amanda bynes.........

Actress Amanda Bynes was dragged into a shoplifting case after she left a luxury department store wearing a hat she hadn't paid for. The actress says it was just a misunderstanding.

Police were called to Barneys New York Wednesday afternoon when Bynes left the store wearing the hat.

"Police responded to a petit larceny," NYPD spokesperson was quoted by people.com as saying.

"Amanda Bynes placed a hat on her head and left the store. Security brought her back in and called the police, but the security decided to release her. She was gone when the NYPD arrived on the scene," added the spokesperson.

According to police, Amanda signed a no-trespass affidavit, banning her from the high-end department store. No charges were filed.

Amanda says it was just a misunderstanding.

"I was walking out of the store to get my handbag out of the car," said the 28-year-old.

"I had been harassed by a man - a man and this woman were basically trying to take my picture inside the store, and so I asked them to stop taking it, but they wouldn't. They were like paparazzi but undercover," she added.

Amanda says one of the security guards knew she was leaving and would be back but that there was a miscommunication with another guard.

"I walked out of the store, and the sensor went off. I didn't realise I was wearing my cap. And the cap - I was purchasing it, and I was actually still shopping," she said.

Amanda also said the store asked her not to return.

new still saif ali khan

                 Actor Saif Ali Khan gets ready to end November on a happy note with Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's Happy Ending, which is set for a November release.

The first poster of the film features an enthusiastic Saif, who plays Hollywood writer Yudi, sitting on a chair and picking the right frame from the point of view of a director.

The actor totally defies his age with his casual yet trendy look in the poster, donning vibrant hues and a pair of rugged blue jeans, with high-rise buildings set in the backdrop of the poster.

Actress Ileana D'cruz will be seen sharing screen-space with Saif as his leading lady in the film which also stars actors Govinda, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin in pivotal roles.

Saif's actress-wife Kareena Kapoor will be seen in a cameo role as will actor Preity Zinta.

JAMES BOND VILLAIN GEOFFERY HOLDER DIES AT 84.

                                           Geoffrey Holder, the actor who played top-hatted voodoo villain Baron Samedi in James Bond movie Live And Let Die, has died of pneumonia complication.

He was 84.

The actor breathed his last on September 6 in Mount Sinai St Luke's Hospital in New York, according to producer and family friend Anna Glass, reported Ace Showbiz.

Geoffrey, who was also dancer, choreographer, composer, designer and painter, started his movie career in 1962's British movie All Night Long.

He later appeared in 1967's Doctor Dolittle along with Rex Harrison, 1982's Annie and 1992's Boomerang with Eddie Murphy.

Geoffrey won two Tony Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Direction of a Musical in The Wiz, an all-black version of The Wizard of Oz, in 1975.

He also appeared in all-black version of Waiting For Godot.

Most recently, Geoffrey provided narration for Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

He is survived by his wife, Carmen de Lavallade, and their son, Leo

WHY RANVEER SINGH IS MOVING OUT OF HIS HOUSE

                                     Actor Ranveer Singh will be taking a drastic step for the sake of his next project with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali Bajirao Mastani. The actor will soon enter a life of seclusion to get into the skin of his character.

The Ram Leela star, who is one the most outgoing actors in the film industry, will be living a very low key life in order to prepare for his role in the historic drama where he plays the great Maratha leader Bajirao.

The role requires Ranveer to learn the importance of isolation because of which the actor will soon be moving out of his house in order to lead a life cut off from his friends and family.

In a magazine interview Ranveer said, "The film requires me to cut off from television, (have) no phone, no internet and I honestly need to get in a certain zone." He also said in the same interview, "At home I have my mother, sister and father; I need to just cut off and get into this (completely). I can't even tell you the demands of this character. It's scary." Ranveer Singh will also go bald for the role.

