The Latest in ShowBiz News

2012/10/16 at 12:00am

Lengua, Cámara y Acción: 16 de octubre

10.16.2012 | By Jack Rico |

Esta semana en el segmento de noticias de cine, “Lengua, Cámara y Acción” en el Luis Jimenez Show por X96.3FM, Univision Radio, Jack Rico habla sobre: el divorcio de Russell Crowe, la despedida de un empleado de un hotel por hablar de Jennifer Aniston, DeNiro y Stallone boxearan en una película y TED es la comedia #1 de la historia!

Este segmento en español es el único en los Estados Unidos que se dedica a hablar de noticias de cine. El crítico de cine, Jack Rico, estará reportando las más importantes noticias de Hollywood de una manera conversada, entretenida e informativa, junto a la estrella de la radio, Luis Jimenez. De esta forma, usted se puede mantener al tanto de lo que pasa en Hollywood con una sonrisa en cara. Lengua, Camara y Acción será transmitido cada martes a las 9:50AM.

Además, no se pierda de PELICULEANDO, cada viernes a las 9:50am para escuchar las críticas y recomendaciones de los más recientes estrenos cinematográficos y EN ESPAÑOL! Ustedes pueden escuchar nuestro segmento de cine a través de ‘The Luis Jimenez Show’ cada viernes a las 9:50AM por Univision Radio ‘X96.3FM’ en Nueva York o por la red mundial visitando la página: http://luisjimenezradio.com ‘The Luis Jimenez Radio Show’ on ‘X96.3FM’ en New York, FM 97.7 Fort Myers, 98.5/101.1/100.3 FM, 890AM Boston, 1400AM Lawrence / Lowell Haz cliq al vídeo para escuchar el más reciente segmento radial.

NY Comic Con Coverage: ‘Beautiful Creatures’

By Karen Posada

2012/10/15 at 12:00am

Movies

NY Comic Con Coverage: ‘Beautiful Creatures’

10.15.2012 | By Karen Posada |

The next movie by director Richard LaGravenese nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Fisher King’ and ‘P.S. I Love You’ is titled ‘Beautiful Creatures’ and will open in theaters February 13, 2013. This film is based on the book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl which is the first part of a series of books for young adults called ‘ Caster Chronicles’; The New York Times called one of the bestselling fantasy novels for young adults. This series of novels is made up of four books: Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos and Beautiful Redemption, this last one will be available to the public in a week. The movie, which is based on the book by the same title will be distributed by Warner Bros Pictures.

This supernatural love story takes place in Gatilin South Carolina, where we meet the love struck couple: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) a young man who wants to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert) a mysterious girl. They unite to uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town.

The main actors from the movie are: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons winner of an Academy Award, Viola Davis Oscar nominee, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Emma Thompson Oscar winner and Zoey Deutch.

Alden Ehrenreich, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Zoey Deutch and director Richard LaGravenese were in New York Comic Con this past weekend to promote their movie. The novel’s writers were there as well to express their enthusiasm on seeing their work on the big screen. A teaser was shown where you could see this mix of magic, drama and special effects. The cast commented on the movie and their experience being a part of it.

They all agreed that the director didn’t try to capture how each teenager is around the world, because that would be impossible, which allowed him to treat them like real characters without trying to make them be teenagers that already exist. They clarified that the film doesn’t only take place in the present, there are flashbacks to show that the characters have existed for centuries, therefore the Romeo and Juliet love story shows that they’ve been around. To this the director stated that for him certain characters never go out of style, such as characters that are intelligent, witty and charismatic because they last for centuries and this is how he created this characters, this way they are not only of this culture but part of all of them. Most of all they suggested for the public to remember this is a human story, it’s not a supernatural story like people assume it will be, it feels very real.

Each actor told a short story as to how they prepared for their roles:

Alden Ehrenreich who studied in Argentina for a year and plays the “Romeo” of this story, Ethan, said: to prepare for this I only had to think of our location, and I would ask myself who my character was, to understand the context of his family and understand their interactions. I would try to understand how they felt about one another. What I liked is that I didn’t have to think about it much; I just had to use my instincts. I had a dialect coach, which helped me a lot.

