Sacha Baron Cohen dons stars and stripes in the first-look photos from The Dictator

 

Film goers shocked by Sacha Baron Cohen's outrageous roles in Borat or Bruno haven't seen anything yet.

Cohen's latest big screen venture, The Dictator, is based on a novel entitled Zabibah And The King that is widely rumoured to have been written by one of the most hated men in the world, Saddam Hussein.

The first photos to be released from the set show that as usual, there's nothing subtle about his choice of costume.

Red, white and blue: The first on-set photos from The Dictator show Sacha Baron Cohen wearing the flag of country that his character rules with an iron fist

In the pictures taken on Sunday during filming in New York, the actor is seen wearing red, white and blue stars and stripes jacket, trousers and hat emblazoned with the flag of a homeland that he loves to hate.

Cohen plays the title role of a man who risked his life to protect the country that he lovingly oppresses.

The comic has again teamed up with director Larry Charles, the man behind the camera for Bruno and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.


The Dictator also co-stars Anna Faris, Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzoukas.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Five advantages of trading forex market .

1. 24 Hour Market: Since the forex market is worldwide, trading is continuous as long as there is a market open somewhere in the world. Trading starts when the markets open in Australia on Sunday evening, and ends after markets close in New York on Friday.

2. High Liquidity: Liquidity is the ability of an asset to be converted into cash quickly and without any price discount. In forex this means we can move large amounts of money into and out of foreign currency with minimal price movement.

3. Low Transaction Cost: In forex, typically the cost for a transaction is built into the price. It is called the spread. The spread is the difference between the buying and selling price.

4. Leverage: Forex Brokers allow traders to trade the market using leverage. Leverage is the ability to trade more money on the market than what is actually in the trader's account. If you were to trade at 50:1 leverage, you could trade $50 on the market for every $1 that was in your account. This means you could control a trade of $50,000 using only $1000 of capital.

5. Profit Potential from Rising and Falling Prices: The forex market has no restrictions for directional trading. This means, if you think a currency pair is going to increase in value; you can buy it, or go long. Similarly, if you think it could decrease in value you can sell it, or go short.

X-Men: First Class: Brainy blockbuster

Starring Michael Fassbender,James McAvoy, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. 132 minutes. Opensmidnight June 2 at major theatres. PG
We interrupt this summer ofblah sequels and pointless remakes for some astonishing news. It turns out even cash cows can moointelligently.

X-Men: First Class is the welcome case in point, a blockbuster with brains. So much so, in fact, that newcomers to the X-Men saga might well be advised to do a little advance homework, or risk missing all the subtle connections and foreshadowing of things to come.

The movie is a reboot of a Marvel Comics franchise thathad worn out its welcome, to the point that even a 2009 prequel, X-Men Origins:Wolverine , felt like X-cess baggage. Maybe not at the box office, where sameness often sells, but certainly in the hearts and minds of many fans.

The new film, set mainly in the Cold War combustion of 1962, is the second prequel and numerically X-Men 5 , but it doesn’t feel like it. Director Matthew Vaughn brings similar freshness to this comic creation as he didto Kick-Ass , and manages to do so while hewing to the saga’s serious dramatic intent.

Get ready for time travels with Steven Spielberg, Christina Ricci and 'Charlie's Angels

Time travel will be much in evidence when the networksfield their new shows this fall. And we're not just talking about "Terra Nova," executive producer Steven Spielberg's fantasy adventure series about a family from the future time tripping to prehistoric days.
Yes, in the case of Fox's"Terra Nova," count on dinosaurs, and I don't mean the major broadcast networks. But this Spielberg-guided stroll through the"Jurassic Park" hardly will be the only time-travel experiment tried by those networks during the 2011-12television season, and the modern stone age won't be the most popular destination.
Get ready to jet back to the 1960s. ABC has booked "Pan Am," a '60s drama starring Christina Ricci, Kelli Garner, Karine Vanasse and Margot Robbie as flight attendants. NBC will groove back to that turbulent decade by opening"The Playboy Club," a drama set in Chicago.
What's behind this fascination with the era of the British Invasion, civil rights struggles, anti-war protests, the feminist movement and the generation gap? Perhaps its programmers' understandable yearning for those golden days when the big-three networks controlled all of television, calling all of the shots and printing money in the basement.
More likely, though, we're seeing the influence of television's most-admired show of the moment, AMC's"Mad Men." Only time will tellif "Pan Am" and "The PlayboyClub" will dig as deep into this fertile territory as writer-producer Matthew Weiner's acclaimed cable drama, but the bar has been set dizzyingly high.
One thing that hasn't changed since the '60s is that television remains a copycat medium ruled by theguiding principle of, if it works, steal it. While inviting comparisons to "Mad Men" may seem crazy, the lure of the '60s, as demonstrated so compellingly by Weiner and his team, is that it does provide such fascinating dramatic possibilities. To be successful, "Pan Am" and"The Playboy Club" will need to tap into those themes without seeming too derivative.
Concerns already have been raised about these throwback shows presentingbackward messages, featuring stewardesses and Playboy bunnies. "Mad Men," which doesn't return until early next year, has avoided this trap by acknowledging the sexism that existed and exploring it through the eyesof richly detailed male and female characters. If "Pan Am" and "The Playboy" club don't take the same travel precautions, then fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride through time.


read more at http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2011/05/fall_tv_shows_get_ready_for_time_travels_with_steven_spielberg_christina_ricci_and_charlies_angels.html

Box office update: ‘Thor’ leads Friday with $9.1 mil, ‘Bridesmaids’ celebrates with$7.8 mil

