Friday 31 March 2017

LIFE : Tuesday 28th March 2017.

I was keen to see 'LIFE' which I caught earlier on in the week. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, whose previous credits include 'Child 44' and 'Safe House', this Horror Sci-Fi, was made for US$58M, was released in the US and Australia on 23rd March, has so far grossed US$32M and garnered average reviews. This I have to say, I find a little surprising because I, for one enjoyed this isolated space station romp that has elements of 'Alien', 'Gravity' and 'Sunshine' in its make-up, and serves as a pre-cursor to the eagerly awaited much grittier 'Alien : Covenant' due in May this year, courtesy of franchise originator Ridley Scott.

The film is set entirely aboard an International Space Station sometime in the near future where the six-man crew successfully intercept an off course satellite probe returning from Mars with soil samples inside.

The crew is tasked with analysing that sample for what may prove to be the first signs of extra terrestrial life. British biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) who is expert in life forms beyond Earth, is able to extract a single cell from the soil samples, and sparks it into life by making adjustments to the nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide mixture he exposes it to, together with a dose of glucose. As time goes on the cell quickly grows into a multi-celled organism that begins to react to external stimulus.

Upon further analysis, and given the rate of growth Derry and British Quarantine Officer Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Fergusson) determine that each cell in the organism is a highly evolved muscle, brain and eye, all at once. As the days pass and become a couple of weeks the crew go about their normal space station routines - they eat, sleep, exercise, joke around and celebrate the birth of Japanese Systems Engineer Sho Murakami's (Hiroyuki Sanada) baby which he viewed live on screen. The next day or so there is an atmospheric leak in the lab where the organism is securely contained, causing it to become dormant. Derry attempts to reanimate it using a mild electric shock.

In so doing, after a number of seemingly unsuccessful attempts, the organism latches onto Derry's hand with an inordinate strength and wraps itself increasingly tightly around his lower arm. As Derry struggles to break free, so the vice like grip worsens. Derry's Space Station colleagues look on in horror from the other side of the lab containment wall, fearful of what action to take. Eventually Derry breaks free, but his hand is crushed, limp and bloody.

The organism breaks free from its contained examination cube, demonstrating its intelligence, and into the secure lab where Derry is nursing his crushed hand. American engineer and pilot of the International Space Station Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) enters the room in an attempt to rescue his colleague. By now the organism has devoured a lab rat and has grown further in size almost instantly. Sensing the presence of another human, the organism attaches itself to Adams leg and begins to crawl upwards. At this point all Hell has broken out. American Senior Medical Officer Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) locks Rory inside the lab, so securing the organism, which Adams then attacks with a handheld incinerator device. But the organism it seems is able to withstand intense heat, and evades Adams attempts to kill it, by manoeuvering itself around the enclosed room with speed and agility. When the incinerator runs out of gas, and Adams attempt to foil that pesky alien critter have failed, that organism attaches itself to his face and slides into his mouth - killing Adams from the inside. Minutes later, with Adams body contorted and spitting globules of blood from his mouth, the organism emerges, having grown bigger again. Using an emergency fire suppression vent as a means of escape, the organism breaks out of the lab, and now has the run of the Space Station.

All means of communication with Earth suddenly are cut off. Russian crew Commander Katarina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya) takes it upon herself to take a space walk to repair what is believed to be a broken antenna. In repairing the damage she notices that coolant has been drained from a reservoir and assumes that the organism has consumed it as a means of feeding itself. At this point the organism escapes through the antenna valve and promptly attacks Golovkina during her space walk, trying to gain entry through her space suit. In the ensuing struggle, her suits coolant system is ruptured pouring liquid coolant inside her suit - effectively drowning her.  Her limp lifeless body drifts off into space.

The organism gains entry back inside the Space Station. The remaining crew hatch a plan to make the organism dormant again by sealing themselves into one single module and venting all the atmosphere out of the remaining Station. In doing so, Derry goes into cardiac arrest. Jordan and North are able to resuscitate him, but only to see movement under his trouser leg. The organism has attached itself to Derry's leg and is feeding off him. Derry is paraplegic and so had no sense of touch or feeling in his legs. When the organism is revealed it has grown again, and is now a much larger more menacing tentacled creature than before even. It lunges to attack the there remaining crew who all head off in different directions. Sho heads to the sleeping quarters and quickly locks himself inside his sleeping pod with the organism hot on his heels. It attempts to break into the pod by crushing the glass, but is unsuccessful. Jordan and North attempt to tease the organism away from Sho, using the corpse of Derry as bait, and they are successful in locking it inside a module to deprive it of oxygen.

