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Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Impaler: Film Review

The Bottom Line

Attempting to profit from horror fans’ Halloween susceptibility is a poor excuse for sloppy filmmaking.

Opens

Oct. 31 (Acort International)

Cast

Diana Busuioc, Teo Celigo, Mindy Robinson, Christian Gehring, Christina Collard, Rocco Nugent, Katelynn Derengowski, Marcienne Dwyer, Mark Jacobson, Gregory Lee Kenyon

Director

Derek Hockenbrough

With a premise that’s absurdly farfetched even for the horror genre, The Impaler purports to present a more authentic version of the Dracula origin myth, but comes up so short it effectively demonstrates that there are actually a few rungs below Z-grade fare.

Judgment will be swift and merciless, consigning this ridiculously lame attempt to streaming cues and late-night cable – that is, if it manages to attract any attention at all. Seven mismatched Hollywood high-school seniors plan a group trip to Europe following graduation, but get sidetracked when loudmouth jock Adam (Christian Gehring) announces he’s diverting their vacation to Transylvania for a weeklong private visit to the original castle of notorious 15th Century Prince Vlad.

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Known as “The Impaler” for his ruthless method of dispatching and publicly displaying invading Turks, his cruelty made him an ideal model of the notorious count of Bram Stoker’s infamous novel. The group includes Adam’s gold-digger girlfriend Ashley (Christina Collard) and single, anxious overeater Greg (Mark Jacobson), as well as Dominic (Teo Celigo), apparently a Romanian expat, and his girlfriend Chelsea (Marcienne Dwyer), who are bound together by a chastity pact until they can get married. At first the kids imagine that visiting a spooky old castle might be a bit of fun, but on arrival they find the resident groundskeeper, a timelessly beautiful woman named Veronica (screenwriter Diana Busuioc), to be rather disturbing.

The eventual spate of violence, which takes way too long to erupt, successively targets the teens according to whichever of the Seven Deadly Sins their behavior most closely resembles. Although frightened witless when Veronica comes after him, Dominic discovers his true destiny under her malevolent influence, which bodes ill for his rapidly dwindling companions, particularly so for dim-bulb Chelsea. There’s scant vampire lore throughout the film, which is more focused on satanic ritual than classic bloodsucking. Nearly an hour and a half is way too long to spend with these witless characters, who wouldn’t hold the attention of a warm-blooded human for more than a few seconds in any real-life situation.

Old, but not wise, beyond their years, the castmembers look like they should be on the cusp of completing PhD’s rather than high school. The plot becomes so convoluted with reconstructed historical and spiritual mythology it gets difficult to tell whether the principal fault lies with Busuioc’s nonsensical script or director Derek Hockenbrough’s apparent inability to adequately light a scene or maintain a sense of continuity. Stock-image inserts, fake wolf howls and shoddy set construction would be much better suited to an Abbott and Costello-style spooky comedy parody, but these filmmakers take themselves way too seriously to attempt any intentional humor.

No matter, since it appears The Impaler was solely intended to hold down the standalone date of Halloween before being consigned to the underworld of forgotten horror films.

Opens: Oct. 31 (Acort International)

Production companies: Flawless Production, Afflatus Productions, Full Moon Films

Cast: Diana Busuioc, Gregory Lee Kenyon, Teo Celigo, Mindy Robinson, Christian Gehring, Christina Collard, Rocco Nugent, Katelynn Derengowski, Marcienne Dwyer, Mark Jacobson

Director: Derek Hockenbrough

Screenwriter: Diana Busuioc

Producers: Derek Hockenbrough, Steve Snyder

Executive Producer: Daniel Anghelcev

Director of photography: Steve Snyder

Music: Ramin Kousha

Editor: Ethan Holzman No rating, 86 minutes

Twitter: @CinemaPlanet

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/6XwXVdwkc_E/impaler-film-review-652108
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Gisele Bundchen's Sexy Lingerie Snap Shot for Desirèe

Continuing promotions for her lingerie line, Gisele Bundchen shared a sexy preview of Desirèe on Monday morning (October 28).

