para sobrevivir - Laredo Morning Times
Transcripción
para sobrevivir - Laredo Morning Times
Page 8D ¿Qué Pasa? Friday, August 6, 2004 Movies ‘Black Book’ is woefully uneven BY CHRISTY LEMIRE AP Entertainment Writer When Tom Cruise is good, he’s very, very good. But when he’s bad, he’s better. “Collateral” gives him his first chance to be truly, deeply evil. Not just cocky and flawed, as he was so stunningly in “Magnolia.” Not just broken and lost, as he was in “Minority Report.” As a hit man assigned to take out five federal witnesses over the course of a night, Cruise’s Vincent is the devil in a gray tailored suit. Gone are the self-satisfied smile, the complacent tics of extraordinary stardom. He has dropped his voice to a totally different register, and with his silver-streaked hair and facial scruff, he sometimes looks like a totally different person — namely William Petersen in 1986’s “Manhunter,” an early film by Michael Mann, the director of “Collateral.” Casting Cruise as the villain may sound like a gimmick, but it’s the essential part of a film that — for its first two-thirds, at least — pulsates with unpredictability and suspense. Like Mann’s “Heat,” which was also set in Los Angeles, “Collateral” viscerally captures a certain urban dichotomy: the veneer of gauzy glamour covering the city’s dangerous underbelly. The sun is going down, smothering everything in a smoggy, orange haze. Cars lazily navigate the streets of downtown L.A. as The Roots’ “The Seed 2.0” plays in the background. But something darker is going on underneath, and Mann understands and conveys those discordant rhythms. Vincent arrives in town and trolls this terrain with the help of a conscientious, slightly nerdy taxi driver named Max (Jamie Foxx, the “Any Given Sunday” star, also playing against type). He asks Max to drive him around all night to visit friends and business associates before his 6 a.m. flight the next day — but really, he hijacks the cab through a combination of charm and implied threat. Max is reluctant but says yes when Vincent fans a handful of cash before his eyes. During their first stop, when a dead body falls on top of the cab from a fourth-floor window — the messy victim of Vincent’s normally methodical handiwork — the stunned Max realizes the true nature of his passenger and gets dragged along for the ride. Max can’t predict where they’re going, and neither can we. Their conversations in the cab between hits don’t seem to be about much, but notice the way each of them changes subtly as the night goes on. The abrupt Vincent listens a bit more, the respectful Max gets more assertive — though he can’t get away, and barely tries. The camera frames them as if they were sitting in each other’s laps, giving the film a claustrophobic tenseness. All the while, they’re being chased by LAPD detective Fanning, played by the always-solid Mark Ruffalo, who doesn’t get nearly enough screen time. Jada Pinkett Smith is typically lovely as a lawyer who rides in Max’s cab at the movie’s start and Javier Bardem makes a too-brief cameo as a drug cartel leader. Then “Collateral” changes, too: It becomes laughably ridiculous. Starting with a shoot-out during a hit at a crowded Asian nightclub, the script from Stuart Beattie (co-writer of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”) spirals frustratingly out of control. Vincent somehow acquires the invincibility of the T-1000 in “Terminator 2.” He’s involved in a car crash but he crawls from the upside-down wreckage and, without the slightest hesitation, runs through the deserted downtown L.A. streets, gun in hand, hunting down his next victim. Shooting him in the head also does little to deter him. And the film’s final moments, which presumably were intended to be poignant, are instead unintentionally funny. Everything that came beforehand, though, was so arresting that you’ll want to forgive the film’s final flaws. AP Photos BRITTANY MURPHY and HOLLY HUNTER N T E R N A C I O N A Mann’s ‘Collateral’ is good and bad, in a funny way Alejandro/Pág. 17D I SERIOUS PAYBACK In “Little Black Book,” Brittany Murphy seems bent on being Holly Hunter, while Hunter seems bent on being Murphy, and it’s not a pretty sight. Both play scrappy producers on a syndicated New Jersey-based TV talk show hosted by Kathy Bates in sensationalistic Jerry Springer mode. Murphy is the newcomer with whom Hunter instantly bonds. Before you can ask “Didn’t she have a life before Murphy came along?”Hunter plunges into Murphy’s affairs, urging her to snoop on the past of her evasive boyfriend (Ron Livingston) via his Palm Pilot, or electronic “little black book.” If that means unethical use of her journalistic powers — such as questioning past paramours under false pretenses — so be it. Speaking of false pretenses, Hunter, 46, is old enough to be Murphy’s mother but acts as if she’s her sister. She bounces and squeals with her in girlish glee while flaunting waist-length hair, bare middrifts and tight-fitting jeans. Trying desperately to be the edgy peer of someone who’s 26, she also chain-smokes furiously — even in the workplace! Meanwhile, Murphy tries to expand her acting chops beyond the radiant smiles and bubbly exuberance which have served her well since a