BIRD BOX : Friday 21st December 2018

I saw 'BIRD BOX' from the comfort of my own living room watching the film on Netflix the day of its worldwide release on 21st December. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, the film is Directed by Susanne Bier whose most recent outing as Director was for the highly acclaimed television series 'The Night Manager'. Made for US$20M the film has a limited theatrical run from 14th December before being released on the Netflix streaming service on 21st December. Within a week, Netflix had claimed that the film had seen the biggest seven-day viewership for any of its original movies to date, with over 45 million viewers. The film has received mixed or average Reviews from Critics, although Sandra Bullock's performance as the lead character has been praised.

The film opens up with a mother, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) kneeling down and speaking quickly and anxiously to her two young children. She informs them that they are about to go on a journey down a river and its going to be dangerous, and if they don't listen to her every word they will die. She also tells them that if they get separated they will die, and if they run off or cause a distraction they will die, and if they remove their blindfolds for as much as a fleeting minute they will die.

We then go back in time five years and Malorie is an expectant mother who is visited in her home painting studio by her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson). Before setting off to the local hospital for a routine pregnancy check-up, they see reports on television that some sort of strange phenomenon across Europe and Russia is causing mass suicides on a seemingly alarming scale. The pair dismiss the story and go to the hospital. Upon leaving the clinic the pair witness a woman in the corridor smashing her head repeatedly against a plate glass window, smashing the glass and her head and face. Malorie realises that perhaps there was more to that news story than they gave it credit for. As they attempt to race away from the hospital, they see chaos erupt in the streets all around them as more and more people suicide. Distraught by the scenes and carnage unfolding in front of them, Malorie reaches into the back seat to retrieve her ringing phone, when Jessica is unnerved by something up ahead. Jessica crashes the car which comes to halt upside down. They both clamber out. Injured, Malorie is unable to stop her sister stepping in front of an oncoming speeding truck and is killed instantly.

Malorie is swept along by a fleeing crowd of people all running away from something that no one can seemingly see, hear or understand. She is pulled to safety by a group of strangers holed up in house, but in the ensuing chaos, one of those residents walks out into the street and sits in a burning car very quickly engulfing herself in flames. That was the the wife of Douglas (John Malkovich) the owner of the house. After collecting their thoughts as much as they are able under the dire circumstances, they draw the conclusion that just by virtue of looking at the creatures can cause humans to go insane and commit suicide. They cover the windows with newspapers and blankets to hide themselves from the chaos and creatures on the outside.

Days and presumably a few weeks pass by and food supplies in the house are running short. Malorie and the other holed up residents Charlie (Lil Rel Howery), Tom (Trevante Rhodes), Lucy (Rosa Salazar) and Douglas agree to drive to a local supermarket on a supply run. They paint out the windows, and use the vehicles GPS and proximity sensors to detect obstacles in the road and to guide them to their destination. Arriving at the store, but not before encountering the creatures which they manage to successfully evade with some nifty driving skills, they find an almost fully stocked supermarket which Charlie happens to work at. In the drinks aisle Douglas is in his element having found a stash of Scotch Whisky and votes to remain there indefinitely. The others however, reject his notion. Malorie comes across a bird cage containing a pair of birds, which she decides to adopt. The birds quickly validate themselves when a man crying for help from behind the loading dock door wants to gain entry. Upon opening the door the birds yelp and flap their wings violently indicating they are an early warning system against the creatures. The man allowed entry quickly attacks the group as he is seemingly under the influence of the creatures and is out to infect other humans. Charlie sacrifices himself so that the others can make a getaway.

Some time later Lucy and Felix (Colson Baker) steal the vehicle and decide to go it alone, leaving those left in the house without any means of transportation. Soon after, another heavily pregnant survivor Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) allows a seemingly unaffected and innocent wanderer, Gary (Tom Hollander) into the house against Douglas's wishes, for which he is locked up in the garage lest he should try to injure or kill their latest resident. Seemingly speaking from first hand experience, Gary refers to infected survivors who are insane and are compelled to force unaffected humans to look at the creatures, of which he has numerous pencil drawings contained in a satchel. When both Olympia and Malorie go into labour, Gary reveals himself to be one of the insane people he described. He then proceeds to remove all the coverings from the windows and attack the others within the house. Gary murders Douglas and forces Olympia, having just given birth, and another survivor Cheryl (Jackie Weaver) to look at the creatures, resulting in their deaths by suicide. Tom is able to kill Gary with a shotgun and save Malorie and the two newborns, leaving all the other survivors in the house, dead.

