Posts tagged Big Daddy
“Django Unchained” Is Typical Tarantino Overindulgence
Jan 6th
“Typical Tarantino Overindulgence”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Django Unchained was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and it is a terrific movie for the first two hours.
Unfortunately, the movie is three hours long, and the last hour is full of Tarantino’s self-indulgence at its worst.
Some people would say that all of Tarantino’s movies are self-indulgent.
Jamie Foxx plays Django, he is a slave, and the time is 1858, or two years before the start of the Civil War, as a title so conveniently informs the audience, along with the fact that we are in Texas.
Django is in a group with four other slaves who are being marched on foot by two white men on horses when they are encountered by Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz.
Dr. Schultz has been looking for the group, and he asks if any of the slaves is named Django.
When Django speaks up, Dr. Schultz says, “Then you’re exactly the one I am looking for.”
Dr. Schultz buys Django for $125, but the transaction is much more complicated than that.
You see, Dr. Schultz is German, he used to be a dentist, but now he is a bounty hunter, and he is looking for three men known as the Brittle brothers, but he doesn’t know what they look like, and somehow he knows that Django can identify them.
Logic in his storytelling is not one of Tarantino’s strong points, not that he cares.
So, Dr. Schultz tells Django that he will make him a free man if Django will help Dr. Schultz find the Brittle brothers and capture them dead or alive.
After a couple of encounters with the law that have surprise endings that are also humorous, Dr. Schultz and Django are in Tennessee on a plantation owned by Big Daddy, played by Don Johnson, which has another surprise ending.
In return for Django’s help as his partner, Dr. Schultz agrees to help Django find his wife, Broomhilda, whose name intrigues the German dentist.
So their travels now take them to Mississippi and a plantation owned by Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, whose head slave is played by Samuel L. Jackson.
Here is where the movie falls apart with blood, gore, and excessive length and self-indulgence.
Django Unchained is typical Tarantino overindulgence, and as I said, you can walk out after two hours.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Kick-Ass” Surprisingly and Thoroughly Enjoyable
Apr 21st
Surprisingly and Thoroughly Enjoyable
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
KICK-ASS is a surprising little gem that will knock your socks off with entertaining enjoyment if you just allow it to.
It is based on a comic book, but in this case the comic book was being written at the same time the movie was in development, and so you can cut it some slack as far as source material goes.
Also, even though comic books are pretty much directed toward a young, unsophisticated audience of teenage geeks, nerds, and dweebs, and even though this movie looks as if it is directed toward that same audience, it is actually a very sophisticated tongue-in-cheek send-up of such superhero movies that are based on comic books, or even “graphic novels,” about superheroes, which, after all, are imaginary, remember?
When the movie begins, we meet young Dave Lizewski, a teenage boy who tells us that he was the last person to expect to be a superhero. He says that his only super power is that he is invisible to pretty girls, and we see an embarrassing example of that at his school locker.
Dave is just a regular guy, and he asks his two buddies, “How come nobody has ever tried to be a superhero?”
Dave is reminded that superheroes exist only in comic books, but that doesn’t stop him from achieving his dream, because he believes that just the perfect combination of optimism and naivete is all it takes to become a superhero.
Not to be daunted, Dave creates a secret identity of Kick-Ass, but his first two attempts at stopping crime end disastrously.
Meanwhile, we meet Damon Macready, played by Nicolas Cage in his best role and movie in years. Damon is an ex-cop who was unjustly sent to prison, he is out now, and he has revenge on his mind.
Damon has an 11-year-old daughter, Mindy, whom he is training in being an expert in martial arts and weaponry. Together they make up their own version of a dynamic duo of crime fighters with the secret identities of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, who is a little sweetheart.
Yes, there is violence and strong language, but the violence comes with laughs and even brings tears to your eyes, sometimes with joy.
KICK-ASS is a real kick in the–well, you know where–and I surprisingly and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
