Latino movie news, reviews, trailers, and festival coverage

Iron Man 2 (Movie Review)

‘Iron Man 2’ is very fun, but the story in this sequel isn’t as interesting as the first origin story. It also felt longer than the original. Why? Dialogue was heavy and the action sequences weren’t as prevalent. Overall, an entertaining experience, but my main criticism of the first one was that it needed MORE action at the beginning and in the middle. This new film has a brief stint of action a quarter of the way in, but then becomes laughable halfway through.

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances — and confront powerful enemies (Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell).

Robert Downey Jr., is once again excellent as Tony Stark. He truly nails the caustic, pithy eloquence of Stark from the comic books. Don Cheadle was equivalently as good as Terrence Howard was in the original playing Rhodes. There was no real difference.  Mickey Rourke was fantastic as the main villain Vanko, and brought the gravitas that Jeff Bridges did in the first part. Scarlett Johansson on the other hand created a spark on screen, she was a highlight. She plays Black Widow (she was the sixteenth member of The Avengers), a sexy Russian femme fatale spy who works for S.H.I.E.L.D and whose job is to make sure Iron Man doesn’t stray for the worse. Sam Rockwell (Moon) was perhaps my favorite after Downey. He single handedly stole some scenes from Rourke and Downey himself. He’s really good and it is just a matter of time before he’s recognized for some gold hardware at the Oscars. Gwyneth Paltrow was slightly irrelevant. Funny enough, director Jon Favreau decided to put himself in the film for a few scenes. He’s funny and it seemed everyone else had a pleasant time shooting the film.

Some issues I had with this sequel had to do with the prolonged periods of comedy, or clowning around, that obstructed the flow of the story. The first Transformers movie did the same in the scenes where Optimus Prime is trying to hide in Sam’s backyard and I didn’t think it necessarily worked. When a film is taking itself serious and subtly injects humor into its storyline, it is fine, but when those moments of humor are prolonged and it becomes a centerpiece scene, then it can harm or ruin whatever solemn and credible moments the film was building from its inception.

The action sequences this time around, also coming in the final scenes as the first one, were more extended and much more action packed. The final half hour hit a climax well worth the ticket price. I saw this film on an mid-level IMAX screen and the resolution and sound were fantastic. If you can afford it, pay for it. Just in case you’re wondering, there is no 3D version of the film. I know, I was surprised too.

The Avengers storyline is in full swing here with Sam Jackson making a full appearance as Nick Fury, Captain America’s shield in another scene and…you must stay for the very, very end of the credits, where there will be a hidden scene about Thor’s Hammer. “Sir, we found itâ€.

 

Iron Man 2 is an exciting, funny, action summer film that everyone will like, even if it isn’t a classic.

Babies (Movie Review)

I’m a fan of documentaries. It’s a great way to learn, in-depth, about a specific topic in a quick and efficient way. ‘Babies,’ unfortunately, wasn’t very insightful. It was extremely cute and adorable, but to pay $12 to see this, I’d rather recommend you string together 2 hours of cutesy YouTube videos of cuddly baby stunts and call it a day. Or just call your sister or friends who just had one and have them pop out their digital portraits of them. I’m sure the collection is already prepped and ready to go!

Because this is a documentary, there is no concrete plot, except that it focuses on one year in the life of four babies living on different continents: Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo and San Francisco.

The cameras capture the social, economic and cultural contrasts that each baby is provided. We also have a peek at how their parents raise them with the resources that life has made available to them. Besides the lovely tender moments of these infants, the film depends solely on the innocence of its four protagonists. The target audience is newly parents who will appreciate the idiosyncrasies that they have lived with their own children. It’s difficult to recommend you pay to see this in the theater. The wiser option for your pocket will be YouTube or when it comes out on DVD.

The Losers (Movie Review)

An action film with some heart, family values and a Latino flair is the way I would describe WB’s new film ‘The Losers’. The genres, though, do not necessarily fit well together. It’s a fun movie, but somewhere along the way it goes through a bit of an identity crisis. Does it want to be an action film or a family film? The producers seem to think both.

Based on the 1970 comic book of the same name, The Losers is about 5 members of a CIA black ops team who are betrayed and left for dead. Their mission now is to find out who wanted them killed.

This revenge film means well. It has a cast of characters comprised of a diverse and simpatico bunch (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Óscar Jaenada and Jason Patric) that draws you into them and their plights. What most vexed me was their jobs – they’re killers for the government who have hearts of gold? Not sure verisimilitude played a role there, or at least, I don’t think director Sylvain White pulled it off well. You hate to be gripped into a storyline to then detour somewhere opposite. It’s not good storytelling and it’s what happened here. In the end, The Losers is hit and miss and it has more hits than the latter. You can forgive some of its deficiencies for some laughs and charm and some old PG-13 action.

On a side note, just like Fast and Furious, this movie has a very big Latin American feel to it that begins with the opening credits in Bolivia and lasts throughout the ending. Most of the film was shot in Puerto Rico, which we hope they film there much more. Stay for the closing credits, there some funny sketches that belong to the storyline of the movie.

To follow Jack Rico’s film review check him out on Twitter at @jackricofficial

Oceans (Movie Review)

Disney is once again at it, creating rapturous sea imagery in ‘Oceans,’ their second cinematic effort distributed through there newly minted Disneynature Studios. If you are glued to the National Geography or Animal Planet channels, you won’t see anything different or innovative here, but what you will see is never before seen footage of sea creatures that we never even knew existed. That one fact makes all the difference in the world.

Documentaries don’t really have scripts, but the ‘plot’ here is the chronicling of the mysteries of the sea the way no human has ever seen it before. Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud dive deep into the very waters that sustain all of mankind—exploring the harsh reality and the amazing creatures that live within. Actor Pierce Brosnan, an active environmentalist, narrates some of the most fantastic and surreal scenes on Earth.

The filmmakers began my sea experience through the eyes of a boy as he lays his eyes on the beach for the very first time. He’s overwhelmed. Brosnan begins speaking about what questions the boy, as well as us, might have about the crystal, deep blue sea.

What is remarkable and astounding is the onerous production in making a doc like this. Filmmakers traversed all five of the Earth’s oceans and devoted two full years to the preproduction process. That was followed by four years of shooting, with 75 excursions to dozens of the planet’s most untouched spots. It took nearly another year of postproduction to winnow down the 480 hours of footage. Overall, the task took seven years to create all for the price of a movie ticket.

Many of the sites visited where in Latin America such as Costa Rica, Panamá, Argentina, Galapagos, Venezuela and Mexico. The beauty that still lies there is ethereal.

For a mere 83 minutes, “Oceans†manages to extract some emotions from me by putting me in the middle of the action with a great white shark shredding to pieces a lovely sea lion, or watching a symphonic ballet of traveling tuna and awing me with the spectacle of exotic creatures that looked like something out of a Phillip K. Dick novel – The Blanket Octopus, The Spanish Dancer, The Manta Shrimp, The Ribbon Eel and the Leafy Seadragon.

This is beyond art, it is the best nature film I’ve ever seen of the sea. Oceans along with IMAX: Hubble 3D are by far the best documentaries of the year.

To follow Jack Rico’s film review check him out on Twitter at @jackricofficial