Priyanka-Kareena, friends??

Looks like, Priyanka Chopra is on a patch up spree. Letting bygones be bygones, the actress recently attended KJO’s birthday party and the latest is that she bonded with Kareena kapoor on the sets of Heroine.

Priyanka was shooting for Teri Meri Kahaani special promotional episode for a TV show in Filmistan Studios, on Wednesday. The actress suddenly remembered that Madhur Bhandarkar too was next door shooting for Heroine. In that way, she visited the sets and met Madhur and Kareena as well.

Priyanka Chopra tweeted, “Hopped in on @mbhandarkar268's set of heroine and hung out with Bebo and my entire fashion team..such fond memories..”

Brave: Film Review

Venue: Sydney Film Festival (opening night)

Opens: June 22 (Disney)

Production: Pixar Animation Studios

Voice cast: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Sally Kinghom, Eilidh Fraser, Peigi Barker, Steven Cree, Steve Purcell, Callum O'Neill, Patrick Doyle, John Ratzenberger

Directors: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Co-director: Steve Purcell

Screenwriters

: Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, Irene Mecchi, story by Brenda Chapman

Producer: Katherine Sarafian

Executive producers: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

Directors of photography: Robert Anderson (camera), Danielle Feinberg (lighting)

Production designer: Steve Pilcher

Editor: Nicholas C. Smith

Music: Patrick Doyle

PG rating

Trailer: 

Pixar's 13th film, which follows an adventurous Scottish princess, is visually stunning and strongly voiced, but doesn't take any real risks.

 The season's latest feature destined to boost the demand for kids' archery lessons, Brave may disappoint many ardent Pixar loyalists while simultaneously delighting old-time Disney fans.
The 13th animated feature from the world's most consistently successful film company is its first set in that version of the past forever favored by Disney, that of princesses, kings, queens, witches, evil spells and prankish secondary characters. For all its pictorial and vocal beauty, the film's emotional line and dramatic contrivances are both more familiar and less inventive than what's usually delivered by the studio. Younger kids won't mind but many viewers accustomed to relying upon Pixar for something special will feel a sense of letdown due to the lack of adventurousness. A muscular box office ride is virtually a given.

Part of the problem is that Brave never becomes the film that seems to be promised at the outset. After a beautiful and eventful prologue in which flaming-maned Scottish princess Merida receives an archery bow for her birthday, glimpses blue will-o'-the-wisps floating through the forest and sees her father, King Fergus (Billy Connolly), lose a leg to a ferocious bear, the action jumps ahead to her adolescence and her obligation to get married.

Under the strict tutelage of loving but demanding mother Elinor (Emma Thomson), Merida (Kelly Macdonald) has learned the necessities but is a wild lass at heart, desperate for her days off when she can ride off on horseback and perfect her archery. As for marriage, nothing could be less appealing: “I don't want my life to be over,” she rails to her mother. “I want my freedom.”

One look at the top suitors offered up by the three other leading clans and you can see what she means; they're the three stooges of Scotland, whose beefy kinsmen would sooner brawl than shake your hand. Once Merida shows them all up in an archery contest and her furious mother tosses her daughter's prize bow in the fireplace, the headstrong girl takes off on her enormous steed, Angus.

It stands to reason that this first half-hour sets up expectations of a story in some way involving a renegade princess, trouble among the clans and/or a mysterious adventure involving the wisps and some Stonehenge-like arrangements that come into play. The left-turn taken by the script co-authored by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman and Irene Mecchi, from a story by Chapman, who co-directed with Andrews, might be embraced by those comforted by the familiar. But it's a move that channels the film into startlingly well-worn territory, that of a conventionally toothless and whiskered old witch (Julie Walters) willing to cast a spell to grant Merida's wish to change her mother so as to alter her own fate.

The spell, lo and behold, turns Elinor into an enormous bear, one that retains Elinor's brain and heart but cannot speak. Thus ensues a lot of not-so-hot slapstick as bear Elinor knocks about in quarters too small for her and tries to communicate while Merida feels remorse and endeavors to reverse the spell.

What results is a film that starts off big and promising but diminishes into a rather wee thing as it chugs along, with climactic drama that is both too conveniently wrapped up and hinges on magical elements that are somewhat confusing to boot. Not only is the tale laden with standard-issue fairy tale and familiar girl empowerment tropes, but the entire project lacks the imaginative leaps, unexpected jokes and sense of fun and wonder that habitually set Pixar productions apart from the pack. Its ideas seem Earthbound.

