THE BATMAN : Wednesday 3rd March 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'THE BATMAN' at an advance screening earlier this week. This much-hyped highly anticipated American superhero film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, and is a reboot of the Batman film franchise. The film is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Matt Reeves, whose previous film making credits take in 'Cloverfield' in 2008, 'Let Me In' in 2010, 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' in 2014 and 'War for the Planet of the Apes' in 2017. Development began after Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) in 2013. Affleck signed on to Direct, Produce, Co-Write, and star in 'The Batman', but had reservations about the project and dropped out. Reeves took over and reworked the story. This film saw its World Premier screening in London on 23rd February and gets a worldwide release from this week having been delayed twice from an initial June 2021 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film cost somewhere in the vicinity of US$190M to produce, and has a running time of just a few minutes shy of three hours. This film is intended to be the launch pad for a Batman shared universe, with two sequels planned and two spin-off television series in development for HBO Max.

On the evening of Halloween, Gotham City Mayor Don Mitchell Jnr. (Rupert Penry-Jones) is at home watching himself on the TV in earlier coverage of his debate with Mayoral candidate Bella Real (Jayme Lawson). He is talking anxiously on the phone. His family are out trick or treating. Lurking in the shadows directly behind him, and unseen is a masked figure who pounces upon Mitchell inflicting several fatal blows to his head with a steel carpet tucker, and then wraps his head in gaffer tape and inscribes 'No More Lies' on his face with a red pen. He also cuts off his thumb, which it is deduced was done before he died. Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) who has been operating for the past two years or so in Gotham as the masked vigilante Batman investigates the murder scene with Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) of the Gotham City Police Department. Gordon discovers that the murderer, known as the Riddler (Paul Dano), has left a cryptic message for Batman, but GCPD Commissioner Pete Savage (Alex Ferns), gives Gordon a hard time for allowing the Batman onto the crime scene, and forces him to leave. Later, the Riddler kills Savage and leaves another message for Batman. 

Batman and Gordon discover that the Riddler left a USB stick in Mitchell's car with his thumb attached to it (a thumb drive) which contained images of Mitchell with a woman, Annika, at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub operated by mobster Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) lieutenant Penguin (a heavily made up and unrecognisable Colin Farrell). Batman questions the Penguin, who claims to know nothing, but notices that Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), Annika's roommate and girlfriend, works there as a waitress. He follows Selina to question Annika, but she disappears. Batman persuades Selina to go back to the Iceberg Lounge to search for answers. Through Selina, Batman learns that Savage was on Falcone's payroll, and so is District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) who is seen at the club with a bunch of co-workers living it up. Selina shuts down visual and aural contact when Batman presses her about her relationship with Falcone.

The Riddler abducts Colson just as he steps into his car having left the Iceberg Lounge and promptly straps a time bomb to his neck. Bruce Wayne attends the funeral of Mitchell, and sends Colson crashing through the church at the wheel of his car sending bodies in all directions. Wayne rushes to the aid of Mitchell's young son to get him out of harms way. The Police descend on the vehicle and order the driver out of the vehicle. Out steps Colson, with ticking bomb strapped to his neck, with another message for Batman taped to his chest. When Batman arrives at the scene, the Riddler calls him via Colson's phone which is taped to his hand, and threatens to detonate the bomb if Colson cannot answer three riddles within two minutes. Batman gives the answers to the first two to a panicked Colson, but Colson refuses to answer the third—name the informant who gave the GCPD information that led to a historic drug bust ending mobster Sal Maroni's very lucrative business. As a result, the bomb explodes after the two minute deadline is reached. 

Batman and Gordon come to a conclusion that the informant may be the Penguin and track him to a drug deal. There they discover that Maroni's operation never actually ended and many GCPD officers are in fact involved. Selina inadvertently exposes them when she arrives to steal a stash of cash. As the Penguin flees behind the wheel of his car, Selina discovers Annika's corpse in a car boot. Batman captures the Penguin after chasing him in the Batmobile but comes to the conclusion that he was not the informant.

Batman and Gordon follow the Riddler's clues to the ruins of an former orphanage operated by Bruce's parents Thomas and Martha. They learn that the Riddler was a resident at the orphanage and holds a grudge against Thomas, and as Thomas is dead, the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Bruce's butler and caretaker, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), is hospitalised after opening a letter bomb addressed to Bruce. The Riddler then leaks evidence to the media claiming that Thomas, who was running for Mayor when he was murdered, hired Falcone to kill a journalist for threatening to reveal embarrassing details about Martha's history of mental illness. Bruce, who grew up believing his father was a good upstanding man, confronts Alfred when he comes round in hospital. Alfred confirms that Thomas asked Falcone to intimidate the journalist, but decided to turn Falcone over to the Police after learning of the journalist's murder - he surmises, without clear proof however, that Falcone had Thomas and Martha killed to prevent this.