Zoey Deutch who speaks a little Spanish and will play the character of Emily Asher, talking about her role said: what helped me a lot was being able to change my appearance and hair color, things that made me feel different. This character is so wide and that helped me understand her. For example, I’m Jewish and she’s Christian so I went to different churches and watched many videos and tried to have the accent, I wanted it to be different, a southern manipulating accent; because usually southern accents are so nice and fun to listen to and I wanted to change it.

Thomas Mann who will play Link gave a very sincere answer: I prepared for my character remembering that I couldn’t just use a southern accent, but I had to feel like they do to understand where they came from, their customs, habits and that environment they were brought up in. In the movie they don’t try to use popculture like Twitter or Facebook, so it feels timeless. I learned some southern sayings and they let me re-write some of my lines so I could use them.

Lastly, Emmy Rossum who will be the provocative Ridley Duchanness said: My character is always showing off and looiking for attention and she has some moments were you can see her vulnerability. I had to think how does she walk, strut, the tone of voice she uses when she’s trying to manipulate someone, that honey, southern sugary voice; I wanted to see how far I could go with it and sometimes Richard would say “Ok, that’s enough”. It was an exercise to be over the top, self-centered and to use my sexuality. I had a lot of fun and my expectation is that this movie is going to be great.

In the meantime we can enjoy the trailer, which shows us more about this love story surrounded by mystery and supernatural powers.

By Karen Posada

2012/10/15 at 12:00am

Movies

‘Taken 2’ #1 for second week

10.15.2012 | By Karen Posada |

‘Taken 2’ is number one for the second weekend in a row with $22.5 million dollars, definitely inciting the studio for a third installment. Liam Neeson is pure gold and without a doubt recruited many followers not only for himself but for the franchise with ‘Taken’.

Ben Affleck’s political thriller ‘Argo’ premiered at number two with $20.1 million dollars. This movie has earned plenty of great reviews because of its perfect execution, regardless its R rating limits it but then again it’s mainly aimed at adults and Affleck showed his great directing skills once more.

One of the best scary films of this month if not this year ‘Sinister’ took the third spot with $18.2 million dollars. The movie did very well when it premiered Friday, as it was the leader of the box office, but quickly began falling from the top.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1.Taken 2 – $22.5 mil

2. Argo – $20.1 mil

3. Sinister – $18.2 mil

4. Hotel Transylvania – $17.3

5. Here Comes the Boom – $12 mi

6. Pitch Perfect – $9.3 mil

7. Frankenweenie – $7 mil

8. Looper – $6.3 mil

9. Seven Psychopaths – $4.3 mil

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – $2.2 mil

By Jack Rico

2012/10/13 at 12:00am

Reviews

Sinister

10.13.2012 | By Jack Rico |

With fists clenched from the very creepy first frame of the movie, ‘Sinister’ delivers a frightening and horrific cinematic experience that will leave you shaken to the core. It’s a demented movie with a truly deranged killer at its nucleus. To say it’s disturbing or perturbing is right along with what director Scott Derrickson wants you to feel and boy does he achieve it. There are the obvious dumb decision-making by our lead character Ethan Hawke, but between the eery music, the cold and dark cinematography, and the well directed suspenseful pace, Sinister is the best horror movie of 2012.

An original story, the fictitious plot takes place ten years ago, when true crime writer Ellison Oswald (Ethan Hawke) made his reputation with a best-selling account of a notorious murder. Now, desperate to replicate the critical and financial success of his first book, he moves his loyal wife (Juliet Rylance), over-anxious son (Mark Hall D’Addario) and artistic daughter (Clare Foley) into a home where a suburban family was brutally executed and a child disappeared, hoping to find inspiration in the crime scene. Instead he discovers a mysterious box containing Super 8 footage of the murders—plus several more equally gruesome homicides. As he watches the carnage unfold on film, Ellison realizes he has stumbled onto evidence of a decades-long killing spree. But rather than going to the local authorities, he keeps the movies to himself, hoping to publish another acclaimed book based on the crimes. As Ellison starts to piece together the mind-bending truth about the crimes and the murderer, unseen intruders and inexplicable goings-on disrupt his once peaceful household. Slowly, he begins to realize that his ambition has placed him and his family in the path of an ancient and bloodthirsty adversary who has marked them as his next victims.

