INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY : Tuesday 4th July 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY' earlier this week. This long awaited and highly anticipated American action adventure film is Co-Written and Directed by James Mangold, whose previous film making credits take in his 1995 debut with 'Heavy' followed by the likes of 'Cop Land' in 1997, 'Girl, Interrupted' in 1999, 'Walk the Line' in 2005, '3:10 to Yuma' in 2007, 'The Wolverine' in 2013, 'Logan' in 2017 and 'Ford v Ferrari' in 2019. This film is the sequel to 2008's 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' and the fifth and final instalment in this five feature film franchise that began in 1981 with 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', then 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' in 1984 and 1989's 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'. Those first four films grossed worldwide US$1.99B off the back of combined production budgets of US$279M with each of those films being Directed by Steven Spielberg, who this time around takes an Executive Producer credit. With an estimated production budget of approaching US$300M it is the most expensive film in the Indiana Jones franchise, as well as one of the most expensive films ever made. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May where it received a five minute standing ovation, and was released worldwide last week, having so far grossed US$165M and garnered mixed or average reviews.

The film opens in 1944 during the WWII Allied liberation of Europe. Nazis capture Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford in his fifth and final outing as Indy) and Oxford archeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), as they attempt to retrieve the holy Lance of Longinus at Nuremberg Castle - considered to be a most important artifact for Hitler. Astrophysicist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) informs his Nazi superiors that the Lance is in fact fake, made of an alloy and probably no more than fifty years old, but instead he has found half of Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes. An astronomical calculator, it leads users to fissures in time. 

Voller's superior scoffs at the importance of the Dial saying that no one has ever heard of it, so how can it be so important. Jones escapes onto a Nazi train filled with a cargo of looted antiquities. He frees Basil and, after fighting Voller on the roof top of the speeding train at which Voller gets knocked off when he stands upright just as the train passes a signal, obtains the Dial-half. He and Basil leap from the train as it passes over a viaduct into the river below, just before the Allies bomb it.

We then fast track twenty-five years later to New York City in 1969. Jones, about to retire from his teaching job at Hunter College where he has been for the past ten years, has also been separated from his wife Marion since their son, Mutt, died in combat in the Vietnam War. Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Jones' goddaughter whom he has not seen for eighteen years, turns up one day unannounced paying him a visit. She is now also an archeologist, and is researching the Dial, but Jones warns how her late father, Basil, nearly went insane after years of trying to unlock its secrets. Basil reluctantly gave Jones the Dial to destroy it, but he never did, instead keeping it safely hidden in the archives of Hunter College. 

As Jones and Helena retrieve the Dial-half from the college's archives, Voller's henchmen attack them. Voller, now works for NASA under a new identity, and is assisted by a CIA group led by Agent Mason (Shaunette Renee Wilson). Unknown to Jones, Helena sells illegal antiquities to the highest bidder. She escapes with the Dial-half, exposing her intention to auction it on the black market in Morocco. Jones flees into a ticker-tape parade celebrating the Apollo 11 astronauts moon landing, and then an anti-Vietnam war protest, before escaping through the New York City Subway system on horseback. He seeks out his old friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), now a NYC cab driver. 

In Tangier, Jones prevents Helena from auctioning the Dial-half off to a bunch of would-be purchasers. Voller and his henchmen (Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters and Martin McDougall) arrive and steal the Dial, forcing Jones, Helena, and her teenage sidekick, Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore), to join forces and pursue them in an auto tuk tuk. After a frenetic chase through the side streets and alleyways of Tangier, Agent Mason apprehends Voller, who appears to have his own agenda. The US government, now reject Voller, want him neutralised, but Voller's men kill the CIA agents, including Mason, and steal their helicopter.

Jones, Helena, and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Jones's deep-sea diver friend, Renaldo (Antonio Banderas). They retrieve a 'graphikos' tablet from an ancient sunken ship in the Aegean Sea, made of wood and coated in wax with ancient inscriptions written upon the wax surface. Jones notices that the tablet is too heavy to be just wood and wax and so burns off the wax revealing a gold dial that contains cryptic directions to the Dial's other half. Voller kills Renaldo and Jones's group escape on board Voller's motorboat and head off to Archimedes's tomb in Sicily.

