THE BRIDE ! : Tuesday 10th March 2026

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE BRIDE!' at my local independent movie theatre earlier this week, and this American Gothic romance film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal in only her second Directorial outing following 2021's 'The Lost Daughter', although she has acted in numerous film, television and theatre roles over the years, and has been recognised in many award wins and nominations too. The film draws inspiration from the 1935 film 'Bride of Frankenstein', which was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel 'Frankenstein'. The film had its World Premiere in London on 26th February and was released Stateside and here in Australia last week, having so far grossed US$15M at the Box Office from an US$85M production budget, and generating mixed or average critical reviews. 

The film opens with a black & white close-up of Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) speaking from the hereafter, saying she has a story she wanted to tell after publishing her book Frankenstein in 1818, but could not due to her death in 1851. To tell it, she possesses Ida (Jessie Buckley), a woman living in 1936 Chicago, who we are first introduced to in a very busy bar and restaurant, and who in her possessed state proceeds to shout out across the room to all the stunned diners the criminal activities of crime boss Lupino (Zlatko Buric) who is sat at the bar observing her closely. Lupino's henchmen Clyde (John Magaro) and James (Matthew Maher) discreetly kill her afterward, by pushing her down a flight of steps where she tumbles end over end breaking her neck and a leg in the process, and falling in a crumpled heap at the bottom. 

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chicago, Frankenstein's monster, aka 'Frank' (Christian Bale), arrives at the house of scientist Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening). Having read about Euphronius' work on reanimation, he persuades her to create a companion for him after a century of abject loneliness. Euphronius and Frank dig up Ida's recently buried corpse from an unmarked cemetery grave, and successfully revive her, but she loses her memory in the process. Frank takes advantage of this and states that she is his Bride and lost her memory in an accident, which she accepts. She then coughs up an inky black substance that was part of the formula to reanimate her, which in turn permanently dyes her tongue, her cheek, her fingers and leaves long trail marks running down her arm and her breast.

Euphronius demands that the pair remain within the confines of her house, but Frank and the Bride have different plans. They go to the cinema to see a movie featuring Frank's favourite Actor Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal) and then go dance in a club. The Bride dances provocatively with other clubbers while Frank sits at the bar and watches on. As they leave, two men harass the Bride and Frank. Frank attempts to diffuse the situation by ignoring their actions, but it all becomes too much for him to bear and he retaliates by repeatedly smashing ones head against a wall, and then stomping on the others head on the gutter, until his head is mush. He tells the Bride to leave him, but she says that she has no where to go and decides to live life as a runaway with him. 

They stow away in a train headed to New York City, killing a security officer who finds them as the train passes through Indiana. Meanwhile, Detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz) investigate the murders and eventually follow them to New York.

Frank and the Bride cause chaos at a screening of 'Revolt of the Zombies' and then seek refuge from the Police and an angry mob giving chase to the fleeing pair, at a high-class party. Frank notices Ronnie Reed as one of the guests and interrupts his conversation by expressing his adoration for the Actor, and his gratitude for giving him some modicum of purpose in his life, but is alas dismissed by Reed. Detective Wiles and the Police arrive at the party, but fall back when the Bride briefly holds Reed at gunpoint. Wiles recognises her real identity as Ida. The Bride shoots dead an advancing Police officer wielding a gun. The pair then hot-wire a car, and manage to flee the city.

The Bride and Frank's crime exploits generate much publicity, and Lupino recognises her in a newspaper article. While sat in a restaurant chomping down on freshly cooked lobster Lupino shoots James at point blank range in the head for failing to silence her, and sends of Clyde to kill her again, swearing vengeance on his family if he fails to do so. Meanwhile, Malloy makes a connection between reports of murders and sightings of the pair in cities where Reed's films were set. This prompts Malloy and Wiles to travel to Niagara Falls where they locate the pair just as Frank asks the Bride to marry him. Wiles confronts the Bride and tells her of her true identity as Ida. She shoots him in the lower leg in response. As Frank and the Bride flee, Frank admits that he wasn't entirely honest with her in the beginning and conveys that he actually did not know who she was before she died. She forgives him.

