Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Negro o Blanco (2015)

Negro o blanco es la historia de un abuelo que de repente se quedó a cargo de su amada nieta. Cuando su abuela paterna busca la custodia con la ayuda de su hermano, la niña se debate entre dos familias que la aman profundamente. Con las mejores intenciones en el corazón, las dos familias luchan por lo que creen que es correcto y pronto se ven obligados a enfrentarse a sus verdaderos sentimientos sobre la raza, el perdón y la comprensión. (Resumen de Rottentomatoes.com)

"Están obviamente va a dar a la niña al hombre blanco"

"¿Por qué dices eso, mamá?"

"Porque eso es lo que estas películas siempre terminan haciendo"

Discutí brevemente con mi madre sobre el comentario que hizo después vimos el trailer de Negro o Blanco. A pesar de su título, no pensé que la película se centraría únicamente en que los adultos era mejor ajuste para criar a un hijo basándose en el color de su piel.

Debido a la controversia, mi mente sintió curiosidad por el resultado de la película. Así, un día después de Negro o Blanco estrenado; mi madre y fui testigo de la historia y el resultado de esta película aclamada por la crítica en los cines.

La película se ubicó en la melancolía, la presentación de la tragedia que provocaría el principal conflicto de la historia. Era, en efecto sombrío, pero después, la exposición continúa teniendo momentos lentos que me aburrían en mi asiento.

Para cualquier película, la actuación debe transmitir la convicción suficiente para captar la atención del público. Incluso una escena tan simple como hablar en una mesa de comedor puede ser interesante si los actores presentes pasión en lo que están diciendo. La exposición de Negro o Blanco no capturó mi atención; el primer acto fue mediocre. Los artistas sonaba como si estuvieran leyendo de un guión en lugar de invertir en lo que estaban diciendo. El alejamiento de la pantalla me digo a mí mismo: "Oh, bueno, vamos a terminar con esto. Los boletos ya fueron comprados "

También tomé nota de la transición descuidado. Ciertas escenas eran no esencial para la trama. Por ejemplo, había una parte donde el abuelo (Kevin Costner) contrata a un profesor de matemáticas (Mpho Koaho) para la niña. Por mucho que me gustó el tutor y sus encantadoras palabras de sabiduría y auto-promoción, todo lo que llevó a que el guión era un alivio cómico. Si nunca estaban en la imagen, la historia todavía se encendería, pero tal vez no tan divertido, (él era el personaje principal de hacerme reír).

Los personajes en su conjunto no eran muy fácil identificarse. Cada vez que el niño actor (Jillian Estell) entró en la pantalla, me sentí como si hubiera un vacío a ella. No era más que un niño típico agradable, pero carecía de complejidad. Sus intereses, aficiones, gustos, disgustos, esas son cosas que el guión podría haber añadido allí de vez en cuando para que el público iba a saber más de ella en lugar del ser agradable adolescente común. 

En cuanto a los adultos, asegurarse de que tenían rango en sus personalidades, pero en relación con el lado negro de la familia del niño, específicamente la abuela (Octavia Spencer) la película sigue mostrando la actitud gueto estereotipada dentro de ellos. Se sale como casi caricaturesco. Implica a su público la idea de que todos los negros son fuerte y perturbadora, que no es cierto. Ciertamente muchos afroamericanos se comportan con madurez, por lo que la presentación de ellos actuando con frecuencia de una manera insolente brilla una luz mala.

Mi último comentario es que las secciones específicas de la película eran muy improbable. Dos escenas que pienso cuando me menciono esto es los dibujos animados y la piscina (por la noche) escenas. La primera fue cuando el abuelo le pide al niño que apague sus caricaturas para que pueda terminar su tarea, lo que lleva a la hostilidad entre la pareja, que parecía poco probable. El hombre y su nieta compartían una relación amorosa durante toda la película hasta entonces, e incluso después de la pelea, que prácticamente volvieron a su enlace precioso. Por lo tanto, la orden del abuelo sobre cómo desactivar las caricaturas no debería haber provocado tanta ira. Esa parte me sentí agobiada y desesperada para causar algún tipo de ruptura entre los dos, siendo por lo tanto inútil y desconcertante.

