Latino movie news, reviews, trailers, and festival coverage

Karen Posada

By

2010/03/11 at 12:00am

Remember Me (Movie Review)

03.11.2010 | By |

Remember Me

‘Remember Me’ does a fine job at making you part of it without you realizing it. If you are into romantic dramas you are going to love it, it is more than just romance though, the importance of family is felt strongly as well. The plot is made up of love and loss and the sense that we have to ‘live in the moments’ because we don’t know when our last day on Earth will be. It is your typical boy-meets-girl story but with a sense of reality in it and a twist of faith.

Our main character Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) is a troubled soul, who feels completely helpless, he wants to be a hero or a voice to those that need it, like his younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins). He had a privileged life growing up, but now wants to make it on his own, away from his workaholic father (Pierce Brosnan); who doesn’t expect anything good out of him. With his poetic boy looks and the sadness he has about him, he has a way with the ladies. His roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington) convinces Tyler to date the daughter of a police officer (Chris Cooper), to spite him for arresting them one night. Tyler has no problem sweeping Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin) off her feet. Tyler gets lost in his own game and ends up falling for Ally’s quirky personality. She has the ability to show him through their connection by their troubled pasts, that he can live again despite of all the pain he’s felt. She brings out the best in him.

The love connection here is strong; Pattinson and de Ravin make the romance as well as their life stories very real to the audience. It’s hard not to fall in love with Pattinson in this film; he is the typical artsy passionate guy every girl would want. The quarrels among characters, especially “the big fight” between the couple is a bit ridiculous. The script tries to create drama where there really isn’t.  Admittedly the ending is the strongest part of the movie, the filmmakers took a cheap shot at the audience, but it is the reason for the ½ star. It is a cheap shot that works, without it the movie wouldn’t have an impact and it would be easy to forget. We are given subtle hints about the ending throughout the whole movie but we only connect the dots when we arrive to it, it is what will make the audience feel a stronger connection to the story.

I definitely recommend it to the hopeless romantics; it will touch your hearts and leave you a little depressed. You are left with the sense that we do need to cherish every moment and live as if today was our last day.

Namreta Kumar

By

2010/03/11 at 12:00am

She’s Out of My League (Movie Review)

03.11.2010 | By |

She’s Out of My League is quite possibly the best romantic-comedy out, thus far, this year. The best part about this bromance is that it is equally a chick-flick. Read More

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/09 at 12:00am

Up in the Air

03.9.2010 | By |

Rating: 4.0

Rated: R for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: 2009-12-04
Starring: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/

 Go to our film page

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/06 at 12:00am

‘Oscar 2010’: My Winning Predictions

03.6.2010 | By |

'Oscar 2010': My Winning Predictions

With less than 24 hours away from the 2010 Oscars, fans of this big night have their thoughts of who will be the winners of the big awards. I’ll be personally looking at the Foreign Films category because that is where I think the best films of 2009 are! Two Latin American films are nominated. My peeps are putting their share!

Here at ShowBizCafe.com, I decided to predict the winners of all the categories for that big pool you guys are planning on having Sunday night. 

Share your ideas and predict the winners along with me on Twitter on Sunday night at 8pm. I’ll be blogging live all 3-4 hours.

Without any more delays, check out my full 2010 Oscar Awards Predictions highlighted in bold:

 

 

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, producers)
Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)
District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)
An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)
Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)
Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)
Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)
The Blind Side (Gil Netter, Andrew A Kosove and Broderick Johnson, producers)
Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

Best Director
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Avatar (James Cameron)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Colin Firth in A Single Man
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
Morgan Freeman in Invictus

Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique in Precious
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Animated Feature Film
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Foreign Language Film
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)

Writing (adapted screenplay)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)

Art Direction
Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)
Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)
Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)
The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)

Costume Design
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)
Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
Nine (Colleen Atwood)

Documentary (feature)
The Cove (Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens)
Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Film Editing
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
District 9 (Julian Clarke)
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
Precious (Joe Klotz)

