Congratulations to Chase, JT, and Guillermo, all of whom won passes to see Ouija, the new horror movie coming out next week.
I didn’t want to mention this before, but Ouija sounds suspiciously like the 1980s classic Witchboard. That movie starred Tawny Kitaen, so you know it was good.
Clearly, we should all be on the lookout for any future movies that address the problem of demonic mass-produced board games.
I may have mentioned, once or twice, that I am like many Hispanics in that I love horror movies. So it’s no surprise that just about the only contests I have on this site consist of tickets to see horror movies.
For example, I’m offering you the chance to win passes to a screening of Ouija, the new horror movie coming out on Halloween. In the film, a group of friends awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board (this was probably not very smart of them).
You can catch it in one of the following cities:
Dallas
El Paso
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
All you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) about anything you please. Just make sure to tell me what city you plan to see the movie in, and tell me what names (up to two people) I should put on the guest list.
I’ll announce the contest winners in the next week or so.
The Ouija board tells me I will have many takers on this one.
As I am fond of mentioning, I live in beautiful Southern California, where I frequently soak up the sun, hike in the hills, hit the beach, and hobnob with celebrities.
Well, in truth, I have rarely hobnobbed in general, and even fewer times with anyone who could remotely be called a celebrity. But we LA residents do see A-listers out and about on occasion.
Very few of those stars are Hispanic, as I’ve pointed out before. But now we have statistical evidence that Latinos are not getting their shot at the silver screen.
A new study shows that over the last six years, there has been “no meaningful difference in the representation of characters from underrepresented backgrounds.”
Since 2008, the number of Hispanics onscreen rose from 3.3 percent to 4.9 percent. Latinos are about 17% of the American population, so Hispanic representation in film would have to triple to even be close to reflecting reality.
In fact, another study found that there are actually “fewer Latino lead actors in the entertainment industry today than there were seventy years ago.” Ouch…
Now is a good time to point out that Hispanics (including me) are avid fans of the cinema. In fact, Latinos bought more than one-quarter of the tickets to movies last year. And we don’t even want to get into how much we support certain genres (e.g., horror movies) more than most people.
But there was one positive note in the report. Surprisingly, Hispanic females were more likely to be featured in popular films than were white females or Asian females.
Still, even that comes with a caveat. You see, “Hispanic females were also more likely to be shown either partially or totally nude onscreen than any other race [and] seem to be more hypersexualized than their female counterparts from other groups.”
Yes, when it comes to American movies, Latinas are both underrepresented and underdressed.
Of course, the idea that the entertainment industry would objectify a Latina is ludicrous.
Yup, just plain crazy.
Like many Hispanics, I love horror movies. Zombies, in particular, are perennially cool in my book. So I’m especially pleased that this site’s latest contest combines zombies with the future of filmmaking.
I’m talking about Halley, a Mexican zombie movie currently available on Vimeo On Demand. Check out the film here.
The film turns the classic zombie film into a hauntingly surreal reflection on alienation and loneliness. Halley follows the main character’s surrender to his body’s decomposition, as he withdraws from the world of the living.
I will provide the winner of the Halley contest with a free screening access code. To be entered into the drawing, all you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) about anything you please.
If you win, I’ll email you the code. By the way, I won’t make your contact info public, so don’t worry about that.
I’ll announce the contest winner in the next week or so.
Until then, remember one key point:
Always aim for the head…
Back in the day, nobody was more intimidating than Ice Cube. Then he entered a mid-career phase of playing the cuddly teddy bear. But recently, he’s returned to being the toughest mofo on the block.
You can see his latest incarnation in Ride Along.
I’m offering you the chance to win passes to a screening of the movie in one of the following cities:
Chicago
Dallas
El Paso
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
San Jose
The film is about a fast-talking guy who joins his girlfriend’s brother—a hot-tempered cop—to patrol the streets of Atlanta. The guy gets entangled in the officer’s latest case, and to prove that he deserves his future bride, he must survive all kinds of hijinks over the next twenty-four hours. John Leguizamo is around to represent la raza.
All you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) about anything you please. Just make sure to tell me what city you plan to see the movie in, so I can allocate the passes.
If you win, I’ll email you the tickets. By the way, I won’t make your contact info public, so don’t worry about that.
I’ll announce the contest winners in the next week or so.
If you’re lucky enough to win, just remember to tell ‘em where you’re from.
I’ve written before about the poor representation of Latinos at the Oscars, and in the world of cinema in general.
So I was pleased to find out that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the people who hand out the little gold men) have recently decided to get on the Latino bandwagon and throw open the doors to more Hispanics.
The Academy just released its list of new members, and of the 276 additional people who will get to vote on Best Picture, there are 22 Latinos.
Among the new members are Jennifer Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Michael Pena, and, yes, Danny Trejo.
That’s right, Machete himself is now a member of the Academy.
How cool is that?
Congratulations to KnuckleBaller, of Chicago, who won passes to see a screening of Man of Steel in last week’s contest.
As many people have pointed out, Superman entered the country illegally and has apparently never gotten his green card.
But you won’t catch me dissing America’s number-one superhero icon. That’s like chewing on a big old chunk of kryptonite.
According to one survey, the Superman logo is the second most recognized symbol in the world, right after the Christian cross.
I have my doubts about the accuracy of that survey, particularly because other symbols (e.g., “$”) are pretty popular. But I think we can all agree that Superman is, at the very least, exceedingly well known.
So I’m happy to offer you the chance to win passes to a screening of Man of Steel, the latest big-screen version of the Superman story, in one of the following cities:
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
El Paso
Los Angeles
Miami
New York
Phoenix
San Diego
San Francisco
All you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) about anything you please. Just make sure to tell me what city you plan to see the movie in, so I can allocate the passes.
If you win, I’ll email you the tickets. By the way, I won’t make your contact info public, so don’t worry about that.
I’ll announce the contest winners in the next week or so.
In the meantime, just try to keep that Superman theme song from playing in your head.
Congratulations to Gin X, who won passes to see Tom Cruise’s new movie Oblivion. The film is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth. So I’m assuming it’s speculative fiction based on what would happen if the Republicans ever win the presidency again.
Yeah, it’s an obvious joke. But it could have been worse. I could have said something about Scientology.
In any case, I hope Gin X likes the movie. Stay tuned for the next contest.
When you’re asked where you’re going, wouldn’t it be really cool to smirk and say, “To Oblivion”?
Well, that works, if you’re actually going to see the movie Oblivion. And you can see it if you win this site’s latest contest.
The film stars Tom Cruise as one of the last remaining humans living on a post-apocalyptic Earth. He rescues a beautiful stranger, and pretty soon things get kooky for him. Morgan Freeman is around to lend gravitas.
You can enter for the chance to win passes to a screening in one of the following cities:
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Dallas
All you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) about anything you please. Just make sure to tell me what city you plan to see the movie in, so I can allocate the passes.
If you win, I’ll email you the tickets. By the way, I won’t make your contact info public, so don’t worry about that.
I’ll announce the contest winners in the next week or so.
In the meantime, keep prepping for that doomsday scenario. Just in case.
