I N T E R N A T I O N A L
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
16 Pages Number 195 7th year
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Entertainment
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Sam Smith’s new Bond theme released to mixed reviews This image released by Sony Pictures Animation shows Dennis, voiced by Asher Blinkoff, left, and Dracula, voiced by Adam Sandler, in a scene from in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s “Hotel Transylvania 2.”
‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ bites off September record
Sony Pictures Animation via AP
LOS ANGELES — September has a new box office star in “Hotel Transylvania 2.” The PG-rated animated pic earned a robust $47.5 million in its debut weekend, making it the top September opener of all time, according to Rentrak estimates Sunday. The previous record holder was “Hotel Transylvania” which opened to $42.5 million in 2012. “It really is something the whole family can agree to see. There are laughs for adults, kids, and teenagers as well,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony. According to the studio, an estimated 59 percent of audiences were female and 60 percent were under the age of 25. Paul Dergarabedian, a Senior Media Analyst for box office tracker Rentrak, noted that the film capitalized on early excitement for Halloween. It’s also serving an audience eager for more family friendly animated content. “This year hasn’t been oversaturated with family animated films, it seems like virtually all have done well,” he said. The film, which cost around $80
million to make, features the voices of Adam Sandler, Mel Brooks, Selena Gomez and Kevin James and is the only animated feature on the market until “Peanuts” opens in November. “The Intern,” a PG-13 rated workplace comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, took second with a solid $18.2 million. Audiences for the Nancy Meyers written and directed film were 62 percent women and 88 percent over the age of 25. Significantly, 55 percent were over 50-years-old — an audience that doesn’t typically rush out to see films on opening weekend. “Nancy Meyers is her own brand and I think that automatically accesses an audience who looks at it and thinks ‘this is a movie I want to see,’” said Jeff Goldstein, an executive vice president at Warner Bros., of the veteran filmmaker known for
films like “It’s Complicated.” “Here we have a real hit,” he said. “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” took third place in its second weekend in theaters with $14 million — a 54 percent drop from its opening. The film has brought in $51.7 million to date. “Everest,” meanwhile, landed in fourth place with only $13.1 million after expanding nationwide. The factbased adventure film opened only on IMAX and premium large format 3D screens last weekend. The well-reviewed border drama “Sicario” is also dividing audience attentions. It cracked the top 10 with $1.8 million from only 59 theaters. Hope isn’t lost for “Everest,” though. Internationally, it has earned $73.7 million to date. Also, with a solid A CinemaScore, word of mouth should be strong in the coming weeks, despite the direct competition of next week’s “The Walk,” another vertiginous, event film that will take over IMAX screens. (ap)
LONDON - The new James Bond theme song, “Writing’s On The Wall”, was released Friday, with fans of singer Sam Smith hailing it as a classic, though others were less complimentary. The release comes a month before “Spectre”, starring Daniel Craig as Bond, is released in Britain and Ireland on October 26 before a worldwide release on November 6. Bond legend Roger Moore, who starred in seven of the films, praised Smith on Twitter for his “very haunting and wonderfully orchestrated” song. But a number of critics likened the song to Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” and commented disparagingly on Smith’s claim that it only took 20 minutes to write. Grammy award winner Smith is the first British male solo singer to sing the 007 theme since Tom Jones sang “Thunderball” in 1965. “The pressure to deliver a Bond song that stands against all the rest feels quite intense,” the British singer told The Sun newspaper in an interview Friday. The 23-year-old added that the movie’s director Sam Mendes had a say over the song’s lyrics and made sure that Bond “didn’t sound weak, that he still sounded powerful”. Ajay Chowdhury of the James Bond International Fan Club said the song had “automatically achieved classic Bond song status”. “There are three types of Bond song: the big, bombastic showstopper exemplified by Shirley Bassey’s ‘Goldfinger’, the dark, melancholic, regretful ballad of which Nancy Sinatra’s ‘You Only Live Twice’ is an example and finally, the heroic rock anthem like Paul McCartney’s ‘Live And Let Die,’” he said. “Sam Smith’s song belongs to the second of these categories.” Meanwhile, Stephen Jones, a music commentator, tweeted: “Am I alone in thinking the new Sam Smith Bond theme is reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s Earth Song?” Numerous other tweets suggested that he was not. (afp)
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Tuesday, September 29, 2015 India successfully launches its first space observatory
Fiorentina crushes 10-man Inter 4-1 to move top of Serie A
Spain: Catalan secession parties triumph but face problems
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Thai police reiterate crackdown was motive for bombing
BANGKOK - Thai police reiterated on Monday the motive for a deadly bombing at a shrine in Bangkok in August was revenge for a crackdown on human trafficking and they again showed wads of cash that would be used as a reward for their investigators.
REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Thai national police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang (C) attends a news conference about the Bangkok blast which killed 20 people, including foreigners, as screen shows suspects, at the Royal Thai Police headquarters in central Bangkok, Thailand, September 28, 2015.
Fourteen foreigners were among those killed in the attack, the worst incident of its kind in Thai history. It dealt a fresh blow to a tourism industry recovering from the impact of political protests last year. “We are confident that the main motive for this crime was Thai authorities destroying the human trafficking network,” police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang told a news conference. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack and police have repeatedly said they did not believe militants were involved, ruling out a motive of revenge for the repatriation in July of 109 Muslim Uighur people to China. The Uighur issue is sensitive for the government and any link between the bomb and the deportation at China’s behest could expose it to criticism that its foreign policy led to the blast. Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, say they flee China’s western Xinjiang region due to persecution. Beijing rejects that. For the second time in a month, Somyot appeared with three thick blocks of banknotes stacked in front of him and said the 3 million baht ($83,000) was a reward for his investigators. While ruling out
international militants, Somyot said there may be a link between the blast and Thailand’s long-running political divisions through an individual hired to help the suspects in the attack. That person may have been involved in bombings during political turmoil in 2010 and 2014, he said. “We cannot rule out this motive, that this may be politically driven,” he said, giving no further details. Authorities said on Friday a man they arrested in August - referred to both as Bilal Mohammed and Adem Karadag - had confessed and was the yellow-shirted suspect seen in security footage placing a backpack at the shrine moments before the blast. A second arrested man used a mobile phone to trigger the bomb, police have said. (rtr) News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http://globalfmbali.listen2myradio.com or live video streaming at http://radioglobalfmbali. com and http://ustream.tv/channel/ global-fm-bali.
Al Powers/Powers Imagery/Invision/AP
Extortion and blackmail harm image of tourism in Bali
EXTORTION, blackmail and intimidation are against the law in Indonesia. Allegations of extortion and black mail in recent cases involving foreigners are at public issue, especially as they impact the image
of Bali as a tourist destination. Unfortunately extortion and blackmail are not new in Bali. Other than the case of a Badung traffic policeman asking for money to buy beer and money for the state that was made famous after images of the incident were uploaded onto YouTube, Australians have also spoken out about a case of extortion alleged to have been committed by personnel
of the Kuta Police that resulted in the officers changing posts. Most recently were the alleged extortion cases committed by an immigration officer (even though the case was finally judged to be “gratification” rather than extortion) as well as another case that was filmed and uploaded to YouTube showing “entrance ticket mafia” operating in Kintamani.
Indeed this is all very embarrassing. Hiking the price of admission tickets to tourist areas may seem trivial, but the impact is tremendous. Kintamani relies very heavily on revenue from entrance ticket sales; therefore they regionally generated revenue is harmed by the actions of such unscrupulous employees. Moreover, such actions impact the overall trust that tourists have towards tour guides who are the face of tourism
in Bangli and elsewhere. Officials of this cool town should respond to the daily complaints made by travelers. These complaints are not solely related to ticketing issues either; lack of public toilets is another matter that could have serious impacts on tourism in the area if officials do not deal with the matter. Continue to page 2 Attention ...