What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 19th January 2017.

Last week I reported on the recent Golden Globe Awards that were held on 8th January. Two days before that however, on 6th January at the historic Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, the 6th International AACTA Awards (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) were held. These awards, which follow up Decembers Australian only awards, recognise international film achievement regardless of country or origin, in seven distinct categories. Hosted by Australian Actor Daniel MacPherson, and kicking off 2017's awards season, the star studded event played out with the eventual winners and grinners from those nominated a month earlier, being as follows :-

* Best Film : 'LA LA LAND',
* Best Direction : MEL GIBSON for 'Hacksaw Ridge',
* Best Actor : CASEY AFFLECK for 'Manchester By The Sea' (released in Australia on 2nd February).
* Best Actress : EMMA STONE for 'La La Land',
* Best Supporting Actor : DEV PATEL for 'Lion' (released in Australia today, see below),
* Best Supporting Actress : NICOLE KIDMAN for 'Lion' (released in Australia today, see below),
* Best Screenplay : KENNETH LONERGAN for 'Manchester By The Sea' (released in Australia on 2nd February).

Turning attention to this weeks latest release films, we have just two to tease you out on a hot Summer's day or night with some air conditioned relief in a cinema of your choosing. We launch with the third instalment in this high octane extreme adventure franchise that sees a heavily tattooed thrill seeking rogue athletic dude come back to life and save the planet from a potential weapon of worldwide destruction and a few crooked governments along the way. Hold on tight! Then we slow down the pace somewhat about the true story of one man's journey to trace his real family back in India from the comfort, security and love of his adopted Australian home. Take your Kleenex!

As always, your thoughts, opinions and observations are welcomed by your fellow readers here at Odeon Online so feel free to record a relevant, pertinent and unbiased Comment below this or any other Post when you have sat through your film of choice in the week ahead. We look forward to hearing from you, and in the interim, enjoy your movie going experience.

'xXx : THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE' (Rated M) - the 'xXx' franchise of films is hardly going to go down in history as the most successful, most groundbreaking, most acclaimed series of action movies to grace our screens, having grossed just $349M from the first two instalments off the back of a US$157M combined production budget. The 2002 launch film 'xXx' starred Vin Diesel as our thrill seeking extreme sports stuntman and rebel athlete Xander Cage who becomes a reluctant spy for the National Security Agency tasked with hunting down a bunch of bad-ass Ruskies. That film was Directed by Rob Cohen and grossed US$275M from its US$70M budget and received generally favourable reviews. The 2005 follow up however, was another story completely. Directed by Lee Tamahori for US$87M 'xXx : The State of the Union' starred this time around Ice Cube as XXX Agent Darius Stone, as Diesel had a scheduling conflict with another movie he was committed to at the time. That film grossed just US$71M and was received poorly by critics. Now in 2017 Xander Cage is back even though he was killed off to explain his absence from the second film. Going back as far 2006 Diesel stated that he would return as our titular hero with a look and feel more in keeping with his successful first instalment. It's taken eleven years to bring that dream to our cinemas and here we have it, and there is talk already of Diesel reprising his role for a fourth film which could into production as early as mid-year this year.

This time Directed by D.J.Caruso, Co-Produced by Vin Diesel and seeing a return to form as the risen from the dead Xander Cage, our extreme athlete comes out of self imposed exile recruited by the CIA to track down a weapon which can control all of the worlds military satellites. Known as Pandora's Box, in the hands of one Xiang (Donnie Yen), this weapon could have dire consequences on the world as we know it. And so Xander Cage recruits a crack team of like minded thrill seekers all with a particular set of skills to aid him in his quest to bring down Xiang. Conspiracy and corruption will ensue as Cage and his cohorts get wrapped up in it at the highest levels of world governments, including their own. Seeing Samuel L. Jackson return for the third time to the franchise as NSA Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons, with Toni Collette, Ruby Rose and Tony Jaa amongst others you can be sure of high octane action, mind boggling stunts, explosive set pieces and a thumping sound track, with Cage looking positively 'dope' in the process!