Makeup
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)
Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)
The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)

Music (original score)
Up (Michael Giacchino)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)
The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart, by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog, by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog, by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname, from Paris 36, by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
Take It All, from Nine, by Maury Yeston

Short Film (animated)
Logorama (Nicolas Schmerkin)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park)
French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)
The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)

Short Film (live action)
The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)
Kavi (Gregg Helvey)
The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Sound Editing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)
Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

Sound Mixing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Visual Effects
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)
District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)
Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/05 at 12:00am

Brooklyn’s Finest (Movie Review)

03.5.2010 | By |

*Updated December 2025

Brooklyn’s Finest is a very good film that brings together some wonderfully gritty acting, an engrossing storyline and a riveting ending. There are some twists that you’ll enjoy and overall it’ll remind you of films such as Crash and Serpico.

Read More

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/03 at 12:00am

Alice in Wonderland

03.3.2010 | By |

Alice in Wonderland

It’s finally here! Tim Burton’s new phantasmagorical Real-3D remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is shockingly a bore. All that eye-popping colorful imagery was just eye candy to sidetrack us from focusing on the anemic script adaptation. Even though it is one of Burton’s most beautiful films, it is not his best. This goes to show you that story is everything. The acting performances were vacuous and the entertainment value was surprisingly subpar. Will kids like it? Yeah sure, kids like almost anything that looks like a video game.

Burton’s adaptation centers around Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a young british teenager who falls down a tree hole and rediscovers all the marvels of a surreal place called Wonderland.

There is something to be said about the director’s need to create a movie that has been filmed so many times by so many people in so many countries. Does he think his version will be the definitive one? Disney might argue that. Burton is a remake master and there is a major flaw with that method of filmmaking – you are always going against the original, therefore your version will most likely always be weaker.

Alice in Wonderland is not funny or charming but a bit fatuous and insipid. It drags in various places especially in the beginning. Much of this tediousness is due to the bad acting of the female protagonist Mia Wasikowska. Talk about needing some acting classes. She was neither convincing nor surprised at anything, but rather seemed arrogant and spoiled. Mr. Eccentric himself, Johnny Depp, couldn’t hit the magical and funny strides of his predecessor Captain Jack Sparrow from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ The rest of the cast was mediocre at best, so was the whole movie.

On some high notes, the cinematography is outstanding, kudos to Dariusz Wolski for hitting a home run. The 3D experience was very fun, but any 3D film that comes out after Avatar is going to pale in comparison. Nevertheless, for those of you that rarely see three dimensional movies, it’s a trip and a half. The great moments are few and the yawning moments are plenty. If you think that the 3D scenes and the colorful visuals will be enough to amuse you, think again. The special glasses will start to weigh on you and the english accent will begin to annoy you. That’s what happens when a movie you think is going to be great turns out be a dud!

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/03 at 12:00am

Gentlemen Broncos

03.3.2010 | By |

Rating: 1.0

Rated: PG-13 for some crude humor.
Release Date: 2009-10-30
Starring: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: No disponible.

 Go to our film page

One of the worst movies of 2009 is Gentlemen Broncos.

 

Directed by Jared Hess, the creator of ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, the film revolves around a young writer whose novel is plagiarized by his favorite author.

 

The comedy is some of the more corniest I’ve seen in my life and the dialogue is ridiculous.

 

It is amazing that such horrific films as this continue to be created for the public consumption.

Jack Rico

By

2010/03/03 at 12:00am

Alice in Wonderland (Movie Review)

03.3.2010 | By |

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland'

It’s finally here! Tim Burton’s new phantasmagorical Real-3D remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a bore. All that eye-popping colorful imagery was just eye candy to sidetrack us from focusing on the anemic script adaptation. Even though it is one of Burton’s most beautiful films, it is not his best. This goes to show you that story is everything. The acting performances were vacuous and the entertainment value was surprisingly subpar. Will kids like it? Yeah sure, kids like almost anything that looks like a video game.