Fast forward five years, and Tom and Malorie are living together with the children in a seemingly relatively safe haven. Malorie calls the now five year olds only Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair). One day they receive a return radio transmission from a survivor stating that they are well and safe at a community two days downriver and that they are welcome to join them. Tom wants to go to the community despite the dangers of the river, but Malorie fears it could be a trap.

Following the transmission, Malorie flees with the two children when a group of infected survivors locate them and attempt to kill them. Tom manages to kill all the infected, but in doing so glimpses the creatures which results in him turning his gun on himself. Blindfolded, Malorie takes the children, also blindfolded, and the two birds wrapped in a shoe box to a rowboat next to a river.

Their journey is dangerous as described by the voice at the other end of the radio transmission. After some two days having survived raging rapids, an insane infected man, and even capsizing their boat in the rapids, they are washed ashore but by now separated. The creatures tease the children and Malorie to remove their blindfolds by mimicking the voices of loved ones but are unsuccessful as the three are reunited by the sounds of each others voices, and make it through dense woodland to the community guided by the sounds of tweeting birds, just as the voice had instructed.

Upon arriving Malorie and the two children are quickly taken in, and removing her blindfold very gingerly, sees that the compound is an old school for the blind, and most members of that community are blind, rendering them immune to the creatures. She kneels down and gives the children names, Olympia for the girl and Tom for the boy, and releases the birds from their box to join the many others flying above in an enclosed atrium, that have kept them free from harm for these past five years.

This film evoked memories of M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'The Happening' and more recently John Krasinski's 2018 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'A Quiet Place'. This film is below par compared with the latter, and would rate just about the same as the former elevated only by the performance of Sandra Bullock who once again turns it on as the everyday woman determined to overcome adversity and look fear in the face and say FU! The film falls somewhat short on suspense, scares and any real horror elements and lingers too long in the past, not long enough in the present and not at all in the intervening five years. As for the fate outside of Malorie's small little world, we are left but to wonder, and why certain individuals are left to roam free as 'carriers' of the creatures curse but not victims of suicide, also remains unclear. If post apocalyptic thrillers are your thing, and if during these extended school Summer holidays you are looking for two hours to sit and watch such an offering from the comfort of your own lounge, you could do worse than tune into 'Bird Box', but equally there's more compelling viewing out there too.  

'Bird Box' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

 

-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-

ZOOLANDER No. 2 : Wednesday 10th February 2016

I caught 'ZOOLANDER No. 2' at an advance screening on Wednesday evening this week, expecting big things from this long awaited and eagerly anticipated sequel to Ben Stiller's 2001 cult comedy parody on the fashion industry and all it stood for. In so doing he introduced the world to his creation of Derek Zoolander in a satire of the fashion industry that he wrote, Directed, Produced and starred in for US$28M that he turned into US$61M. Having created a comedy cult character it was almost inevitable that a follow up would eventuate, and so here 15 years later is the follow up that he also wrote, Directed, Produced and stars in, and which he made for US$50M with his stablemates from that earlier film - Hansel (Owen Wilson), Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell), Matilda Jeffries (Christina Taylor) and a few others. What needs to be borne in mind is that when Stiller first made 'Zoolander' back then he was in his early thirties, and now he is 50, and I have to say that I found this offering the poor cousin to that first instalment, and some of the gags are as dated as his character.

This latest offering centres around the 'worlds most beautiful people' being systematically assassinated all wearing Derek's famed 'Blue Steel' look as their death mask. As the film opens we see two motorbike riders giving chase to a hoodie wearing assailant for reasons that are unclear except that the guys on bikes are brandishing automatic hand guns, and the guy on foot can almost out run them, until that is, he is chased into a corner and riddled with bullets at point blank range. The assailant drops to the floor, and in his last gasps of breath takes a photo with his smartphone and posts his final 'look' to his Instagram page for all the world to see. It is Justin Bieber . . . dead, before our very eyes!