La escena de la piscina era aún más convincente. Hay una conversación entre el abuelo y el padre paterno del niño (Andre Holland) que rápidamente se convierte en una situación peligrosa. El problema que tuve con este escenario es que el padre es retratado como un adicto a las drogas, que haría cualquier cosa en su poder para conseguir lo que quiere y tomarlo por la fuerza. Sin embargo, en algún momento durante esta escena, el chico de repente es emocional y manso por algo trivial. Si este era el mundo real, el drogadicto hubiera sido mortal y siguió adelante con su plan de hacer lo que quisiera. En cambio, él pollos fuera de él y suaviza hasta que por desgracia, no es lo que normalmente sucede en la vida real.

Para concluir, la mayor cantidad de quejas expresé sobre esta película, tenía su parte de buenos momentos. En el transcurso de la película, los actores sonaban más invierten en sus palabras y los dos lados de la familia finalmente no fueron juzgados por el color de su piel.

Así que al final, gané el argumento, pero cuando mi madre y yo fuimos a casa, se sentía como ambos perdimos. Lo que es peor, nos sentimos engañados de una buena película. La trama tenía potencial para mostrar una gran historia, sin embargo, no fue ejecutada la mejor manera.

Esto es más de una película más adecuado para ver una vez y nunca más; si siquiera considerar viendo en absoluto después de leer esta crítica.


Mi puntuación en Negro o Blanco? Yo diría que una dos y medio de cinco estrellas.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Black or White (2015)

Black or White is the story of a grandfather who is suddenly left to care for his beloved granddaughter. When her paternal grandmother seeks custody with the help of her brother, the little girl is torn between two families who love her deeply. With the best intentions at heart, both families fight for what they feel is right and are soon forced to confront their true feelings about race, forgiveness, and understanding. 
(Summary from Rottentomatoes.com)

“They’re obviously going to give the girl to the white man”

“Why do you say that, mom?”

“Because that’s what these movies always end up doing”

I briefly argued with my mother about the comment she made after we watched the trailer of Black or White. Despite its title, I did not think the movie would focus solely on which adult was better fit to raise a child based on the color of their skin.

Because of the dispute, my mind grew curious about the outcome of the movie. Thus, a day after Black or White premiered; my mother and I witnessed the story and outcome to this critically acclaimed movie in theaters.

The film started off melancholy, presenting the tragedy that would provoke the main conflict of the story. It was indeed somber, but afterwards, the exposition continued having slow moments that bored me in my seat.

For any movie, the acting should convey enough conviction to grab audience’s attention. Even a scene as simple as talking at a dining table can be interesting if the actors present passion in what they are saying.  The exposition of Black or White did not capture my full attention; the first act was lackluster. The performers sounded like they were reading from a script rather than invested in what they were saying. The aloofness on screen made me think to myself, “Oh well, let’s just get this over with. The tickets were already bought”

I also took notice of the sloppy transition. Certain scenes were unessential to the plot. For example, there was one part where the grandfather (Kevin Costner) hires a math tutor (Mpho Koaho) for the little girl. As much as I enjoyed the tutor and his delightful words of wisdom and self-promotion, all he brought to the script was comic relief. If he were never in the picture, the story would still go on, yet maybe not as funny, (he was the main character to make me laugh).

The characters as a whole were not very relatable. Whenever the child actor (Jillian Estell) came on screen, I felt like there was an emptiness to her. She was just a typical nice kid but lacked complexity. Her interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes, those are things the script could have added in there once in a while so the audience would know more about her instead of being the common nice adolescent. 

As for the adults, sure they had range in their personalities, but concerning the black side of the child’s family, specifically the grandmother (Octavia Spencer) the movie still displays the stereotypical ghetto attitude within them. It comes off as almost cartoony. It implies to its audience the idea that all black people are loud and disruptive, which is not true. Certainly many African Americans behave maturely, so the presentation of them frequently acting in a insolent manner shines a bad light.

My last comment is that specific sections of the movie were very improbable. Two scenes that I think about when I mention this is the cartoons and pool (at night) scenes.

