Birthday's to share this week : 3rd - 9th January 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Eddie Redmayne does on 6th January - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy, turning 34, 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 3rd January

• Verne Troyer - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor
• Frank Langella - Born 1938, turns 78 - Actor

Monday 4th January

• Julia Ormond - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actress

Tuesday 5th January

• Diane Keaton - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Hayao Miyazaki - Born 1941, turns 75 - Director | Writer | Animator | Editor
• Roger Spottiswoode - Born 1945, turns 71 - Director | Writer | Producer | Editor
• Bradley Cooper - Born 1975, turns 41 - Actor | Producer
• Robert Duvall - Born 1931, turns 85 - Actor | Producer
• Vinnie Jones - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actor
• Clancy Brown - Born 1959, turns 57 - Actor

Wednesday 6th January 

• Eddie Redmayne - Born 1982, turns 34 - Actor
• Norman Reedus - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Rowan Atkinson - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Sylvia Syms - Born 1934, turns 82 - Actress

Thursday 7th January

• Linda Kozlowski - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actress
• Nicolas Cage - Born 1964, turns 62 - Actor | Producer
• Jeremy Renner - Born 1971, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
• David Caruso - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actor | Producer

Friday 8th January

• David Bowie - Born 1947, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer
• John McTiernan - Born 1951, turns 65 - Director | Producer | Writer

Saturday 9th January 

• J.K.Simmons - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Imelda Staunton - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actress
• Joely Richardson - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actress

Edward John David Redmayne was born in Westminster, London, England to mother Patricia Burke who managed a relocation business and father Richard Redmayne, a senior banking businessman. He has an older brother James, a younger brother Thomas, and two half brothers, Eugene and Charles. He attended the independent prep, school for boys - Colet Court in Barnes, London, and then Eton College and did so in the same year as Prince William. Leaving there he went onto Trinity College, Cambridge studying the history of art from where he graduated in 2003. He took drama lessons from an early age having been encouraged to do so by his parents, which he continued throughout school and university, including with the National Youth Music Theatre. His first stage gig was in the Sam Mendes production of 'Oliver' playing a workhouse boy.

Before turning to professional acting Redmayne modelled for Burberry with Alex Pettyfer and Cara Delevingne. He made his professional stage debut in Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' in 2002 for which he won the award for Most Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and then Best Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards for 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?' in 2005. In 2009 he appeared in 'Red' for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and he then took the play to Broadway for a fifteen week run for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. He subsequently played Richard II in 'Richard II' in London's Donmar Warehouse.

Redmayne graduated from some minor television roles with his debut feature film in 2006 with 'Like Minds' starring alongside Toni Collette and Richard Roxburgh, with 'The Good Shepherd' coming next that same year as Directed by Robert De Niro with a huge cast including the great man himself with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin and William Hurt. The following year saw 'Savage Grace' with Julianne Moore and that same year 'Elizabeth : The Golden Age' with Cate Blanchett in the title role and Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen. Redmayne had starred in 2005 in a television mini-series 'Elizabeth I' playing the Earl of Southampton -  a role that doubtless prepared him well for this one!

2008 brought 'The Yellow Handkerchief' with William Hurt again, and 'The Other Boleyn Girl' with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana and Benedict Cumberbatch. 2009 saw 'Powder Blue' with Forest Whittaker, Ray Liotta and Patrick Swayze, and 'Glorious 39' that same year with Christopher Lee, Bill Nighy and Juno Temple, and 'Black Death' a year later with Sean Bean. As the decade drew to a close there had also been television mini-series 'The Pillars of the Earth' and 'Tess of the D'Urbevilles'.


'Hick' kicked of 2011 with Chloe Grace Moretz and Juliette Lewis, with 'My Week with Marilyn' starring Michelle Williams, Julia Ormond and Kenneth Branagh, and then Kathryn Bigelow's 'The Miraculous Year' with Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella. 2012 saw 'Les Miserables' with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter.

2014 hailed Redmayne's Oscar winning turn as Stephen Hawking in 'The Theory of Everything', before The Wachowski's 'Jupiter Ascending' a year later with Sean Bean again, Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. 'The Danish Girl' is up next early this year with Alicia Vikander and Ben Whishaw with 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' currently in post-production and based on the book of the same name by one J.K.Rowling who also penned that lesser known series of books about one certain young magician whizz kid Harry Potter.