The former Victoria's Secret Angel took to her Instagram account and posted a self-portrait while donning a piece from the gorgeous collection.

"Minha nova coleção Desirèe. Espero que vocês gostem! www.giseleintimates.com My new Desirèe collection. Hope you like it! #lingerie #giselebundchenintimates," Miss Bundchen captioned the snap shot.

Gisele launched her new lingerie line Gisele Bundchen Intimates last summer. Desirèe's collection is now available online.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/gisele-bundchen/gisele-bundchen-1066033
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Suspect arrested in rural Texas slayings

TERRELL, Texas (AP) — Police arrested a 36-year-old man early Tuesday who is suspected of killing five people during a rapid series of attacks hours earlier in a rural North Texas community.

An officer spotted the suspect's car late Monday outside of a convenience store in Terrell, a city about 30 miles east of Dallas. While calling it in, the suspect ran from the store to his car, leading to a high-speed chase and, eventually, to his arrest, police Chief Jody Lay said at a news conference.

"We're all in a state of shock," Lay said. "You have a tendency to think, 'How can that happen here?' This is a country community, a rural community, people are real close. This is going to be, it's going to have a really big impact on us."

Lay didn't release the victims' names or discuss any relationship they may have had to the suspect. He also didn't disclose the charges the suspect faces or a possible motive for the attacks, which began at around 5 p.m. Monday when woman was gunned down at a Terrell home. She had been shot in the head.

About 30 minutes later, fire units responded to a blaze at a house a few blocks away. When the fire was extinguished, crews found a woman's body in the smoldering wreckage. Lay said it was clearly arson.

At about 10:30 p.m., police responding to a call about a shooting elsewhere in Terrell found the bodies of a man and a woman who had been shot and a 3-year-old boy who wasn't harmed. The child was released to relatives, Lay said.

At this point a description of the stolen vehicle the suspect was believed to be driving was released to officers and, just minutes later, an off-duty police officer saw that vehicle parked outside a convenience store. As the officer called in the sighting, the suspect ran from the store, jumped in the vehicle and sped away, Lay said. A high-speed police chase ensued. The suspect wrecked the car and took off on foot into thick woods, dropping a holster or handgun on the way, Lay said.

A police helicopter and dogs were summoned to assist in the manhunt, and the suspect was found hiding in a creek.

The fifth victim, a male clerk, was found slain at the convenience store.

Lay did not name the victims and did not provide details of their relationships to the suspect.

"We're still in the process of putting this massive investigation together. We're still making sure that surviving family members are appropriately notified," Lay said.

___

Associated Press writer Diana Heidgerd in Dallas contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-killed-texas-city-slayings-suspect-arrested-112509060.html
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US consumer prices rise just 0.2 pct. in September

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, file photo, price tags hang on merchandise at T.J. Maxx in North Andover, Mass., Ma. The government reports on consumer prices for September on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices increased only slightly in September, as higher energy costs offset flat food prices. The figures are the latest evidence that slow economic growth is keeping inflation tame.

The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in September, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That's up from 0.1 percent in August. Higher gas, electricity and other energy costs rose 0.8 percent, making up about half the overall increase.

In the past year, consumer prices have increased just 1.2 percent. That's the smallest 12-month gain since April, and it's below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent inflation target.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, core prices rose just 0.1 percent and are up 1.7 percent in the past 12 months.

High unemployment and meager wage increases have made it difficult for Americans to pay more for most goods. That has also made it hard for retailers to charge more.

With inflation below the Fed's target, the central bank faces less pressure to scale back its $85 billion-a-month in bond purchases. The bond purchases are intended to keep long-term inflation rates low and stimulate economic growth. But critics fear it raises the risk of higher inflation.