Inside a meandering cave system, Jones and Helena locate the tomb after negotiating several dangerous and unpleasant obstacles along the way. They uncover Archimedes skeletal remains which is clutching the second half of the Dial and Indy also observes that the skeleton is also holding a present day wrist watch, to which he remarks that timepieces hadn't been invented for another thousand years. Voller and his henchmen meanwhile are in hot pursuit and eventually catch up with Jones and capture him shooting him in the shoulder. Voller then reconnects the two halves of the Dial together and reveals his plan to travel back in time to 1939, to kill Adolf Hitler, and lead Germany to victory in World War II, having witnessed all the mistakes that Hitler made in his war efforts. Voller activates the Dial to open a time fissure and sets a flight course. Jones is held captive and bundled onto a plane, while Helena has sneaked on board by clambering through the landing gear. Meanwhile Teddy steals a light aircraft and pursues them through the opening.

When approaching the eye of the opening the plane begins to rattle, moving objects around uncontrollably. Jones observes this and comments that Voller's plan to land back in 1939 doesn't account for Continental Drift which wouldn't have been factored in when Archimedes lived, and so rather than arriving in 1939, the time fissure instead leads to the 212BC Siege of Syracuse. Roman warriors shoot projectiles at the approaching plane, believing it to be a dragon. Jones and Helena parachute out before it crashes, killing all on board, including Voller. Meanwhile, Teddy's plane lands safely with the aid of the sleeping owner who was woken up by the events unfolding. Helena observes the fissure is closing and urges they leave immediately. Archimedes arrives having seen the parachute, inspects the wreckage and finds Voller's burned and dead body and is captivated by his wristwatch. He gives Jones the Dial but is fascinated by the watch and keeps it. Jones and Helena learn that Archimedes created the Dial solely to bring users from the future to 212BC to aid the Greeks. As the fissure begins collapsing, Helena insists on getting the Hell outta Dodge. Jones, who is wounded, wants to remain behind saying his has nothing to return to, and he has studied this time period all his life. Fearing he may not survive or could change the course of history, Helena knocks him out cold with a single punch.

Jones comes round in his apartment back in 1969 with his shoulder heavily bandaged. He is greeted by Helena, Teddy, Sallah, and also Marion (Karen Allen), who has returned from the shops with bags full of groceries to restock his meagre supplies and to aid in his recovery. Helena, Teddy, Sallah and his two young children leave to go get ice cream, so that Jones and Marion can talk alone, and make up their differences. 

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' is entertaining enough and you're almost guaranteed a good time at the movies, but it lacks the bravura and the necessary spark that were the touchstones of its four predecessors. Director James Mangold certainly knows how to lay on the action set pieces, but here he lurches from one straight into another, and then another, followed by more of the same without too much regard for the script or exposition. Harrison Ford turns in a fine performance in the titular role, Phoebe Waller-Bridge certainly holds her own and Mads Mikkelsen as the antagonist of the piece is as menacing as he ever was albeit in an understated way. It is a fitting end to this movie franchise which has given us one of the most endearing screen characters of the last forty or so years that sees Indy and Marion reconcile and finally settle into their retirement. Amen to that!

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JURASSIC WORLD : FALLEN KINGDOM - Wednesday 27th June 2018.

'JURASSIC WORLD : FALLEN KINGDOM' which I saw this week is another much hyped highly anticipated sequel coming to our big screens in the form of this follow up offering to 2015's hugely successful 'Jurassic World' and the fifth instalment in the 'Jurassic Park' series. This film is intended to be the second in a planned trilogy of films, with the third due for release in June 2021, with Colin Trevorrow set to return to Directing duty. 'Jurassic World' made US$1.67B at the Global Box Office off the back of a US$150M Budget and making it the fifth highest grossing film of all time and the most financially successful in the franchise so far. Colin Trevorrow Co-Wrote and Directed the 2015 film, and this time he returns as Co-Writer and Executive Producer alongside Steven Spielberg, giving away the Directorial duties to J.A. Bayona whose previous Directing credits include 'The Orphanage', 'The Impossible' and 'A Monster Calls'. The principle cast reprise their roles, and the film was released in the US last week too. Off the back of a US$170M Budget, the film has so far grossed US$809M, and has received mixed Critical Reviews although Chris Pratt's performance, the Direction, the visuals and some of the darker moments have been worthy of praise.