The first one was when the grandfather asks the child to turn off her cartoons so she can finish her homework, which leads to hostility between the pair, which seemed unlikely. The man and his granddaughter shared a loving relationship throughout the movie until then, and even after the scuffle, they pretty much returned to their precious bond. Therefore, the grandfather’s order about turning off the cartoons should not have brought on such anger. That part felt rushed and desperate to cause some kind of rift between the two, thus being pointless and perplexing.

The pool scene was even more unconvincing. There’s a talk between the grandfather and the child’s paternal father (Andre Holland) that quickly turns into a dangerous predicament. The problem I had with this scenario was that the father is portrayed as a drug addict, who would do anything in his power to get what he wants and take it by force. However, at some point during this scene, the guy is suddenly emotional and meek over something trivial. If this was the real world, the drug addict would’ve been threatening and followed through with his plan of doing whatever he liked. Instead, he chickens out of it and softens up which unfortunately, is not what normally happens in real life.

To conclude, as much complaints I expressed about this movie, it did have its share of good moments. Over the course of the film, the actors sounded more invested in their words and the two sides of the family were ultimately not  judged by the color of their skin.

So in the end, I won the argument, but when my mother and I drove home, it felt like we both lost. Even worse, we felt cheated out of a good movie. The plot did have potential to show a great story, yet it wasn’t executed the best way.  

This is more of a movie best suited to watch once and never again; if you even consider watching it at all after reading this critic.

My score on Black or White? I’d say a two and a half out of five stars.



Saturday, December 6, 2014

Critica traducida en Español (se aproxima!)

Este post es breve para anunciar que de hoy en adelante voy a publicar traducciones en Español junto a mis críticas en Ingles. Me parece que será un adelanto en mi blog ya que más personas podrán leer mis trabajos. Personalmente, me ayudará porque escribir en español más a menudo desarrollar mis conocimientos en la lengua.

Perdonen si mi español no es gramáticamente correcto. Planeo hacerlo mejor a medida que siga practicando.


Gracias por la atención que mi blog ha recibido hasta ahora. Me complace saber que puedo usar mis escritos para iluminar sobre algunas de las peores y mejores películas que se han presentado. Lo único que lamento es que yo no he publicado tantas críticas como esperaba debido al trabajo de la escuela y la vida familiar. Intentaré ser más veloz en publicar más comentarios que los hechos hasta ahora.


Friday, December 5, 2014

Spanish translated reviews (coming soon!)

This post is to briefly address that from now on I will publish Spanish translated reviews alongside my English ones. I find this to be an advancement in my blog since more people would be able to read my work and personally, it will help myself in that writing in Spanish more often would further develop my knowledge in the language.

Please excuse me if my Spanish is not exactly grammar correct or is spoken incorrectly at times.
I plan to do better on this.

I appreciate the attention that my blog has received so far. It makes me very content to know that I can use my writing to enlighten you on some of the worse and best movies that have been released all around. My only regret is that I haven't posted as many critiques as I had hoped due to school work and family life. I will try my best to be swifter in producing more reviews than I have done thus far.

P.S. There will be a Spanish version of this note in another post.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

ABCs of Death Review (2013)

