In a court filing, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki claimed that whistleblower Lalitha Kunaratnam could not be regarded as an investigative reporter because she lacked credibility and was untrustworthy.
He made the allegation in his reply to her statement of defence against his defamation suit with regard to her articles on his share ownership in public-listed companies.
Azam (above) is suing Lalitha over…
The latest doomsday film is set to be filled with action and adventure as two astronauts and a conspiracy theorist work together to attempt to avert the Moon crashing into Earth. Shot in Montreal, the film is one of the most expensive independently-produced films of all time and it will be released in early February. Here’s what we know so far about ‘Moonfall’.
A year after filming concluded, ‘Moonfall’ will be released on February 4, 2022.
Production was set to begin in March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed filming and, subsequently the release date by seven months.
A trailer was released by Lionsgate, who are responsible for the film’s distribution, in September 2021. This was followed by a longer action-packed teaser trailer in November 2021, which can be viewed below.
It opens with a narration from an old man remembering the first moon landing in 1969. He claims that Apollo 11 lost contact with the Earth, and that the expedition is not real. The man thinks there is a lot more to discover about the Moon and ends with a message stating that this will be the Earth’s sixth extinction.
The cast for ‘Moonfall’ is very impressive, with Halle Berry starring in the film as NASA executive Jo Fowler. Patrick Wilson appears as Brian Harper, a former NASA astronaut whose last mission didn’t end well.
Here are the main characters:
In ‘Moonfall’, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it on a collision course with life as we know it.
With just weeks before the impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler is convinced she knows how to save the planet. But, only an astronaut from her past, Brian Harper, and a conspiracy theorist, K.C. Houseman, believe her.
These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find that they may have prepared for the wrong mission.
Richard Linklater is the acclaimed director of films like Boyhood, Slacker, SubUrbia, and the Before trilogy. He seems like an unlikely choice to helm a goofy movie about a pre-teen boy who inadvertently becomes an astronaut, but that’s only one of the mysteries raised by this strange first trailer for Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood.
There’s a lot to take in here, but let’s start with the ludicrous premise that NASA has accidentally built the lunar model smaller than they intended. It’s so flawlessly ‘80s—Apollo 10 1/2 could be the perfect companion piece to the 1986 movie Space Camp, in which a well-meaning robot launches a shuttle full of kids into space—except Apollo 10 1/2 is clearly set in the ‘60s. My next big question is, why has Linklater decided to use the same rotoscopic animation as he did in his 2006 movie, A Scanner Darkly? There, the uncanniness of the visuals arguably matched the sci-fi dystopian story, but for a movie about a bunch of families leading an idyllic life in ‘60s suburbia, it’s quite off-putting to see.
Also, maybe the kid doesn’t even go into space? Here’s the official synopsis:
“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives – the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and through the eyes of a kid growing up in Houston, Texas who has intergalactic dreams of his own. Taking inspiration from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater’s own life, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood is a snapshot of American life in the 1960s that is part coming of age, part societal commentary, and part out-of-this-world adventure.”
Starring Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Zachary Levi, and Jack Black, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood will (blast off and then) land on Netflix on April 1. Hopefully, it’ll earn a prequel about the NASA workers who assemble the module and slowly realize with growing horror and nausea, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
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You’d be forgiven for assuming that a movie co-starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (the star of the sex-scene heavy “Normal People”) and Sebastian Stan (a man who doesn’t own a shirt) would be a hot-blooded romance.
But “Fresh,” which premiered in the “Midnight” section of the Sundance Film Festival Thursday and hits Hulu March 4, will more likely make you hurl than send you racing for a cold shower.
The title doesn’t describe the movie very well. “Fresh” is a familiar and somewhat successful horror film in the socially conscious mold of “Get Out.”
There are shocks and suspense. When the twist — which will not be revealed here — arrived, I let out a loud expletive. That’s the most thrilling (and disgusting) moment of the director Mimi Cave’s movie. A couple scenes after made me almost lose my lunch. And then the next hour comes off like a cool-down exercise.
Noah (Edgar-Jones) is a typical twenty-something who hates modern dating, and the way carefully crafted Tinder profiles can obscure that somebody is actually a jackass or a perv. So, imagine her happy surprise when an attractive man named Steve (Stan) chats her up in the supermarket produce aisle. Soon they’re on a date at a restaurant and making small talk.
