The Nation November 06, 2011

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Entertainment

Minisaa drops ‘Freedom Song’

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ISING performer, Patience Obiageli Epelle popularly called Minisaa has just released her first song entitled 'Freedom Song' in audio and video versions. In a statement made by the artiste, “Freedom Song” is an African Calypso with a Zulu feel. It is a song from my heart, a gift to all freedom loving Africans and Nigerians and that is why it took me quite a while to produce it because I had to feel the song before serving it to my fans. I am happy with the outcome because the song and its video are getting rave reviews on both TV and radio. Minisaa also stated that she got inspiration for the song from the recent happenings in the northern part of Nigeria. “The inspiration for the song came as a result of what is currently happening in the Northern part of Nigeria and in some parts of Africa, particularly Northern Africa. It breaks my heart when I remember African brothers and sisters being killed on the street like dogs when they are supposed to be free in their own land. So the song is dedicated to all Africans and Nigerians who are experiencing civil strife,” she said.

THE NATION ON SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2011

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Dolphin Tale garners compassion

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NSPIRED by the amazing true story of a brave dolphin and the compassionate strangers who banded together to save her life, the flick Dolphin Tale provides a break from the blood-sucking creatures of the night and bone-crunching martial artists. A movie directed by Charles Martin Smith, from an original screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi, Dolphin Tale introduces the titular creature by way of 11-year-old Sawyer (Nathan Gamble), a quiet, withdrawn boy who is forced to attend summer school after failing most of his classes. He lives with his mother Lorraine (Ashley Judd) in the coastal city of Clearwater, Florida, and appears to be disinterested in life. His father is out of the picture, and Kyle (Austin Stowell) his closest male relative, a champion high school swimmer with aspirations of competing in the Olympics, has enlisted in the Army to earn enough money to pay for his training. Sawyer happens to pass by a fisherman (Richard Libertini) at the same time that a dolphin washes up on shore. The hapless animal is entangled in a crab trap, and her tail badly damaged. In a compassionate spectacle, Sawyer stays with the dolphin until an animal rescue unit arrives. The next day, he sneaks into the marine hospital and learns that Winter, as the injured dolphin has been named, may not survive very long. Morgan Freeman then enters the picture as a superhero / prosthetic specialist who may have a solution for the tail-challenged Winter, and all becomes right with the world. Sawyer gets absorbed in the activities of the marine hospital and becomes friends with Hazel, a girl about his age (Cozi Zuehldorff); Dr. Clay Haskett, her father (Harry Connick Jr.); and her

grandfather Reed (Kris Kristofferson), a sailor who fell from grace from the sea and is now retired, living on a boat docked next to Hazel and Clay, and periodically dispensing nuggets of grandfatherly wisdom. Sawyer cuts summer school to help care for Winter, which understandably upsets his mother. But once Lorraine sees for herself what Sawyer has been doing, she becomes warmly supportive. She has to work full-time, and she'd rather see him spend his days happy doing something "real" as opposed to sitting unhappily in a classroom taught by a stern teacher (Ray McKinnon). A teasing plot, Dolphin Tale sometimes feels soggy, as the film digs too hard to wrest tears from the eyes of empathetic viewers. For the most part, Dolphin Tale is honest and true, supplicating parents to consider the best way to instruct their children, encouraging children to seek out the natural world rather than the virtual, and proclaiming to everyone the wonder and beauty of a dolphin in flight through the water.

In Time: Staging a time-obsessed future

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ITH a compelling, futuristic storyline, the tone is set for action sci-fi flick, In Time. Based on a future where humans are genetically engineered to live for 25 years after which they stop ageing. Then, they are given a year's worth of time. This sets the stage for a society where time becomes the currency that is earned and spent. Enter Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), a factory worker age 28, who literally lives one day at a time trying to provide enough hours for himself and his mother (Olivia Wilde) to live on. One night, while out at the local bar with his best friend Borel (Johnny Galecki), Will finds himself in the middle of a situation involving a neighborhood timebandit, Fortis (Alex Pettyfer), and one Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), a wealthy man from “New Greenwich” who buys out the bar because he has more than a century's worth of time on his clock. Will saves Hamilton from a horrid fate and the rich man confesses that his will to live has run out well before his physical clock. As a parting gift, Hamilton passes Will a century to spend as he likes. Will's change of fate lasts long enough for him to briefly experience the luxury of New Greenwich and gamble his way into an even longer amount of time.

••Minisaa

When Will is falsely accused of murder, he must figure out a way to bring down a system where time is money, thus enabling the wealthy to live forever while the poor, like himself, have to beg, borrow and sometimes steal enough minutes to make it through another day. He also runs into Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), daughter of wealthy time mogul Phillippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). Sylvia has all the time a person could want, but has not experienced a single day worth living, so naturally she is quickly smitten with Will's “every second counts” passion for life. When the Time Keepers come to forcibly repossess Will's time, Will is forced to flee with Sylvia as a hostage and a chase follows. A Robin Hood-style crime spree that is meant to be some socio-political statement therefore ensues. In Time produces a nice blend of sci-fi elements with human drama in order to raise larger philosophical points about the society and existence. The idea of time as currency has huge metaphorical and thematic potential, and in the first act it seems as though the film will utilize this potential by exploring issues like what it is to “live” vs. “exist,” and how the investment of time as a life or death matter realigns one's perceptions of what's worthwhile, and how to live life.

Gossip Nation (Nig movie) Genre Drama Gossip Nation takes multiple characters each on his or her journey through the strained community of Blacktown. Each character touches another through the destructive power of gossip. Kemi, a Nigerian immigrant in her 20s, spreads damaging gossip within her African community out of her need to be loved, starting the fires of greed, jealousy and loneliness to those she touches. RA. One Genre: Action/Adventure The film begins with Jenny Nayar of "Barron Industries" introducing a new technological product to an audience. The technology, dealing with transfer of data through different types of rays and blending of real and virtual words, evokes a very excited response from all the people present. The plot then moves to a dream sequence in which Lucifer battles the Khalnayak, a game character who has taken the Desi Girl hostage . Lucifer rescues the Girl, but suddenly wakes in class to the chagrin of the teacher In Time Genre: Action/Adventure In a future where time is literally money and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time. Will Salas lives minute-to-minute, until a windfall of time gives him access to the world of the wealthy, where he teams up with a beautiful young heiress to destroy the corrupt system. Johnny English Reborn Genre: Action/Adventure In his latest adventure, the most unlikely intelligence officer in Her Majesty's Secret Service must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos. In the years since MI-7's top spy vanished off the grid, he has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia. But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese... Jerusalem Countdown When nuclear weapons are smuggled into America, FBI Agent Shane Daughtry is faced with an impossible task -- find them before they are detonated. The clock is ticking and the only people who can help are a washed up arms dealer , a converted Israeli Mossad Agent and a by- the-book CIA Deputy Director. Rise of the Planet of the Apes Genre: Action/Adventure A single act of both compassion and arrogance leads to a war unlike any other -- and to the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.


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