THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN : Wednesday 12th October 2016.

The psychological thriller drama 'THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN' which I saw in the week is based on the best selling book of the same name by British author Paula Hawkins. The book was Hawkins debut, and it remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 13 weeks upon release in early 2015, and by August this year had sold eleven million copies worldwide. Now coming to a big screen near you, the book has been adapted for the big screen by Erin Cressida Wilson and Directed by Tate Taylor (who most recently brought us the James Brown bio-pic 'Get On Up' and before that 'The Help') for a budget of US$45M, and having so far taken US$50M since its premier in London in late September and its US release on 7th October.

Starring Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson (the girl on the train!) - a divorcee with a drink problem who left her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) after she caught him cheating on her with their real estate agent Anna Boyd (Rebecca Fergusson). Before their marriage came to an end, we learn through various flashbacks that Rachel was prone to getting into the drink after which she would invariably black-out with little recollection of the events that occurred during her drunken stupor. It would take her husband to recount her antics after the fact, and she claims that this led to their separation, Tom drifting off the matrimonial path with another, plus the fact that she is unable to bear children.

She travels to and from work every day on a train, always sits by the window and gazes out as she passes her former home that Tom now occupies with his new wife Anna and their young daughter Evie. She is bitter, as she drinks from her water bottle that is secretly filled with gin or vodka, and doodles pencil drawings in her note book. Tom's neighbours are Scott and Megan Hipwell (Luke Evans and Haley Bennett respectively) who seem to have the perfect, loving, caring marriage that Rachel fantasises about to the point of obsession from the window of her passing train. The reality is however, something quite different, as Scott is controlling, aggressive and the typical Alpha male, whereas Megan is detached, resentful and carrying on with various other men behind Scottt's back - including her shrink - Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez).

One day however, en route to work gazing out of her window seat she witnesses something suspicious and shocking - Megan and Abdic kissing and embracing on the balcony of her home, which turns her image of their prefect life into a tailspin. How could Megan do such a thing, how could she betray her loving husband, and who is that man she was with? After another day on the turps, she confronts Megan on the way home from work in a tunnel under the railway line, only to wake some hours later in her room covered in blood and with no memory of how she got there, the cause of the blood, the head injury she has sustained and the bruising to her upper body.

Subsequently it is made known that Megan is missing and is later presumed dead. Rachel is questioned by Detective Sergeant Riley (Allison Janney) who suspects that she may be covering something up because of her recent activity, including allegedly stalking her ex-husband and his new family, harassing them with incessant phone calls, and that she was actually fired from her place of work a year ago because of her drinking problem, despite the fact that she travels into 'work' everyday on the train, masquerading that she is still gainfully employed. Rachel claims she has no memory of any events surrounding the time of Megan's disappearance and whilst the Detective remains unconvinced, she needs evidence . . . which she doesn't have.

Rachel, approaches Scott under the guises that she and Megan were friends and that Megan confided in her about an affair, to which Scott puts two and two together and determines that the other man is Abdic. Rachel identifies Abdic as the man she saw on the balcony earlier with Megan. Rachel then schedules an appointment with Abdic and speaks to him of her failed relationship with Tom and her drunken actions at an office party hosted by his boss Martha (Lisa Kudrow) that resulted in him getting fired.

Later, having another martini before returning home, gradually Rachel has flashbacks of that evening in the tunnel. She returns to that same place and has visions of Anna and Tom in the tunnel and shouting abuse at Anna before being set upon and beaten up at which point she blacks out. Anna becomes increasingly suspicious of Rachel after seeing her in the neighbourhood several times and in close proximity to her former home, but the Detective dismisses these thoughts on the grounds again of needing hard evidence, and Tom too downplays that Rachel could have any involvement in Megans's disappearance.

Megan's partially decomposed body is found later on in the woods and it is determined in the autopsy that she was pregnant but the baby was neither Scott's or Abdic's. Scott therefore becomes a prime suspect and confronts Rachel with his knowledge that the two in fact had never met, and that Rachel was conspiring against him. He's not happy and he vents his anger on Rachel, but leaves before any real harm is done. Later, Rachel runs into Martha on the train and decides to confront Martha with an apology for her behaviour at that ill fated office party that led to her then husband Tom being fired. Martha is rather taken aback by her apology stating that her behaviour had nothing to do with it - she fell ill and was taken into a back room to recover - all perfectly innocent and acceptable. The reason why Tom was fired was because he 'couldn't keep his dick in his pants'. At this point it dawns on Rachel that Tom was manipulating her memories for his own gain and to cover up for his abuse of her, and not the other way around as she has believed all this time.