When a Russian Soyuz Capsule docks with the Space Station in response to an emergency SOS call before all communications were lost, Sho makes a dash for it believing this to be a rescue mission. The reality is however, that the Soyuz is there to push the Space Station into deep space, so preventing the organism from ever reaching Earth, where it will wipe out mankind, as it is believed to have done on Mars. The Soyuz Capsule docks against the module where the organism is contained, and in opening the hatch to gain entry, Sho is immediately attacked as are the crew of the Russian craft. Causing a docking breach, the Soyuz capsule is pushed backwards where it spirals out of control and crashes into the Stations vital infrastructure.

The collision causes the oxygen levels and the temperature to plummet very quickly. Jordan has a plan involving two escape pods, each of which are pre-programmed to auto-pilot back down to Earth.  He takes it upon himself to lure the organism into his pod and manually override the auto-pilot command and head out into deep space so sacrificing himself but ensuring that the organism cannot be Earthbound. He fears that the organism would likely survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, and so this is the only option. This will create the necessary distraction to allow North to make a clean getaway in the other escape pod.

Jordan lures the organism into his pod with heat sticks given that the temperatures now on board have dropped to dangerously low levels. Meanwhile North clambers in to hers. Her pod is knocked off course when it hits debris from the earlier collision. The organism attacks Jordan while he is trying to control the trajectory of his pod. At first the pods are side by side, but with the ensuing dilemma confronting both survivors, they soon divert and head off in different directions - one bound for home, and the other for deep space.

There will be obvious comparisons here to Ridley Scott's ground breaking 'Alien' and that would be hardly surprising, especially given the imminent arrival in a couple of months of his 'Alien : Covenant' which is already gaining much publicity. At a brisk running time just on one hundred minutes or so, this film propels you into the action fairly quickly, and layers on the suspense, but there are no jump scares in this film that you might expect from its horror tag. It is well acted, well crafted, looks impressive and delivers exactly what you would expect from a stranded all alone educated and level headed expert crew battling an evil unknown alien foe that is capable of wiping out all humankind, and prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good in the process. We've seen films of this type for decades, and there are a few that deliver a much better result, but equally there are plenty that fall way short of 'Life'. The film works on many levels, and I enjoyed the ride, and it is certainly worth the price of your ticket.

 
-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Wednesday 29 March 2017

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 30th March 2017.

With the release of 'The Lego Batman Movie' this week, it may come as a surprise to some that Lego have in fact been producing films and television series for a good number of years now. Lego officially broke into the movie making business back in 2003 with a series of films based on their 'Bionicle' range at first in conjunction with Miramax for the initial trilogy, and then with Universal for a reboot. After four films in the 'Bionicle' franchise between 2003 and 2009, Lego followed this up with their first feature length CGI animated adventure comedy 'Lego : The Adventures of Clutch Powers' which spawned a mini-sequel and a short film. In 2005 Lego capitalised upon their tie in with the Star Wars franchise with a number of short films and television specials, which has so far yielded ten such stories right up to 2016. Since 2013 there have also been a range of seven Lego Superhero films based on the DC Universe mostly featuring Batman, and the Justice League, with two short 22 minute films featuring our friends from the Marvel Universe too. The Lego Ninjago series has been hugely popular in its television series format running for six years so far over 64 episodes to date with a full length feature offering due later in 2017. In the meantime there has also been 'The Hero Factory' series, 'Lego Scooby-Doo' series and the 'Lego Friends' series and other one offs based on popular films and television series including Monty Python's Holy Grail, Indiana Jones, Jurassic World, Atlantis, and The Simpsons. In collaboration with Warner Animation Group Lego have so far released the hugely successful 'The Lego Movie' in 2014, 'The Lego Batman Movie' this year and as Previewed below, with 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' due in November, and with 'The Lego Movie Sequel' and 'The Billion Brick Race' both in development for 2019.

Turning form CGI driven animated interlocking bricks to the coming week, we have five new cinematic releases that offer a high octane Sci-Fi actioner set in a Japan of the near future and based on a cyber manga franchise now approaching thirty years old. We then have a small interconnecting bricks DC character inspired film about Gotham City's finest Superhero going head to head and brick to brick with his arch nemesis and just about every other arch criminal from popular culture you care to remember; before moving onto two critically acclaimed Foreign Language Film offerings that were both up for the Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Oscar Awards Ceremony - one from Denmark and a true account of young German POW forced to clean up their own mess in a small corner of Denmark immediately following the end of the war, and the second from Sweden about a grumpy old man. We then wrap up with an animated reboot of little blue and white critters who have been going strong for fifty years or so and whose latest adventure takes them on a journey of discovery, secrets and danger.