All up Redmayne has 24 acting credits to his name so far. He won the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA for his lead role in 'The Theory of Everything' and has a pending nomination for this years Golden Globes for his role in the upcoming 'The Danish Girl' as well as sixteen other award wins and a further 54 nominations. When he picked up his Oscar statue in 2015 he was the first actor to do so born in the 1980's, and, he picked up his award alongside Best Actress Julianne Moore for 'Still Alice' - his co-star from 'Savage Grace' some years earlier. He is also strongly touted for further critical acclaim and recognition with Tom Hooper's 'The Danish Girl' due in Australian Cinema's on 28th January.

In December 2014 he married Hannah Bagshaw, and in the Queen's Birthday Honours List was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to drama.

Eddie Redmayne - rising star of stage, television, film and already much lauded and highly acclaimed; deeply grounded, diverse acting range and keeps it real whether playing bio-pics, period pieces, Sci-Fi or present day drama and infinitely watchable as a result. Happy Birthday to you Eddie - from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

The BAFTA Awards - Sunday 8th February 2015.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts held their annual film awards for the 68th time on Sunday evening earlier this week at London's Royal Opera House, and hosted for the tenth time by Actor, Raconteur, and Television personality Stephen Fry. With the Golden Globes, AACTA's, Screen Actors Guild and now the BAFTA's all done, this leaves only the Grand Daddy of them all later this month - the Academy Awards on 22nd February.

Summarised below are the main winners & grinners from the UK's film night of nights which for my mind was a little one sided in the final analysis with many great movie offerings being overlooked that hitherto have been lauded from on high. As I'm not on the judging panel though I accept no responsibility - those that did win clearly gave notable and outstanding performances/services all round, but as always with such things you could debate the decisions for or against those that won and those that lost all night long! So with that in mind . . . the winners are :-

Best Film : 'Boyhood'
Best British Film : 'The Theory of Everything'
Best Animated Film : 'The LEGO Movie'
Best Documentary Film : 'Citizenfour'
Best Foreign Language Film : 'Ida'

Best Actor in a Lead Role : Eddie Redmayne for 'The Theory of Everything'
Best Actress in a Lead Role : Julianne Moore for 'Still Alice'
Best Actor in a Supporting Role : J.K.Simmons for 'Whiplash'
Best Actress in a Supporting Role : Patricia Arquette for 'Boyhood'

Best Direction : Richard Linklater for 'Boyhood'
Best Adapted Screenplay : Anthony McCarten for 'The Theory of Everything'
Best Original Screenplay : Wes Anderson for 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

Best Production Design : 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
Best Costume Design : 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
Best Make-up & Hair : 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
Best Special Visual Effects : 'Interstellar'
Best Music Score : Alexandre Desplat for 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'
In the final analysis 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' won five awards from a total eleven nominations and did the best on the day, with the runners up coming from 'The Theory of Everything' which won three awards from ten nominations, and both 'Boyhood' and 'Whiplash' picking up three wins each from five nominations each. Although receiving multiple nominations too, I was surprised that none of 'Birdman', 'The Imitation Game', 'Nightcrawler', 'Mr. Turner' or 'Interstellar' fared better.

That's it then for another year from the BAFTA's with just the icing on the cake to come - keep watching the movies and keep reading this Blog for more movie Reviews, Previews, News and Views and your final wrap on the Oscar's in just over a week!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 29th January 2015.

And so across Australia the end of the school Summer holidays has arrived, and with it so have the rains and the cooler temperatures in Sydney at least. This though gives any ardent movie lover every opportunity to escape the world of temporary grey skies and rain to a darker warmer place with a silver screen, surround sound and high definition digital imagery to catch up on latest release film fare, of which there is plenty of choice.