Anna meanwhile has become increasingly suspicious of her husband Tom, and tries to hack into his computer but fails repeatedly. She finds an old mobile phone in his brief case with voice mail messages and text messages to and from Megan. Anna deduces that Tom was in fact having an affair with Megan, who used to babysit for Tom and Anna until a short time ago before Megan broke off the arrangement rather abruptly, much to Anna's surprise at the time. Rachel comes to realise that Megan was in fact pregnant with Tom's baby and that Megan had told Abdic this news in confidence, and what she saw on the balcony that day was misinterpreted by her. More memories come flooding back to Rachel who now has clarity of vision about what happened in the tunnel that evening.

It seems that Rachel mistook Megan for Anna that evening in the tunnel, as she was walking towards Tom's car parked at the other end. It was Tom that beat up Rachel, which fuelled with alcohol caused her to black out, before driving off with Megan in his car. At this point they drive to the woods where Megan confronts Tom with the news that she is pregnant with his child. Tom is enraged and commands that Megan aborts the pregnancy as not only does he not want another child but can also ill afford another child, and he does not want the news of their affair surfacing. Megan is perplexed at this news and they argue, resulting in Tom physically shoving Megan off her feet causing her to fall backwards knocking her head on a rock. In a state of semi consciousness, Tom finishes off the job with a few well aimed blows to the head with another rock. To see how Tom gets his comeuppance you'll just have to see for yourself.

I was expecting more from this film I have to say. It jumps around all over the place, which I understand is the format of the book, but it makes for disjointed viewing here. Aside from Emily Blunt's performance, the remaining cast as strong as they are, are very one dimensional and difficult to warm to. There are parallel's here to be drawn with 'Gone Girl' which is a far superior film. If you have read the book then doubtless you'll flock to the movie theatre to see how the pages transfer to the big screen, but, you can wait to see it on your own small screen in the comfort of your own home on a Friday night with a pizza and a bottle 'o' red and save yourself the price of a ticket. The film has some redeeming features, most notably Blunt's performance as the downtrodden alcoholic neurotic fantasising voyeur, but the rest is fairly predictable and ho-hum!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN : Sunday 25th September 2016.

I caught an advance screening of Antione Fuqua's Directed 'THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN' at my local multiplex on Sunday evening four days before its official Australian release date. The inspiration for this film and its Old West predecessor from 1960 came from the 1954 Akira Kurosawa Directed, Co-Written and Edited Japanese historical drama adventure epic titled 'The Seven Samurai' set in 1586 during the Warring States Period of Japan. Telling the story of seven Ronin hired to defend a village of farmers from rogue bandits intent on stealing their valuable crops following harvest, the film went onto to be critically lauded and has appeared on numerous Greatest Films Lists ever since, and has been highly influential and often remade and reworked. In 1960 John Sturges Directed and Produced 'The Magnificent Seven' based on that Kurosawa story, but set his film in the Old West in Mexico where a band of seven gunslingers are hired to defend a village from a group of marauding bandits. Now fifty-six years later Fuqua has remade 'The Magnificent Seven' for a whole new audience likely to be unfamiliar with Kurosawa's inspirational film, or the Sturges Americanised version upon which this 2016 offering is based. Made for US$108M the film premiered at TIFF earlier this month, was the closing film at the Venice Film Festival and was released Stateside last week.

The story here has changed little in this Fuqua rendition. This time however, the action takes place not in Mexico but in some remote mining town three days ride from Sacramento, called Rose Creek. Here the simple townsfolk are besieged by a local heavy handed, ruthless and uncaring industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) intent on mining the area for gold and taking over the Rose Creek land by all and any force necessary. In an attack on the townsfolk by Bogue and his henchmen after breaking into a meeting held in the town church, the husband of Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) is killed together with various other innocent townsfolk just minding their own business and wanting a quiet life. Bogue very generously and graciously offer each family $20 for their house and land package, and if they refuse, he'll be back in two weeks to take it anyway!