When you have sat through any one of these films as Previewed below, or those as Reviewed and Previewed amongst these previous Blog pages, be sure to leave your valued, constructive and relevant feedback, by leaving your movie going thoughts and opinions in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your film in the coming week.

'GHOST IN THE SHELL' (Rated M) -  is a Japanese media franchise that had it origins way back in 1989, having been published as a series of comics aimed squarely at the youth and more mature male market written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow which is the pen name for manga artist Masanori Ota whose works under this title have subsequently led to two theatrical anime movies, two anime television series, an anime television movie, a theatrical live action movie, and several video games. The original premise told of the fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation Public Security Section 9 (a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives) led by protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi in mid-21st Century Japan. Here, computer technology has advanced to the point where many members of the public possess cyberbrains, technology that allows them to interface their biological brain with a variety of networks. The level of cyberization varies from basic minimal interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic components, in cases of severe trauma. This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body enabling a person to become a cyborg. Major Motoko Kusanagi, is such a cyborg, having had a terrible accident as a child that ultimately required her to use a full-body prosthesis to house her cyberbrain.

With that lesson over, this live action version finally hits our screens this week after some time of dazzling Previews. Directed by Rupert Sanders in only his second feature film outing after 2012's 'Snow White and the Huntsman', this film adaptation centres around Major (Scarlett Johansson) - the first of a kind cyber-enhanced human who has been perfectly engineered to be the prefect soldier who exists only to stop the world's most dangerous notorious criminals. With technology reaching new heights that allows terrorists to hack into  the minds of the people and ultimately take control of them, the Major is best qualified to stop them. As Major steps up to the plate to vanquish her dastardly foe, she learns that she has been lied to and everything about her life is not as she was led to believe - that she was not saved and made in to what she is today, but rather her life was stolen! She will stop at nothing therefore to recover her past and stop those responsible before others befall the same fate. Also starring Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche, Takeshi Kitano and Pilou Asbaek.

'THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE' (Rated PG) - featuring an all star voice cast this film is a spin off from the hugely successful 2014 'The Lego Movie' which took a cool US$470M from its US$60M production budget. This instalment is Directed by Chris McKay on a budget of US$80M and has so far grossed US$293M since its US release in early February. Here the story centres around Bruce Wayne (aka Batman, aka the voice of Will Arnett) who is living the reclusive life in his mansion with his Butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes). When he's not fighting crime, his arch nemesis The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) musters up all the super crims he can possibly round up to thwart Gotham City's Batman once and for all. Meanwhile new Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) suggests to the Batman that he should take on a closer working relationship with the local city law enforcement authorities. Following some sort of misunderstanding Wayne inadvertently adopts orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) and so it boils down to Wayne, Grayson, Alfred and Gordon to save Gotham from the Joker and his army of  super villains. Also starring the voice talents of Eddie Izzard, Seth Green, Zoe Kravitz, Mariah Carey,  Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Adam DeVine and Billy Dee Williams amongst others. 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' is due for release at the back end of 2017, with a sequel to this film already announced for an early 2019 release.

'LAND OF MINE' (Rated MA15+) - this Danish/German Co-production had its Premier at TIFF in September 2015, and was released in its native Denmark in early December 2015. Only now does this highly acclaimed foreign language offering arrive into Australian cinema's off the back of 26 award wins and nineteen further nominations including a Best Foreign Language Film nod at this years recent Academy Awards. Telling the true WWII story of the days immediately after the surrender of Germany in May 1945 when a group of about 2,000 German Prisoners of War were handed over to Danish authorities and sent out to the west coast where they were forced to clear up to two million land mines buried in the sand along the coastal beaches there by the Germans when they occupied the country. Many were teenagers and all were ill equipped to get down on their hands and knees and carry out such dangerous work. One such group under the unscrupulous supervision of Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen (Roland Moller) did it tough with his unrelenting unsympathetic views towards his former occupiers. Many lost their lives in doing so. As the days and weeks pass by, Rasmussen however, grows more and more conflicted in his feelings towards the young lads under his charge - especially, one, the protective and natural leader of the group Sebastian Schumann (Louis Hofmann). A tale of tragedy, tension, compassion and the human spirit as Directed and Written by Martin Zandvliet, this film cost US$5.2M to make and has so far grossed US$2.2M.

'A MAN CALLED OVE' (Rated M) - another Best Foreign Language Film nominee at this years Academy Awards was this Swedish comedy drama film Written and Directed by Hannes Holm and based on the 2012 book of the same name by Fredrik Backman. Released in its native Sweden at Christmas time 2015, this film only now too has a limited release in Australia, but being the recipient of thirteen award wins and another 22 nominations, may be well worth hunting out. Telling the story of Ove (Rolf Lassgard), a grumpy, ill tempered, opinionated and isolated retiree who spends his time  enforcing the rules and regulations around the residential estate where he lives, and visiting the graveyard of his dearly beloved wife. When he finally decides to check out by his own hand, he quickly comes to realise that suicide is not a easy as he thought, and to make matters worse when new neighbours move in next door, an unlikely friendship unfolds that gives the grumpy old man a different perspective on life. The film has so far taken US$26M at the Box Office.

