Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

The film El Cantante presents the life of Hector Lavoe. Considered the most talented Salsa singer of all time, Hector Lavoe was born Hector Perez in Puerto Rico in 1946. His father was a musician and thus Hector received formal musical training as a child. Encouraged to explore the saxophone, young Hector instead turned his [...]

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Will the film Live Free or Die Hard finally be the end of the John McClain action series? I guess the box office will have the ultimate say. This latest edition shows that Hollywood can still come up with new bad guys and fresh ways to kill movie characters. An ex-government software engineer decides that [...]

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The history of the Transformers is long and lush. One segment of the giant robot wave of the 1980?Äôs, the Transformers stood alongside others like Macross and Mobile Suit Gundam. As usual, such trendy animation as Japanese giant robots made its way to the American market. In part because of a company called Hasbro (ever [...]

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The adventures of Harry Potter and his companions ramps up to a more mature storyline in the latest effort, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This time, He of the Name That Should Not Be Spoken returns to finish what he started in the previous film of the series. At the same time, [...]

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The documentary Sicko is Michael Moore?Äôs appraisal of the managed care health system. To most effectively illustrate the state of the U.S. health care setup, Mr. Moore interviewed end users, physicians, HMO workers, nurses and pharmacists. The film takes the viewer to England, France, Canada and Cuba as a means to compare and contrast heath [...]

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You are probably familiar with the events surrounding the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl. Working as a journalist in Karachi, Pakistan, Mr. Pearl was abducted while pursuing an interview. The film A Mighty Heart was presented in a docudrama style and focused on the efforts of Pakistani and U.S. [...]

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The Fantastic Four maintain a public image as the perfect team. In reality, as with all teams, the Four have their idiosyncrasies. In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the group dynamics of team F4 are rehashed. The Silver Surfer arrives, calmly heralding the imminent destruction of Earth. Meanwhile, Dr. Doom escapes and resumes [...]

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In the movie Ocean?Äôs 13, Danny Ocean and crew come to the aid of the man who mentored them early in their careers. Business, whether legit or criminal, has undocumented codes of conduct. When someone defiles those special standards, who best to rectify the digression than the friends of the one who was violated? As [...]

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The film Mr. Brooks stars Kevin Costner as one Earl Brooks, Man of the Year in Portland, successful business owner, loving father and husband. Deep in his mental closet, Mr. Brooks has a gruesome secret. That secret gets to come out and play in Mr. Brooks. Sound a little like The Twilight Zone? Indeed, the [...]

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The third chapter in the saga of Captain Jack Sparrow is a bloated, convoluted tale. A pirate’s life was rough. Buccaneers had to deal with constant exposure, hazardous ventures and bad food. The goal: Get rich or die trying. Instead, in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the characters and their inter-relationships are at [...]

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In Spiderman 3, there was a lot going on. For starters, there was more than one villain to be dealt with. But first Peter Parker had to get his personal issues back into their cages. The film shifts through tears of a spider to anti-spider to just plain Spiderman. The sweeping scope of the plot [...]

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In 28 Weeks Later, it has been more than six months since the events of 28 Days Later. England is in a shambles. Citizens who survived the plague now live in ‘security zones,’ supervised by U.S. military forces. Watchful for a return of the hordes of blood drooling zombies, the military remains ready to execute [...]

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The movie Next stars Nicolas Cage, Jessica Biel, Peter Falk and Julianne Moore. Cage plays Chris Johnson, a Vegas performer who possesses a special gift: He can visualize his future events. Julianne Moore wants Johnson to use his power to solve a very imminent crisis. Though his foresight is limited, Johnson is a one trick [...]

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From the same team that created Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz is another spoof, this time targeting the cinematic crime drama. Officer Nick Angel is an efficiently effective constable at a London precinct. Suddenly, officer Angel is transferred to the tiny village of Sandford. Apparently, he is so good that Nick’s fellow officers felt [...]

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This latest examination of the Zodiac serial killer features an excellent cast and attention to detail. The film presents the events via the eyes of several detectives and reporters who worked the case. The movie focuses on Robert Graysmith, at the time a staff artist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In real life Graysmith wrote [...]

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