Book of the Week

Apparently Debbie Tung is not the only writer out there who knows me...

But Differ Greatly in the Sequel: Machete Kills

Apparently Machete does vex. At least that is what he did in the 2013 movie Machete Kills, a sequel to the 2010 movie Machete.

I wanted to like this film a lot than I did but I could not help hating the way Robert Rodriguez liked to constantly repeat his jokes. And what he did to Michelle Rodriguez's character was just pathetic. He wasn't content to present her as a badass rebel wounded in battle; he had to make her a pathetic damsel in distress as well. She deserved a way better ending than that.

Ironically, Hollywood outcasts Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen came across a lot better even though their scenes were basically one-joke roles. And please don't get me started on how much more popular this movie seemed to be with liberal non-Hispanic critics than myself...

Of course, by now we should have seen the sequel to this movie and I suspect that if it hasn't been made by now, then it's never going to be made. Given director Rodriguez's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to this series, I suspect that even he lacked faith that Hollywood would give him enough funds to create Machete III. Of course, given his approach to the Michelle Rodriguez character, I'm not convinced that that's a bad thing but still...

The Clint Eastwood Vanity Project: The Mule

Remember when Clint Eastwood actually made good movies? Yes, I have a hard time remembering those days too.

It would be nice to pretend that the 2018 movie The Mule is the big exception to that rule. But it isn't. Eastwood wants so hard to have it both ways -- on one hand, presenting his character as a lovable geezer whom everyone -- even Mexican drug smugglers -- likes while on the other, reminding us through his interactions with his family that he is not all that likable -- but this approach never really works.

Part of the problem is that Eastwood already adequately capped off his film career in two previous movies: Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire. Since then, it's been kinda hard to not get the impression that Eastwood has been spinning his artistic wheels, so to speak.

It would be nice to pretend that Eastwood is so good that even the worst Eastwood movie is more watchable than most other films -- but I find it harder and harder to believe that. And The Mule doesn't offer me much proof that I'm wrong.

All the same, I'm glad to see Eastwood is still managing to find work at his age. I just wish it was in a decent movie.

Movie Quote of the Week

What's with Mexicans and death!
--Trey Bumpass, The Book of Life (2014)

Apparently I'm Puerto Rican Now

At least that's the impression I got from a Hispanic customer at my current place of employment yesterday when she asked me if I were Puerto Rican.

I'm not, of course, but apparently to her eyes, I looked like one. Needless to say, that's hardly the worst thing that could be said about me. Nor is it the first time I've been mistaken for a member of a different ethnic group other than the one I'm in. (Of course, as an ethnic half and half (half-Polish, half Mexican), I'm technically not a member of one ethnic group but still.)

At any rate, when I was growing up, I used to obsess about the fact that I didn't look more like my Mexican-American relatives. Apparently that's still true but at least I'm being mistaken for actual Hispanics now. So that's a good thing, right?

Don't Go Overboard Trying to See This Movie

It's a tale almost as old as time -- the rich young aristocrat who finds himself at the mercy of a bunch of paupers, who eventually learns to love the common life with all the enthusiasm of a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. As you might guess, it's hard not to be more than a little skeptical about the 2018 movie Overboard -- a remake of an old 1987 comedy with the same name -- once you understand its rather dubious premise. And it doesn't help matters that the filmmakers attempt to "modernize" the storyline by switching genders and having the rich person turn out to be a Mexican. Which means we get a lot of bilingual jokes but alas, nothing truly memorable or unpredictable.

On one hand, it's nice to see Anna Faris on the big screen again. On the other, it would have nice if she had actually held out for a project that was good. For that matter, I can't help but wonder if it was an act of charity that former TV star Eva Longoria was so unrecognizable in this movie. It was nice to see her on the big screen, too, but still.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXV

Deborah Berebichez. A Mexican physicist, data scientist, TV host, educator, and blogger of Jewish descent who is known for promoting education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In 2004, she became the first Mexican woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. Sometimes going by the name of "The Science Babe", she has appeared in television and radio segments where she explained scientific concepts in ordinary life.

She has also been featured in the television show "You Have Been Warned" (a.k.a. "Outrageous Acts of Science") on The Science Channel, and among other things, she was a recipient for Top Latina Tech Blogger by the Association of Latinos in Social Media LATISM.

R.I.P. Lupita Tovar

Mexican actress Lupita Tovar -- best known in the US for her role as Mina in the Spanish-language version of the 1931 movie Dracula -- passed away without a cross or stake on November 12, 2016, at age 106.

She will be missed.

I Wonder, Wonder Who, Who-oo-ooh, Who (Who Wrote the Book of Life)

I wanted to like The Book of Life a lot more than I did but I could not help having quite a few reservations. For example, there is a scene in the early part of the film in which a group of schoolchildren encountered a mysterious blonde museum guide. Despite my being the type of person who was once accused by a Hispanic co-worker of waving the Mexican flag, I could not help but find some of the comments this guide made about Mexico in this scene to be a bit over the top. (For that matter, I found it a bit odd that the guide was voiced by the same actress who played Kelly Bundy, but that's a topic for another day.)

It didn't help that we're never told where that scene took place or whether those children the museum guide talked to were supposed to be American or Mexican. Plus some of the story elements (the affection the kids had for Lady Death or the apelike image of one of the Mexican hero's ancestors) seemed deliberately calculated to raise an eyebrow or two.