On a sensory level, however, Brave is almost entirely a delight. The wild beauty of Scotland, of the verdant forests and the craggy peaks, is lovingly rendered with a gorgeous palette of painterly colors and in very agreeable 3D. Even better, the voicings here are among the most exceptional and pleasurable of any animated film you might care to name. Working in pronounced Scottish accents that, to be sure, don't approach the often undecipherable ones heard in Ken Loach films, Scottish actors Macdonald and Connolly are a joy to listen to, as is Thompson, even if too many of the conversations are argumentative in a repetitive vein. Patrick Doyle's active and resourceful score is another major plus in a film that has played it safe instead of taking chances and going for something new.

Rock of Ages: Film Review

Openening:June 15 (Warner Bros.)

Cast:Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston.

Director:Adam Shankman.

Screenwriters:Justin Theroux, Chris D'Arienzo, Allan Loeb.

Trailer: 

Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta play the small-town girl and city boy in this tribute to '80s hair metal and the L.A. rock scene, with Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti and Mary J. Blige.

NEW YORK – Basically a Mamma Mia! with ‘80s hair metal in place of Abba, Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical wrapped in vinyl nostalgia that has been playing to modest but steady business on Broadway for the past three years. However, the headbanger party owes some of its notoriety to Poison frontman Bret Michaels getting accidentally brained during a production number from the show at the 2009 Tony Awards. Nobody gets clobbered in the New Line movie, but perhaps directorAdam Shankman should. He succeeds in draining most of the fun from a vehicle that was all about the winking humor of its flagrant cheesiness.

hankman did a serviceable job on New Line’s 2007 screen redo of Hairspray. But he was handed more winning material and songs crafted expressly to tell a story, not generic anthems shoehorned into a jokey construct.

Working with screenwriters Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo and Allan Loeb, who adapted D’Arienzo’s original book for Rock of Ages, the director has not found a way to translate the musical’s affectionately mocking humor to film. Shankman lacks a light touch. Only when the invaluable Russell Brand is onscreen – playing a droll variation of his Get Him to the Greek character with a Nikki Sixx makeover – does this bloated, gratuitously star-laden rethink come close to hitting the right tone.

The main attraction no doubt will be Tom Cruise in another stunt performance to pair with hisTropic Thunder role. First seen in bejeweled leonine codpiece, assless chaps and some elaborate ink, emerging from beneath a blanket of hot groupies, he channels Axl Rose as Stacee Jaxx, an out-of-control rock god rarely separated from a bottle of scotch or from the monkey sidekick he calls Hey Man.

Mary J. Blige turns up late in the action as Justice, den mother of The Venus Club for Gentlemen, where Sherrie takes a job in her hour of need. Blige lends her soulful pipes to a few numbers, but like Cruise, she outstays her usefulness.

Production designer Jon Hutman does a solid job of recreating 1980s Sunset Strip sleaze, and costumer Rita Ryack hits the right notes in reviving contemporary fashion’s ugliest decade, without going over the top. A handful of rock and pop figures from the period show up in cameos, includingDebbie Gibson, Sebastian Bach, Kevin Cronin, Nuno Bettencourt and Joel Hoekstra. ButRock of Ages neither evokes an authentic feeling to celebrate the era nor spreads much joy making fun of it. Instead, it just drones on like a limp cover version.

Box Office Report: 'Madagascar 3' No. 1 With $60.4 Mil, 'Prometheus' Strong No. 2 With $50 Mil

Both films overperform at the domestic box office, with ticket sales up nearly 30 percent over the same weekend last year; "Madagascar 3" also dominates overseas.

 Family animated tentpole Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted landed at the top of the domestic box office with a stand-out $60.4 million opening, besting the $50 million scored by Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic Prometheus.

The DreamWorks Animation and Paramount threequel also ruled overseas -- where competition was fierce -- grossing a stellar $75.5 million from 28 markets for a worldwide opening of $135.9 million. 

Still, Prometheus was no slouch for an R-rated, original tentpole, and did more than expected on the strength of Scott's fan base and 20th Century Fox's creative marketing materials.

Internationally, where it began rolling out the previous weekend to impressive numbers, Prometheus came in No. 2, grossing $39.2 million from 50 markets for a pleasing foreign cume of $91.5 million and worldwide total of $141.5 million.

Reversing a downturn that has plagued the box office since early May, North American box office revenues were up nearly 30 percent from the same weekend last year when Super 8 opened.

Madagascar 3 -- benefiting from the pent-up demand for family product -- earned a glowing A CinemaScore. The threequel returns Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer in the lead voice roles, while Frances McDormand, Martin Short, Jessica Chastain and Bryan Cranston join the franchise.

"Audiences and critics loved this one the most, a real accomplishment," said DreamWorks Animation president of marketing Anne Globe, noting that the first two titles each received an A- CinemaScore.

Madagascar performed on par with the first two movies in terms of box office returns, and brought DreamWorks Animation its best domestic debut since Shrek Forever After in 2010 ($70.8 million). It is the second-to-last DreamWorks Animation title that will distributed by Paramount unless the output deal between the two companies is renewed.