“Where are you from?,” he asks.
“The East Coast,” she replies.
There are many such annoyingly vague exchanges in Lauryn Kahn’s script. Noah is cagey, fine, but it is wholly unbelievable that Steve wouldn’t ask a follow-up question — “Wherein?” — considering that the East Coast includes both Savannah and Manhattan.
She also says she has no siblings, her dad is dead and she doesn’t know where her mom is. After only two dates, Steve wants to take this totally unattached woman on a weekend trip to a surprise location. There are more red flags here than the Soviet Union.
The pair hops in the car, and in the case of Noah, would be better off driving over a cliff.
Her experience is excruciating, and I suspect that some viewers — lured in by an outwardly appealing horror flick on Hulu — will turn it off once they discover what this freak is really up to.
The movie shares a director of photography, Pawel Pogorzelski, with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” His sense of style and foreboding color palate is here, only put to use in a much less artful film.
Edgar-Jones, I’m happy to report, is just as vulnerable and witty when handed a campy thriller with sub-par writing as she is on the sublime miniseries “Normal People,” which netted her a Golden Globe nomination in 2021. Even at her worst-off, we believe she’s capable of changing her situation. And Stan gets to give his charm a demented spin that harks back to Christian Bale in “American Psycho.” Only much yuckier.
However, as nauseating as it is, “Fresh” is very well-worn. If you’ve seen “Get Out” and “Promising Young Woman,” which this is basically a mashup of, “Fresh” will leave you craving something meatier.
Patrick Wilson in Moonfall Centropolis / R.Bajo
All I wanted was to not be bludgeoned over the head with subtext. If I have to sit through one more not-so-subtle reframing of climate change or the pandemic as a different kind of disaster, I think I would scream. My neighbours can thank Roland Emmerich, then, for the relative peace while I watched Moonfall, give or take the bombastic sci-fi sound effects and occasional bursts of laughter.
Moonfall is vintage Emmerich, with notes of his 1996 film Independence Day, themes reminiscent of the 2014 film Interstellar and a few scenes that are very Star Wars. The famous Star Wars line “that’s no moon” would have fitted in perfectly. In fact, Moonfall is littered with references to science fiction both recent and classic.
John Bradley (Game of Thrones) has his star turn as K.C. Houseman, a conspiracy theorist-turned-hero who spots before anyone else that the moon seems to be falling towards Earth. Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson are also compelling as a NASA executive and a disgraced former astronaut, respectively. Donald Sutherland is fascinating and a little haunting as the keeper of NASA’s darkest secrets. If all these roles sound familiar to you, it is because this is classic sci-fi: every character is archetypical, and every sci-fi buzzword is present and accounted for.
That isn’t to say the film is predictable, and it certainly isn’t boring. It starts slow, but when it gets going it is packed with action, incredible special effects, spooky tentacles emerging from a lunar crater and the catchy line: “Save the moon, save Earth.” Somehow, despite the camp subject matter, the film succeeds in taking itself fairly seriously.
The science in Moonfall is largely plausible, although it is, of course, exaggerated for effect. It must be said, because this is a science publication, that the moon is in fact slowly receding from Earth and it would be nigh-on impossible to drag it closer. If it were coming closer at the rate portrayed in the film, Earth would almost certainly be destroyed – and most of what our heroes in the film attempt to do would be impossible for practical and geopolitical reasons. In fact, after the events of the movie the planet would almost certainly be uninhabitable.
There are a few irritations for those of us who follow real science. Some characters in the movie make arguments for space-related conspiracy theories that may at first glance seem almost convincing. But in real life, scientists are extraordinarily bad at keeping quiet about exciting discoveries. NASA is portrayed in an inexplicably negative light, while Elon Musk and his companies are mentioned with eye-rolling regularity to the point that it starts to feel like product placement.
But none of that matters when you are watching the moon rise over the horizon, so close to Earth that it is mowing down skyscrapers and dragging the sea into the sky. Thinking about plausibility feels like a waste of time when you could, instead, think about how the filmmakers animated some of the more impressive scenes.