Set three years after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park on Isla Nublar off Central America's Pacific Coast, the escaped dinosaur's have roamed freely, until now when their very existence is threatened by an impending volcanic eruption that is likely within the very near future to destroy their island sanctuary. As the film opens we see an underwater two man submarine manoeuvring in close proximity to the skeletal remains of the Indominus rex resting at the bottom of the former Jurassic World lagoon. They send out an circular saw on the end of an extended mechanical arm and remove a section of bone, and send it instantly to the surface to be retrieved by a helicopter crew, in the obligatory pouring rain.

Meanwhile in Washington, a Senate Committee debates with Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) whether the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar should be saved or allowed to perish in the pending volcanic eruption, which is likely to consume the whole island. Malcolm believes it should be the latter course of action to correct John Hammond's error of judgement in cloning the dinosaurs over twenty years ago. In the intervening period the former Operations Manager of Jurassic World, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has established the Dinosaur Protection Group in an attempt to save the dinosaurs from extinction. The Senate ultimately decides against the dinosaurs, which prompts John Hammond's former partner Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) to contact Dearing. Shortly afterwards, Dearing meets with Lockwood and his business associate Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) at his upstate Californian country mansion.

Lockwood is an ill man, confined to a wheelchair, has 24/7 aid at home, care of Iris (Geraldine Chaplin), and has entrusted Mills with pushing Lockwood’s fortune into the future and making it survive after he dies. Mills and Lockwood announce to Dearing that they have plans to relocate as many dinosaurs off Isla Nublar to a new island sanctuary where they will be safe, can roam free and where no tourists will be allowed to tread. Mills however, raised a concern about locating 'Blue' the last surviving Velociraptor. However, Dearing knows exactly the man for the job - one Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) the former Velociraptor trainer and handler from Jurassic World, and with whom she shared an emotional bond back then, but which has since cooled off considerably.

The rescue team comprising Dearing, Grady, Dr. Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) - a paleoveterinarian, and Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) - an IT systems analyst and hacker, arrive on Isla Nublar and are greeted by Ken Wheatly (Ted Levine) a seasoned mercenary who heads up the dinosaur rescue mission on the island (for a significant fee!). Grady, Rodriguez, Wheatly and the merry band of gun totting mercenaries head off in search of Blue, using the parks tracking system which has been rebooted by Webb. Owen, alone, tracks down Blue, and as the two are about to become reacquainted, a mercenary fires and shoots Blue, leading Wheatley to shoot Grady with a tranquilliser dart. Blue is boxed up and Rodriguez is tasked with saving its life. Grady is left on the ground where he fell.

Grady comes around just as molten red glowing lava steadily creeps up on him devouring the forest where he lay. Grady, with half the island dinosaur population, burst out of the forest as the volcano erupts spewing out billowing smoke, ash, lava and molten boulders all around them. He reunites with Dearing and Webb who have narrowly escaped an attack by a Baryonyx, and end up falling over a steep cliff into the ocean below to escape the destructive eruption. The three survive and are washed up on the shoreline, to see helicopters flying over head carrying their precious cargo of captured dinosaurs to be loaded on a waiting freight ship. The three board an abandoned truck and drive it onto the departing ship, to witness behind them the volcano destroy the island in a ball of fire, gas and smoke.