The reason this movie works compared to missed opportunities like ‘Intruders’ from Juan Carlos Fresnadillo or ‘House at the End of the Street,’ is because it doesn’t live in an inauthentic world. Director Scott Derrickson dropped us in a truly sinister universe that looks genuinely real. The pace is slow allowing us to peel of the layers of horror scene by scene, which only makes our experience more miserable, to the point of exhaustion. The murder sequences Derrickson displays are played out in long, extensive and excruciating fashion. It feels like we are actually watching real murders transpire in real-time (trust me, it isn’t a pleasant way to spend 110 minutes).

Ethan Hawke is magnificent in this movie and has been delivering some gripping performances as of late (Daybreakers, Brooklyn’s Finest). His character is obsessed with fame and down right disregards his family altogether. His motivation for success makes you dislike him as much as the chilling murderer. Oddly enough, there is no one to really root for in the film and that in itself gives off a claustrophobic feel.

If you’re expecting funny killings like the ones Freddy Krueger had us laughing at in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ then you’re going to the wrong movie. ‘Sinister’ is for men, not boys. You have to bring your cojones to this one to sustain the endurance of tension-filled suffering.

By Karen Posada

2012/10/12 at 12:00am

Reviews

Here Comes the Boom

10.12.2012 | By Karen Posada |

Surprisingly ‘Here Comes the Boom‘ has a solid enough storyline to keep you entertained with laughs and tough fight scenes that will make you cringe. Slapstick humor really is what drives the film, but the combination of that with the fights gives it enough balance to make it fun. There are plenty of typical comedy movie skits and characters we’ve seen in other films, so there are some predictable situations, which doesn’t separate it from the rest. The thing that pushed me to like this movie besides the comedy was the overall message of the need for a community to work together to inspire our youth.

Biology high-school teacher, Scott Voss (Kevin James) used to be a good teacher at the beginning of his career but now he’s not the best of teachers as he’s given up on his students and has no desire to change his ways, until he’s inspired to become a mixed martial arts fighter to help with his school’s music budget to save his colleague Marty Streb (Henry Winkler) keep his job.

James not only looks physically ready for this role but perseveres inspiring the audience to fight for what they want. Salma Hayek plays a high-school nurse as well as James’ long time crush, she isn’t made up here in like most of her movies, she’s mainly shown with just a hint of make up and although she’s still eye candy she’s the voice of reason in the film as she pushes Scott to be better; these two give a refreshing love story not typical in comedies. Henry Winkler is adorable and is the heart of the movie, since his character portrays everything the movie represents. I have to mention Charice because she also plays a small role in the movie’s inspiring message; this girl has such an amazing voice and in a way represents some of the challenges immigrant children go through.

There are plenty of scenes in the movie that will make you laugh out loud, in particular Scott’s second fight and although the movie crosses the line at some points, it is all mainly in good fun. The fights get more intense as the film develops, you will feel pain for James’ character. There are also plenty of cheesy moments as well as easy unrealistic solutions. At times it seems to loose focus as it tries to handle too many stories at once, which messes with the flow of the film.

This is just a good time at the movies with laughs, moments that will make you say “ouch” and a sprinkle of motivation. Some of the images are a little too violent for younger kids; it is more appropriate for children 13 and up. So grab the popcorn and enjoy a comedy that has some hard to watch fights with a positive message.

By Karen Posada

2012/10/11 at 12:00am

Reviews

Argo

10.11.2012 | By Karen Posada |

â€˜Argoâ€™ is a thrilling, nail-biting film that will keep you fully entertained with its captivating storyline and nearly perfect production. This political thriller is able to captivate the audience, by injecting dry humor, some mild action and focusing on the task at hand without getting too politically confusing. I think director Ben Affleck did a fantastic job giving the film the exact feel for the time it is set in, late70â€™s early 80â€™s; everything from the shots, to the outfits, cars, colors and even music, blend in masterfully to deliver what I would call one of the best dramas of the year.