Overall, Moonfall is good old-fashioned fun, an apocalypse movie that didn’t feel the need to remind us that we are living through apocalyptic times. If you have enjoyed any of the major space films of the past few decades and any of the Fast and the Furious movies, you will like it. The premise is pleasingly outlandish while mostly remaining believable, as is the plot. It has moments of humour, stretches of gripping action, gorgeous views and plenty of heart. I highly recommend it.
Silambarasan aka Simbu’s career hit a pause when whispers about his unprofessionalism came to surface. As the whispers grew louder, with some producers even asking for compensation for losses incurred, Simbu felt he hit the rock bottom. The accusations and name-calling accumulated so much that Simbu says he didn’t know how to manage or even come out of the pitfall that he created.
The journey turned out to be a long-term project than a quick fix.
In an industry where issues related to mental health are either brushed aside or lack sensitivity, Simbu is a rare Tamil cinema star who has been vocal about what he went through. Starting out as a child actor in his father T Rajendar’s films, Simbu admits that it was a low-point in his long career that only caused damage.
He describes that phase as his “lockdown”, quite literally. “I didn’t feel like coming out of the house and interacting with people. In spite of all that, I was acting and was trying to socialise with people,” says Simbu, dressed in a olive green V-neck t-shirt, during a press interaction ahead of his upcoming film
Maanaadu .
The actor turned to spirituality to come out that place. “Now that I am finally out, I believe my potential will reflect in my work.”
The realisation of having swam his way through was what happened recently when Simbu become emotional at the audio launch of
Maanaadu . He made a dramatic statement, addressing his fans and well-wishers: “I will take care of my problems, you take care of me.”
Simbu says he tried controlling his pent-up emotions, but he couldn’t. “Even for this film [
Maanaadu ], there was a lot of problems from the start. We started shooting it and then it was dropped, and we started again. The film, my weight loss journey and the pandemic — all of this affected me when I went on stage,” he says.
Set against a political backdrop,
Maanaadu (Campaign)
is about the concept of time loop, where the characters are trapped in a series of events that repeat themselves. But Simbu clarifies that the film isn’t overly political. Nor is he worried if audiences would understand such a high-concept.
In fact, what drew him towards
Maanaadu was how simplified the concept has been presented by its director, Venkat Prabhu. “It is about a normal guy getting caught in this time loop [like
Edge of Tomorrow and
Source Code ]. Though the scenes repeat, you will see something new. That is what Venkat Prabhu has done, in a commercial way.”
For Simbu, it was as much a journey of self-discovery as it was spiritual. In due course, he says he learnt a lesson or two; and how he has evolved as an actor-person. Which is why Simbu says he won’t do a film like
Vallavan in today’s times. “I was a boy then and hence acted in such commercial films. I have come out of that zone now. Cinema too has changed. Audiences are watching all sorts of content and they are no longer liking the
cinema thanam ,” he says, adding, “We need to cater to what today’s audiences want. For that, you will have to work with directors who are doing that.”
Simbu has been talking to young filmmakers, although nothing has been finalised yet. In the next one year, he wishes to stay committed to his acting projects.
“I like the zone I am in right now…it’s peaceful. I need this space for me.”
Maanaadu
releases in theatres on November 25.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Disney has decided to take a stand. The company released a statement Monday night explaining that it won’t be releasing its films there for the foreseeable future, beginning with Pixar’s Turning Red. Then, a few hours later, Warner Bros. did the same thing for The Batman.
“Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming Turning Red from Pixar,” said a statement released by Disney. “We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation. In the meantime, given the scale of the emerging refugee crisis, we are working with our NGO partners to provide urgent aid and other humanitarian assistance to refugees.”
Turning Red was set to release in Russia March 10, a day before it’s released in the U.S. However, in the U.S. it’s being released on Disney+ while many international markets were still getting a full theatrical release. After that, Disney has almost a full two months without a theatrical release, the next one coming in May with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That’s then followed by Lightyear in June and Thor: Love and Thunder in July.
Disney was the first studio to take such a stance in Russia and then, a few hours later, Warner Bros. joined in. The company announced Monday evening its release of The Batman would not be happening in Russia. “In light of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, WarnerMedia is pausing the release of its feature film The Batman in Russia,” a WarnerMedia statement read. “We will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves. We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy.”