'LION' (Rated PG) - this drama film Directed by first time Garth Davis is based on the autobiographical book 'A Long Way Home' by Saroo Brierley and tell the story of his life as played out by Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo back home in India, and Dev Patel as the older Saroo at home in Australia. Already highly acclaimed by critics the world over, the film was made for just US$12M and has so far grossed US$19M plus twenty award wins and a further 62 nominations including the yet to be announced winners for this years BAFTA's, as well as this years yet to be released Academy Award nominee announcements. The story here centres around five year old Saroo who unwittingly boards a train for Calcutta and gets off 1600 kilometres from home, in a strange land and ends up in an orphanage. Some time later he learns that he had been adopted by Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham respectively) in Tasmania, Australia. Fast track two decades and Saroo moves to Melbourne to study hospitality management, and falls in with a group who persuade him to track down his real family back in India using Google Earth. This is his story. Take a box of tissues for this weepie tale of loss, hope, belonging and identity.

With just two new filmic offerings coming to a big screen near you each giving us something different, together with those still out on general release, you have ample opportunity to catch a movie of choice in the run up to the end of the (Australian) school summer holidays. Then, share your thoughts with us here. In the meantime, I'll see you somewhere, sometime in the week ahead at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 30th October - 5th November 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Toni Collette does on 1st November - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 44, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 30th October

• Juliet Stevenson - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actress
• Clemence Poesy - Born 1982, turns 34 - Actress
• Henry Winkler - Born 1945, turns 71 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Kevin Pollak - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director  

Monday 31st October

• Stephen Rea - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actor
• Peter Jackson - Born 1961, turns 55 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Rob Schneider - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Dermot Mulroney - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actor | Writer | Director | Musician
• Piper Perabo - Born 1976, turns 40 - Actress | Producer
• Willow Smith - Born 2000 - turns 16 - Actress | Singer  

Tuesday 1st November

• Toni Collette - Born 1972, turns 44 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Lyle Lovett - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter
• Robert Luketic - Born 1973, turns 43 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Wednesday 2nd November

• David Schwimmer - Born 1966, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director
• John M. Chu - Born 1979, turns 37 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Stefanie Powers - Born 1942, turns 74 - Actress | Producer  

Thursday 3rd November

• Roseanne Barr - Born 1952, turns 64 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director
• Kate Capshaw - Born 1953, turns 63 - Actress
• Gary Ross - Born 1956, turns 60 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Dolph Lundgren - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Hal Hartley - Born 1959, turns 57 - Director | Producer | Editor | Composer
• Dylan Moran - Born 1971, turns 45 - Actor | Writer  

Friday 4th November

• Matthew McConaughey - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Sean Combs - Born 1969, turns 47 - Singer | Songwriter | Producer | Actor
• Loretta Swit - Born 1937, turns 79 - Actress  

Saturday 5th November

• Tilda Swinton - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director
• Tatum O'Neal - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress | Producer
• Famke Janssen - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director
• Sam Shepard - Born 1943, turns 73 - Actor | Writer | Director | Singer
• Robert Patrick - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor | Producer
• Sam Rockwell - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actor | Producer

Antonia Collett was born in the Western Sydney suburb of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia to mother Judith Cook who worked in a customer service role, and father Bob Collett, a truck driver. She attended Blacktown Girls High School until aged sixteen, and then the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney (whose other notable alumni include Nicole Kidman, Rose Byrne, Rebel Wilson and Baz Luhrmann) before going onto the National Institute of Dramatic Art, also in Sydney. Her first acting role came in a school production of 'Godspell'. Early on in her career she added the letter 'e' to her surname, and so she became Toni Collette.

In 1990 Collette secured her first small screen appearance on a single episode of 'A Country Practice'. Two years later she appeared in her feature film debut 'Spotswood' (aka 'The Efficiency Expert') with Anthony Hopkins, Ben Mendelsohn and Russell Crowe. Her breakout role came two years after that in 'Muriel's Wedding' playing the lead character of Muriel Hislop alongside Bill Hunter and Rachel Griffiths - a role for which she gained 18kgs in weight in just seven weeks. Collette won her first Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her performance as Muriel in this much loved film. 'Clockers' followed and then 'Cosi' with Ben Mendelsohn and Rachel Griffiths agains with David Wenham, Jacki Weaver and Barry Otto.

