Movie review: Runner Runner fails to hit the jackpot

In the world of gambling, “Hard work does not guarantee success and nobody plays for free”. So would be the case in the world of entertainment too. Director Brad Furman should have known it by now.

Runner Runner is a synthetic tale of an aspirant’s journey to impress and follow the path of his idol and mentor only to realise that his idol has abused his faith and turned him into a mere pawn in his scheme of things.

Set in the backdrop of high stakes in the world of online gambling, a Wall Street dropout and a promising Masters in Finance student Richie Frust (Justin Timberlake) is struggling for his tuition fees at Princeton University. So, in order to make a quick buck, he turns to gambling and thereby ropes in the student community on campus.

But soon, the university officials catch up with him and he is threatened with expulsion unless he stops this nefarious activity.

After scrutinising the gambling site Midnight Black, in his last and desperate bid to make it big, he gambles his entire savings. Unfortunately, he loses. Unable to digest this fact, he consults the computer expert on campus and realises that he was cheated.

Determined to retrieve his lost money, Richie heads to Costa Rica to meet Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), the promoter of the online casino and confronts him.

Unperturbed, Ivan apologises and offers Richie two alternatives; a refund or to work with him. Richie takes the offer to work with him and soon realises that everything is not picture perfect in this gambling den.

The plot points in Runner Runner seem to have been often witnessed in movies like Wall Street, The Devil’s Advocate, Boiler Room and The Social Network hitting the same graph points along the way.

Also, the momentum of the script and the screenplay loses its charm when, what starts off as an online gambling issue, gradually slides into the brick-and-mortar gambling mafia zone. Also, these scenes do not evoke the adrenaline rush that one notices in casinos.

With dialogues like “The eternal truth, the house always wins,” and “At Princeton, you’re either bred for it, or you bleed for it” by writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, it seems like an effortless corny job dished out in a hurry.

On the performance front, except for Justin Timberlake who seems sincere in his performance and proves himself a competent actor, the rest of the cast just sleepwalk their parts.

The worst is Ben as Ivan, the suave smooth talking website promoter. He does not make any effort to emote. He is more comical than threatening, especially in the menacing scenes where he feeds crocodiles. And Gemma Arterton as Ivan’s moll, does not add anything exclusive to her character either.

The glossy cinematography by Mauro Fiore is splendid. He has managed to capture the external shots beautifully but the real gambling scenes are staid. The background score with Spanish music is appealing.

Director Brad Furman’s Runner Runner will appeal only to a select audience who are technologically savvy and those interested in discussing mind-boggling financial numbers. The others may just lose interest within the first few minutes.

KARACHI: Despite not having a massive budget or a well-known local cast, Zinda Bhaag has swept away audiences with its robust depiction of loud and artistic Punjabi culture. With its relatable take on culture, class divides and relationships, the independent film has managed to bag the coveted title of Pakistan’s first Oscar submission in 50 years.

The sudden success and hype surround the film brought directors Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi and producer Mazhar Zaidi to meet a curious audience for a small group discussion held at The Second Floor (T2F) on Thursday evening.

Although the trio has collaborated on four projects previously, which includes a documentary, it is the first time that their partnership has come into the limelight. However, despite being rather low-profile, they managed to bag veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah for a role.

“It was next to impossible,” said Zaidi. “None of us knew him but we managed to trace the number and left a text on his cell phone – we heard from him after a while.”

“After sharing the initial details and only five pages of the script, out which Shah only read two, he liked the script and agreed to be a part of the film,” he said.

They were modest enough to admit that they learnt a lot during the process of making this film. “[We learnt] scripts should be completely ready before you hit the floor,” said Nabi. “In a day, we used to shoot two scenes, but we came to know that we have to be slow and have it on paper first.”

Shot extensively on the streets of Lahore, the absence of a star-studded cast worked in the movie’s favour, as it helped the film-makers bring out the real essence of Lahori culture. “Had we taken big stars, we wouldn’t have managed to bring across the effect we were aiming for. Many auditions were conducted across Lahore and we were certainly looking for young Lahoris who could naturally act out their roles,” asserted Gaur. “These three boys had to have a personality that closely matched their roles.”

Calling the movie “quintessentially Lahori”, Gaur also explained that the decision of casting new faces was deliberate. “95% of our crew comprises fresh graduates, with no hands-on experience. It’s a huge collective achievement at our end as a team – if we can do it, so can everybody else,” stressed Gaur.