We then get a history lesson of the events since the close of the first film from 2001 onwards - the capture & two life sentences served on Mugatu, how Derek's wife was killed and Hansel's face was disfigured for life in a horrific building collapse, how Derek lost custody of his son, the bitter feud between Derek and Hansel that led to them both leaving the world they loved behind and seeking refuge in their solitude, and the legacy they left behind but eroded over the years as the fashion industry, and life, changed forever. Fast track to the present day and Billy Zane (playing himself) knocks on the door of Derek (now known as Eric Toolander) and delivers a package from Fashion Icon Alexanya Atoz (an unrecognisable Kristen Wiig) urging him to come to Rome to relaunch his career, which in turn may help Derek's cause of winning back his estranged son. Days later Billy Zane rocks up at Hansel's place with the same message, and the two meet again for the first time in fifteen years at the baggage claim carousel at Rome airport.

Atoz wants Derek & Hansel to take part in a fashion launch to relaunch their careers, which they agree to with their new found friendship and zeal to redeem their fallen fashion crowns of yesteryear. They quickly discover that the world of fashion they once knew has changed beyond all recognition - the locations, the gear, the culture, the language and the people in it and around it as they are introduced to deliciously camp All (Benedict Cumberbatch) the latest male model icon of the moment. Getting their moment on stage they are humiliated big time at the hands of All and in front of a global audience, but take it as a lesson in life and look for the positives to enable them to move on.

Needing to bring the arch criminals behind the killings to justice, Derek and Hansel are put on the case by Interpol, because Derek is the only link they have to go on given the 'look' the beautiful ones died with on their faces. The high fashion investigative division of Interpol is headed up by Melanie Valentina (Penelope Cruz) who offers to help Derek track down his son, in exchange for his cooperation with that of Hansel too. Reluctantly he agrees and quickly learns that Derek Jnr. (Cyrus Arnold) is in an orphanage in Rome. He quickly reunites with his son who is less than he expected - a fat dumpy kid known to his school mates as 'Fatlander' who his Dad is quickly embarrassed by, and promptly turns his back on. Some quick persuasive talk from Hansel and the two Derek's connect, but it's not all sunshine & rainbows, resulting in a car stack that the two walk away from unscathed, but covered in gelato.

In the meantime, Hansel receives various prank calls with cryptic 'Police' messages which ultimately call for a late night meeting in a Basilica, which Hansel, Derek and Melanie agree to attend. There they meet with Sting (playing himself) who tells them that 'The Chosen One' which those that have died have sworn to protect, is in fact Derek Jnr. whose blood line goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and Adam, Eve and Steve as the one born so beautiful that he is in fact The Fountain of Youth. In the meantime Mugatu (Will Ferrell) has been locked up in an off shore high security fashion prison for ten years and is visited by Derek seeking further information about the killings and where his now kidnapped son may be holed up. It doesn't take much for Mugatu to turn the tables on Derek leaving the latter tied up & securely bound, and the former walking free, looking to sacrifice Derek Jnr. to the leaders of the fashion world, and bring about his revenge of Derek Snr.

In a bath house where the beating heart is to be extracted from Derek Jnr. unless Hansel, Derek Snr. and Melanie can intervene on time, it all comes to an end. There is a lava flow, a glitter bomb, a dagger implanted in Derek's cheek and then Hansel's arse, a revelation of who Hansel's father is, the truth behind the tragic death of Derek's wife, why Derek Jnr. is so fat, and Derek finding his new true love and reconciling with his son who really is 'The Chosen One' it turns out, and, can 'Blue Steel' it as good as his old man!

Also starring more cameo's that you can shake your cinema ticket at, those that I recall are Keifer Sutherland, John Malkovich, Justin Bieber, Billy Zane, Benedict Cumberbatch, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Milla Jovovich and a host of others.

