 1950, turns 65 - Make-up Artist | Special Effects Designer | Actor
• Kim Basinger - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actress
• Teri Hatcher - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress

Wednesday 9th December

• Judi Dench - Born 1934, turns 81 - Actress
• Kirk Douglas - Born 1916, turns 99 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• John Malkovich - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Beau Bridges - Born 1941, turns 74 - Actor | Producer | Director

Thursday 10th December

• Kenneth Branagh - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Xavier Samuel - Born 1983, turns 32 - Actor

Friday 11th December

• Hailee Steinfeld - Born 1996, turns 19 - Actress
• Mo'Nique - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer | Writer

Saturday 12th December

• Jennifer Connolly - Born 1970, turns 45 - Actress
• Paula Wagner - Born 1946, turns 69 - Producer
• Bill Nighy - Born 1949, turns 66 - Actor

William Francis Nighy was born in Caterham, Surrey, England to mother Catherine Josephine Whittaker, a psychiatric nurse, and father Alfred Martin Nighy, the manager of a car garage and former family chimney sweeping business owner. He was raised a Roman Catholic, and served as an alter boy. He attended the John Fischer School in Purley where he first took part in the school theatre group, and from where he graduated with two O'Levels in English Language and English Literature. Working as a messenger boy for The Croydon Advertiser, he later trained at the Guildford School of Acting.

Nighy made his stage debut in London at the National Theatre in 'Illuminatus' which first opened in 1977. His first small screen appearance came with the weekly television police force drama series 'Softly, Softly : Taskforce' in 1976 with three episodes on 'Play for Today' from 1978 to 1982. From that point on there has been regular television work throughout the years up until the present day with the likes of appearances on 'Minder', the acclaimed 'The Men's Room' in 1991, 'Bergerac', 'Peak Practice', 'Wycliffe', 'Kavanagh QC', 'State of Play', 'The Girl in the Cafe', 'Gideon's Daughter' and more recently the Worricker trilogy with Nighy playing the lead role of Johnny Worricker in 'Page Eight', 'Turks & Caicos', and 'Salting the Battlefield'.

His radio career is also worthy of mention. In 1981 he played Samwise Gamgee in 'The Lord of the Rings' BBC Radio dramatisation, and then there was the BBC Radio versions of the successful 80's television political satire series 'Yes, Minister' and the acclaimed 'Kerton's Story' and for BBC 4 'Baldi'.

In between television, radio and an increasingly busy film schedule there has also been notable stage appearances with The National Theatre again, including Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' and then Joe Penhall's 'Blue/Orange' for which he picked up an Olivier Award nomination for his performance.

Nighy's big screen debut came with an uncredited bit part in Joan Collin's 'The Bitch' in 1979, and another uncredited role in 'Death Watch' a year later, and the television movie 'Little Lord Fauntleroy', also uncredited that same year. His first credited film role came alongside Donald Sutherland in 1981's war time spy drama 'Eye of the Needle'. 'The Curse of the Pink Panther' followed in 1983 as Directed by Blake Edwards and with an all star line up including Moore, Niven, Wagner, Lom, Loggia and Lumley. The 80's saw out with 'Mack The Knife' and 'Phantom of the Opera'.

A bunch of television series and made for TV movies occupied Nighy in the early part of the 90's with the Robin Williams vehicle 'Being Human' being his first big screen role that decade in 1994. After some lesser fare he gained recognition for 1998's 'Still Crazy' as ageing Rock Star Ray Simms. 'Guest House Paradiso' followed in 1999 with Adrian Edmonson and Rik Mayall to see out the decade.

'Blow Dry' saw in the 2000's in 2001 with Alan Rickman and that same year the award winning 'Lawless Heart' and then 'Lucky Break'. But, it was playing an ageing Rock Star again that really helped establish his film career in 2003 with 'Love Actually', as Directed by Richard Curtis, and again featuring an all star cast. 

This was followed by vampire offering 'Underworld' in which Nighy world play Viktor alongside Kate Beckinsale - a role he would reprise in 2006 in 'Underworld : Evolution' and again in 2009 in 'Underworld : Rise of the Lycans'. After this came 'Shaun of the Dead', 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', 'The Constant Gardner' and then in 2006 his first appearance (albeit almost unrecognisably) as Davy Jones in 'Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest' with a further reprisal of his character a year later in 'Pirates of the Caribbean : At World's End'.

'Notes on a Scandal' came next in 2006 with Blanchett and Dench, 'Hot Fuzz' with Pegg and Frost again, 'Valkyrie' with Cruise and Branagh, 'The Boat That Rocked' with Seymour Hoffman and Frost once more, and 'Glorious 39' with Redmayne and Lee seeing out another decade.

2010 delivered 'Wild Target' and a role in the first concluding film in the 'Harry Potter' series, and then in 2011 the popular 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' which he would reprise in 2015's 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'. This was followed up by 'Wrath of the Titans', the reboot of 'Total Recall', then 'Jack the Giant Slayer', another outing for Richard Curtis in 'About Time', then 'I, Frankenstein' and 'Pride'.

