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Holiday Films Are in the Works!

One of my favorite time of the year is the holiday season. I love Christmas for many reasons, especially my grandkids and grandnephews. We always find time to watch our old and new favorite Christmas …

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Watch the Featurette Wicked on Singing Live

After two decades as one of the most beloved and enduring musicals on the stage, Wicked makes its long-awaited journey to the big screen as a spectacular, generation-defining cinematic event this holiday season. Synopsis: Wicked, …

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Another Love Story in Honor of Domestic Violence Awareness

In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, here’s an impactful new film Another Love Story, now available for streaming on TUBI. This timely film sheds light on the emotional and psychological journey of domestic abuse survivors …

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Despicable Me 4 with One of My Little Minions

We enjoyed it! 

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It Was A Twisters Night

My #1 grandson and I screened the new #TwistersMovie last night. And it was a long overdue date, too. The film was much better than we expected. It had its excitements that kept you on …

Holiday Films Are in the Works!Watch the Featurette Wicked on Singing LiveAnother Love Story in Honor of Domestic Violence AwarenessDespicable Me 4 with One of My Little MinionsIt Was A Twisters Night

“Cantinflas,” “Through a Lens Darkly,” “The November Man,” “As Above, So Below” in Theaters Now

cantinflas poster150Another weekend of new releases and it’s hard to choose the best, but here are a mix bag of choices for you to pick from: Cantinflas a childhood favorite, one for photographers and documentary lovers Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, and a claustrophobic ride As Above, So Below.

Through a Lens Darkly-Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People150

Cantinflas
It’s finally here! I know I’m being bias cause I grew up with this character called “Cantinflas” and the man who created him, Mario Moreno. The film is the untold story of Mexico’s greatest and most beloved comedy film star. Even now, twenty-one years after his dead he’s still revered.

I really liked this film and I hope others will go check it out. Here’s the link to our previous post on the film and its leading actor’s Óscar Jaenada and Ilse Salas. Also starring Michael Imperioli, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Barbara Mori, Ana Layevska, and Adal Ramones.

The November Man150Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
The book, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by Deborah Willis, inspires this documentary. As a photographer these kinds of documentaries always intrigue me, especially when it deals with historical facts. Directed Thomas Allen Harris.

As Above, So Below150

The November Man
Pierce Brosnan is back in a kind of Bond role just with a different name The November Man aka Peter Devereaux, a lethal and highly trained ex-CIA agent that is lured out of retirement for one last mission. That’s when it all gets complicated. So if you need a Pierce Brosnan fix, this one is for you. Along for the ride are; Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko, Eliza Taylor, and Will Patton.

As Above, So Below
If you are into the found footage films, here’s another one kind of. A lot of shaky camerawork and plotlines collide in this low-budget horror adventure set in the Paris catacombs—too claustrophobic for me.

The film is from brothers John Erick Dowdle, Director and co-writer with Drew Dowdle and starring Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, and Edwin Hodge.

Mario Moreno and His Alter Genius “Cantinflas”

Óscar Jaenada and Ilse Salas ©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

Óscar Jaenada and Ilse Salas
©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

It is always hard to do a biopic–to tell the story of a whole life in less than two hours, especially when that life is as prolific and productive as Mexican comedian/producer/writer/singer Mario Moreno aka “Cantinflas.” His career spanned decades, from the late Thirties to the Sixties.

Mario Moreno aka Cantinflas

Mario Moreno aka Cantinflas

In the mid-Fifties, when Moreno was a well-known comedian all over Latin America and Europe, producer Mike Todd approached him to be part of his film Around the World in Eighty Days. The film Cantinflas coversthat part of Moreno’s career and gives us a glimpse of what a shrewd businessman he was. It also gives us a little background of how he met the love of his life, Valentina and some of their ups and downs.

cantinflas poster150 Moreno was able to create a beloved character “Cantinflas,” who had a way of using words with double entendres of nothing (Cantinflear in Spanish dictionary). And he managed to become a multi-millionaire, philanthropist and activist. And this film does a great job at bringing all of that to life.

