Latino movie reviews

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Rated: R for sexual content, brief nudity, some drug material and language.
Release Date: 2009-11-27
Starring: Rebecca Miller
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: www.pippalee.com

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This is definitely a chick flick for smart viewers; the drama which drags most chick flicks is taken lightly and sprinkled with unsuspected moments of hilarity. I didn’t know exactly what to expect of it but I came out glad to have gone through Pippa’s journeys along with her.
 
The film by director Rebecca Miller explores the life of Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) a suburban housewife who seems to have it all together and be leading the perfect life. Her husband (Alan Arkin) an accomplished publisher who is 30 years older than her decides to move them out of NYC to a retirement community in Connecticut. Pippa as the perfect wife follows willingly, although we get a sense there’s something stirring within her that’s about to explode. She begins the narration of the life she has led up to the point where she met her current husband. We start seeing Pippa’s troubled past and wonder how she is so together in her present, but a series of weird occurrences take place which make everything fall in place. As her retired husband decides he can’t live in complete retirement she fills her time with activities and meets a younger man (Keanu Reeves), they begin to help each other through their paths of self-discovery.
 
Blake Lively from ‘Gossip Girl’ plays the younger version of Pippa Lee, her character’s fun, sensual personality combined with her innocence makes us want to help her out of the hole she digs herself into. Younger Pippa loves her mother (Maria Bello) but as she grows up she realizes her household is not what she thought it was, her mother’s addiction to drugs and her father’s (a priest) indifference takes her life for a spin.  
 
These great actors are part of a puzzle that forms a beautifully imperfect picture. All the funny moments make the dramatic plot easy to watch without feeling overwhelmed or sad. Seeing how Pippa’s life turns out despite the complicated “lives†she’s led is delightful, seeing her come in to her own and finally realizing that there was no need to make a perfect persona but that accepting herself and the fact that life is full of surprises was the answer, gives us an uplifting conclusion.

Cop Out (Movie Review)

‘Cop Out’ is well-rounded movie in the sense that each character contributes something different to it, it is this characteristic that makes it entertaining. It is not an original piece though, it is like seeing another sequel of such movies as ‘Lethal Weapon’, although the humor in it does make it stand out more. There are a lot of stereotypes that took away from the movie as well as some bad choices on secondary characters.

The story revolves around two NYPD officers who get into a whole lot of trouble for a baseball card that leads them to solve a major gang plot. Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) seems to have done everything wrong in his life, so he wants to fix his mistakes by paying for his daughter’s wedding. The only issue is that he has the salary of a cop therefore can’t afford the wedding, unless he sells a rare, mint-condition baseball card he owns. His partner, Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) is devoted to help him despite of him having his own problems such as dealing with insecurity issues in his marriage. In their journey they loose their card to Dave (Seann William Scott) who becomes their assistant and leads them to the mexican gang who not only is in possession of the card but are also the ones to blame for other crimes in the area. Their leader Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz) is bloodthirsty and wants nothing more than to expand his drug-dealing business out of Brooklyn, he begins by capturing Mexican beauty Gabriela (Ana De la Reguera) who holds the key for him to accomplish his master plan.

Director Kevin Smith did a good job at casting, Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. They make a great team, Morgan is hilarious and comes up with the weirdest funniest things to say and do; while Willis with his strong character carries the movie forward as the responsible role he depicts, although he looks most comfortable in the action scenes. Sean William Scott has a love/hate relationship with Morgan, that is very funny in a ‘annoying younger brother’ kind of way. Diaz plays the role of a villain with a comedic side which he does well and De la Reguera is a tough damsel in distress that balances things out. The rest of the latino crew does a horrible job starting by their Spanish. Cory Fernandez should be ashamed of his performance as well as his nonexistent Spanish. I was disappointed with all the stereotypes in the film towards hispanics (mexican gangs, brute unintelligent men, violence, etc).

Overall the film is entertaining, a good laugh. There is lots of unnecessary cursing so make sure to go with adults only. Check out our interview with Willis and Morgan so you can look out for their favorite scenes in the film, as well as the Spanish they picked up on the set.

The Wolfman (Movie Review)

Unfortunately The Wolfman was exactly what I expected it to be, a movie where action prevails and the plot is predictable and hollow, it is basically secondary. I had a moment of hope during the climax of the movie that it was going to be better than I expected, I was wrong. I do give credit to the animation crew as well as those who worked on the settings because they are fantastic.

The main character, Lawrence Talbot (Benecio del Toro) belongs to a theater group in London; he’s a man who is lonely and hasn’t spoken to his family since he was a child. His father sent him to the U.S. to keep him away from his childhood traumas. He’s a man full of pain and suffering, he only returns
home because his brother’s fianceé Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) writes to him about his brother’s disappearance and at his arrival asks him to solve the mystery of his murder. His father (Anthony Hopkins) greets him coldly but with loving words, he’s mysterious and he’s estranged from his family. He lives in a castle where we start to learn about Lawrence Talbot’s childhood and begin to see that although he had a privileged childhood he didn’t have it easy.

The movie develops at a nice rhythm, but since very early on we are able to make conclusions about how it will end. The Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro does the role of a man with a dark past and an even darker future perfectly; as a fan of the original movie and a collector of ‘wolfman’ paraphernalia, he studied his character well. I can’t imagine anyone else playing the main role, although there is not much to work from; Del Toro did a good job, especially in the scenes where his physical pain was very real. Hopkins was perfect for the role of the creepy and enigmatic father, it was almost like seeing Lecter with a ‘paternal’ side.

I knew the movie was a thriller but I didn’t know it was also supposed to be a horror flick; it does have moments that startle you but it is far more gory than scary. The cast did a good job and the panorama is beautiful, also the fact that it is placed in the times of Jack the Ripper makes it more attractive. It would have been a better movie if the plot were more engaging. It is definitely not for kids, although at some point it becomes a version of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ but for adults.