The Latest in Latino Entertainment News

Jack Rico

By

2012/01/01 at 12:00am

The Best 11 Movies of 2011

01.1.2012 | By |

*Updated December 2025

A whole year has gone by and with it all of 2011’s memorable and very forgettable movies. But now we enter the televised film award season recognizing the best of the best for your personal viewing enjoyment. But forget the Oscars, the Golden Globes or any other film organization.

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Karen Posada

By

2011/12/26 at 12:00am

War Horse (Movie Review)

12.26.2011 | By |

Bring your tissues to this film! I’m speaking to the animal lovers in particular. This is such a beautiful story about perseverance, love, understanding and adventure. Steven Spielberg has managed once more to make a family film that will capture many. It is so difficult to make a living, breathing animal be the main character of a major motion picture, but it was pulled off majestically.

We are taken on a journey placed during WWI in England mainly but also France. A young boy, Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) has the great challenge of raising a young horse that he names Joey. The two build an unbreakable bond thanks to the obstacles they go through such as plowing a hopeless piece of land. Since Albert’s family is poor they end up giving up the horse when the war hits their small village, Albert swears to Joey that they will meet again. Rose (Emily Watson), Albert’s mom tries to help her son be strong and understand his father’s (Peter Mullan) decision.

In his journey through war Joey gets various soldier owners both English and German, who instantly realize this horse is like no other. One of them, Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) swears to Albert he will return his horse after the war and cares for Joey like Albert would. We follow our main character, Joey, through an unbelievable story during the WWI, which was the last war where horses were used.

The horses used to play the character of Joey are gorgeous beasts that fulfilled Spielberg’s task of having an animal as a main character and will make the public to want to go out and immediately get a horse after the movie. This is Irvine’s first movie on the big screen and he plays his character very humbly with an easy to like attitude, which many pet owners can identify with.

War is the backdrop of the story and I really enjoyed the way it was perceived; most movies depict war as something so strategic; here we see how much the element of surprise has to do with it and how little the soldiers involved in it know about it, how clueless they are because of their youth and their fear and all they do is follow orders. One of the most beautiful scenes of the movie is played out in no-man’s-land, where Toby Kebbell’s character is united with the so-called enemy thanks to this amazing horse; this scene alone makes the whole film worth it.

Most of the shots in this film are beautiful, not only because of the countryside shots but even the ones in the war are so well done that they easily captivate the public. Even when corniness seems to overwhelm the screen one is easily distracted by the sunset and the imagery.

The film was adapted from a book and there’s also a play in Broadway on it, all the actors recommended the full experience in our interviews and none seemed to have felt overshadowed by the outstanding performance of the horses as it should be since they each contributed to what makes this movie as a whole what it is: a great family film. This movie will make you tear up but it will also make you smile and leave you with a content feeling, it’s no surprise its release date is Christmas day.

Mack Chico

By

2011/12/26 at 12:00am

‘Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol’ #1 at the box office

12.26.2011 | By |

'Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol' #1 at the box office

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in its second weekend of exhibition in the U.S. has brought together the modest sum of $58.9 million dollars, and this weekend, was no exception as the film starring Tom Cruise hit $26 million dollars at the box office.

On the other hand the production of Warner Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows fails to overcome the aforementioned, and ranks second with $17.8 million dollars in addition to the box office last week.

In third place we see the new sequel to the squirrels chattering Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked that have grossed $50.2 million USD in its two weeks of release.

Seventh place there we see the ashes of New Year’s Eve with the premise that neither have the repartazo that has been able to exceed 50 million dollars budget.

Under the above, we see the animated film Arthur Christmas whose criticism has been mostly positive. The weekend box office below.

1. “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” $26.5 million.

2. “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” $17.8 million.

3. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked,” $13.3 million

4. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” $13 million.

5. “The Adventures of Tintin,” $9.1 million.

6. “We Bought a Zoo,” $7.8 million

7. “New Year’s Eve,” $3 million.

8. “Arthur Christmas,” $2.7 million

9. “Hugo,” $2.03 million.