It is not the first time an actor has taken such a drastic measure to get into the skin of a character he is supposed to play. Actor Sushant Singh Rajput had recently gone into isolation while filming for Dibaker Banerjee's sleuth drama film Detectibe Byomkesh Bakshi. The actor, who wanted to get a firsthand experience of the fictional detective's private and self-reliant modalities, reportedly also stayed away from the rest of the film's crew when not shooting.

THE PRINCE MOVIE REVIEW

                                      Director Brian A. Miller's latest action-thriller The Prince fails to rise in stature beyond the first frame.

With an A-list star cast and an intriguing montage that rolls in the beginning of the film, which promises to deliver something exciting and unusual, the film ends on a disappointing note.

The premise of the film is similar to the 2009 released, Lian Neeson-starrer film, Taken.

Unspooling a revenge drama, The Prince is the story of a reformed hit-man's search for his missing daughter.

Based in Mississippi, the long-distant single parent, Paul (Jason Patric) discovers that something is amiss with his daughter Beth (Gia Mategna), who is studying in college in New Orleans, after he fails to connect with her on her phone.

So after landing at her place and breaking into her apartment, he seeks assistance from one of her school friends Angela (Jessica Lowndes) to help him track her down.

Paul's trail leads him to a drug dealer known as 'The Pharmacy' (Curtis Jackson), who has been supplying heroin to his daughter. He soon realises that his daughter is not an addict out of choice, but is held hostage under the instructions of another vicious crime-lord, Omar (Bruce Willis), who is seeking revenge for an act Paul did twenty years ago.

With a wafer thin plot-line and an equally slim instigating moment, the narration lacks depth. The characters are sketchily etched and the film is laden with plot-holes. The script, by Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore, hardly has any surprise elements and often resorts to repeating scenes.

The film belongs to Jason Patric, who, with his rugged appearance and steely determination, offers an intense act. Bruce Willis as Omar, is stoic, mechanical and offers a half-hearted performance.

Curtis Jackson hardly has any meaningful moment on screen. Jung Ji-Hoon, the popular Korean pop star plays the cold calculating henchman to Omar. He displays some of his martial arts expertise and is the surprise package in the film. John Cusack as Paul's former colleague Sam, who runs a luxury hotel offers some intriguing moments, but unfortunately his character is not written well enough to support his talent.

With tight frames oscillating between mid-shots and wide, the film has traits of a home-video-film. The production quality too, is of an average tight budget film, with no frills. The only extravaganza noticed is the splurge on ammunition during the shootout scenes.

The action scenes; be it the shootouts, exchange of blows during the scuffle or the car chase, are mechanical and obviously imbalanced and unrealistic. This is very obvious in the scene where Paul carries his drugged daughter out of the drug lord's lair.

Overall, the film falls short on the directorial front and what adds to the disappointing fare is the bleeping of the cuss words in the dialogues owning to the censor board's diktat.

Watch it only if you have nothing better to do.

THE MAZE RUNNER MOVIE REVIEW

                               If you see one film about walled-in males this fall, it should be the savage and powerful British prison drama Starred Up, a superlatively acted father-son story played out behind bars and starring up-and-coming Jack O'Connell.

Not many are likely to make that choice, though, as The Maze Runner, based on the James Dashner 2009 fantasy novel, will surely multiply the business of Starred Up many times over with a far more tame film barely distinct from the hordes of young-adult sci-fi adaptations sprinting through movie theaters.

Has a cottage industry ever sprung up as fast as the YA land rush brought on by Twilight and The Hunger Games? I'd like to use a mortal instrument to put an ender to this game. Please, give me a break.

But to be fair, there isn't anything inherently wrong with The Maze Runner, directed by special effects-veteran Wes Ball. It's just that it does so little to find its own path separate from its dystopia brethren. All of the recent young-adult formulas are adhered to here: the teenage rebellion against tradition, the coming-of-age metaphors, the heavy sequel-baiting.