'SMURFS : THE LOST VILLAGE' (Rated G) - the Smurfs date back to the late 1950's in French/Belgian comics, and in the last sixty of so years the Smurfs have evolved to take in animated feature films, television series, video games, music recordings, merchandise, theme park rides, and even 'Smurfs on Ice' (not the illicit type either, although . . . !) As recently as 2011 there have been what was originally said to be a trilogy of films from Sony Pictures Animation launching with the live action/CGI offering 'The Smurfs' which grossed a cool US$564M. In 2013 along came 'The Smurfs 2' which grossed US$348M. Now in 2017, Directed by Kelly Asbury we have this rendition that is not a sequel to the 2013 Smurf outing but a fully animated reboot of the franchise and is unrelated to the earlier two movies. Here we find Smurfette (Demi Lovato) trying to find her place in the village. She comes across a mysterious map in the Forbidden Forest which prompts her, and her friends Brainy (Danny Pudi), Clumsy (Jack McBrayer) and Hefty (Joe Manganiello) to locate a lost village where SmurfStorm (Michelle Rodriguez), SmurfLily (Ariel Winter), SmurfWillow (Julia Roberts) and SmurfBlossom (Ellie Kemper), SmurfMelody (Meghan Trainor) and others live, and in so doing discover the biggest secret in all of Smurfdom. Along the way their journey is full of action, adventure, surprise, danger and discovery, but the clock is ticking too, and the evil wizard Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) is on the hunt and on their tails! Also starring the voice talents of Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf and Gordon Ramsay (yes, the Celebrity Chef!) as Baker Smurf and others, of course.

Five new movie offerings this week to drag you out kicking and screaming to your nearby cinema that offers something for the kids, something for the family, something for the Sci-fi action geeks and something for the lovers of foreign language independent fare. Share your movie going thoughts with us here, and in the meantime, I'll see you somewhere, sometime at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Saturday 25 March 2017

Birthday's to share this week : 26th March - 1st April 2017

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Warren Beatty does on 30th March - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 80, 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 26th March
  • Keira Knightley - Born 1985, turns 32 - Actress | Singer
  • Alan Arkin - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer
  • James Caan - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actor
  • Martin Short - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Alan Silvestri - Born 1950, turns 67 - Composer | Songwriter | Conductor
  • Martin McDonagh - Born 1970, turns 47 - Director | Producer | Writer
  • Francis Lawrence - Born 1971, turns 46 - Director | Producer
Monday 27th March
  • Julian Glover - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actor
  • Michael York - Born 1942, turns 75 - Actor
  • Stephen Dillane - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor
  • Quentin Tarantino - Born 1963, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
  • Holiday Grainger - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actress
Tuesday 28th March
  • Dianne Weist - Born 1948, turns 69 - Actress
  • Julia Stiles - Born 1981, turns 36 - Actress | Director  | Writer
  • Mike Newell - Born 1942, turns 75 - Director | Producer
  • Brett Ratner - Born 1969, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Actor
  • Vince Vaughn - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Nick Frost - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Richard Kelly - Born 1975, turns 42 - Director | Producer | Writer
Wednesday 29th March
  • Eric Idle - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer | Songwriter
  • Brendan Gleeson - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor
  • Christopher Lambert - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Michael Winterbottom - Born1961, turns 56 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor
  • Ed Skrein - Born 1983, turns 34 - Actor
  • Lucy Lawless - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actress | Singer
Thursday 30th March
  • Warren Beatty - Born 1937, turns 80 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
  • Paul Reiser - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Robbie Coltrane - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Singer
Friday 31st March
  • Richard Chamberlain - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actor
  • Christopher Walken - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Singer
  • Ewan McGregor - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer | Singer
Saturday 1st April
  • Barry Sonnenfeld - Born 1953, turns 64 - Director | Producer | Actor | Cinematographer
  • Tomas Alfredson - Born 1965, turns 52 - Director | Actor | Writer | Editor
  • David Owelowo - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Producer
  • Asa Butterfield - Born 1997, turns 20 - Actor
  • Ali McGraw - Born 1939, turns 78 - Actress
Henry Warren Beaty was born in Richmond, Virginia, USA to mother Kathlyn MacLean, a drama teacher, and father Ira Owens Beaty, a public school administrator and part time Real Estate Agent. At age eight the family moved to Arlington, Virginia. Beaty became interested in film even before his teenage years, often joining his older sister - actress, singer, dancer, author and activist Shirley MacLaine, to the theatre.  Having seen his sister rise to early prominence in Hollywood, he was himself encouraged to find work somewhere doing something in the industry, initially as a stagehand at the National Theatre in Washington D.C. before commencing his senior year at high school. At Washington-Lee High School in Arlington he was a star football player having been allegedly offered football scholarships to ten different colleges. He rejected them all to study liberal arts at the acclaimed Northwestern University. Having completed just a year, he moved to New York City where he enrolled at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, under Stella Adler. In early 1960, Beaty enlisted in the California Air National Guard, and was discharged a year later due to a physical disability.

