Birthday's to share this week : 14th - 20th February 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Simon Pegg does on 14th February - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 46, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 14th February

• Simon Pegg - Born 1970, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Writer  
• Alan Parker - Born 1944, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Freddie Highmore - Born 1992, turns 24 - Actor

Monday 15th February

•  Jane Seymour - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actress | Producer 
•  Jessica De Gouw - Born 1988, turns 28 - Actress

Tuesday 16th February

• Elizabeth Olsen - Born 1989, turns 27 - Actress  
• Ice-T - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Christopher Ecclestone - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor

Wednesday 17th February

• Hal Holbrook - Born 1925, turns 91 - Actor
• Lou Diamond Phillips - Born 1962, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Michael Bay - Born 1965, turns 51 - Director | Producer | Cameraman
• Dominic Purcell - Born 1970, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Jerry O'Connell - Born 1974, turns 42 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Born 1981, turns 35 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director 
• Rene Russo - Born 1954, turns 62 - Actress | Producer
• Brenda Fricker - Born 1945, turns 71 - Actress

Thursday 18th February

• Cybill Shepherd - Born 1950, turns 66 - Actress | Producer
• Greta Scacchi - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress 
• Molly Ringwald - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actress
• John Travolta - Born 1954, turns 62 - Actor | Producer
• Matt Dillon - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor
• George Kennedy - Born 1925, turns 91 - Actor
• Milos Forman - Born 1932, turns 84 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor

Friday 19th February

• Ray Winstone - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Producer  
• Jeff Daniels - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Director | Writer
• Benecio Del Toro - Born 1967, turns 49 - Actor | Producer 

Saturday 20th February

• Miles Teller - Born 1987, turns 29 - Actor
• Sidney Poitier - Born 1927, turns 89 - Actor | Director
• Mike Leigh - Born 1943, turns 73 - Director | Writer
• Peter Strauss - Born 1947, turns 69 - Actor | Producer
• Brenda Blethyn - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actress 

Simon John Beckingham was born and raised in the small Gloucestershire village of Brockworth, in England to mother Gillian Smith, a civil servant, and father John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician. When he was seven years old his parents divorced and he adopted the surname of his stepfather after his mother remarried. He attended Castle Hill Primary School, Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School and The Kings School, Gloucester. At 16, Pegg moved to Stratford-upon-Avon studying English Literature and Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon College. In 1991 he graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA in Theatre, Film and Television.

Thereafter he moved to London and started carving out a career in stand-up comedy. From here he secured a number of roles in television series including three episodes on 'Six pairs of Pants' in 1995, 'Faith in the Future' across 15 episodes from 1995-1998, six episodes of 'Asylum' in 1996, twelve episodes of 'We Know Where You Live' and six episodes of 'Is It Bill Bailey' in 1998.

His first film role came with 'Tube Tales' in 1999 - a series of nine chapters within the film each Directed by someone of note - including Bob Hoskins, Jude Law and Ewen McGregor amongst others. This was followed up by 'Guest House Paradiso' with Adrian Edmonton and Rik Mayall. Other film roles followed in 2001 with 'The Parole Officer' and '24 Hour Party People' in 2002, with television appearances on 'Hippies', and the Spielberg/Hanks collaboration 'Band of Brothers'.

In 1999 Pegg's breakthrough came with 'Spaced' which he created and starred in with good friend Nick Frost and Directed by Edgar Wright. He gained a British Comedy Award nomination for his role in 'Spaced' and as a result of this experience he and Edgar Wright co-wrote 'Shaun of the Dead' which was released in 2004. On the strength of this he was invited to appear in a cameo role on George A. Romero's 'Land of the Dead', before 'M:I 3' as Benji Dunn with Tom Cruise in 2006 - a role he has so far reprised twice.

After 'Big Nothing' in 2006, Pegg and Wright finished their second collaboration together with 'Hot Fuzz' starring Pegg and Frost as Police partners investigating a series of macabre deaths in a small sleepy English village. That year also came 'Run Fat Boy, Run' and a cameo once again in George A. Romero's 'Diary of the Dead', with 'How to lose friends and alienate people' in 2008.

2009 saw Pegg star as 'Scotty' for the first time in the reboot of the 'Star Trek' movie franchise at the hands of J.J.Abrams. The next few years saw 'Burke and Hare' as Directed by John Landis, and extra terrestrial offering 'Paul' with Nick Frost once again, and a Benji Dunn reprisal in Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' in 2011.

'A Fantastic Fear of Everything' followed in 2012 and then his second outing as Scotty in 'Star Trek : Into Darkness' a year later with J.J. Abrams once again. Completing his 'Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy' in 2013 with 'The World's End' Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Nick Frost and a host of other British acting talent, he moved onto a cameo in Nick Frosts starring vehicle 'Cuban Fury' and then 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' with Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike and Stellen Skarsgard.

'Kill Me Three Times' was up next in 2014 with Luke Hemsworth and shot in Western Australia and Victoria, with 'Man Up' in 2015, 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation', 'Absolutely Anything' and a small but eternally grateful role in 'Star Wars : The Force Awakens' for J.J. once more rounding out last year.





In the meantime, Pegg has lent his voice talents to the likes of 2009's 'Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs' as 'Buck' and will do so again in the upcoming next instalment in 2016 with 'Ice Age : Collision Course'. There was also 'The Chronicles of Narnia : The Adventures of the Dawn Trader' in 2010, 'The Adventures of Tin Tin : The Secret of the Unicorn' playing one half of the Thomson Twins to Nick Frost's other, and then 'Boxtrolls' in 2014. Next up for Pegg is 'Star Trek : Beyond' due for release in July this year and is co-written by him, and in which he'll reprise his role again of Scotty.

