The Latest in Latino Entertainment News

Oceans (Movie Review)

Disney is once again at it, creating rapturous sea imagery in ‘Oceans,’ their second cinematic effort distributed through there newly minted Disneynature Studios. If you are glued to the National Geography or Animal Planet channels, you won’t see anything different or innovative here, but what you will see is never before seen footage of sea creatures that we never even knew existed. That one fact makes all the difference in the world.

Documentaries don’t really have scripts, but the ‘plot’ here is the chronicling of the mysteries of the sea the way no human has ever seen it before. Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud dive deep into the very waters that sustain all of mankind—exploring the harsh reality and the amazing creatures that live within. Actor Pierce Brosnan, an active environmentalist, narrates some of the most fantastic and surreal scenes on Earth.

The filmmakers began my sea experience through the eyes of a boy as he lays his eyes on the beach for the very first time. He’s overwhelmed. Brosnan begins speaking about what questions the boy, as well as us, might have about the crystal, deep blue sea.

What is remarkable and astounding is the onerous production in making a doc like this. Filmmakers traversed all five of the Earth’s oceans and devoted two full years to the preproduction process. That was followed by four years of shooting, with 75 excursions to dozens of the planet’s most untouched spots. It took nearly another year of postproduction to winnow down the 480 hours of footage. Overall, the task took seven years to create all for the price of a movie ticket.

Many of the sites visited where in Latin America such as Costa Rica, Panamá, Argentina, Galapagos, Venezuela and Mexico. The beauty that still lies there is ethereal.

For a mere 83 minutes, “Oceans†manages to extract some emotions from me by putting me in the middle of the action with a great white shark shredding to pieces a lovely sea lion, or watching a symphonic ballet of traveling tuna and awing me with the spectacle of exotic creatures that looked like something out of a Phillip K. Dick novel – The Blanket Octopus, The Spanish Dancer, The Manta Shrimp, The Ribbon Eel and the Leafy Seadragon.

This is beyond art, it is the best nature film I’ve ever seen of the sea. Oceans along with IMAX: Hubble 3D are by far the best documentaries of the year.

To follow Jack Rico’s film review check him out on Twitter at @jackricofficial

The Losers (Movie Review)

An action film with some heart, family values and a Latino flair is the way I would describe WB’s new film ‘The Losers’. The genres, though, do not necessarily fit well together. It’s a fun movie, but somewhere along the way it goes through a bit of an identity crisis. Does it want to be an action film or a family film? The producers seem to think both.

Based on the 1970 comic book of the same name, The Losers is about 5 members of a CIA black ops team who are betrayed and left for dead. Their mission now is to find out who wanted them killed.

This revenge film means well. It has a cast of characters comprised of a diverse and simpatico bunch (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Óscar Jaenada and Jason Patric) that draws you into them and their plights. What most vexed me was their jobs – they’re killers for the government who have hearts of gold? Not sure verisimilitude played a role there, or at least, I don’t think director Sylvain White pulled it off well. You hate to be gripped into a storyline to then detour somewhere opposite. It’s not good storytelling and it’s what happened here. In the end, The Losers is hit and miss and it has more hits than the latter. You can forgive some of its deficiencies for some laughs and charm and some old PG-13 action.

On a side note, just like Fast and Furious, this movie has a very big Latin American feel to it that begins with the opening credits in Bolivia and lasts throughout the ending. Most of the film was shot in Puerto Rico, which we hope they film there much more. Stay for the closing credits, there some funny sketches that belong to the storyline of the movie.

To follow Jack Rico’s film review check him out on Twitter at @jackricofficial

The Secret In Their Eyes (Movie Review)

Kick-Ass (Movie Review)

The Joneses (Movie Review)

We all know the phrase “Keeping up with the Joneses,” and so does first time writer/director Darrick Borte, who has used that as the basis for his debut, called (appropriately enough) The Joneses. The subject matter is simple enough: Borte has elected to highlight modern society’s materialistic and status obsessions while at the same time postulating how out-of-control marketing campaigns have become. In a sense, consumers have become like children – see something, want something. Credit card debt is out of control because people can’t restrain their buying impulses. However, despite a brilliantly cynical premise and a delicious start, the film eventually wilts like a lily left out in the noonday heat. Like too many satires that start out with santoku-sharp edges, the blade dulls because the filmmakers don’t hone it as the third act approaches. A desire to be likeable and perhaps appealing to mainstream audiences causes The Joneses to fade before eventually imploding. The biggest gaffe: a late-inning sermon delivered by David Duchovny. The problem has less to do with his preaching ability than with the recognition that the message would be better left unsaid. Is Borte so uncertain of his skill that he has to spell out everything letter-by-letter? Whatever happened to subtlety?

At first glance, the Joneses appear to be a perfect family: father Steve (David Duchovny), mother Kate (Demi Moore), son Mick (Ben Hollingsworth), and daughter Jenn (Amber Heard). But since this is a movie, there’s no such thing as a “perfect family” and, despite the beautiful house, the expensive furniture, and the luxury cars, there are issues in this paradise, as becomes apparent when Jenn tries to slip into Dad’s bed one night. It turns out these four are actually employees of a corporation called LifeImage and have been seeded into this neighborhood to show off the good life to their neighbors and get them to buy the products LifeImage represents. The couple next door, Larry (Gary Cole) and Summer (Glenne Headly), fall for it hook, line, and sinker – but there’s an issue. Larry doesn’t make enough money to finance all the purchases and he soon finds himself drowning in debt – not exactly a unique situation in modern-day American society.

I’m a little uneasy about the film’s message regarding corporate amorality and greed. It’s not that I don’t think corporations sometimes cross lines in their marketing campaigns, but personal responsibility has to come into it, and that’s not something the film addresses. Blaming escalating personal debt on corporate practices is offering a scapegoat for a lack of fiscal restraint. According to The Joneses, when people get in over their heads in debt, it’s because of a company’s selling practices, not because of a lack of self-control on the part of consumers who should be watching their bottom line. These aren’t high school students caving in to peer pressure. Yes, the issue of “keeping up with the Joneses” is a problem in modern day America, but to put all the blame on the people marketing and selling the products is to overlook a major part of the issue.

That being said, the manner in which the film begins and the way it gradually reveals the truth about its protagonists is smart and savvy, and the satire of marketing is on-target more often than not. What’s being postulated by this film isn’t far from reality. Is it that much different to use product placement in movies and television shows than it is to use a real-life variation of the same thing? (In what I assume is an example of in-your-face irony, Borte uses a fair share of such placements in this movie, the most obvious of which is for a car I won’t name here.)

Solid performances from David Duchovny (in a cleaned-up version of his Californication character), Demi Moore (defying age), Ben Hollingsworth, and Amber Heard can’t save the movie when the screenplay goes as limp as a noodle and turns into a long string of clichés. It’s sad, really, because the movie begins with so much promise. It has its share of amusing moments but, in the end, The Joneses feels like a satire that never blossoms because of a fear of becoming too dark. It’s a missed opportunity that will have The Joneses struggling to keep up with its mid-April multiplex competition.