I have to say and it makes me sorry to report that I was underwhelmed by this film. Ben Stiller does well carrying the film with his 'Blue Steel', 'Magnum' and 'Aqua Vitae' looks from back in the day, but, there were no laugh out loud moments for me as there were in the first film. The dialogue is repetitive and derivative, there was too much going on in this far fetched by the numbers plot, and whilst the production values are good they are wasted by a film intent on cramming in as many plots, sub-plots, cameo's and worthless predictable gags as it can. Disappointing because I expected so much more, and the image here from the film just about sums it up for me. Wait for the DVD or BluRay when you may get a bigger bundle of goodies to accompany the film to make it a worthwhile experience.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

'RED' : archive from 10th November 2010.

There is a lot to like about action comedy 'RED' - which I saw last night and very entertaining it is too. Directed by Robert Schwentke and based on a limited comic book series of the same name this film was made for US$58M and made US$200M and stars Bruce Willis (always at his best in these actioners); John Malkovich (hamming it up & loving it); Morgan Freeman (as steady as ever); Helen Mirren (always delightful and to see her taking a bullet and toting a machine gun is worth the ticket price alone); Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfus and Ernest Borgnine - what an all star line up and great fun.

The 'RED' here is the shortening for 'Retired and Extremely Dangerous' and refers to former black-ops CIA Agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) who is now happily retired and living the quiet life in suburban Cleveland. Chatting over the phone, as he does often, to Customer Service Agent Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker) at the Pension Office who issue his monthly pension cheque which he promptly rips up just so he can call Sarah and chat away the day, he is later that night raided by a six-man hit squad that Frank quickly dispenses with. Realising that his phone has been tapped he gets over to Kansas City to protect Sarah, but when she refuses to leave with the guy she has only ever spoken to on the phone, he binds and gags her and so becomes his reluctant companion. Needing to uncover who is tracking him down and why, he turns to his former associates for help, while back at the CIA HQ Agent William Cooper (Karl Urban) is instructed to hunt down Frank and kill him.

Frank then heads off to New Orleans to see his CIA Mentor Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) living in a nursing home who advises the same hit squad that attacked Frank, took out a New York Times Reporter. So Frank and Sarah head to New York looking for clues where they come across a hit-list, but not before Cooper has arrived on the scene and bungles his attempt to get to Frank and secure the list, resulting in his (temporary) arrest. From there they get to Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) also a former black-ops CIA Agent and now retired, but a deeply paranoid conspiracy theorist.

Upon reading the list Boggs comes to the realisation that all those shown therein are linked to an earlier 1981 Guatemalan covert operation in which Frank and Marvin were involved. One on the list is still alive and so he is tracked down and before being gunned down from an above helicopter reveals that the mission in Guatemala involved the extraction of an important individual who is now the Vice President of the free world (Julian McMahon), but back then was involved in the massacre of village civilians.

Along the way there are further altercations with Cooper in which Frank is injured but manages to escape, they seek safe haven in the home of former assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren) who joins the quest, and they secure a meeting with an illegal arms dealer (Richard Dreyfus) whose name is not on the list but whom they believe is linked in some way that they have yet to uncover. At this point the house is surrounded by Cooper and his CIA henchmen who open fire, but in the confusion and the hail of bullets our RED Team escape courtesy of ex-Russian Secret Agent and former lover of Victoria (Brian Cox).

This all leads to a fundraiser for the Vice-President back in Chicago which the RED Team infiltrate and successfully manage to kidnap the Vice-President which Frank now wants to trade for Sarah who was taken captive by Cooper during in the firefight back at Victoria's house. As all the protagonists come together the body count rises as the Vice President is killed by the arms dealer who is killed by Frank leaving Cooper to clean things up as he agrees to let the RED guys walk free no further questions asked!

'RED 2' was released in 2013 and with a  bigger budget at US$84M grossed close to US$150M reuniting the same surviving cast and joined by Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Thewlis, Tim Pigott-Smith and Neal McDonough. 'RED 3' is apparently in the works.

I really enjoyed this mash up of tongue in cheek humour and action, and commend you to see this if you haven't already, and on a dark cold wet evening sit in the comfort of your own lounge and watch 'RED 1 & 2' back to back - you won't be disappointed as the oldies kick-ass, and Mirren exhibits bad-ass sass! Great fun!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 1st January 2015.