Image Credit: Marvel Studios/Paramount Even with a 64 percent drop fromits victorious debut, the mighty Thor clung to the box-office throne with $9.1 million on Friday, according to early estimates . Compared to other recent Marvel-based movies, the $150 million superhero picture declined more than 2008′s Iron Man , but held upbetter than that year’s The Incredible Hulk and 2009′s X-Men Origins: Wolverine . The god of thunder also dipped less than this year’s other monster hit, FastFive , which plummeted 69 percent on its second Friday. However, it’s highly unlikely that Thor will be able to match Fast Five ‘s cumulative gross, especiallywith next week’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides due to engulf the marketplace. Thor should finish the weekend with about $31 million, pushing its two-week total past $115 million.
However, the film that’s celebrating the most right now is Bridesmaids , which opened in second to a stronger-than-expected $7.8 million on Friday. That puts the R-rated gross-out female comedy on pacefor a $22 million weekend. The Universal release, which cost a frugal $32.5 million to produce and garnered excellent reviews , stars (and was co-written by) Kristen Wiig as the romantically frustrated maid of honor for her best friend (Maya Rudolph). The week’s other new release, the 3-Dhorror action film Priest , took in amild $5.6 million on Friday. The$60 million movie, starring Paul Bettany as a warrior priest who hunts vampires, should finish theweekend with $14 million.
Among holdovers, Fast Five declined 45 percent to earn $5.9 million and passed 2009′s Fast and Furious to become the street-racing franchise’s biggest hit. Assuming it makes around$18 million this weekend, Fast Five will have collected $167 million after three weeks. In fifth place was the Kate Hudson romantic comedy Something Borrowed , which dropped 52 percent for $2.3 million on Friday.
As for limited releases, the new Will Ferrell dramedy Everything Must Go grossed a mediocre $220,000 from 218 theaters. The drama Hesher , starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt andNatalie Portman, opened to only$36,000 from 40 locations, and the dance drama Go for It! brought in $35,000 from 218 sitesfor a measly per-theater average of $161. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Thor — $9.1 mil
2. Bridesmaids — $7.8 mil
3. Fast Five — $5.9 mil
4. Priest — $5.6 mil
5. Something Borrowed — $2.3 mil

Famous Japanese Drug Movies

This list of Japanese drug movies represents some of the best-known
movies about Japan’s drug trade and gangster underworld. Boasting some
of Japan’s most talented writers, directors, and actors, here are seven
Japanese drug movies to explore. They are arranged alphabetically by
title.

1. “Bloody Territories.” “Bloody
   Territories,” originally titled “Kôiki bôryoku: ryuuketsu no shima,” is
   a 1969 Japanese film.


2. “The City Of Lost Souls.”
   “The City Of Lost Souls” is a 2000 crime drama. This Japanese drug
   movie features gangster violence and Japanese-Brazilian and Chinese key
   characters. 


3. “Graveyard Of Honor.”“Graveyard Of Honor,” originally titled “Shin jingi no hakaba,” is a
   2002 action thriller about a barkeeper who saves the life of a crime
   boss to advance in the organization.


4. “Junk Food.”“Junk Food,” originally titled “Janku fudo,” is a 1997 Japanese crime
   drama.


5. “Ley Lines.” “Ley
   Lines” is part of a Japanese movie trilogy titled “Nihon kuroshakai.” 


6. “Red Angel.”“Red Angel,” originally titled “Akai tenshi,” is a 1966 Japanese drama
   set in the late 1930s.


7. “The Setting Sun.”“The Setting Sun,” originally titled “Rakuyô,” is a 1992 drama starring
   Masaya Katô, Diane Lane, Biao Yuen, and Donald Sutherland. 

Via http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/genres-movies/japanese/japanese-drug-movies/

Carla Gugino, Ryan Phillippe join cast of "By Virtue Fall"

Actress Carla Gugino arrives at the premiere of "Sucker Punch" on March23, 2011 in Hollywood, Calif. (Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
(CBS) Ryan Phillippe and "Sucker Punch" actress Carla Gugino have joined the cast of "By Virtue Fall."
They join James Spader, Treat Williams, Kim Coates and Eric Bana, who is already set to play one of the film's two leads, according to The Hollywood Reporter .
"By Virtue Fall" is set to be the directorial debut from Sheldon Turner, who most recently co-wrote the screenplay for "Up in the Air."
THR reports that Colin Farrell was in talks to play the other lead, but has moved on to the remake of "Total Recall."
Jeremy Renner is reportedly another possibility for the part.
The film about a pair of ATF agents who become enemies after one frames the other for a crime, according to the report.

Sexy Librarian Isn't Ugly: The Fallacy of the Ugly/Hot Woman in Hollywood

We ran a list of “ugly-hot” men yesterday, and inquiries were made as to when our list of “ugly-hot” women was coming out. Since we fancy ourselves an equal-opportunity outfit, that should be a pretty straightforward question. And yet somehow, it is not. Because women continue to be judged based on their fealty to a relatively narrow version of beauty in most cultures, a lot of what passes in Movies or on TV for a female “ugly-hot” is actually just hot, with glasses, or hot, with an over-sized sweatshirt. See, for instance, Jennifer Aniston in the recent Adam Sandler comedy Just Go With It:

Ugly

Or here are two women that some might mistakenly categorize as ugly-hot:

Tina Fey

Judy Greer

Does she look frumpy to you?

Via http://www.pajiba.com/think_pieces/the-sexy-librarian-was-never-ugly-to-begin-with-the-fallacy-of-the-uglyhot-woman-in-hollywood.php