We've just had the shortest day marking mid-Winter here in Australia, meaning that it's all down hill now to Summer, and what better way to spend a mid-Winter's afternoon or evening holed-up in your local picture palace with a mate or loved one checking out one of this weeks three new releases to hit our silver screens. Just in time for our school holidays is a mega-budget big action blockbuster that you've seen three previous times but is still sure to please the teenagers amongst us! Then we have a couple of offerings to please the more discerning adults amongst us that give us an insightful bio-pic into the realms of one of the 20th Century's most influential designers; and finally a French foreign language natural disaster film impacting on two individuals who's mutual dislike for each other must be overcome to achieve their collective goal!
Sound interesting . . . I thought so! Get out to your local movie theatre this coming week and check out one of these, or any one of a raft of quality material still on general release - and then let me know your thoughts! Pleasant viewing!
TRANSFORMERS : AGE OF EXTINCTION (Rated M) - let out for their fourth instalment of this franchise Michael Bay is once again bombarding us with bigger, bolder, brassier, budget busting transforming action delivered on an epic scale . . . but, does this make it any better? The cast has changed and out goes Shia LaBeouf and in comes Mark Wahlberg who is unwittingly destined to save the world aided and abetted by a gang of Autobots and one Optimus Prime. Theses latter Transformers however, have not changed, and all the usual mechanised galacticly engineered hunks of metal are back once again, with some additional never before seen mechanised galacticly engineered hunks of metal. This time though there is a new ancient foe to do battle with and wreak havoc over from one corner of our world to the other - and of course they are strong, fearless, determined, won't take shit from anybody and won't take no for an answer! But, they haven't met Mark Wahlberg and we all know he can be a badass when he wants to be! So right on cue there will of course be intense battle scenes, eye popping CGI, inventive explosions, creative deaths, more destruction on a scale only seen in the last epic disaster flick to hit our screen just fifteen minutes ago, a little bit of gratuitous eye candy, and a story that is probably paper thin! How long can this series go on for I wonder, given that each outing is just a pumped up hyped up reinvented version of the one that went before! In short the answer comes down to the movie going public and its global box office haul at the end of the day. To be enjoyed by teenagers the world over. Bring on Transformers 5!
YVES SAINT LAURENT (Rated M) - The story of the man himself, the haute couture designer that shaped the fashions of the latter half of the 20th Century, and whose influence is still seen today. Tracing his rise to fame from the mid-50's and the following twenty years that were not without incident, his relationship with lover Pierre Berge, and all the glitz, glamour, creativity, fashions and vision of this fashion icon. Starring Pierre Niney in the title role, this film has been made as authentically as possible and with the full cooperation and endorsement of the Foundation of Yves Saint Laurent. Directed by Jalil Lespert, this film gives us an insight into YSL's homosexuality and that relationship with Berge that probably saved him ultimately from his over indulgent drug & alcohol abuse at the time. For lovers of well crafted bio-pics, those with an interest in fashion and those who clothed a generation (or two or three), then this should be a must-see for you.
THE VOLCANO (Rated M) - Here we have bitterly divorced couple, Alain and Valerie (played by Dany Boon and Valerie Bonneton respectively) who share a mutual hatred for each other in every sense being forced together to get to their daughters wedding on a Greek island after being grounded at the airport thanks to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull. With their singular mission in mind - to get to the wedding by almost any means possible - they resort to travelling by planes, trains and automobiles and anything else they can muster to complete their journey successfully from Paris to Greece and be with their daughter on her special day. Along the way they fight, beg, borrow, steal, fight some more, shout abuse, try to bury the hatchet, shout more abuse and then fight again as their journey progresses. Directed by Alexandre Coffre, the team behind this movie also brought you
'The Intouchables' and
'Heartbreaker', and this is currently the #1 at the French box office. Not your average volcanic disaster film, but looks good entertaining fun nonetheless.
Once more, three very different movies to entice you out this coming week for a couple of hours of escapism, entertainment and excitement on the silver screen. Enjoy your experience, and drop me a line with your own Review.
Movies, see as many as you can!
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
Eli Herschel Wallach was born in Brooklyn on December 7th 1915 and died earlier this week in Manhatten on June 24th 2014 - aged 98. Married to wife and at times fellow acting companion Anne Jackson since 1948, they had three children together Peter, Katherine and Roberta.
Wallach's first acting role was in 1949 and his stage, TV and film career spanned six decades taking in almost 170 acting credits and 90 movies during that period. He studied under the famed Lee Strasberg and was one of the founding members of 'The Actors Studio' and subsequently went on to become one of cinema's greatest character actors. His film career saw him work alongside many of cinema's greats including the likes of Gable, Monroe, Wayne, Widmark, Fonda, Peck, O'Toole, McQueen, Brynner, Eastwood, Nicholson and Pacino. Starring too in numerous TV films and TV series he also played 'Mr. Freeze' in the mid-60's Batman TV show.
In 2011 he was honoured by the Academy with an Honorary Award 'For a lifetime's worth of indelible screen characters'. All up he was the recipient of eight award wins and a further six nominations including in 1957 the Golden Globe nomination for 'Baby Doll', and that same year a BAFTA win for the same film for 'Most Promising Newcomer'.
His film and acting credits are numerous, but perhaps he is most recognisable as 'Tuco', the Ugly one in Sergio Leone's classic 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'. In addition there was 'Baby Doll', 'The Lineup', 'The Misfits', The Magnificent Seven', 'How the West Was Won', 'Lord Jim', 'How to Steal a Million', 'Mackenna's Gold', 'The Deep', 'The Hunter', 'The Two Jakes', 'The Godfather III', and a little more recently 'Mystic River' and 'Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps'. In demand right up to the end, his filmography lives on with over sixty years of varied contribution.
Eli Wallach - Rest In Peace
