http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/rene-rodriguez/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/rene-rodriguez/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2010 MiamiHerald.com Rene Rodriguez 60 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:44:53 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/19/1534961/princess-gets-the-royal-treatment.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/19/1534961/princess-gets-the-royal-treatment.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:00 EDT Although The Princess and the Frog was a box-office disappointment when it was released last November, distributor Walt Disney Co. has given the film the same lavish treatment on Blu-ray it usually reserves for its bona fide classics (Blu-ray/DVD combo $45, Blu-ray only $40, DVD only $30). http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534966/review-repo-men-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534966/review-repo-men-r.html Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:00 EDT The sci-fi thriller Repo Men gets off to a sluggish start. But wait. You have to give the movie time to find its groove and establish its premise: In the near future, people can live much longer thanks to The Union, a manufacturer of artificial organs and body parts. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534954/review-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-pg.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534954/review-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-pg.html Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:00 EDT ``This is a terrible place,'' laments one of the protagonists of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a comedy about that infamous ring of hell known as middle school. The condemned are stranded between childhood and adolescence, still awaiting the growth spurt that puberty will bring, dodging bullies, not yet aware of the opposite sex but becoming increasingly conscious of their social standing and public image. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534965/perils-of-prison-make-malik-grow.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/18/1534965/perils-of-prison-make-malik-grow.html Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:00 EDT Most prison movies are about escape or survival. A Prophet (Un Prophete), director Jacques Audiard's Oscar-nominated drama, is about the creation of a consciousness. This one, too, could have been called An Education. When Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), an illiterate 19-year-old of Arab and Corsican descent, enters a French prison to begin serving a six-year sentence, you fear he won't last a week (he is beaten and robbed of his sneakers within a day). http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1528453/miami-international-film-festival.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1528453/miami-international-film-festival.html Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Although the 27th Miami International Film Festival doesn't end until Sunday, festival organizers announced this year's award winners at a ceremony at the Gusman Saturday. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1526354/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1526354/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:00 EST BIG SCREEN A Prophet (R) -- Director Jacques Audiard's much-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated drama follows a 19-year-old Arab (Tahar Rahim) who is sentenced to six years in an adult prison in France, where he unwittingly becomes part of the Corsican mob. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523672/review-the-secret-in-their-eyes.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523672/review-the-secret-in-their-eyes.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST The money shot in The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) arrives exactly at the middle of the film: From the sky above Buenos Aires, the camera vertiginously swoops down on a bustling soccer stadium during a match, settling on two investigators in the cheering throng as they chase down a murder suspect through the stands, across the field -- even into the bathroom -- without a single cut. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523664/review-shes-out-of-my-league-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523664/review-shes-out-of-my-league-r.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Kirk (Jay Baruchel) is a five at best -- a skinny, geeky airport security officer with no career prospects and little ambition and still obsessing over ex-girlfriend Marnie (Lindsay Sloane), even though they broke up two years ago. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523671/review-eraserhead-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523671/review-eraserhead-r.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Oh Eraserhead, you weirdo, how do we love thee? We cannot count the ways. Shot over four years and finally released in 1977, Eraserhead was so strange that theaters rarely showed it before midnight -- a time slot it continued to haunt for years. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1525585/for-the-serious-movie-buff-miami.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1525585/for-the-serious-movie-buff-miami.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:00 EST A graphic drama about a kidnapping. A comedy about a slacker who rarely does anything. A meditative, near-silent look at the human toll of war. These are the sorts of risky, provocative movies that the 27th Miami International Film Festival, which ends Sunday, has been showing. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523674/review-remember-me-pg-13-12.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523674/review-remember-me-pg-13-12.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Aside from raking in billions in cash, the Twilight franchise has brought its three leads thriving acting careers. Taylor Lautner has become the highest-paid young actor in Hollywood seemingly overnight. Kristen Stewart will star as Joan Jett in a film due in April, and Robert Pattinson has earned enough clout to produce movies such as Remember Me for himself. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523670/review-city-island-pg-13-12.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523670/review-city-island-pg-13-12.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST After starring in a string of heavy dramas, Andy Garcia lightens up and goes for the funny in City Island, a breezy comedy that fits the actor like a güayabera. Garcia stars as Vince Rizzo, the patriarch of a boisterous Italian-American family in the eponymous Bronx suburb whose members constantly lie to each other, until those lies snowball into a pile so large it can no longer be ignored. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523989/local-film-in-tribeca-fest.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/11/1523989/local-film-in-tribeca-fest.html Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Monica and David, about a married couple with Down syndrome by Miami filmmaker Ali Codina, has earned a spot in the World Documentary Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1520324/review-lola-unrated.