Skyline Director: Colin and Greg Strause
Starring: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Scottie Thomson
***
The fundamental question that defines and drives the alien invasion movie Skyline is an economic one. Does the fact that it cost less than $1 million (Dh3.7m) to shoot, yet looks like a top-drawer studio blockbuster, make it somehow good in itself, irrespective of its obvious dramatic shortcomings? The answer, typically, is yes and no.
For the story that's happening outside the movie is indeed heroic - that of two brothers and special effects artists, Colin and Greg Strause, who shot a movie in and around elder brother Greg's Los Angeles apartment early last summer, for an alleged six-figure sum (somewhere in the $900,000 region), and then spent the rest of the year, and just under a further $9m transforming that footage into a dazzling special effects extravaganza called Skyline.
The results describe the glamorous life of a super-successful, ahem, LA-based special effects artist called Terry (Donald Faison). He drives a fast car, has a gorgeous blonde girlfriend and a gorgeous brunette one to boot, and has invited his old East Coast college buddy Jarrod (Eric Balfour) to the big city for the weekend, with the hope of seducing him into the world of, yes, special effects.
However, the first night's party is barely over and Jarrod has only just learned that his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thomson) is pregnant, when all of life's minor problems are blown away by the arrival of an entire race of enormous cannibalistic insectoid alien über-beings.
Here, we are presented with eye-gouging set-pieces that rank alongside the best work you'll find in any of Hollywood's juggernaut blockbusters. The descent of the alien motherships is very Independence Day, and the mass attack of the creatures is reminiscent of Starship Troopers.
While the physical pursuit of Jarrod and co by the slithery flesh-eaters themselves (they have, it transpires, a penchant for human brains), is depicted not under the handy concealment of darkness and shadowy night (as in most of the Alien movies) but in the broad burning Los Angeles sunshine - such is the confidence that the Strauses have in their technical accomplishments.
Of course, whenever Skyline stops to "do" actual drama, it mostly implodes. The debut screenwriters Liam O'Donnel and Joshua Cordes, who are both also special effects artists by day, are woefully ill-equipped to recreate actual human conversation. And "how's the robot sequence coming along, man"? doesn't quite qualify as a sprightly badinage, either. Plus, the question of Elaine's pregnancy is never anything more than a stop-gap narrative device, with few actual hints of lived experience.
And yet, even despite these flaws, there's a freedom in Skyline, a narrative randomness, that's appealing, and that can only have come from its micro-budget. Characters are forever rushing in and out of the same building, charging up on to the rooftop, battling aliens, and then charging back down again. It has an almost crackpot feel, a guerrilla filmmaking style. And at times the results can be magic. When Terry, for instance, pulls back the blinds from his apartment bay windows and his horrified guests survey the alien invasion happening below them, it might as well be a special effects maestro unveiling his latest sequence for some select guests, seated before a giant screen. Which, fundamentally, is Skyline in essence, both good and bad.
For show times, see:www.grandcinemas.com, www.cineroyal.ae, www.reelcinemas.ae, www.cinestarcinemas.com
Book%20Details
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All%20The%20Light%20We%20Cannot%20See%20
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The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
MATCH DETAILS
Manchester United 3
Greenwood (21), Martial (33), Rashford (49)
Partizan Belgrade 0
Klopp at the Kop
Matches 68; Wins 35; Draws 19; Losses 14; Goals For 133; Goals Against 82
- Eighth place in Premier League in 2015/16
- Runners-up in Europa League in 2016
- Runners-up in League Cup in 2016
- Fourth place in Premier League in 2016/17
The%20specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Representing%20UAE%20overseas
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