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I found spirituality in India: Adrien Brody

Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody, who visited India to shoot for The Darjeeling Limited, insists that the country has helped him reconnect with his spiritual side.

The actor, whose latest film Predators hits theatres in India on August 6, says he would love to return to India.

“I have visited India twice – before and during the filming of The Darjeeling Limited (TDL)’. The first time, I was overwhelmed by the economic situation there. So, I think I was not able to enjoy the real beauty of the place,” he said.

“But during the filming of TDL, I think I really connected with the people there and that made it a whole new experience for me. That trip kind of got me reconnected with my spiritual side,” he added.

Besides enjoying the rich culture and the warmth of the people in India, Brody says he also had his share of “misadventures” with some near-death experiences.

“I had a couple of minor accidents when I felt I’d die, but it all seems so funny now, looking back at those times. I had a wonderful time in India and would certainly love to visit the country one again,” he added.

Pianist to Predator

Hollywood actor Adrien Brody tells us about going from scrawny to brawny

Adrien Brody is perhaps the last name to be mentioned when one talks of Hollywood hunks and action heroes. The 37-year-old, best known for his act as the pianist in the 2002 film of the same name, lost 13 kilos to look super-skinny for his Oscar-winning role. Fast forward 2010, the same man’s upcoming film is Predators and expectedly, Brody has been beefing up for it, for the past many weeks. Here, he tells us how he packed on 11 kilos, the right way…

The Workout

These muscle-building workouts are based on the classic 5 x 5 protocol: 5 sets of 5 repetitions per exercise. Follow these guidelines:

• Do the first set of five repetitions

• Rest for 90 sec-2 mins

• Do the second set of five

• Repeat steps one, two, and three until you’ve finished all five sets; then go to the next exercise

• Use a weight that makes it difficult to complete all five sets — once you can, increase the weight by five per cent

• For the fourth exercise in each workout, do two-three sets of eight repetitions. These exercises focus more on smaller muscle groups that often have a postural or endurance component.

Squat

Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, your arms at your sides and your feet shoulder-width apart. Slowly squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Using dumbbells instead of a bar requires a stronger grip, but having the weight closer to the floor makes it easier to balance.

Barbell incline press

Grab barbell and lie on your back on a bench that’s set to a low incline (15 to 30 degrees). Lift the barbell so it’s over your chin and hold it with your palms turned toward your feet (thumbs facing each other). Slowly lower the weight to your upper chest, pause, then push it back up over your chin.

Pull-up

Hang from a pull-up bar using an overhand grip that’s just beyond shoulder width. Cross your ankles behind you. Pull yourself up as high as you can; your chin should go over the bar. Pause, then slowly lower yourself to the starting position.

Weighted sit-up

Sit on the floor with your knees bent 90 degrees and hold a dumbbell with both hands close to your chest. Take five or six seconds to lower your back toward the floor, one vertebra at a time. (Try not to increase speed as you get closer to the floor.) Sit back up using as little momentum as possible.

Lifting too much

What you need is less volume but more intensity. This strategy simplifies your workout — only four exercises every session. For the first three, do five sets of five reps. Rest no more than two minutes between sets. For the last exercise, do two or three sets of eight to 12 reps, as this targets smaller muscles in your core or shoulders.

Monday: Squat, barbell incline bench press, pull-up, weighted sit-up

Wednesday: Hang clean and press, dead-lift, dip, side-lying external rotation.

Friday: Front squat, dumbbell bench press, bent-over row, back extension.

Eating too little

To build new muscle, you need calories. But most guys don’t eat nearly enough as they’re worried about putting on body fat. To avoid that one must count calories. Figure out your body’s optimal caloric intake, then add 300 to 500 calories to that total to determine how much you need to pack in every day.

Giving up sex

Last fortnight, Hollywood was abuzz, about how Brody actually gave up sex to prepare for this role. How? We asked the actor…

It’s being said you have given up sex Why and how did it affect you?
I prepared for this role just the way I’d prepare for any other role. With a physical transformation comes an emotional and psychological change and that was important for me to portray Royce. Hence I decided to isolate myself, with no sex, no alcohol and a strict diet. This role was a wonderful opportunity for me; it was just a matter of passion and discipline.

