OUATIMD review: Akshay Kumar's fake gangster act doesn't work ...

Let me begin this film review with a question: has anyone ever seen Milan Luthria, Anil Sharma and Kanti Shah in the same room at the same time?

Sample these:

Kaam to mai gande karta hu, lekin saaf sutra rehne ki bahut gandi aadat hai, hahaha.

Meter kitna bhi tezz bhaage, taxi se aage nahi bhaagta.

Doodh me jo nimbu nichode, paneer uska.

You?d think that a Hindi movie with a plot that chronicles a Mumbai don from the ?90s, starring Akshay Kumar, would be a campy fun watch, filled with entertaining dialogue, humor and action. Those would be fair expectations, right?

Wrong.

Featuring an utterly awful screenplay and more overbearing pulpy dialogues than you can shake a fist at, the unfortunately named and spelled Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara is a plodding and tiresome experience.

A still from Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobaara. IBN Live.

A terrible thing happened when we made the original Once Upon a Time in Mumbai a huge hit. It led to the beliefs that

a) Milan Luthria is a great filmmaker,

b) ?masala movie? lovers will pay anything to see a film in which a big star smokes cigarettes in slow mo and hurls (rather than delivers) dialogues,

c) Bollywood can cannibalise a brand name as long as the franchise makes a ton of money. I don?t know who it was that said, ?Alright listen, this Akshay Kumar and Dawood style genres ooze money from every pore, so let?s mash things together?, but someone should have told that person, ?Honey, no. Are we still making Dawood a hero? Might as well turn Kasab into a comedian, like RGV did.?. Unfortunately this rebuttal never happened and consequently OUATIMD is at a theatre near you instead of being in a trash can.

The film takes a bunch of familiar modules, coats them with some fresh paint and hopes paying audiences won?t notice how old and tired the clich?s are.? A Middle Eastern gangster, who has come to Mumbai to rule the city, and his right-hand stooge fall for the same girl ? an actress in the Hindi film industry. Ah yes, the love triangle. Is there a more overused and abused genre in Bollywood? Our hero villain Akki aka Shoaib Khan in OUATIMD is a lumbering mess and the film has no heart, humor, wit or even a semblance of fun. The film?s biggest joke is a half hour misunderstanding between ?intermediate? and ?intercourse?, which makes it seem like a rejected episode of Three?s Company. The comedy, however, is salvaged because the censors bleep out ?inter? in ?intercourse?, but not the word ?sex?.

Director Luthria populates his film with stock gunda characters, lethargic plotting and 80s-style nonsensical contrivances, padded with a barrage of punchlines; none of which are particularly amusing or exciting. In one scene Shoaib fondles a lady and while admiring her red bra strap lasciviously mumbles, ?Laal batti se purana rishta hai, hamesha peeche rehti hai, lekin aaj aage hogi.? Punch lines like this don?t make a lick of an impact coming from Akshay Kumar, who after a string of lukewarm box office numbers from Joker, Special 26, Khiladi 786, decided the only way to keep paying his rent was to leech off big franchises. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let Kumar, who sounds like a drunk Yogi Bear, deliver 300+ punch lines in one film should be made to listen to the actor sing ?Ave Maria? and recite a whole phone book.

The non-Akki portion of the film consists of a meandering subplot featuring Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha?s blossoming romance, just enough to fill three very unremarkable hours. Sadly, Sinha lays waste to the goodwill she garnered with Lootera and Imran transcends new levels of ineptitude with his terrible performance. To be fair, the poor guy is saddled with a lousy role ? in one scene he robs a guy and then saves his life because he cannot do two wrongs in one day; the logic of which is explained with ?Mujhe samajhne ke liye dimaag nahi, dil lagta hai? ? a reasoning that probably applies to understanding this film as well.

It?s not that making a masala or a ?throwback? film is a bad idea, but that OUATIMD doesn?t capture what makes this genre a fun ride in the first place. The throwback details (such as wardrobe and the music) exist only to annoy old-school Bollywood fans, because Luthria?s film clumsily flings the basics together and then rambles around aimlessly. No amount of Mumbaiyya gangsta razzle dazzle can mask the fact that OUATIMD is a wearisome and uninteresting. The film?s only impactful point is that cigarette smoking is injurious to health, as per the helpful pop up text which appears every time someone reaches out for a drag, which is 90 percent of the film?s running time.

Although OUATIMD boasts of decent production design and some rather fine cinematography from Ayananka Bose, the main problem (aside from everything mentioned above) is pacing. The film has long, dry stretches, including a ludicrous conflict of ?loyalty vs love? that waddles onto the screen every now and then. Even if you ignore the slack pace or the unintelligent characters, there?s no getting around the fact that there?s nothing remotely new or exciting about the film.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/ouatimd-review-akshay-kumars-fake-gangster-act-doesnt-work-1035235.html

completely wrong stacey dash christopher columbus columbus day columbus day Stacy Dash Amber Tamblyn

Phil Jackson Responds to Kendrick Lamar: Lean on Me!