Speaking of which, this week we have five movie releases with which to tempt and tease the film goer, of which three are in Academy Award contention and have already done well this Awards Season, and the other two are definitely not! To start with and in Oscar mode - we have the true life tale in the lead up to an Olympic Games and the tragedy surrounding a disenfranchised billionaire pinning his hopes on two wrestling champion brothers; there is also the true life story of an influential genius of a man still very much in our midst and how his life of tragedy plays out inspirationally from a young age to the present; next up we have a tale of the growing impact of a debilitating disease on a middle aged woman and those closest to her; then a comedic aristocratic spy-spoof jolly that you are likely to have seen before but updated here based on a series of books and with some big names stars certain to bring home  a high degree of success . . . maybe; and finally a unfolding bromance between a groom and his best man for hire on the eve of the wedding is likely to go down with hilarious consequences for all . . . or perhaps not!

FOXCATCHER (Rated M) - the first of this weeks movies in Academy Award contention, 'Foxcatcher' is nominated in five categories including Direction, Lead and Support Acting. Directed by Bennet Miller who brought us the excellent 'Moneyball' with Brad Pitt in 2011, this is another true-life sports drama this time surrounding the world of Olympic Wrestling. Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is a champion Olympic Wrestler having done well at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and other notable events. He is hired by John du Pont (Steve Carell, playing it straight and with prosthetic nose) a billionaire and heir to the du Pont family fortune to lead his wrestling team to glory at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games.

Recruiting Schultz to du Pont's privately owned training facility at his 'Foxcatcher Farm' Estate where his training takes off and he begins to excel, soon Mark is joined by older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) where relationships begin to unravel and ultimately life changing events unfold for everyone. A sad and compelling true story of tragedy over triumph, obsession, disjointed personalities, fractured relationships and paying the ultimate price. Also starring Sienna Miller as Nancy Schultz (Dave's wife) and Vanessa Redgrave as Jean du Pont (mother to John) this film has so far been nominated for 37 Awards and has won eleven already with the Oscar's, the BAFTA's and the AACTA's still pending.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (Rated PG) - next up in the list of Oscar contenders we have Eddie Redmayne giving the performance of his life in this James Marsh Directed story of the life of Professor Stephen Hawking. Based on the memoir of Hawking's first wife Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) this film starts us off in 1963 at Cambridge University where the completely able bodied young astrophysics student Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) first meets Jane at a party. The two bond almost immediately and whilst studying mathematics and physics he begins to ponder about 'time', 'black holes' and the creation of the universe. As his studies at Cambridge continue he begins to lose balance, and visiting a hospital he is told he has the early onset of motor neurone disease and is given two years to live. In time he will lose control of his muscles meaning he will be unable to walk, talk, move and eat but, his brain will remain unaffected. Needless to say we know that he survives well beyond those two years and is still very much alive today and a world authority on his chosen subject . . . and a few other things too! Hawking goes on to have three children, marries and divorces Jane Wild, marries and divorces Elaine Dawson, travels the world giving lectures, writes the highly acclaimed 'A Brief History of Time' and is honoured many times over. Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and Best Lead Actor and Actress there are a total 83 award nominations for this film and 18 wins already with the Oscar's, the BAFTA's and the AACTA's still pending.

STILL ALICE (Rated M) - based on the book by Lisa Genova, 'Still Alice' tells the story of Columbia University Linguistics Professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) as she begins to become increasingly forgetful, repetitious and distant with the early on set of Alzheimer's Disease. As with the two films Previewed above, 'Still Alice' is also in Oscar contention with a nomination for it's female lead in the Lead Actress category for Julianne Moore (for which she has already won the Golden Globe and the SAG Award). This then is the unfolding story of Alice struggling on with her career role at University, her role as wife and mother and her role as an accomplished individual in her own right as all of these things become increasingly fractured and a fading memory. With little to do except watch on as the despair and desperation of Alzheimer's takes its grip on the family unit comprising husband John (Alec Baldwin) and daughters Lydia (Kristen Stewart), Anna (Kate Bosworth) and son Tom (Hunter Parrish) the ties that bind them together will be tested as never before. Nominated for one Academy Award, there are a total 14 award nominations for this film and 21 wins already with the Oscar's, the BAFTA's and the AACTA's still pending.

