Entertainment
’12 Strong’: Mildly entertaining yet engaging revenge drama (IANS Review, Rating: ***1/2)
By Troy Ribeiro
Film: “12 Strong”; Director: Nicolai Fuglsig; Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Navid Negahban, Trevante Rhodes, William Fichtner, Geoff Stults, Thad Luckinbill, Ben OToole, Kenny Sheard, Austin Stowell, Austin Hebert, Jack Kesy, Kenneth Miller, Elsa Pataky, Rob Riggle, Taylor Sheridan, Fahim Fazli, Laith Nakli; Rating: ***1/2
Based on a true story and with jingoistic appeal, “12 Strong” takes you directly into the heart of the battlefield — where 12 American soldiers set out to wipe out the Al-Qaeda backed Taliban from the land known as “the graveyard of many empires” — Afghanistan.
“12 Strong” is the glorification of the Americans in a revenge drama. After the 9/11 attack of the World Trade Centre, when America was shaken, a dozen of emotionally charged Special Forces Operatives handpicked by Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) go on a mission of utmost importance and secrecy, to annihilate the enemy, in the town of Mazar-i-Sharif.
After bidding a teary farewell to their families, the soldiers are dropped into the wilderness, 40 miles away from their destination where they meet-up with Dostum (Navid Negahban), a local CIA agent and a warlord, who helps them in their endeavour. Though vastly outnumbered by an enemy who have no fear of death, how Nelson and his men navigate their way into the strategically positioned town forms the crux of the tale.
Despite the modern artillery, soldiers riding on horseback like cowboys in the wilderness makes this modern day war film look like a period western drama.
Picking off enemies with an assault rifle from atop a charging horse at full gallop, Chris Hemsworth as the understated but result-oriented Captain is impressive. And of his pack, it is Michael Shannon as Hal Spencer, Michael Pena as Sam Diller and Trevante Rhodes as Ben Milo who have some meaningful scenes. The rest are only there to fill the screen with nothing much to do.
The film is virtually Hemsworth’s show and he, with his natural charm and charisma reminds you of his character Thor more than that of a strategic soldier. Apart from him, it is Navid Negahban as Dostum who with a strong screen presence makes a powerful impact as the key leader in Afganistan’s anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
The script, written by Ted Tally and Peter Craig, is compelling, complete with men promising their women that they will come home, a leader insisting that he won’t lose a single man, the bad guys executing women and plenty of battle scenes.
These scenes are backed by motivating and impacting dialogues like, “If we quit now, what happened back home will happen again and again”, “Stop being a soldier. Start using your heart and you can be a warrior” or “Your mission will fail because you fear death.”
Visually, the film is fascinating as it is mounted on a large scale, and projected with flair.
Director Fuglsig’s collaborators, who include cinematographer Rasmus Videbaek, editor Lisa Lassek and a skilled battalion of stunt workers and visual-effects artists who have dramatized the challenges with appreciable consistency and precision. The tone here has a peculiar mixture of appealing and unvarying, fantasy-inspiring frames. Despite some gory and blood-curdling scenes that glorifies the war, the film fails to get into the complexity and futility of it.
Overall, “12 Strong” is both an entertaining and mildly cheerful yarn that keeps you hooked.
–IANS
troy/rb/vm
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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