Selina later advises Batman that Falcone is her father and that he neglected her for much of her life, and especially after her mother died when she was eight years old. She learns that Annika was killed because Mitchell told her that Falcone was the informant, and as a result is determined to kill him. Batman and Gordon arrive at the Iceberg Lounge in time to stop her and arrest Falcone, but the Riddler shoots him dead from a nearby building, as he is being escorted to a waiting patrol car. The Batman quickly runs up to the Riddler's apartment, and gets a tip off that a man was seen running down a fire escape immediately after the shot rang out, and is now sitting in a cafe across the street. Unmasked as forensics accountant Edward Nashton, the Riddler is locked up in Arkham State Hospital. Batman visits Nashton who reveals that he knows that the Batman is Bruce Wayne and that he was envious of the sympathy Bruce received after his parents' murder. Whilst they both grew up as orphans their lives couldn't have been more different, with Bruce living a life of privilege while he lived in abject poverty. While he was ignored, he harboured a desire to partner with Batman and become a similarly masked vigilante. Batman angrily rejects Nashton and discovers back at his apartment that the Riddler had parked seven car bombs around Gotham, all located strategically to detonate at the same time and to breach the city's defensive sea walls. 

The bombs destroy the sea walls around Gotham and rapidly flood the city. In the resultant chaos, Batman and Selina prevent a Riddler-inspired gang from assassinating Mayor-elect Bella Real. As Batman begins to aid the recovery efforts, Selina asks Batman to leave the city with her as she now deems Gotham beyond saving, saying that the Bat and the Cat has a nice ring to it, but Batman declines her offer saying that he has much work to do in trying to clean up Gotham. She leaves on her motorbike, with Batman following closely behind on his, and when they come to an intersection, they go in opposite directions. Meanwhile Nashton is beside himself in his jail cell because his plan failed. But a voice from a neighbouring cell tells him not to be so down on himself as Gotham loves nothing more than a good underdog story as the pair begin to laugh menacingly. That other inmate is assumed to be the Joker (Barry Keoghan in cameo and credited as 'unseen Arkham prisoner').

'The Batman' is an enthralling captivating detective story that melds good old fashioned police work with our caped crusader Superhero. It's dark, bleak, gritty and grim and seemingly always raining in Gotham City which only serves to add a sense of tension to the films key scenes. Here Matt Reeves has crafted a fresh take on an all too familiar Superhero that has seen over the last thirty years Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder helm various Batman instalments with varying degrees of success. Robert Pattinson is well cast as The Batman and the fractured emotionally torn Bruce Wayne, and he is ably supported by Paul Dano whose turn as the maniacal Riddler is right on point, while Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman adds kick-ass heft as Batman's reluctant foil, and would be love interest. With two further instalments to come, it will interesting to see where Reeves and Pattinson take us on Batman's next journey and whether the pairing can go one better than what they have been able to achieve here. See it on the big screen, and be prepared to remain glued to your seat for three hours, which like most critical reviews, is my only gripe about this film when thirty minutes less would have been prefect. 

'The Batman' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE FRENCH DISPATCH : Tuesday 14th December 2021.

I saw the 'THE FRENCH DISPATCH' at my local independent cinema earlier this week. This M Rated anthology comedy film is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Wes Anderson whose previous film making credits take in his feature length debut with 'Bottle Rocket' in 1996, then 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', 'The Darjeeling Limited', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', 'Moonrise Kingdom', 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'Isle of Dogs'. It was set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May 2020, and get a wide release on 24th July, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was cancelled and the film was pulled from the schedule in early April 2020. The film was rescheduled for release in mid-October 2020, before being pulled from the schedule again on 23rd July 2020 for an indefinite period. Eventually the film saw its World Premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-July this year, and was released in the US in late October. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and has thus far grossed US$41M exceeding its production budget of US$25M.

A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper - Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun - in the fictional 20th-century French city of Ennui-sur-Blase, that brings to life a collection of stories published in 'The French Dispatch' where Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), the editor of the newspaper dies suddenly of a heart attack. According to the wishes expressed in his will, publication of the newspaper is immediately suspended following one final farewell issue, in which three articles from past editions of the paper are republished, along with an obituary. 