MORDECAI (Rated M) - Directed by David Koepp this stars Johnny Depp in the lead role as Charles Mordecai, and is based on a trilogy of books by Kyril Bonfiglioli. Aristocratic, debonair, dashing, charming and handsome Mordecai is an art dealer who is almost down on his luck and down on his funds to support his lavish lifestyle. He falls foul of the bodged sale of a rare vase, and is then approached by friend and Mi5 officer Alistair Maitland (Ewen McGregor) to find find a missing Goya painting. Accepting the task he embarks on a journey to locate the painting and in doing so comes up against unsavoury Russian individuals, an international terrorist, an American heiress, and the Mi5 who all want to get the grubby hands on the painting for assorted reasons - not the least being that it is said to contain a code marking out the location of a stash of hidden Nazi gold. Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Johanna Mordecai, Paul Bettany as Mordecai's faithful ever trusting man servant and hired hand Jock Strapp, and Jeff Goldblum as Milton Krampf this could almost be a 2015 version of Austin Powers methinks, and, could well be a franchise in the making!

THE WEDDING RINGER (Rated MA15+) - we've had 'The Wedding Singer' now meet 'The Wedding Ringer' as Directed by Jeremy Garelick. This is the story of soon to be wed Doug Harris (Josh Gad) who is about to marry the girl of his dreams, but he is a socially inept 'Nigel Nofriends' and so can't find any mate to act as Best Man come the big day. What to do? Well, you go hire one I guess from Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) - owner and CEO of 'The Best Man Inc.' to do the deed on the day with the rings, make a speech about what a great mate you are and a loyal friend, and talk you up at the ensuing Reception to the Bride, her family, her entourage and all the other gathered guests. What could possibly go wrong? Well, it seems quite a lot as personalities clash, the deception is revealed, other truths are uncovered, Grandma is set on fire and the Groom, his fake Best Man and his fake Groomsmen all fly off into the sunset to party hard after the wedding has fallen in  heap! Hilarious stuff . . . that you have seen a thousand times before!

Five films then for your week ahead. When you have seen any one of these, or any one of those still out on General Release and Reviewed/Previewed in previous weeks, then drop a Comment below this or any other Post and share your thoughts with the Odeon Online World - we'd like to hear from you, and it's good to share! Enjoy your film!

Movies - see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

The 72nd Golden Globes - winners & grinners!

All the Hollywood glitz & glamour of the Golden Globe Awards unfolded for the 72nd time on Sunday 11th January at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Hosted once again by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the Golden Globes acknowledge excellence in film and American television, and are seen as the pre-cursor to the Academy Awards which will be held for the 87th time on 22nd February. Many of the winners & grinners walking away with a Golden Globe will be secretly hoping to snaffle a golden statue in a few weeks from now and catapult their film and/or television careers into the A-list big time! We'll see!

And so, for your reference in case you missed it, here are the main winners of the 2015 Golden Globe Awards.

    

Best Motion Picture  - Drama : 'BOYHOOD'
Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy : 'THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL'

Best Actor Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama : EDDIE REDMAYNE in 'THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING' (Australian release date : 29th January)
Best Actress Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama : JULIANNE MOORE in 'STILL ALICE' (Australian release date : 29th January)

Best Actor Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy : MICHAEL KEATON in 'BIRDMAN' (Australian release date : 15th January)
Best Actress Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy : AMY ADAMS in 'BIG EYES' (Australian release date : 5th February)

     

Best Supporting Actor Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama, Musical or Comedy : J.K. SIMMONS in 'WHIPLASH'

Best Supporting Actress Performance in a Motion Picture - Drama, Musical or Comedy : PATRICIA ARQUETTE in 'BOYHOOD'

Best Director : RICHARD LINKLATER for 'BOYHOOD'

Best Screenplay : ALEJANDRO GONZALES INARRITU for 'BIRDMAN' shared with Nicolás Giacobone, Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris Jr.

Best Animated Motion Picture : 'HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2'

Best Foreign Language Motion Picture : 'LEVIATHAN' (Russia)

Best Television Mini-Series : 'FARGO'

   

The votes then are in, the decisions made and the awards received by a handful of winners and grinners who for this year at least can lay claim to be up there amongst the best in the world of film and US TV. A bunch of movies here that have already been and gone and are now available to rent or buy, and few still yet to hit our screens. Do yourself a favour, and check out any one of these soon - you won't be disappointed!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-