Review by Lucia Santiago Dantes

Date of  Release: May 18

Loosely based on the homonymous book originally published  back in 1984 the film opens closely after Mother’s Day. The film takes the expectations that the author as many other first time mothers and fathers would deal with in the eyes of several couples. fitness guru Jules (Cameron Diaz) and dance star Evan (Matthew Morrison) are the power couple of fame and fortune who didn’t expect to get pregnant but alas, now Jules has to struggle to made some adjustments in her life that sometimes is not as easy as she thought it would be.

Wendy(Elizabeth Banks) and Gary(Ben Falcone) are the sweetest couple. Wendy has a little baby store and a baby book writer. Both Gary and Wendy had tried for years to have a baby without success until the moment arrives and their entire world changes  as she gets all the maladies a pregnant woman could have. On top of that, both have to deal with Skyler (Brooklyn Decker) and Ramsey(Dennis Quaid); another power couple directly related to them as Ramsey is Gary’s father and former NASCAR superstar. While Wendy deals with Skyler’s unbelievable easy pregnancy, Gary has to deal with daddy issues and insecurities haunting him from the past.

Holly (Jennifer Lopez) and  Alex(Rodrigo Santoro) are the most interesting couple as they’re both a young couple who simply can’t have children on their own and the process of adoption has just begun. Alex is having issues about himself as a father. Is he prepared? As his own insecurities and questions rise up, Holly sets up a meeting with a bunch of guys who have a sort of Fight Club for parents (or at least they’d like to think their group is like that) Vic (Chris Rock), Gabe (Rob Huebel), Patel (Amir Talai) and Craig (Tom Lennon) share their experience with  Alex.

They share with Alex the reality of what’s going on with early parenthood on a guy’s point of view.

Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco(Chace Crwford) are the youngest “couple”. As a  result of a night fling Rosie and Marco has to deal with parenting issues while they’re still so young to start a family. None of them know how to do.

The films is ok but fails to create enough drama. Too many characters is not an ideal situation but even less when there’s not much going on but just having a baby. Pretty much a universal issue that somehow is exposed too trivial in the film. Maybe is good for a sunday movie at home but if you’re single or a teenager you’ll probably flip the channel, and that’s antoher thing to consider a fail: is too specialized. It’s not like Who’s talking? (with Kristie Alley and John Travolta) which despite it was a pregnancy movie it was mostly a great comedy fick. It was more forgiving to watch a pregnant lady because of all the fun you have with the characters.While in “What to expect… there’s simply to melodramtic issues and too little time solve all of them.

Review by Lucia Santiago Dantés

It’s been 2 years since the last Tim Burton’s movie but we all await for his new films like a kid waiting to be taken to the candy store. And that’s precisely why we all love so much Burton’s flicks: his movies are not only eye candy but  his flamboyant/weird/extravagant/gothic but exquisite way of getting us into the worlds he creates is part of his charm.

Dark Shadows it’s no exception. The film is based on a gothic  soup opera of the same name  aired by ABC  during the mid sixties and ending up at the beginning of the seventies. A gothic story turned into a funky adventure of vampires, witches and ghosts mixed with the seventies style is just another creation of Tim Burton  to the already long list of super freak but cool movies Burton achieves with his trademark style.

Love and hate, redemption and revenge are part of the plots awaiting to be discovered on Dark Shadows.
The story follows Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) who is turned into a vampire when a desdained witch can’t accept the fact that Barnabus is not in love with her but young Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) after losing his father and his fiancee, Barnabas decides to end his life too, just to find out in the last minute he is turned into a vampire by Angelique (Eva Green) the scorned witch. Many years later, Barnabas comes back to the house where he used to live, to find out his relative’s descendants live there. He soon finds out that angelique is still alive and possibly the cause of the family’s business ruin. Barnabas is set up to investigate what happened with the family name, restore it and move on with his life.

Although it’s a simple gothic story, the eye candy and quirky but lovable characters makes the movie entertaining and make the simple plot forgivable. The mise en scéne is one of the best achievements in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows (as usually), as well as the make up and wardrobe. A great ensemble of casting is another reason to watch the movie, as his full troupe is there plus new additions that I hope arrived to stay like Chloe Moretz (better known for Hit Girl in the movie Kick Ass) who is also amazing in this movie and with some good tricks á la Tim Burton style.

Also in this movie, a special performance by Alice Cooper.

Impossible to miss if you’re a Tim Burton’s Fan.

