SEND HELP - Tuesday 3rd February 2026.

I saw 'SEND HELP' at my local multiplex cinema this week, and this American survival horror film is Co-Produced and Directed by Sam Raimi whose previous feature film making credits take in the likes of 1981's 'Evil Dead', 'Evil Dead II' in 1987, 'Darkman' in 1990, 'Army of Darkness' in 1992, 'The Quick and the Dead' in 1995, 'A Simple Plan' in 1998, 'The Spider-Man' trilogy in 2002, 2004 and 2007, 'Drag Me to Hell' in 2009 and 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' in 2022. This film saw its Premiere screening in Los Angeles, California in mid-January and was released here in Australia and the US last week, having so far grossed US$33M from a production budget of US$40M and generating largely positive critical reviews.

Meek and mild mannered corporate financial strategist Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) looks forward to a long-deserved promotion to the position of Vice President promised by her former boss who has recently passed away, and who bestowed great value upon the work that Linda undertook for his company. His son Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien) is obliged to honour the promotion upon becoming CEO of his family's financial management company. Bradley has however, already given the promotion to Donovan Murphy (Xavier Samuel), his old college buddy who dresses like he's a Gordon Gekko wannabe! He intends to have Linda transferred to a dead-end position out of disgust for her boorish manner, lack of self-confidence, unattractive appearance, and the fact that she has an odour about her. 

When Linda protests against Bradley's decision, in order to appease her somewhat he asks her to accompany him, Donovan and two other executives on a business trip to Bangkok to finalise the company's impending merger. While flying through a storm over the ocean in the company's private jet, Donovan humiliates Linda by playing a self made audition tape she recorded for the popular reality TV game show'Survivor USA', showcasing her extensive practical survival skills. The plane suffers engine failure, begins to break up and lose altitude. A panicking Donovan, who in fear of getting sucked out of the plane through a gaping hole ripped out of the side of the aircraft, attempts to strangle Linda with her seat belt demanding she give him her seat. In the ensuing struggle, Linda reaches for a fork that has tumbled with a set of cutlery from the galley, and stabs him with it, causing him to recoil in pain, let go and in turn slide out of the plane, before impacting with the water, exploding and quickly sinking. Linda fumbles with her seatbelt as the plane sinks, but manages to free herself and swim to the surface. 

Linda comes round the next morning washed up on a remote island somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand. She finds Bradley with a badly injured leg, but no other survivors. Linda puts together a shelter and forages for food and water. Bradley remains unconscious for about a day and a half, and when he comes round he accepts her help, but reverts back to manager and employee mode by barking orders at her. Linda responds by abandoning him for two days where he is unable to move because of his injured leg, exposed to the hot sun, and has nothing to drink or eat. Just as he collapses from thirst, Linda returns and gives him water. Bradley remains defiant and eventually tries to build his own camp. When his efforts fail, Bradley swallows his pride and allows Linda to boss him around. Sometime later while she is out exploring and gathering food supplies, she observes a boat sailing nearby offshore, but avoids attracting attention of the occupants, wishing to remain on the island, saying to herself that she's not ready to leave yet.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Linda gradually becomes stronger, more attractive, and confident, while teaching Bradley some essential lessons on how to survive in the wild. One night while sharing homemade fruit wine, Linda confesses to Bradley that she was married for ten years to a man who abused her until she allowed him to drink heavily and drive, resulting in his death in a road traffic accident. Seemingly moved, Bradley offers to repay Linda by cooking dinner for her the next night. He spikes the food with poisonous berries and attempts to flee on a makeshift raft, leaving Linda to die on the beach. The raft is however, destroyed in the waves, and Bradley is sucked under the big swell. Linda, partially recovered due to Bradley's miscalculating the poison dose, is able to save him from drowning, but vomits profusely all over his face as she attempts to revive him.

