The Pop Culture of Gus Lequerica

It seems that Chris Pine will be teaming with director D.J. Caruso to an adaptation of the book “The Art of Making Money” a book by Jason Kersten about the life of American counterfeiter Arthur Williams. According to Variety, the movie will be released in an unspecific date next year (2010).

The script will be written by Frank Baldwin who has no relation to any other famous Baldwin, not even to Adam Baldwin or to the Baldwin brothers.

The story seems to be a biopic about Arthur Williams and how he counter-fitted the One Hundred Dollar and how he forged several bills so detailed that it was impossible to distinguish the fake ones between the originals; according to Variety there is not much information about the project nor if Chris Pine will be playing Arthur Williams in the biopic or another central character. 

Wow! (uni)multifaceted actor, producer and action icon Keanu Reeves is going to do comedy and not any kind of comedy but romantic comedy, I guess when your career is on the rocks there is nothing better to do than a romantic comedy to see if you can boost it. Keanu’s new project is Henry’s Crime a co-project co produced by Keanu’s production company Company Film and produced by Stephen Hammel; the film was written by Sacha Gervasi (not relation to Rick Gervais but related to Ginger Spice because they have a love child). The story premise is that Keanu is a lovable man who is framed and blamed for robbing a bank in Buffalo, New York.

What happened to the serious actor and action hero that was loved by many people? I don’t know but I truly miss Keanu in a more action oriented role or a more dramatic role like the Lake House, maybe it’s true his career is crumbling after the Matrix era and when you need to pay the bills you have to do anything… that movie smells so far like a box office bomb. 

I cannot believe that the fourth movie of this dying franchise revitalized the franchise completly and according to the firm Exhibitor Relations the film is head to head with Rob Zombie Halloween 2. So far this is one of the films of the Final Destination series that has topped number one in the box office even surpassing the previous installment Final Destination 3 and has reached US$28.3 million dollars in just two days. How a movie that has used the same formula over and over has reached US$28.3 million dollars in just one weekend it’s impossible to know because in many horror/ gore fan circles the fans despise the Final Destination movies because they lack of originality.

It’s amazing to think that this movie who hasn’t revolutionized the horror/ supernatural genre has reached that quantity of money in just 48 hours but maybe fans and movie goers aren’t expecting too much of the horror cinema lately and they just want to go to something that they don’t have to think too much as the reason is much of the Final Destination movies aren’t original like the 70’s, 80’s and Gallo movies as the new producers and writers they just want to shock people with a few gore and blood shows instead of making them think about the modus operandi of the killer even if the killer is Death herself. These developers aren’t masters of horror they are just amateurs with a big budget. 

Final Destination 4th dethroned Inglorious Basterd that opened last weekend by just 8 million dollar but so far not worldwide because the movie of Quentin Tarantino has grossed US$70 millions world wide. Halloween 2 is in 3d place by US$17 million dollars, followed by District 9 which has grossed US$10.7 million dollars and in fifth place G.I. Joe which has earned US$ 8 million dollars (truly a ticket bomb). My score 2 over 5 stars I just had enough by reading the recap in wikipedia I don’t even recommend watching this movie because it’s just a waste of time just like the second and third part.

The main reason why Beth Ditto rocks, it’s because she is cool by any means and sincere to herself and ideals. Taking a stand against the classical perception of Hollywood beauty, Beth is the opposite of all the size zero bubblegum princess of music; she is a fat, feminist, punk, rocker lesbian who is proud of who she is and she is no shy at the moment of speaking what is in her mind, truly Beth defies all the conventionalism and the best is she can sing and she can rock like one of the best rockers of history. She is really an icon, but beside that she a gal that projects a positive and realistic image of how the common majority of American woman look; not many look perfect and thin like Britney or Angelina; much of the majority looks like Beth, who are big beautiful woman who don’t feel shame of their images and they show their bodies in a proud way. Why Beth Ditto Rocks? Because she is Beth Ditto and not a poser.

Worse idea ever… well not the worse idea ever but surely the most boring one; so who wants to see Heathers #2 I guess no one in their sanity because all the main characters died in the first movie, so maybe Heathers #2 is going to be teen oriented or who knows what, but really 2008 and 2009 are the years of sequels and remakes; almost 70% of the movies of this year and the last one were remakes or retcons and maybe the only one watchable so far is Star Trek. So, who was the “mastermind” behind this lovely idea of resurrect Heathers, the first movie was really good, a piece of the 80’s that went cult, but I guess this remake will go turd as I can’t see anything good coming from the storyline and the cast that is going to star in the movie besides Christian Slater and Winona Ryder… Lame idea in my opinion.