ABCs of DEATH REVIEW
The ABCs of Death. I have passed over this title many times while browsing through Netflix and I always promised myself that I would watch it.
That was promised a long, long time ago.
It wasn't until I read a comment on a friend’s profile a few weeks earlier about how disturbing this movie was that I actually dedicated my time to watching this two-hour anthology horror comedy.
This movie presents twenty-six different stories created by twenty-six very diverse directors. Each were given a letter of the alphabet and with that letter, they were given free will to develop a story that related to that letter and revolved around death.
Sounded creepy enough, so I intended to get a good scare out of it.
Turns out I bit off more than I could chew.
To have it simply put, the ABCs of Death gave me two hours of perplexing plots, frightening imagery, and an all-around bizarre production. These directors took their given alphabet and threw caution to the wind. I didn't know whether to give them props for having to guts to go to the extreme or question their sanity since they were the ones to think of such things.
It’s difficult to really describe what goes on through the film, but think of it like this: As you get deeper into the layers, it becomes more and more painful and uncomfortable to go through. I swear to you, I even had to stop the movie halfway through and watch the rest the next day. It was too much insanity to observe in one go.
I searched on the internet for ratings and Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie a score of 35%. The site posted, “As is often the case with anthology films, the ABCs of Death is wildly uneven, with several legitimately scary entries and a bunch more that miss the mark.”
This film is definitely not one to watch with the family. It contains gore, sexual content, and vulgar language. Young children and those faint of heart are advised to stay away from this movie, for it is very disturbing and even traumatizing.
However, if you’re curious as to what could possibly be so bad about this flick, you could check it out on Netflix for free and enjoy the nightmares you will no doubt have.
Once you watch it, you will understand why it’s so hard for me to go into details on how strange it is.
My rating on it? I’d give it a two and a half. It felt jumbled and had no solid objective other than to tell its morbid tales. Perhaps that’s all the directors wanted from it, but that doesn't mean it’s a good idea to go with.
P.S. I also checked on the internet that this movie has a sequel to it. ABCs of Death 2. What could the new stories present that hasn't already been shown?
Also, some fun facts for you. Story wise, I did like some tales in the movie. The letters I, J,N, and S were my personal favorites.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick to save the city and unravel Shredder's diabolical plan (Summary from Movieweb.com)
It all started with a bet.
Months ago, I was watching the very first trailer for this movie with my eldest brother. Both of us being fans of the old show, our minds couldn't believe that a new movie would arrive soon to our theaters. Especially one with such amazing graphics and action scenes. I was skeptical about the new design of the turtles, but I figures it would pass. What I couldn't stand however, was two things:
Michael Bay & Megan Fox
Watching a number of Bay's movies and Fox's acting ability taught me this: this would be a bad movie. Even worse, Fox would be the one to star as the female lead, April O'Neil. If I could remember correctly, in the cartoon April didn't have long dark hair...
As for Bay, he's all about explosions and lack of good story writing, which is one of my favorite components to a movie. I could never trust him to care for any movie without throwing it down the sewer.
It was from all these cons that I proclaimed that this new TMNT movie would be a disaster. My brother begged to differ, he still thought it'd be an awesome film.
The only way to settle this bet was to watch the movie together.
After seeing the movie, has my standpoint changed?
To my surprise....yes...in a sense!
There was no doubt about it, in the film, they definitely screwed up the background for the turtles, Splinter, and April. The turtles became mutant by landing in toxic waste, not through text experiments. Splinter was a human before he became a rat. And April, again, looked nothing like Megan Fox and Fox keeps pretty much one expression throughout the whole movie, squinted eyes and mouth agape. No emotion whatsoever.
Lastly, I spotted a couple things that didn't make sense. Like this, whenever you see the movie, notice how NYC is all sunny and has nice weather, but in another setting that they go to it's incredibly snowy? Can someone explain how this is possible? How far were these places apart from one another?
Anyways, even with all of that, I have to say that the good outweighed the bad, in a sense. The story was all around cliche to me, but in a fun type of way. It was like watching the cartoon, but in real life. And with a different April O'Neil (still not over that) The turtles themselves were unique as they should be, and each expressed something about themselves that had me enjoying their screen time all the more. The bond that the four shared was explained well and shown through their actions and the time you see them growing up together. You see the love they have for one another and their sensei, Splinter. Their time together was much more interested than the humans.
The dialogue between the character seemed realistic to me, not too cheesy. And surprise surprise, not a lot of explosions from Mr. Bay. At one point I even forgot the movie was directed by him. Bravo.
I was invested in the movie and I shared a lot of laughs with the viewing audience (Thanks to Michelangelo mostly) and it you can get past the botched back story, Megan Fox's acting, and the cheesy plot, I think anyone of any age would enjoy this cartoon turned flick.
So technically, I lost the bet on whether it'd be a bad or good movie. It doesn't matter to me though, I had a good night watching the turtles on screen (plus, we never betted with anything in the first place)
Don't expect the film to follow everything, and if you could get past that, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will possibly be a 4 out of 5 stars for you.

MY HUSBAND WON'T FIT (EP. 1-5)

Check out my first installment of my 3-part breakdown of this Japanese series. Please LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for updates. Thank you! https://w...