These gestures are powerful but ultimately, not a huge loss monetarily. Variety reports even a huge hit in Russia is usually only a small percentage of what a film grosses overseas. For example, Spider-Man: No Way Home was a massive hit there, grossing about $45 million. However, that’s a mere fraction of the film’s total international gross to date, which is almost $1.1 billion.
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Nevertheless, the optics of these moves and the strong support of Ukraine it shows is surely more important than whatever money may or may not be made on future films. Nice work by Mickey Mouse and the Caped Crusader
Update 2/28/2022, 9:39 p.m. ET: This post has been updated to add Warner Bros. decision to hold The Batman.
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LAS CRUCES — Mayhem is planned for a downtown Las Cruces bank this week, but not to worry: It’s for a movie.
An unnamed “major action movie” being filmed downtown this week will require some downtown street closures and the City of Las Cruces issued a notice Monday that blank gunfire and small explosions will be part of scenes filmed at the Bank of the West BNP Paribas building at 201 N. Church St.
The city said Las Cruces Avenue and Organ Avenue downtown would be closed from 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, plus intermittent closures of N. Church St.
Film Las Cruces said the scene being filmed includes a simulated bank robbery, gun fight and an explosion involving a car. However, film liaison Jon Sepp said no live fire or blanks would be fired on set, and the blast would consist of a controlled propane explosion with a fire crew present during filming.
That announcement follows a fatal shooting on a different New Mexico film production in Santa Fe County last week, in which actor Alec Baldwin accidentally fired a live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
More:What is a prop gun and how can it kill someone? How the Alec Baldwin tragedy was possible
In a statement, Sepp said the film is one of five major films filming in Doña Ana County “over the next two months,” beginning “a very exciting time of back to back major productions that will showcase our community, our unique locations, and our talented crew.”
LasCrucesFilmCasting@gmail.com. The email should have “General” as the subject line, and the body of the email should include the applicant’s name, phone number, age, height and weight, and waist and shoe size.
Algernon D’Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.
According to “Army of Thieves,” the art of safecracking simply comes down to listening. No matter the safe nor how intricate the model, an ear to its door while spinning the dial is the key to unlocking all of its treasures. Ear, door, voila! You’re in.
There’s probably a little more to it than that, but “Army of Thieves” is unconcerned with those frivolous details. This lark of a heist movie — a spinoff/ prequel to this summer’s Zack Snyder-directed zombies-in-Vegas splatterfest “Army of the Dead” — is more into riffing on heist flicks and creating a tossed off mood of nonchalance than it is in getting down and dirty with specifics. It’s not willing to invest in its premise or its characters, so in turn, it’s difficult to invest in what it’s selling.
What it’s selling is pure style. Matthias Schweighöfer, who also directs, is Ludwig Dieter, a safecracker extraordinaire who’s in it for the art of the steal. He deeply respects safe makers and the craft that goes into their creations, and he gets the opportunity to break into three vaults designed by the Picasso of the safe world. He’s all in.
He’s recruited onto a team by Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel), a mysterious thief, and he joins a team that already includes a getaway driver (Guz Khan), a hacker (Ruby O. Fee) and a tough guy (Stuart Martin) who, in a nod to his heroes Brad Pitt and Nicolas Cage, calls himself Brad Cage. (He looks more like Hugh Jackman than either of his supposed role models, but no matter.) This ragtag crew goes on a mission to rob some safes because, well, why are they doing this again? Eh, details are vague, just like the heists themselves.
Those heists, by the way, are presented as extremely low stakes operations. Ludwig, who loosens his fingers and plays classical music on his phone to get in the mood for a job, is often left alone inside vaults with all the time in the world to break into the supposedly highly secure safes. There’s, uhh, no guards? Again and again, “Army of Thieves” reminds viewers it isn’t meant to be taken seriously, even as a heist movie. So what are we doing here, again?
The mood is light throughout and Schweighöfer is likable as a would-be thief with a heart of gold, but “Army of Thieves” never makes a convincing case for its own existence. It’s a reminder that not every bank job is worth taking on.
agraham@detroitnews.com
@grahamorama
‘Army of Thieves’
GRADE: C
Not rated: language, violence
Running time: 127 minutes
On Netflix
