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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

Down but not out: Latinos on TV at year’s end

Just a few months ago, the four networks–ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC–rolled out an impressive total of 23 scripted shows with Latinos in the lead or supporting cast. NBC led the way with ten programs, both dramas and comedies, that had a significant Latino presence; ABC provided a strong second with eight; while FOX and CBS had only three each–a particularly poor showing for CBS, a network that programs three hours a night compared to FOX’s two hours.

Well, the networks give and the networks taketh away. A significant number of those new series have already been cancelled or are ‘on hiatus’–meaning they won’t be back after the Christmas break, even if they haven’t officially been cut. We’re ending the year with 18 shows still on the air (though a couple are in their final season)…and at least a quartet of new Latino entries just a few weeks away.

Let’s take a look at the nets and see what’s up and what’s down:

NBC: Three shows and two arcs are gone; six series remain
In the fall, NBC had at least one program featuring Latinos from Monday to Friday, and a couple of nights where a Latino appeared in almost every scripted show of the evening. However…

Eddie Cibrian and The Playboy Club was one of the first to go. Not long after, Al Madrigal and Free Agents disappeared and almost no one noticed. Most recently, Kirk Acevedo and Elizabeth Rodriguez, along with Maria Bello and a stellar cast, just couldn’t make Prime Suspect work; its last new episode just came and went. A couple of arcs finished in the fall, too–Alfred Molina’s amazing turn on Harry’s Law completed (though Karen Olivo remains), and Mel Rodriguez’ security character drifted off Community (which, in turn, has been bumped into the unknown as well). So as we tiptoe into 2012:

  • Aubrey Plaza is still part of the Parks & Recreation ensemble
  • Oscar Nuñez is still holding down a desk in The Office
  • Josh Gomez has never been better that he’s been on Chuck this year…for one more season
  • Karen Olivo continues on the ailing but brave Harry’s Law
  • Sarah Ramos is still mothering everybody on Parenthood
  • Danny Pino is a new but an important part of Law & Order: SVU Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Posey: Child Start to Teen Heartthrob to New Year’s Host to…?

Ten years ago. Jennifer Lopez made a movie called Maid in Manhattan that helped to turn her career around…and jump-started the career of an impossibly cute little kid named Tyler Posey. Today, at 19, Tyler is a werewolf on MTV and the host of the YouthNet’s New Year’s Eve Special, alongside another Latina sensation, Demi Lovato. He even admits he’s done more than a thousand push-ups to get his already legendary body into even more legendary shape, so–if circumstances require–he can take his shirt off at the drop of a New Year’s ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Al Madrigal has had an…interesting year

Comedian Al Madrigal is no newcomer; he’s been a successful standup comic for years, and he’s good at it. But 2011 seemed poised to be his ‘breakout’ year; over the summer he started showing up regularly as the first Latino ‘report’ on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart over on Comedy Central, and he had a prominent supporting role in a new NBC sitcom, Free Agents. He’s still associated with The Daily Show–we saw him in the “Year in Review” just last week–and we’re hoping his move to New York means we’ll see much more of him on the fake news – but Free Agents only distinction was being one of the first new shows of the season to be cancelled, before anyone noticed Al at all.

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From All of Us at Se Fija!—Enjoy!

Vote for Efren: Pedro returns, animatedly, in “Napoleon Dynamite” on FOX

It was weird the first time in 2004, and it hasn’t gotten any less weird since…but the odd couple of Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez are returning with the all-new adventures of Napoleon Dynamite…only now they’re animated.

On Sunday, January 15, the first two episodes of Napoleon Dynamite’s animated adventures will premiere on FOX and virtually the entire cast from seven years ago have returned to delight and baffle us yet again.

Not that Ramirez or any of the rest of the cast have gone into hibernation since ’04. Efren was a regular on Eastbound and Down down for a while; he was in Nacho Libre with Jack Black (directed by the same guy who directed Napoleon, and who’s involved with the new animated version), and even did a couple of action pictures, Crank and Crank 2, with Jason Statham. And he’s in Will Ferrell’s upcoming oddness, Casa de mi Padre. Overall, Efren’s movies have made more than $40 million–not bad for a 28-year-old from L.A.

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“Latina” names names: a badass slide show

We love Latina Magazine. They do some of the best interviews, long and short, in both print and online, and their slide shows—whatever the subject might be—regularly rock.

Here’s a great one that just showed up at www.latina.com: “The Five Biggest Latina TV Badasses, 2011.” We couldn’t agree more…and it’s especially appropriate with the recent news of How to Make It in America’s cancellation. Just click on the picture and enjoy the show…

Victor, Edgar, Luis and the rest are shown the door: HBO cancels “How To Make It In America”

Two seasons is all that HBO’s giving to How To Make It In America. The pay-cable net has just cancelled the show, along with two others–Hung and Bored to Death. They still have a number of hit shows, including Game of Throne, Treme, and Boardwalk Empire, and they have high hopes for their upcoming horse racing series Luck, with John Ortiz and Dustin Hoffman, but the cancellation of How To…does have a serious impact on the number of Latino actors working for HBO. Read the rest of this entry »

¡Q’VIVA! THE CHOSEN, the Jennifer Lopez/Marc Anthony, Jamie King Latino talent search, gets a date: January 28 on Univision

…with more dates and more networks to come. Can an English-language network be waiting in the wings?

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have been talking about ¡Q’Viva! for months now…but it’s never been entirely clear what they’re up to. Looks like all our questions will be answered on January 28, when Univision (and probably others) debut the first episode of ¡Q’VIVA! The Chosen…and chances are other networks will be carrying it as well. They’ve been working the social networks just as heavily, with a lot of traffic on their YouTube channel and their Facebook account.

All together, there will be twelve one-hour episodes every Saturday at 7 pm. Televisa in Mexico and Caracol in Colombia have already signed on as well, and the producers promise an “English-language U.S. broadcaster” will soon be announced.

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John Ortiz: A familiar face on the “A” list

John Ortiz has one of those faces. If you ran into him on the street, you’d say, “I know that actor; he was in American Gangster, (or Fast and Furious, or Public Enemies or any of a dozen recent TV shows, from Law & Order to Medium)”…but you probably wouldn’t be able to call up his name.

The fact is, Ortiz started high up the ladders, with Al Pacino (and John Leguizamo and Luis Guzmán) in Carlito’s Way almost twenty years ago, then moved on to work with Mel Gibson and director Ron Howard in Ransom, a couple of years later, and has a long string of “A” list projects in major movies, independent films, and high-quality TV, that’s continued to arc upward to his current accomplishment: being a key player in HBO’s new series Luck, working alongside Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. And he’s been a colleague, friend and business partner of Phillip Seymour Hoffman for most of his professional life; together they founded the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York that still produces plays today, and he co-starred in Hoffman’s directorial debut, Jack Goes Fishing, which garnered him a host of award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor from the Independent Spirit Awards in 2011.

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Latina at Twilight: Mia Maestro

Argentine-born Mia Maestro has been a presence in American film and television for over a decade. Most people probably noticed her first in Motorcycle Diaries, or a few years later when she became a regular on the cult-hit ABC spy drama Alias.

What most folks don’t know is that Mia is a classically trained vocalist (in fact, she left Argentina for Berlin at the tender age of 18 to study singing). So they were surprised by two things recently–Mia showing up as Carmen of the Denali Clan in the latest installment of the teen-dream vampire romance Twilight: Breaking Dawn. (You can’t blame her; how often does one get the chance to play a Spanish vegetarian vampire who lives in Alaska, and is a cousin of the most famous vampire of the decade?)… Read the rest of this entry »

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