So, my chatos, sit back and enjoy this interview with actors Óscar Jaenada (Cantinflas) and Ilse Salas (Valentina) of Cantinflas. Also starring Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and directed by Sebastian Del Amo.

In theaters Friday, August 29.

Conversations with the Bichir Brothers About “The Bridge”

The BridgeA few weeks back we had the opportunity to visit the set of The Bridge and talked with one of its stars, academy award nominee Demián Bichir and his brother—actor Bruno Bichir who plays a mysterious businessman in the new season—which is halfway through already.

Demián Bichir ©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

Demián Bichir
©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

Demián talked about some of his previous roles and that sometimes you mourn some characters after they are done. Then we moved on to the new season of The Bridge and his character of Marco Ruiz. Which he feels is very Shakespearean, like Hamlet and that this season is much darker, more psychological than a regular police procedural show.

About his brother Bruno, he’s worked with him many times—by directing theater shows and acting in them, plus doing many films in Mexico and working abroad. It is the first time they have done television and especially here in the U.S.

Bruno Bichir ©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

Bruno Bichir
©2014 Angela María Ortíz S.

He said it is such a pleasure to have his brother close by; they can go eat together, have a few Tequilas or just hangout with each other.

After Demián left the room, Bruno came in and greeted everyone with a handshake and a kiss. He had us laughing from the time we started talking, even though he got serious a few times.

Both brothers are very passionate about being involved in making changes where they see injustice. They blame their parents for raising them with so much awareness. And they feel strongly that the U.S. and Mexico are destine to work together…

Now sit back and enjoy the videos below.

The Reboot of “Rosemary’s Baby” is on DVD…and It Has Problems

Zoë Saldaña as Rosemary Woodhouse

Zoë Saldaña
as Rosemary Woodhouse

Zoë Saldaña co-produced and starred in the recent remake/reinvention of the horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, but the new version makes some very odd and uncomfortable changes.

rosemary's baby1968-150

Rosemary’s Baby150

Zoë Saldaña is an amazingly talented woman, and she’s often talked about how happy she is to be a role model and shining example of strong women, strong women of color, and a proud Latina. That’s why her involvement—as a producer and star—of NBC’s recent remake of Rosemary’s Baby is so puzzling.

The two-part mini-series is available here DVD. It’s clearly based as much on the lasting impression that Roman Polanski’s1968 version left behind as the Ira Levin best-seller that served as the original source material. And it seems obvious that Hollywood’s hunger for “known” names and franchises led them toRosemary, even though the Polanski film is more than 45 years old and the book itself had been out of print for years prior to this revival.

Given that name recognition, you’d think the producers would stick as close as possible to the original book or movie. Instead, they chose to make some significant changes that make the new film oddly uninvolving and even a little uncomfortable to watch.

Ruth Gordon in the original Rosemary’s Baby

Ruth Gordon
in the original Rosemary’s Baby

Here are just a few of the questions that the new Rosemary’s Baby stirs up:

The story moves from New York City to Paris. The City of New York c. 1968 was one of the great “characters” of Polanski’s original. The people looked real; the ‘villains’ of the piece, played by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, look like the dotty couple that live above you in the co-op; Ralph Bellamy and Elisha Cook Jr. and even Charles Grodin lend a sense of reality and eccentricity to the piece. But in the new version—and inexplicably—the action is moved to Paris; the diabolical Castevets are played as younger and far more sophisticated and beautiful Europeans by Jason Isaacs of Awake and Harry Potter and relatively unknown (to America) French actress Carole Bouquet.They are beautiful and sleek…and completely unmemorable.