At the start of his acting career Beaty changed the spelling of his surname to Beatty. In the lead up to his first big screen role, Beatty saw out the late '50's with a string of television series appearances. These included the popular anthology series of the time 'Studio One', 'Kraft Television Theatre' and 'Playhouse 90'. He became a regular on the sitcom 'The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis' during its first season. In 1961 Beatty gained his breakout big screen role in Ella Kazan's romantic drama film 'Splendor in the Grass' opposite Natalie Wood. The film was a critical and commercial success gaining Beatty a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, and a Golden Globe win for New Star of the Year - Actor.

The remaining '60's saw 'The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone' opposite Vivien Leigh; 'All Fall Down' for Director John Frankenheimer with Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury; 'Lilith' with Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda and Gene Hackman, 'Mickey One' for Director Arthur Penn; 'Promise Her Anything' with Leslie Caron and an uncredited Donald Sutherland; 'Kaleidoscope' with Susannah York; and then 1967 classic biographical crime drama 'Bonnie and Clyde' for Director Arthur Penn again and with Beatty playing Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway his partner in crime Bonnie Parker. That film returned US$70M (back in 1967) off its US$2.5M budget outlay and was hailed a critical success too. It is said that 'Bonnie and Clyde' opened the floodgates for violence in cinema and was seen as groundbreaking for its time having influenced many films since. The film won two Academy Awards and a further eight nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Lead Role nominations for Beatty, who also Produced the film. It also picked up seven Golden Globe nominations and three BAFTA nominations in its total awards haul of 22 wins and 27 nominations.

The '70's kicked off with 'The Only Game in Town' opposite Elizabeth Taylor - a Box Office bomb recovering just US$1.5M from its US$10M outlay with very average critical Reviews at best too, and saw Director George Stevens retire from his craft completely. Next up was the Robert Altman Written and Directed Modern Western 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' with Beatty starring as gambler John McCabe opposite Julie Christie's Constance Miller, for which the Actress picked up an Academy Award nomination for her role. '$' came next with Goldie Hawn and Gert Frobe, followed by the political thriller 'The Parallax View' Directed by Alan J. Pakula.

The latter half of the decade saw 'Shampoo' that was Produced, Co-Written, and starred Beatty together with Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, and an early appearance by Carrie Fisher. The film took US$60M at the worldwide Box Office from its US$4M budget, and picked up numerous accolades including a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Lee Grant, plus three other nominations, together with five Golden Globe nods and a BAFTA nod too. That same year saw 'The Fortune' for Director Mike Nichols with Jack Nicholson and Stockard Channing. 'Heaven Can Wait' which Beatty Co-Directed, Produced, wrote the Screenplay for and also starred in was a critical and commercial success again, taking US$82M at the global Box Office off the back of its US$15M budget investment. The film won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction, and another eight nominations - four of which were for Beatty for Best Picture (as Producer), Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The film also won three Golden Globes, and all up garnered nine award wins and a further thirteen nominations. Co-starring with Beatty were Julie Christie once again, James Mason, Charles Grodin, Jack Warden, and Dyan Canon.

During the '80's Beatty starred in just two films. 1981 saw the hugely successful epic historical drama film 'Reds' which  he Directed, Produced, Co-write the Screenplay for and starred in as journalist John Reed alongside Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino and Gene Hackman. The film was not a huge commercial success raking in just US$41M from its US$32M budget, but it was hailed a critical success picking up three Academy Award wins for Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress for Maureen Stapleton, plus another nine nominations of which three others went to Beatty for Best Picture, Best Lead Actor and Best Screenplay. He also won the Best Director Golden Globe plus six other nominations from a total awards haul of 22 wins and 34 nominations. 1987 saw a film that couldn't have been more polar opposite. The action adventure comedy 'Ishtar' was a huge Box Office failure and was dubbed as one of the worst films ever made. Co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Charles Grodin the film made just US$14M from its US$51M budget, and it was the last films that Writer/Director Elaine May made, and it was nine years before she took another Screenwriting credit.