At the Lockwood mansion, his young granddaughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon) overhears a conversation in which Mills is discussing with auctioneer Gunnar Eversol (Toby Jones) his plans to secretly host an auction at the estate to sell off the collected dinosaurs each to the highest bidder, irrespective of what the bidders intentions are. In addition, Mills also raises introducing the Indoraptor, a genetically-engineered new breed of dinosaur created by former geneticist of both Jurassic World and Jurassic Park, Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) by using the DNA of the Indominus rex and a Velociraptor to ultimately weaponise it. Maisie tells Lockwood of Mills' plans, and in turn Lockwood confronts Mills saying that he is none too pleased and that he should call the Police to alert them. At that Mills smothers Lockwood with a cushion and kills him.

The dinosaurs are moved into the mansion, in individual cages in readiness for displaying in the auction room and the gathered multimillionaires from around the world. Rodriguez is back at the mansion, under duress overseeing the recovery of Blue. She is freed by Webb, who also releases Blue from its cage. Grady and Dearing are held in a cage while the auction gets underway. They manage to escape with the help of a head butting dinosaur in the neighbouring cage.

The pair find Maisie who lead them to a window overlooking the auction room, just as bidding on the Indoraptor ramps up to US$28M. With the help of his new head butting dinosaur friend, Grady disrupts the auction proceedings sending it in to chaos with bodies flying asunder. After the fracas has died down Wheatly enters the auction room and fires two tranquillisers into the Indoraptor. He then gingerly enters the cage, with the aim of extracting a trophy tooth to add to his growing collection of dinosaur molars. However, the Indoraptor is no ordinary dinosaur - it has intelligence and wits and comes around from its mock unconscious state and promptly rips off Wheatly's arm, before tearing him to shreds. It then exits thorough the opened cage door having munched on Eversol, and promptly attacks and kills various others.

The Indoraptor goes on the rampage tearing up the inside of the mansion while seeking out Grady, Dearing and youngster Maisie. Maisie runs off trying to divert the Indoraptor's attention, and promptly retreats to the sanctity of her bedroom, and hides under the bed covers, hoping the killer dinosaur won't spot her ruse.

Needless to say she under estimates the intellect of this beast who comes after her. Blue meanwhile, having been released by Rodriguez, tracks down the Indoraptor inside Maisie's bedroom and a fight breaks out, during which time Maisie and Grady escape through the bedroom window out onto a ledge. The duelling dinosaurs crash out onto the roof of the mansion, in the pouring rain once again sending them flailing in opposite directions. The Indoraptor is more sure footed and is hot on the heels of Grady and Maisie who have no where left to run, until Dearing appears followed by Blue. On the glass roof directly above Lockhart's dinosaur museum Blue and the Indoraptor fight it out, until the roof gives way and in falls the Indoraptor, impaling itself on the skeletal remains of a Triceratops skull.

Back inside the mansion when the dust has settled, Rodriguez alerts Grady and Dearing that a hydrogen cyanide tank has been ruptured and is leaking toxic gas, as a result of an earlier explosion when the proverbial brown stuff hit the fan when the Indoraptor was running amok. Furthermore the extraction system was down, meaning that all the caged dinosaurs would soon perish. Dearing has her hand hovering over an emergency override button that will open the huge doors and allow the dinosaurs to escape to freedom, but upon Grady's advice she can't bring herself to press the door release button, for fear of what dinosaurs walking amongst us in America's back yard would do to civilisation as we know it. The alternative is to let all the dinosaurs perish, and return Earth to normalcy without letting it slip back to the Jurassic age.

So instead, not wishing to allow the dinosaurs to become extinct once again, Maisie hits that button, the doors open, and out into the cool night air escape the dinosaurs. Mills does a bolt with the remains of the Indominus rex bone sample and is promptly trampled underfoot by a stampede of dinosaurs and is then ripped in two and devoured by a passing T-Rex and Carnotaurus. Grady and Dearing leave the estate with Maisie, after bidding farewell to Blue, who runs off into the surrounding forest under cover of night time with the other dinosaurs to roam far and wide and turn up in the most unexpected places.

In a further US Senate hearing, Dr. Malcolm advises that humans and dinosaurs now have no alternative but to learn to co-exist. Watch out for the post-credits sequence, which really adds nothing that you hadn't already worked out, but adds a teaser of sorts to the next instalment.

