Posts tagged DVD
“Your Sister’s Sister” with The Lady or the Tiger? Ending
0July 23, 2012
“The Lady or the Tiger? Ending”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Your Sister’s Sister is a pleasant little independent film with a simple story, only three main characters, but a gimmicky ending reminiscent of the ending to a famous 1882 short story known as “The Lady or the Tiger?”
Of course, these days what does an ending matter when so many movies come out on DVD with alternate endings after a movie has a theatrical run with only one ending to it?
Now, the short story was written by Frank R. Stockton, and it was the most famous story that CENTURY MAGAZINE ever published. In it, a young man falls in love with the king’s daughter, and he is condemned by the king and forced to choose between two doors in a giant arena.
Behind one door is a beautiful maiden who would be given to him in marriage, and behind the other door is a ravenous tiger. The princess learns the secret of the doors and signals the young man to open the door on the right, but the story ends by asking Who comes out, the lady or the tiger?
I will explain how this non-ending is reminiscent of the ending to this movie at the end of the review.
The movie begins at a party and eulogy for Tom a year after Tom’s death. Jack, played by Mark Duplass, was Tom’s brother, and he says some nasty things about Tom.
Iris, played by Emily Blunt, had dated Tom, but she left him before Tom died. She also happens to be Jack’s best friend, but there is nothing romantic between them.
Iris goes up to Jack after his speech about Tom, and she says, “You just need some head space, okay?”
Iris offers to let Jack use her family’s vacation cabin on a nearby island for a week and says that he will have the greatest time doing nothing.
So, Jack bicycles to the ferry that takes him to the island, and he manages to find the cabin late at night.
However, a woman named Hannah, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, is staying in the cabin. She is Iris’s sister, and she is trying to get over her recent breakup with another woman after a seven-year relationship.
And then the next day Iris herself shows up unexpectedly and surprises them both.
Your Sister’s Sister ends after more story.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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“The Five-Year Engagement” More Like the Five-Year Movie
0May 5, 2012
“More Like the Five-Year Movie”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Five-Year Engagement was made by the same people who made the 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and so it must be good, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is good in some places, and no, it is not good in other places, mainly the scenes that go on for too long and the scenes that should have been cut in the first place.
Jason Segal and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet. They met a year ago at a New Year’s Eve party, which we keep seeing in flashbacks at various times throughout the movie.
They get engaged, and during a meeting with Tom’s relatives to plan the engagement party, one of the men comments that the men will all be wearing yarmulkes, of course. Violet says to Tom that he doesn’t have a yarmulke, and he replies that he does and, “It’s in my Jewish drawer.”
The story begins in San Francisco, and you can guess from the title that the engagement isn’t going to go smoothly, right?
Correct. Violet is working on her doctorate in psychology, and she gets accepted to a position at the University of Michigan, which will take two years to complete.
However, because Tom is a chef in a restaurant, he says that he can always find a job anywhere, and so they decide that Tom will move to Michigan with Violet, and they will postpone the wedding for two years.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, couldn’t they get married in San Francisco before moving to Michigan, or couldn’t they even get married in Michigan?
But if they did that, then the filmmakers would have to change the title of the movie, wouldn’t they?
Well, you can guess from the title that the two-year plan isn’t going to go smoothly, either, right? Violet’s work at the University of Michigan gets extended, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but at one point the situation gets so bad that it looks like there won’t be any wedding at all.
Now, you know how the DVD version of some movies contains deleted scenes? Maybe the DVD of this movie will thankfully be missing some scenes that should have been cut.
The Five-Year Engagement lives up to its reputation of being a comedy, but it is more like the five-year movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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“The Social Network” Are We Too Linked In?
0October 6, 2010
“Are We Too Linked In?”
THE SOCIAL NETWORK is the story of the creation of Facebook.com and its aftermath, and if you don’t know what Facebook is, what planet have you been living on for the past six or seven years?
Although it isn’t a documentary, the film is based on the 2009 book by Ben Mezrich, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES: THE FOUNDING OF FACEBOOK, A TALE OF SEX, MONEY, GENIUS, AND BETRAYAL, which pretty much describes the story, but even the book contains a lengthy disclaimer admitting it contains “fudged facts” for the benefit of a good story.
At any rate, David Fincher directed, Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, and Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard drop-out who created the world’s most popular social-networking Internet Website and who has been called the world’s youngest billionaire.
And if we can believe the book, the movie, and many other corroborating accounts, the genesis for Facebook occurred in 2003 when Zuckerberg was a geeky sophomore and got dumped by his girlfriend.
What happened next in the life of this socially inept computer genius is the stuff of this marvelous film and the events that affected his career and now is a part of half-a-billion users worldwide.
Imagine the box-office results if every Facebook user wants to see this film.
Stung by his girlfriend’s rejection, Zuckerberg goes back to his dorm room, blogs about the breakup, and then fueled by quite a few beers, hacks into the servers of the Harvard computer system, downloads photos of coeds, and then creates the Facemash domain, which asks visitors to identify which of two girls is “hotter.”
The response is so successful that it crashes the Harvard.edu Website.
Enter the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. They have had an idea for a Harvard social-network site called “The Harvard Connection,” and they approach Zuckerberg to build it for them. The rest, as they say, as does the subtitle of the source book, is “sex, money, genius, and betrayal.”
Zuckerberg’s best friend, initial backer, and original partner in his vision to expand a computer social network beyond Harvard is Eduardo Saverin, and the film consists of interlocking scenes of the two lawsuits against Zuckerberg and flashbacks to the events.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK brings to mind the question, “Are we too linked in to the Internet and modern technology?”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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“The Town” Not Pretty, but Good and Exciting
0September 22, 2010
“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.”
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“The American” The Red Herring
0September 14, 2010
“The Red Herring”
THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.
Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.
Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”
What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.
The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.
So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.
He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.
Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.
Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.
Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.
As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.
Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.
THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