After a cycling tour of the city of Ennui-sur-Blase by reporter Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) in which he guides us through some of the history, the colourful personalities, and the key locations including the arcade, pick-pockets alley, and a noted cafe comparing each place and the residents therein to the past and the present day and observing that whilst so much has altered, just how little has changed over the years in his beautiful city, we see Howitzer critiquing Sazerac's report, while the latter tends to his bicycle. 

The Concrete Masterpiece

J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), a writer and staffer at The French Dispatch, is seen giving a lecture at the art gallery of her former employer, Upshur 'Maw' Clampette (Lois Smith), in which she goes into fine detail about the career of Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro). Rosenthaler, is a mentally disturbed artist serving a sentence in the Ennui prison for a double murder. Allowed out of his straightjacket he paints an abstract nude portrait of Simone (Lea Seydoux), a prison officer with whom he develops a close relationship. Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody), an art dealer also serving a sentence for tax evasion, is so impressed by the painting that he offers to buy it despite Rosenthaler's reluctance. Upon his release, Cadazio convinces his family of art exhibitors to put it on display, and Rosenthaler soon becomes a sensation in the art world. Rosenthaler, however, struggles with inspiration, and devotes himself to a long-term project. 

Fast forward three years and Cadazio, his uncles Nick and Joe (Bob Balaban and Henry Winkler respectively), Clampette, Berensen, and a bunch of artists inspired by Rosenthaler, all frustrated at the lack of further artworks, bribe their way into the prison to confront him, only to discover that his masterpiece is in fact a series of ten frescoes painted onto the concrete wall of the prison hall. Angered that the paintings cannot be removed from the prison, Cadazio and his delegation gets into a physical altercation with Rosenthaler and the other inmates, but soon appreciates the paintings for what they are, and later arranges for the entire room to be airlifted out of the prison into a private museum in Kansas, owned by Clampette. For his actions in halting a prison riot that breaks out during the reveal of the paintings, Rosenthaler is released on probation.

Revisions to a Manifesto

Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) a journalist for The French Dispatch, reports on a University student protest breaking out in the streets of Ennui that soon escalates into what becomes known as the 'Chessboard Revolution'. While the revolution initially is inspired by petty concerns over access to the girls dormitory, the traumatic military conscription of one student, Mitch-Mitch (Mohamed Belhadjine), leads to more stringent protests. The students’ cause spreads to the working class folk of Ennui.

Despite her insistence on maintaining 'journalistic neutrality', Krementz has a brief romance with Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet), the self-appointed leader of the uprising, and in secret helps him write his manifesto while they are in bed together, and adds an appendix. Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), a fellow revolutionary, is unimpressed with his manifesto. After they briefly express their disagreement about its contents and the appendix, Krementz tells the two to 'go make love', which they do. A few weeks later, Zeffirelli is killed while trying to repair the tower of a revolutionary pirate radio station, and soon a photograph of his likeness becomes symbolic of the movement. Years later, Krementz adapts the story of Mitch-Mitch’s conscription, and Zeffirelli and Juliette’s relationship, for a stage play.

The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner

During a television interview, Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) recounts the story to the interviewer (Liev Schreiber) of his attending a private dinner with The Commissaire of the Ennui Police Department (Mathieu Amalric), prepared by legendary Police Officer and acclaimed Chef Lt. Nescaffier (Stephen Park). The dinner is disrupted when the Commissaire's son Gigi (Winston Ait Hellal) is kidnapped and held for ransom by the criminal underworld of Ennui, led by a failed musician called The Chauffeur (Edward Norton), who is demanding the release of an underworld accountant called 'The Abacus' (Willem Dafoe), who possesses their combined financial records. 'The Abacus' is in a solitary confinement cell at Police HQ where the dinner is being held. Wright recounts his own imprisonment in that same cell for his homosexuality, for which he was bailed out by Howitzer and offered a job at The French Dispatch.

Following a late night shoot-out at the kidnapper's hideout, Gigi is able to tap out a message in Morse Code using a coin and a radiator to 'send the cook'. Lt. Nescaffier is sent into the kidnappers' hideout to provide both them and Gigi with food, but secretly the food is laced with poison. The criminals all fall victim to the poisoned fare, and Nescaffier barely survives (because to his strong constitution) after being made to taste test it first. The Chauffeur escapes with Gigi, and leads the police on an animated foot and car chase through the city. Gigi manages to escape out of the sunroof and reunites with his father. During his recovery, Nescaffier saves 'The Abacus' from near starvation by preparing him an omelette, the prisoner having been totally neglected in the fracas. Back at the office of The French Dispatch, Howitzer tells Wright to reinsert a deleted page. In it, a recovering Nescaffier tells Wright that the taste of the poison was unlike anything he had ever eaten in his life, before they commiserate over the state of both being foreigners in France.