Source:

forgetting sarah marshall taraji p. henson shuttle discovery bonnie raitt internal revenue service intc tupac

BPA exposure disrupts human egg maturation

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Exposure to BPA (Bisphenol-A) could be a contributing factor as to why some infertile couples are having difficulty conceiving.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/QLTKffAN2Gc/130731093718.htm

buckeye west side story final four 2012 bridesmaids winning lottery numbers megamillions winner kansas jayhawks

Microsoft Surface makes $853 million, less than Surface & Win8 marketing spend

Wed, Jul 31, 2013 | 13:02 BST

Microsoft?s Surface has made $853 million / ?560 million which is less than the company has spent on marketing the tablet line and Windows 8 combined.

Eurogamer reports that while Microsoft has remained silent on how well the Surface family of tablets has performed at market, it had to give up the details in its annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company revealed that the Surface brand has made $853 million since it debuted in October. It?s not a small number by any measure, but it comes ahead of an expected $900 million loss in potential income as a result of Surface price-drops.

The figure comes in below Microsoft?s $898 million marketing spend on Surface and Windows 8. Some 1.7 million Surface units were said to have been sold between its October launch and June 30.

Microsoft Surface is expected to receive new models later this year.

What do you make of the above?

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/31/microsoft-surface-makes-853-million-which-is-less-than-its-marketing-budget/

danica patrick Michelle Laxalt Alabama Shakes Safe Haven Rita Ora Meteor Russia jay z

Riot police deployed ahead of Zimbabwe election dubbed Mugabe's 'last stand'

Jekesai Njikizana / AFP - Getty Images, file

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, left, and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are thought to be running neck-and-neck ahead of presidential elections Wednesday. Tsvangirai has warned Mugabe not to "steal" the election.

By Cris Chinaka, Reuters

HARARE - Heavily armed riot police deployed in potential election flashpoints in Zimbabwe on Tuesday on the eve of a poll showdown between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that remains too close to call.

State radio said thousands of officers had been sent to the central Midlands province, while trucks of police carrying automatic rifles and grenade launchers patrolled in the restive Harare townships of Highfield and Mbare.

The run-down districts of the capital are hotbeds of support for Tsvangirai and were at the center of several weeks of post-election violence in 2008, in which 200 people linked to his Movement for Democratic Change were killed.

This year's presidential and parliamentary race brings the curtain down on four years of fractious unity government. It has been marked by allegations of threats and intimidation by security forces but there have been no reports of violence.

With no reliable opinion polls, it is hard to tell whether 61-year-old Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to unseat his 89-year-old rival, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.

Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP

A Movement For Democratic Change supporter holds up a red card to show his backing for Morgan Tsvangirai.

Both the MDC and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party predict landslide victories. However, it is possible neither leading candidate will emerge an outright winner, triggering a September 11 run-off.

Western election observers have been barred, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7,000 domestic monitors.

In an editorial in the domestic News Day newspaper and the Washington Post, Tsvangirai urged African monitors not to give the vote a seal of approval merely because they do not witness any bloodshed.

"Mugabe is the world's oldest leader and one of its longest-ruling dictators. He is fixing this election in a more sophisticated fashion than previous ZANU-PF campaigns of beatings, killings and intimidation," the prime minister wrote.

"Mugabe's election-stealing antics have been documented throughout Zimbabwe and beyond. Yet the international community seems apathetic; perhaps Mugabe has been stealing elections for so long the world just rolls its eyes and moves on."

Rallying supporters he calls "soldiers," Mugabe has termed the election a "do or die" contest, suggesting he recognizes that his historical legacy is at stake.

Given the irregularities and problems that have dogged the election process, including failure to publish an electronic voters' roll, the result is highly likely to be contested, raising the prospect of another long political stalemate.

"We are prepared to accept the results of a free and fair election but we are not prepared to accept fraud," MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told a news conference.

In 2008, South Africa and other countries in the region brokered a unity government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai to break a deadlock caused by the MDC's withdrawal from a second-round runoff because of the violence and killings.

"A return to protracted political crisis, and possibly extensive violence, is likely," the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based political risk think-tank, said in a report issued on Monday entitled "Mugabe's Last Stand."

Around a third of 63,000 police officers and civil servants allowed to vote two weeks early were unable to cast their ballots because voting materials did not turn up on time.

The existing list of the 6.3 million registered voters has also attracted criticism from the MDC and analysts.

In a study comparing the list to a 2012 census, the Research and Advocacy Group, a non-governmental organization, said young people - the main support base for Tsvangirai - were under-represented, while old people - more likely to be ZANU-PF supporters - were curiously numerous on the roll.

In particular, it cited the presence of more than 116,000 people aged over 100 and said that in almost a third of constituencies there were more registered voters than residents.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has rejected charges the voters' register is a shambles and has accused critics of seeking to discredit the election out of political interests.

Related:

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2f579df3/sc/40/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C30A0C197755840Eriot0Epolice0Edeployed0Eahead0Eof0Ezimbabwe0Eelection0Edubbed0Emugabes0Elast0Estand0Dlite/story01.htm

amzn white house correspondents dinner phoenix coyotes bruce irvin charlie st cloud young jeezy world wildlife fund

Discovery profit misses; Oprah Winfrey network makes money

By Liana B. Baker

(Reuters) - Discovery Communications Inc reported lower-than-expected second-quarter earnings and cut its full-year outlook on Tuesday, but it also said Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network, which it partly owns, was finally turning a profit.