10. “The Muppets,” $2 million

Karen Posada

By

2011/12/21 at 12:00am

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Movie Review)

12.21.2011 | By |

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

Karen Posada

By

2011/12/21 at 12:00am

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Movie Review)

12.21.2011 | By |

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is a movie anticipated by many: the book fans, the Swedish version of the film fans and everyone else that has gotten curious by the buzz around the book trilogy that hooked millions. This thriller will not disappoint any of the aforementioned, many might think there was no need to make an American version of the film, but the truth is that it combined all the good elements of the original one along with the book as a guide of course to make a great remake. This version makes the book and original more eye opening by bringing the action scenes to a higher standard.

 

The film is based on a book by the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, it was published back in 2005 and was quickly made into a Swedish movie in 2009. It develops the story of a financial journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who has legal troubles and is in the verge of loosing his entire career and taking the magazine he works for Millennium down with him. A rich millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), the kind of person he usually does his research about, decides to hire him for an unusual chore: to investigate the disappearance of his niece Harriet and odd 40 years ago. The story that develops at the same time on the screen is that of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara); a social outcast that spends her time being the best investigator at a security firm, who uses any method she can to complete the tasks assigned to her. These two unite to make an unbeatable team that will try to solve a crime no one expects them to. This game of “Clue†gets more interesting as the film progresses.

 

Mara is fantastic as Lisbeth, her make up, her attitude; her whole persona is played out perfectly. Seeing Mr. Bond aka Craig in this role is quite interesting, he still is a ladies man but is way more human than Bond; it’s almost tough seeing him be so weak at times but he’s also fantastic. The images in Stockholm and the imaginary town of Hedestad are very similar to those of the original film; (despite of the fact that the filmmakers say they didn’t use the original to do this remake) although somehow they are more captivating. The film runs for 2hrs and 30mins, which gives justice to the lengthy book, but towards the end it gets so fast paced that it might be hard to follow for those not familiar with it. The sequence of the book is mainly followed except for some minor changes to the script, which are easy to adapt to. There are several scenes that are very hard to watch, so be prepared. Try to make it to see the beginning of the film; the title sequence is a treat in itself.

 

The Swedish film is the most watched Swedish film ever! That might not be the case in America but it will surely have high-ticket sales for a while after it comes out. If you’ve been waiting for this film since you heard they were doing an American remake of it you will surely be rewarded for the wait. Director David Fincher cooked up the perfect movie to honor the book and the writer’s memory and to keep us waiting patiently for the other 2 to follow.

 

And to read an interview with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig , click here, plus follow Karen Posada via Twitter to @karenlpo

Jack Rico

By

2011/12/20 at 12:00am

Midnight in Paris (Movie Review)

12.20.2011 | By |

*Updated December 2025

Just being in Paris at midnight is a memorable experience that true romantics will appreciate, and most likely never forget. In the case of Woody Allen, he decided to make a movie about it. Its title is self explanatory, Midnight in Paris, and it is without question his best work since Match Point, a powerful drama that echoes the writings of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is also, through May, one of my top 10 films of 2011.

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Jack Rico

By

2011/12/19 at 12:00am

Complete 2012 Golden Globes nominations

12.19.2011 | By |

Complete 2012 Golden Globes nominations

“The Artist,” Weinstein Co.’s silent, black-and-white film about an actor who deals with the transition to talkies, was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, but in the Comedy or Musical category.

This selection seems erroneous since every other organization including the BFCA included it under it’s Best Picture categories. Did we miss something? Are you really telling us that ‘The Artist’ is competing with Bridesmaids?? Something seems terribly out of whack here.

Nevertheless, go ahead and immerse yourself in what will be a very interesting night hosted by noneother than Ricky Gervais.

 

 

 

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
The Descendants, Fox Searchlight
The Help, Walt Disney Co./DreamWorks Pictures
Hugo, Paramount Pictures
The Ides of March, Sony Pictures
Moneyball, Sony Pictures
War Horse, Walt Disney Co./DreamWorks Pictures

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
50/50, Summit Entertainment
The Artist, Weinstein Co.
Bridesmaids, Universal Pictures
Midnight in Paris, Sony Pictures Classics
My Week With Marilyn, Weinstein Co.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Adventures of Tintin, Paramount Pictures
Arthur Christmas, Sony Pictures
Puss in Boots, DreamWorks Animation/Paramount
Cars 2, Walt Disney Co.
Rango, Paramount Pictures

BEST ACTOR – DRAMA
George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

BEST ACTOR – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

BEST ACTRESS – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

BEST DIRECTOR
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Karen Posada

By

2011/12/19 at 12:00am

A weekend of sequels in the box office

12.19.2011 | By |

A weekend of sequels in the box office

This weekend ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law firmly took first place with $40 million dollars in the United States. Sequels took over the weekend and the 3 first spots, but none of them made as much as the originals collected.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!’ took second place with $23.5 million dollars. The squirrels stayed steadily between the best two action movies of the year.  

