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LOCKED Is Intense and Entertaining A talk with the Director

We caught up with the director of LOCKED David Yarovesky (Brightburn, Nightbooks), just before we screened the film with no spoilers. The film took nineteen days to shoot. Watch our quick interview. Synopsis: No escape. No …

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At a Screening of Dog Man the Movie

It was an enjoyable screening with two of the grandsons. The five year old said it was happy and sad at the same time. And he loved it! The twelve year old who has read …

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Unstoppable Streaming on Prime Video

Unstoppable is the inspiring true story of Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) who was born with one leg but whose indomitable spirit and unbreakable resolve empowered him to defy the odds and pursue his dreams. With the …

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 The Speed to the BoxOffice

“Sonic 3 will beat out Mufasa, for sure!” — JimmityCritic (12) Sonic the Hedgehog 3, what a fun evening with the grandkids it was. When you have a 12, 10 and 5 year-old clap their hands at the end …

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Mufasa: The Lion King the Prequel

Mufasa: The Lion King was entertaining and the production value was amazing to watch. Set in Africa, all-new film blends live-action filmmaking techniques with photoreal computer-generated imagery.  My 12 year-old grandson thought it was one …

LOCKED Is Intense and Entertaining A talk with the DirectorAt a Screening of Dog Man the MovieUnstoppable Streaming on Prime VideoSonic the Hedgehog 3 The Speed to the BoxOfficeMufasa: The Lion King the Prequel

Latinos in Theatres, 2011: One Last Look Back

Everybody does lists. Everybody does scorecards. Why should Se Fija! be any different? But we did try to put a little meat on the bone, offer a little context with the pretext, in our list of pretty much every film released in 2011 that prominently featured a Latino in front of the camera or in the director or writer’s chair. It’s as comprehensive as we could make it, but we expect your corrections and additions. After all, the greatest sport of all is to look at somebody else’s “definitive” list of just about anything and point out every ridiculously obvious omission or misstatement.

So have at it.  Enjoy. The way WE see it…

2011 was a pretty healthy year for Latinos in film. Not nearly as many directors or writers as one could hope for, and an extremely thin winter after a halfway decent summer. But all in all, there are some real gems and relatively few embarrassments from Jan to Dec ’1. Let’s take it month by month:

January: 2 out of 11
Edward James Olmos was one of the bad guys in Seth Rogan’s already forgotten (and that’s for the best) super-hero flop, Green Hornet. Much more affectionately remembered are Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega, Wilmer Valderrama, Adriana Barraza, Kuno Becker and other Latino actors in From Prada to Nada, which received its woefully limited theatrical release in January (though you can get it on DVD now, and watch it “instantly” if you’re a Netflix subscriber.)

February: 2 out of 17
A very light month for film in general and Latinos in particular. Even the Rain was a quiet little independent with Luis Tosar, Gael Garcia Bernal, Juan Carlos Aduviri and others that premiered in February ’11; the equally unseen eerie-horror-movie Vanishing on 7th Street starred, among others like Hayden Christiansen (hey, remember him?), John Leguizamo.

March: 4 of 35
March roared in like a lion (well, maybe a lion cub) with a range of Latino-involved movies big and small.  There was the popular animated feature Rango with Alfred Molina’s voice, and the more notorious comedy Electra Luxx about a trying-to-retire porn star, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and starring his wife Carla Gugino. It also features, among many other up-and-coming stars, a truly hilarious turn from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a very intense young Latino filmmaker (and no, he’s not Latino, but watch him anyway. Classic.) Elsewhere in the month, Hollywood went big with Michael Peña, Michelle Rodriguez, and Ramon Rodriguez in the alien invasion remix Battle: Los Angeles and classy with Michael Peña in Matthew McConaughey’s The Lincoln Lawyer, neither of which made much of a splash.

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Welcome back (again): Miguel Ferrer joins “NCIS: Los Angeles”

CBS started promoting the new arrival with the New Year’s parades. Miguel Ferrer, once the tough-guy boss on Crossing Jordan, then the tough-guy boss (or cop or agent) on one show after another, just finished up an arc on Desperate Housewives…and now he is “joining the cast” on CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles, possibly for the rest of the season.

As we said back in September when the DH arc was announced, Miguel is more than just a familiar face. He is surrounded by legends. It’s actually genetic: his father was Jose Ferrer, the first Latino actor to win an Academy Award (for The Caine Mutiny). His mother was the equally legendary singer Rosemary Clooney, and Miguel toured with her and Bing Crosby when he was a boy (in fact, he didn’t start taking acting seriously until after Crosby died.) George Clooney is his cousin. So is Carlos Campo, the first Hispanic president of Regent University. He’s bandmates with Bill (Lost in Space) Mumy. Debby (You Light Up My Life) Boone is his sister-in-law.