Redefiniendo Viaje a Las Estrellas

Por: Gustavo Lequerica-Calvo

 Uno de los programas de televisión más emblemáticos de todos los tiempos es Star Trek o como es conocido en Español Viaje a las Estrellas; a lo largo de los años el programa ha tenido diferentes encarnaciones, al igual que diferentes películas y diferentes adaptaciones casi cualquier medio imaginable; pero, sin importar el formato la esencia desde su aparición en 1966 siempre se ha mantenido y es la exploración del espacio y la posibilidad de encuentros con diferentes civilizaciones.

 Es difícil pensar en el impacto mediático que ha tenido la franquicia de Viaje a las Estrellas a lo largo de los años, especialmente debido a que la transmisión original del programa solo duro tres años (finales 1966 a 1969) pero en esos tres años influyo en cambio de comportamiento en la producción de nuevos programas al incluir un elenco racialmente diverso y mezclar temas de política (Ej. Guerra Fría) con elementos de ciencia ficción para satisfacer a un público que buscaba algo diferente a los clásicos programas enlatados de comedia.

43 años después, 5 spin-offs, 11 películas é incontables adaptaciones en medios escritos y audiovisuales, la franquicia está cobrando fuerza nuevamente con la nueva adaptación por parte del director J.J. Abrams donde redefine la franquicia sin perder la esencia cómo tal. La nueva película titulada simplemente Star Trek plantea un nuevo inicio a la franquicia sin volver clichés a los personajes y conservando la idea original del programa de televisión como tal. La nueva película es realmente interesante, aparte del guion, los avances en tecnologías de efectos especiales permitieron llevar el imaginario de Star Trek a un nuevo nivel, dándole un aspecto más realista a los mundos visitados por el Enterprise y llevando las aventuras a un nuevo nivel.

Los nuevos actores le dan un toque de frescura a la película y proporcionan un enlace brillante con los actores originales debido a que muestran un comienzo de los personajes en la continuidad de la franquicia, pero valga la redundancia los puristas de la franquicia han puesto un punto interesante en el cual la nueva película departe en aspectos básicos de la serie original, pero igual es una reinterpretación en la cual se explora con mas detalles los años formativos del Capitán Kirk y el señor Spock; y al final es una buena adaptación que revitalizó una de las instituciones de la cultura pop Americana.

Beautiful and Romantic, are some words that can describe the views of Cartagena de Indias, a city that has inspired many artists over the centuries and well a city with a colorful past and well as a colorful present (truly a good setting for an adaptation of Gossip Girl); is know that Cartagena as well as some other points of the coasts had been subjects to illegal narcotrafic sea ports, to the point that that problem became the kidney stone in many cities but that wasn’t a huge dilemma to put a halt on the tourist industry, in fact the city as always enjoyed a good reputation world wide as one of the best destinies for newlywed or childless coupes (fact: the city is not planned as a family oriented, so don’t expect that children will have a good time) as they can find romantic getaways in almost every corner of the old city ; is really fantastic and if you are into history and visiting museums this is the place to be, but if you like bars and clubs you will find a lot of places as the nightlife is really vibrant and can compete with cities like New York and Tokyo, and even better you can go and have a drink in a 300 years old house, there are not many places in America where you can do that, but beside as a well known tourism destiny is a well know city in around the pop culture.

Probably around pop culture buffs, the most popular piece that contains references about the city is the 1984 action/adventure movie Romancing The Stone with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Dany Devito about a novelist who travels to Cartagena (In reality Mexico and I think Guatemala) to deliver a precious gem called The Heart  but in the process she finds herself in the middle of an adventure like the ones she writes about. The movie is extremely cheesy and even if it wasn’t filmed in Cartagena and portrays a weird view about the city (not only in the poster, but in everything because Cartagena don’t have valleys like that, not even in the county line) the movie caused a hit and became a sensation around movie goers of time and put Cartagena in the map (Think of this movie as an Indiana Jones for girls).  Other meta-reference came a few years ago in the popular hit show Family Guy, Barely Legal, where mayor West sends the Quahog police to Cartagena to help Kathleen Turner character. There are other movies as well and in a terrible example there is the interpretation of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Mr and Ms Smith that makes Bogota looks like a Mexican village; pure ignorance because Bogota is a city similar as New York and not a city where everybody are charros but in a good example away from Mr and Miss Smith there is Love in Time of Cholera who shows the beauty of the city adapted into Garcia Marquez book of the same name.