With great (muscle) power comes great responsibility. Do you miss anything from your skinny day lifestyle?
Following a rigorous diet regimen is like a full-time job. By the end of the training, I was badly missing bread!

Some More Exclusive Stills from Predators 2010

Alice Braga was teased on ‘Predators’ set

Brazilian actress Alice Braga was teased by her ‘Predators’ co-stars when she landed on the sets wearing a dress on the first day of shooting.

‘The first day I came to set wearing a dress and (co-star) Oleg Taktarov looked at me and said, ‘You can’t wear a dress (for this film)’. I said, ‘What do you mean? I’m a girl. You better be careful what you say because I’m carrying a gun!” said Braga.

She added that being surrounded by men all the time on the sets made her long for some female company.

‘I was dying to hang out with the girls from the crew while I wasn’t on set because I found myself talking about motorcycles. I thought to myself, ‘I really need to get a manicure right about now.”

Upgrade to the supreme hunter!

Predator fans, who loved the monster in the original 1987, are in for a treat as the 2010 sequel by Robert Rodriguez will have different types of and even more deadly creatures!

This time, audiences will find that the “original” Predator has fallen victim to this new “upgrade,” whom they realise is out to be the supreme hunter… and the ultimate Predator. So, in addition to bringing back the affectionately-called “Classic” Predator, the makers have created three new Berserker Predators — Dog Handler, Falconer, and Mr Black. These represent bigger, longer, leaner, and deadlier versions of the species that audiences remember from previous films. Other creatures that expand the Predators mythology — including the alien Ram Runner and the Predators’ Hunting Dogs — are also devised.

“Being able to see the original Predator in our story had a nostalgia factor, because you hadn’t really seen him like that since the first movie,” comments Rodriguez. “We just wanted it to feel like it evolved — to bring back the original, plus a new updated, nastier, meaner breed.

So if the Classic Predator was the ‘cassette tape’ version, the new Predator is the iPod version — sleek and elegant and fierce!” And each of the Predators has a unique personality — the Dog Handler has tusks that he had taken off of one of the hunting dogs, the Falconer has a very specific mask design, and then Mr Black has this weird alien jaw. We see their masks for most of the film and they have a lot of personality. In addition, they are also of different colours so that they stand out and can be visually differentiated. And while all the Predators feature the cloaking ability, established in the first film, the new ones also have high-tech weaponry, including an airborne Predator Falcon and new Plasma Caster. This Fox Star Studios film releases on Aug 6.

Movie review: Predators

Director: Nimrod Attal
Starring: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace

Launched in 1987 as an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle, the Predator franchise was never much more than a glorified computer-game chase plot wrapped in B-movie sci-fi clothes. An Arnold-free sequel arrived in 1990, followed recently by two lowbrow spin-offs that brought the human-hunting extraterrestrial warriors into conflict with the super-sized killer lizards from Alien. Although the original was a reasonably well-respected cult movie, the ensuing series just got louder and sillier, and refused to die.