Wiles explains to Malloy that he and Ida were planning to take down Lupino and expresses guilt that his inaction led to her death. He decides to retire and promotes Malloy as his replacement. Malloy tracks Frank and the Bride to a drive-in cinema in Illinois. At the same time, Clyde arrives and fatally shoots Frank in the head. The Bride escapes with Frank's body and returns to Euphronius' laboratory, unaware that Malloy is following her. Euphronius declares that she is incapable of reviving Frank. Clyde breaks into the laboratory and shoots the Bride before leaving. The Police arrive en masse and all begin shooting at the Bride in a relentless hail of bullets. Malloy screams for them to stop, as the Bride's lifeless body slumps on top of Frank. She then orders them to search for Clyde seen exiting the building via the fire escape, leaving Euphronius with the Bride and Frank's corpses, saying 'take as long as you need'! Seemingly possessed by Shelley's spirit, Euphronius decides to revive the couple. Outside, the Police arrest Clyde who they have pinned to the ground, for killing the Bride and Frank. Malloy looks up at the building's upper most floor to see flashes of bright lights shine momentarily from the laboratory. Inside, the revived corpses hands are seen to be moving searching for each other, until they clasp together. 

During an end credits sequence, Lupino is seen to be apprehended by Wiles and the female rioters who were inspired by the Bride's rants, threatening to cut out his tongue, just as Lupino had done to all of his previous victims, and stored them in pickling jars on a shelf in his restaurant for all the world to see.

It's easy to see why 'The Bride' has polarised audiences and critics. On the one hand its good to see Maggie Gyllenhaal trying her hand at an age old story and giving it a bold new revisionist refresh that looks stylish, has high production values, is creative in its execution, has manic energy aplenty and is bolstered by exemplary performances from its two lead players in Buckley and Bale. Buckley's role here is about as far removed from that of Agnes Shakespeare in 'Hamnet' (reviewed last week) as you can get, but she steals the show here once again and proves her versatility and range as one of the most diverse Actors working today. But, on the other hand the screenplay is disjointed, with at times clunky dialogue, unfulfilled character arcs, and too many unrealised sub-plots, that ultimately all add up to a film that displays plenty of style, and less of substance. That said, if you're in the mood for a riff on 'Bonnie and Clyde', female empowerment, the feminist movement, and a reinvigorated look at a horror classic with a modern twist, then you could do worse.

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

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SEPTEMBER 5 : Tuesday 11th February 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'SEPTEMBER 5' at my local independent movie theatre this week and this historical drama thriller is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Tim Fehlbaum in only his third feature film Directorial outing following 'Hell' in 2011, and 'Tides' (aka 'The Colony') in 2021. This film saw its World Premiere screening at the Venice International Film Festival in late August last year, went on wide release in the US in mid-January and was released here in Australia last week. It has so far grossed US$4.5M, has received generally favourable critical reviews and has garnered eleven award wins and another twenty-six nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, the ABC Television Sports crew presides over the coverage of the relatively uneventful Games. When Mark Spitz wins his record breaking seventh gold medal in the swimming event over a West German competitor, ABC President Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) dramatises the win by cutting to his competitor's reaction and planning to introduce the subject of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany during a live interview with Spitz. Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), the Head of ABC Operations, questions the decision, with Arledge reminding him of the importance of emphasising emotions over politics to create an effective broadcast.

Later that night, gunshots are heard in the distance. The crew listens in on Police broadcasts, aided by Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), the crew's local translator, and gradually learn that a terrorist attack is unfolding in the Olympic Village no more that 200 metres away from the ABC studio. It is reported that militant group Black September has broken into the apartment housing the Israeli team and taken eleven athletes hostage, demanding the release of some two hundred Palestinian prisoners. 

Seeing an opportunity for a compelling story, Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), the head of the control room, quickly mobilises the crew to switch the coverage of the unfolding hostage crisis instead. Along with Arledge, he takes practical steps to turn the story into a gripping news sensation, negotiating more advantageous time slots and even forging an identification badge so that a crewmember can access the now-restricted Olympic village. The crew are mostly enthusiastic and confident that the whole situation will be resolved quickly and efficiently, but a dismayed Bader reminds Mason and Arledge that the lives of real people are at stake and warns them of the impact they might have on the terrorists' actions.

The crisis deepens due to failed negotiations and mistakes from a largely unprepared and under resourced local Police force. Countless global news stations vie for the latest news and brief images of the standoff, prompting Mason to become more competitive with covering the story. At one point, the crew realises that the terrorists are watching their programme beamed live to every TV in the Olympic Village and around the world, which leads to an attempted rescue failing. Local law enforcement officers storm the control room and threaten the crew at gunpoint to turn off the broadcast, but Mason ultimately refuses and Arledge tells them in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his studio. The terrorists are eventually transported by helicopter and bus with their hostages to the military airport of Furstenfeldbruck, located some thirty kilometres from Munich, and Mason sends Marianne there for coverage, cynically including a sound technician in the event a shootout occurs.

