Latino movie reviews

Unknown (Movie Review)

‘Unknown,’ a “who the hell am I, who the hell are you” action thriller, is everything absurd thing you can imagine in a movie. Much of the movie is one ridiculous scene after another with plot contrivances that you just have to laugh at, but, the subject matter is so interesting, that you forgive the plausibilities of the story and give in to its over the top implausibilities. At the end of the day, you do want to entertain yourself, correct? This is one to have fun with and laugh at in disbelief. Oh, and did I mention the unbelievable plot twist at the end?

Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson), an American university professor in Berlin, goes to a biotechnology conference with his young wife, Elizabeth (January Jones). When a baggage mix-up necessitates a quick return to the airport, Martin departs without a word to his wife while she is checking into the hotel. His cab is involved in a serious accident. After he awakens at the hospital after 4 days, he discovers that his wife (January Jones) suddenly doesn’t recognize him and another man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. Ignored by disbelieving authorities and hunted by assassins, he finds himself alone, tired, and on the run. On his own in a strange country, Martin seeks aid from an unlikely and reluctant source (Diane Kruger) as he plunges headlong into a deadly mystery that will force him to question his sanity, his identity, and just how far he’s willing to go to uncover the truth.

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan) captures well the foreign feeling that James Bond films do so well. The color filters he uses are appealing and the action scenes are top notch. Jaume keeps on getting better with each passing film, but I hope he doesn’t think in anyway that this is his best work. His previous thriller ‘Orphan’ could have been one of the best films of 2009, were not it for the twisted ending. 

Liam Neeson, a nominated Oscar performer, is becoming a top flight ‘Jason Statham like’ B actor. His movie Taken from 2008, was a hit and seems to be the visual basis for ‘Unknown’. They literally, look like the same film. Actress January Jones, known from her work in the TV series Mad Men, is just horrible. She’s stiff, uninvolved and deadpan.  Outside of her looks, Ms. Jones shouldn’t see the lens of a camera. I have no idea of how she got this far.

There are no real dull moments to endure with ‘Unknown’. This film definitely delivers all the thrills and action, along with a fantastic storyline worth sitting through… even if it is a bit too preposterous for ones taste.

Follow us on Twitter for advanced screenings and movie news.

The Roommate (Movie Review)

‘The Roommate’ starring Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester, should be considered an official remake of Barbet Schroeder’s 1992 hit, ‘Single White Female’. Its plot, a roommate with a mental disorder who wants to look and be just like her friend, are almost identical. This new remake version, perhaps intended for a younger female audience, is unexceptional. It fails to improve upon the original, from its acting to the dialogue to the direction, it might as well have been sent straight to DVD, or Lifetime. But because its two female leads are so beautiful and sexy, it unapologetically slips into the realm of guilty pleasure.

The premise of ‘The Roommate’ is slightly different than the ‘SWF’. Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly) a new college student is assigned to room with Rebecca (Leighton Meester), a rich, pretty girl who unbeknownst to Sara, suffers from a personality disorder. As time passes by, their relationship grows stronger and Rebecca becomes more possessive of her friend. Little by little we see her eliminate all the things that make Sara unhappy until her ‘good’ intentions become too dangerous to ignore.

Yes, it is true that the script has no surprises or twists worth being excited about, the direction of Christian E. Christiansen is trite and worthy of Lifetime’s top 10 best, and the thrills are stale and flat, but Roommate’s sexiness and attractive cast, are hard to knock. As a result, the ‘bad’ aspects are amusing and you just go along with it waiting for another hottie to get killed or pummeled.

Whether it is a coincidence or just deliberate casting, Kelly and Meester look like twin sisters, Meester looking a tad younger. Nevertheless, it works specially well when Meester ‘becomes’ Sara in the final stretch of the film.

All in all, ‘The Roommate’ is a forgettable film, but it is never so bad that it sinks to the point of you walking out. People will laugh and enjoy the bad brushing it off as cheap escapism on a good, fun Saturday night out with the ladies.

Biutiful (Movie Review)

En lo que se puede describir como un sueño realizado, los dos más grandes titanes del cine hispanoparlante, el actor español y ganador del Oscar, Javier Bardem, y el director mexicano y nominado al Oscar, Alejandro González Iñárritu, se unen por primera vez para traernos ‘Biutiful’, una cruda y trágica cinta que arrolla los sentidos. Read More

No Strings Attached (Movie Review)

The modern romantic comedy ‘No Strings Attached‘ starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman is surprisingly not as bad as I expected. The film benefits from an interesting premise, good chemistry between the stars and appealing situations that will easily engage romantic couples looking for a fun time at theater.

The plot centers on Adam and Emma (Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman), childhood friends who try to maintain a strictly sexual relationship, but it’s not long before they both discover that love is impossible to resist.