Dylan O'Brien, best known as one of the stars of MTV's Teen Wolf, stars as Thomas, a newbie to a strange prison called "The Glade" — a pastoral park surrounded by a monolith concrete maze. The movie, with a neat lack of exposition, starts with Thomas being elevated into this world and dropped there without any memory of life outside or his identity.

He's quickly indoctrinated to the ways and order of the Glade, where several dozen other boys have also been plunked down like lab rats for the last three years. Under the leadership of the calm Alby (Ami Ameen) and the more questionable rigidity of Gally (Will Poulter), they make exploratory runs into the maze each day before the gate closes at sundown.

The Maze Runner succeeds most in its Lord of the Flies-like collection of teenagers. (Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Blake Cooper are among the distinct faces in the crowd.) When a lone girl (Kaya Scodelario) is surprisingly elevated into the Glade, they, like proper adolescents, blink with astonishment: "It's a girl."

There's a pleasantly low-fi, bare-bones kind of storytelling here, at least before the movie's mysteries are boringly explained — another apocalypse to parse.

Thomas, curious and daring, quickly upends the routines of the Glade and manages to discover more about the concrete labyrinth, which is patrolled by weird, giant, half-robot scorpions dubbed "Grievers." (That the only monsters The Maze Runner can summon are "weird, giant, half-robot scorpions" is surely a hint to its lack of imagination.)

The maze, too, is a letdown. Given that it's the central conceit of the film, one expects more than domino rows of big cinderblocks. Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance, who so memorably stalked the snowy hedge maze of The Shining, wouldn't bat an eye at these drab corridors.

The Maze Runner a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic elements and intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, including some disturbing images." 

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES MOVIE REVIEW

                                   It's not for nothing that the names of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe are reverentially referenced in writer-director Scott Frank's adaptation of the 10th novel in Lawrence Block's long-running, best-selling series featuring unlicensed private eye Matthew Scudder. Distinctly and proudly old-fashioned in its retro, film noir vibe, A Walk Among the Tombstones is notable for its dark atmospherics and strong performance by Liam Neeson in the latest example of his unlikely late career transformation into an action hero.

Scudder is a terrific character, whose casting choice its creator heartily approved, expertly embodies with his usual physically commanding presence and world-weary gravitas. The film's tense 1991-set opening scene efficiently provides the character's backstory as an alcoholic NYC cop who gave up the booze and the badge when his shootout with some bad guys on the streets of New York City went tragically awry. Cut to 1999, when he's working as unlicensed private investigator who explains that "I do favors for people. In return they give me gifts."

Enlisted by fellow AA meeting attendee and drug addict Peter (Boyd Holbrook), Scudder reluctantly takes a case involving Peter's prosperous drug-dealing brother Kenny (Dan Stevens, in a sharp departure from his heartthrob role in Downton Abbey), whose wife was kidnapped and returned dead despite his having paid a $400,000 ransom. Kenny demands that Scudder find the culprits and bring them to him for retribution that clearly doesn't involve the legal system.

After the discovery of another female victim, this time left in pieces in trash bags in a park in Brooklyn's historic Greenwood Cemetery, the trail eventually leads to a pair of serial killers (David Harbour, Adam David Thompson) who target criminals so as to avoid their getting the authorities involved. After discovering their identity from the cemetery's groundskeeper (a very creepy Olafur Darri Olafsson), Scudder pursues the sociopathic duo with the unlikely help of TJ (Brian "Astro" Bradley), a homeless black teenager who aspires to being a gumshoe himself.

Things come to a head after the kidnapping of the young daughter of a Russian drug dealer (Sebastian Roche), with Scudder getting directly involved in the ensuing negotiations. The film's final act, featuring violent set pieces in a basement and the spooky nighttime environs of the cemetery, ratchets up the action considerably.

