The Latest in Latino Entertainment News

’21 Jump Street’ takes over the box office

The comedy film ’21 Jump Street’ surprised everyone taking the first spot in the box office, with $35 million dollars. It could have been because of the infinite praise that critics gave Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, for their hilarious performance as two undercover cops in High School.

‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’ the children’s movie fell to second place with $22.8 million dollars. After being the leader for the last two weeks, this animated film has already collected $158 million dollars.

Disney’s film ‘John Carter’ has yet to fulfill its’ financial expectations in the box office, it fell to third place taking in $13.5 million dollars.

The Top 10 Movies in the Box Office are:

1. 21 Jump Street -$35 mil

2. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – $22.8 mil

3. John Carter – $13.5 mil

4. Project X – $4 mil

5. A Thousand Words – $3.7 mil

6. Act of Valor – $3.7 mil

7. Safe House – $2.8 mil

8. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – $2.5 mil

9. Casa de Mi Padre – $2.2 mil

10. This Means War – $2.1 mil

Zoe Saldaña and Megan Fox together in ‘Swindle’

Paramount wan the battle for the spec script ‘Swindle’ written by Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson; the details of the story haven’t been released yet except that it’s an action heist. Paramount added the producer of ‘Moneyball’ Michael De Luca, as well as Megan Fox and Zoe Saldaña who will be starring; since the project was created because the two had expressed in the past that they would like to work together. This group of actresses and scriptwriters have in common that they are all represented by ICM; Brillstein Entertainment Partners also represent Saldaña.

At the moment Saldaña is filming the sequel of ‘ˆStar Trek’ directed by J.J. Abrams, her next project starring in is ‘Blood Ties’ with Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard to be directed by Guillaume Canet. In the film ‘The Words’ which premiered and was sold to CBS Films at Sundance she stars along Bradley Cooper and Jereme Irons. Right now, she is negotiating with Relativity Media to star along Christian Bale or Casey Affleck in ‘Out of the Furnace’, which Scoot Cooper is said to direct.   

Fox who has done fairly well after leaving the franchise ‘Transformers’, at the moment is filming ‘Friends with Kids’. To be followed by Paramount’s comedy ‘The Dictator’ in which she’ll star along Sacha Baron Cohen. She will continue with comedy in ‘This is Forty’ along Paul Rudd, Chris O’Dowd and Leslie Mann, which Judd Apatow will direct.

Seeking Justice (Movie Review)

‘Seeking Justice’ is a mix of action and suspense, which although it entertains it seems to need some extra editing. The actions scenes need to be polished because at times it seems as if we were watching a practice scene not the real thing, I kept on waiting for one of the actors to turn around and look at the camera laughing. The story is interesting and convincing up to a certain point, it is missing some flavor so that it is more exciting though.

Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage) finds himself in a bind when someone attacks his wife, Laura (January Jones). Just at the moment when Will is most desperate, a man named Simon (Guy Pearce) tells him he’s part of a vigilante group which is made up of everyday citizens and they help one another, he offers to help him and his wife find some peace. In his moment of need Will accepts and just when everything seems to start becoming normal in their lives again Simon appears, to remind Will that he needs to repay the favor.

I think Cage tries too hard to play the role of a normal person, even in his way of speaking his character has no sense of urgency, his voice and even his actions although they are justifiably nervous they are monotonous. Pearce plays his character well; he’s just the right amount of harsh and controlling with a hint of bad guy without being exaggerated. Some parts of the dialogue have humor in them, which surprised me. Also, there are some unexpected twists, which definitely don’t let you, loose interest in the film. 

I see this movie as to what would happen to a normal person if the found themselves in this situation, not how a Hollywood movie would play it out. Obviously there are some intricate scenes, but in the hand combat scenes there’s not the normal sophistication movies have. I like the concept of the story because it’s interesting, I also like the way it develops; but I think a little more glamour would be appropriate in order for it to have a spot at the box office.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

The 3D images in ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’ are so crystal clear that everything looks so real, to the point that you forget you are watching a cartoon film. Director Steven Spielberg really used the latest image capture technology to its best, which can be expected since he did work with WETA, the special effects house that made movies like ‘Avatar’. As Spielberg told us, this has been a project that was 20 years in the making, but it sure was worth the wait.

This family film introduces us to a story that has been around since 1929, when the Belgian comic writer Hergé brought to life a journalist and his Indiana Jones like adventures and continued them until about 1983. The cartoon form of the comic has also delighted generations around the world for decades. In this particular chapter we follow Tintin (Jaime Bell) to try to find the secrets of a ship called the Unicorn, which is tied to his biggest obstacle Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis). Haddock is the last survivor in a long line of defeated Captains that drown their inherited sorrows in whiskey bottles. With Tintin’s journalistic skills as well as his clever sidekick and loyal dog Snowy, they help Haddock sober up or drink enough to help them find the secrets behind the ship and to try to beat the villain, Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig) in discovering the secrets first.  

The voice of the cast chosen for the film goes perfectly with the characters they represent, as it should since the crew worked off the comic books along with the actors’ appearance to give us a 360 view of Tintin’s world. The funniest scenes are played out by twin inspectors Thompson (Simon Pegg) & Thomson (Nick Frost). Tintin travels from London to the mighty sea and to Morocco. The best sequence is the one in Morocco. Unfortunately a whole imaginary town is destroyed; especially the poor part of the city but it gives us plenty of breath taking action shots in which Spielberg let’s us choose where to focus with a little guidance.

Various age ranges of people will surely enjoy this film; it will certainly keep children entertained for a good almost 2 hours. The only thing to question is if maybe Tintin is too sophisticated, which is a good and refreshing thing, to many children. The film has done wonderfully abroad, especially in Europe where it has been more popular than the USA. It definitely has a really good chance of doing in the USA what it has done in Europe for about 50 years. The best part of it all is that a sequel is soon in the making, so this is just the first bite of what will probably be a series of movies about Tintin’s adventures.   

And to read an interview with Steven Spielberg about Tintin, click here, plus follow Karen Posada via Twitter to @karenlpo