lanielevine77

Like Blue Jasmine, Prisoners is being tipped to win Oscars, but I have my doubts.

An intense performance by Hugh Jackman, David Fincher-influenced direction by French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (the models here are Se7en and Zodiac) and first-rate cinematography by Roger Deakins can’t rescue a thriller that needed many more rewrites before it went into production.

It does have a riveting story to tell — every parent’s worst nightmare, as two little girls go missing in rural Pennsylvania. Suspicion falls on creepy Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the mentally handicapped driver of a dilapidated recreational vehicle parked near where the girls disappeared.

The investigating detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) releases Jones for lack of evidence, at which point one of the missing girls’ fathers (Jackman) takes the law into his own hands, imprisoning and torturing Jones for information. It poses the interesting question of how far we would go for the sake of our children.

Jackman plays the leading role like a man possessed. Although he’s nowhere near as nuanced as he was in Les Miserables, he may — as Sean Penn did for Mystic River — win an Oscar by shouting a lot. The film is let down by an abysmal ignorance of police procedure. No case like this would be left to one man; it would be a huge  manhunt, presumably with the FBI involved.

Source:  Southwood NorseMytho Group

• 
   
• The poster boy for the movement that opposes a major increase in the minimum wage is a burger-flipping fraud. A Japanese "robotic chef" that was held up Thursday as a hassle-free alternative for restaurant owners sick of dealing with human line cooks would simply not be able to do the job, the machine's manufacturer told The Huffington Post.

   

  The Motoman SDA10 robot gained brief notoriety Thursday when it appeared on a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal that stated "robots could soon replace fast food workers demanding a minimum higher wage."  Friday, the Japanese electronics giant that manufactures the robot told HuffPost that the machine was designed for industrial applications and would not be able to replace a cook in a restaurant.

   

  "The robot does not have a real capability for that," Sam Komiyaji, a marketing manager at Yaskawa Motoman, said in a phone interview from Tokyo.

   

  Komiyaji explained the picture was taken at a 2009 exhibit that was a marketing stunt intended to show the industrial robot has a greater degree of flexibility and dexterity than competitor's offerings. Similar stunts have seen the same robot deal cards and serve ice cream. During the exhibit, the robot was placed in a carefully constructed kitchen and was able to dump a bowl of pre-mixed batter on a hot griddle, flip a savory okonomiya pancake with a spatula, and serve the meal.

   

  SOURCE:   The Southwood Group

China's exports in July rose 5.1 percent year-on-year after sliding 3.1 percent in June, the General Administration of Customs said. Imports surged 10.9 percent, compared with the 0.7 percent decline in June. "The July figures are satisfactory," said Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a government think tank. "Exports returned to the normal growth track and the sharp rebound of imports signals the easing of downward pressure on the Chinese economy," Huo said.

Global stock markets responded positively to China's data as shares jumped in Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong and European cities on Thursday. The Chinese economy recorded its worst performance in 13 years in 2012, with GDP expanding 7.8 percent. Growth dipped to 7.7 percent in the January-March period and slowed further to 7.5 percent in the second quarter. The July trade figures soothed worries that China's economy may experience a hard landing.

Chen Hufei, a researcher at Bank of Communications, said the improvement in exports came after a recovery in demand for Chinese goods, although the recovery is not solid. China's shipments to the United States and the European Union, its top two markets, increased in July for the first time in five months. July exports to the US climbed 5.27 percent year-on-year and those to the EU gained 5.87 percent. Jean-Paul Larcon, a professor of strategy and international business at HEC Paris, said the recovery in China's exports to the EU was "because Europe is gradually recovering and European enterprises are starting to import more from China and the rest of the world".

"I am optimistic about the future trade prospects," Larcon said. "The economic recovery is on track (in the EU). The trade data is a good sign that we are going out of the bottom of the crisis. So in the next six months, the situation could be better and major economic indicators could be back to the normal level." China's exports are shifting to a moderate rate of growth from the double-digit expansion of past years, but economic transformation and restructuring helped exporters retain their markets, Huo said. Huo expressed confidence that the country can achieve its 8 percent trade growth target for the year.

Source: Southwoood Group