EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

Eat, Donner, or is it Dunder? Damn Alzheimer! They are  Dasher ,  Dancer ,  Prancer ,  Vixen ,  Comet ,  Cupid ,  Donner , and  Blitzen . Santa Claus's reindeer are obviously magical since they can fly when pulling Santa's sleigh and are also supreme speedsters since they can go around the Earth in less than twelve hours. By the way, the word  reindeer  is one of those that remains unchanged in singular or plural form just like  shrimp  or  fish  for example.  It is said that the four reindeer on Santa's left side are all female (Dancer, Vixen, Cupid and Blitzen) and the four on the right are all males (Dasher, Prancer, Comet and Donner). Of course there is also Rudolph out front and center lighting the way with his "very shiny nose".  

Though you do not know him, you do know his voice for Paul Bettany is the actor who lends his voice to Tony Stark's computerized servant called J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System). It seems that Bettany will have a much bigger role in the next installment of the Avengers when Stark in order to reinforce Earth defenses creates a robot called Ultron but to do that he uses J.A.R.V.I.S. computer structure. As all good computers in the world of the silver screen, once it becomes sentient it decides to fight its creator and the rest of human species. It is then Ultron and not Thanos who is the main villain in Avengers 2.  At this point this is still a rumor. The history of the Avengers is rich and has lots of potential to be exploited. 

Does he look disappointed? Not more than I do! Though I may not like it. Though many may not like it, it is done. Ben Affleck has been reveled as the actor to be Batman in the following film of the Man of Steel saga scheduled for 2015. Don't take me wrong. I truly believe Ben Affleck is a great actor, but him being Batman? Something is just not there. This very much reminds me of Nicholas Cage for the role of Superman which in the end never happened (Thanks, God!). It is the same. Versatility has a limit and there are things some actors just cannot do. Being Bruce Wayne requires someone who is glamorous and charming and no doubt Ben can do that, but Batman is dark and moody. Can Affleck do that? No, I try to see it, but I just can't, and true perhaps my sight is limited and I am biased and still I believe that famous names and comics do not necessarily mix.  When is Warner going to understand such a simple truth?               ...

Now that the Superman / Batman film has been announced for all those out there surely the wait will be a long one. Fret not since in the meantime you should check those productions called fan films. Fans all over the world would like to see their own vision of what should happen to this or that character and some are serious about it and some even invest money to produce those films. Of course having a limited budget is a problem and also not having the commercial rights to make money out of that are big  deterrents.  One of those fans is independent filmmaker Sandy Collora, a New Yorker who produced Batman: Dead End in 2003 putting Batman against the likes of the xenomorph aliens of Aliens and also the extraterrestrial hunters known as the Predators. The success back then was instantaneous. World´s Finest, produced in 2004, is a trailer for a movie that has never been made that unites Superman and Batman against the common threat of Luthor and Two Face. Bruce Wayne has...

     One of the most well-known DC characters is Catwoman. If you think of Batman you immediately remember Catwoman. Is she a hero or a villain? that has never been clearly defined and when a ranking of villains is made she is there and when a ranking of heroes is made she is there, too. Thus we could say she is both a hero and a villain though lately she is being siding with the angels. Whether as a thrill-seeking villain or a reluctant heroine, Selina Kyle (her real name), always ranks high among the sexiest heroines of all time. Here is my opinion on who played the sexiest Catwoman ever. I am designing my list starting with actresses who played the role in between the sixties and 2012. 5. Eartha Kitt. The second actress to play Catwoman in the Batman 1960 series (Julie Newmar was first). Well, in a time when African Americans were still somewhat segregated and given only minor roles Eartha landed this role for a reason and that was the sensuality she c...

Jurassic Park is about to be re-released, this time in 3D format. Many people see this already as  another attempt to capitalize on what was a blockbuster film when it was first released, and maybe they are right. I prefer to see it as Spielberg's way to keep fresh in people's minds this fantasy and also introduce it to the new generations that did not go through the experience of watching this jewel in a cinema theatre.  Why would Spielberg do such a thing? Spielberg is a dreamer and all great things begin with a dreamer's dream. And what is this dream? Well, precisely what we see in the film. The achievement of technology that can one day show us these titans from the past: what they really looked like, how they behaved, and ultimately why they died. There is so much we can learn from them. Of course, it should happen with a lot more common sense and respect to nature than the one showed by the creators of the park in the movie. Fear for what can result of the exp...

Will there be an Iron Man 4? I very much doubt it.  If there is it would be a mistake. Time and time again we have seen that a good story may need more than one installment to be told but not four or five. Very few characters have that potential. How many other characters besides James Bond do you know that have five or six films to tell his or her exploits? Not many, right? Characters such as Rambo or Indiana Jones are proof of that, And the thing is that actors age (and rapidly) but fictional people do not. I´m not saying that Iron Man does not have that kind of potential but perhaps it is better to look at something else for him to do.  What could be wrong with that? A fourth film would be perhaps more of the same and such a great character does not deaserve that. All in all I´m looking forward to the next Iron Man movie but not only for the character but for what could be revealed during and after the movie.   Are you not curious as well?

