English Cinema

Lingusamy is Arya’s New Year gift

2011-02-17T00:47:00.001-08:00

Arya, who proved of his stunning works right from the first movie, fetched the biggest honors with Bala’s ‘Naan Kadavul’. The actor had no U-turns following the grand success of this movie and almost all his movies are making big time at box office. Following the huge success of ‘Madharasapattinam’, ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ and ‘Chikku Bhukku’, the actor is now going through the best phase of his career.
For sure, he can expect incredible laurels for the movie ‘Avan Ivan’ that features him alongside Vishal in lead role and is directed by Bala.
But then Lingusamy seems to be his yet another big ticket for striking bigger of stardom. The actor will start shooting for his next movie ‘Vettai’ that is directed by Lingusamy. That’s not the end as the filmmaker will produce three movies for the direction of Balaji Sakthivel, ‘Mynaa’ fame Prabhu Solomon and Mysskin’s ‘Mugamudi’. All these three movies will have Arya playing the lead role and there’s no doubt about it.

Season of Ags Entertainments in Kollywood

2011-02-17T00:45:00.001-08:00

The producers of AGS Entertainments are set forth of a ride of heavy bets on more projects that have been scheduled for continuous releases in 2011. The producers spanned good profits with their first spell of movies that includes ‘Thiruttu Payale’ and ‘Santhosh Subramaniam’, but weren’t able to come up with a commendable journey in 2010 as most of their films didn’t work wonders in box office despites produced at big budgets. This time, it looks like a favorable scenario as the projects are so promising.

Yuddham Sei: The suspense-thriller establishes Cheran in a brand new role of a CBCID officer on the run of a serial killer. Directed by Mysskin, the film’s music release is scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday (Jan 23) and theatrical release is expected to be in February.

Engeyum Kadhal: Experience the sang-froid cool and peppy love story for this season as Prabhu Deva comes up with an enchanting tale of romance with much difference. ‘Don’t take this to be a usual love story; there is so much of newness’ says Prabhu Deva. Starring Prabhu Deva and Hansika Motwani in lead roles, the film is reported of hitting screens on February 14 for Valentine’s Day. The songs by Harris Jayaraj have already become chartbusters in audio markets.

Vellore Maavattam: Despites possessing high level potentials, Nanda hasn’t been able to prove his proficiencies in the past. But with his engrossing performance in ‘Eeram’, he leaped towards the next level of performance followed by a decorous appeal in ‘Ananthapurathu Veedu’. He plays a rough police officer in ‘Vellore Maavattam’ that is directed by RNR Manohar of ‘Maasilamani’ fame. Sundar C Babu has scored music and famous Vetri has handled cinematography.

Avan Ivan: This could be the biggest magnum opuses of Vishal and Arya as it so exhibiting with their makeovers in first look images. The film is scheduled for summer release, probably by second week of April. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s musical score should be hitting audio stores in March. ‘Avan Ivan’ is said to be Bala’s first ever different movie with new shades.

Maatraan: ‘The Alternative Man’ – so says the tagline and K.V. Anand as well as he doesn’t reveal much about the script. The film is said to a high-voltage action drama with a rocking team of technicians. The film will go on floors from mid of May after Suriya completes shooting for ‘Ezham Arivu’.

Sameera Reddy turns psycho in Gowtham Menon’s ‘NN’ sequel

2011-02-16T02:34:00.001-08:00

Sameera Reddy had literally got herself into a big trouble by signing Gowtham Menon’s ‘Nadunissi Naaygal’. Although the actress laughs sharing the scariest sequences of the movie with a bark of laugh, she had become so much distressed as she agrees to sign Gowtham Menon’s ‘Nadunissi Naaygal-2’ under one condition – She wants to turn psycho and chase Veera this time.
Here’s one such sequence that made her really scary about the movie.
Do you know what scared Sameera the most during the shoot of Nadunisi Naaygal? No it wasn’t the guns or the knives or Veera chasing her in the film. It wasn’t even the thought of being dunked into a tub of water or being surrounded by 4 Rottweiler dogs. Sam confesses that what had her most nervous was the scene in which Veera (the character) tries to cut off her hair. This completely terrified Sam as according to her, losing her hair is her worst nightmare!

film-180

2011-02-16T02:31:00.001-08:00

Feel the love, its colour, the astonishing elements everywhere with the movie ‘180 Degrees’. The film marking the comeback of Siddarth of ‘Boys’ fame is close on the heels of completion as the producers and director is planning to release the movie by Summer season. The cute looking actor had no big offers in Tamil film industry and is now making his comeback with a beautiful love story. Apart from handling direction, Jayendra has co-written story and screenplay with Subha.
Nithya Menon and Priya Anand of ‘Vamanan’ will be the female lead actresses in this movie with some of the familiar faces like Mouli, Geetha, Tanikella Bharani, M.S. Narayana, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan, Janaki Sabesh, Misha Ghosal taking on with prominent roles.
Sharreth is scoring music for the movie and Balasubramaniam cranks the camera and the complete movie is shot with Red One Digital Camera.

