The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

'Mad Ghost' - four times the chill
Knightley to adopt English accent for Anna Karenina
Clooney charms Toronto playing a family man

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 01:10 AM PDT

Mad Ghost delivers the scares with four short stories.

A GROUP of youth imagines the end of the world while hanging out in a crowded mall. A recently promoted white collar worker is inundated with deadly gifts. A gang of lawbreakers takes refuge in an abandoned healthcare facility. An old man's corpse lies preserved in his family home years after his death. These make up an anthology of four stories with varied themes – drama, action, thriller and comedy.

Also known simply as 4 or Four, Mad Ghost sees leading Thai screenwriter Eakasit Thairaat write all four stories, and directing the first. The other directors are Kongkiat Khomsiri, Pawat Panangkasiri and Madiew Chookiat Sakweerakul.

This 125-minute Thai horror omnibus stars Ananda Everingham, Alex Rendell, Charn Ridulsurakarn, Nattapong Arunnet, Pattarapasit Sappasawadichote and Pakorn Chatborirak.

Writer-director Eakasit Thairaat (13 Beloved, Body #19, WHO R U) kicks off this four-parter with Clean-up Day, a tale about a youth who hangs out in a mall with a group of friends. Their conversation revolves around the end of the world. They discuss issues like global warming and the spreading of a lethal virus. Just as they joke about how devastating it would be if the virus really exists, thick blood starts to ooze out of their noses ...

Kongkiat Khomsiri (Slice, Long Khong 2, Art Of The Devil 2) picks up the pace with the dark comedy titled Gift Shop For The Ones You Hate, a story about an office worker who had just been promoted to manager in his company. From that day onwards, he continuously receives parcels and gifts with mysterious objects inside. He finds that these presents can slowly mess up the recipient's life.

Probably the darkest and most serious, Eerie Nights is helmed by noir director Phawat Panangkasiri (Shadow Of The Naga), who worked with actor Ananda Everingham (Shutter, The Coffin) to present a chapter in the life of a criminal who manages to escape arrest. But can he escape from karma?

As the final scare, Madiew Chookiat Sakweerakul (13 Beloved, Love Of Siam) also tickles audiences with Who Is Ah Gong?, by employing a combination of eccentric characters plus an entertaining storyline.

A family is slowly being driven mad while trying to keep their promise to fulfil the wishes of their grandfather on his death bed.

The old man wanted his body to be preserved in the family home forever. Unfortunately, everything changes when his spirit starts to haunt the occupants of the house.

Mad Ghost will be haunting local cinemas from Thursday.

Knightley to adopt English accent for Anna Karenina

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 12:35 AM PDT

TORONTO: Keira Knightley will speak with an English accent when she plays the classic Russian character of Anna Karenina, the actress said on Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival.

The British actress, who is at Toronto promoting her role in "A Dangerous Method" - in which she also plays a Russian character - told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that for her biggest role yet, in the upcoming "Anna Karenina," director Joe Wright and a cast including Jude Law had decided to speak with English rather than Russian accents.

"It's going to be an English accent. It's always very tricky when you are doing something that is meant to be in another language. Because you are like, what accent should it be, should you do that? Well, if you've got a Russian accent, why aren't you speaking Russian? It's an English-language film. So we have taken the decision that it's an English accent," she said.

The film, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's novel, considered one of the greatest of all time, will start shooting in a week's time. The cast already has completed three weeks of rehearsal, Knightley said.

"I've been reading the book now, for about two months, three months, poring through it, trying to pick pieces out of it, trying to figure it out. And then a couple of history books of that era in Russia, which is fascinating," the 26-year-old actress said.

Knightley has received some praise for her turn in David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" - which premiered at Toronto on Saturday - in which she plays Russian patient Sabina Spielrein, who comes between psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

In that film she does use a Russian accent. But looking ahead, she said her mind was tuned to the late-19th-century Russian high society of "Anna Karenina," as she follows the likes of Greta Garbo in the title role.

"It's a big boy," she said about the role. "It's very challenging, it's very very exciting ... hopefully it will all come together."

Clooney charms Toronto playing a family man

Posted: 12 Sep 2011 12:33 AM PDT

TORONTO: Calling acting just his "day job," George Clooney is winning over movie critics and audiences in Toronto with a nuanced performance as a father forced to rethink his life after his wife suffers a debilitating accident.

Clooney plays the key role in "The Descendants," a new feature from Alexander Payne, who directed the Oscar-winning "Sideways," and he brings a similar blend of humor and heartbreak to this new movie set against a Hawaiian backdrop.

The film is one of the big attractions at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Clooney hitting the red carpet on Saturday with typical self-deprecating remarks and charm, joking with a large audience that playing a family man was, of course, a natural fit for the famous bachelor.

"He did seem like a very good family man, it seemed perfect for me," he told a laughing audience at the premiere, who threw questions at him about how he could possibly be so in tune with his parenting side for the role when, in real life, he's unmarried and has no children.

In "The Descendants," Clooney plays a successful real estate lawyer coping with tragedy and reconnecting with his two daughters while facing his past, his shortcomings as a father and a different future.

The film was adapted by Payne and two other screenwriters from Kaui Hart Hemmings' 2007 novel of the same title.

Coming straight off favorable reviews for his directing and acting in the political drama "The Ides of March," which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and has pleased audiences in Toronto, the actor has drawn praise for his turn in "The Descendants," with critics calling his performance perfectly underplayed, and noting Payne's ability to subtly but quickly change tones.

The Hollywood Reporter said, "Never has (Payne's) knack for mixing moods and modulating subtle emotions been more evident," while Clooney noted that "there's a sense that he's able to turn things from funny to sad really quickly, and he's just a master of it."

Clooney told reporters the role was more of a challenge than usual. "This is one that you are in a very uncomfortable zone, with very comfortable people, but it is a tricky place to play.

Obviously it is a much more difficult part," he said, adding that playing a father wasn't that much of a stretch. "You don't have to shoot heroin to play a heroin addict."

As Payne did in his hit film "Sideways," for which he won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, he's again exploring the ways flawed ordinary people cope with life. He said he began working on the script several years ago and wanted no one but Clooney to play the central part.

"George has the right look and the right height, and even though we did not work together on 'Sideways,' he really is one of the few contemporary stars that I really did want to work with. I suspected that we would hit it off," Payne said. "He was completely right for the part."

Asked about whether he was ready for any award nominations, Clooney said, "I have won an award once" - for his supporting role in "Syriana" - "so when I die, they say Oscar winner. It's a great, nice sort of thing to have on the tombstone, but after that, to me, I really like it when people appreciate the work," he said.

The 50-year-old actor said that for him, the world of movies was not about competition.

"I don't really have this dying need to collect things. There is a point in time when you start in this and you do get competitive. You can get caught up in it, trying to compete with people, and you realize, this is silly, we are comparing artists," he said.

"The Descendants" and "The Ides of March," Clooney's fourth feature as a director, will both be released in theaters this fall, but the actor said he is not concerned about them competing against one another.

Nor is he unclear about whether he prefers acting or directing. "My day job is acting, and that is how I make my living, and directing is something I really want to do and really enjoy doing."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 12 September 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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