Latino movie news, reviews, trailers, and festival coverage

Brave (Movie Review)

‘Brave’ is such a good feel animated film for children and parents alike; also, the 3D for the most part is outstanding. Pixar has finally given us a female protagonist; this redheaded stubborn girl was definitely worth the wait. Although the story gets complex and perhaps a bit dark for a younger audience, it’s enchanting and captivating taking us to unexpected places.

This story is set in Scotland in a mythical time that assimilates the middle ages. We get to see Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) grow up into a strong willed woman, who gets exasperated by her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). The Queen tries in vain to teach Merida how to be a Princess every waking minute, but Merida wishes nothing more than to lead a normal life where she can practice her archery despite of it being not very feminine. Merida gets along better with her father, Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), because he supports and encourages her unlady like ways. Frustrated Merida tries to change tradition with the help of a witch, but she comes to realize that the spell she casts is more than she can handle.

Directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman created a mother-daughter story unlike any we’ve seen before; it is heart warming, funny and leaves us with a valuable lesson. The actors that voiced the characters where right on and really gave life to each character. The animation is one of the best I’ve seen, there’s only one scene while overlooking some rocky mountains where it looks a bit blurry, but everything else is crisp clear and the 3D makes it feel like you can reach out and touch it all.

Everyone’s favorite characters will be Merida’s triplet brothers, who are mischievously cute. The panoramic scenes are breathtaking and look so real; they blend in perfectly with the atmosphere of the story. The story itself draws you in easily, but it does begin to get a bit muddled when magic gets involved. The reason why it’s successful though, it’s the fact that it caters to both the young and the old, it has slapstick humor along with life lessons and a little more mature jokes.

The best part about the story is the lesson it teaches us, that we are in control of our own destinies and we just have to be brave enough to see it. This is definitely a good film to take your kids to, because it is not only entertaining but it’s also nutritious. Don’t miss the short-film at the beginning titled ‘La Luna’ by Italian director Enrico Casarosa, which also pays homage to family and it’s just adorable.   

Rock of Ages (Movie Review)

To describe ‘Rock of Ages’ I’m going to need to use various synonyms for cheesy, because that was the main thought going through my mind while I watched the film. The music rocks, there’s no doubt about that; everything else around it wasn’t good enough to classify this as a good musical. I unfortunately haven’t seen the Broadway musical this film is based on, but I’m not afraid to guarantee that it’s probably better than this film adaptation.  

 

The film is set in 1987 in Los Angeles where a small town girl, Sherrie (Julianne Hough) comes hoping to begin her singing career, shortly after arriving she ends up in the Bourbon Room, a famous rock club where she meets Drew (Diego Boneta). Drew begs the club’s owner, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) to give Sherri a waitressing job, thanks to Lonny (Russell Brand) Dennis’ right hand he decides to give the girl a chance. The Bourbon Room is at risk when religious groups led by the Major (Bryan Cranston) and his wife, Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones) threaten to close it down, specially when rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) shows up to perform with his group –Arsenal- one last time. With L.A. as a stage this group of people try to lead their lives surrounded by rock n roll from the likes of Def Leppard, Journey, Foreigner, etc.

 

It looked like most of the actors in this movie were just lip-synching, which whether that’s the case or not that made it hard to enjoy it as a musical. My favorite acts though were seeing Boneta on stage as well as Cruise; they rocked the house in and out of the screen. Their acting as well as everyone else’s was pretty questionable though. Cruise’s character is eccentric and entertaining with his overly macho jockstraps and tattoos, his rockstar act though might be right on, with his short attention span it was hard to follow or understand. I’m not sure if I was annoyed at Hough’s character or at herself, neither her voice nor her acting were convincing; sure she’s stunning, but that wasn’t enough. 

 

I would like to say that our young Mexican actor, Boneta, was fabulous, but except for a couple of good singing skits his acting was like seeing a puppy follow commands. Boneta is one of the main characters, so he had a glorious amount of screen time, despite of that he didn’t shine except for his first singing opening number (clip below) as well as his closing number. He definitely has potential to carry over his heartthrob skills from his Rebelde days; there is some chemistry between Hough and him, but it wasn’t exploded to the point of making believable their fairytale story.  

 

Baldwin and Brand presented some funny scenes, but their main act is actually offensive. The movie began dragging after the first act, perhaps because of the various montages; I was ready for it to finish around the first hour (It’s two hours). The corniness of the film just kept escalating until it reached a level of ridiculous.

 

I can honestly say I really enjoy musicals and was disappointed by the result of this star-studded film. Even though director Adam Shankman also made ‘Hairspray’, another Broadway hit musical into a film filled with Hollywood A-listers and was well received he didn’t achieve the same with this one. With that said I suggest you save your pennies and go see the musical on Broadway, I’m sure you will be satisfied and entertained then.   

 

Check out Mexican actor Diego Boneta “rocking out” in ‘Rock of Ages’ in the video below.

Madagascar 3 tramples the box office

A surprising turn of events occurred at the box office this weekend, where ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ wan taking first place with $60.3 million dollars. What’s interesting is that the animated film collected this money mainly from 3D ticket sales, which is a rare event.  

Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’, which was expected to rule the box office, got second place with $50 million dollars. Either way for a rated R film it still did surprisingly well and word-of-mouth may put it at number one for next weekend.

The fairy tale ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ fell quickly to third place with $23 million dollars. To finish off with the bizarre ‘The Avengers’ has left the top 3 after six weeks.

The Top 10 Movies at the Box Office are:

1. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted – $60.3 mil

2. Prometheus – $50 mil

3. Snow White and the Huntsman – $23 mil

4. Men in Black 3 – $13.5 mil

5. The Avengers – $10.8 mil

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – $3.2 mil

7. What to Expect When You’re Expecting – $2.7 mil

8. Battleship – $2.3 mil

9. The Dictator – $2.1 mil

10. Moonrise Kingdom – $1.6 mil