The romantic comedies of today, a.k.a rom-coms, tend to be very formulaic, predictable and unoriginal, but this one, because of its R rating, takes advantage of it by being mischievous. Of course, you’ll experience all the typical ploy devices inserted into these movies such as the irritating best friends, the poppy soundtrack, and of course, the ultimate declarations of love at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, the film aims to reach adults, in particular those who have been through experiences like this at some point in their lives. The movie has shades of the recent ‘Love and Other Drugs’ (Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway), whose plot also involved a woman who just wanted a purely sexual relationship. Her reasons were different and legitimate as opposed to Portman’s character. The tone was also more dramatic and not as playful as this.

Much of the upbeat tone of ‘Attached’ comes from the cerebral dallyings of screenwriter Elizabeth Meriwether, who has built a real and authentic narrative that reflects the times we live in today – an ode to a sexual revolution that has become part of the natural order of things. The dialogue is another matter. Phrases like, “I’m warning you… if you come closer one more step, I might never let you go”, sound like scratching nails on a chalkboard. To be frank, no right-minded man would dare say something like that in real life because he runs the risk that the woman who hears it will throw up on him. Defects like these run rampant in every rom-com, but here you get over it because Portman’s and Kutcher’s charm is irresistible.

Portman, a soon to be Best Actress winner at this year’s Oscar for Black Swan, is exploring a new genre with great results. She plays a sexy, beautiful, confident woman who is not shy in proving she has a fun side to her. Mix that in with her dramatic strengths and you have an actress who won’t keep on embarrassing the genre any further. Do not be surprised if we see her in more romantic comedies in the not too distant future. Kutcher on the other hand, is overshadowed by Portman’s screen presence and skill. Even though he looks the part perfectly, his limited acting range fails him time and time again in the climactic moments of the finale.

The director Ivan Reitman, creator of such classic films as Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Twins, in this instance chooses to leave vulgar comedy to the side and focus on the psychology of the principle relationship. As a result, the film feels adult and less silly.

‘No Strings Attached’ is not compelling as ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ or as savvy as ‘500 Days of Summer,’ but it achieves its objective of being a pleasant diversion for a couples night out at the movies.

The Dilemma (Movie Review)

For those moviegoers expecting to see the same ol’ Vince Vaughn rambling nonsense for kicks and giggles, you’re in for a surprise that might make you rethink paying to see one of his films again. ‘The Dilemma’ is a comedic drama that has more drama than one would like from their Vaughn films. There are some hard laughs, but very quickly you’ll experience that this isn’t what you paid for.

The movie centers on a commitment-phobic guy (Vince Vaughn) who struggles with two dilemmas: whether to pop the question to his long time girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and whether or not to tell his best friend (Kevin James) that his wife (Winona Ryder) is having an affair.

‘The Dilemma’ seems to be an experimental project for Vince ‘The Rambler’ Vaughn. Here he revisits his old dramatic chops, and even though he doesn’t shame himself, it’s clear that he cannot excel within the frames of the genre. Interestingly enough, Vaughn has worked in various dramatic films before (Psycho, A Cool Dry Place, Return to Paradise, South of Heaven, West of Hell), but never with real success. The harsh mashup of comedy and drama here never really finds a harmonious balance and instead seems abrasive and distracting at times. The Coen Brothers are masters at merging both categories masterfully (Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona), but director Ron Howard (Apollo 13 The Da Vinci Code), a virtuoso in his own right, seems astray at best. When you look at his body of work and you look at this movie, it is as if they are two completely different directors. The Howard touch is nowhere to be seen.

Screenwriter Allan Loeb (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) concocted a script with some hilarity, uncomfortable drama and much unwelcomed filler. The stuffing throughout the second act was blatant and just intolerable. There was no need to over-flesh the obvious theme of the film.

The cast had some highlights and some low lights, one of the lows being Channing Tatum. The up and comer, who plays the lover to Ryder, had no business working in a comedy, even if it was one with dramatic tones. Each scene where he had to sound funny or look funny was amateurish. A definite miscast. Vaughn, James and Ryder were very good when they dealt with their independent scenes. In Vaughn’s case, the toast scene monologue was a classic. His rambling, though old and unoriginal, had a nasty and hostile bite to it this time around. That was fun to watch.  

Comedic dramas are populating theaters more than ever and we as audiences are going to have to get used to our comedians wanting to expand their range to include drama (remember Ben Stiller doing the awful ‘Greenberg’ or Adam Sandler doing Funny People). Therefore we have to choose wisely and The Dilemma is definitely not a wise selection.

Follow Jack Rico on Twitter.

True Grit (Movie Review)

Tron: Legacy (Movie Review)