Jack White’s new solo album Blunderbuss

Whj

Jack White released his new album “Blunderbuss” on April 24th, but his second single video “Sixteen Saltines” already has almost 3 million hits since its release earlier this month (April 5th). The new Album is more White and less stripes although it’s hard to avoid noticing that as an artists and human being he is still digesting his past 2 relationships and  divorces, as you can appreciate on the lyrics’ songs. The musical style still sounds seventies just pure rock. It is very refreshing to see great rock musicians like Jack White back with a new album, after all that pop crap frequently played on the radio, tv and bars.

Although the album was just released. His first single  ”Love Interruption” was released earlier this year  (January 30, 2012) Here’s the video

The Academy Awards posted their final list of potential winners for the 84^th award show due on February 26^th. Known as the Oscars to the rest of the world, the biggest surprise is the movies that are missing from the nominations list, particularly The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for Best Picture.

Even if you’ve spent the past three years on a Mediterranean cruise you will have heard of the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, the author who wrote three books in a trilogy called the Millennium Series. The first of those crime fiction novels, called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, hit the shelves in 2005. It was turned into a movie, in Swedish, in 2009 and Hollywood issued its own version late in 2011, with the other two books in the set finding their way to Hollywood in 2012 and 2013.

There is a good chance that you will have read at least one, if not all three of the books in either hardback, paperback or via a recent eBook purchase. You will be one of 65 million people who have digested the series.

Daniel Craig is not James Bond

In the 2011 release, the current James Bond, Daniel Craig, plays the magazine journalist Mikael Blomqvist. He’s better in this role than in his recent Bond appearances where James Bond as we knew him has changed out of all recognition. In Craig here, we recognize Blomqvist.

Rooney Mara plays the movie’s heroine, Lisbeth Salander. She’s a computer hacker, completely anti social and driven by her own vindictiveness. Rooney plays the part well, but not as brilliantly as Noomi Rapace, introduced to us in the Swedish movie. The new Lisbeth is not as cold as you would have imagined from the book so she takes some getting used to.

The Swedish version has more naked flesh and considerably more brutality. Perhaps the director of this latest account decided that as you had no doubt read the book before seeing the movie, you didn’t need visual proof of the violence already in your mind.

Where the movie doesn’t match the book

For those – most of you – who have read the book, there are a number of difficult transitions from paperback to screen. You have to consider that the book is over 500 pages in length. This was then translated down to just over 2 ½ hours screen time. Screenplay writers suggest that one page of a script equals one minute on screen, so in effect 350 pages of the book were cut out or disregarded.

As an example, but without giving spoilers to those who haven’t seen this latest movie version yet, the lady in London and the lady in Australia in the book have been molded into one person for the movie. This will cause problems in the next two books as the lady moves on to play a prominent role.

The author, Stieg Larsson, suggested that he thought Lisbeth Salander’s character was an adult version of the Swedish classic, Pippi Longstocking, written by Astrid Lindgren. With the amount of sheer terror, violence and depravity shown in this movie, you would have to hope your children don’t see this until they are well into their twenties as faded memories of Pippi may bring on a visit to your psychoanalyst.

The movie did gain some nominations

So the people in the know have been given a number of nominations for the awards, but completely missed the movie as best picture. Perhaps the camerawork, editing and sound were enough to give us a first class glimpse of Sweden, but not enough of the story.

Rooney Mara received a nomination for the lead actress award. Jeff Cronenweth has been listed for his camerawork while Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall are listed for film editing. Ren Klyce has been chosen for sound editing and colleagues David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson for sound mixing.

It is an individual choice of whether you prefer the book, the first movie, or the second movie. Whichever, there is no doubt that director David Fincher has brought the book to the big screen in a very good film, only spoiled if you have already seen the Swedish version.

Chronicles

More than a horror flick I would say Chronicle is an extremely well done science fiction movie. Although it looks like a “Blair Witch” mockumentary this film absolutely stands by its own. Forget about the shaky camera that makes you dizzy (Hooray for that!) also is so well written that’s more focus on actually telling a story and character development rather than flashy SFXs that by the way they look great. On these days you have to appreciate that!

An amazing movie about some sort of alien encounter with a hint of 1988’s Akira anime movie (if you ask me). 3 high school boys discover a strange glowing crystal underneath the earth. After the close encounter they get some sort of superpower transformation: first telekinesis, later even the ability to fly. What it is important about this movie is the question on how would  be the effects on an average person who acquires superpowers all of a sudden. Further more, a teenager. Life is difficult per se. Nobody have an steady ride during our life time. But can you handle it? What would you do? That’s the main question in Chronicle. The script was written by Mark Landis and directed by Josh Tank although it is said they both work on the idea.