Burton’s adaptation centers around Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a young british teenager who falls down a tree hole and rediscovers all the marvels of a surreal place called Wonderland.

There is something to be said about the director’s need to create a movie that has been filmed so many times by so many people in so many countries. Does he think his will be the definitive one? Disney might argue that. Burton is a remake master and there is a major flaw with that method of filmmaking – you are always going against the original, therefore your version will most likely always be weaker.

Alice in Wonderland is not funny or charming but a bit fatuous and insipid. It drags in various places especially in the beginning. Much of this tediousness is due to the bad acting of the female protagonist Mia Wasikowska. Talk about needing some acting classes. She was neither convincing nor surprised at anything, but rather seemed arrogant and spoiled. Mr. Eccentric himself, Johnny Depp, couldn’t hit the magical and funny strides of his predecessor Captain Jack Sparrow from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ The rest of the cast was mediocre at best, so was the whole movie.

On some high notes, the cinematography is outstanding, kudos to Dariusz Wolski for hitting a home run. The 3D experience was very fun, but any 3D film that comes out after Avatar is going to pale in comparison. Nevertheless, for those of you that rarely see three dimensional movies, it’s a trip and a half. The great moments are few and the yawning moments are plenty. If you think that the 3D scenes and the colorful visuals will be enough to amuse you, think again. The glasses will start to weigh on you and the english accent will begin to annoy you. That’s what happens when a movie you think is going to be great turns out be a dud!

Karen Posada

By

2010/03/02 at 12:00am

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

03.2.2010 | By |

Rating: 3.5

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

 Go to our film page

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.

Ted Faraone

By

2010/02/25 at 12:00am

The Crazies (Movie Review)

02.25.2010 | By |

The Crazies

In the 37 years since helmer George A. Romero foisted on us the $275,000 sci-fi/horror flick, “Crazies,” not much has changed except the value of the Dollar.  The remake, billed as “The Crazies,” by helmer Breck Eisner, cost an estimated $12 million to make.  It’s still pretty cheesy.  And Romero gets executive producer credit.
 
Pic climaxes with an atomic bomb blast leveling an Iowa town.  Too bad that its negative was not at ground zero.  “The Crazies” is that awful.  It gets half a star for some unintentionally funny scenes.  It loses stars for telegraphing plot moves in advance, failing to build compelling characterizations, totally expected “Deus Ex Machina” resolutions when writers Scott Kosar and Ray Wright painted themselves into corners, crummy continuity, stilted dialogue, and blurry lensing.  “The Crazies” uses every cheap trick to create suspense… and fails miserably.
 
Plot adheres fairly closely to the Romero original.  Folks in a small town start going crazy, becoming homicidal maniacs.  Source of the problem is quickly traced by Sherriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant, whom we last saw in the atrocious “Perfect Getaway”) to a downed jet in the town’s watershed.  How a jet goes down in a small town without apparent damage and without an immediate response is beyond even the suspension of disbelief.  This jet went down a week before pic’s action takes place.  And no one save the town blowhard noticed.

We must mention pic’s funniest scene:  The local undertaker has been infected.  He goes after Sherriff Dutton with a high speed bone saw.  Dutton subdues the mad mortuarian but the saw is still running.  Propelled across the mortuary floor by its own motor, It heads straight for Dutton’s crotch until his deputy (Joe Anderson VI) steps on the power cord in one of those Deus Ex Machina moments.  One wonders why the Army didn’t also cut off the electricity.

The purpose of a pic such as “The Crazies” is to create suspense, instill fear in audiences, and have them hanging on the edge of their seats for the ending.  Fernando Meirelles did a far better job with similar subject matter in the 2008 “Blindness.”

Pic’s ending has sequel written all over it.  Ultimately it will depend on the box office that this piece of trash does.  “The Crazies,” which feels a good deal longer than its 101 minute run time, is rated “R” thanks to violence and repeated use of a four letter word for intercourse.

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