Linda paralyses Bradley with Blue Ringed octopus venom and pretends to castrate him as punishment, saying that with her career effectively over, she has nothing to return home to. Bradley finally accepts that the power dynamic has shifted and relinquishes all hope of escape. While harvesting fruits, Linda is surprised by the arrival of Bradley's fiancee Zuri (Edyll Ismail), who has hired a boat to rescue them, and has spent weeks searching the islands for any signs of his life. Fearing her new life will be ruined, Linda lures Zuri onto a narrow ledge of rocky cliff and pushes her and the boat captain off to their deaths. Haunted by the murders, Linda feigns sickness and allows Bradley to go out to hunt alone, whereupon he finds Zuri's hand sticking out of the sand wearing her unmistakeable diamond engagement ring. 

Distraught, Bradley runs back full speed to confront Linda about his find. Linda admits to Zuri's murder. Bradley tries to kill her. A brutal hand-to-hand fight follows, with Linda suffering a partially gouged eye before stabbing Bradley in the side. He flees and comes across a luxurious beach house on the other side of the island. Easily gaining entry he finds the fridge fully stocked with champagne and water amongst other things. Linda follows and monitors Bradley's movements through the house on the CCTV security monitoring system. She admits to having known about the house, and says that it must be owned by some Wall Street billionaire. She emerges and aims a shotgun at Bradley. Begging for his life, Bradley claims that he has changed and being alone on the island with her has taught him some valuable life lessons. He goes on to say that he now loves Linda and wants to stay with her on the island forever, before grabbing the shotgun, pointing it at her and pulling the trigger, twice, only to find it unloaded. A brief scuffle ensues, resulting in Linda beating him to death with a golf club.

A year later, and Linda has been rescued, and is a wealthy businesswoman after usurping control of the Preston family company. She is interviewed at a celebrity golf tournament about the upcoming film adaptation of her best-selling memoir, in which she claims to be the only survivor of the plane crash. Linda drives away with her pet cockatiel, singing along to Blondie's 'One Way or Another' - her favourite song of all time.

With 'Send Help' Director Sam Raimi has pulled out of his box of tricks a film that has his trademark thrills, jump scares, plenty of bloodletting and puking, emotion and wry humour to keep you entertained for this films 113 minute runtime. All the while, grounded by O'Brien's and McAdams performances of the shifting dynamic of ruthless boss and hapless employee, with the latter well and truly turning the tables on the former, and rising like a phoenix to claim what was rightfully hers in the first place - and then some! This film is a mix of 'The Office' and 'Castaway' with horror elements thrown in and thrills aplenty - you won't be disappointed!

'Send Help' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AMERICAN ASSASSIN : Tuesday 17th October 2017

'AMERICAN ASSASSIN' which I finally got around to seeing earlier this week is an action thriller based on series of books written by Vince Flynn, with 'American Assassin' being published in 2010. Although it is not the first book in the series of sixteen so far, rather the eleventh, it is a prequel novel that establishes Mitch Rapp as the main character cementing his back story and how he ultimately comes to be an undercover CIA Counter Terrorism Agent. Rapp's primary focus is uncovering and undermining terrorist attacks on the US, and he is an aggressive, opinionated Agent prepared to take measures that are more extreme than might be usually deemed commonly acceptable. His ongoing frustration with procedures, policy and red tape is a major theme throughout the entire series. Vince Flynn died in June 2013 aged 47, and ongoing books in the series are written by Kyle Mills. Antoine Fuqua was originally brought on to Direct, when CBS acquired the movie rights to the series of books back in 2008. Then Edward Zwick was announced to Direct, then Jeffrey Nachmanoff and finally Michael Cuesta, who delivers this film released in the US and Australia in mid-September at a budgeted cost of US$33M having taken as at mid-October US$55M. The lead character of Mitch Rapp was originally offered to Chris Hemsworth back in 2012 for US$10M but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Then came along Gerard Butler, Matthew Fox and Colin Farrell with a much younger Dylan O'Brien being offered the gig in 2016.

