Birthday's to share this week : 30th August - 5th September 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Noah Taylor does on 4th September - check out the 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 30th August

•  Cameron Diaz - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actress | Producer
•  Michael Chiklis - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director

Monday 31st August

• Richard Gere - Born 1949, turns 66 - Actor | Producer
• Chris Tucker - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actor | Writer
• Marc Webb - Born 1974, turns 41 - Director | Producer | Editor
• Jonathan LaPaglia - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Jack Thompson - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actor | Producer

Tuesday 1st September

• Craig McLachlan - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Lily Tomlin - Born 1939, turns 76 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Singer

Wednesday 2nd September

• Salma Hayek - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actress | Producer | Writer
• Keanu Reeves - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Mark Harmon - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actor | Producer | Director

Thursday 3rd September

• Garrett Hedlund - Born 1984, turns 31 - Actor
• Charlie Sheen - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Noah Baumbach - Born 1969, turns 46 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Born 1953, turns 62 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Pauline Collins - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actress

Friday 4th September

• Noah Taylor - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor
• Wes Bentley - Born 1978, turns 37 - Actor | Producer
• Damon Wyans - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer

Saturday 5th September

• George Lazenby - Born 1939, turns 76 - Actor
• Paddy Considine - Born 1974, turns 41 - Actor | Director | Writer
• Werner Herzog - Born 1942, turns 73 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Michael Keaton - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actor | Producer
• Raquel Welch - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actress | Producer
• Carice van Houten - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actress | Producer
• Rose McGowan - Born 1973, turns 42 - Actress | Director

Noah George Taylor was born in London, England, to Australian parents - mother Maggie Miller, a book editor and journalist, and Paul Taylor a copywriter and journalist also. At age five the family returned to Australia where he grew up in Melbourne. His parents divorced when he was fourteen, and at sixteen he left both home and school with little intention on pursuing a career in acting. At the suggestion of a friend and for want of something to do, he gave acting a go at St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne's South Yarra. Here he came to the attention of Director John Duigan who gave him a role in 1987's 'The Year My Voice Broke' and then in its 1991 follow-up 'Flirting' with a young up & coming Nicole Kidman.

For his performances in these two films he picked up a couple of awards, and being typecast as the gawky, geekish, gloomy unaware young adult he was cast as the young David Helfgott in Scott Hicks highly acclaimed 1996 'Shine' with Geoffrey Rush playing the older pianist. For his role here too he picked up further awards.









Before 'Shine' however, there were a number of other appearances including television shows the likes of which were three episodes of the mini-series 'Bangkok Hilton', two episodes of 'A Country Practise', and then 'Boys from the Bush', 'Inspector Morse', and 'G.P.'. Films included 'Lover Boy' in 1989, 'Dead to the World' in 1991, 'Secrets' and 'The Nostradamus Kid' in 1992, and 'Dad and Dave : On Our Selection' in 1995.

The late 90's saw 'Frontier', 'True Love and Chaos' with Ben Mendelsohn, Hugo Weaving and Miranda Otto; 'Woundings' with Guy Pearce, Emily Lloyd, and Ray Winstone'; 'Life in the Fast Lane' with Tea Leoni and Patrick Dempsey; 'Simon Magus' with Rutger Hauer, Ian Holm and Toby Jones; and closing out the decade 'Mauvaise pass' with Ben Whishaw, Keith Allen and Darrel Auteuil.

As 2000 notched over so came more notable fare including Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous' with its all star line up of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, and Zooey Deschanel. After this was a turn with Angeline Jolie in 'Lara Croft : Tomb Raider' in 2001 and its follow up in 2003 'The Cradle of Life'. There was also 'He Died with a Felafel in his Hand'; 'Vanilla Sky' with Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz and Directed by Cameron Crowe once again, and then 'Max' with John Cusack, in which Taylor starred as the young art student Adolf Hitler.

Since then there has been further diversity in his acting choices with some big budget offerings, more independent fare and quirky Directors that presented him with Wes Anderson's 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' and an all star cast once more; Tim Burton's remake of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Submarine' for Richard Ayoade and starring Paddy Considine; 'The Proposition' Directed by John Hillcoat; Terrence Mallick's 'The New World' with Ben Mendelsohn again and Christian Bale and Colin Farrell; and then 'The New Daughter' with Kevin Costner and next 'Red, White and Blue'.

The last five years have brought highly acclaimed and much loved 'Red Dog', 'Lawless', 'The Double' for Richard Ayoade again, 'Anna' and one of my favourite films of 2014 - 'Predestination' with Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook. There was also 'Edge of Tomorrow' with Tom Cruise once more, and in between time there have been episodes of television series 'Rake', 'The Borgias', 'Game of Thrones', 'Peaky Blinders', 'Powers' and 'Then There Were None' with 'The Menkoff Method' due for imminent release and 'Free Fire' filming for a 2016 release and starring Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Cillian Murphy and Directed by Ben Wheatley.