Charlton Heston (1923-2008) was one of those legendary actors that will never be forgotten not only for the extensive and remarkable list of films he starred in his time but also for some of those movies are timeless classics. To be more specific two of those classics would be enough to assure him forever a place in the history of world filmography, and they are   The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben - Hur (1959). And what is what makes them "timeless classics"? Perhaps it is the fact that both are centered in the Jewish-Christian tradition with the Ten Commandments being a Hollywood interpretation of the events told in the Exodus book while in  Ben Hur,  that is based on a novel of the same title, even Jesus Christ is included in the story . It is this connection that keeps these two films fresh in the viewers´minds since those are part of the selected films that TV networks air when it is  Holy Week (at least in Ecuador they do so). Both films have re...

What if you could have all those who have been James Bond in one movie? It is not an idea of mine by the way, but a project that was on years ago and sadly never came to be.  The idea was that James Bond is actually a name that is given to special agents also known as 007. That would justify to have Sean Connery, George Lazemby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig all in the same film. Is money the problem? Perhaps not. Quite often Connery has been cited manifesting disdain for the character that made him famous and he has gone as far as to reject the possibility to ever be Bond again. You cannot make an "all-Bonds" movie without Connery, still the quintessential Bond. A pity, really. None of them is getting any younger (especially Moore and Connery) and this would have been the right time to make such film since  it is in this year, 2012, that the franchise turns 50. Besides (spoiler ahead) in  Skyfall it is revealed that 007 has indeed h...

Probably not. Stephenie Meyer, the author, has clearly stated that she is not planning to write any more novels about her vampires or her werewolves; so no more Bella or Edward or Jacob. It is not a matter or money, Meyer has been offered a good deal but that is not enough to convince her. Perhaps what happens to her is that as a writer she has grown beyond her characters and is ready to try something else. Understandable. After writing Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (a companion story of the other four), she is probably a bit fed up of her own success and wants something else, just like J.K.Rowling probably after Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was published. Can Meyer grow as a writer beyond her successful vampires? That depends on what she still has to offer. If she has more interesting stories to tell then I for one wants to know what she has to offer . If she wants to become a "serious" writer, she is goi...

¡Por fin! Let's face it: George Lucas is already too old and too tired for making more Star Wars movies or any movie for that matter. His last effort Red Devils did not receive the appreciation he felt it deserved. And he had confessed it once and again that making any of the Star Wars was every time, a titanic effort. We know that producing a movie, even a cheap one, is not easy. But still...how can you please a geek? How can you ask him not to dream or keep pushing for his dream movies to be made? That can't be. Lucas started a snowball in the seventies and then he wanted to walk away from it leaving us with the desire for more. That was a no-no. Of course his position is understandable. He is no longer the young visionary director that filmed Star Wars.  He probably wants and needs to rest and enjoy the rewards of his work. We could not really ask for more, could we? Luckily, Lucas decided to take steps to make sure that his legacy would endure. First, he named a new ...

Who's Iron Man's fiercest enemy? None other than the Mandarin, an enemy that kept a low profile during recent years to the point of disappearing entirely because of the fact that it was Chinese. At the time this character was created the political map was a bit different and everything that was related to Communism was associated to something evil (it was the time of The Cold War after all). But ever since the end of the eighties that perception began to change and  The Mandarin was deemed an expression of racism and thus better put aside. Now when you see Iron Man 3 you will see that the actor they are using is not any Oriental but Ben Kingsley, an Oscar award winner for his outstanding performance as Mahatma Ghandi. The Mandarin was never completely defeated for he was in possession of ten rings that made him amazingly powerful. BTW, the armor in the pic is not Iron Man's. Apparently, that's a new model of War Machine's armor               ...

Thie is the teaser poster showing Hugh Jackman as the character that made him famous. Apparently, they have been working in another Wolverine movie which will be out in 2013. Does this one continue the story begun in Wolverine : Origins or is it another reboot?  Wolverine has plenty of stories to make another film and then twenty more since Wolverine himself is a lot older than he looks (he's probably as old as Captain America). The former Weapon X ages quite slowly due to his mutant power, his "healing factor", that makes him immune to most diseases and thus helps Wolverine to stand the ravages of time much better than a normal human being (or a mutant).  In one of his adventures Logan (his real name) once traveled to Japan where he made some of his fiercest enemies and also started yet another sentimental relationship. Well, that's the thing with heroes. They never stop....anywhere.