Marianne, at the airport with other news crews, reports to Mason that the hostages are said to be free, which is apparently confirmed by a German public service television broadcaster. Bader urges Mason to hold off on reporting until the information is confirmed by another source, but Mason is unwilling to lose the scoop and has the news announced, albeit with the caveat that reports remain ongoing. Bader is furious but is pacified when Mason receives an official facsimile soon afterwards claiming confirmation from the German Chancellor. As the crew celebrates with cold beers all round, Mason pivots to planning interviews with the survivors, and Bader celebrates with Arledge in his office. As he watches a live, televised ABC interview with Conrad Ahlers, acting as a spokesperson for the German government, Ahlers speaks of the resolution to the crisis in an optimistic future tense. Realising that the reports the studio received were all incorrect, a horrified Arledge contacts an inside source and learns that the rescue attempt failed and all the hostages were in fact shot and killed.

Mason has ABC Sports Anchor Jim McKay correct the live broadcast, and state the real outcome. Arledge nevertheless praises him for an excellent job, while Marianne mourns that even more innocent lives were lost on German soil, and she and countless other reporters had been at the airport, intent only on getting a scoop while lives were being lost. The crew heads home, and after shutting down all the equipment and closing up, Mason ponders over the studio's bulletin board featuring photos of the eleven victims.

In a closing epilogue, we learn that eleven Israeli athletes and coaches, one German Police Officer and five Black September members were killed on that fateful day. Further text reveals that the event was the first time a terrorist attack had been broadcast on live television around the world and was viewed by a global audience of approximately 900 million, more than the 1969 moon landing, making it one of the most viewed broadcasts in history.

'September 5' tells the story purely and squarely from the perspective of the ABC Sports coverage team and for the most part from the claustrophobic confines of the temporary studio from which they broadcast to the world. It's a tight, tense and taut telling of a day marked in infamy as a group of television journalists and those working behind the scenes in the studio, laid the very foundations of televised media coverage that we have come to take for granted today. It is a well crafted film, a compelling story, well acted (particularly by Magaro and Benesch), and with spot on production values that do justice to the time and place, but still I was left wanting a little more meat on them bones. For instance, more perspective on the eleven Israeli hostages turned victims, or the political shenanigans going on behind closed doors, or the failings of the local Police on the ground . . . you get the picture. That said, the films brisk running time of just 94 minutes, and the authenticity of combining actual archival footage into the films narrative all add up to a film worthy of your cinema ticket price, but it won't be for everyone.

'September 5' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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 GUILTY : Wednesday 6th October 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the 11th October, and as a result all cinema's closed until this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American crime thriller 'THE GUILTY', Directed and Co-Produced by Antoine Fuqua, whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'Training Day' in 2001 with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, 'Shooter' in 2007 with Mark Wahlberg, 'Olympus Has Fallen' in 2013 with Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart, 'The Equalizer' and 'The Equalizer 2' in 2014 and 2018 respectively both with Denzel Washington, 'Southpaw' in 2015 with Jake Gyllenhaal and 'Infinite' this year too with Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This film is based on the 2018 Danish film of the same name Directed and Co-Written by Gustav Moller who also serves as an Executive Producer here. It saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in mid-September this year, had a limited US theatrical release from 24th September and was then released onto Netflix on 1st October. It has garnered mostly positive Critical Reviews. 

Here then, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working the night shift at a 911 call centre, while he awaits to attend court the next day for an incident that occurred eight months ago while he was on duty patrolling the streets of Los Angeles with his partner. He has subsequently been demoted to the call centre pending the outcome of his court case. Out of control wild fires rage across large tracts of California and are steadily encroaching upon LA. We see Baylor fielding several calls, including a business executive, Matthew Fontenot (voiced by Paul Dano), stranded inside his rented BMW 7 series held captive by a pink haired voluptuous Hispanic prostitute; then from a crashed cyclist with a knee injury; then from a woman whose house is on fire; and a guy calling from a nightclub. 

In the meantime he takes an unexpected call on his mobile phone from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times wanting his side of the story in advance of his court appearance tomorrow, which he in no uncertain terms rebuffs. He also attempts to call his recently separated and soon to be ex-wife Jess (voiced by Gillian Zinser) wanting to say goodnight to his young daughter. 