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1520324/review-lola-unrated.html Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:00 EST In the opening moments of Lola, we watch as an old woman, her restless great-grandson in tow, uses a battered umbrella as a shield against great gusts of wind, eventually succeeding, after much struggle, to light a candle at the foot of a bridge. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1520326/review-vision-unrated.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/10/1520326/review-vision-unrated.html Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:00 EST In Vision, German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta condenses the amazing life of Hildegard of Bingen -- the 12th century Benedictine abbess, author, composer, scientist and philosopher -- to its emotional essence. Wisely sensing that a single film could not do justice to her subject's achievements, von Trotta opts to explore what factors -- other than the voice of God -- drove her to defy the church's sexist norms and make herself heard. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/09/1519119/review-kinatay-unrated.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/09/1519119/review-kinatay-unrated.html Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Almost half of Brillante Mendoza's controversial, galvanizing Kinatay unfolds during a car ride. Some drug dealers in Manila -- among them Peping (Coco Martin), a rookie cop who occasionally runs errands for the gang to help support his new wife and infant son -- have kidnapped and beaten a prostitute (Maria Isabel Lopez) who owes them money and are driving her to an undisclosed location. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/08/1518281/iraq-war-drama-the-hurt-locker.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/08/1518281/iraq-war-drama-the-hurt-locker.html Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Things went David's way in the David and Goliath showdown that was the 82nd Academy Awards, with a low-budget indie few people saw toppling the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of all time. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/07/1514517/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/07/1514517/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:00 EST BIG SCREEN Green Zone (R) -- Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) reunite for this thriller set during the early days of the Iraq War, about an Army inspector (Damon) searching -- and searching -- for the weapons of mass destruction supposed to have been hidden somewhere in the desert by Saddam Hussein. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/06/1514507/oscar-dreams-how-many-will-come.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/06/1514507/oscar-dreams-how-many-will-come.html Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:00 EST Nobody likes having a surprise spoiled. But if you're looking for suspense and shock, the 82nd Academy Awards may not be the best place to find them. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511904/miami-international-film-festival.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511904/miami-international-film-festival.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Attention all film buffs: Get ready to get your fix on. The 27th Miami International Film Festival launches Friday night with Ken Loach's disarmingly funny comedy Looking for Eric. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511908/review-the-girl-with-the-dragon.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511908/review-the-girl-with-the-dragon.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00 EST The biggest compliment you can pay the much-anticipated film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that you can't imagine Stieg Larsson's corker of a story ever having existed in book form. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511905/review-ordinary-people-unrated.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511905/review-ordinary-people-unrated.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00 EST In an unnamed country, soldiers -- including the young and inexperienced Dzoni (Relja Popovic) -- are roused from their barracks and informed that terrorist attacks are on the rise, a national state of emergency has been declared, and special forces have been deployed. The soldiers are driven by bus to a remote, deserted outpost where they sit around, smoking and engaging in small talk, and wait for orders. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511906/review-samson-and-delilah-unrated.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1511906/review-samson-and-delilah-unrated.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Samson (Roman McNamara) sleeps on a foam mattress, is overly fond of sniffing petrol fumes from a can and endures the musical stylings of his brother's band, which practices morning to night just outside his bedroom window. (Worse, they don't even let him play.) http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1513627/packed-miami-film-festival-begins.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1513627/packed-miami-film-festival-begins.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00 EST In South Florida, the first week in March signals the time to get your moviegoing boots on. The 27th Miami International Film Festival kicks off Friday for 10 days of international movie mania, and there is a lot to see. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511903/review-looking-for-eric-pg-13.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511903/review-looking-for-eric-pg-13.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Director Ken Loach, who specializes in social-realist cinema and grim stories of hardscrabble, working-class lives (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Ladybird Ladybird), would seem an odd choice to launch a festival on an upbeat note. But Loach's latest, Looking for Eric, which opens the 27th Miami International Film Festival Friday, is capable of lifting even the stoniest heart. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511894/review-leos-room-el-cuarto-de.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511894/review-leos-room-el-cuarto-de.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00 EST The scenario may sound familiar, but there's a lot more to Leo's Room (El cuarto de Leo) than just another angst-filled tale of a young gay man's process of self acceptance. In his filmmaking debut, Uruguayan writer-director Enrique Buchichio demonstrates a flair for crafting fully realized, memorable characters and complex emotional situations that operate on multiple levels. The characters in Leo's Room often surprise you, the way real people do. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511902/come-meet-the-stalkers-strangers.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511902/come-meet-the-stalkers-strangers.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00 EST PERSECUTION (unrated) The stalking begins innocently enough: A man (Jean-Hugues Anglade) who will soon become known as ``Le Fou'' (The Psycho) asks Daniel (Romain Duris) for a light on a subway platform. Oh, and does Daniel have a pen he can borrow for a moment as well? http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511900/review-brooklyns-finest-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511900/review-brooklyns-finest-r.