As I said before, 3 teenager boys find out an uncanny glowing chrystal underneat a hole in the earth, and since the strange, Alien like encounter they develop super powers. The footage that we actually see as the story belongs to one the kids: Andrew (Dane DeHaan) a boy who’s constantly bullied by his father, while his mother is sick at home. She’s dying with cancer, and we could probably assume that part of Andres’s father is all the stress, sorrow and impotence of knowing that there’s nothing he can do to save her from pain, suffering and death.  Andrew buys a DVcam (seems like a canon XL1 or 2) and starts to tape everything around his life. Andrew hangs around with his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) together they start to fool around and get everything on tape. On a rave both meet Steve (Michael B. Jordan) who ask them to bring the camera and film for him some weird noises coming from a whole in the fields. The rest, well you’ll have to find out, but it is easy to imagine. For Matt it is all about the responsibility that comes to be stronger and having abilities beyond the rest of simple mortals, he got it right in that matter. Steve is more playful with his super powers, leading him to explore and find out more abilities as he continues pushing the limits.

While Andrew starts to fall into a downward spiral which is powered by his own stupidity, immature nature as a teenager but also and most important because he is a victim of all that he is living right now in his house and personal life.

He little by little, start to develop a more destructive personality.  We don’t know if this is the consequence of an abusive father and all the tragedy going around his life that he starts to question his own values. Andrew begins to believe that he and his friends are the next step in evolution, which is at a certain point true in the context of the story, but also leads him to think about why he shouldn’t be remorseful about hurting or even killing living creatures.

Some of the later scenes after this point in the movie reminded me a lot of Katsuhiro Otomo’s cult film Akira.

it is a good essay about superheroes that would be born in our century. Will they be really super heroes? I mean we are talking about regular, common people. Not the 60s kind of superheroes with righteous values and for common good attitude seen on Batman, superman etc. Probably Chronicle is a good vision of someone with sudden super powers in our today society.

Sodenberg’s new film sure has the style seen in other movies he made like Traffic, Ocean Eleven and even the brave heroine with a different perspective a la Erin Brockovich. The story follows Mallory (Gina Carano) some kind of super soldier woman. Trained to do all kind of risky operations. She works for a company that’s hired for the government to perform undercover international operatives. During one mission she is betrayed and framed. Her quest is to find out who did it? On the process she algo seeks for clearing her name. Almost like a globe trotting experience the film is filled with enough action, suspense, intrigue and espionage to keep your attention but nothing that even the very Sodenberg’s had done before. There are a few good chase scenes though, enough to take some tips out of them. Also in this movie: Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Angarano.

Here’s the interview.

Download mp3 link
http://elkioskomagazine.podbean.com/mf/web/a6cn9v/Republic_of_Doyle_Cast_int.mp3

From Left to Right: Zaib Shaikh (Amaar Rashid) , Manoj Sood (Baber Siddiqui) and Brandon Firla (Reverend William Thorne).

By Lucia Santiago Dantes

The good news is that Little Mosque on the Prairie hits  season number six next week, the bad news is that it’s the last season. We have the oportunity to talk with 3 of the cast members: Brandon Firla (Reverend William Thorne), Manoj Sood (Baber Siddiqui) and Zaib Shaikh (Amaar Rashid)

Link to the full interview Little Mosque on the Prairie Cast Interview mp3

2012 is the year Paramount Pictures celebrates its 100th Anniversary. Paramouont Pictures is the only major Hollywood studio to achieve a centennial entertaining audiences of all ages. To celebrate, Paramount Pictures had released the “Paramount Pictures 100 Years of Movie Magic App” for the iPad. 

The app is an exploration of the studio’s incredibly rich and storied history. From Paramount’s modest beginning in 1912 with Queen Elizabeth to Mission: Impossible – GhostProtocol, the app provides a fresh and innovative opportunity to experience your favorite films by flipping through never-before-seen photos, watching memorable film clips, and listening to timeless music scores.

This unique keepsake also includes an overview of Paramount’s story, a Studio Tour and a specially designed Scene it? game – all of which you can share with your friends and family on email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Begin your exploration now and download this promotional app to your iPad (see the links below for your specific territory), or download to your PC or Mac with the Adobe Air version; available via the 100^th Anniversary Intranet site on January 4^th.

Enjoy, and continue to look for more anniversary related news, events and contests!

OOhhh The Joy of horror movies! Actually I was craving for some horror this New Year’s I don’t know why.

I haven’t seen THE DEVIL INSIDE  yet but sure it is good horror that will make you jump from your seat! just watch out for the pop corn!