Posts tagged Ben Schwartz
This Is Where I Leave You “And Stay with You Forever”
Sep 29th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU is a very funny movie with a very unfortunate title, but with a very good ensemble cast about a family who all get back together for a week in order to honor their father’s wishes when he dies.
Jason Bateman plays Judd Altman, and the movie begins when he comes home early from work and finds his wife in bed with his boss having sex.
Tina Fey plays Wendy Altman, Judd’s sister, and she calls Judd while he is still trying to process the new development in his life to tell Judd that their father died, and a dying wish of his was that the whole Altman family return home to sit shiva and mourn his death for seven days even though he wasn’t a practicing Jew.
Jane Fonda plays Hillary Altman, the mother who is a child psychotherapist with a very successful book that contains more information about her children than they cared to share, but she tells them, “Secrets are cancer to a family.”
Adam Driver plays Phillip Altman, the baby of the family, and although he has fancy possessions he is still regarded as worthless, and he shows up with his much older, richer girlfriend, who is a psychotherapist.
Corey Stoll plays Paul Altman, the oldest of the children, who stayed in town to help his father run the family sporting goods store, who is married to Alice, one of Judd’s old girlfriends and who badly wants a baby, but she and Paul are still childless.
And then there are other assorted family members and children, as well as another old girlfriend of Judd’s, Penny, played by Rose Byrne, who not only still lives in town but who also still has longings for Judd.
The family sits on the couch in the living room to receive neighbors and friends who come by to pay their respects, but when they can’t take the bickering anymore or the infighting among them, some sneak out of the house as often as possible.
Also, unexpected people show up unannounced which adds to the discomfort of the family, but delight to the audience, and some scenes are downright hilarious.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will think your pants will never dry.
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU will stay with you forever.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
This Is Where I Leave You – Movie Trailer
Sep 22nd
When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide-driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.
“Runner Runner” a Loser Loser
Oct 13th
“Loser Loser”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Runner Runner stars Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck in a movie about offshore gambling, and it brings to mind an eternal truth about gambling: “The house always wins.”
In this case the house is the movie theater, and the loser is you.
Timberlake plays Richie Furst, who is earning his masters degree in finance at Princeton and is also a teaching assistant, but he spends a lot of his time playing online poker, which causes him to be called into the dean’s office for a meeting.
The dean tells Richie that he has his hands in his fellow students’ pants, he is an affiliate for online gaming, and then says, “You will close up shop immediately.”
Like all gambling suckers, Richie doesn’t listen to reason, he plays online poker again on a popular Website, bets everything he has, and loses it.
However, Richie’s two buddies and colleagues use statistics to convince him that the Website cheated him, and so Richie travels to Costa Rica, where the Website is located, to confront the owner of the Website.
Affleck plays Ivan Block, the owner of the gambling Website, and after Richie learns that Block is like The Wizard of Oz and nobody gets close to him, Richie manages to get an invitation to meet Ivan on Ivan’s boat.
Ivan tells Richie that he thinks Richie is exceptional, and Ivan offers Richie a job working for him.
After Richie proves himself to Ivan, Richie now believes that he has almost everything he wanted, and he invites his two buddies from Princeton to come down to Costa Rica and work with him.
However, Ivan confesses that he hates his business and that it is not fun anymore, even though it allows Ivan to do whatever he wants. There are payoffs and bribes to local officials that are necessary for him to run his business, and it is also very dangerous.
Yes, Richie gets beaten up a couple of times doing his job for Ivan, who even knew it would happen.
Ivan tells Richie that everybody has something worth more to them than money, and in Richie’s case it is his father.
You know how some movies seem to have been made just because of the exotic location? This is one of those movies.
Runner Runner is nothing more than a loser loser.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
