Fast and Furious 5 on a fast track

May 14, 2011 {Cinemimi}
Fast and Furious 5’ or ‘Fast Five’, the action packed latest Hollywood thriller which marked the first movie to be screened at the newly built ‘Liberty Lite’ is to continue its showing for the coming few weeks.
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead a reunion of returning all-stars from every chapter of the explosive franchise built on speed in Fast Five. Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Elsa Pataky, Joaquim de Almeida and Dwayne Johnson joined in the cast in the film directed by Justin Lin.


Former cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) partners with ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) on the opposite side of the law. Dwayne Johnson joins returning favourites Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar for this ultimate high-stakes race.

Since Brian and Mia Toretto (Brewster) broke Dom out of custody, they’ve blown across many borders to elude authorities. Now backed into a corner in Rio de Janeiro, they must pull one last job in order to gain their freedom.

As they assemble their elite team of top racers, the unlikely allies know their only shot of getting out for good means confronting the corrupt businessman who wants them dead. But he’s not the only one on their tail.

Hard-nosed federal agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) never misses his target. When he is assigned to track down Dom and Brian, he and his strike team launch an all-out assault to capture them. But as his men tear through Brazil, Hobbs learns he can’t separate the good guys from the bad. Now, he must rely on his instincts to corner his prey…before someone else runs them down first.

‘Liberty Lite’, a new light to Lankan cinema

By Susitha R. Fernando

Making another good news for the cinemagoers specially those love latest Hollywood cinema country’s latest state-of-art movie theatre, ‘Liberty- Lite’ at Colombo 3 was opened last week.

With the latest worldwide concept of limited seat cinema, Liberty Lite offers a theater with latest DTS digital and Dolby SR sound with JBL speakers and QSC amplifiers and wide screen with 130 spacious seating capacity.

“We realized that there is not enough theatres for the amount of Hollywood movies released worldwide annually and there is a demand among the moviegoers in Sri Lanka to watch latest movies in the big screen,” said Anura Jasenthuliana, proprietor of Movie Works Pvt Limited who initiated the idea of a new cinema hall.

“Liberty Lite will be a English based theatre where mostly Hollywood movies will be screened,” the Technical partner of Movie Works, Palitha Perera told the TV Times.

Even though the cinema hall is comparatively smaller to some of the big theatres in Colombo which have connection to colonial times and have more than 300 seating capacities, the experience of film watching at ‘Lite’ would not be different to any of them. With its seating arrangement with 12-in a row and different elevations making every patron a completely clear view of the screen and superb sound system, ‘Lite’ is sure to provide a rare movie experience.

Opened on Friday, May 13, the cinema will daily four screenings at 10.30 am. 1.30 pm, 4.15 pm and 7 pm and the patrons can book tickets in advance by logging on to www.tickets.lk.

Mass Film makes young talents shine in short films

Ten young filmmakers, students of Mass Film Institute released their maiden cinematic production after one year’s training they had received on cinema.

The ten short films; ‘Manasu’ by Rosina, ‘Manitham’ by Poo Karthik, ‘Vithi” by Ithyakkumar, ‘Ilakku’ by Mayuran, ‘Leg’ by Deva, ‘Seruppu’ by Jesmeer, ‘Shiva’by Arul, ‘Good Selection’ by Anton Bothindan, ‘Azaippu’by Shatheesraj, ‘Stop’ by Prashanth were highly appreciated by the audience which included National Film Corporation Chairman, Kumar Abeysinghe, well-known poet Memon Kavi.

The films which were acted by students and their lecturers were screened recently at the NFC theatre, Colombo. Established by Nilapiryan Thowfeek, Mass Film Institute, a private film institute had trained the aspiring filmmakers on various technical skills in cinema over a period of one year.

Manipulavar Maruthur A Majeed one of the invitees addressing the gathering
said that there is no significant difference between Indian cinema and Sri Lankan cinema. However, Indian cinema has been successful commercially. Sri Lankan cinema industry has to overcome many hurdles to be successful. In this respect, the foundation stone laid by Mass Film Institute through which these films are produced is a testimony to compete with India in future.

“While setting up a private cinema Institute single handedly in Sri Lanka for the first time, Nilapiriyan has made a big contribution to the future of Sri Lankan cinema,” poet, Memon Kavi said. The NFC chairman, Kumar Abeysinghe, the chief guest of the event noted the talents and the hard work put by the amateur filmmakers.

“These films illustrate humanity and the students have conveyed the concept accurately within the specified time. Their hard work is not wasted. We should be thankful to the administrator and the Mass Film Institute which has groomed these students,” Mr. Abeysinghe said.

Former parliamentarian, V. Puththirasigamani addressing the gathering noted that the young filmmakers have huge potential and they have captured the art of short film. “The short films were brief and tight. We can easily relate a story within two hours. It is far more difficult to narrate the story within two minutes. However, these students have handled the technique and the dialogue magnificently” he added. The music direction for the ten short films were done by Kalmunai Shiva.

‘14’ cinema journal out

‘14’, a new quarterly cinema journal in Sinhala, under the theme of ‘a Space for Expression’ was launched recently. The first issue was presented to country’s pioneer filmmaker Dr. Lester James Peries, who has defended the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka on a number of occasions specially when there were various censorships introduced on cinema on his 92nd birthday.

Looking back at the censorship, judiciary process and the judgment of the film “Purahanda Kaluwara...” ten years ago and analyzing the situation on censorship world around today, the first issue of 14, focuses on the State, censorship and art. Wijayananda Rupasinghe, Deepthi Kumara Gunaratne, Sunil Wijesiriwardena, M. D. Mahindapala, Sunila Abeysekara, Priyan Wijebandara and Amila Galapptty has contributed to the first issue. Articles vary from international cinema to young short filmmakers in Sri Lanka.

The international festival report is on Berlin Film Festival 2011 and imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage talks about the role of the censors and past present and future of Sri Lankan cinema. Boodie Keerthisena talks about David Lynch who influenced him, film review is on Asoka Handagama’s film ‘Vidu’, translations useful for students who are learning cinema and other arts are included in the journal. “In addition 14 attempts to develop a glossary of terms use in cinema as well,” said its editor Anoma Rajakaruna.

‘14’ is an Agenda 14 publication edited by Anoma Rajakaruna. Anoma, the first Sri Lankan woman to edit a film journal edited “Chithrapata” a quarterly film Journal of National Film Corporation (2005- 2006) is a documentary filmmaker and a photographer who has won several international awards and has also served as a juror at several International film festivals in Asia, Africa and Europe during the last 15 years.