Based on a true story, when the Iranian revolution reached its peak six Americans escape an attack on the American Embassyn in Tehran and take shelter at the home of Ken Taylor (Victor Garber), the Canadian Ambassadorâ€™s house. CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a wacky plan to try to get the Americans back home. With the help and support of Jack Oâ€™Donnell (Bryan Cranston), Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and John Chambers (John Goodman), he ventures into a mission that made history.

The film gives a concise background on some of the facts of the story without getting too profound or complicated; it explains it all in a very original way. There are different uses of camera work, from areal shots to hand held cameras, and although it gets dizzying at points it makes it all the more believable and real, as the shots look like the original revolt. This movie succeeds in getting the audience inside the story and even though it doesnâ€™t try hard at making a connection with the characters, since it only gives vital information, it manages to create a bond regardless.

I canâ€™t recall the last time I was so tense watching a movie, it is so nerve wracking at times that you easily feel scared and nervous for the characters, because thatâ€™s how engrossing the story gets. Affleck effortlessly portrays the most levelheaded character in the film, being able to control every situation without seeming mechanical. He gives a solid performance even using body language, to explain what heâ€™s feeling or thinking. Iâ€™m happy to say that Cranston finally was given a character worthy of his acting skills, something Iâ€™ve only had the opportunity of seeing in his TV show â€˜Breaking Badâ€™; here heâ€™s the actor Iâ€™ve come to admire. Arkin and Goodman give us the comedic relief that helps with the tension created by other parts of the film and itâ€™s done in the subtlest way without taking importance from the rest of the movie. Part of this comedy also comes from the film mocking governmental entities as well as even the director himself. The locations, sets, wardrobes, cars, etc., help give the film authenticity, which is another key element to its success.

There are some scenes that add to the already felt tension of the film, which make them a little too fictional or planned which can take away a bit of the realistic aim of the film. Also, although I think it works that we donâ€™t get much of an inside on the lives of the characters, except for vital pieces and very few personal conversations; a little more could have been given to add to the connection the audience has with the six Americans in Iran as well as with Affleckâ€™s character.

This movie has the ability to literally keep you at the edge of your seat, providing some of the most intense, nail-biting scenes Iâ€™ve ever experienced in a movie theater. Scriptwriter Chris Terrio gave such a solid compact story that Affleck was able to create a class A film, with some help from producer Grant Heslov and George Clooney. You truly feel like a part of the film, so much so that at points you want to elbow some of the characters for their actions. The film gives an inside look into a story that was classified until 1997 and that many people might remember living it. Having been part of history some may already know the outcome of the film, either way itâ€™s all about the top-secret intense journey it takes us on.Â

‘Argo’: Ben Affleck plays a Latino character

By Jack Rico

2012/10/11 at 12:00am

Movies

‘Argo’: Ben Affleck plays a Latino character

10.11.2012 | By Jack Rico |

Latinos are seriously EVERYWHERE. In Ben Affleck‘s and George Clooney‘s brand new movie ARGO, based on a true story, Affleck himself plays Latino CIA Agent, Antonio Mendez, a man with a problematic personal life, but very skilled at his professional one. The movie never acknowledges the Latino nationality in anyway besides the name and the real life picture of the man himself at the end of the credits.

The plot for Argo goes like this: “Argo” chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played—information that was not declassified until many years after the event. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, the Canadian and American governments ask the CIA to intervene. The CIA turns to their top “exfiltration” specialist, Tony Mendez, to come up with a plan to get the six Americans safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

Mendez, who was born in Eureka, Nevada in 1940, and is Latino from his father’s side, moved to Colorado as a teen and went on to study at the University of Colorado. Mendez barely speaks Spanish, but nevertheless was able to join the CIA in 1963 and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Middle East. Prior to joining the agency, Mendez was an artist (worked as an illustrator and tool designer for Martin Marietta) and now works on art full time. His work in the agency frequently dealt with forging foreign documents, creating disguises and handling other graphical work related to espionage.

In today’s instant information age, it seems inconceivable that the entire operation in ARGO remained top secret until it was declassified by President Clinton in 1997. Surprisingly, even after Tony Mendez recounted the events in his 2000 book, Master of Disguise, and, later, Bearman detailed them in Wired, most people remain largely unaware of a story that even Affleck admits “sounds utterly absurd. I understand that, because it seems completely unbelievable, but the fact that it happened is what makes it even more fascinating.”