So far Pegg has 81 acting credits to his name, 23 Writer credits and eight Producer credits and along the way he has accumulated ten award wins and seventeen other film nominations from around the traps.

In mid-2005 Pegg married his long term girlfriend Maureen McCann with whom he has a daughter Matilda, born in 2009. Nick Frost was best man at their wedding. Pegg supports the 'HeForShe' gender equality campaign for womens rights.

Simon Pegg - self confessed 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek' geek; grounded in horror, comedy and Sci-Fi; a lover of 'The X-Files'; long term collaborator with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright; a great export of British film and television to Hollywood mainstream, fame and fortune on the page, on TV, at the cinema and behind the camera, Happy Birthday to you Simon, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 23rd July 2015.

In deepest darkest Adelaide it's mid-Winter, the temperatures are in the lower half of single digits, we relish clear blue skies during the warm day time but it's freakin' cold at night. With the shortest days of the year behind us now it's all down hill to Summer, but in the meantime we can retreat to a warm movie theatre and catch a new film released this week, or any of the other great cinematic content still out there on general release.

This week then there are five new movies to whet your film going appetite with an ageing super sleuth looking back on his life and an unsolved mystery; then an account of a brief time and a singular man who almost changed the course of history back in 1939; next a high school supernatural horror thriller; a Sci-Fi self-help experiment that may not be all its cracked up to be; and in closing a mistaken identity blind date BritRomCom.

As always, you are cordially invited after your filmic experience this coming week to share your personal movie critique with your fellow film fans here at Odeon Online, by recording your comments below this, or any other Post. In the meantime, enjoy your movie.

MR. HOLMES (Rated M) - This crime drama stars the titular Mr. Sherlock Holmes but not of the Robert Downey Jnr. type or out of the Guy Ritchie mould. Instead, this version is based on the 2005 novel 'A Slight Trick of the Mind' written by Mitch Cullin and based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hero and is Directed by Bill Condon. What we have here though is an ageing Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) now in his early nineties, and set in 1947 when the great detective is no longer living in London's Baker Street, but settled down in his retirement in a Sussex farm house shacked up with his housekeeper (Laura Linney) and her young son.

All is not well though as Holmes is unhappy about a recently published article by his former partner Dr. Watson regarding his last case which remains unsolved after many years. Holmes though in his later years has failing memory and is seeking to record his own account of that same case which he knows is different to Watson's version. Along the way as he uncovers the truth through flashback, natural remedies to restore his memory, and his powers of deduction he comes to realise that there is more to life than pure logic and science and sometimes you need to make a human and emotional connection to get to the bottom of things.

SELF/LESS (Rated M) - Here we have a Sci-Fi thriller Directed by Tarsem Singh and made for US$26M and stars Ben Kingsley as big time real estate tycoon billionaire Damian Hayes, who has everything anyone could possibly ask for . . . except his health, because he is dying of cancer. Help is at hand though in the form of a radical medical operation known as 'shedding' in which his consciousness is transplanted into a new healthy body. That body belongs to Mark (Ryan Reynolds) and Damian's newly located consciousness now adopts the alias Edward Hale for his new younger self. As Edward starts his new life in New Orleans he is plagued by flashes of someone else's life. As he digs deeper & deeper into the origins of his new body, he learns that there are those that we going to almost any length to keep it all a secret.

13 MINUTES (Rated MA15+) - Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel who brought us the excellent 'Downfall' in 2004 has returned to the world of Nazi Germany once again in this true story of a man who nearly changed the course of world history back in 1939. Johann Georg Elser (Christian Friedel) was a carpenter who set a bomb in a Munich beer hall to take out Adolf Hitler during an assembly he was to hold there. Acting alone Elser set his bomb to explode at a given time, but on the day in question Hitler departed the assembly hall thirteen minutes ahead of schedule, and so lived to live another day . . . and the rest is history that did change the world forever. Eight people were killed however, and another sixty injured, and for the following five years Elser was held in captivity, tortured and then executed at Dachau Concentration Camp for his failed assassination attempt. Ever since then those that know of this man ask 'what if?', and to have this story finally told on the big screen as one of the greatest resistance fighters will help keep his memory and his belief alive.

THE GALLOWS (Rated M) - Here we have another found footage supernatural horror thriller Directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing starring a bunch of largely unknown  wannabes and made for just US$100K and so far grossing in excess of US$22M. The story surrounds a twenty year anniversary of a school play tragedy in which a student actor was killed accidentally on stage while play acting his death by hanging. Looking to mark the anniversary of the tragedy a group of young students re-enact the school play in a misjudged and misguided attempt to mark the occasion. Soon though thing begin to go bump in the night and all is not as it seems in this sleepy small town school and the fight meter ratchets up a few notches and the scares come thick & fast, as the friends come to the realisation that some things should just be left alone.

MAN UP (Rated M) - This BritRomCom is Directed by Ben Palmer and stars affable Simon Pegg as 40 year old recently divorced Jack who in a case of mistaken identity winds up with wrong blind date - Nancy (Lake Bell) - a 34 year old partying happy-go-lucky single girl he meets on a train and mistakes for his 24 year blind date Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond). Deciding to go with the rouse Nancy and Jack hit it off and embark on a whirlwind chaotic, funny, drunken, playful romance before Jack discovers the truth that Nancy was not his intended blind date. What follows is a journey of discovery, choices, decisions, and accepting the consequences of your actions. Rory Kinnear and Olivia Williams also star.

That's it then for the week ahead with horror, comedy, Sci-Fi, wartime drama, and crime drama coming to a movie theatre near you. Get out amongst it over the coming seven days, do yourself a favour and splash out $20 for a movie ticket . . . only at the cinema.

See you at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-