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Amaury Nolasco’s “Work It” Disappoints Critics and Viewers

Work It Amaury Nolasco’s new sitcom on ABC, has had a rough road already. The cross-dressing comedy has already generated protests from a wide range of LGBT and feminist groups for its portrayal of women (of all types) in the workplace–and that was before its premiere. Now that the first episode has made it to the air (Tuesdays at 8:00), at least two other groups are equally unhappy: the critics and the viewers.

A solid 80% of the media critics who reviewed the January 3 premiere were not happy with what they saw. James Poniewozik of Time said Work It is “bad dumb, memorably bad dumb, the kind of bad dumb show you will use in years to come as a benchmark for other bad sitcoms.” David Hinckley of the New York Daily News said the show “lumbers like a 200-pound man trying to impersonate a 95-pound ballerina,” and Robert Bianco of USA Today said it for everyone else: “Work It is dreadful almost beyond comprehension: witless, tasteless, poorly acted, abominably written, clumsily directed, hideously lit and badly costumed.” All in all almost 80% of the post-debut reviews were bad, and even the remaining 1 out of 5 damned the show with faint praise, along the lines of “It’s not as bad as we expected.” You can judge for yourself; it’s available on Hulu and at abc.com. Read the rest of this entry »

TV 2012: 8 New or Long-Absent Mid-Season Shows feature Latinos (Part II, Thursday –Sunday)

We’ve already covered the first half of the weekly schedule for the new mid-season, but there’s a whole lot happening from Thursday to Sunday as well…

THURSDAYS: Rob comes to CBS
NBC’s got Aubrey Plaza on Parks and Recreation and Oscar Nuñez in The Office, both back in January; ABC’s returning with Sara Ramirez in Grey’s Anatomy and sticking with newcomer Benjamin Bratt in Private Practice, while the CW’s bringing in new episodes of Vampire Diaries and Michael Trevino this month, too…but the big news is CBS’ premiere of ¡Rob!, the Rob Schneider show with the big Latino family (Claudia Bassols, Cheech Marin, Diana Maria Riva, Eugenio Derbez and Lupe Ontiveros) showing up January 12 at 8:30P.

FRIDAYS: The last of Chuck
Friday nights are basically devoid of Latino content up or down the dial. The only show with a Latino in the regular cast is Chuck with Josh Gomez, and we’ll be seeing the last of that show by the end of the month. Meanwhile, Monica Raymund’s arc on Friday’ Blue Bloods has ended…but keep reading…

SATURDAYS: VicTORIous and…uh…
Generally speaking, Saturday has become a No Man’s Land for original programming for any network, though it has become a good place to catch the most recent episode of favorite shows you may have missed that week, from Castle to Harry’s Law to almost anything on Pay Cable. The only original news is the return of Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande in Nickelodeon’s VicTORIous, with new programs beginning January 28. Read the rest of this entry »

One Scary-Romantic Tuesday: Latinos in Thrillers and Romantic Comedies, Good and Bad, on DVD this Week

If you like your Latino entertainers in peril or in love…this week’s DVD releases are right up your (dark and/or dreamy) alley. Check out:

Monique Gabriela Curnen is part of the big, interstellar cast (Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, etc. etc.) in last year’s truly terrifying “outbreak” movie, Contagion. You’ll recognize Monique as part of the cast from last year’s Lie to Me and a recurring forensic-type on this year’s CSI.

Guillermo del Toro is technically just the co-producer and screenwriter on last year’s very scary Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, but his name was bigger than the director’s on the poster, and his influence as advisor/overseer/visionary is all over this moody, beautiful, slightly disturbing about not-very-nice fairies.

What does Sarah Shahi do between seasons of her USA Network series? Makes movies like I Don’t Know How She Does It, a comedy with a number of highly visible stars, like Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, and Christina Hendricks that came and went last year without a peep.

Beautiful young Alyssa Diaz has been working her way up the ladder for a few years now, especially with her supporting role in The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Now it’s time for the obligatory horror movie, and she has a doozy: Shark Night 3D, now available on DVD. The title says it all, but Alyssa’s just getting started. Watch for much more of her in 2012, including roles in the remake of the cult favorite Red Dawn. Read the rest of this entry »

CNN’s new morning shows feature two talented Latinas

Soledad O’Brien returns to morning news hosting Starting Point; WMAQ’s Zoraida Sambolin co-anchors the 5A–7A news block

Soledad O’Brien has been one of the few Latinas on the national news scene for quite a while now. Despite her relatively young age (45), she has already made a memorable mark in morning news, with a number of years associated with NBC’s weekday and weekend Today programs, CNN’s American Morning from 2003 to 2007 and various CNN programs; over the last couple of years, she hosted CNN’s highly visible Black in America and Latino in America programs in 2007 and 2009.

