The weekend is finally here!  After five long, tiring days of work, school, and fixing all of your friends’ problems, Saturday and Sundare are here to save you.

What better way to kick off your two days of freedom than by going to see some new movies?  You may have caught the previews for some of these, but all of them are out today…

Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist — If you loved Juno, you’ll like this movie
Beverly Hills Chihuahua — This is for all the animal lovers out there
How To lose Friends and Alienate People — Possibly your life, in a movie starring Kristin Dunst
An American Carol — A spoof on Michael Moore and his fims. Pure satire comedy!
Flash of Genius — A Man Against Machine docudrama
Blindness — Blindness is contagious
Rachael Getting Married — Family drama and a wedding, what more can you ask for?

I wouldn’t be the movie buff that I am without saying my pick of the week, and sorry to tell you, it’s not Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, even though I am looking forward to seeing it. My pick is Blindness. This movie is so close to real life it’s scary, and it doesn’t hurt that Dr. Christina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy is in it.

So there you have it, the new releases for this week!  Now go grab your significant other, the one you’re hooking up with, or your best friends, and enjoy a movie tonight.

I’ve got a bone to pick with Disney’s latest pet project. The movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua, opening this Friday, looks like the costliest waste of talent, resources, and brainpower to hit the mainstream media since Swing Vote.

I first heard about the movie when I saw its extended trailer in previews for Wall-E this summer. It was just a mess of digitally edited footage of Chihuahuas singing (if you could call emphatic yelps of “Chihuahua!” singing) and prancing about Mayan ruins in Mexico. The trailer told you nothing about the plot of the movie itself, and even misrepresented the title of the film. If it’s called Beverly Hills Chihuahua, what are these pups doing in Chichen Itza?

Well, now that the ad campaign for this movie has revved up for its release, I’ve learned a lot more about BHC and I certainly don’t like what I see, for a few reasons.

First, and probably most egregious, is the fact that BHC is blatantly racist. It is rife with potshots at Mexican and Latino culture. Take, for example, the over-promoted scene in which another dog asks the prissy protagonist (Chloe, from the Hills), “don’t you speak Spanish?” When she stutters, the mastiff replies, “Hello? You’re a Chihuahua, m’hija!” As if the nature of one’s heritage determines one’s linguistic abilities. You wouldn’t walk up to a person who looked Hispanic and deride them for not speaking Spanish, so why is it okay for dogs to do it? Is this the kind example we want to be setting for children, at whom the film is targeted?

Moral repugnancies aside, BHC doesn’t look like it’s going to be racking up any points for creativity. If you include such colloquial gems as “oh no she didn’t!” and “say hello to my little friends!” among the funniest moments in the movie (why else would you include it in the trailer?), there can’t be much else worth checking out. Seriously, Disney, is it still 1992? No one has said “oh no she didn’t!” in all seriousness since overalls were popular. Read More »