He then answers a call from a young woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keogh) who tells him in a high state of anxiety that she has been abducted. Baylor keeps her talking, making out that she is speaking with her young daughter, and learns that she and her abductor are traveling in a white van, but Emily is forced to hang up before she can provide more details. Baylor calls the California Highway Patrol (voiced by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) but they cannot locate the van because of the heavy smoke haze from approaching wild fires and the unknown license plate number. 

Desperate to get more information, Baylor calls Emily's home phone number and Abby answers, Emily's six year old daughter (voiced by Christiana Montoya) who is seemingly home alone with her younger brother Oliver who is sleeping. Abby is distraught telling Baylor that her Mum left them home alone after going off with their Dad, Henry. Abby provides Henry's mobile phone number from which he is able to look up the van licence plate number and get more details on Henry's record of assault and his time in prison. He relays the licence plate details to the CHP, and contacts his former Sergeant Bill Miller (voiced by Ethan Hawke) asking him to send a patrol car around to Emily's house and to check on Abby and Oliver.  He calls Henry (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), threatens him and demands to know his intentions with Emily, but Henry hangs up on him. Baylor then calls his former partner Rick (voiced by Eli Goree) and asks that he visits Henry's house to gather whatever clues he can as to where Henry may be taking Emily. On that phone call, at 2:00am in the morning, Rick expresses concern to Baylor about the testimony he is to give at tomorrows court hearing.

Baylor takes a call from Abby in a panic when two LAPD officers arrive at the door, and he tells her to let them in. Over the phone, he overhears that the officers notice blood on Abby's hands and nightdress and find Oliver in the bedroom seemingly dead. Joe calls Emily back and tells her to pull the handbrake, which she does, but it fails to crash the van. Henry puts Emily into the back of the van. When Henry stops the van and tries to remove Emily from the back, she hits him with a brick and flees.

In the meantime, Rick has gained entry into Henry's house and finds documents from a psychiatric treatment facility where Emily had been a patient. Joe calls back Henry, who explains he was taking Emily back to the facility and that she had been off her meds for a few weeks because they couldn't afford them and, during a psychotic episode, unintentionally hurt Oliver. Henry says he did not report the incident to the authorities because he wanted to protect Emily and has no faith in the 'system'.

Emily calls Baylor back from somewhere on the freeway, implying that she is preparing to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass because she believed Oliver had 'snakes in his stomach' and that she 'took them out'. Joe directs the CHP to her location while attempting to talk her down. He attempts to distract her and keep her talking by revealing that he killed a 19-year-old boy while on duty because he was angry and wanted to punish him for hurting someone. He pleads with Emily that Abby loves and needs her and that he promised Abby that she would come home. Over the phone, Baylor hears patrol cars and officers arrive, as the line is cut off.

Soon afterwards the CHP calls Baylor to inform him that they got Emily down safely, and Sergeant Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) sticks her head around the door to advise that Oliver is alive and in the Intensive Care Unit. As she leaves she says to Baylor 'broken people help broken people, as a back handed compliment. A short time later, in the mens room, a distraught Baylor vomits before calling Rick and tells him to tell the truth at the hearing. Rick says he can't and if he does it will be years before he sees his daughter again. Sobbing, Baylor tells Rick again what he must do at the hearing. He then calls the LA Times reporter to tell her that he intends to plead guilty at the trial. News reports after the hearing indicate that Baylor is only the fourth Police Officer to be sentenced to prison for manslaughter. 

I never did see the original Danish film from 2018 of which this is a Hollywood remake, and as such I can't draw any comparisons between the two. Suffice to say, this taught, tense and emotional drama which takes place over a single night shift in a sparsely manned Police call centre, maintained my interest throughout, and while Gyllenhaal is in just about every frame for its ninety minute running time, he inhibits the role of fractured Joe Baylor, puts in a very convincing and powerful performance and proves his worth again as one of the finest Actors of his generation. Shot within the confines of two rooms, over the course of just eleven days and in the middle of a pandemic Antoine Fuqua has proven here too his ability to make a lot out of a little particularly when you have an Actor of Gyllenhaal's stature doing the heavy lifting supported by the equally convincing voice of Riley Keogh on the other end of the phone. If you haven't seen the original, then you could do worse than hunt this remake out as it will keep you on the edge of your seat from the get go.

'The Guilty' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-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-