   The greatest science fiction series ever made just turned one year older last Friday, September 7. The story of Star Trek spans for centuries in the future and gives us a somewhat slightly optimistic vision of our fate as a species, describing the existence of a Federation of Planets to which Earth belongs to. A civilization that has learned of the tragedy and pain caused by past mistakes and lives now under a strict code of respect to whoever and whatever is different. It is a society that has successfully made the transition to spacefare and regularly sends starships to explore the universe with the Enterprise being the most important of those. Each version of the Enterprise (there have been more than one)  has accopmplished great deeds thanks in no small part to the crews that have worked in each one, some of them legendary like the crew of the original series. Names such as Captain Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scotty and others are now part of the pop culture. There ha...

Where was the Joker during the events of the Dark knight Rises ? Well, he was dead, in a way. We know what happened to Heath Ledger the actor that played the Joker in The Dark Knight , but that does not necessarily mean the Joker also had to be absent from TDKR. It is known there was some footage unused from TDK and some of that material could have been used in the third movie. Technology operates "miracles" these days, we know that.  Many fans waited eagerly to see scenes somehow adapted so the Joker could make a surprise appearance in TDKR. It would have been a great addition to an already great film, but for one reason or another, Christopher Nolan, the film director,did not want to go into that. To the dismay of many Batman fans, the Joker was not in the last film though he survived his last encounter with Batman. I know it sounds cold but Heath Ledger was the one who was dead not the Joker. I know putting the Joker there would have perhaps been considered a lack o...

The question I had in mind before I saw this movie was: "Can it get any crazier than the first one?" And the answer is yes, a lot, even messed up and grotesque at some points but fun in the end. It's intended for adults more than any other age group.  What is the reason behind the success of the Hangover series? (it's a series since there is another sequel coming next year) I think that the idea is basically original. A group of friends that get so drunk, thanks to what one of them has the others drink, that they end up forgetting everything the did while they were drunk. There is also the fact that they did things that do not even match their personalities, terrible things. It is like their wild side were given freedom. It is said the plot of the first movie was based on real events, but I prefer to think that this is the story of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by a comedian. The location, and the occasion, picked for these hangovers to happen was importan...

Gulliver's Travels is a movie, now in DVD format, to watch only if you really have nothing else to do. Though the visual effects are not so bad, the movie as a whole is an entire mess. Followers of Jack Black's not-so-unique-style might like it but won't truly understand it unless they read the story written by the Irish author, Jonathan Swift, in the eighteen century. Unlike the film the book is a masterpiece.

w Sweet dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree, I traveled the world and ...(you know the rest). This is a movie that very much reminded me of Brazil (1985) Same as in that film the main character retreats in a reality less harmful than the one she actually lives. Not a family movie since it begins with a story of child abuse.  It´s really intended for those who like action mixed with fantasy and in particular for those who fantasize and fashion entire alternate realities where they are not pushovers but heavy hitters (even if you are a skinny and fragile sweet-looking blonde teenager). The best of the movie is the sequences dreamed by the protagonist and somehow shared    by other girls unfairly imprisoned in the same center where she is. As it´s usual in these movies the soundtrack is impeccable including the immortal "Sweet Dreams". The ending is a bit bitter but hopeful, unlike Brazil the ending of which is anything but happy.

I wonder how many fictional invasions Earth can stand, or to be more precise, the U.S. For some reason, Hollywood execs honestly believe that if our planet is ever invaded, those invaders will pick the American soil to begin with. Why not China where there are more people? Or Latin America that is more vulnerable in terms of weapons and logistics? But of course it´s not about being realistic. They only want to sell tickets and their main market is precisely the U.S. It stands to reason that the audience will feel more identified if they see their own cities and people being destroyed. If you have seen Skyline you will find it inferior if compared to other movies with a similar theme such as Cloverfield or Independence Day. The only original thing here is how the aliens of this film plan to eliminate all human beings...they... erm... collect them, separate their brains and spines and attach them to drones of their own making. Mankind is hopeless.  Great special effects, but r...

Saw XXVII: The Long Yawn. It's the year 3000, messages from a forgotten character who called himself Jigsaw (yawn) have been unearthed. People have been found after suffering unnecessarily painful and bizarre deaths (yawn). The authorities believe Jigsaw has managed to find another disciple even in this time... You know though I came up with this sketchy plot, the always money-hungry Hollywood execs could easily come up with something similar. It´s amazing that they took this concept and stretched it out to make seven films. Make no mistake, though I don´t like gory movies I enjoyed the first installment of Saw because there were some interesting elements in it. One was this aged man who happens to harbor a dementially sadistic imagination and decides to take revenge upon those who didn´t help him with his disease or mocked him. He also wants to teach them a lesson in the process, a lesson which if learnt correctly could mean the salvation of the victims he chooses. It ´s so o...