The new year is upon us, and with it Odeon Online takes this opportunity to wish all of our readers, film lovers and movie goers heartfelt best wishes for a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015 filled especially with films that will makes us laugh, make us cry, makes us think; that will shock, surprise and delight; and that will inspire, motivate, lift us up and set our hearts racing! Happy New Year to you all!

And so, to the latest offerings to grace our big screens on the first day of what is going to be an exciting year in moviedom. After the tranche of new releases seen in December and the big budget grand scale offerings that opened only last week on Boxing Day, there are just a couple of films to entice us out to a movie theatre in the coming week. The two new releases this week have one thing in common - one English gentlemanly Actor who is getting about a bit right now, and featured as a CGI Dragon only last week in a massive finale to a hugely successful series, and now this week two more new films spinning off the projector reel, and they couldn't be more different! One is an animated feature that is a spin-off from another successful trilogy, and the other is a WWII true story action drama thriller that tells the story of how the Allies war effort was aided by the work of one man and his team in cracking some fairly important Nazi codes at the time.

If it's one of these two you choose, or any of the others great films released in December that appeal, be sure to drop your thoughts down in the Comments section immediately following this Post, or any Post for that matter, and share your views, opinions, and experience with your fellow readers and film followers at Odeon Online. Enjoy your film!

THE IMITATION GAME (Rated M) - the man in question is Benedict Cumberbatch who is touted here as giving a career best performance as Alan Turing in a film that tells his story and how he and his team sought to break the Nazi's ever changing Enigma Code by which the German submarines communicated with each other during World War II. Directed by Norwegian Morten Tyldum, and Written by Graham Moore the story of Turing unfolds from his boarding school years in the latter half of the 1920's where he suffered bullying and emotional turmoil, through to his arrival at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire which was the home of the Government Code and Cypher School and where Turing based himself to work on cracking the German cyphers - Enigma and Lorenz. From there the film traces his eventual down fall in the early 50's as a result of the investigation by the Police into his alleged homosexuality - still illegal at that time!

Grounded in historical fact as much as possible, the film also stars Keira Knightly as Joan Clarke, Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander, Rory Kinnear as Detective Robert Nock, Charles Dance as Commander Denniston and Mark Strong as Stewart Menzies. In life, Alan Turing was never really given the credit he deserved for his efforts in helping to bring an end to the second world war probably two years ahead of time, and possibly four, and he was ostracised from society because of his sexual leanings and in the end paid the ultimate price for it. It wasn't until last year in fact that Turing was 'pardoned' for his 'crimes', and the film will go some way to perhaps setting the record straight, although maybe with a little poetic license thrown in. Made for just US$15M it has so far grossed more than double that but has already garnered 34 awards wins and 60 award nominations, including five Golden Globe nominations and much praised heaped on both Cumberbatch and Knightly. Can you hear the Oscar buzz already?

PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (Rated G) - having starred in three previous CG animation outings of the popular 'Madagascar' franchise, the four hapless penguins now get their own star vehicle in this spin-off that seems sure to please. Produced by those talented guys at Dreamworks and starring the voice talents of Benedict Cumberbatch as Classified, John Malkovich as Dave, Peter Stormare as Corporal and our four friendly penguin characters Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) this sees the penguin chums joining a secret undercover organisation called 'The North Wind' headed up by Classified, but not before the cross paths with the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine (aka Dave, aka John Malkovich) who has had one too many run-ins with penguins in the past at various zoos, and is now hell bent on revenge against all penguins of the world including our band of four. The North Wind who Skipper, Kowalski, Private & Rico have joined forces with have been tracking Dave for some time in an attempt to bring him to justice. The action takes us from Fort Knox to Venice, almost back to Madagascar via the Sahara Desert, onto Shanghai and back to New York City before Dave finally gets his comeuppance at the hands of the four penguins and The North Wind. One for all the family, and having cost US$132M to make, it has already raked in US$232M which says something!

Grab a movie then over new year week and start 2015 as you mean to go on - at the movies, being entertained with escapism, drama, comedy, suspense, thrills, chills and emotion. Whatever your choice, enjoy the experience and do your bit to keep cinema alive! Happy New Year!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-