TV Times

TV Times

‘Catch Me If You Can’
By Sanath Weerasuriya
‘Catch Me If You Can’, one of the popular Hollywood movies released in recent times, is set to create an audience in Sri Lanka too as the hearthrob DiCaprio hit the Silver Screen at Majestic City.

Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, “Titanic”) and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia”, “Forest Gump”) engage in a game of cat and mouse in “Catch Me If You Can”, under the direction of three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg (“Saving Private Ryan”, “Schindler’s List”).

Frank W. Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) worked as a doctor, a lawyer and as a co-pilot for a major airline - all before his 21st brithday. A master of deception, he was also a brilliant forger, whose skill at check fraud netted him millions of dollars in stolen funds. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) had made it his prime mission to capture Frank and bring him to justice, but Frank is always one step ahead of him, baiting him to continue the chase.

“Catch Me If You Can” also stars Academy Award winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”), Golden Globe Award winner Martin Sheen (TV’s “The West Wing”), Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, James Brolin, Brian Howe, Frank John Hughes and Golden Globe winner Jennifer Garner (TV’s “Alias”).

Spielberg directed “Catch Me If You Can” from a screenplay by Jeff Nathanson, based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding. The film was produced by Spielberg and Walter F. Parkes (“The Ring”, “Men in Black II”), with Barry Kemp, Laurie MacDonald, Michel Shane and Tony Romano executive producing.

The plot of “Catch Me If You Can” might have seemed a bit far-fetched even by Hollywood standards... were it not for the fact that it is based on a true story.
“Things that happen in real life are sometimes a hundred times more fascinating than anything a person could make up off the top of his head”, remarks Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who portrays the subject of the story, Frank W. Abagnale, Jr.

“Catch Me If You Can” is based on Abagnale’s autobiography of the same name, which chronicles how he - as a runaway teenager, without so much as a high school diploma managed to pass himself off as an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a college professor, all while cashing millions of dollars in fraudulent checks.

Angels kick as The League Battles
By Harinda Vidanage
The Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle unites the trio of Natalie Cook (Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (Lucy Liu) to fight crime. Paralleling this panoply of the trio’s performances are cameos by the likes of the Olsen twins, former TV Angel Jaclyn Smith, the singer Pink and Bruce Willis, plus a choice part as an ex-Angel for Willis’ ex, Demi Moore, back from a 6-year hiatus her return sparked the foreign press to announce the return similar to a second coming of Eva Perón.

The Angels prepare to strike without warning as they go undercover to retrieve two missing silver bands which are no ordinary rings. They contain valuable encrypted information that reveal the new identities of every person in the Federal Witness Protection Program. When witnesses start turning up dead, only the Angels, using their expertise as masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts, can stop the perpetrator.

The movie is attributed to its physical stunts, accomplished with computer-generated assistance and better produced than most military invasions. They do, however, come at a cost: American Cinematographer reports that “Angels” shot a record 1.6 million feet of film, considerably more than the 1.2 million previous record-holder “Titanic” used.

Even more noticeable is the film’s relentless teasing sexuality. Few opportunities are lost to put the Angels in skimpy outfits and to have them, for instance, go undercover as exotic dancers to give the camera an excuse it doesn’t really need to be hypnotized by bumps and grinds.

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle has been the focus of many critics as they question the materialist one dimensional production effort of the movie, but the blockbuster success of the movie has not lost its color as it still remains on the top ten of the cine charts in many states around the globe.

The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen is the latest of movies to introduce superheroes from comic books but the first which is not attached to marvel incorporation. But in the comic there were five league members the movies has seven. The league is led by the James Bond for all time Sean Connery at 72 but still running the moves may be slow but he is Allan Quatermain, the proto-Indiana Jones adventurer.

Also in the league Mina Harker from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” played by Peta Wilson from cable’s La Femme Nikita; Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah); Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and his raging alter ego, Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng and the dualism is supported through a special-effects hulk ); and an invisible man (Tony Curran), modeled on H.G. Wells’ Hawley Griffin but now called Rodney Skinner. The other leaguers are Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) and the movie’s own creation, the adult Tom Sawyer (Shane West).

The members of the league are travelers of both the sides of light and darkness, they are blessed as well as cursed and highly individualistic and to save the world they have to trust each other. With little preparation and no time to lose, they will be transported via Captain Nemo’s extraordinary submarine, the Nautilus, to the frontline of defense: Venice, Italy. There, a masked madman known as the Fantom plans to sabotage a conference of world leaders by setting off a domino chain of explosions, sinking the entire city.

Stephen Norrington famous for “the Blade” with an accredited background working in special effects on movies such as “Aliens.” has done a great job in the creation of the movie setting. The film’s painterly computer-graphic cityscapes and meticulously designed interiors, evidence that he has a fine eye for production design and authentically epic-sized ambitions and the League is also one of the highly anticipated movies of the year.

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