40
Entertainment
BIG
THE NATION ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19, 2012
PICTURE
F
Supported by: SILVERBIRD CINEMAS
ROM medieval times to modern day, the reality or not of the existence of the devil has always been in contention. Religious dissentions have led to nations going to war with each other but with the flick, Suing the Devil, a new approach is presented. In the movie, “Luke O'Brien (Bart Bronson), a salesman turned night law student, decides to sue Satan for $8 trillion dollars. On the last day before Luke files a default judgment, Satan appears to defend himself. On Satan's legal team are 10 of the country's best trial lawyers. The entire world watches on Legal TV to see who will win the Trial of the Century. Probably, O'Brien's plan to expose Satan is in keeping with the Bible which urges believers to be aware of the subtle deceptions of the enemy. That sets the chain of proceedings which culminates in an eerie-tensed movie that begins from the first scene and crescendos to the final confrontation between Luke and the devil. As portrayed in the flick, Satan still can't stand to have scripture quoted at him. He states in the movie that the Bible is fiction but he sure squirms when it is used against him. He makes comments like "Evil is good' but O'Brien, despite Satan's accusations, holds his own against him when he relies on scripture, a lesson to all believers. With Tim Chey as Director of the flick, Suing the Devil does not appear to portray the devil as a horrible being, but rather takes the approach that the devil is the same being that tricked Eve thousands of years earlier. The film is based in scripture and many verses are quoted and the special effects are nicely handled as they reveal that Satan is a being from below. Malcolm McDowell, as the devil,
Suing the Devil takes spiritual battle to courtroom
Death scare brings entertainers together
F packs a powerful, mesmerizing, punching performance to the very end. Bart Bronson also does a commendable job as Luke O'Brien, the salesman who is a lawyer by night and who files a default judgment against Satan as he is tired of his scheming ways and the pain he has inflicted on people over the centuries. The ending brings a new, unpredictable and great twist to the
story. The supporting cast is pretty strong, especially Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law” TV series), who plays a wickedly funny legal commentator, along with Tom Sizemore (“Saving Private Ryan” “The Genius Club”) and Rebecca St. James. Suing the Devil, is a high-concept, faith-based legal thriller that whips up the imaginative abilities of its viewers.
Friends with Benefits packs erotic punch genre. Jamie (Mila Kunis) meets Dylan (Justin Timberlake), a Web site art director when she lures him to New York to interview for a spot at a men's magazine. They meet when she's scrambling atop an airport baggage carousel and they soon get talking. She needs him to take the job to earn her bonus and so sweetens the deal by showing him around what she calls the real New York. Despite an attraction to each N the age of other, both realize they are social networking, issues like everything they have both been romance have taken a new running from in a relationship and dimension. Seen from that light, decide to become friends...with Friend's with Benefits portrays a benefits. It is the perfect different notion of one of the most arrangement until both parties engaging social issues of all times. realize there is no such thing as 'no With a adequately matched Justin strings attached'. Timberlake and Mila Kunis comes a Having both been dumped in comedy flick that is about love and their past relationships, they decide sex, gets some of its juice and tang that an occasional quickie with a partly by trash-talking its own friend is a perfect post-romance
I
deal. Friends with Benefits uses sex and bared skin to get at questions about the possibility of romantic love between true male and female equals. Directed by Will Gluck, the flick highlights an obvious chemistry, both emotional and sexual, between Kunis and Timberlake. The film gets away from the maddening plot of the background and focuses exclusively on both acts. Their clumsy first encounter is the perfect blend of playful and awkward, and when the bedroom romps of the early part of the film later evolve into more complicated emotions, Kunis and Timberlake handle the transition with a real tenderness rarely seen in romantic comedies. The movie Friends with Benefit is built on the premise that its characters, and probably the viewers, are sick of the romantic comedy clichés that they may secretly adore.
OLLOWING the incidences of deaths in the entertainment industry in recent times, a conscious effort to resort to God in prayers and fasting appears to be the next best thing, as music, comedy and movie stakeholders will be converging in worship, at the Lagoon Restaurant, Lagos come February 26. Although an interdenominational service, the initiative, scheduled to kick off with a three-day individual fast by the entertainers, beginning from February 24 is the vision of a Port Harcourt based pastor, Paul Ojo Emmanuel. The industry practitioners are expected to pray against untimely deaths, taking into consideration the number of entertainers they have lost within the spate of two years and the adverse effect the deaths have on all of them. Prior to this coming event scheduled for 5pm to 7pm, the first edition, which held in Lagos last year, witnessed several entertainers and anointed men of God. It was anchored by leading gospel act, Sammie Okposo. The convener of the programme, Pastor Paul Ojo said “this vision was born out of the burden of seeing our greatly endowed Nigerian acts not living their full time on earth before death, sickness or infirmity come snatching them through unnecessary accidents from hell and worse off, homes breaking away. I prayed about this burden for years and then God spoke to me to do something about it in 2009, thus the vision S.H.I.F.T
•Aisha was born in 2011”. Among the artistes who have supported the initiative are Segun Arinze, Julius Agwu, Sammie Okposo, Stephanie Okereke, Ali Baba, AY, and Aisha Abimbola. The event is being planned as a twohour, annual nondenominational event. The entertainers are also expected to be joined by their fans to seek the face and place of God in their lives. Pastor Paul said the vision he got was “to stand in the gap for the Nigeria entertainment industry and say enough is enough to mishaps in their lives as they go about fulfilling their destinies in acting, football, music, arts, to mention a few. To foster covenant relationships with God and to remind them also that God who made them and gave them fame and a name created a void in their lives that He alone can fill. To also create an atmosphere of praise and worship to God which in turn will foster peace, unity, unparalleled speed for accomplishments and ultimately, divine protection”. The event is expected to also feature special performances like music, jokes and celebrity/fan catch-up.