At one point Scudder explains to his young apprentice that the main attribute a private eye must possess is a "strong bladder." Viewers may need one as well to get through the film's dull middle section, filled with long, talky patches in which nothing much really happens. The compensation is that Neeson's emotionally reticent hero is consistently engaging and refreshingly vulnerable, preferring to talk his way out of tense situations.

Director Frank clearly has an affinity for the material, investing the proceedings with a darkly compelling atmosphere that recalls the best noirs of the 1940s and 1950s. The film benefits greatly from having been shot in various seedy NYC neighborhoods — not to mention the spooky gothic cemetery that inspires the title — with cinematographer Mihai Malaimare, Jr. (The Master) delivering a desaturated color palette accentuating the overall gloominess.

At times the convoluted plotting proves too baroque for its own good, and the subplot involving Scudder's mentoring of the sassy teen, who we eventually learn suffers from sickle-cell anemia, is both silly and distracting. The climactic shootout is marred by a too-fussy staging employing freeze frames and a juxtaposition of the tenants of the 12-Step program.

A Walk Among the Tombstones, a Universal release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity.

TWO NIGHT STAND MOVIE REVIEW

                                     With stereotypical characters, Two Night Stand is a twitchy tale of romance between two down and out souls seeking sexual gratification on a blind date.

The narration starts off in a simple, uncomplicated manner with the lead pair meeting on the premise of a casual no-strings attached one-night stand. The story gradually stretches to a two-night stand packed with under-currents of tension regarding sexuality that leads to a conventional ending.

Though contrived, Nichols' maiden directorial venture is pleasingly charming that rolls on directly into the subject. Megan (Tipton) has recently been dumped by her boyfriend. In order to get her out of the blues, her roommate Fazia (Szohr) suggests she go on a blind date by hooking someone on a dating site.

A quick chat with Alec (Teller) which includes an in-camera inspection of his room, leads her to his place. After spending the night with him, an unintentional diatribe early morning, leads her barging to the main door of the apartment only to find it jammed by the piled up snow that has been accumulated due to the blizzard which hit the city.

What follows is a plot packed with debatable revelations of the characters, where ego and emotions with below the belt punches keep you hooked. The graph shifts gear as the characters swing emotions. When she is casual, he is formal and when she is uptight and demanding, he is cool, hassle free and ever obliging.

After many deliberations they agree for a second round of sex in order to give each other tips on how to become better lovers in future. Soon, the equation changes and the end is predictable.

Both characters are well-etched and performed to perfection. Tipton comfortably slips into Megan's shoe as the inexplicably harried character always edgy and anxious. Her demeanour initially is irritably cartoonish, when she is overburdened with guilt. Gradually she loosens up and is adorable. Teller as Alec is affable. His character hardly has any grey shades, making him the perfect Mr. Right.

Szohr as Fazia and her ever horny lover Cedric rendered by rapper Scott Mescudi, play the mushy couple in love. Fortunately, they do not get to your nerves, simply because they aren't offered much screen time. Similarly, the others too are hardly noticeable.

First time writer Mark Hammer manages to provide us with a tight screenplay, which is funny and engaging. Some of the exchanges between the lead pair are sharp and well written. Given the setting and the number of characters, the output at times seems theatrical. With dialogues like: "I am sexiled by my roommate", "I am like Teflon, nothing sticks to me" or the squeaky, "Oh my god, you are giving me those googly eyes!", the writing is snappy and fresh.

The production quality of the film is good and visually, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski manages to give us some good shots of the snow filled streets.

Overall, Two Night Stand is a perfectly enjoyable film that portrays a candid picture of the contemporary hook-up culture.

RAMESH ARAVIND :REMAKES SHOULDNT BE A CARBON COPY OF A ORIGINAL

Actor-filmmaker Ramesh Aravind says he isn't against the idea of a movie's remake as long as it doesn't end up being a "carbon copy" of the original. He prefers remaking a story with a touch of creativity.

