Latino movie reviews

Come Out and Play (Movie Review)

Estaba emocionada de ver una película de terror producida por Canana Films, la compañía de Gael Garcia Bernal y Diego Luna, ya que el avance de ‘Come Out and Play’ o ‘Juego de Niños’ se ve interesante; pero desafortunadamente la verdad es que no lo es. Quede decepcionada por completo, por que la película crea un ambiente misterioso que fácilmente se destruye en su desarrollo y termina siendo risible y ridícula. Sinceramente esta cinta no tiene aspectos que merezcan verla por que te tendrá moviendo la cabeza por su concepto vacío y absurdo. Read More

Jack the Giant Slayer (Movie Review)

Hollywood has decided to recreate a number different tales from centuries ago, now is the turn of ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’, a mix of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Jack the Giant Killer’; which means a little bit of innocence, adventure and violence. The film will do best with its intended audience of 13 and up; the first half is slow paced and a little dull, but finally the action picks up on the second half and that’s the kicker that makes the film fun. Watching the movie in IMAX 3D is a real treat, because it truly enhances the experience, although you have to wait for the effects to really begin after we get past the “meeting†the characters part of the movie.

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The classic story begins with a poor farm boy named Jack (Nicholas Hoult) who is trying to get some money by selling his horse; the boy gets easily tricked into taking magic beans as payment. Back at home he laments his innocence, but when the beanstalk grows he finds himself in an adventure where he’ll fight giants that live in the sky, meet princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson), her most noble men among them Elmont (Ewan McGregor) and together they’ll try to save the world.

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We get two similar stories between Jack and Isabelle that have their keen differences but unite into one thanks to their love for adventure. The story doesn’t become interesting until we reach the world of giants, which are fantastically gruesome, idiotic, and somewhat cavemen like and we want to know how these humans fight for their survival there. There’s conniving between the humans and giants and this part although predictable helps the story.

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Hoult and Tomlinson play their parts fine enough, but there’s nothing that really stands out here; Hoult was much better in ‘Warm Bodies’. Stanley Tucci as the villain is instantly dislikable, but lacks mystery. McGregor is usually on point with his roles, but here his script calls for corny jokes although despite that he’s one of the most interesting characters. Of course the giants steal a lot of the focus, specially their two-headed leader Fallon (Bill Nighy). The CGI of these creatures and their world is for the most part well done and are the biggest part of the tale driving the movie forward.

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The story saves itself because just when it starts dragging the action really picks up and here is where your money goes. The movie mainly suffers from a very weak script that is full of corny jokes, lines and predictability; all of which would deem it to fail were it not for the great CIG effects and battle in the second half of the film. There’s an unexpected interesting twist at the end, where the story tries to connect fantasy to reality and it’s a nice closing touch.

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Here’s another classic fairytale 21st century style which though it complements the original stories, by no means is it a cinematographic wonder, but it is still a good enough film to enjoy with the family. Director Bryan Singer uses his knowledge in superhero action films and incorporates a pinch of it here, but a little more could have gone a long way. It might put younger children and adults to sleep at some point, but will eventually wake everybody up on the second half till the end.

Warm Bodies (Movie Review)

Look at pictures and read our coverage of the Red Carpet Premiere of ‘Warm Bodies’.  

Originality is something that Hollywood lacks a lot of, that’s why when something somewhat refreshing like ‘Warm Bodies’ comes around it creates a lot of buzz. The film will be more rewarding as a DVD watch, but if you want to see it enough in the theater you won’t be disappointed. The main thing here is more so the love story, hence why its release is so close to Valentine’s day; that in itself is predictable to the point of making us think it might be mocking ‘Twilight’, although we were assured it doesn’t. I praise the movie for not taking itself too seriously, since that clearly would have made it ridiculous instead of enjoyable.

‘Warm Bodies’ from director Jonathan Levine is about a Zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) who falls in love with a human, Julie (Teresa Palmer), which changes the rules in both of their worlds and might help calm the chaos of the apocalypse.

The love story has similarities to the Romeo and Juliet story, note the main characters names, but of course it is quite unconventional. We have become obsessed with zombies and that’s where this film brings in originality and has sparked the crowds’ attention. The fact that a zombie is who narrates the story and pokes fun at his own state of being is entertaining, there’s some bending of zombie rules (ok quite a lot of bending) and that might annoy or delight some people. I’m into ‘The Walking Dead’ – as is more than half of the world, but I like that this movie forces you to have an open mind to a different kind of zombie world and see it in more of a comedic sense than a chaotic apocalyptic scenario. The key things to remember are that irony and sarcasm are two of the most important ingredients here.

The movie also scores with the soundtrack; it plays a great role in both the comedic and romantic senses of the movie giving it a complete feel. Hoult and Palmer are easy to like and their relationship develops flawlessly, although at the beginning we are not quite sure why Palmer doesn’t just run away. The storyline does have some gaps that contradict the main plot, but letting go allows you to take the film for what it is.

If you’ve seen a preview for this film and are interested you get exactly what you see: a lighthearted comedy along with romance, no more no less. It will give you just enough chuckles and insight into an interesting world enough to entertain you instead of boring you. Levine combines just the right amount of everything to give us a feel good movie, with an original twist in this much appreciated breath of fresh air.