Extremely low inflation may even increase pressure on the Fed to extend the purchases. Some Fed officials have objected to slowing the bond-buying program when inflation is well below 2 percent. A small amount of inflation can be good for the economy because it encourages consumers and businesses to spend and invest before prices rise further.

Fed policymakers will conclude a two-day meeting Wednesday. Economists expect the Fed won't make any changes to its current policies, which include keeping a key short-term interest rate near zero.

The consumer price figures were originally scheduled to be released Oct. 16. But they were delayed by the 16-day partial government shutdown.

The shutdown has likely slowed growth in an already weak economy. Economists expect economic growth at an annual rate of between 1.5 percent and 2 percent from July through September. That would be down from a 2.5 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter.

And economists expect little pickup in the October-December quarter. The shutdown likely cut a quarter- to a half-percentage point from growth in the final three months of the year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-consumer-prices-rise-just-0-2-pct-123420561--finance.html
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Chinese journalist tries to crowdfund his career

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, Yin Yusheng poses for a photographer in Beijing, China. Yin hopes to craft a new kind of journalism in China, where the industry is widely seen as state-controlled and corrupt. He wants to make his readers the boss - and that includes paying his salary. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING (AP) — From his temporary home on a friend's sofa, Yin Yusheng hopes to craft a new kind of journalism in China, where the industry is widely seen as state-controlled and corrupt. He wants to make his readers the boss — and that includes paying his salary.

Once users pledge 5,000 yuan ($800) — half his monthly pay when he worked for a business daily — he takes a story up. He has completed one piece since beginning his experiment in crowdfunding in September, appealing to those who are "tired of the praises sung by the state-run media."

Journalism in China is held in low esteem by many members of the public, not just because virtually all media is state-controlled and toes the government line, but also because of dirty practices dating back to the 1990s. Journalists regularly demand money from companies or individuals not to report a negative story about them, and expect a "red envelope" with cash to report a positive development or to turn up at a press conference.

Yin, who lost a reporting job at a magazine earlier this year when it changed from a weekly to a monthly, wants to be beholden only to the news-reading public, and is testing whether crowdfunding from online donations can give him a stable income.

In an online mission statement, he says crowdfunding can make a product successful, save a company and bring donations to the weak and vulnerable. "In the same way, it can give us the truth," he writes.

There already are several self-styled citizen journalists in China publishing online reports on their own websites. Yin said he wants to bring a professional standard to this kind of reporting and thinks colleagues in the industry may follow his lead because such reporting "enjoys a little more sliver of freedom" than working in the state-controlled industry.

Yin, 43, has advertised his story ideas on China's two largest microblogging sites and the online marketplace Taobao.

The crowdfunded investigative piece he has completed was about Chen Baocheng, a Beijing reporter detained during a protest over a land demolition in his hometown. Yin's pitch attracted the required funding within 24 hours. A week and a half later, he uploaded the finished piece onto two Twitter-like microblogging sites, Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo.

State media stories on the case tended to focus on police and lawyers' reactions, but Yin's vivid report was based on more than 20 interviews with police, lawyers, witnesses, local officials and some of those who had been detained. Some reports alleged that Chen doused an excavator operator in gasoline, but Yin's report found that he had arrived only after others had already poured the fuel.

Yin also tweets from the scene. "I am on the scene, meaning you are on the scene as well," his promise to readers goes.

His plan came from discussions with friends who, like him, entered print journalism from backgrounds in computer science or online media, and who began to see the Internet's power to usurp traditional media.

"We began to ask ourselves the question: Why do we have to confine ourselves to one specific media outlet? Many of us had already become quite influential, so publishing an article online might have more public impact," he said in an interview at a Beijing cafe.

In the U.S. and Europe, journalists and activists have used crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter to find money for one-off creative projects, like a first book or a documentary. A number of sites also have experimented with such financing for journalists in the past few years, especially in the United States, said George Brock, a journalism professor at City University London.

