Friday 7 March 2014
Review: I Have Nothing Good to Say About '300: Rise of an Empire,' So Turn Back Now
Gun to my head, I might be able to say something positive about 300: Rise of an Empire. In a vacuum, I suppose I'd call its aesthetic appealing, its production value impressive, or its giant rhinos kind of cool. But these elements cannot be taken alone, embroidered on a gigantic patch of joyless pain that infests your conscious mind from its inceptive moments on.
It's not so much that the 300 sequel fails at its desired conceit — it gives you exactly what it promises: gore, swordplay, angry sex, halfwit maxims about honor and manliness and the love of the fight. It's simply that its desired conceit is dehumanizing agony. Holding too hard and too long to its mission statement to top its Zack Snyder-helmed predecessor in scope, scale, and spilled pints of blood, Noam Murro's Rise of an Empire doesn't put any energy into filtering its spectacular mayhem through whatever semblance of a humanistic touch made the first one feel like a comprehensive movie.
Now, it's been a good eight years since I've seen 300, and I can't say that I was particularly fond of it. But beneath its own eye-widening layer of violence, there was a tangible idea of who King Leonidas was, what this war meant, and why Sparta mattered. No matter how much clumsy exposition is hurled our way, all we really know here is that there are two sides and they hate each other.
When Rise of an Empire asks us to engage on a more intimate level, which it does — the personal warfare between Sullivan Stapleton (whose name, I guess, is Themistokles) and Bad Guy Captain Eva Green (a.k.a. Artemisia) is founded on the idea that she likes him, and he kind of digs her (re: angry sex), and they want to rule together, but a rose by any other name and all that — we're effectively lost. With characters who don't matter in the slightest, material like this is just filler between the practically striking battle sequences.
But when the "in-between material" is as meaningless as it is in Rise of an Empire, the battles can't function as much more than filler themselves. Filler between the opening titles and closing credits. A game of Candy Crush you play on the subway. Contemptfully insubstantial and not particularly fun, but taking place nonetheless.
Without even a remote layer of camp — too palpably absent as Rise of an Empire splashes its screen with so much human fluid that "The End" by The Doors will start to play in your head — there's no victory in a movie like this. No characters to latch onto, no story to follow, no joy to be derived. Yes, it might be aesthetically stunning (and really, that's where the one star comes in... well, half a star for that and half for the giant rhinos), but the marvel of its look shrinks under the shadow of the painful vacancy of anything tolerable.
It's not so much that the 300 sequel fails at its desired conceit — it gives you exactly what it promises: gore, swordplay, angry sex, halfwit maxims about honor and manliness and the love of the fight. It's simply that its desired conceit is dehumanizing agony. Holding too hard and too long to its mission statement to top its Zack Snyder-helmed predecessor in scope, scale, and spilled pints of blood, Noam Murro's Rise of an Empire doesn't put any energy into filtering its spectacular mayhem through whatever semblance of a humanistic touch made the first one feel like a comprehensive movie.
Now, it's been a good eight years since I've seen 300, and I can't say that I was particularly fond of it. But beneath its own eye-widening layer of violence, there was a tangible idea of who King Leonidas was, what this war meant, and why Sparta mattered. No matter how much clumsy exposition is hurled our way, all we really know here is that there are two sides and they hate each other.
When Rise of an Empire asks us to engage on a more intimate level, which it does — the personal warfare between Sullivan Stapleton (whose name, I guess, is Themistokles) and Bad Guy Captain Eva Green (a.k.a. Artemisia) is founded on the idea that she likes him, and he kind of digs her (re: angry sex), and they want to rule together, but a rose by any other name and all that — we're effectively lost. With characters who don't matter in the slightest, material like this is just filler between the practically striking battle sequences.
But when the "in-between material" is as meaningless as it is in Rise of an Empire, the battles can't function as much more than filler themselves. Filler between the opening titles and closing credits. A game of Candy Crush you play on the subway. Contemptfully insubstantial and not particularly fun, but taking place nonetheless.
Without even a remote layer of camp — too palpably absent as Rise of an Empire splashes its screen with so much human fluid that "The End" by The Doors will start to play in your head — there's no victory in a movie like this. No characters to latch onto, no story to follow, no joy to be derived. Yes, it might be aesthetically stunning (and really, that's where the one star comes in... well, half a star for that and half for the giant rhinos), but the marvel of its look shrinks under the shadow of the painful vacancy of anything tolerable.
In a Facebook post, Nisha has told that it is a new exciting turn in her career and probably a milestone of the entire Nepali film industry.