Surprisingly, ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ ended up in third place with $13.6 million dollars. It could be because of the fact that it only premiered in IMAX theaters; we will see what will happen when it premieres in the rest of the theaters, which are cheaper than IMAX.

 

 

The top 10 in the box office are:

1.’Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’- $40 million

2. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!’-$23.5 million

3.’Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol’-$13.6 million

4. ‘New Year’s Eve’-$7.4 million

5. ‘The Sitter’-$4.4 million

6.’The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part I’ -$4.3 million

7. ‘Young Adult’-$3.6 million

8. ‘Hugo’-$3.6 million

9. ‘Arthur Christmas’ – $3.6 million

10. The Muppets. -$3.5 million

Karen Posada

By

2011/12/18 at 12:00am

3 questions with ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’

12.18.2011 | By |

3 questions with 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'

The main actors of the amazing phenomenon ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, Daniel Craig (AKA Mr. James Bond) and Rooney Mara gave us an exclusive behind the scenes of what it was like to be involved in this project and how they prepared to become the characters that have been followed by 65 million plus readers of the trilogy world-wide. There’s so much pressure coming from different angles from the readers and from the fans of the Swedish version of the film and it’s understandable since this is a story that has captivated so many, but Craig and Mara have such easy going confident personalities that it’s easy to understand why they were chosen for the roles.

ShowBizCafe.com (SBC): How did you prepare for the roles of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander and what kind of pressure did you feel?

Daniel Craig (DC): The more you read the more prepared [you are] and the better chances you have during the day. Steve Zaillian (Screenwriter/Executive producer) wrote great words, so it’s all there and all you are trying to do in rehearsal is just tweak and make sense of it and make sure it ties up, make sure you know where you are when you get to it because we didn’t shoot one thing in sequence. We shot the end of the movie first; like you always do…I did what I wanted to do. The most important thing for me, was to make his character as real and believable as possible and obviously is another person I play and I deal with it in a different way, not that I kind of was ever thinking about that but you put the reality in it. You get shot at and you run away screaming, like anybody else would. That’s what the key is; it’s that easy. The [more] you think about what other people think about in the industry the less original you can be; you can’t go into a project thinking: “How would those people like it?” You just gotta get on and be reason minded about it, you can’t please everybody. 

Rooney Mara (RM): David Fincher (Director) told the casting director to let me know before I went down the long road of auditioning that If I were to get the part I would have to: become a smoker, have to go off and live by myself for a year, I would have to be butt naked, I would have to do a rape scene and I would have to ride a motorcycle; which was the least thing I was excited to do [because] it just seemed dangerous. There was a lot of rehearsal, me and David read the script a few times just the two of us together and all of us sat around quite a lot and went through the script and talk the scenes through with Steven Zaillian. We started shooting in Stockholm, just doing the exterior so, it sort of felt like we had three months to really rehearse before we went back to LA and shot sort of the meat of the movie.  To be honest, I didn’t really think much about what other people imagined them to be (meaning the characters), I used what I imagined her to be and I read all three books and I had a really clear picture of who this girl was and luckily David’s idea was pretty similar.   

SBC: Daniel, what can you tell us about your character and the relationship he has with the female lead?

DC: What I love about this character and the relationship he was with Salander…he’s not out to prove that he’s a man, he’s a guy [and] he doesn’t have to go around beating his chest and he’s very happy to fall into this sort of relationship where she’s literally wearing the trousers. [They have] have an age difference and she falls for him but she’s not supposed to. It has a lot to do with honesty and trust. They shouldn’t have a relationship, they shouldn’t really meet in life, they come from different social classes but Salander doesn’t trust anybody and there are very few people in her life that are straight with her and he is. She’s broken the law, she’s hacked into his life and he walks in and says: “ok forget that. I think you are great and I’d like to work with you”. [he] doesn’t walk away.

