Posts tagged Emily Blunt
“Looper” about Time-Travel Assassins
Oct 11th
“Time-Travel Assassins”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Looper is a pretty good movie about time travel that uses the classic paradoxes about time travel, but doesn’t bother going into too much detail trying to explain them.
That is why they are called “paradoxes.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, and Bruce Willis stars as Joe, too. I mean, “also,” not the number “2,” because they are both playing the same person. So, let me call the Willis character Old Joe.
The story begins in 2044 in Kansas, and Joe is an assassin for the mob 30 years in the future who is called a “looper.”
You see, even though time travel is illegal in the future, the mob uses it in order to get rid of people they want killed. If people are killed in the past, then they never existed in the future, right?
Then Joe tells us in a voice-over that the mob boss of the future, who is called The Rainmaker, is closing all the loops by sending his assassins’ future selves back in time to be killed by their younger selves, and he says, “This is called ‘letting your loop run’; it’s not a good thing.”
Joe is notified of the time that a victim will show up, and it occurs out in a field where Joe has already made disposing of the body easy. The victim suddenly appears with a hood on, and Joe blasts the person with his weapon, a blunderbuss that can’t hit anything over 15 yards.
Joe is paid with bars of silver strapped to the victims’ bodies, and he is saving for his future and learning French, because he plans to retire and move to France.
However, Joe knows about “closing the loop,” and so he is not completely surprised when Old Joe shows up as a victim.
Then we get some flash-forwards into the future that explain Old Joe’s life and how he suddenly shows up in 2044 in Kansas, but in different circumstances from Joe’s other victims that allows Old Joe to escape from Joe.
And so the rest of the movie is about both Joes trying to kill his other self in order to get out of the dilemma he is in, which also involves a Kansas woman named Ana, played by Emily Blunt.
Looper closes all the loops and then manages to end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Your Sister’s Sister” with The Lady or the Tiger? Ending
Jul 23rd
“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.”
“The Five-Year Engagement” More Like the Five-Year Movie
May 5th
“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.”