A loose sequel to the original two films, Predators opens with a bang and immediately feels like a refreshingly smart reboot. Adrien Brody’s mercenary hero Royce wakes up in screaming freefall over a hostile jungle landscape, pulling his parachute just in time to avoid slamming into the rainforest below. He is soon joined by a motley gang of soldiers, assassins and dangerous criminals. None have any memory of how they got there, but they quickly figure out that they are prisoners on an alien world. All are former hunters, and now they are being hunted. “This planet is a game reserve, and we’re the game,” says Royce. After a great opening that feels like an early episode of Lost, except with high-tech weaponry and rampaging alien warthogs, the Hungarian-born horror director Nimrod Attal and the Texas-based producer Robert Rodriguez (best known for his Spy Kids series and Tarantino collaborations) cheerfully tick off every B-movie cliché in the manual. Token female action babe? Cue Alice Braga. Bookish wimp with murky secrets? That would be Topher Grace. Corny, cod-profound dialogue about the human condition? Check – every other line. Making his action hero debut, Brody is an unorthodox choice of headline star. Renowned for his Oscar-winning turn in The Pianist, the 37-year-old New Yorker brings a dash of indie-movie credibility to a project such as this. A bold and interesting piece of casting, but it barely registers since Brody’s sensitive acting skills are buried completely in cartoon machismo. With his pumped-up physique and ridiculously gruff voice, he looks and sounds like Vin Diesel’s lankier cousin, even if his gaunt face still retains a hint of haunted arthouse melancholy. The high benchmark for superior sci-fi sequels was set 24 years ago when James Cameron directed Aliens. The teasingly titled Predators initially seems to offer a similar retooled, revved-up makeover. Sadly, after a strong opening act, all the latent potential and tightly wound tension of its first 40 minutes begins to unravel. The rot sets in with Laurence Fishburne’s surprise appearance, which slows down the action and borders on unintended comedy. Shock revelations about divided loyalties and double agents feel like illogical, superfluous plot devices. The final showdown between human survivors and dreadlock-headed predators seems muddled and anti-climactic, as if the filmmakers simply ran out of inspiration. Worst of all, the aliens remain virtually unchanged since the first film, lacking any extra element of fright or suspense. As ever, we learn nothing of their motives, their methods or their society. Predators is a decent thrill ride, but it lacks the necessary depth and originality to qualify as a great reinvention.

* Stephen Dalton

‘Predators’ is the sequel to the original movie that we’ve been waiting for – for a very long time.

We’ve given a fair amount of coverage to the Robert Rodriguez-produced, Nimrod Antal-directed sequel, Predators. Most everything we’ve seen and heard about the sequel to the original 1987 movie has been good, and readers seem to agree. So the question is: Does the final product live up to expectations?
Pretty much, yeah.
Predators wastes no time whatsoever getting started – the first scene we get is of an unconscious Adrien Brody falling out of the sky. We’re right there with him as he wakes up groggy, and within seconds figures out his predicament and tries desperately to figure out where the ripcord is for his parachute. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush to start a movie.

A number of other people have been dropped the same way, and they’re not the friendly sort. They start firing at and fighting with each other, until they realize that maybe they’d better figure out just what the heck is going on. In the group we’ve got mercenaries, a bandit/thug, convict, special ops soldier, member of the Yakuza and incongruously, a doctor.

It doesn’t take long for them to realize that they’re no longer on Earth, but on a game preserve planet – and they’re the game. Of course the point of the movie is to watch them get picked off one by one – the only question is in what order and which of them might survive.

This time instead of one Predator, we have a number of them. This give us the opportunity to watch the humans take down one or two and get a couple of shots in instead of it happening only at the end. It was refreshing to watch an action movie these days that had no aspirations to be 3D, nor to use significant amounts of CGI. We get a lot of cool sequences in the film, including one that contains what can only be referred to as “dogs from Hell” and another where someone goes up against a Predator with nothing but a samurai sword (pretty cool, gotta say).

Unlike the original film, this one was pretty much devoid of humor – part of the appeal/fun of the original were the quirky characters and the occasional unexpected funny line. Of course some of the jokes in the film were beyond crass, but others were tongue in cheek and they all fit the characters. Here it’s pretty much all seriousness.

The story is VERY close to the original film, only it takes place on another world – and with multiple Predators. Personally, I didn’t mind – it’s a basic story but for what it is, it works. There were multiple nods to the original – in particular, as a big fan of Predator, I appreciated the music played during the closing credits.

But even within such a simple framework and for the sort of film it was, there were problems. In particular with the doctor, who while he didn’t fit in and I didn’t guess his purpose there – when it was finally revealed it seemed completely out of whack. And while I enjoyed seeing Laurence Fishburne in the film (who gave a great performance, by the way), he was kind of a non-sequiter and while how he came in was cool, what his character ends up doing is pretty stupid.

I also had a problem with the ending, with something obvious missed by Brody’s character, and a fight scene that should have been epic but was shot in such a way that I could hardly make out what was happening.

Overall, despite these issues, I enjoyed Predators a LOT, and that’s coming from someone who’s a big fan of the original, doesn’t even remember the first sequel, disliked Alien vs Predator and despised Aliens vs Predator: Requiem.

