Posts tagged Blake Lively
“Savages” Bloody and Ironic
Jul 15th
“Bloody and Ironic”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Savages is the latest film directed by Oliver Stone, and it was also written by him along with Don Winslow, whose 2010 novel was the basis for the film.
The best-known members of the cast, but not necessarily the stars, are Blake Lively, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta, and Salma Hayek, and the story is about a Mexican drug cartel trying to move in on the successful marijuana business run by two best buddies in Southern California.
Lively plays Ophelia, a spoiled young rich girl who goes just by “O” and who is the girlfriend of both Chon and Ben, the successful marijuana growers and distributors who have been best friends since high school and whose pot is considered the best in all of California, if not the world.
O also narrates the story, and more than once she says, “Just because I’m telling you this story doesn’t mean I’m alive at the end.”
If she is alive at the end, that would be ironic, wouldn’t it?
On the other hand, if she is not alive at the end, that would also be ironic.
One day Chon and Ben receive an e-mail video from the Baja Cartel in Mexico that shows a bunch of bodies with decapitated heads and blood all over everything.
Then they receive an e-mail from the cartel wanting to meet the next day. Ben is afraid of the Mexicans, but Chon says he is not afraid of them. Of course, Chon is a former Navy SEAL who smuggled the marijuana seeds back to the U.S. from Afghanistan that got them started in the business.
Chon and Ben check in with Dennis, a DEA agent who is less than pristine in his duties, and Dennis advises them to take whatever deal they are offered rather than decapitation.
However, when Chon and Ben meet with the representatives of the Baja Cartel, they don’t like the deal they are offered and tell the representatives that they will think about it and meet again in 24 hours.
Ben wants to get out of the business altogether, but before they can do anything, the cartel kidnaps O and holds her prisoner, which forces their hand, because they will do anything to get O back safely.
And the rest of the movie is just about anything.
Savages is bloody and ironic.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Town” Not Pretty, but Good and Exciting
Sep 22nd
“Not Pretty, but Good and Exciting”
THE TOWN is the second film that Ben Affleck has directed, and he also stars in it along with Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper.
The story takes place in modern-day Charlestown, a square-mile rough neighborhood near Boston known for its criminals and unsolved murders, and sometimes the actors’ accents are so thick that it is difficult to understand what they are saying.
The film opens with a bank robbery, the four robbers all wearing skull masks, and they take the pretty bank manager hostage with them in their escape.
When they release Claire, the robbers take her driver’s license and tell her that if she talks to the FBI, they know where she lives and they will come to her home, rape her, and kill her.
Naturally, Claire has to talk to FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley, and while she is being questioned, she asks, “Should I have a lawyer here?”
Frawley tells Claire that anyone who lawyers up during questioning is usually guilty, and because Claire doesn’t want to be involved any more than she already is, she doesn’t tell Frawley one piece of information about the robbers that she observed.
Meanwhile, the leader of the robbers, Doug MacRay, follows Claire, meets her “accidentally,” they start talking, and he takes her out for a drink. She doesn’t know who Doug really is, they start dating, and at one point Claire tells Doug the information that she withheld from the FBI.
Claire tells Doug that on really sunny days, she always thinks of someone dying, because her younger brother died on such a day, which will play an important part in a later scene in the film.
Doug is planning another big robbery, but he tells his partner and childhood friend, Jim, and the rest of the team that it will be their last job, after which they will just hit bars.
This time the team all wear nun’s masks, and the getaway chase through the streets of Boston is exciting, especially when a bridge shows up.
Of course, whenever crime is involved, nothing ever goes on as planned.
THE TOWN is not pretty, but it sure is good, exciting entertainment, it’s dedicated to the good people of Charlestown, but made about the “bad” people, and I sure am glad it was.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”