And so this origin story potentially setting up a film franchise (think 'Jason Bourne' and 'Jack Reacher') introduces us to Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) who was orphaned at the age of fourteen when his parents were killed tragically in a car accident, and who in later years proposes marriage to his girlfriend only for her to be gunned down and killed moments later in a beachside Islamist terrorist attack somewhere on the Spanish coast. We then fast forward eighteen months, and now at the age of 23 Rapp is seeking revenge, and has been in training ever since that fateful day waiting to come face to face with the terrorists responsible.

Rapp uses his apartment as a makeshift gym to train hard and get super fit. He also uses it to frequent an Internet message board linked to the terrorist cell responsible for his girlfriends death. He is repeatedly quizzed about his knowledge of Islam and jihad to test his resolve to join forces with the cell in opposition of the US oppressor. He is granted a face to face meeting with the terrorist leader in which he aims to single handedly take out the cell - such has been the extent of his own self-training and preparedness over the last year or so. He arrives in Tripoli, is blindfolded and taken to a secret meeting point where he is tied to a chair. His blindfold is removed and his girlfriends killer sits in front of him. Before he can execute his own plan, the terrorist killer is shot through the head and US Special Forces descend on the building wiping out all those terrorist types in attendance. Rapp is angered by the fact that he was denied the opportunity to exact his vengeance out on the terrorist leader himself and repeatedly stabs the lifeless body before being man handled outta there by US soldiers.

Next we cut to a CIA Safe House in which Rapp has been holed up for questioning and observation for thirty days. Here Deputy CIA Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) recognises Rapp's particular set of special skills which she describes as being 'off the chart' and as such a prime candidate for a Black Op's unit codenamed Orion.

Rapp is assigned to further training in the back woods of Virginia at the hands of former US Navy SEAL Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) who is also a veteran of the Cold War, and well versed in all matters relating to covert operations, Black Op's, and deadly close quarter combat. He spends the following weeks training Rapp and other recruits in his ways - some of which succeed while many fall by the wayside and don't have what it takes.

Meanwhile, word filters down through intelligence channels to Kennedy and her superior, Director Thomas Stansfield (David Suchet) that weapons grade nuclear material has gone missing from a decommissioned Russian nuclear facility. The nuclear material appears to be en route to Iranian militants, who are none to pleased with their government's nuclear deal with the U.S.

Meanwhile, in a busy city square somewhere in Poland hiding in plain sight, while finalising the sale of the nuclear material, the plutonium is intercepted by a third party, who eliminates the sellers before disappearing into the crowd. Back in Virginia, Hurley sees television news footage about the incident in Poland and identifies the perpetrator as a former Navy SEAL and Orion operative believed to have been killed in action and now going by the codename 'Ghost' (Taylor Kitsch). Hurley's team, with latest recruit Rapp, is sent to Turkey to intercept the buyer 'Ghost' is working for.

In Istanbul, looking to conduct a quick sting operation to capture the buyer, Hurley's team now also joined by a deep undercover Orion Agent named Annika (Shiva Negar) is rumbled, and the attempted intercept of the all important trigger device is foiled. Rapp chases the buyer to his apartment, and after thwarting his bodyguard kills him too, and removes his laptop computer. The information they are able to download leads the team to Rome, where they identify the nuclear physicist necessary to craft the nuclear material into a functional nuclear device. While in Rome, Rapp comes to realise that Annika is an Iranian foreign agent. She tries to explain that she is working for the mainstream Iranian faction attempting to stop the hardline militants from acquiring nuclear capability, but is taken into CIA custody, and seen now as a threat. During a meeting between Hurley and an Iranian contact (Annika's uncle), Ghost ambushes them, kills the contact and captures Hurley.

At a CIA safe house in Rome, Annika is being moved under guard by two agents when Rapp intercepts the car she is travelling in and frees her. Recognising that with Hurley now captured the mission is now compromised and handed over to the CIA to work through, and his services are no longer required. However, Rapp has his own rebellious plans, and so working with Annika they locate the makeshift subterranean nuclear laboratory that Ghost and his team are using to complete the nuclear device. After secretly securing access to the tunnels, Rapp locates and frees a badly injured Hurley having been tortured by Ghost using a vice, a blowtorch, a pair of pliers and live electrical current.