I enjoyed 'Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom' but not as much as the first instalment in this rebooted series of the franchise. For me, this offering really adds little new to the storyline that we haven't already seen before. Here Isla Nublar is destroyed in hails of fire and brimstone, and in 'Jurassic Park II and III' the action takes place largely on a neighbouring island of Isla Sorna after the annihilation of the original theme park. Also, we've seen T-Rex rampaging through downtown USA in San Diego towards the final set piece of 'Jurassic Park II', and here we are again, with the dino menace let loose in upstate California. That said, this is an enjoyable, fun, fairly mindless yet  well crafted enough follow up that demonstrates Bayona's skill at the visual art, eking enough of a coherent story to captivate the interest for two hours of run time and continuing the story arc even if a tad over zealously. At times suspenseful, at times humorous and even a little Gothic, and occasionally gory, but where else can this go now, other than seeing how dinosaurs interact with their human co-habitors, and I guess we know its going to end badly for one species. Well audiences have chipped in over US$800M so far making this film the third highest grossing film of 2018 to date, so it can't be all bad. Catch this dino creature feature on the big screen while you can.

'Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom' merits three claps of the clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE SNOWMAN : Tuesday 24th October 2017.

'THE SNOWMAN' which I saw earlier this week is potentially the first in what may turn out to be new film franchise for this Norwegian crime fighting detective Harry Hole, based on the Oslo Crime Squad character created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo in the popular series of novels that have been translated into forty languages, and having sold over thirty million copies worldwide. Harry Hole appears in eleven novels so far, first launched in 1997 with 'The Bat', taking us up to 2017 with the release of 'The Thirst'. 'The Snowman' upon which this film is based is the seventh book in the series and was published in 2007. This film is Directed by Tomas Alfredson, whose previous Directing credits include the acclaimed 'Let The Right One In' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. The film cost US$35M to bring to the big screen and has so far recouped US$23M, and has garnered generally lacklustre Reviews.

Research reveals that Harry Hole (here portrayed by Michael Fassbender) is a brilliant and driven detective prone to using unorthodox methods in his work, a classic loose cannon in the police force. Hole is unmarried and he has few close friends. He frequently makes enemies among his colleagues who, nevertheless, grudgingly respect him. He is a chain smoker and heavy drinker, although for the most part has his reliance on alcohol under control. The effects of his problems however, sometimes bring him into repeated conflict with his superiors, and some colleagues. Hole is also one of just a handful in the force to have undertaken special interrogation techniques and firearms training with the FBI.

Our film opens up on a desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling. Up pulls a VW Golf Police car, and out steps an overweight getting on in years man who delivers two gas cylinder bottles to the house, stashes them away inside and then sits down at the dining table with the mother of the household and her young teenage son. It is presumed to be sometime in the early 80's. The man tests the young lad on notable dates in history, and when the boy falters or answers incorrectly the women gets a stern beating. One such wrong answer sends the mother crashing backwards off her chair and onto the floor. Next up the young lad is spying on the mother and the man through the bedroom window as they have sex. When the boy is seen, the man hurriedly gets up out of the bed, gets dressed, storms out of the house ranting as he does so and speeds off in his car. The mother and boy give chase in the car across the spartan snow covered landscape. At some point the mother releases her hands from the steering wheel and the car careers off the road onto a frozen lake. The boy is screaming at his mother but she doesn't hear, her gaze fixed firmly on the road ahead, emotionless. The boy pulls on the handbrake and the car skids to a halt. He gets out of the passenger side door hearing the ice crack beneath the vehicle. His mother sits motionless as the boys struggles to open the drivers side door to free his mother. But she doesn't want to be freed as the vehicle slowly sinks into the icy depths below and disappears.