Emma Cullen rides out with her good friend Teddy Q (Luke Grimes) to the nearest town to find some support to help defend Rose Creek from Bogue's pending return. There by chance they come across Sam Chisholm (Fuqua's go to man, Denzel Washington, dressed all in black just as Yul Bryner's character, Chris Adams, in the 1960 film version of the same film), a grizzled war weary bounty hunter who initially refuses Cullen's request, but relents when he learns that it is Bogue creating such a stink.

And so Chisholm, Cullen and Q head back for Rose Creek, and along the way recruit six other guns for hire, all with a shady past, but each in possession of a particular set of skills that might just serve them well for fighting a small army of Bogue's men. First to join the throng is poker gambling whiskey swilling cigar chewing gunslinger Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt). They in turn meet up with ex-Confederate sharpshooter soldier with 23 confirmed kills Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his sidekick the Asian knife wielding assassin Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee). They happen across skilled trapper and a God-Fearing bear of a man Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio) and then Mexican on-the-run outlaw with nothing to lose Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), before joining up with native American-Indian and ostracised Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier).

Later the seven ride into Rose Creek only to be greeted by a posse of Bogue's men headed up by his #1 standover enforcer guy McCann (Cam Cigandet). There's a standoff and some resultant gun play in which all of Bogue's men are killed, leaving McCann and the local Sheriff who is on the take from Bogue, still alive but ordered to ride out and tell Bogue to return in person to do his own dirty work. In the meantime, the seven conclude that they have about a week in which to ready the town, arm themselves, train the townsfolk how to shoot to kill, and prepare themselves before Bogue comes riding into town with his small army.

Over the course of the next week plans are hatched, preparations are made, and the good people of Rose Creek ready themselves for the imminent onslaught. Ditches are dug, explosives laid, traps set, and cover made all in an attempt to give them their best chance against Bogue. At this point Robicheaux gets cold feet as he is hiding some inner Demons about his days of killing on the battlefield, and bids Chisholm farewell under cover of night, saying that his fighting days are behind him. The seven are now down to six, but Cullen steps up to the cause.

The next morning at dawn, Bogue and his army of two hundred or so hired soldiers ride over the hill overlooking Rose Creek. Despite their laid traps, explosive charges, element of surprise and best efforts, there are severe casualties on all sides. When Bogue looks as though his army has been overcome, he rolls out a Gattling Gun and systematically tears the town to shreds with a full magazine of bullets and then another, killing more townsfolk and his own men in the process. Taking a last stand Faraday mounts his horse and rides out to where the Gattling Gun is positioned and with a stick of dynamite sacrifices himself to destroy the gun and the remainder of Bogue's men. In the meantime, Robicheaux who returned warning Chisholm about the Gattling Gun, Rocks and Horne have also been killed in the attack.

Bogue and his two remaining henchmen make for the town to finally mop up. Two are quickly dispensed by Chisholm, leaving Bogue to face off against Chisholm outside the burnt out remains of the towns Church. Chisholm shoots Bogue in the hand and then the leg, and limping into the Church seeking sanctuary and last minute forgiveness, Chisholm recounts to Bogue that he and his men raped and murdered his mother and sisters a few years back, and now it's pay back time. In the process Bogue reaches for a small pistol secreted away in his boot, but not before Cullen shoots Bogue dead from the door of the Church, saving Chisholm. In the closing scene Chisholm, Red Harvest and Vasquez ride out of town passing the four crosses marking the burial sites of their fallen colleagues, who have been hailed as legends by Cullen and the towns people.

In summary there is little new to see here. The plot is the same as for the films predecessors except that it has been updated for a new audience raised on stylised violence, big body counts, fast gun play and political correctness. The seven consist of a black dude, an Asian dude, a Mexican dude, a native American Indian dude, a God-Fearing bible bashing dude, a hard drinking and smoking gambling dude, and a dude fighting his inner Demons who all come to the rescue of a damsel in distress - all demographics are covered here. And all the Western cliches are there too - close ups of squinted eyes in the sun, cigar chewing bad guys, hands poised menacingly over holstered guns, the saloon scene where a tall dark stranger enters, bad guys getting shot off rooftops, the local undertaker doing great business with his pine boxes lined up outside his shop in readiness for the next stiff . . . it's all there, and then some! On the one hand it is good to see the Western genre getting some mileage but how about something fresh and original rather than simply dusting off a classic and rehashing it again for the sake of a new audience. The film has so far recouped US$42M and it is entertaining enough but predictable and we've seen it all before, and better!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-