The Zinda Bhaag team also revealed that the post-production of the film was done in India. “Since Pakistan lacks such technical expertise, we had either an option to go to Thailand, Malaysia or India. We opted for India because of pure budgetary constraints,” said Nabi.

KARACHI: 

“Plan9 was one of the best things to have happened to our company.”

These are the words of Ali Rehan, CEO of Eyedeus Labs, a company that released an app called ‘Groopic’ into the market in July. This is an app that allows every member to be part of a picture, even the photographer, without the use of a tripod. Rave reviews have followed this app in the global market and Eyedeus lab has established a place for itself in the tech world. According to Ali, Plan9 turned Groopic in to a reality. So how did it all start?

It was at the launch pad of Plan9 where Ali and his team presented an idea to a panel that found the concept to be strong. Plan9 then incubated Ali and his team; they provided him, amongst other things, mentorship, an office space, laptops, a stipend of Rs20,000 per team member and feedback on their product.

After an incubation period of six months, Ali and his teammates were on their own, but what they took with them was a business model, motivation and even more determination than ever before.

This, in effect, is the aim of Plan9: to nurture talent to create a culture of tech entrepreneurship and endless energy. It all started in 2012 when Dr Umair Saif came up with the idea of a Tech Incubator and made the Punjab Government believe in this idea. Thus, Plan9 is an initiative taken by the Punjab Information Technology Board that aims to facilitate technological entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

Having successful startups such as Hometown Shoes to their name, Plan9 is now in its second incubation cycle and is overseeing many new exciting projects.

Nabeel A Qadeer, the Programme Manager for Plan9, states that although the engineers in Pakistan are good, they lack business sense.

“They have little idea of what to do after a product is created, how to market it, who to sell it to and what to price it at, are questions they do not know how to address even if they are graduates from Lahore University of Management Sciences,” he states. “That’s where Plan9 comes in.”

Aside from providing mentorship, the project aims at introducing young innovators to investment channels. Danish Lakhani of Nosh Genie, from the first incubation cycle, expressed his gratitude to Plan9 by praising Plan9’s Angel Investors’ Club.

“Babar Ali and Hussain Dawood visited us and they even gave one team $5,000,”he stated excitedly.

Although Danish’s startup did not succeed because his team disintegrated, the youngster vehemently emphasised the need of programs such as Plan9 to continue for at least 50 years.

“Silicon Valley wasn’t built in a day,” he put it succinctly.

Qadeer calmed these fears by stating that the Punjab Government has approved the plan till 2015, and with the success the company is showing, he doesn’t see any difficulty in guaranteeing further approval.

For the current incubation cycle, some exciting projects are underway. I-Track,
for example is a startup that is working toward generating a solution for disabled people to use computers. The team is trying to design a lens that can work as a mouse for those who cannot use a mouse due to disabilities.

Technolsys is another interesting new startup from the current cycle that is aiming towards developing anti-theft apps for phones and tablets − a real need in Pakistan in times of today.

WASHINGTON: The United States could push past Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest single producer of oil and of natural gas this year, a US government agency said Friday.

While the US was roughly even with Russia as the top producer in 2012 of the petroleum and gas fuels combined, it still lagged the longtime leader Saudi Arabia as an oil producer.

But helped by the boom in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, production from shale deposits, the US will surpass the Saudis in petroleum output in 2013, making it the world leader in each fuel, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

The EIA includes in its petroleum product calculations crude oil, natural gas liquids condensates and biofuels.

The EIA said that US oil production had increased dramatically over the past five years due to production in Texas and North Dakota, where the exploitation of shale-based reserves by controversial fracking techniques has rocketed.

Meanwhile, natural gas production has shot up thanks to fracking-based production in the eastern part of the country, particularly in Pennsylvania.

Clash on campus: IBA event cut short by KU students

KARACHI:A trade fair at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) was cut short when a group of 30 students of the neighbouring University of Karachi (KU) harassed the organisers for playing loud music.

On Thursday evening, the IBA Main Campus student body had organised a trade fair to launch its Marketing Club on one of its lawns. With scrumptious food, refreshing drinks, fun-filled games, water activities and music, the event seemed promising until the KU students barged in and out to put an end to the function.

Over 500 people were present at the event when the group of, what the students called, intruders came in, threw down the sound system and overturned some of the corner tables. The “unexpected intervention” caused chaos as participants, not sure what happened, ran around the premises to take cover.

“People are dying in earthquakes or starving to death and here you are, wasting thousands of rupees on singing and dancing,” shouted one of the intruders, a witness quoted.