Shares of the media company, which owns cable networks such as Animal Planet and TLC, fell 2.1 percent to $82.61.

Discovery said it now expected 2013 revenue of $5.55 billion to $5.63 billion, down from the forecast of $5.58 billion to $5.70 billion that it gave last quarter.

The company blamed unfavorable currency fluctuations and costs from its $1.7 billion acquisition of Scandinavian company SBS in December.

Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav had some good news about OWN, on which Discovery has spent more than $500 million. He said the cable network, a joint venture with Winfrey, had turned a profit faster than expected as it benefited from ratings traction with two new series from Tyler Perry, "The Have and Have Nots" and "Love Thy Neighbor."

"OWN is now cash flow positive and starting to pay down the investment Discovery has made in the venture," Zaslav said.

The company originally said OWN would turn a profit in the second half of the year.

The network, which launched in 2011, has been a bumpy ride. Last year it went through a restructuring that included layoffs, executive departures and a reshuffling of its programming lineup. But on Tuesday, Zaslav said it had signed on 30 new ad partners and that the channel had the "highest growth of any cable network in the second quarter."

Zaslav brushed off concerns that the merger of big ad companies Publicisand Omnicom would create pressure on Discovery's advertising rates. He said the deal was "probably a good thing" for the company.

"As long as we continue to grow our audience, we're going to find very receptive buyers," he said.

Net income in the second quarter rose to $300 million, or 82 cents per share, from $293 million or 77 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items for licensing agreements and foreign currency fluctuations, earnings per share of 83 cents missed the analysts' average estimate by 7 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Gabelli & Co analyst Brett Harriss said he was expecting improved profitability at Discovery's U.S. networks, where advertising was up 10 percent, but the company also recorded higher-than-expected operating expenses.

"U.S. advertising was great, but programming and marketing costs were up," Harriss said.

Discovery said operating expenses rose 17 percent at its U.S. unit, which it said offset revenue growth at that division.

Total revenue rose 30 percent to $1.47 billion. Analysts had expected $1.48 billion.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Maureen Bavdek and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/discovery-profit-misses-oprah-winfrey-network-makes-money-153527909.html

abercrombie abercrombie Eminem Stabbed google drive Savannah Guthrie Daft Punk Joyce Brothers

House Republicans to Energy Secretary: Don't Scrap Yucca

House Republicans aren't giving up on Yucca Mountain as a long-term nuclear-waste storage site, despite a bipartisan Senate plan to explore alternatives and establish a new nuclear-waste agency. Energy Secretary?Ernest Moniz signaled his support for the Senate plan in a Tuesday hearing, but faced a less receptive audience Wednesday in the lower chamber.

Moniz testified before the House Energy and Commerce Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, giving the administration's view that the disputes over the Yucca Mountain site have "no end in sight." The United States needs "a new workable long-term goal" for its nuclear waste, Moniz said. "The [Yucca Mountain] stalemate couldn't continue indefinitely."

Republicans pushed back, calling Yucca Mountain the legally designated site and disparaging alternative approaches as too costly. "DOE's new waste strategy very much represents the administration's effort to start from scratch as if the Nuclear Waste Policy Act doesn't exist," said subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus, R-Ill., adding that new site location efforts would cost $5.6 billion in the first 10 years. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., called Yucca Mountain the "clear answer," saying it "could be completed faster than a new effort to build interim storage, thus making Yucca Mountain the best option for mitigating taxpayer liability."

Top committee Democrats, however, expressed support for the new approach. "It does not appear [Yucca Mountain] will be open in the near future," said?subcommittee ranking member Paul Tonko, D-N.Y. "It is worth examining alternatives to current law and the current situation." Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., criticized Republicans' "obsession with Yucca Mountain" and cited the Senate bill as a good approach to beginning to find alternatives.

As he did in the Senate hearing Tuesday, Moniz pushed back on the idea that the government would have difficulty finding communities willing to play host to the nation's nuclear waste. "We believe there are reasons for optimism," he said. When pressed for specifics by Shimkus, Moniz said it was too early in the process to identify possible alternatives.

Another problem with the plan, Shimkus said, is the timing. The Energy Department plan would not have a pilot repository operational until 2048, "65 years after Congress first passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and after the reactors we have operating today have likely closed."

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., broke from his Democratic colleagues, questioning the cost of finding alternatives. He asked Moniz if Yucca Mountain was no longer an option given his support for the new approach. "The issue's not dead," Moniz responded. Dingell pressed further, asking if the Yucca site was still "viable." Moniz responded: "It needs both science and public acceptance, the latter is not there." Dingell and Upton penned a joint op-ed earlier this month calling for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reach a final decision on Yucca Mountain.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-republicans-energy-secretary-dont-scrap-yucca-154355986.html

chelsea handler hannibal Lena Headey roger ebert north korea Daddy Yankee jay leno