We then cut to the present day and waking up from a drunken stupor in a park shelter is Detective Harry Hole of the Oslo Police. He has been absent without leave for the past week or so, and meanders into the office to check on his mail, and is greeted by his superior officer with a reminder of leave protocols, a quick slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. He then ventures outside to a smoking balcony where he meets new recruit Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Fergusson) who has been assigned to his office. They exchange social niceties and go their separate ways, only to meet up hours later when Hole sees Bratt leaving for the day and catches a ride. She is on her way to a reported missing persons case, and Hole tags along. Meanwhile, in Hole's stash of mail is a handwritten cryptic letter sent directly from a supposed killer with a picture of a snowman at the bottom of the page - its plays on Hole's mind momentarily, but then he seems to dismiss it.

The missing person in question is Birte Becker (Genevieve O'Reilly) a married mother of a six or seven year old daughter. The night before her disappearance we see her car being followed by another on the way home from work. She arrives and is greeted by the young child, but the waiting father Filip Becker (James D'Arcy) is angry at her being late and he storms out of the house with bags packed on his way to some important business meeting out of town, leaving mother and daughter alone in the house. The next morning, the child wakes up and mother is gone. No sign of her, and a neighbour alerted the Police who send Bratt along to investigate. Outside in the garden is a squat snowman, with twigs for arms and coffee beans for a wry smile, gazing up the house.

The next case of a missing person requires a drive out to some remote farmstead for a case of a missing Sylvia Ottersen (Chloe Sevigny), but when they arrive Sylvia Ottersen is alive and well and shrugs it off as a prank call form her jilted boyfriend. Hole and Bratt leave from whence they came, only to be alerted over the Police band radio that Sylvia Ottersen has been reported missing . . . two minutes ago! They hastily turn around and return to the farmstead to be greeted by Ane Pedersen (Chloe Sevigny), Sylvia's identical twin, only to find the decapitated corpse of Sylvia Ottersen on the ground in the chicken shed. At this point Hole and Bratt surmise that the Snowman is playing with them and that he must have been watching them all along, calling in that Sylvia was missing even before she was butchered. Hole surveys the surrounding buildings and locates the head of Sylvia perched on top of a snowman at the bottom of a frozen abandoned silo.

In between time we catch glimpses of a back story featuring some Bergen based ace detective who came close to uncovering the Snowman murders some ten or fifteen years back. Detective Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer) was a drunken no nonsense kinda guy who met with a very sticky end at the hands of the Snowman, that was cleverly masked over to make it look like a suicide. When Hole goes to Bergen to investigate he is met by DC Svensson (Toby Jones) who simply reports that it was a plain and simple suicide and was therefore not investigated further. Hole, however, thinks there was more to it and examines further. His closer examination reveals a connection between Rafto and Bratt.

Another side story involves Arve Stop (J.K. Simmons) as an unscrupulous sinister media mogul who is spearheading Oslo's bid for the Winter Olympic Games which is about to be announced. Bratt has a feeling in her bones about Stop and goes undercover to investigate further, installing a hidden camera in his hotel room where she intends to proposition herself to him. Stop had dealings with Frederick Aasen (Adrian Dunbar) back in 2006 involving some kind of industrial development that went tits up leaving Aasen very bitter indeed. Needless to say it doesn't end well for Bratt as the Snowman gets to her first before Stop retires to his room for the night, and the Snowman has erased all footage from the hidden camera, and any evidence of a struggle.

The final plot scenario is the story of Hole's on again off again long term relationship with his ex-partner and art dealer Rakel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her teenage son Oleg (Michael Yates) by her first marriage. Hole feels more than a semi-fatherly connection to Oleg despite Rakel's husband Mathias (Jonas Karlsson) also playing adoptive father duty who works as a medical consultant specialist that sees him away quite often on business or attending conferences, so giving Rakel the chance to rekindle with Hole, albeit temporarily - a fact that Mathias seems to accept.