Some IBA students claimed the young men were activists of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) but the student organisation, which works to promote religion on campus, denied these accusations. “My organisation was not responsible for this incident,” insisted IJT spokesperson Sohaib Ahmed.

Even the IBA administration was reluctant to share the identity of the culprits. “I am not sure actually who they were except for the fact that they were students of the University of Karachi,” said IBA registrar Captain (retd) Ahmed Zaheer.

“Whatever happened in the end was unexpected and everyone was taken by surprise,” said one of the participating students, who requested anonymity. “Despite a little mishap, in the end, it was an exciting event.”

Most of the students were afraid to share information about the incident when The Express Tribune tried to contact them, claiming the IBA management was very ‘strict’. “If any mishap occurs at the events organised by the student body, the administration takes no time to suspend the organisers,” a student remarked bitterly. “They appear too obtuse to punish those who are actually responsible, such as the security staff,” he added, claiming that the incident occurred due to a major security lapse. “They [guards] failed to stop the outsiders from breaking in.”

Normally, it is not too easy for students of KU to enter IBA even though the latter is built inside the massive KU campus. Private security guards, hired by the IBA, stand at the entrances to make sure only IBA students are allowed to enter.

Meanwhile, the IBA registrar told The Express Tribune that some people tried to break into their premises but the institution’s security personnel managed to control the situation. “They demanded the event organisers switch off the sound system that was playing loud music,” he explained. These people were told that the students had organised a fun fair at the launch of their marketing club that was about to end by that time.

“They did not cause any physical damages nor did they harm any of our students,” said Captain (retd) Zaheer. “Two of them, who were creating a lot of fuss over the issue, were handed over to the Rangers personnel by the IBA security guards.”

Meanwhile, the IBA administration had also approached the police station but did not lodge a formal complaint, said Jamal Laghari, the SHO at Mubina Town police station.

MHSC is Box office hit.. A must watch Movie.

KARACHI: After a 45-day run in cinemas, Humayun Saeed’s Main Hoon Shahid Afridihas done reasonably well in terms of business at the box office.

After an initial release on 31 screens, MHSA has earned Rs51.8 million at the box office and is expected to close on Eid at Rs55 million. Based on these stats, the film is a hit.

MHSA is the story of the Akbar Deen (Humayun Saaed), the fictitious captain of the Pakistan cricket team. Deen becomes a national disgrace when police in Dubai discover him intoxicated and in the possession of drugs in his hotel room. He is banned from the cricket arena and disowned by his lower middle-class elderly parents, wife (Mahnoor Baloch) and young son for bringing shame to the family.

Fast forward 15 years later. A small cricket club in Sialkot is in desperate need of a coach to prepare it for a local cricket competition. Enter Deen. From here on, the journey for Deen and Shahid Bhatti — the talented but raw cricket-loving youth who hopes to become the next Shahid Afridi — begins.

Hit, super hit or blockbuster?

In 2011, Shoaib Mansoor’s Bol did business of a whopping Rs120 million on a mere 26 screens along with reruns. These stats earned it the blockbuster status.

Eidul Azha release Waar will be playing on 53 screens and is expetced to do business of about Rs45million in its first week. According to our prediction, it may be a super hit in Pakistan but not a blockbuster like Bol.

Manu Fans should afraid if Rooney Leaves..?

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has urged Wayne Rooney to quit Manchester United and join him at Paris Saint-Germain.

The striker handed in a second transfer request inside three years at the end of last season, with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho public in his pursuit of the England international.

However, the transfer deadline passed with Rooney still at United, and Ibrahimovic has now called on the 27-year-old to join the Ligue 1 champions if he still seeks an exit.

'When there was talk of Rooney joining us in Paris it was a prospect that excited me,' Ibrahimovic is quoted as saying by The Sun.

'I think he made it clear in the summer that he wanted a fresh challenge - and things have not been going so well for Manchester United this season.

'If he still wants to move next summer, or in January, I would urge him to come and play with me in Paris. The only direction this club is going is up.'

Ibrahimovic jokingly warned that Rooney would not be the star attraction at Parc des Princes if he was to make the switch to France, but was quick to praise the forward's talents.

'If he did join he would have to get used to the fact that Zlatan scores even better goals than him,' added Ibrahimovic.

'But I don't just want to play with great players, I want to play with technically great players - and that is what he is.

'You can work on the technical side but it is not something you can be taught. You have it or you don't and Rooney does.'