1990 saw Beatty back in the Directors chair with Producing and acting credits too in 'Dick Tracy' - the primary coloured action comedy film based on the iconic 1930's comic strip character of the same name. Featuring an ensemble cast that saw Beatty in the title role with Al Pacino, Madonna, Charles Durning, Dick Van Dyke, Kathy Bates, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Sorvino, James Caan, and Catherine O'Hara amongst others, the film took US$163M at the Box Office from its US$46M budget and received generally mixed critical Reviews. Beatty had always hoped that the film would lead to a franchise, but the lacklustre Box Office and legal wranglings over film and television rights have thus far prevented otherwise. 'Dick Tracy' did win nine awards and another 32 nominations, including three Academy Award wins, two BAFTA wins and four other Academy Award nods, four Golden Globe and five BAFTA nominations.

'Bugsy' followed in 1991 - the story of Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel known as one of the most infamous and feared gangsters of his day, and the driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Beatty starred as Bugsy in this Barry Levinson Directed film that was Co-Produced by Beatty and saw him star alongside his love interest Virginia Hill (Annette Benning), with Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould and Joe Mantegna. The film took close to US$50M from a $30M budget and was very well received critically, picking up two Academy Award wins and another eight nominations including Best Lead Actor for Beatty, plus the Best Picture Golden Globe and a another seven nominations from its total haul of twelve wins and 34 nominations. He would Co-star with Annette Benning again in 1994 in the romantic drama film 'Love Affair' which was again Produced by Beatty and written for the screen by him too. Despite its strong cast that also included Katherine Hepburn (in her last screen role), Gary Shandling, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Capshaw, Harold Ramis and Ray Charles the film grossed just US$18M from its US$60M budget costs.

The 1998 political comedy film 'Bulworth' was Directed, Produced, Written and starred Beatty once again, and he came up with the story too. Starring as Senator Jay Billington Bulworth who seeks political re-election while dodging a hired assassin, the film also starred Oliver Platt, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, Sean Astin, William Baldwin, George Hamilton and Larry King. The film had a limited theatrical release, was controversial for its outspoken take on late 20th Century American politics but received generally positive critical acclaim and just about made back its US$30M budget costs. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and Beatty picked up three Golden Globe nominations too for Best Picture, Best Performance by a Actor and Best Screenplay.

The new decade saw 'Town & Country' with an all star cast that took in Beatty in the lead role as super rich architect Porter Stoddart, with Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Andie McDowell, Nastassja Kinski, Charlton Heston and Josh Hartnett. The film was plagued by production issues, script rewrites and reshoots that saw the films final release three years after filming commenced. The film was a critical and commercial disaster taking just US$10M from its production costs of US$90M excluding marketing and distribution.

Following the disastrous outing that was 'Town & Country' it would be fifteen years before Beatty ventured either in front of the camera or behind it for a motion picture, despite various appearances in documentary films or short films. Released last year (and later this year in Australia), 'Rules Don't Apply' is a fictionalised real-life romantic comedy drama film set in the Hollywood of the late '50's with Beatty staring as movie mogul, businessman, investor, pilot and philanthropist Howard Hughes. Beatty also Directs, Produces, wrote the Screenplay and devised the story for the film which includes such names as Paul Sorvino, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, Annette Benning, Lily Collins, Ed Harris, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, Steve Coogan, Amy Madigan and Haley Bennett in the line up. The film has received mixed critical Reviews and a Box Office of just US$4M so far from its US$25M budget investment. The film picked up three award wins and another ten nominations.

All up, for a career spanning seven decades Beatty has just 32 acting credits to his name. But in addition he has thirteen Producer credits, another eight as Writer and six as Director. He has two Academy Award wins - the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from 2000, and a Best Director Award for 'Reds', plus thirteen other Academy Award nominations. He has four Golden Globe wins including the Cecil B. DeMille Award from 2007 plus another eight nominations, and he has two BAFTA Award nominations and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award win in 2002. All up for his efforts he has accumulated 38 award wins and a further 51 nominations. Beatty is the only person in Academy Award history that was twice nominated by the Academy as an Actor, Producer, Director and Writer of the same film for 'Heaven Can Wait' in 1978 and 'Reds' in 1981.

He has been married to Actress and frequent Co-star Anette Benning since 1992 with whom he has four children - Stephen (born Kathlyn, in 1992), Benjamin (born in 1994), Isabel (born in 1997) and Ella (born in 2000). He is a long time supporter and activist for the Democratic Party, and has been the recipient of more political, charitable and film industry awards, accolades and honours than I could possibly record here.