In an explosion engineered by Rapp, Ghost is able to effect his getaway with the now armed nuclear device having taken out all of his team that weren't killed by the explosion. Annika is, however, captured by Ghost and she kills herself with his gun before he escapes onto a boat with the now counting down nuclear device. Based on an earlier conversation, Hurley deduces that Ghost intends to make a suicide attack against the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet which are engaged in exercises somewhere off the coast, based on his desire to die at sea.

Just as Ghosts boat is leaving the dockside, Rapp chases after it and leaps onto the deck. The two are engaged in close quarter hand to hand combat while being tossed about the cabin below deck as the boat gathers speed across a choppy sea. Eventually good overcomes evil and Rapp kills Ghost, leaving Rapp in control of a speeding boat with an armed nuclear weapon on board, and no way of disabling it. By now Hurley has been picked up by Navy helicopter and is following Rapp from the air. The Sixth Fleet are under orders to prepare for a nuclear detonation. Hurley, using a loudhailer calls down to Rapp to toss the nuclear device overboard, as they all stand a better chance of survival if the explosion occurs underwater. Rapp does so, and with a thirty or so second count down Rapp is airlifted onto the helicopter with Hurley, and off they fly in the opposite direction. Within seconds the nuclear device detonates causing a massive tsunami that inundates the Sixth Fleet ships, although they all mostly survive the blast to sail another day.

This is a fairly pedestrian by the numbers spy type thriller that we have seen executed just as well, if not better, hundreds of times before, usually by a gentlemen named Jason, Jack, James or John (read Bourne, Reacher, Bond and Wick respectively). The action when it comes is fast paced and well executed; but the plot treads familiar boards; the relationships between Rapp, Hurley and Kennedy are by the book; and it becomes all too predictable as it wears on. O'Brien and Keaton give solid enough performances and at well under two hours running time the film doesn't outstay its welcome. Given the closing scene of this film, and the fact that there are another fifteen books in the series so far, it is likely that we haven't seen the last of Mitch Rapp.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DEEPWATER HORIZON : Wednesday 5th October 2016.

I caught at an advance screening last week of 'DEEPWATER HORIZON', which for those who don't know, was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea the rig was leased to the British Petroleum Company (BP) from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 10,700m in the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 400kms southeast of Houston, in 1,300m of water. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an uncontrollable blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 65kms away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing oil at the seabed and causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. The oil spill that resulted continued until 15th July 2010 when it was finally capped off. Subsequently, BP have made it known that they have had to pay of US$55B in clean up costs and fines and that aside from themselves, Halliburton, the services contractor, and Transocean as the rig operator were also at fault.

This film charts that story as Directed by Peter Berg and made for US$156M that takes place in the Gulf of Mexico with the events leading up to that massive human, social, ecological and financial disaster. Starring Mark Wahlberg as chief electrician and oil rigger Mike Williams (whom Peter Berg has Directed previously in 'Lone Survivor' and the upcoming 'Patriots Day') who returning from some family time with his wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and ten year old daughter Sydney (Stella Allen) is looking at a three week shift on the Deepwater Horizon rig. He helicopter's in from the mainland, a journey that takes about 45 minutes, and upon arrival before he has even had time to get changed out of his civvies, he is thrust into an argument about rig safety tests and all the equipment malfunctions and maintenance requirements that need urgent attention. This sets the scene for the disaster that is to come a few short hours later!

Arriving with other shift starters there is Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) as the only female on the crew, Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) as the rig's chief supervisor and a couple of corporate type executives from BP Head Office arriving for a show & tell of the rigs operations and to determine why the drilling programme is 40+ days behind schedule at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Soon afterwards we are introduced also to Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien) as the rig's youngest crew member, and Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) as the BP engineer and rig supervisor, all joining the 120 or so crew members on board the rig.