That said, I liked it more than I expected to and my inner Percy Jackson fan especially liked the fact that the old Mexican folklore tale that allegedly inspired this movie was in fact an old Greek myth. (What? You don't think Hispanics can be familiar with Greek mythology? Please think again.)

Of course, the Ray Bradbury reference at the end was also a nice touch.

If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how this movie compares to Coco. Especially since most of the TV ads for that movie make it seem like The Book of Life II.

Movie Quote of the Week

Racism is over in America. The only people who are thinking about it are, I dunno, Mexicans probably.
--Peter Syvertsen, Dear White People (2014)

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Kill the Moon”

Well, I always wanted to see a Doctor Who episode with Mexicans in it. However, after seeing this episode, it seemed quite obvious that I should have been more specific.

On the plus side, we got a surprisingly convincing picture of a post-NASA world in which a would-be astronaut finally got to fulfill her lifelong dream of travelling to the Moon, only to find out she had to blow it up.

The Doctor, fortunately, had a better idea but unfortunately, said idea was based on one of the most idiotic ideas about the Moon ever to be presented on TV. (Indeed, one would have to go back to the old Night Gallery episode "The Nature of the Enemy" to find a dumber idea.)

For that matter, this episode managed to come up with a surprisingly silly pro-life metaphor. I suppose my inner Catholic should be offended but that would mean taking the episode more seriously than it deserved to be. However, I would not be surprised to find out that the makers of this episode had to do some serious penance.

Quote of the Week

But forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough?
--Chris Rock, "Chris Rock Pens Blistering Essay on Hollywood's Race Problem: 'It's a White Industry'", Hollywood Reporter, December 3, 2014

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Benito Juárez!

AKA Benito Pablo Juárez García.

Born March 21, 1806. Died July 18, 1872.

He was the first Mexican president of Indian blood and he was also known as the "Abraham Lincoln of Mexico" due to his efforts in the 1860s to free his country from French rule.

Apart from having a border town named after him, Juárez is rarely mentioned nowadays. It seems like the last American TV show to mention his name on a regular basis was The Wild, Wild West and that was in the 1960s.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, José Vasconcelos!

AKA José María Albino Vasconcelos Calderón.

Born February 28, 1882. Died June 30, 1959.

He was the author of the 1925 essay The Cosmic Race aka La Raza Cósmica, an essay which helped popularized the use of La Raza as shorthand for the mixed race folk of Latin America. Ironically, it is often considered today to be as politically incorrect as the Eurocentric philosophies it had once sought to replace.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Rudolfo Neri Vela!

Born February 19, 1952.

He was the first Mexican in space -- though some would quibble about the fact that he was a Mexican born of Spanish and Italian ancestry. I'm not quite sure why he isn't mentioned in the history books more often but he should be.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Katy Jurado!

AKA María Cristina Estela Claudia Soledad Katherina Lucía Marcela Jurado García.

Born January 16, 1924. Died July 5, 2002.

She was a Mexican actress who had a successful film career on both sides of the border. Ms. Jurado was the first Latin American actress to be nominated for an Oscar -- as Best Supporting Actress for the 1954 film Broken Lance -- and the first Latin American actress to win a Golden Globe Award.

She is most famous for her supporting role as Helen Ramírez in the 1952 film High Noon, for which she won the above mentioned Golden Globe. She also played opposite Mexican actor Pedro Infante in the 1948 film Nosotros los Pobres. All in all, she made seventy-one films during her life, with her biggest variety of roles being in the films that she made in her native Mexico. In most of her American roles, she was typecast in ethnic roles but it said something about her talent that she managed to make an impact in this country anyway.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Jorge Negrete!

AKA Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno.

Born November 30, 1911. Died December 5, 1953.

He was a very famous Mexican actor and singer who was born in my father's home state of Guanajuato. He was one of my late father's favorite movie stars and his records had a recurring role on my father's stereo. He is more well-known to my father's generation of the family than to mine but he is still remembered.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Ricardo Montalbán!

AKA Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino.

Born November 25, 1920. Died January 14, 2009.

He was one of the most famous Mexican actors on the American small screen though the fact that his title role in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan kept getting referenced by critics last year shows that he had made no small impact on the big screen as well.

I suspect most Americans of my generation know him more for his role as Mr. Roarke on the old ABC TV series Fantasy Island than for anything not related to Star Trek. But at least he has not been forgotten.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Pedro Infante!

AKA Pedro Infante Cruz.

Born November 18, 1917. Died April 15, 1957.

He was one of my late father's favorite actors and he has been described by my father as the Mexican equivalent of Clark Gable. (Only this version was as famous for his singing as he was for his acting).

He is best known for the 1948 Mexican movie Nosotros los Pobres but he has been in many other movies as well. Unfortunately, he is not that famous north of the border but then I doubt he ever worried too much about that during his lifetime. I know my late father never did.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz!

AKA Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana.

Born November 12, 1651. Died April 17, 1695.

She was one of the the most famous writers, playwrights and poets in the history of Mexican literature as well as a key contributor to the Spanish Golden Age. She was once referred to as Mexico's tenth muse. She was also a self-taught scholar.

Unfortunately, she died after caring for fellow nuns who had been stricken by a plague.

She has been missed.