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00 EST Did The Wire ruin cop movies forever? So many cast members of the former HBO series are scattered throughout Brooklyn's Finest, and so many situations are reminiscent of the show, that the movie is practically a reunion special. Unfortunately, reunion specials are usually pretty bad. And the presence of Omar and Wee-Bey and Sen. Clay Davis (someone yelled out his signature, unprintable line from the show at the screening I attended) does the film no favors, serving as a reminder of how much better and more intricately The Wire depicted the eternal dance between the police and drug dealers. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511891/review-alice-in-wonderland-pg.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/04/1511891/review-alice-in-wonderland-pg.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00 EST You have to give Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland time to get going. For a long, terrifying while, the movie looks as if it's going to be just like every picture Burton has directed since 1994's Ed Wood (with the notable exception of Sweeney Todd): A lavishly designed, visually entrancing, emotionally hollow bore. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/28/1502008/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/28/1502008/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:00 EST BIG SCREEN Alice in Wonderland (PG) -- Even by director Tim Burton's typically surreal standards, this movie of what happens when 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical land she visited as a child looks pretty trippy. Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter is the Red Queen, Michael Sheen is the White Rabbit, and Alan Rickman is the Caterpillar. Oh, and the whole thing is in 3-D. OK, we're sold. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/27/1502001/a-world-of-movies-the-27th-miami.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/27/1502001/a-world-of-movies-the-27th-miami.html Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:00 EST ''So what's good?'' That's a question movie critics are asked year round but never more so than when a film festival rolls into town. And the 27th Miami International Film Festival, which kicks off Friday, offers enough options to make even the most level-headed film buff a little dazed -- the good kind of dazed. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/26/1500736/linking-stories-dreams-in-miami.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/26/1500736/linking-stories-dreams-in-miami.html Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:00 EST In Havana, Retzel Cuspineda works as a pianist for the Guanabacoa Conservatory and hopes to push his amateur Brazilian-fusion band into the pro leagues. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/25/1499005/the-crazies-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/25/1499005/the-crazies-r.html Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:00 EST In 1973 when George A. Romero directed the original version of The Crazies, about small-town residents who go nuts after their water supply is infected by a biological weapon, none of the movie's Vietnam allegories could overcome the obvious similarities to Romero's flesh-eating ghoul classic Night of the Living Dead. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/25/1498967/review-cop-out-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/25/1498967/review-cop-out-r.html Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Heartbroken by the disappointing box-office grosses of his last film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, filmmaker Kevin Smith -- a smart, shrewd storyteller who has compensated for his lack of cinematic flair with a sharp and hilariously vulgar wit -- decided to do something new: Put himself on the market as a director for hire. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/21/1489242/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/21/1489242/a-look-ahead-in-the-movies-and.html Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:00 EST BIG SCREEN Cop Out (R) -- In his first outing as a filmmaker for hire, Kevin Smith directed but did not write this comedy about two New York City cops (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) tracking down a thief who has stolen a priceless baseball card. The film's original title, A Couple of Dicks, had to be changed after TV networks refused to air ads. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1486107/review-shutter-island-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1486107/review-shutter-island-r.html Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Martin Scorsese's grandly theatrical Shutter Island is a showy, arresting movie -- an example of a master filmmaker's bringing all his toys to material another director might have taken more seriously. Fans of Dennis Lehane's novel, scrupulously adapted by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis, will find the fiendishly complicated story essentially intact: In 1954, U.S. marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) investigate the disappearance of a prisoner at an asylum for the criminally insane on a remote island. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1486103/review-happy-tears-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1486103/review-happy-tears-r.html Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Parker Posey is a resourceful and lively actress who doesn't get nearly so much work in Hollywood as she deserves. But in Happy Tears, Posey lands a juicy starring role designed to showcase her eccentric energy, and she's so delighted by the opportunity that her happiness infuses the movie: She keeps the first half of Happy Tears aloft on a cloud of endearing tics and mannerisms. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/14/1476826/actor-gets-intense-with-scorsese.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/14/1476826/actor-gets-intense-with-scorsese.html Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Shutter Island marks Leonardo DiCaprio's fourth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. It may also be his most intense, which says a lot when you consider that their previous three films were Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/14/1476829/a-look-at-the-week-ahead-in-the.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/14/1476829/a-look-at-the-week-ahead-in-the.html Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Shutter Island (R) -- Delayed from October, Martin Scorsese's first feature film since his Oscar-winning The Departed centers on U.S. marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) who investigate the disappearance of a prisoner at a remote asylum for the criminally insane. The movie downplays the surprise twists from the Dennis Lehane novel in favor of atmospherics, a creepy Gothic mood, DiCaprio's intense performance and Scorsese's bravura directorial stylings. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/11/1474140/review-the-wolfman-r.html http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/11/1474140/review-the-wolfman-r.html Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:00 EST Benicio Del Toro looks pretty awesome in full werewolf get-up in The Wolfman. His makeup, mostly old-school prosthetics and fur with just a dash of computer-generated accents, is fantastic -- nostalgically hokey and still cutting edge. The man-to-beast transformation scenes, which are surprisingly brief, are also greatly effective, if not quite so elaborate or revolutionary as the ones John Landis achieved in his seminal 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf in London.