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cinema dominicano
March 27, 2009¡Damas y caballeros! ¡wercome to Dominiwood!
Ok, so perhaps these two upcoming flicks are not centralized in the entire history and diverse culture of my beloved 60 something percent of the island Hispaniola. They also don't have an all-Dominican cast either a-la-slumdog millionaire, but we quisqueyanos have to take whatever shows us up in technicolor and the big screen.
And after a poor, but still appreciated, attempt by reknowned and respected actor Jeffrey Wright at a dominican character in the last Shaft flick (I would link a clip of that here, but we are a family-friendly website, and quite frankly, Peoples Hernandez is a potty mouth) I'm quite exhilirated about both "Sugar" and the new "Fast and Furious" movie.
Both Sugar and Fast and Furious were filmed partly on location in the beautiful Quisqueya la bella, and both dealt with two things that are very Dominican in nature, racing and pelota (baseball for us platanos)
Sugar is a well told tale, pretty accurate in most parts, about an aspiring Dominican pitcher who plays good enough to peak the interest of a major league franchise and is sent to a minor league team in its farm system. But it's not all sugarcubes for Miguel "Azucar" Santos, the main character. The movie attempts to show the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune of making it as a baseball player from the DR. Considering the success we've had in baseball throughout the years (sans our dissapointing loss to the Netherlands in the WBC) it's pretty tough on a young boy from "la isla." to make his name among large names such as Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Juan Marichal and other luminaries.
Here's the trailer for "Sugar"
Fast and Furious needs no long intro. I don't think either Paul Walker or Vin Diesel are going for the oscar gold here. Just another twist in their story together. Michelle Rodriguez, who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent returns to her role as Diesel's girl and local girl bully. While I will watch this to see if I recognize any of the Dominican spots, I am looking forward to Rodriguez' performance in the upcoming "Trópico de Sangre" movie. This one won't be based on the popular novel "In the time of the butterflies" which had it's own film adaptation with a subpar Salma Hayek in the lead role, and an inspiring Edward James Olmos in the role of the failed cattle thief (couldn't they get a Dominicans to play at least one of the leads in this movie?)
Anywho, here's one for Fast and Furious, both flicks open nationwide on April 3
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Posted by Maurel Merette at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
