Lopez and her husband of an unexpectedly long three years, Marc Anthony, were at the premiere of their new film El Cantante at Times Square AMC Theater in New York last night. The film stars Lopez and Anthony as Puerto Rican salsa signer Hector Lavoe and his wife. Lavoe helped shape the future of Latin music in the 60s and 70s, and eventually succumbed to Aids brought on by drug addiction.
This movie is getting mixed reviews, and the prospects don’t look good at the box office. The music is said to be excellent and Lopez and Anthony have good on-screen chemistry, but it’s but not good enough to save the film, which some say has a thin plot and not enough character development. Variety cans the film, and says the visuals are average and seem more suited to television than the big screen.
Here is Variety’s summary:
For “El Cantante,” someone left the salsa out on the counter too long. A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, pic suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus, partly stemming from the need for producer-star Jennifer Lopez (whose shingle Nuyorican Prods. has nurtured the project) to have a co-leading part with substantial playing time alongside Marc Anthony, who portrays famed, drug-addled salsa star Hector Lavoe. While pic’s assured a few good weeks based on J-Lo’s fan base, this gig is headed South in short order.
I’ve also heard that it’s being called Gigli 2, and Cinemablend says “if someone manages to make a worse film this year that’ll be quite an accomplishment,” but it’s doubtful that it’s really that bad. Everyone has been guessing that even if it does have some redeeming qualities it will tank at the box office, and there’s speculation that J.Lo’s career is in trouble. Her last film which she produced and starred in, Bordertown, was said to give a B movie treatment to the important story of the real-life unsolved murders of hundreds of young women in Mexican border towns. It was met with harsh reviews at the Berlin film festival this year and has not yet been released in theaters after problems securing a distributor.
While Anthony and Lopez look happy in the pictures taken before the premiere, shown below, they look decidedly dejected after the film was shown, as seen in the header image above. All the other pictures I’ve seen of Anthony and Lopez leaving the premiere have them in the same foul mood. It looks as if it didn’t go well as all the pictures from the departure show them looking disappointed and/or upset.
There La Lopez goes again with the bad makeup. Her fashion isn’t terrible, but that bleeding peach lipstick that’s perfectly matched to the color of her Grecian-style dress needs to go. She also went overboard on the spray tan, but at least it’s brown and not orange. Still, she was looking rather pretty until the smile was wiped off her face completely, perhaps by the audience’s reaction to the film.
Maybe she’ll be in a better mood once she goes back to what she does best, music. She’ll be touring with her husband starting in the fall.
El Cantante is out in theaters on August 1 3.
Update: We may have been incorrect in assuming that the premiere did not go well, as a commentor claims to have been in the audience and says:
I was at the premier on Thurs and the audience reaction was incredible. Standing O’s all around. And rightfully so. I’m not saying J Lo is the best actress out there but with El Cantante she has something to really be proud of.
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