"I don't think it's going to be the central plank or pillar of a new business model for journalism, but the experiments that have been done in it have shown that projects that catch people's imagination, whether they be Web or print or film, really can raise money," Brock said.

Yin set his limit at 5,000 yuan, which is also slated to cover his expenses, in hopes of discouraging the notion that a big spender could control his agenda. He uploaded details on the 1,955 yuan he spent covering his first report, including photos of bus and train tickets and other receipts.

He is saving money by staying in a friend's apartment, which he says might also make it more difficult for officials to track him down.

He risks becoming a target in the government's intensified crackdown on online expression. In recent months, China's leaders have clamped down on what they call online rumors and efforts to erode the rule of the Communist Party through lies and negative news. Their targets have included celebrity bloggers that call attention to social injustices.

Even if the government does not detain Yin, it could scrub his reports from the Internet.

"The key point here is the distribution question" and whether Yin's reports will be censored, said David Bandurski, a researcher with the China Media Project at Hong Kong University. "All Internet is China is in a recent period of extreme intensification of control and he's dealing — presumably if he's doing investigations — with sensitive issues."

___

Follow Louise Watt on Twitter at twitter.com/louise_watt

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-11-01-China-Crowdfunding%20Journalism/id-b699c761f5c042638dcc7cc0edd43792
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TV cameras go live in UK's Court of Appeal

LONDON (AP) — Lights, camera, appeal!

Television cameras were allowed for the first time in one of Britain's highest courts Thursday after a partial lifting of a nearly 90-year ban on filming in courts. The landmark shift comes after years of campaigning from broadcasters such as the BBC, Sky News and ITN.

James Harding, the BBC's director of news, said broadcasting proceedings at the Court of Appeal will help viewers understand how the justice system works. In the first broadcast case, a man lost his appeal of a 7-year sentence for counterfeiting.

Lawyers' arguments, judges' comments and sentencing remarks may be filmed, but victims, witnesses and defendants may not.

Some cases will be broadcast with a 70-second delay.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tv-cameras-live-uks-court-appeal-123334036.html
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Feds To Ease Restrictions On Flexible Spending Accounts

Where did the money for those glasses come from?

iStockphoto.com

Where did the money for those glasses come from?

iStockphoto.com

The Treasury Department is scrapping the rule that requires people to use or lose the money they set aside each year in accounts to cover health care expenses that are otherwise unreimbursed.

Instead, the department plans to allow people to carry over up to $500 of unused money to the following year, at their employer's discretion. That could start as early as the end of this year.

An estimated 14 million families use these flexible spending accounts, or FSAs. Tied usually to employment at big companies, the accounts let people put aside money before taxes to help pay medical expenses insurance doesn't cover.

Deductibles and copayments qualify, but so do things like eyeglasses and dental expenses.

The 2010 health law scaled back both the amount of money people could put in the plans and the types of things that could be reimbursed, in an effort to raise money to pay for the measure.

But now, after taking note of public comment, the Treasury Department says it wants to make the accounts more accessible to more people.

"An overwhelming majority of feedback from individual, employers, and others requested that the use-or-lose rule for health FSA's be modified," the department said. Commenters noted that people have a hard time estimating exactly how much they will spend on medical care at the beginning of the year, when they have to make a determination how much to put in the account.

The prospect of losing unspent funds tends to deter those who earn less, in particular. Some people who find themselves with unspent funds toward the end of the year often wind up going on medical spending sprees to avoid a loss of funds, buying extra eyeglasses or frantically trying to schedule holiday medical appointments.

Among those praising the rules was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. He is one of several members of Congress who have introduced bills to roll back some of the new restrictions on FSA's.

But the changes were still not enough for Hatch. "I'd like to see more done to expand these critical accounts that employer the individual to make informed health care decisions using money they saved," he said.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/01/242389918/feds-to-ease-restrictions-on-flexible-spending-accounts?ft=1&f=1001
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