So take that for what it’s worth.

Predators review

I’m in a burger joint eating the bun-clad remains of a dead cow, and I can’t believe I’m actually nervous. Predators, the first proper movie in the franchise since 1990‘s so-so Predator 2, is due to start in less than an hour, and I desperately want it to succeed.

As a Predator fan, I only have memories of the classic 1987 original to cling onto. A film replete with classic moments, memorable characters, and endlessly quotable lines like “stick around”, “I ain’t got time to bleed” and “GET TO DERR CHOPPAH!”, which have long since passed into the movie-going geek’s vocabulary.

I’m in a holding pen now, deep in the bowels of a Central London cinema. There are little plastic cups of free wine and beer, and bowls of crisps the colour of wood chippings. Predators is mere minutes away, and still the tension mounts.

We’re given production booklets: A5 pamphlets, perhaps as long as the Predatorsscript itself, filled with production notes, character profiles and interviews with the film’s big players, among them producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród Antal.

Ah, Rodriguez and Antal, the two men on whom all my hopes for Predators are pinned. Can they possibly deliver the sequel to Predator its fans truly deserve?

Last month, I pored over every scene of Antal’s last project, Armored, for evidence of greatness. A modestly budgeted, low-key ensemble thriller, Armored carried itself with the confidence and sure-footedness which suggested that maybe, just maybe, the director could deliver the goods I’ve been anxiously waiting for.

We’re being ushered into the cinema now. Ominously, our phones are taken and stored neatly in numbered plastic bags. The lights dim. It’s showtime.

* * *

All too quickly, Predators is over, and now I’m seated on the midnight train home. I have a beer purchased from the buffet cart in my hand, and I’m trying to make sense of what I’ve just seen.

For producer Rodriguez, Predators is the fruit of a 16-year-old labour of love, and it shows. Plot points, character types and entire scenes are lifted wholesale from the original Predator, and right from the opening rattle of drums, a hackle-raising ringer for Alan Silvestri’s primal score from the 1987 classic, it’s obvious thatPredators is a film that wants long-time fans on its side.

Adrien Brody plays Royce, a wiry mercenary who, along with seven other shady characters – played by instantly recognisable actors such as Danny Trejo, The Shield’s Walton Goggins and Spider-Man 3′s Topher Grace – find themselves in an unfamiliar alien jungle, whose fauna teems with an invisible hunter unknown to them, but very much known to us.
Brody convinces as the selfish, loner protagonist, and while he lacks Arnold Schwarzenegger’s elemental presence, he at least adds an air of human vulnerability to his character – his Royce is a man who, you suspect, couldn’t trade bare-knuckle blows with a seven-foot alien and get away with it as the Austrian Oak could.
For at least the first three-quarters of an hour, director Antal keeps Predatorscuriously muted – where director John McTiernan’s direction was vibrant, swaggering and kinetic, this 2010 iteration is cagey, perhaps even predestrian. The environment looks grainy and wan, like an autumn East Anglian copse rather than McTiernan’s sweaty South American jungle.
Matters aren’t helped by the script, which relies on tough-guy stereotypes rather than strong characterisation, and a few choice lines aside, the dialogue lacks the cheesy terseness that made the original’s sparkle.

Then there’s a moment hinted at in the Predators preview footage released online last week, where the mercenaries’ hunters release a pack of their own particular breed of gun dogs, and it’s a sequence that, while not an out-and-out failure, doesn’t get the pulse raising as was surely intended.

In the scenes that follow, however, Predators begins to find its narrative feet, as Brody and his band of grumbling survivors begin to catch up with the audience, and finally learn the truly dire nature of their situation – the local residents have a hunting party in the offing, and Brody’s mercenaries are the prey.

And then Laurence Fishburne shows up, and all bets are off. There’s a samurai sword fight which is both absurd and hugely entertaining, numerous bloody deaths, a neat plot development which this reviewer didn’t see coming, followed by a muddy, fluorescent climax which is entertaining, yet a little too familiar to be truly satisfying.