Nisha has completed the shooting of her upcoming movie ‘Mukhauta’. Another upcoming movie ‘Bhimdutt’ also features Nisha.
A while ago, another Nepali actress and item dancer, Archana Dellala, had also signed to do a Bengali movie.
Premier show of Ritu held in Australia and Nepal
‘Ritu’ features actress Reema Bishowkarma and Malina Joshi romancing with actor Raj Ballav Koirala. The movie directed by Manoj Adhikari also featured Bishnu Neupane.
Both lead actresses Reema and Malina had attended the premier with their boyfriends. Malina is having an affair with Anoop Bikram Shahi and Reema is seeing Amir Sheakh. That was not all, other actresses had also arrived with their boyfriends in the premier. Actress Richa Sharma was with ‘Loot‘ director Nischal Basnet, choreographer Renasha Rai was with her boyfriend Prajwal Rana.
The Miss Nepals present in the show included Malvika Subba, Sadichha Shrestha, and Ishani Shrestha. The movie is releasing in theater on March 7.
Wednesday 5 March 2014
Kabaddi trailer released, sounds like a promising movie
The movie directed by Rambabu Gurung features Dayahang Rai, Rishma Gurung and Nischal Basnet in lead roles. The movie scheduled to release on Baisakh 12 (April 25, 2014) will compete with another movie to release on the same day – ‘Mero Best Friend’.
Jhola – Movie Review
Jhola – Movie Review
Nepali movie ‘Jhola’ is a movie made on a popular book by the same name by literary figure, Krishna Dharabasi. The plot set on the Nepali society of the time about a century ago. The movie directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai features Garima Pant, Desh Bhakta Khanal, Deepak Chhetri, Laxmi Giri, Pralhad Khatiwada etc. in main roles. The movie made on the banner of Media for Culture Pvt. Ltd. was made after an extensive research on the topic for about 7 years. Based on the novel, late Deepak Alok had written the script of the movie – keeping the core of the book intact. The movie can be categorized as a historical art movie.
Story
The movie presents the height of violence against women in ancient Nepal – Sati tradition. In ‘Jhola’ an young woman (Garima Pant) is married to a man 40 years senior to her. When her husband dies, Garima is burned alive with the dead body of her husband. She escaped the fire and hides in a cave. You can watch the movie to know what happens to Garima and how her underage son helps her.The story was written by Dharabasi based on a story he found written in leaf booklet in a bag (Jhola) left at his home by an elderly man who had come from Manipur, India. Hence the name ‘Jhola’. The event shown in the movie happened in a remote village of Bhojpur district. The shooting however was done in Dhading after reviewing various other locations in Sindhuli, Bhojpur, Ilam, Therathum, Panchthar, Sindhupalanchowk, Rolpa, Taplejung, Khaptad, Doti, Achham, Bajhang, and Bajura.
Strength and Weakness
Although there are place for improving, the scenes in the movie seem realistic and historical. The movie depicts the environment of East Nepal at the time 100 years ago. The movie uses long shot to present realistic views of the time. The movie features traditional tools like dhiki, janto, madani, ranko, diyalo and so on.The young people could get a glimpse of our past and the old people can feel the time they have went through in their childhood. So, both young and the old can enjoy the movie. In addition to Sati tradition, the movie also touches slavery (Kamara Kamari) tradition. The cinematography is one of the best aspect of the movie. The director has also taken care to present the ancient environment. Most of the lighting during the shooting were also made by traditional lights like ranko, diyalo and fire place light. The dress used by the characters were also sewn by hand. Background music was also composed of leaf music and traditional tunes.
The director says that none of the artists have done make up. To make the characters natural, they had carried cow dung, dug in fields, carried water and the natural dirt was used to make the characters real.
Star Cast
Garima Pant and the child artist have done a very realistic acting. Other actors have also justified their character. In a report, Garima got sick after the shooting of the scene in which she runs away by swimming in the river. Garima told that throughout the shooting she didn’t take a bath or applied makeup.
Conclusion
‘Jhola’ is a historical movie to get a glimpse of the time of our fore fathers. The movie is a mirror of violence against women in ancient time. Apart from the entertainment, the movie offers insights into history, culture and tradition. ‘Jhola’ has it’s share of shortcomings but, it is a good historical movie.
If you like fight, singing and dance, and fun in movies – this might not be the one you would love to watch.
Sourse - See more at: http://xnepali.net/movies/jhola-movie-review/?fb_ref=recommendations-bar#sthash.TpDAvSbF.dpuf
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