Warren Beatty - truly an outstanding career both in front of the camera and behind it; a real Hollywood legend and movie making royalty; is neighbours with good friend and occasional Co-star Jack Nicholson; is well known for his high profile romantic relationships that have received much media attention over the years, up until settling down with Benning; and has turned down more high profile film roles with Directors of repute, than films he has starred in. A very Happy 80th Birthday to you Warren, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Friday 24 March 2017

A CURE FOR WELLNESS : Tuesday 21st March 2017.

'A CURE FOR WELLNESS' which I saw earlier this week, is a psychological horror offering Directed by Gore Verbinski whose previous Directorial credits include three 'Pirates of the Caribbean' offerings, 'The Lone Ranger', the animated 'Rango', 'The Ring' and 'The Mexican' amongst others. Here as well as Directing, he also Co-Produces and came up with the storyline too. The film was released in the US in mid-December to mixed luke warm Reviews, and it failed to find an audience grossing so far just US$21M from its US$40M production budget. A large portion of the film is set in a beautiful fairytale looking castle overlooking the Swiss Alps. The said castle is actually Hohenzollern Castle which is the third of three castles on the site dating back to the eleventh century. It sits atop the 855 metre high (2,805 ft) Berg Hohenzollern, an isolated promontory on the western side of the Swabian Alps. Located between Hechingen and Bisingen approximately 50 kilometres (31miles) south of Stuttgart, in the foothills of the Alps of central Baden-Württemberg, Germany, this castle is the most visited by tourists of any castle in Germany.

Geography lesson over, this films kicks off with ambitious and successful young corporate executive type named Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) working for a successful New York financial services firm who is sent on a mission to retrieve the company's CEO from a seemingly idyllic yet mysterious wellness centre located in the remote Swiss Alps. The Board of Directors back at the Company have an ulterior motive for wanting to retrieve their CEO, Roland Pembroke (Harry Groener), because his signature is needed to execute some important documents that will pave the way for a merger with a competitor company that will see this firm become one of the biggest on the Eastern Seaboard, and from which all Executives will receive a substantial benefit, including Lockhart.

Initially reluctant to undertake the task, Lockhart relents and we see him aboard the Alpine Express as it weaves its way along lush snow capped mountain sides en route to its destination somewhere in the Swiss Alps. He is busy at his computer checking the days trade, speaking simultaneously on his mobile phone to some lackey back at the office, whilst chewing on Nicabate gum.

We then see him in his hire car being driven up the mountain by Chauffeur Enrico (Ivo Nandi) who gives him the full lo-down on the 200 year old tragic and sinister history of the castle before their arrival at the grand spa. Today the spa is said to offer health giving properties from its natural spring waters which is drunk in copious quantities by the residents, and when coupled with various hydrotherapy treatments, water based exercise regimes, a clean diet and lack of alcohol, technology and other worldly distractions make the health retreat very appealing to those that can afford to stay. And the place is busy, full of white robed residents enjoying a meal on the marble verandah, or playing gentle sport on the extensive manicured lawns or engaging in therapeutic treatments to cure their ailments. But nearly all of the residents are old, either close to or beyond retirement age! There would be no one in the place (other than the dedicated staff) who is anything less than sixty!

Upon Lockhart's arrival, he is met with some resistance from the staff, especially Dr. Heinreich Volmer (Jason Isaacs). In demanding to meet with Pembroke he is met with further resistance, but does make contact. Pembroke is very reluctant to engage with Lockhart, but does eventually saying that his corporate days are behind him. Finally, Lockhart does appeal to Pembroke's better judgement, but Lockhart's success is short lived when he is forced to remain at the Centre due to a leg injury sustained in a car accident driving back down the mountain with Enrico, after Pembroke suddenly became unavailable.

Waking up in a bed in the Centre after being out cold for two days and with his leg in a plaster cast, he eventually meets up with another much younger patient Hannah (Mia Goth) who drinks from a cobalt blue bottle a strange looking liquid, that he had seen Volmer also drinking from earlier in the day, and which he claimed were highly concentrated vitamins. Hobbling about on crutches now, he then meets with Victoria Watkins (Celia Imrie) another aged resident and self confessed amateur historian, who divulges things about the Centre's past and the former owner, a Baron, dating back some two hundred years to the time when the original buildings were razed to the ground by all consuming fire. The Baron was so obsessed with having a pure blood heir that he married his sister, but when he discovered that his sister and now wife was infertile, he began performing outlandish experiments on the peasants of the area in an attempt to find a cure. When he did find a cure, his now pregnant wife was burned alive at the stake, but not before the baby was cut from her womb and allegedly tossed in the aqueduct, where   she apparently survived.