teen role in “Clueless.” As a young professional enduring office politics andworrying about her lover’s fidelity, she gets to emote like crazy here — much as Hunter got to do in her Oscar-nominated performance for 1987’s “Broadcast News.” (Murphy also gets to sing in several scenes, setting the stage for her upcoming album.) But like Hunter trying too hard to be young, Murphy tries too hard to be a Serious Actress, especially during her weepy wallows. What “Little Black Book” needed was a lighter touch. What it got from director Nick Hurran and his cast are sledgehammer blows to our emotional guts. Chiefly, the film is woefully uneven. “Little Black Book” starts as the playful romantic c o m e d y suggested by its ads, then veers into an ensemble piece about ruthless careerism (in which Murphy often is mere bystander) before settling for melodramatic selfobsession. That’s not to say it lacks moments. Screenwriters Melissa Carter and Elisa Bell articulate the frantic life of a TV crew with witty, snappy repartee — almost like “His Girl Friday” for the broadcast age. “Regurgitate something fresh!” is one barked command to the staff. Whenever the film stalls from Murphy’s droning voice-over narraÅion or an overload of backstory, clever visual flourishes dress it up. There’s also shrewd use of Carly Simon songs, especially her Oscarwinning “Let the River Run” from 1988’s “Working Girl,” a far better example of an underdog woman juggling career ambitions with longing for love. The support cast also excels, from Bates’ egotistical battle axe to Kevin Sussman’s downtrodden co-worker to Julianne Nicholson’s needy exgirlfriend of Livingston. As for him, he has so little screen time that his character, though crucial, hardly registers. Even more troubling are the slapstick slants given Murphy’s meddling, at least until preachy comeuppance. Hunter justifies such snooping with the quaint adage to “look under the hood before you purchase the car” and an insistence that “omissions are betrayals.” Yes, but who “omits” the fact that’s she’s a lying spy? If “Book” were a dark comedy, it could get away with such an unsympathetic side. But it sails along as an ultimately upbeat Murphy star vehicle, whose only warning of choppy seas ahead lies in its opening Shakespearean quote: “Hell is empty. All the devils are here.” Foto de QPI/UNIVISION RECORDS ‘PARA SOBREVIVIR’ Grupo Duelo, de Roma, lanza tercer álbum Especial para QPI l haber cantado de mesa en mesa y además de la propina, haberse granjeado el interés y respeto de la gente, gue sin duda alguna una de las mejores experiencias formatives que Duelo vivió en su etapa inicial. Así es como se marca el primer capítulo musical que motivó a Oscar Iván Treviño y a Dimas López a seguir perfeccionándose y a realizar el sueño de llegar a ser uno de los mejores grupos Norteños juveniles del momento. “Para sobrevivir”, su tercera producción para el sello Univision Records, marca la continuanción del potencial artístico y musical de esta joven agrupación que ya ha cimentado su lugar en la conciencia popular del público que gusta de la buena música Norteña. Y cuando de música Norteña contemporánea se trata, Duelo es sin lugar a dudas el E LM BY BRUCE WESTBROOK Houston Chronicle Jennifer Lopez La actriz y cantante Jennifer López se encuentra entre ‘Las Mejores Vestidas’ de la revista People. La acompañan Ricky Martin, Jessica Alba, Paulina y más. grupo juvenil que reina en el mercado de Texas y la parte norte de la República Mexicana. El álbum sale a la venta el 29 de junio de 2004. El primer sencillo promocional es el corte que la título a esta producción, Para sobreviver de Treviño, la cual es una balada norteña no apta para los débiles del corazón ni para personas con problemas cardiacos, puesto que es una canción que relata la nostalgia de un amor perdido y los vestigos de un romance que sólo sobreviven gracias al recuerdo del pasado. Este tercer esfuerzo musical bajo el sello Univision Records muestra a un Duelo más maduro, más sofisticado y más romántico. El disco, compuesto por 12 cortes de línea romántico norteña, en su mayoría compuestos por Treviño, es básicamente un álbum repleto de canciones despiadadamente sublimes como es evidente en “No se encuentra, “Hablar de ti.””Dejame volar”,”Lo que nunca comenzó” y”Entonces comprendí” y el sello melancólico inconfundible del grupo en “Si te olvido,” y “Despues de la tormenta,” mismas que llevan la sangre y corazón del estilo ultra romántico de esta joven y talentosa agrupación Norteña. Quizá no todos los muchachos de Duelo sean originarios de Miguel Alemán en el estado de Tamaulipas, México, pero si hay algo que en realidad tienen en común aparte de su gusto y pasión por la música es que están completamente de acuerdo en que: “No hay mal que por bien no venga”. La suerta a veces demora, pero cuando llega, llega”. Los integrantes del grupo Duelo son: Oscar Iván Treviño, cantante, compositor y bajo sexto, 21 años; Juan Barrera, batería, 26 años; Edgar Rodriguez, percusiones, 23 años; Cristian Rivera, bajo eléctrico, 23 años; Dimas López, acordeón, 20 años y Luis Guerra, segunda voz, coros y animador. Página 20D Viernes 6 de agosto de 2004 • Laredo Morning Times • La guía de entretenimiento de Laredo