"I like remaking a story, but not a film in its entirety. When you remake a story, you can make changes to it to suit the local sensibilities. There's some creativity involved in that. I like that process instead of doing a carbon copy of a film," Ramesh told IANS.

His debuted as a director with Kannada film Rama Shama Bhama, which was the remake of Kamal Haasan's Tamil hit Sathi Leelavathi.

"It's one of my favourite films. When I decided to wield the megaphone, I wanted to remake Sathi Leelavathi from a modern-day perspective. The remake came out extremely well," he said.

Ramesh's most cherished compliment for the film came from late writer Sujatha.

"After Sujatha sir saw my film, he asked how I could make it so differently from the original. It was a very satisfying compliment because the remake was not a carbon copy of the original," he said.

Ramesh supports the idea of remakes because "it's tested and proven".

"The stars prefer doing remakes because they usually do big-budget films and the risk of losing money is high. They do remakes because they want guaranteed returns and I don't see anything wrong in it," he said.

Ramesh is currently awaiting the release of Uttama Villain his maiden Tamil release as a director.

kajol loss is karinaa kapoor gain?

Actress Kajol, who was set to return to the silver screen after a gap of four years, has now opted out of her comeback project which was to be co-produced by her husband, actor Ajay Devgn. The makers have reportedly approached Ajay's Singham Returns leading lady Kareena Kapoor for the lead role.

Kajol, who has made her presence felt by her social sightings and humanitarian work, opted out of the film, leading newspaper Meanwhile, Kajol was also offered Rensil D'Silva's TV show.

The film based on Dutch TV series Penoza will be directed by Ram Madhvani. Penoza is the story of Carmen who steps into the world of crime after her husband is murdered, to protect her children.

Kareena, who has worked with Kajol in Karan Johar's We Are Family, has liked the script but further details are yet to be finalised.

DAAWAT-E-ISHQ MOVIE REVIEW

                                       More masala-heavy bhelpuri than saffron-tinged biryani, Daawat-e-Ishq is a smorgasbord of conflicting genres that do not mix particularly well.

The film kicks off in the manner of a social drama, turns into a mild crime caper, then takes on the dimensions of a culture clash comedy, and finally winds up like a love story with a happy ending.

Multiple and not always completely logical narrative swerves all unleashed in the course of a runtime of two hours can only open up gaping holes in the plot that are difficult to plug.

Good food and youthful amour do work well in tandem, but the principal trouble with Daawat-e-Ishq is that allows the two ingredients to recede to the background all too often in pursuit of larger issues of life. 

But notwithstanding its share of false garnishing, Daawat-e-Ishq, written and directed by Habib Faisal, is not a soulless film. In fact, it has its heart in the right place. 

This is Yash Raj Films’ second foray into social issue terrain within a month (after Mardaani). 

It delivers a statement about the scourge of dowry that, despite being sweeping and heavy-handed, is not without relevance.

Daawat-e-Ishq is the story of an ambitious and feisty Hyderabad footwear salesgirl who turns the tables on dowry-seekers by pulling a fast one on Lucknow’s best biryani-maker and literally giving him a run for his money.

The film opens on the terrace of the girl’s modest middle class home in the Charminar area of Hyderabad. 

A prospective groom has clocked in with his parents to check her out. Her ageing dad is all ears. But the girl summarily and quickly scuttles the match-making attempt. 

She has no patience for either the parents’ demand for dowry or the CV-fudging suitor who mispronounces both ‘blue’ and ‘film’ after having claimed that he is a proficient English speaker. 

Parineeti Chopra sparkles during this tone-setting sequence, and that is the vein that she carries on in all through the rest of Daawat-e-Ishq.

The film is never less than watchable primarily because the always dependable actress puts her best foot forward. 

She nails the Hyderabadi accent to near-perfection and captures the character’s many interesting layers that reveal themselves as the film progresses.