In the epilogue, Howitzer is seen to be laid out on his desk, covered in a sheet very dead, on his birthday. The French Dispatch staff, consisting Owen Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Griffin Dunne and the waiter (Pablo Pauly) who delivers the birthday cake all mourn Howitzer's passing, but all set to work on his obituary and on the final issue in honour of his memory. 

'The French Dispatch' is whimsical, quirky and imaginative Wes Anderson storytelling at almost its best (although not quite up there with 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'), and that's because with an opening prologue, a closing epilogue and three stories sandwiched between there is so much to take in, so much to see and so much to read on screen that it's really difficult to keep up. That said, the set designs are impeccable and richly realised, the assembled cast of A-list Actors is straight out of the Who's Who of European and American acting talent, and the sure fired quick witted dialogue is sure to raise a smile a least for even the most hard boiled viewers. As far the three individual stories are concerned not one of these stands out as being head and shoulders above the others and whilst each stands alone on its own merits, as a whole it's hardly the sum of its parts. All credit though to Director and Writer Wes Anderson for his truly unique approach to storytelling and film making, that makes his films stand aloft in a world dominated by comic book adaptations, RomComs, and shoot 'em up take no prisoners action fare.  

'The French Dispatch' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

NO TIME TO DIE : Tuesday 16th November 2021.

I saw the M Rated 'NO TIME TO DIE' at my local multiplex this week and finally, the 25th Bond film is released in Australia, as Directed and Co-Written by Cary Joji Fukunaga whose prior film making credits include 'Jane Eyre' in 2011 and 'Beasts of No Nation' in 2015. Phoebe Waller-Bridge also Co-Wrote this film with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. The film was originally scheduled for release in November 2019, but was postponed to February 2020 and then to April 2020 after Danny Boyle's departure as Director due to creative differences. It was then postponed until a November 2020 release date due to the ongoing severity of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, and was pushed back again to an early April 2021 date. It was then postponed to an October 2021 release date, with the World Premier screening scheduled for London's Royal Albert Hall on 28th September. The film was released in the UK on 8th October, in the US on 15th October and in China on 29th October, with the release postponed until last week in Australia because of national lockdowns which have since been lifted. The film has so far grossed US$710M off the back of a production budget somewhere in the vicinity of US$280M, and has garnered generally positive Reviews for this, Daniel Craig's final outing as the titular British MI6 Agent James Bond.  

The film opens up with a lone gunman traipsing through the snow to an isolated house by a lake surrounded by a forest. Inside the house, a young Madeleine Swann (Coline Defaud) looks after her near comatose mother (Mathilde Bourbin) on the verge of passing out on the sofa under the influence of alcohol, cigarettes and who knows what else. As the gunman approaches and enters the house the mother has passed out, leaving the young girl terrified as the masked gunman approaches. Madeleine runs upstairs and cowers under the bed having retrieved a revolver from under the kitchen sink. The gunman says to the mother that her husband was responsible for the death of his whole family and promptly shoots the mother dead where she lays, and then walks upstairs to Madeleine's bedroom. Seeing the room seemingly empty he turns around to leave, just as the young girl pops her head over the side of the bed and fires off several shots into the gunman, sending him crashing through the wooden balustrade down into the room below, apparently dead. As the girl drags the lifeless body outside through the snow, the gunman comes around and rises up. Madeleine makes a hasty exit across the iced up lake, but once in the middle the ice begins to crack under her weight, and she falls through. The gunman rescues Madeleine. 

We then fast forward to five years ago and a now adult Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) is in the southern Italian city of Matera with James Bond (Daniel Craig) - the pair in love. Bond is there with the intention of paying his final respects to Vesper Lynd as she is entombed there. Upon visiting the tomb he notices in a bunch of flowers a Spectre calling card, at which point the tomb explodes. 

Spectre assassins are soon hot on Bond's heels led by Primo (Dali Benssalah) but he successfully manages to evade being killed off and escapes with Madeleine in the bullet riddled yet gadget heavy Aston Martin DB5. Bond believes that Swann has betrayed him, and despite her pleas to the contrary, he packs her on a train and says that she will never see him again. 