SBC: Rooney, What do you think about your bi-sexual character and the fashion trend she’s set? Seeing that H&M has a ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ clothing line out in stores now.

RM: Growing up in NY and LA it didn’t seem that crazy to have a bisexual character, she’s incredibly comfortable with her sexuality and I wanted to do it the same. It didn’t faze me, I didn’t really think about it too much. I think the clothes featured in H&M is more Salander, I wouldn’t call her a fashion icon, but you know the H&M look has nothing to do with me personally. [There wasn’t much] I could do with the costume after shots, the hair was stuck to my head and the eyebrows remained bleached and the piercings that I got that were real obviously stayed in. I expected people to treat me much differently. But, it didn’t really happen, the biggest change I noticed is that when you sort of look slightly off in that way, people sort of pay less attention to you and their expectations of you are lowered and I didn’t mind that; I actually enjoyed it.

Jack Rico

By

2011/12/16 at 12:00am

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

12.16.2011 | By |

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Guy Ritchie’s sequel, ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’, is a highbrow action film that is exciting, thrilling, and very fun. This second effort, to an original that possessed an incohesive script and an inability to hold my attention throughout its duration, provides a fantastic adversary, stylish action sequences, a creative plot and a seamless flow that all fall perfectly into place. I must confess, this was a delightful surprise worth a second watch.

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large—Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris)—and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may give him an advantage over the renowned detective. Around the globe, headlines break the news: a scandal takes down an Indian cotton tycoon; a Chinese opium trader dies of an apparent overdose; bombings in Strasbourg and Vienna; the death of an American steel magnate… No one sees the connective thread between these seemingly random events—no one, that is, except the great Sherlock Holmes, who has discerned a deliberate web of death and destruction. At its center sits a singularly sinister spider: Moriarty. Holmes’ investigation into Moriarty’s plot becomes more dangerous as it leads him and Watson out of London to France, Germany and finally Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead, and moving perilously close to completing his ominous plan. If he succeeds, it will not only bring him immense wealth and power but alter the course of history.

The reason this movie worked so much better than the first one is due to the new villain in town that opposes our protagonist – Professor James Moriarty played wonderfully by Jared Harris, known from the Mad Men television series. Heroes like Holmes suffer from the ‘invincible syndrome’ that affects so many stories of the like. We all know that the hero will always win and it’s hard not to zone out when this happens. But not here; Moriarty supplies the film with a subtle sinisterness, menace and belief that he can defeat Holmes, mind to mind, wit to wit, and punchline to punchline. It’s this plausibility that makes the difference between an ordinary action film churned in a Los Angeles warehouse and a rousing and titillating experience this sequel brings forth.

I would be remiss in not mentioning Robert Downey Jr.’s performance, which is infused with some hilarious moments, but also with a sense of fear for his death and to the loved ones around him. Jude Law serves as a nice compliment to Holmes, but is unequivocally overshadowed by Downey’s performance. Noomi Rapace doesn’t replicate anything remotely to her character of Lisbeth Salander in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ but perhaps proves that she can do a film in English. Finally, Stephen Fry, who somehow has to convince us he is Sherlock’s brother, is a graceful and charming man who manages to stand out from all the action sequences.

What the movie has going against it, at moments, is the English accents that get in the way of understanding the, at times, entertaining but complicated plot. Nevertheless, if that’s the worst I have to endure, then it becomes just a matter of taste because there are many who like those accents.

Guy Ritchie is in rare form here. Not since ‘Snatch’ has he been this good. His stylistic camera shots, his slow-mo trademark moments and his irreverent humor are all present here, but he’s added a maturity to the storytelling that has polished his filmmaking. The action sequences are phenomenal. Some that come to mind are the bullet-fest on a train, Jude Law’s cannon incident with a tower and a sharpshooter, plus the race for their lives through a forest while a deluge of bombs bullets and missiles almost claimed their lives.

‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’
is being released concurrently with another unabashed action film in Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’ in IMAX. Even though ‘MI:4’ might be better, your decision will ultimately boil down to your particular tastes in stars, a classic vs contemporary story, and whether one of them is sold out or not. You really can’t go wrong with these selections, making this week in movies, one of the most entertaining of 2011.

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