Posts tagged Eric Bana
Lone Survivor – Movie Trailer
Feb 1st
LONE SURVIVOR, starring Mark Wahlberg, tells the story of four Navy SEALs on an ill-fated covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative who are ambushed by enemy forces in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Based on The New York Times bestseller, this story of heroism, courage and survival directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) also stars Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.
“Lone Survivor” Interesting and Exhausting
Jan 22nd
“Interesting and Exhausting”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
LONE SURVIVOR is based on the true story of a military operation in 2005 in Afghanistan that went terribly wrong.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Chief Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, a member of Navy SEAL Team 10, which took part in the operation after which Luttrell wrote a best-selling book about his experience.
The film and the story also have a Colorado connection, as one member of the SEAL team on the ground, Danny Dietz, played by Emile Hirsch, grew up in the Denver area.
The team was charged with capturing or killing a top Taliban leader named Ahmad Shah, who was known to be responsible for the deaths of many Americans in the military.
So, a team of four men are dropped on the ground in Afghanistan, and we hear the radio signal from the command plane above them say, “We’ll be with you for the next six hours; have a nice walk.”
Unfortunately, events begin to go wrong almost immediately when they get into position and an old man and two boys herding some goats stumble upon their location.
The team captures the goatherders, but their rules of engagement prevent them from harming unarmed prisoners, and when the team can’t communicate with their commanding officer back at base camp about what to do, after some disagreement among themselves, they let the three prisoners go unharmed, and now that the operation is compromised, they head for higher ground.
Then an army of Taliban soldiers finds them and engages them in a firefight that essentially is the rest of the movie.
There is an attempt to break up the nonstop bloody action with a couple of side stories about an Arabian horse wanted as a wedding present and the harassment of a new member back at base camp, but essentially the movie consists of the combat fighting between the team and the Taliban as the team is cut down to its title character.
How he survives after the fighting is over on the mountain is of interest and points out a culture clash, but at this point the audience is probably exhausted from everything that leads up to it.
As a story, the movie is interesting, but as a movie, it is exhausting.
LONE SURVIVOR leaves it up to the audience to decide whether to be interested or exhausted.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Closed Circuit” a Terrific Two-Pronged Thriller
Sep 7th
“Terrific Two-Pronged Thriller”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Closed Circuit is a terrific thriller about what is called the biggest high-profile murder case in British history.
Eric Bana stars as Martin Rose, who becomes the attorney for the defendant after the previous attorney committed suicide.
Or did he?
And to complicate matters, a woman, Claudia, whom Martin once had an affair with, is the defendant’s special advocate, and because of the sensitivity of the case to the government’s national interests, she is allowed to see information that not even the defendant, nor Martin, nor the general public will be allowed to know about.
Also, Claudia cannot share that information with Martin in defending the case against the accused murderer.
At any rate, Martin tells his superior, “You may rely on me.”
Unfortunately, this might not be a case of what you don’t know can’t hurt you.
Both Martin and Claudia discover that they are being kept under surveillance by an unknown person or persons.
In fact, evidence suggests that MI5, the British secret intelligence agency concerned with national affairs, might be involved in the case.
Or are they?
Martin and Claudia even get attacked separately, and Martin is laid up in the hospital.
So, Martin has to wade through a room full of documents left by the previous attorney, and Claudia has to go through the evidence that is revealed to her in secrecy as they both make their cases for the defendant.
And someone else who has been in contact with Martin about the case turns up dead.
So, we get two stories going on at once involving Martin and Claudia, with crosscutting between the two, and the tension becomes as thick as a London fog.
In addition, not everyone they know whether or not connected to the case is as they seem.
Eventually, Martin and Claudia determine that there is no good way out of this, and they are not strong enough to fight whoever is making it difficult for them.
On the other hand, Martin doesn’t want to give up and tell whoever is watching them that he and Claudia will do as they are told.
Although Martin and Claudia agree that they were the worst thing that ever happened to each other, their working on this case might not even let them correct the situation.
Closed Circuit is a terrific two-pronged thriller.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