From this point on there was really no looking back for Collette with roles coming through thick and fast before the '90's closed out on the likes of 'The Pallbearer', 'Emma', 'Lillian's Story', 'Clockwatchers', 'Diana and Me', 'The Boys', 'Velvet Goldmine' and '8½ Women'. And then there was the critical and commercial hit 'The Sixth Sense' with Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment that put Director M. Night Shyamalan on the map with six Academy Award nominations including Colette's first, for Best Supporting Actress.

The new decade launched with 'Shaft' with Samuel L. Jackson, 'Hotel Splendide' with Daniel Craig, 'Changing Lanes' with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson again, 'About a Boy' with Hugh Grant, 'Dirty Deeds' with Sam Neill and then 'The Hours' with Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. 

'Japanese Story', 'In Her Shoes' and then 'Little Miss Sunshine' saw another award worthy role in this critical and commercially successful little independent film. 'The Night Listener' with Robin Williams came next followed with 'Like Minds', 'The Dead Girl', 'Evening', 'Towelhead', 'The Black Balloon' and 'Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger' closing out the decade. In the meantime there has also been 2001's television film 'Dinner with Friends' and the 2006 television film 'Tsunami : The Aftermath' which garnered Collette her first Primetime Emmy nomination.

The last five years have seen multiple films across multiple genres including supernatural horrors 'Fright Night' and 'Krampus'; comedy dramas 'Foster', 'The Way, Way Back', 'Enough Said', 'Lucky Them', 'A Long Way Down', 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' and 'Miss You Already'; with comedies 'Mental' and 'Tammy', the drama 'Glassland' and the bio-pic 'Hitchcock' in between.  

The very successful 'United States of Tara' for Showtime which ran for 36 episodes over three seasons ran from 2009 through to 2011 and was highly acclaimed winning Collette further award wins and nominations as Tara Gibson diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder suffering multiple personality traits - nine in fact running throughout the three seasons. There was also the television series for CBS 'Hostages' with Dylan McDermott which ran for just one season in 2013 over fifteen episodes with the show being cancelled thereafter. Australian television mini-series 'The Devil's Playground' followed in 2014 running for six episodes in which Collette starred in four. Along the way Collette also starred in the Broadway play 'The Realistic Joneses' once again to critical acclaim wining her, and her cast a Drama Desk Special Award.

Bringing us up to date in 2016 there is the thriller 'Unlocked' for Director Michael Apted with Noomi Rapace, Michael Douglas, John Malkovich and Orlando Bloom; Australian drama 'Jasper Jones' with Hugo Weaving; and thriller 'Imperium' with Daniel Radcliffe. For a 2017 release and in post-production is Iraq War drama 'The Yellow Birds' with Jack Huston, Tye Sheridan, Jason Patrick and Jennifer Aniston' 'xXx : Return of Xander Cage' with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson; comedies 'Fun Mom Dinner' and 'Please Stand By' with Dakota Fanning; comedy drama 'Madame' with Harvey Keitel currently filming and for Director Fred Schepisi and in pre-production is drama 'Andora' with Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson and Joanna Lumley.

Collette has also lent her voice talents to 'The Priness and the Cobbler' in 1993; 'The Magic Pudding' in 2000; 'Mary and Max' in 2009; 'The Boxtrolls' in 2014 and 'Blinky Bill : The Movie' in 2015. She has 68 Acting credits to her name, four as Producer and six for her singing performances. She has garnered one Academy Award nomination for 'The Sixth Sense'; she has one Golden Globe win for 'United States of Tara' and four other nominations; two BAFTA nominations; one Primetime Emmy Award win and two other nominations; and a further 24 wins and another 42 nominations so far, including six Australian Film Institute wins and five other nominations. She also has pursued her musical interests with her band 'The Finish' for which her husband plays drums. She released there debut album 'Beautiful Awkward Pictures' in 2006 and toured Australia to promote it thereafter.

She has been married to musician Dave Galafassi since early 2003 with whom she has two children Sage Florence (born in 2008) and Arlo Robert (born in 2011). Collette is an advocate for animal rights and a supporter of 'PETA' - 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals'.

Toni Collette - has been in demand since starting out with no sign of that demand flagging anytime soon; is equally at ease in comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror and bio-pics; is more often that not critically lauded for her grounded, real and nuanced performances; still calls Sydney home; and despite her long flowing red hair, has shaved it off completely five times to date. Happy Birthday to you Toni, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-