Spelunkers dive (and die) in Sanctum

2011-02-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

In the low-budget 3-D cave-diving adventure Sanctum, a little bit of rain causes a lot of death — by accident, murder and a bizarre amount of assisted suicide.
Who needs those chipper Chilean miners, anyway?
Eschewing such heartwarming tales, Sanctum, directed by Australian Alister Grierson and produced by 3-D guru James Cameron, is more interested in the savage realities of survival.
A large expedition headed by grizzled Aussie explorer Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) is knee-deep in mapping the mile-deep Esa'ala Caves of Papua New Guinea. Frank's less ambitious 17-year-old son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield), along with the team's financier daredevil Carl (Ioan Gruffudd) and his equally gung-ho girlfriend, Victoria (Alice Parkinson), have just arrived.
Set deep in the jungle, the mouth of the expansive cave system (actually shot in Australia) is enormous and cylindrical. You half expect the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars to come shooting out with a giant worm in close pursuit.
In the complex labyrinth of cavernous chambers and underground rivers beneath the surface, the danger is less alien. Maneuvering by scuba through underwater crevices as tight as those of 127 Hours, Frank's mantra is that "panic is the enemy."
A storm is known to be approaching, but deep underground, they're somehow still caught unprepared when the storm develops into a cyclone, thus promising a life-threatening deluge in the caves.
Taking charge is Frank, a cold fish, indeed. "There's no God down here," he snaps at one moment with face hardened. Elsewhere, there's: "There are no rescue missions down here, only body recoveries!"
Everyone questions his harsh leadership (particularly his more kindhearted son), but Frank is gradually borne out. He may be gruff, but he knows caves and the limitations of what can be accomplished.
Those locked underground follow him, looking for the exit to the sea. The survivors are winnowed until — true to the tradition of so many such films — women and nonwhites are gradually dispatched. Some exit like 'Willy Wonka' characters, neatly ruined by their foolhardiness.
A claustrophobia takes hold as they make their way from one chamber to the next, squeaking through the rock and water. Many of the set pieces in the cave system and the underwater shots are beautiful, but the lack of variation begins to feel like the recent film Buried, which takes place entirely in a coffin.
Sanctum is clearly in line with Cameron's adoration of subsurface exploration, a love affair at least since The Abyss. Sanctum is meant to prove that the 3-D technology developed for his Avatar can be inexpensively adapted to simple genre films.
As a showcase for 3-D, Sanctum is a failure. The depth of the images adds little to the experience, and for most of the middle of the film, is entirely forgotten. The darkness of the caves, at least, suits the darkened image of 3-D.
Written by John Garvin and caver Andrew Wight, Sanctum claims to be "inspired by a true story." The basis, though, is a cave trip by Wight where a perilous storm nevertheless ended in all 15 surviving.
The film at least avoids that romantic lie of so many survivalist movies, that you can make it against all odds. Sanctum allows that heroism has its limits and that death must be accepted.
Jack Kevorkian would love it.
Sanctum, a Universal Pictures release, is rated R for language, some violence and disturbing images.
Running time: 109 minutes

Elton John expected 'prejudice' over having baby

2011-02-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish have admitted that they knew their decision to have a child would be marked with prejudice towards gay parents.

"To be honest we expected it. There's only really one publication that's been like that and we knew that was going to happen," Sky News quoted him as saying.

"It's sad in this day and age that they're like that but we expected it because it's part for the course.
"They don't seem to like David and me very much anyway - we knew this wasn't going to be everyone's cup of tea," he added.

In spite of the hostility he has to face, John said that the birth of their child has mostly been overwhelmingly positive.

"One store in America hid our faces on the magazine with the baby but you know what? We've had so much love and so much positive things that you can't dwell on the negativity," said John.
Son Zachary was born on Christmas Day to a surrogate mother after the couple-who being together for 17 years-failed in their bid to adopt a Ukrainian child in 2009

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles

2011-02-06T03:11:00.000-08:00

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered before.

Burlesque images-2

2011-01-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

Burlesque images

2011-01-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

2010-12-16T17:36:00.000-08:00

During the late Ming Dynasty, the Chinese imperial court is plagued by corruption as eunuchs usurp state power and the reigning emperor is deemed incompetent. The Jinyi Wei (literally: Brocade-clad Guards) is the government's secret police, trained in clandestine combat since childhood, they are in charge of conducting missions to ensure peace and stability within the empire. They have the authority to prosecute anyone deemed as an enemy of the state and they devote their lives and lethal prowess to serving the emperor only. When the organization was first founded, the Jinyi Wei took orders directly from the emperor, but now they are under the control of the eunuch faction. The chief eunuch Jia Jingzhong is plotting with an exiled noble, Prince Qing, to rebel against the emperor and seize power. Jia orders Qinglong, the Jinyi Wei chief, to kill the Imperial Councilor Zhao Shenyan and take Zhao's safebox, which supposedly contains a list of names of traitors.

However, Qinglong discovers later that he had been used, as the safebox contains the Imperial Seal, a symbol of the emperor's authority, and Jia wants to use it to legitimize Prince Qing's actions for convenience when the rebellion begins. Qinglong is betrayed by his fellow guards and becomes a fugitive when Jia denounces him as a traitor and issues an order for his arrest. Qinglong escapes and joins the Justice Escort Agency, where he strikes up a romantic relationship with Qiao Hua, the daughter of the agency's leader. Qinglong is determined to fulfill his loyalty to the emperor and continues to search for evidence of Prince Qing's rebellion plot and undermining Qing's plans. He is joined by the Heaven Eagles Gang, a group of bandits led by the Judge of the Sands. Standing in Qinglong's way are Jia Jingzhong's lackeys and his former Jinyi Wei fellows, as well as Prince Qing's goddaughter Tuotuo, a highly-skilled female warrior.

The Tourist

2010-12-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Tourist is written by Academy Award® winning screenwriters Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, The Young Victoria) and Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie), and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) and revolves around Frank (Johnny Depp), an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise (Angelina Jolie) is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Venice, Frank pursues a potential romance but soon finds himself the pursued as he and Elise are caught in a whirlwind of intrigue and danger.

Director : Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast : Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Dalton, Steven Berkoff

The Tourist film stills-3

2010-12-05T03:06:00.000-08:00

The Tourist film stills-2

2010-12-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

The Tourist film stills-1

2010-12-04T22:53:00.000-08:00