Primos

Hace mucho tiempo que no os cuento de una película española, pues aquí la tenéis.  My probable butchering of the Castilian language aside, I had been recommended this movie from Spain, “Primos” sometime early last year and haven’t been able to get to it and see it until recently.  One of the best things about having my cousin Vicente come visit from Spain is that he always brings an external hard drive filled to capacity with movies, television series, and games from his home country and/or dubbed in Castilian.  This story is my best attempt at a segway into telling you about the movie “Primos” which, in case you didn’t know, is the spanish word for “cousins.”  

Business Cards By Gabriel Arronte

One of the things that every filmmaker and really any professional should have is a business card.  It might sound a little outdated or old fashioned in the twenty-first century but I personally believe that every little bit helps especially when it comes to trying to sell yourself and/or land a job.  When I was doing my Master’s, everyone on the bus would hand out business cards like tic tacs.  They are a great ice-breaker, especially in impromptu meetings so you should remember to always have them with you because you never know when a business opportunity will present itself to you.

“The Broken Silence” Trailer

It’s finally here!  The trailer of the film I wrote “The Broken Silence.”  Check out the trailer and tell me what you think.  Expect the film to release sometime in March 2012.  Thank you to all who donated to our Kickstart account in helping us make this possible.

Happy 2012

I would be remise if I didn’t write a regular post first off wishing all of my readers a very happy and healthy 2012.  Here we (pretty much everyone) go again proclaiming our newfound and sudden inspiration with a laundry list of resolutions, ideas, and inspirations to accomplish throughout the year.  (Most of which we’ll probably forget by the end of January.)  Lose weight, be a better person, take a trip, etc.

I’m no exception to being a victim of the moment either.  I want to get in better shape, I want to find a job so I can finally be a real adult; buy a car, move out of the house, be 100% financially independent. (Right now I’m pretty close to that, but still.)  I have so much stuff to hang up on the walls, and I’m tired of having it piled up behind my door.

I WILL NOT even entertain the Mayan prediction about the end of the world presumed to be on December 20, 2012.  I will however bring up the wonders of 2012.  The London Summer Olympics, a new presidential election in the United States.  (I will not express my political opinions or social position regarding politics, so don’t ask.)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

The stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are timeless classics.  Everyone knows that most of the time when a movie is adapted based on a novel, or at least with characters based on a novel, most of the time it’s not going to be as good.  This is especially true when the original author has been dead for  over eighty years.  So once again Guy Ritchie takes the reigns to make the sequel to his very successful original from three short years ago.  This time around, Holmes  goes up against Professor Moriarty whose mind is just as brilliant as it is evil.  Now that you have a grasp on the story, let’s talk details because as you know, when it comes to Sherlock Holmes, it’s all about the details…

More Voices and Impersonations

I’m sorry this took so long but here is the second video of some of my other impersonations and voices.  Comment away.

Here’s the first video in case you haven’t seen it or don’t remember.  Note: Ignore the old web address and logo mentioned in the first video; it no longer exists.  Thanks!!

The Sitter

We’ve all done it.  Growing up, one of our first taste of “real responsibility” is babysitting.  Especially if you have a large family filled with younger siblings and cousins like I do, you’re going to be doing a lot of this during your teenage years.  If you really like it, you can study Elementary education or child psychology when you grow up and make a career out of it.  (Of course I’m oversimplifying.)  But none of that is the case in the movie “The Sitter.”  In the movie, we first meet Noah Griffith, (played by Jonah Hill) as a character he’s pretty much been typecast for so far in his career: a twenty-something lovable loser with his heart in the right place.

When his mother asks him to babysit his neighbor’s kids so that all the adults can go to a formal gala, Griffith reluctantly agrees.  The way the children are introduced was a little on the nose and cliché.  First you have a well-dressed, awkward, teenager with self-esteem issues.  Then there’s a pre-teen girl who wants nothing more to be a celebrity and live that life obsessed with makeup and the latest trends.  And then there’s the adopted South American who barely speaks English and can’t seem to stop blowing up toilets.

When Griffith’s supposed girlfriend calls him asking for cocaine and to join him at a party, he reluctantly agrees.  He steals his neighbor’s minivan and takes the kids to multiple stops throughout New York City.  Everything up to this point in the movie was fairly predictable with lackluster jokes… then a few surprises I didn’t see coming including J.B. Smoove and Sam Rockwell as a coke dealer with a gay scrawny bodyguard stuck in the 1980′s and a meth lab prepared by bodybuilders.  The characters of the children are fleshed out and are actually interesting, intriguing, and original in their own rite.  Along the way, Griffith also conveniently runs into old classmates that help move the story.

The Sitter is a better movie than I thought it would be.  Very entertaining with an AMAZING soundtrack that everyone will recognize including Method Man, Slick Rick, The 2 Live Crew, and The Sugarhill Gang.  If you like Jonah Hill especially, hire a sitter (because it’s not for kids) and watch The Sitter.

Colorblind Test Fail

Do you see a number or symbol or something in the image on the right?  If you can’t, then congratulations you’re colorblind.  Like me!  Despite the fact that there are so many choices to assist people with blindness or partial blindness like corrective lenses, contacts, and even lazer surgery, there still isn’t anything to treat colorblindness.  Let me repeat that: 

Doubt

Just like my review on Ready Player One was posted in the midst of the passing of Steve Jobs, so too is my review on the film Doubt coming at a time in the midst of two of the biggest child sex abuse scandals possibly in the history of the NCAA with accusations against coaches of Penn State and Syracuse University.  Nevertheless thousands of nearly identical accusations have been brought to light by the Catholic Church since the late 1900′s.  But I digress yet again as I always do.

Doubt takes place at a Catholic school in New York City in the 1960′s.  When the school accepts it’s first African American student, the parish’s popular priest is suspected of having inappropriate contact and an inappropriate relationship with the student.  The speculation is made only by the head nun who operates solely from mere suspicion without any concrete proof or evidence.

Online Dating (and the psycho-social centrifuge it spins us through)

Everyone wants to feel loved, right? We all want meaningful relationships in our lives. We want to be happy, feel fulfilled, etc. It’s even medically proven that being in a loving relationship throughout our lives will help us live longer. So how does one find that one special person? What steps does a person take to ensure or at least have the odds on their side that the will not only meet someone, but that that someone will be perfectly compatible for them?

In the good old days people relied on their friends who displayed certain levels of uncomfortable gittyness or annoyance and tried to set you up on a blind date. Friends tried to sell you on the notion that they suddenly had this “outside friend” for years that you’ve never met or heard of that would be perfect for you. All of the sudden they’re the best real estate agent in the world, only the “real estate” is this mystery person. Now depending on your mood, personality type, or level of desperation, you succumb to your friend’s flattery and before you know it you’re sitting in an overpriced restaurant with a stranger constantly checking that the fire exits haven’t been relocated since you last checked twelve seconds before. That’s all changed now…