And now, finally, she’s back as the host of a weekday morning show of her own–Starting Point, a two-hour package on CNN that runs Monday through Friday, 7P to 9P. The premiere episode was January 2, following the 5A debut of Early Start, where Chicago’s Zoraida Sambolin and Ashleigh Banfield offer the news at daybreak. Read the rest of this entry »

Ratings weirdness: “Psych” & “The Glades” are top timeshifters; “Desperate Housewives,” “Chuck,” “Revenge” among the most “engaging”

Reading the ratings ain’t as simple as it used to be. In the old days, it was easy: a given program broadcast one time only; the nets used Nielsen boxes, diaries, and phone calls to measure how many people were watching that particular show at that particular time vs. the other shows on at that moment, and…, you knew your ratings and your share. Badda-boom.

Today, however, that same show may be broadcast two or more times within the same week–sometimes twice in a row. It may be digitally recorded on TiVo/DVR and watched at some future moment, or caught the next day on Hulu or the network’s web site, or picked up for a couple of bucks on iTunes and only some of those media may accommodate advertisers.

All in all, then, how ‘popular’ a show might be is far more difficult to know…and its popularity may or may not have a bearing on its financial success.

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It’s A New Year!

Latino Talents who left us in 2011

These articles are not easy ones to write and we can never include everyone who has passed. But we wanted to acknowledge a few for their talents they shared with us.

Pedro Armendáriz Jr., well-known character actor, dies at 71
The Mexican born character actor was known quite well here in the U.S.A. as well as back home in Mexico. He acted in more than 100 films, like Old Gringo, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Legend of Zorro, and The Crime of Father Amaro, just to mention a few. His father Armendariz Sr. was part of the “golden age” of Mexican films in the 1940s and 50s. And he also acted with John Wayne and Sean Connery in From Russia with Love.

 

 

 

 

Joe Arroyo, Colombian Salsero Great, dies at 55
He was a true salsa star and composer. Arroyo rose to prominence during the Colombian salsa explosion of the 1970s. Alvaro José Arroyo, died the morning of July 26 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Check out some of Joe’s work here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gil Bernal, Tenor Sax Great, dies at 80
Gil was a local boy, born in Watts in 1931. A Los Angeles jazz musician, who began his career working with the likes of Lionel Hampton in 1950, played and collaborated with everyone from Ray Charles to Quincy Jones. He had his own jazz combo with trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelley Manne during the 50s. Along with being a sax player, he was also quite a singer.

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TV 2012: 8 New or Long-Absent Mid-Season Shows feature Latinos (Part I, Monday–Wednesday)

It brings the total on the nets to 30, with some major premiers and returns on free and pay cable, too

It’s a pretty interesting landscape. Let’s take a look at the first three days alone…

MONDAYS: Alcatraz and Smash join in, The Voice returns
Castle with John Huertas and House with Odette Anable return in January, along with NBC’s one and only hit, The Voice, featuring Christina Aguilera as one of the singing coaches (and it’s worth noting that two of the four finalist, including the big winner, in Season 1 were Latinos). And on February 6, Smash premieres with Jaime Cepero. Just down the dial, Fox is making some major moves–finally–adding Alcatraz with Lost’s Jorge Garcia and Santiago Cabrera to its line-up. You’ll find them at 9P beginning January 16, Further down most people’s dials, you’ll also find Tatyana Ali and Mark Adair Rios on TV One’s Love That Girl, Mondays.

TUESDAYS: Work It and The River join ABC; Switched at Birth and Breaking In Return

Tuesday’s a big day for Latinos already, with Glee and Naya Rivera, NCIS with Cote de Pablo, Parenthood with Sarah Ramos, 90210 with Michael Steger and Tristan Wilds and Ringer with Nestor Carbonell both on CW. But things are growing even more. We all have our doubts about Work It, which looks like a pretty awful retread of Bosom Buddies from decades (and a world) gone by…but Amaury Nolasco will be front and center starting January 3, right after Hector Elizondo returns with Tim Allen on Last Man Standing. Right after that, Walter Perez, Daniel Zacapa and Paulina Gaitan seem to be part of the ensemble cast of The River, which–considering it’s about a trip down the Amazon River–will probably include a fair number of Latinos as the voyage continues. Meanwhile Fox is giving Odette Anable her second season in a row with the return of Christian Slater’s Breaking In. And farther down the dial, Constance Marie returns with new episodes of Switched at Birth beginning at 8P on January 3. BET is offering new episodes of Reed Between the Lines with Melissa de Souza at 10P on Tuesdays, and Southland is also returning to 10P on TNT on January 17, but it’s not clear what the Latino contingent might be. Read the rest of this entry »

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