Spurned on by the unfolding history of the place, and the mystery of his own observations, Lockhart decides to investigate, and see what he can uncover, becoming more inquisitive with every passing day. When he seeks to reveal his initial findings to Volmer, these are quickly dismissed, and the good Doctor suggests a course of treatments to relieve the stress and anxiety of the recent car accident, his broken leg and to forget the demands of his corporate life. He suggests a session is a sensory deprivation tank for thirty minutes, floating in a state of suspended submerged animation with nothing but an air line and his thoughts to clear his mind. Lockhart nearly drowns when he has visions of being engulfed in the depths of the tank by attacking eels, and when the orderly supervising the treatment is temporarily 'distracted' by a female nurse. He is rescued however, and continues his treatments, and his clandestine investigations therefore.

He witnesses more strange goings on around the property and becomes more suspicious. On his travels around the extensive Centre he comes across a 'Forbidden' wing to which he gains entry. Lockhart enters the transfusion wing of the spa that is in reality a front for strange medical experiments where eels are filtered through the bodies of the patients, to produce the highly concentrated 'cure' that he had previously seen Volmer and Hannah digesting at the end of a pipette. He enters another room to evade capture and is confronted with tanks each containing a resident floating motionless upright - are they dead or alive?

Lockhart is captured by Volmer in the corridors trying to make escape from the horrors he has just witnessed. By now Volmer's patience is wearing thin with this pesky little corporate type sticking his nose in everywhere. Lockhart is subjected to nightmarish treatments that warp his mind like Pembroke that include having a front tooth drilled out without the aid of any anaesthetic, and having eels forced down his throat so that he too can produce the 'cure'.

After his 'treatments', Lockhart's mind is indeed fried. In his room he begins to pen a letter to his employers back in New York stating that he intends to remain at the spa, but in a moment of clear vision, he comes to realise that his leg was never actually broken. Using a smashed drinking glass he cuts off his plaster cast, and lo and behold, no broken leg! He goes in search of Hannah, whom he has forged a friendship with. Concurrently she is experiencing her first menstrual cycle and enters the swimming pool at night, where she bleeds. She doesn't understand what's happening to her body. The eels enter the pool and swim around her legs as if to attack at the smell of her blood, and then form a perfect circle around her keeping their distance. This allows her to leave the pool unharmed. She confronts Volmer in the dining room over dinner, demanding to know what is happening to her body and what it means. Volmer is delighted, and subsequently arranges a lavish party where he intends to marry the young girl.

During the party Volmer leads Hannah down into a secret room below the main buildings into the burnt out ruins of the original castle. There hangs a portrait of the Baron's sister who bears an uncanny resemblance to Hannah, and located all around the room are the results of previous experiments, specimen jars containing human organs and malformed foetuses, and all manner of equipment, transcripts, notes and sundry surgical type paraphernalia. Volmer ties Hannah to a bed and intends to rape her, as Lockhart locates them having realised that Volmer is in fact the father of Hannah. Furthermore it is revealed that Volmer is in fact the Baron who survived the fire of 200 years ago and has lasted these past centuries by consuming the 'cure' in regular small doses. In his attempt to free Hannah a fight breaks out between Volmer and Lockhart, at which point Volmer rips of his face mask revealing a grotesquely disfigured face below and proof positive of his real identity. During the fight, Lockhart manages to engulf Volmer in flame which alights the surrounding soft furnishings and flammable surgical liquids in the room. In turn the fire quickly spreads through the ageing infrastructure, resulting in the Centre erupting in a ball of flame in no time.

Lockhart and Hannah make their escape down the hill on a bicycle, only to collide with a car coming up the hill containing Lockhart's employers who have come to retrieve him and Pembroke. They demand that he return with them to New York and get in the car immediately. After considering his options for all of three seconds, he gets back on the bike with Hannah and cycles around them and down the hill, with a huge grin on his chops!

I enjoyed 'A Cure for Wellness' for its strong acting performances from DeHaan, Isaacs and Goth especially, the solid original story, and the beauty of the cinematography. The film looks great; it creates a sense of foreboding, apprehension and anxiety; and Verbinski is to be congratulated for making a film as original as he has, that is visually stunning, stylish and equally malevolent all at once. However, at a running time of 147 minutes it is overly long and could easily have been cut by twenty minutes; and you would have to question Lockhart's nouse as he randomly signs away unknown documents and doesn't seem to learn from his past mistakes or errors of judgement while at the Centre, which just leave him wide open for further exploitation at the hands of a mad scientist. And the ending, when it eventually does come, is just a little too convenient and too contrived, and it's hard to really root for a character who after all this time we have come to care little for, and have no emotional connection with. That said, the film is worth a look.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-