This, I think, is the biggest problem with Predators, and one which I’d anxiously foreseen since the earliest teaser trailers. Where Predator was the headline band, the legend, the Led Zeppelin of 80s action movie cinema, Predators is its wig-wearing tribute act.

All the iconic tropes and recognisable accoutrements from the first film are trotted out for our amusement here, from tree-flattening mini-guns via wooden booby-traps to bare-chested beat-downs. Certain characters even behave the same, and fulfil the same roles, as their counterparts from the 1987 film.

And like watching a solid, competent tribute band in a local pub, Predators replays all the beats and hits from its stadium-filling predecessor with crowd-pleasing enthusiasm, but there’s no escaping the feeling that it’s all been seen before.

So the beer I sit here with as I type these words isn’t exactly imbibed with celebration, but then it’s not a consolation beer either. It’s a highly entertaining film – at times, hugely so – and Predator fans should rest assured that memories of the horrid Alien Vs. Predator movies can be finally laid to rest.

But like Alan Silvestri’s score, which returns in only a slightly updated form,Predators reverberates to an old rhythm rather than a new one all its own.

Predators – Film Junk

Predators is a movie that hates surprises. It teases the viewer with mysteries and potential twists only to explain them away minutes later, ensuring that both the characters onscreen and the audience know exactly what’s coming next.
Consider the opening scenes, perhaps the most original element of the film. The first shot is of an unconscious Adrien Brody in freefall. He comes to, panics, and then his automated parachute opens just before he crashes into the trees. One by one he encounters the other humans, fresh from their own drop from the sky. When they find a broken corpse smashed on the jungle floor, he helpfully surmises, “Looks like his parachute didn’t open.” You think?
Much of Predators can be traced back to 1987’s Predator. The premise is identical: armed humans are trapped in the wilderness and hunted by unnamed, technologically-advanced aliens. Yet Predators continues to hammer the similarities home. One man carries a giant mini-gun just like Jesse Ventura did in the first film. One man stops running from the Predators and decides to face them head-on just like Sonny Landham, taking off his shirt in case the reference wasn’t clear enough. Other tricks from Predator makes an unexplained appearance late in the film. Even the music is the same, right down to Little Richard.

The biggest difference between Predators and the preceding films is the stripping down of the story. Both Predator and Predator 2 begin with terrestrial action scenarios (jungle warfare, urban conflict) then take an extraterrestrial turn once the Predator shows up and starts hunting people. In Predators, the entire film is dedicated to the hunt. This robs the characters of all context or sense of worth.
In Predator, we get to see the commandos work as a team. They have names, they have personalities, they have roles. They execute their mission with zero casualties, demonstrating that they are skilled combatants. When the Predator shows up and starts killing them, their deaths have weight. They even mourn.

On the flip side, the Predator itself gets some screen time to give the audience a glimpse at how the creature behaves. We see it tend to its wounds, polish its trophies and prepare for battle against Arnold.

Predators gives us nothing like this. The humans are all snatched from random corners of the globe, making them an international assortment of killers – nothing more. The credits insist all of them have names but I doubt I’ll recall them two days from now. Instead of personalities they have weapons. In this respect Predators is very much like a video game movie that’s dearly lacking a game to play.

Speaking of video games, the script is limp and packed with explanatory dialogue that violates the old adage “show, don’t tell.” In Predators we are told everything and shown very little. Traps do not merely go off, they must be announced and described at length. Alice Braga gives a speech summarizing the events of the first film, an improbable piece of knowledge that means nothing to the characters or the audience. Laurence Fishburne’s entire role in the film is that of magical exposition: he tells stories about the Predators that only the screenwriters could know.

Having said all that, Predators is certainly a competent, if frustratingly, familiar film. It promises a story of humans fighting aliens with big guns and delivers. All of the characters look cool and distinct even if they lack depth (again, like a video game – but I like video games). Fishburne’s scenes might not make sense but they are at the very least compelling and a welcome diversion from an otherwise predictable script.

Predators is a movie I wanted to love but only sort of liked. As an action film it does not disappoint, but as a sequel it takes even less chances than Predator 2 did twenty years ago. After two decades, I thought these characters merited more than just another rumble in the jungle. — Daniel