But recently there has been some controversies about a possible movie with Keanu Reeves that says that a movie in development with name of the city, will portray the city in a negative light and the government is seeking action to prevent damage against the name of the city, I say is something extreme because the gossip goes that is going to be a narc movie (hey San Francisco and Miami and NYC are doing ok after several gang movies, take a look at Scarface or the Epic Godfather) and after doing a research I couldn’t find any information about this movie in any of the entertainment websites beside that is in preproduction; that is why I say that is a mere gossip and the local government is acting apprehensive against the movie makers (but I guess after Collateral Damage any action taken is a good action to prevent any damage) but still I want to know who was the source that said that Cartagena is going to be a narc movie? but if is going to be a Narc Movie the best thing that can be done, is to change the plot as the city hasn’t been with that problem in a large scale like other cities in the world, and at the end the double standard of Hollywood is trying to keep the image of a dangerous place that isn’t Colombia Today .

Is interesting to know that actor Zachary Quinto, is willing to do the necessary for his art; as many of Heroes fans as well 24 and So NoTorius, you would know that one of the features almost a trademark of Zachary Quinto are his eyebrows and according to imdb.com he shaved most of his eyebrows to go into character. Is cool to know that still actors and actress are willing to give their self sfor their art; really how anyone didn’t notice before? check the photo.

What can I say about this movie?, it sucks, one start I give to this movie because is extremely predictable, the acting is horrible and the ending was a bad red herring that nobody took by surprise, but what can you expect with a sequel?, specially an horror movie sequel, I can say don’t expect nothing because all those movies, all those new movies are clones from Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. None of those new horror/slashers movies like Bogeyman or his respective sequels they don’t give anything new to the genre because they reuse plots and archetypes over and over, that at the end they can be boring and damage the horror/slasher genre. I recommend to avoid watching this movie by any means and if you want to get scare watch something of Japanese horror or something of the 80’s they are far way more better.

Ok, sorry for the long title but it was a question as you could see. Ok, I was zapping channels and I saw one protest of parents who support HE8T and a group of gays who were countering the protest of HE8T. The people of HE8T argued that gays are immoral and that goes against every value of society. A few months ago where I was living my schizophrenic cousin she said something similar as the people of the rally, I thought “ok that’s her opinion” but then when her eldest grandkids arrived and they changed the channel to Nickelodeon and tuned the show Barnyard she didn’t said nothing about the transsexual cow Otis. What the hell a cow-man?!, the only logical explanation I can see is that Otis represents a transmen, because “he” and “his” lady-cow have a son, have a son.

I know is a cartoon and I know you will call me stupid, but is only an example to illustrate my point, that people critique when they want to, and I see many attitudes as hypocrisy because people will try to justify their bigotry points of view even when many attitudes are more open today, and if we take a closer look those positive attitudes toward the GLBT community you can see that they are more open, take a look on your daily programming and you will see gay and lesbian characters. So If you feel uncomfortable watching T.V. because of these people, then don’t turn on your television.

Probably this is only just a quick analysis to the new movie called Twilight, which I see as a kids version of Interview with the Vampire, I guess my generation was marked at some degree with Anne Rice’s book about the books of Lestat, but I know there are some people who find enjoyable this new vampire franchise. I don’t see anything new of Twilight, the truth I don’t see the same impact that Harry Potter caused due the high volume in sales (although I don’t see originality in both products, Harry is just a quick lecture book even if its similar as a telephone directory, and Twilight, I don’t see anything new to genre except the lousy re imagination of the vampires which elements of Twilight can be traced in Anne Rice books such as vampires walking in the daylight, but not all vampires could do that) and it was a incentive to educate a young generation about the benefits of the lecture.

OK… one aspect that probably is the key factor of the new Twilight movies, is British actor Robert Pattinson (who audience met on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as the heartthrob magician Cedric Diggory) who became popular after his role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I can bet not all people know that Robert is a newcomer in the acting world, he started his professional career in the year 2004 with a cameo in the 2004 adaptation of the book Vanity Fair, before that he was only a model. Recently many web pages as Perez Hilton report that girls (and boys) are crowding the malls where the Twilight tour goes just to see Robert, and some people even say that they are going to see the movie not because of the interesting plot, just to see Robert.

After Harry comes  Twilight, and many young (and old) viewers are in a frenzy to see the next big flick of the year, myself… well, let’s say I will go to, just to see what all these fuzz is about, because after half reading the first book, I guess I won’t expect too much about Twilight.