DreamWorks Animation's Jeffrey Katzenberg and Paramount have been tireless in promoting the toon, which made its worldwide premiere last month at the Cannes Film Festival, a perfect environment since the movie's storyline begins in the South of France.

In North America, Prometheus edged out Madagascar 3 on Friday, but fell 25 percent on Saturday (a typical pattern for fan-fueled fare). Scott and the studio intend for the movie to launch a franchise, similar to Scott's blockbuster Alien series. Prometheus cost $130 million to produce after tax incentives.

"It is an out-of-this-world opening," Fox president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson said. "A confluence of great reviews and solid word-of-mouth have conspired to create a global hit."

Prometheus -- headlining Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron -- earned a B CinemaScore and skewed older, with 64 percent of the audience over the age of 25. Tracking had been best among men, but a fair number of females -- 43 percent -- ended up turning out.

Prometheus brought big returns for IMAX theaters. In North America, IMAX grosses from 294 theaters totaled $9.1 million, a June record for the exhibitor. Worldwide, weekend receipts reached $12.1 million.

Elsewhere at the domestic box office, Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman (also starring Theron) placed No. 3, falling 58 percent in its second weekend to an estimated $23 million for a domestic cume of $98.5 million. Overseas, Snow White earned $24.6 million from 52 territories for an international total of $83.5 million and worldwide haul of $182 million.

Sony's Men in Black 3 continued to hold in well in its third weekend, coming in No. 4 domestically with $13.5 million and besting Snow White internationally with $38.3 million. The pic has now earned $487.5 million worldwide.

The Avengers continues to land high up on the box office chart, placing No. 5 with a $10.8 million. Worldwide, the Disney and Marvel Studios' pic hit $1.4 billion over the weekend.

Specialty titles The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom continued to impress in North America, both landing on the top 10 chart.

Marigold Hotel, from Fox Searchlight, placed No. 6 with a $3.2 million from 1,298 theaters for a domestic cume of $31 million in its sixth weekend. The movie has earned north of $82 million internationally.

Focus Features' Moonrise came in No. 10 with $1.6 million as it expanded to 96 locations in its third outing. The Wes Anderson-directed film, which has now earned $3.8 million, posted a location average of $16,825 -- the best of the weekend.

Several specialty films rolled out in limited runs over the weekend to mixed returns. FilmDistrict's sci-fi indie Safety Not Guaranteed fared better than Searchlight's Lola Versus, grossing $100,000 from nine locations for a theater average of $11,111. Lola Versus grossed $34,097 from four theaters for a location average of $8,524.

'Madagascar 3': What the Critics Are Saying

THR’s Todd McCarthy complained the film consists of characters “repetitively reacting with alarm to anything that happens and overcompensating for largely unfunny material by overacting by about 300 percent.”

It’s a good weekend to run wild. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is poised to edge out Ridley Scott’s Prometheus for the weekend's top spot with a projected $61 million haul.

But was the threequel from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount as successful with the critics?

The latest installment of the billion dollar-grossing franchise sees escaped New York City zoo animals lion Alex (Ben Stiller), zebra Marty (Chris Rock), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) join a European circus to evade the villainous animal-control cop Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand).

With a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 76%, the film received plenty of praise  for its sprawling voice cast and bright visuals.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy, however, found  the series was offering diminishing returns with the film. “It’s dominated by the characters shouting over one another, repetitively reacting with alarm to anything that happens and overcompensating for largely unfunny material by overacting by about 300 percent,” McCarthy wrote. He also complained the "wit and sophistication" co-screenwriter Noah Baumbachhelped bring to Fantastic Mr. Fox was hard to detect here.

USA Today’s Claudia Puig concluded that contrary to the saying, the third time was not the charm for this series. Like McCarthy, she complained about the one-note tone (frenzy) the film struck. She advised that if there is a Madagascar 4, “the filmmakers [should] allow the critters to slow down and enjoy the journey" to their next destination.

New York Times critic Andy Webster didn’t mind the film’s over-the-top antics, writing that while the humor was familiar, the visuals “soar.”

“A Monte Carlo chase is vertiginously madcap; a Cirque du Soleil-style spectacle dazzles with rich pastels,” he wrote. “Kids will be stimulated. And, parents, you’ll enjoy the sights.”

In her Los Angeles Times review, Betsy Sharkey praised the film’s use of 3-D, which she opined took viewers to “dizzying extremes” during circus scenes.

“The animation artistry of "Madagascar 3" is at its best under the big top, all cotton candy fluff and razzle dazzle,” Sharkey wrote. “The character development of this edition is the best of the rest as well.”