Patrick J. Adams and Zoë Saldaña

Patrick J. Adams and Zoë Saldaña

The story itself is transformed by putting a woman of color in the center of a painfully white world. Basically, we’re looking at the truly uncomfortable story of a black woman who is roofied and date-raped by a blue-eyed devil (literally), who is helped by her (white) husband, bullied by (white) friends and (white) foes alike, and ultimately becomes the lifelong (black) slave to her white-devil baby. And yet there’s virtually no mention of this uncomfortable racial component at all. Even the impregnation is played differently in the original, Mia Farrow’s Rosemary was almost entirely unaware of the oddness of her impregnation; in Saldaña’s version, she is clearly drugged and semiconscious during her rape, where she sees visions of her husband, Castevet, and the blue-eyed devil during the act. Having her aware and then immediately, conveniently amnesiac after the ugly act says something entirely different in 2014 than it did in 1968. It turns it from dark seduction by a never-seen Satan into, well rape. Read the rest of this entry »

Four in Theaters to Check Out

If_I_Stay200Sometimes there are so many releases it’s hard to choose the best, but here are some good ones: the surprising if i Stay, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, for the trekkers and non-Trekkers alike: To Be Takei and a sweet love story in Love is Strange. —Angela Ortíz

Sin_City-_A_Dame_to_Kill_For200

if i Stay
Gayle Forman’s best-selling novel comes to the screen. It could have been a sappy tearjerker, but it wasn’t–at least not for me. I really enjoyed the film for what it was; young romance, parenting, life, death and humor. There’s some good acting by the very talented Chloë Grace Moretz and British actor Jamie Blackley as the young lovers. The rest of the cast include Mireille Enos, Joshua Leonard, Liana Liberato, Aisha Hinds, and Stacy Keach.

To_Be_Takei-200

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Co-directed with Robert Rodriguez, Sin City is back with all the stylized graphics you would expect from the first one. The four stories that intertwine through the film work nearly seamlessly, and they all feature familiar characters from the original Sin City and many new ones. There’s some good acting by actors who did all their scenes against a green screen, and they have some of the coolest posters around. The large cast includes  Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Powers Boothe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Martin Csokas, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Chung, Jamie King, Alexa Vega, Julia Garner, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Christopher Lloyd, Stacy Keach, and Jude Ciccolella.

Love is Strange200

To Be Takei
This documentary about the 76-year-old actor/activist George Takei is a moving look at the many roles played by the actor who has become an internationally beloved figure. The day-to-day life of George and his husband/business partner Brad Takei reveals George’s fascinating personal journey, from his childhood in a Japanese American internment camp, to his iconic and groundbreaking role as Sulu on Star Trek. Included in the documentary are some of his old friends and new, like William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Dan Savage, Walter Koenig, and Howard Stern, who opens the film. Takei is someone to watch. With a large following (he even has six million Facebook Likes) and a personality to match,  this film will show every fan, trekkers and non-trekkers alike, what it truly means To Be Takei.

Love is Strange
Is filmmaker Ira Sachs’ critically acclaimed gay romantic drama starring Alfred Molina and John Lithgow as the longtime partners (40+ years) who finally tie the knot in a lower Manhattan ceremony. But when Molina’s character (George) loses his job, the couple must sell their apartment. And that’s when their dynamics change—they end up having to live separately with friends and family.Also starring Marisa Tomei, Manny Perez, Cheyenne Jackson, and Darren Burrows. In limited release (Los Angeles and New York.)


More Fun with “Guardians of the Galaxy” A Dancing Groot

Dancing GrootGuardians of the Galaxy has been breakin all kinds of box-office records, even having the first soundtrack in history without any original songs to land in the Number 1 Spot. Watch the video with a dancing Groot!

Jessica Alba Talks Up “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”

Sin-City-A-Dame-to-Kill-For-teaser-posterJessica Alba had a lively chat with Sam Rubin on the KTLA Morning News. She talked about being a different person than she was from the first Sin City—And how she got to go crazy. Watch the video below.

AmbulanteCA Back in Los Angeles this Fall

We came across this video about Ambulante’s first event in Los Angeles a few months ago. We talked about Ambulante and Pablo Cruz back then and you can check it out here. Enjoy the video.

Some Very Boozy Open-and-Shut Notes on “Under the Dome,” Season 2 Episode 7

Under the DomeReposted from our friends over on Amityville Now

Remember our drinking game? New character, take a drink. New power for the Dome, take a drink. 180-degree character reversal, take a drink. Well, be prepared to get falling-down drunk this week, because all bets are off, baby. Or rather, Barbie, with more new characters, subplots, questions, and reversals than ever before…and not an answer or resolution to be seen.