Meanwhile back to the chilling killing as the body count rises and dismembered corpses turn up in all manner of locations, there seems little to connect the murderous spree other than motherhood, by neglect, abortion, jealousy etc. while their mysterious vanishings seems to coincide with fresh snow fall. Hole seems to do little actual detective work here, leaving all the investigative work to Bratt only to come along at the end and join the dots and bish bash bosh the serial killer is out in the open and exposed back where it all began in that desolate snow covered mountain side dwelling where Rakel and Oleg's lives are hanging in the balance. Hole sits across the table from his two loved ones almost powerless having to answer questions that determine whether the electric motorised garrote held by the Snowman is tightened or loosened around Rakel's neck. Needless to say, it comes down to a face off on a frozen lake with Hole shot to the ground and the Snowman approaching ready to plug him again at close range to finish the job.

This is a disjointed film where, alas, the sum of its parts are not greater than the (Harry) Hole. With a strong ensemble supporting cast who for the most part are left wanting to do more with the little screen time and dialogue afforded them, the film meanders from one grizzly killing to the next while Hole and Bratt join the seemingly simple dots to expose the serial killer. Fassbender and Ferguson are well cast, but that alone can't save this film that is too busy with side stories that go nowhere and add little value instead of getting down and dirty with the detective work and concentrate on what drives The Snowman to commit his unthinkable crimes. When the quality of Scandinavian police driven crime drama film and television is so good, despite the snow covered Norwegian vistas, this film feels like a hurried by the numbers affair that I'm sure will leave the legions of fans of the source novel thinking WTF! If Harry Hole does return to the big screen in another adaptation, and Fassbender could do so easily, let's hope that the lessons learned from this first instalment bode well for any follow-up as there is just enough of a foundation to do so.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ATOMIC BLONDE : Thursday 27th July 2017

I saw 'ATOMIC BLONDE' at an advance screening at my local multiplex one week ahead of its Australian release on 3rd August. Directed by David Leitch in his first solo Directorial outing having served as the uncredited Co-Director on 'John Wick' with Chad Stahelski and having served his time over the years as Stunt Co-ordinator and Stuntman on more action films than you can poke a stick at, and in the capacity as Second Unit Director on a good many also, and occasional Producer and Actor too. Next up for this new Director is 'Deadpool 2' currently filming and due in 2018. This film is based on the 2012 graphic novel titled 'The Coldest City' by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, stars a strong cast and a thumping '80's soundtrack and cost US$30M to make. The film has so far garnered generally positive Reviews.

The film opens with the death of MI6 Agent James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave) at the hands of ruthless KGB Agent Yuri Bakhtin (Johannes Johannesson) who then proceeds to remove his wristwatch - for it contains microfilm detailing a List of covert field operatives working in the USSR, that is a very valuable commodity in this 1989 cold war era action spy thriller set on the eve of the Berlin Wall coming down and with it the shifting of superpower alliances. Fast forward ten days and in an ice cold bath emerges a very bruised, beaten-up and battered Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) - a top level MI6 Agent.

She steps out of her bath, pours herself a neat Stoli over rocks, gulps it down and makes herself presentable. She then appears in an interrogation room with MI6 Executive Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA Agent Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) to discuss the intricacies of her very recent mission to Berlin from which she has just returned, and is wearing the battle scars to prove it. The day following Gasciogne's death she is dispatched to Berlin by her superiors to recover the List, now missing in action, and identify, locate and dispense with a known Double Agent referred to as 'Satchel' who has been selling intelligence to the Ruskies for years, and who is believed to be responsible for betraying Gasciogne.

Upon arriving in Berlin, supposedly undercover and incognito, she is ambushed by KGB Agents working for a a lynchpin of the KGB and a generally unscrupulous kinda guy that you don't wanna cross, Aleksander Bremovych (Roland Moller). After a set piece involving Broughton's red stiletto and close quarter hand to hand combat inside a speeding car that doesn't end so well for the Russian's, she is met with very unceremoniously by her contact in Berlin - Agent David Percival (James McAvoy). Percival has been living and working in Berlin for the last ten years or so and is so deep undercover that there's not much he doesn't know about what's what and who's who in Berlin - on both the east and west sides of the Wall.