‘Argo’ is a thrilling, nail-biting film that will keep you fully entertained with its captivating storyline and nearly perfect production. This political thriller is able to captivate the audience, by injecting dry humor, some mild action and focusing on the task at hand without getting too politically confusing. I think director Ben Affleck did a fantastic job giving the film the exact feel for the time it is set in, late70’s early 80’s; everything from the shots, to the outfits, cars, colors and even music, blend in masterfully to deliver what I would call one of the best dramas of the year.

This movie has the ability to literally keep you at the edge of your seat, providing some of the most intense, nail-biting scenes I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater. Scriptwriter Chris Terrio gave such a solid compact story that Affleck was able to create a class A film, with some help from producer Grant Heslov and George Clooney. You truly feel like a part of the film, so much so that at points you want to elbow some of the characters for their actions. The film gives an inside look into a story that was classified until 1997 and that many people might remember living it. Having been part of history some may already know the outcome of the film, either way it’s all about the top-secret intense journey it takes us on.

By Karen Posada

2012/10/10 at 12:00am

Reviews

In Montauk (Movie Review)

10.10.2012 | By Karen Posada |

I got invited to see ‘In Montauk’ an independent film by Kim Cummings in one of the coolest screening rooms I’ve ever been to, at the ReRun Theater in Brooklyn. Once you walk past the restaurant/bar area you walk down the hallway leading up to the theater, which is decorated with art by local artists and the movie theater itself is painted with wonderful colors and images, it has a bar inside the theater that offers popcorn and any alcoholic or non alcoholic drinks to enjoy while watching the movie, what tops it all are the seats, which are comfortable car backseats. This place is full of originality and a perfect place for a very original film.

The director greeted everyone at the door with a smile and excitedly introduced her film to the audience. The 68 minute long drama explores the life of an artist, Julie Wagner (Nina Kaczorowski) who goes to Montauk to take shots for her upcoming solo photography show, while struggling to manage a family life with Josh Cohen (George Katt). In Montauk she meets Christian Nygaard (Lukas Hassel) who unexpectedly ends up helping her to accomplish the task she sets out to do, while also helping her realize her life isn’t what she thought it was.

My favorite thing about the film is the artistic shots of the beach, my very favorite among these is one where the main characters are at the beach and put sky lanterns up in the air, also the photos that Julie takes are beautiful. The film has a very artistic atmosphere without being pretentious; it stays very true to itself as well as to the story. The director mentioned that she wanted to make a film for women, because she feels there’s not a lot and I think she accomplished that, as her story explores the life of a woman who’s trying to balance a life between work and family and that’s a story many people and women in special can identify with. The music is beautiful and goes perfectly well with the melancholy set throughout the film.

There’s not a lot of dialogue in the film, especially towards the beginning even when Julie and Christian are getting to know each other we don’t really hear them speak much about their lives or feel a connection until later. This worked on some levels but on some others it gave some scenes too much of a dramatic feel, specially when the characters are staring into space looking melancholic. There are some obvious mistakes that happen in some scenes, but considering the fact that such a low budget film was shot in just 10 days during a bitter winter; you can easily oversee them.

I loved Kaczorowski, she has so much spunkiness and is so independent in her own way, that she beautifully shows a woman who pretends to have a bulletproof exterior, but in reality has this sad aura which shows her real self. Hassel is such a perfect muse; he is able to adjust to the main character’s needs without seeming unnatural and we clearly can see why he’s able to provide her with everything she needs. Katt rounds off the cast wonderfully with his poise and the reality he brings to the story of a man that tries to do the right thing, even if it hurts him.

The short length of the film limits the story to a certain extent, since it seems to leave certain things unexplained, creating some distance between the audience and the film. Obviously the director chose to try not to steer far away from the main character, but perhaps that takes potential from the story since we don’t get a well-rounded tale but pieces of a incomplete puzzle that not even the main character is able to explain. I still enjoyed the film and the sad reality women face even today, the struggle between family and work and the fact that unlike men women can’t have it all.