All up Taylor has 63 Acting credits, with seven award wins and a further nine nominations. In his acting down time when he's not in front of the camera he likes to paint, draw and play music being skilled and accomplished with the viola, French horn, guitar and piano. He sings and plays in his own bands and lists Lou Reed and Johnny Cash as his inspiration. In late 2012 he married Aussie fashion designer Dionne Harris and the two live in Brighton, East Sussex, England. Taylor has a daughter born in 2007, Martha, from a former relationship.

Noah Taylor - often mistaken for a younger Nick Cave, often plays strong and pivotal supporting roles, has garnered more fame and acclaim in recent years and overseas than he has Down Under, but continues to add gravitas, be in demand and add originality and believability to his roles. Happy Birthday to you Noah, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BLACK SEA : Monday 20th April 2015.

I saw 'BLACK SEA' earlier in the week which has been out on a limited release for some time now, and was keen nonetheless to see this as the cast is strong, the story seemingly taut & tight and it's Directed by Kevin Macdonald whose career highlights include 'Touching the Void', 'The Last King of Scotland', 'The Eagle', 'State of Play', 'How I Live Now' and the bio-pic 'Marley' amongst others. This time around we have a story set inside a rust bucket tin can submarine seeking sunken Nazi gold in the depths of . . . yes, you guessed it . . . the Black Sea.

As the film opens we know this is going to be a bleak grim tale. Robinson (Jude Law) is a gritty downtrodden divorced sub mariner northerner sitting in front of some young upstart kid who has to deliver the news that after 12 years with a northern English deep sea salvage firm his job has been made redundant. But Robinson is a contractor with little employment entitlements, and so as a gesture of good will for his years of service, and for being so good at what he does he is generously being given 8,000 pounds by his employer . . . but clear your desk today and leave your keys on the way out! Thanks very much . . . for nothing!

With very few prospects and unemployment levels high in da hood, Robinson ponders on his future, his broken marriage, and what is to become of him. As one door closes, another one opens and during a session at the pub with his former work mates he learns of a sunken Nazi U-Boat rumoured to be carrying a bullion of gold en-route from the WWII Russians to Ze Germans! Of course the sub never reached its destination and was torpedoed without a trace sometime during WWII. The company for which Robinson was working got wind of this, was able to locate it, but could never salvage it because of where it is located, the politics involved and the sums at stake that would generate too much unwanted publicity and all the wrong attention.

But, there is a wealthy un-named dude who is prepared to fund a salvage mission if Robinson can assemble a crew, find a vessel and has the gonads big enough to captain a voyage to the bottom of the sea. Of course he does, because this is what Robinson does best and what he has been doing all his life. With a 60% stake of whatever he can salvage he is motivated and sees that he is likely to be up for an equal share with his crew that will net him an estimated 2M quid! On the way he recruits a half English, half Russian crew and locates a rusting ageing submarine tube that is to be their home and their salvation . . . potentially.

With Daniels (Scoot McNairy) forced by his un-named backer to join the crew much to his claustrophobic chagrin, together with expert diver Fraser (Ben Mendelsohn), Tobin (Bobby Schofield) a young 18 year old no hoper that Robinson takes pity on, and Grigoriy Dobrygin as Morozov amongst a dozen or so others the crew set their depth gauge for the deepest darkest recesses of the Black Sea and their bountiful target. But of course, in any such undersea adventure, things never go quite according to plan. And so it is with this motley crew as the English contingent get more & more agitated with their Russian crew counterpart and tensions, emotions and attitudes mount with ultimately dire consequences on both sides.

As greed takes hold, cultural differences emerge, tempers rise and the stresses and strains of their underwater tin can trapped captivity reaches breaking point, the body count begins to escalate and the fever to reach the gold, salvage it, and get it to the surface reaches obsession levels. Just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong whether it is man made, mechanically made or naturally made and all of this plays out rather predictably in the final analysis that really adds little that we have not seen before.

This film moves along at a good pace, and there are a few twists & turns along the way, but it is fairly predictable stuff and it does have some redeeming features, but at times I thought the sub was the Tardis - small on the outside, huge on the inside and hardly instilling any sense of claustrophobic foreboding like 'Das Boot' did. Jude Law puts in a solid turn, as does Ben Mendelsohn and Grigoriy Dobrygin and various others that all add weight to the overall experience, but there is something lacking from this outing, and maybe it is the anti-climatic ending that is a little ho-hum, leaving you wanting more, as almost all perish in the deep dark lurking depths of the Black Sea as you would probably expect! Check it out while still on general release, but not essential on the big screen.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-