If only the screenplay hadn’t been quite as convoluted and the heroine’s changes of heart so frequent and inexplicable, Daawat-e-Ishq would have been a far smoother ride. 

Parineeti is Gulrez Qader, a girl who nurtures the dream of training as a shoe designer in the US. 

Her humble and upright high court clerk-father (Anupam Kher) does not have the means to fund her plans.

The money that the old man has saved up diligently over the years for his only daughter’s marriage simply isn’t enough to satiate the greed of the families that knock on his door. 

Not that the Old Hyderabad girl is interested in the least bit in getting hitched to a man who needs her father’s “help” to set himself up in life.
When the Jubilee Hills city slicker she loves, Amjad (big screen debutant Karan Wahi), turns out to be just another greedy oaf, Gulrez hatches a daring plot to get her own back. 

To execute her plan, Gulrez on a random impulse travels with her dad all the way to Lucknow, where Tariq Haidar (Aditya Roy Kapoor), who owns a popular hundred-year-old kabab joint, walks into her well-laid trap.

But Tariq’s culinary skills are so impressive that Gulrez is floored and something akin to love begins to blossom. 

The two have nothing in common. Gulrez is an English-speaking MBA. Tariq is a high school dropout who is good only at rustling up the greatest biryani in town. 

Yet she agrees to spend three days with him so that the twosome can get to know each other before they exchange nuptial vows.

Daawat-e-Ishq tosses and turns its way through a series of facile twists as complications triggered by Gulrez’s outrageous playacting get worse with each move she makes.

All this makes sense only up to a point. But thanks to the likeable lead pair, the good-natured banter between them and the eventual intent of the film prevent Daawat-e-Ishq from slipping into total futility.

It might not be the grand feast that it promises to be, but some its flavours are alluring enough for the film to be a reasonably appetizing one-time watch.

FINDING FANNY MOVIE REVIEW

                                        For most part of this film, a bunch of fantastic actors are together in a frame, sitting in a blue beaten car, presumably to find Fanny but largely to give us a delightful dollop of entertainment. 

Set in a sleepy village Pocolim tucked somewhere in the interiors of Goa, Finding Fanny lazes and lingers like a cat under the warm sun , as its inhabitants saunter about their unhurried, monotonous days in the most casual manner. 

Naseeruddin Shah is Ferdie, the emotional sucker, the trustworthy friend and the man who's lost the only woman he loved. Dimple Kapadia is Rosie, the bossy woman with ample assets, who successfully manages to hide her helplessness and disappointment with life by her stand offish ways. Pankaj Kapur is Don Pedro, an original painter with fake charm. Could you ask for more? Well, giving them company is the gorgeous widow Angie (Deepika Padukone) and the irritable, emotionally drawn out but endearing Savio Da Gama (Arjun Kapoor).

The journey begins after Ferdie finds out that the letter that he had written to Fanny (Anjali Patil) 46 years ago, professing his love to her never really got delivered to her. His best friend Angie wants him to find Fanny. And thus the journey begins which slowly unravels the plot and in the process, revealing the true personalities of the characters involved.

Pankaj Kapur, the brilliant actor that he is, makes the best use of the deliciously wicked lines given to him as he brings polished Pedro to life. But it is Naseer’s timid Ferdie who grows on you slowly and finds a tiny place in your heart. Dimple Kapadia as the feisty Rosie tended to go overboard at places, but is charming nevertheless. Deepika Padukone shines as she plays it cool and casual to suit the mood of the film. Arjun Kapoor, plays his 'boy lost in the woods' character with surprising ease and competence. This is undoubtedly his best performance till date.

Anil Mehta's beautiful cinematography adds to the film. The best thing about this screwball comedy is that Homi Adajania has evidently made it purely for the fun of it and not as a desperate bid to play to the gallery. Imagine spending a night in a shack on a beach in Goa, drinking your poison and sharing mad jokes with friends all night. Watch this one for a slice of that kind of experience