Later, having made slow progress with her investigations Broughton has a snoop around Gasciogne's apartment looking for any clues. She discovers a photograph of him and Percival indicating that the two men were close friends - a fact earlier denied by Percival. East German Police Officers arrive on the scene of the apartment and another close quarter hand to hand fist fight ensues with Broughton dispensing with them pesky Police types with her usual aplomb using a length of hose pipe and sundry household implements lying around the abode. She comes to realise that only Percival knew that she was going to Gasciogne's apartment, and suspects him of double crossing her to the authorities, and for potentially being Satchel.

Bakhtin meanwhile intends to sell the List to the highest bidder. Percival, having received word of this, arranges a rendezvous and then sticks a screwdriver in Bakhtin's forehead killing him outright stone dead, and takes the List for himself. Broughton in the meantime has met up with a sultry young undercover French Agent Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella) and the two are instantly drawn to each other. Percival meets with Bremovych to sell the List to him, but unknown to the pair is that Lasalle is covertly photographing their meeting.

Amongst all of this is a Soviet defector known as Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) who stole the List in the first place and is the only person to have sighted the contents of the List and has all its data committed to his memory. Spyglass also is a Stasi Officer. Percival has agreed to escort Spyglass and his family across the border into West Berlin, but during a large protest rally which Broughton, Percival and Spyglass use as cover to effect their escape to the West, Percival shoots Spyglass and sends word to Bremovych's men that the injured Spyglass and Broughton are on the run. More hand to hand combat follows, and all the while Spyglass is bleeding out from his shot to the stomach. The pair end up in  car which gets chased down the streets of East Berlin by Bremovych's henchmen. Eventually the car is shunted into the river - Broughton swims free but is unable to free a pinned down Spyglass who drowns in the passenger seat as the car sinks into the River.

After this fracas, Percival visits Lasalle, and kills her to cover his own tracks but not before the French Agent was able to stab Percival twice. Lorraine arrives just after Percival has left, discovering the dead body of Lasalle and an envelope with her name on it containing the covert photographs taken of Percival meeting with Bremovych, proving in her mind that Percival is Satchel. After Percival patches up his wounds, he sets his safe house alight and attempts to flee the city under cover of darkness. Broughton tracks him down, shoots him dead and removes the wristwatch containing the List.

Back in the present day and still in the interrogation room where Broughton has been dutifully recounting all the facts surrounding her Berlin assignment to Gray and Kurzfeld, she presents the photographs and an audio recording that she spliced together herself that show that Percival was Satchel. She also denies all knowledge of the whereabouts of the List, forcing MI6 to shut down the case.

Three days later and Broughton meets with Bremovych in a Paris hotel suite, and she reveals herself to be Satchel, and in possession of the List, which she hands over to the Russian mobster. Bremovych knows however, that he has been set up and has his three henchmen and a 'cleaner' enter the room to dispense with Broughton and dispose of her body. Using a pistol concealed in an ice bucket, Broughton instead dispenses with the three henchmen and the cleaner, and then puts a bullet in Bremovych's head, but not before revealing first that she has been playing all sides along from the get go. Broughton then boards a private jet, where she meets Kurzfeld revealing herself to be a mole planted by the CIA, and hands over to him the wristwatch containing the List, before the pair depart for Langley . . . job done!

There a lot to like about this film - the pounding soundtrack featuring many late '80's greats including Depeche Mode, New Order, Public Enemy, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Blondie, Duran Duran, David Bowie, George Michael and Nena; the well choreographed action fight sequences; the performances by McAvoy who chews up the screen and the dialogue, and Theron too proving herself to be a bona fide kick ass female action star; and the attention to detail in capturing the mood, the fashion, the sounds of the era. But for all of that I swear that Lorraine Broughton must be John Wick's Mum and she taught him everything she knows, because in the intense gun play and the close quarter fight scenes there are plenty of similarities with John Wick's previous two instalments. The plot we have seen before too (1996's 'Mission : Impossible') and as such it's pretty standard fare, that is saved from its predictability by the stylish and fast paced action. The film has so far grossed US$25M and I guess if it gets enough bums on seats, there is scope for a follow-on instalment.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-