“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Super 8” both took three feature film honors from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films, which celebrated its 40th annual kudofest.
“Apes” was top science fiction film and garnered supporting actor honors for Andy Serkis and special effects kudos for the team of Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett.
“Super 8” earned director honors for helmer J.J. Abrams, music for Michael Giacchino and performance by a younger actor for Joel Courtney.
Other pics earning top genre kudos were “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” for fantasy; “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” for horror/thriller; and “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” for action/adventure.
“Breaking Bad” led smallscreen winners with three kudos: syndicated/cable series, TV actor for Bryan Cranston and TV supporting actor to Aaron Paul.
“Fringe” took two awards, for network series and to Anna Torv as TV supporting actress. “The Walking Dead” was honored as best television presentation and “Teen Wolf” was top youth-oriented series.
]]>The releases of four Singapore-made movies are packed into the space of the next three weeks. That would be unremarkable in a big movie-producing country like France, Japan or the U.S., but even after a growth spurt, Singapore only made 14 features last year.
So why the crush in early August? After all, for all that the government is giving generous financial encouragement to the film industry through the Media Development Agency and Singapore Film Commission, locally made films last year earned a small 3% slice of the Lion City’s B.O. with a combined S$10 million ($7.4 million).
Much of the crunch is due to ghosts—in fact, three of the four local titles have ghostly themes.
In much of Southeast Asia it is believed that the seventh month of the lunar year (roughly coinciding with August) is the time when the gates of hell are flung open, allowing ghosts to wander freely on earth.
Lim Teck, g.m. of producer-distributor Scorpio East, says the casts of “Money No Enough 2” (opening July 31) and “12 Lotus” (opening Aug. 14) will participate in events during the Hungry Ghost Festival, providing good promotional tie-ins.
In between, on Aug. 7, is the release of documentary “A Month of Hungry Ghosts,” helmed by Tony Kern and produced through his U.S.-Singaporean shingle Mythopolis Pictures. Obviously the lunar calendar makes ghost-themed movies a natural fit. But this year it also coincides neatly with the Aug. 9 National Day holiday.
“It’s the directors and producers’ view that the patriotic mood in the month of August makes it an ideal moment to release homegrown movies,” Lim adds.
The fourth local pic to get an outing is “Kallang Roar,” a semi-docu set in the 1980s about the National Stadium that is to be torn down this year and rebuilt. Shaw Releasing will unspool it Aug. 21.
Last year, helmer Royston Tan, who directed upcoming “12 Lotus,” had a hit with “881,” which also had a Hungry Ghost theme. But until a few years ago, releasing in the seventh month was considered taboo. What helped to change that was release of Kelvin Tong’s horror pic “The Maid,” a hit in August 2005.
Song Ting, of distrib Golden Village, which is releasing all three “hungry ghost” titles this season, says the formerly cursed month is becoming a good times for local films, pointing out that “Singapore Dreaming” did about $370,000 in 2006, while last year “881” surprised by beating “Rush Hour 3” in its opening weekend.
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Programing Languages I know are php,mysql, & html. I plan to
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]]>Would you know what to do if you had a blowout while driving? Most drivers have never gone through the experience and would likely react in the opposite manner than they should. Unfortunately, that reaction can lead to a serious traffic collision. In this article, I’ll explain the factors that can cause a tire to “blow out” (they might surprise you). I’ll also describe what you should do when it happens in order to maintain control of your vehicle.
Nature Of The Problem
It’s worth spending a moment to properly define a blowout. At its most basic, it is a rupture through which air quickly escapes to the point that the wheel is unable to support the weight of the vehicle. Aside from driving over a nail or any object that creates a large gash in the rubber, most people don’t realize how a blowout happens.
A lot of motorists think a blowout occurs because there is too much pressure in the tire. They believe the pressure builds until the rubber develops a weak spot at which point it ruptures. In truth, the problem is due to the tire having too little pressure, not too much. When this happens, the rubber flexes beyond its normal elasticity. If the vehicle is overloaded, friction and heat can build up to the point where the steel netting and the rubber separate. A rupture becomes imminent.
Maintaining Control And Ensuring Your Safety
]]>Neil Estep reviews the theatrical release of TMNT - with one minute on the clock - in this FilmCrunch movie review.
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