Next up there is 'Dad's Army' due in early 2016, 'Okja' in pre-production for 2017, 'Payne & Redemption' and 'Their Finest Hour and a Half' both currently filming for later on in 2016, and 'Norm of the North' in post-production. Nighty has lent his voice talents also to numerous other films including 'Flushed Away', 'Astro Boy', 'Rango', 'Arthur Christmas', and for numerous video games. All up Nighy has 129 Acting credits and he has won one Golden Globe for 'Gideon's Daughter' in 2007 and has been nominated twice more. He has two BAFTA wins for 'State of Play' and 'Love Actually' both in 2003 and another nomination. Plus, there are another twelve award wins and a further 18 nominations.

For 27 years Nighy shared a relationship with English Actress Diana Quick with whom they have a daughter Mary, born in 1984, and also an Actress. The couple split on good terms in 2008.

Bill Nighy - Actor of stage, television, cinema, radio, video and audio; has played the dead, the living dead, comedy, drama, romance and rockers and often does so with a palid gaze, deadpan one liners, a menacing stare and perfect timing. Clearly busy beyond belief Bill, but why let up now when you're so far ahead and still so sought after, and when your audience keep buying tickets. Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

RANGO : archive from 20th March 2011.

With my young lad I saw 'RANGO' this afternoon as Directed and Produced by Gore Verbinski at a cost of US$135M. This animated action comedy Western feature went on to gross worldwide US$246M and along the way picked up the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Animated Feature Film together with another 44 award wins and 22 nominations.






With an all star line up lending their considerable voice talents there is lots to like about this film. Johnny Depp is Rango, a pet chameleon who lives a life of action and adventure, in his own mind, but when confronted with real life action & adventure when his owner loses him in the Mojave Desert and he winds up in the isolated town of Dirt, he must learn quickly to stand out from the crowd rather than blend in as a chameleon does. He meets up with armadillo Roadkill (Alfred Molina)  - who is searching for the mythical 'Spirit of the West', and iguana Beans (Isla Fisher) who join Rango en route to Dirt.

When he arrives at Dirt, Rango presents himself as a tough drifter and promptly has a run in with a Gila monster Bad Bill (Ray Winstone) but avoids a shoot out confrontation when Bad Bill is scared off by a sweeping vicious red tailed hawk. The resulting fracas sees the hawk dispensed with, which in turn leads to the town Mayor - a desert tortoise named Tortoise John (Ned Beatty) - electing Rango as the new Sheriff. There is however, anxiety amongst the townsfolk now that the red tailed hawk has been thwarted, believing that local gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) will return to do no good!

Dirt it is believed is a dusty dry desert dirt bowl of a town low on water reserves that one night gets robbed, to which Rango is an unwitting accomplice at the hands of a mole named Balthazar (Harry Dean Stanton). The next day with their precious little water supply gone Rango mounts a posse to go in search of the robbers and reclaim their water. After a chase through a canyon the robbers are caught but the water is gone!

Returning to Dirt the robbers are set to stand trial, but Rango has discovered that the Mayor has been buying up large tracts of land nearby, but the Mayor denies any wrong doing, instead claiming his intentions to build a new city to give them all hope, and a future. The Mayor though has a hidden agenda and so enlists Rattlesnake Jake to run Rango out of town. In the process Rango is humiliated and must confess that his high plains drifter image was a front to win favour. Turning his back on Dirt and its townsfolk he meets up with the mythical Spirit of the West (Timothy Olyphant) whom Rango pegs as The Man with No Name. The Spirit inspires Rango to return and finish what he started.

Teaming up with Roadkill again, Rango heads back into town but learns along the way that the towns water supply is being controlled by the Mayor by way of an emergency shut-off valve in the pipeline between Dirt and Las Vegas. Rango calls to Rattlesnake Jake for a shootout creating a diversion so that his assembled buddies can turn on the water supply, flood the town and free the wrongly accused robbers yet to stand trial.

Things though don't go quite according to plan and Rango and Beans are captured and thrown in the banks vault which when flooded will result in their demise. The Mayor turns on Rattlesnake Jake because he represents the Old West and he has plans for a New West that doesn't involve the low down snake. Luckily though the gun that the Mayor took from Rango is empty - the only bullet taken by Rango as a means of escape from the bank vault. As the flood comes so the Mayor and his men are washed away, Rattlesnake Jake is saved, Rango and Beans escape, Dirt is saved and refreshed with a new water supply, and Rango is hailed a hero.

This is a very entertaining and engaging film that features top notch animation that just gets better with every such creature feature. Watch out for the nods to others classics - 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'Mad Max', 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas' etc . . . see how many you can spot! Catch it now on DVD, Bluray or download - you won't be disappointed, and, it's a film for kids of all ages - young & old!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-