Straight away it is clear that there are some hostilities between the guys on the rig employed to drill for oil and supervise the proceedings and ensure everything runs tightly and safely, and the suited and booted executives who are chasing their Profit & Loss statements, and asking questions of the financial kind. The executives don't like hearing the truth about safety concerns and inadequate testing regimes, when they have to answer to their superiors back in London. With drilling set to commence, Harrell seeks a test to check on the integrity of the cement casing of the seabed rig which the BP executives give the all clear for, but Harrell is adamant he wants the test. As so a 'negative pressure' test is conducted which initially causes concerns but Vidrine provides a scientific explanation for which Williams and Harrell find plausible. Still not satisfied that everything is as it should be, a second test is ordered which proves positive and so an order is given to commence drilling operations.

Williams and Harrell go about their business - Williams connects with his wife via a Skype call and Harrell freshens up in the shower, after being presented with a safety award and a bottle of Scotch for his exemplary safety record. By now the evening is wearing on. At 9:45pm during the last stages of drilling an exploratory well, a geyser of seawater erupted from the marine riser onto the rig, shooting over seventy metres into the air and up the rig. This was soon followed by the eruption of a slushy combination of drilling mud, methane gas, and water. The gaseous element of that slushy mixture quickly formed into a fully gaseous state and then ignited into a series of explosions that tore through the rig and its living quarters. The resultant firestorm quickly took hold ripping out vital technical, safety and communications infrastructure and killing several men in the process.

Whilst all hands seek to escape the firestorm and head for the lifeboats, Williams recovers from being blown backwards in the explosion but protected by a door that falls across him. Harrell, was showering when the explosion ripped through his quarters and he is semi-conscious, naked, covered in broken glass and shrapnel, and blinded. Williams searches him out, and together they make it to the Bridge amidst ongoing explosions all around the them and the collapse of the rigs infrastructure, where Fleytas is alerting the Coast Guard and Vidrine has just arrived looking the worse for wear too. With power fluctuating, Williams agrees to make an attempt to fire up the emergency generators with the help of a volunteering Holloway. After several attempts they succeed for long enough for Harrell to operate a kill switch so detaching the drill from the rig, and to reposition the rig itself. The final defence to prevent an oil spill, a device known as a blind shear ram, was also activated but failed to plug the well.

As moments tick away the majority make it to the life boats to be picked up by a nearby vessel that has been stationed close by to take on board all the mud sludge pumped up as a by product of the drilling process. In the end this leaves just Williams and Fleytas on the fiercely burning rig that is rapidly disintegrating all around them in balls of flame, big explosions and twisted metal. The surrounding sea is also ablaze, and so the two need to make it to the helipad to be sure of a clear jump into the sea below and so avoiding being engulfed by flame. After some hesitation on Fleytas part, Williams man handles her off the rig and into the boiling sea below - to be picked up moments later and taken to safety.

We then cut to the next day with the survivors from the rig all holed up in a hotel with a media frenzy going on around them. Williams, Harrell, Holloway, Vidrine, and Fleytas made it out alive luckily, thanks largely to the bravery of Williams, but eleven men were less fortunate. Williams breaks down emotionally in his hotel room and is comforted by Felicia and Sydney, before making his exit from the hotel. On his way out he meets Harrell, stitched and bandaged up and now visibility restored, and he exchanges knowing glances with Holloway too.

Here Wahlberg plays the grounded everyman thrust into extraordinary circumstances to help rescue some of his co-workers while his family and the world watch on as ultimately the Deepwater Horizon  disappears into the ocean into a deep fiery grave. Featuring a top cast who do not overplay the heroics, top notch effects and a story that is a believable, authentic telling of human courage in the face of adversity writ large. For a relatively short running time of under two hours, the action when it come is immersive, gripping and well executed. It takes you right into the centre of the action as though you, the viewer, are there back then on April 20th 2010. See it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed, and well worth the price of your ticket.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-