Fast forward to the present day, and MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) is kidnapped from an MI6 off-grid laboratory, with the lab destroyed and all working operatives therein shot dead. With M's approval Obruchev had developed the top-secret Project Heracles, an exclusive bioweapon containing nanobots designed to infect like a virus upon touch that are coded to an individual's DNA, rendering it lethal to the target and their relatives, but completely harmless to anyone else. 

Bond meanwhile has retired to Jamaica, where he is enjoying the laid back relaxed lifestyle. He is contacted by his old friend from the CIA, Agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and his colleague Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen), who ask for Bond's help, for old time's sake, in finding Obruchev. Bond declines, but after Nomi (Lashana Lynch), an MI6 agent and his replacement as 007, tells him about Project Heracles, Bond agrees to help Leiter, over Nomi's warnings not to get involved.

Bond sails into Cuba and meets Paloma (Ana de Armis), a CIA agent, with three weeks training allegedly, working with Leiter. They infiltrate a Spectre meeting to celebrate Blofeld's birthday to extract Obruchev. Still locked up inside Belmarsh Prison, Blofeld uses a disembodied 'bionic eye' to lead the meeting and order his members to kill Bond with a 'nanobot mist', but it kills all the Spectre members, as Obruchev had reprogrammed the nanobots to infect them all instead. It turns out that the masked gunman in the opening scene is Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) who had given the orders to Obruchev to wipe out all of Spectre. Bond captures Obruchev and  flies out on Nomi's seaplane to meet with Leiter and Ash on a fishing trawler out at sea. Ash, however, reveals himself to be a double agent who is working for Safin. In a fight between Bond and Ash, Leiter is shot in the stomach. Ash escapes with Obruchev on the seaplane leaving Bond and Leiter locked in the engine room, as the trawler explodes in a ball of flame and gradually begins to sink. As the water rises Leiter bids his final farewell to his old friend and sinks below the water succumbing to his wound. Bond swims through the hole caused by the explosion to the surface, finds a life raft, and is picked up later the next day by a passing container ship. 

Back now in London and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) arrange a meeting between Bond and Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) in Belmarsh Prison to try to locate the whereabouts of Obruchev. Meanwhile, Safin visits and coerces the now psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann to infect herself with a nanobot dose to kill Blofeld, as she has been in contact with him for treatment since his imprisonment. 

When Bond encounters Madeleine for the first time in five years at Belmarsh their reception is frosty to say the least. Once inside the confines of Blofeld's high security prison cell, he touches her and unknowingly infects himself before she leaves, unable to go through with Safin's plan. Blofeld confesses to Bond that he staged the explosion at Vesper Lynd's tomb to make it seem as though Madeleine had betrayed him. Bond reacts by grabbing Blofeld by the throat in a strangle hold, but M's Chief of Staff Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) intervenes. Moments later when the dust has settled, they both look around to see Blofeld slumped back in his chair dead, as Bond had unintentionally caused the nanobots to infect and kill him.

Bond traces Madeleine back to her childhood home in Norway and learns that she has a five-year-old daughter, Mathilde ((Lisa-Dorah Sonnet), who she claims is not his. After kissing and making-up for lost time in which Bond says his biggest regret is putting Madeleine on that train five years ago, she tells him that when Safin was a boy, his parents were murdered by her father on Blofeld's orders. Having avenged them by killing Blofeld and destroying Spectre, Safin continues his rampage with Ash and their henchmen in pursuit of Bond, Madeleine and Mathilde in a high speed chase through the mountainous Norwegian countryside and forest. Ultimately Bond kills Ash by crushing him under his upturned Range Rover from which he had just crawled out of, and the other thugs, but Safin captures Madeleine and Mathilde and makes off with them in a helicopter, leaving Bond on the ground looking on.

Q enables Bond and Nomi to infiltrate Safin's headquarters in a former WWII missile base, converted to a nanobot factory, on an island located somewhere between Japan and Russia. There Obruchev is mass-producing the Heracles technology so Safin can use it to systematically wipe out millions of people. Bond kills many of Safin's men while Nomi kills Obruchev by shoving him backwards into a huge nanobot vat. 

Madeleine escapes captivity at the hands of Primo, while Safin lets Mathilde go after she bites him on the hand, for which he has no patience. Nomi takes Madeleine and Mathilde away from the island while Bond stays behind to open the island's 1950's Russian era blast-resistant silo doors, and calls in a missile strike from HMS Dragon, as the only Royal Navy vessel in the area, to destroy the installation with M's (Ralph Fiennes) approval despite protestations from the Russian and Japanese governments and the UK's Prime Minister. Bond, while making a sharp exit encounters more of Safin's men whom he kills, including Primo.