By Mack Chico

2012/10/10 at 12:00am

Movies

First Look: Dreaming up a magical Sandman for ‘Rise of the Guardians’

10.10.2012 | By Mack Chico |

Within the dimly lit halls of DreamWorks Animation, past the character sketches lining the walls, inside the eccentrically decorated cubicles and offices is where a group of designers, animators and special effects gurus have spent the past four years bringing life to the Sandman. The dream-inducing folkloric figure, whose roots sprouted from European fairytales, is among the immortal icons featured in the 3-D computer-generated fantasy tale “Rise of the Guardians,” based on William Joyce’s charming book series, “The Guardians of Childhood.”

The bubbly Buddha-like appearance of the film’s Sandman, is remarkably faithful to Joyce’s illustrations. Yet creating a three-dimensional, wispy-haired Sandman with oh-so-magical powers provided several technical challenges that many of DreamWorks’ animation pros had never tackled.

“He is a very different kind of character,” said production designer Patrick Hanenberger of the character probably best known from Pat Ballard’s timeless 1954 song. “He is short. He is round. His body looks like it is made out of marzipan, and his hair looks like cotton candy. He is not someone who looks like he is as powerful as he is in our story, but he is the most magical of all the Guardians _ and he does not speak.”

“Rise of the Guardians,” which premieres Wednesday at the Mill Valley Film Festival near San Francisco and is set to debut nationwide Nov. 21, centers on a carefree Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine) joining an Avengers-style team of mythical figures who work together to protect the world’s children with their assortment of powers and gadgets.

Frost can command wintery elements with a magical staff, but he’s invisible to everyone else in the world except the other Guardians. He teams up with a mighty Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin) covered in tattoos, a speedy Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) with a chip on his shoulder, an overly enthusiastic birdlike Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and the silly Sandman.

When it came to convey Sandman’s personality, the heavy lifting fell to the animators and effects gurus because the character stays totally quiet. He communicates only through facial expressions and body language, as well as with his nifty ability to craft imagery out of sand. (For example, when he’s puzzled, a sandy question mark unravels over his noggin.)

Instead of launching headfirst into production, the filmmakers spent several months simply conceptualizing the Guardians, paying particular attention to the amorphous Sandman. How would he look? What are his powers? How would he move?

Gabe Hordos, the film’s head of character animation, thought the extra time in the sand box ended up being a dream.

“We often get stuck with this problem where, as animators come on, we have many ideas that kind of pollute the main idea,” he said. “Because we had nine months before we started production, we were able to iron stuff down, so once we started, we had a great idea about the characters. They changed a little less, and we played their arcs more subtly.”

The film’s villain, a boogeyman named Pitch (Jude Law), fleeces Sandman’s ability to weave objects out of strands of sand. He substitutes Sandman’s glittery gold rendition for one that’s ominously dark, but the filmmakers didn’t just want a black version of Sandman’s dust. Finding a unique but balanced aesthetic became one of the film’s biggest challenges.

The team studied sandy effects from film franchises like “The Mummy,” “Harry Potter,” “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” but wanted something different. The solution actually came by accident when visual effects supervisor David Prescott noticed how chaotic an animation of one of Sandman’s streams appeared when head of effects Yancy Lindquist played it in reverse.

“It looked trippy,” said Prescott. “When you see something running backward, it’s less predictive. We’ve all seen smoke blowing and water running. You know where it’s going even if you’re not a scientist. When it’s backwards, it’s more interesting. My question for Yancy was, `How can you run it backwards, but make it look like it’s going forwards?'”

The answer was rendering most of the strands as if they were slithering in reverse amid a few lingering forward, providing an organic but creepy counterpart to the Sandman’s dreamy waves, an already a complicated effect when combined with other animations. Lindquist and his colleagues employed both new and existing technology to fuse it all together.

“The complexity isn’t in the sand itself but in how many different ways we use it,” said Lindquist. “Sandy makes unicorns and dinosaurs and sea horses and all sorts of things out of sand, but he also has these streams of sand, and he stands on a cloud of sand. It’s a lot. Hopefully, when you watch the film, you appreciate that, but it’s not something you notice.”

By Karen Posada

2012/10/09 at 12:00am

Movies

Rock of Ages

10.9.2012 | By Karen Posada |

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.

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