Up front note: This episode’s pretty much all about Barbie, so let’s start with him; he’s looking pretty jacked up from all the fist fights and gun battles. If he keeps getting beaten at this rate, he’s going to be nothing but a moist little wad of flesh by the end of Season 2.

Don’t know if this deserves a drink or not, but notice how former psycho-killer kidnapper Junior is now just one of the Scoobies again. Yeah, the Scoobie with a gun.

We had this whole screed about how stupid it was for Barbie to go look for Sam’s body, but…screw it, it doesn’t matter. It was just a plot device, like everything else this week.

Mike Vogel as Dale “Barbie” Barbara

Mike Vogel as Dale “Barbie” Barbara

Domeland is really just a lazy writer’s paradise: Lexi Luthor, who does little but look concerned and/or scared this week, examines the bottomless pit and says “How is it possible?” Barbie spills the beans: “The same way the dome’s possible,” he says…meaning ANYthing can happen, ANY time! Crap, the world of Adventure Time makes more internal sense that this damn thing.

Julia screams good!

“How could my own uncle murder Angie?” says the son of the town’s insane tin Hitler, who stalked, kidnapped, and imprisoned the same girl? Yeah, how?

Hey, dude! That’s not a tower! That’s an obelisk. And it’s in Zenith, which is not only Amnesia Girl’s hometown, but Barbie’s hometown. Which must man something. Mustn’t it? Because, like, one of our staffers was born in the same town as Brad Pitt, so…that means something. Right? Read the rest of this entry »

Four to Check Out in Theaters Friday

Into_the_Storm_150There are lots of releases for this Friday, but only four caught my attention: the Twister-like Into the Storm, a reboot ofTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that will surprise some, a feast of cuisines in The Hundred-Foot Journey, and a thriller with Paula Garces aka Aluna, The Maid’s Room, that’s more than its title. Something new and hopefully some surprises! —Angela Ortíz

Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles150

Into the Storm
Yes, I know: Twister! But you know, while I watched the movie I didn’t think of Twister. The events in this film take place in one day in a small town that is hit by an onslaught of tornadoes. Screenwriter John Swetnam told us that the events are based on real ones, just really amped up for the film.

It’s a really good cast, like the dwarf king in the Hobbit trilogy Richard Armitage, The Walking Dead’s Sarah Wayne Callies, Veep’s Matt Walsh, Nathan Kress from Nickelodeon’s iCarly, Final Destination’s Arlen Escarpeta, Max Deacon, Friday Nights Lights’ Jeremy Sumpter, wonderful character actor Kyle Davis, Eastbound & Down’s Jon Reep, relative newcomer Alycia Debnam-Carey, and character actor Scott Lawrence.

The_Hundred-Foot_Journey150Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I have to admit, I didn’t expect much from this film. Reboots usually disappoint or take such a different turn you don’t recognize the original story. This TMNT still has the same sensibility just hyped-up. It’s entertaining and will hold the newcomers to the TMNT world, though I know some TMNT purists might have some things to pick on. It has a decent cast in Will Arnett, Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Johnny Knoxville, Noel Fisher, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Howard, and Tony Shalhoub.

The_Maids_Room150

The Hundred-Foot Journey
Producers Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey have given us a movie about cultures and cuisines. It all takes place in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France, and makes me reminisce about 1987’s Babette’s Feast. And you can’t go too wrong with Helen Mirren in the cast, along with Manish Dayal, Om Puri, and Charlotte Le Bon.

The Maid’s Room
This thriller seems to give the viewer much more than its title would indicate. The plot summary: “a Hitchcockian thriller that explores the escalating tension between a Latina maid and the entitled, morally bankrupt family for whom she works.” Lets hope it lives up to the Hitchcock name. It stars Paula Garces in the lead, Annabella Sciorra, Bill Camp, and Philip Ettinger. Andyou can find out more on Garces here.

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