Safin ambushes Bond as he is making his way outta there, shooting him twice and infecting him with a vial containing nanobots programmed to kill Madeleine and Mathilde. Despite his injuries, Bond kills Safin after a fight and re-opens the silos which Safin had previously closed. Speaking by radio with Madeleine, Bond tells her he loves her and encourages her to move on without him. Madeleine confirms that Mathilde is his daughter as Bond says his final farewell.

Much has been written about 'No Time To Die' and most of it positive, and as Australia is just about the last country on Earth to see 007 doing what he does best, it will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that James Bond carks it at the end of this film. This of course begs the question of the Producers and the Writers of how do they bring back James Bond for the 26th instalment in this ever popular franchise. Perhaps this episode is all just a dream and Bond will wake up next to Swann and Blofeld, Leiter and Spectre will all still be very much alive and kicking and Safin never existed! Maybe! That said, this film has all the usual touchstones that make Bond such an enjoyable watch - the big action set pieces, the exotic locations, the gadgets, the intrigue, the quips, the megalomaniacal villain and in this one the emotion too that Bond portrays in his love and regret for Swann and for ever doubting her, that ultimately costs him his life. The film has heart and soul as well as a more mature Bond who is still able to handle himself, albeit not quite as bullet proof as he once was, and deliver the one liners with aplomb whilst showing us that he is capable of real care, love and emotion. Craig gives his all in this his final performance as the titular Secret Agent and his demise is a fitting end to his legacy over the last five films. At a run time of 163 minutes it is however, just a tad on the lengthy side, albeit the film never leaves you wanting and it moves along at a swift pace, despite the mid-section dragging its heels a little. 

'No Time To Die' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SOURCE CODE : archive from 24th May 2011.

Saw 'SOURCE CODE' last night and loved it -  original story, clever premise, well crafted and Directed by relatively new up & coming talent to watch Duncan Jones AKA Zowie Bowie AKA son of one David Bowie. This film was made for US$32M and grossed US$147M and along the way picked up an award and a handful of nominations from the awards circuit. Nonetheless it garnered positive reviews from this second time Director whose first offering was the acclaimed 'Moon' and next up has 'Warcraft' due for release in 2016.

And so to the story! Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a US Army chopper pilot whose last recollection was flying a sortie in Afghanistan. He wakes up on a commuter train at 7:40am heading for Chicago. All around him he is just an ordinary early morning traveller heading into the city with his travelling mate Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan). But something is not quite right - why is he there, who is he with, and why isn't he in Afghanistan? To the outside world and the person staring back at him in the toilet mirror though he is Sean Fentress - a school teacher - he gets agitated, then, the train on which he is travelling explodes, killing all on board.

He regains consciousness and is inside a cockpit communicating through a video link to Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) who confirms his identity as Colter Stevens and commands that he remains on mission to locate the train bomber before another bomb takes out downtown Chicago in six hours time. In reality Steven's is inside the 'Source Code' - an enclosed self contained chamber developed by scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) that allows him to experience the final eight minutes of another persons compatible life but in an alternate timeline. Confused - stick with it, because it's worth it!

As each eight minute period comes and goes with increasing urgency and desperation, Stevens must relive those eight minutes but each time learn from the previous experience to find the bomber and prevent the tragedy.  He will die time and time again and witness the horrors of the explosion, the death and carnage, but his purpose is clear and his instructions explicit, even though he may not agree with them. But of course he doesn't know the full story nor yet does he see the full picture.

As time progresses Stevens gets closer to the truth, the location of the bomb and the bomber, but he also gets closer to his travelling companion Christina with whom he begins to fall in love. He believes he can prevent the tragedy but because he is not travelling back in time, but simply reliving eight minutes in time he cannot change what has happened, merely understand it and try to stop it from occurring within those eight minutes. But, he chooses to test the theory but must do so before his time runs out, and before those controlling the 'Source Code' interrupt the proceedings.

One of the most intelligent present day sci-fi movie outings since 'Inception', and a great second offering from Duncan Jones. This film will leave you pondering the story, wondering at the ending, and debating the pieces of the puzzle just seen. If you missed this first time around catch it now on DVD, BluRay or download and enjoy Gyllenhaal for the reliable grounded solid performance he always gives coupled with a great story.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-