Posts tagged funny
“Quartet” More Than Just the “Big Game” Gala
Feb 17th
“More Than Just ‘The Big Game’ Gala”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Quartet is another in a string of recent movies about colorful, quirky oldtimers, the first film directed by actor Dustin Hoffman, and much more entertaining than you might have expected.
The credit for a large part of that has to go to the cast, which includes Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, and Michael Gambon.
The film is adapted from the 1999 play written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Donald Harwood, and it takes place in England at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians.
Consequently, the film contains plenty of delightful music, as we encounter many of the residents throughout Beecham House doing what they have done all their professional lives: performing music and singing.
One day a new resident arrives, Jean Horton, played by Maggie Smith, who is so well known that when she walks into the main hall, the residents recognize her and give her a standing ovation.
However, Jean is not as pleased to be there as the other residents are pleased to see her, and at one point she says, “This isn’t a retirement home; this is a madhouse.”
Now, a major plot point is a tired, old hackneyed one: The retirement home is in financial difficulty, and it needs to raise money to keep it going, which is achieved every year by a so-called Big Gala performance by the residents to which tickets are sold to the public.
However, this year tickets are down by 60 percent, and the musical director has to come up with a great idea in order to increase the ticket sales.
You see, the arrival of Jean means that all four performers of a famous quartet of opera singers who sang together in the Ritoletto opera by Guiseppe Verdi, the most important opera composer of the 19th century, are now staying at the retirement home.
Unfortunately, Jean exclaims that she doesn’t sing anymore, and that is final. But more important, bad blood exists between Jean and another member, Reginald, because they were once married to each other and the marriage ended very badly, so badly that when Reginald learns that Jean now lives there, he wants to move.
Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Quartet is much more than just “The Big Game” gala at the end, and it is funny and also very entertaining.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“This Is 40” Can Just Be Skipped
Dec 30th
“Can Just Be Skipped”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
This Is 40 is written and directed by Judd Apatow, and some are calling it a sequel to his 2007 Knocked Up, but it is only an elaboration of two of the characters in that earlier movie.
Paul Rudd plays Pete, and Leslie Mann plays Debbie, and she also happens to be Apatow’s wife.
Pete and Debbie have two daughters, Sadie, who is 13, and Charlotte, who is 8, and they also happen to be the real daughters of Apatow and his wife.
But before you start thinking, “Oh, isn’t that nice,” be aware that the language used by the two girls is so profane that they wouldn’t even be allowed to see their own movie in the theater.
Not that they, or anyone else, for that matter, should want to see this movie.
Pete and Debbie are both turning 40 in the week of December 5, and the movie opens with a scene of both of them in the shower, but the conclusion is not expected, and we hear, “That is the worst birthday present you could ever give anyone.”
Yes, the beginning is gross, but supposed to be funny, which could also be said about the entire movie.
Then we get a cliche scene about Debbie’s birthday cake, which claims that Debbie is only 38, and Pete explains to the daughters that their mother doesn’t want to be 40, and so the cake indicates 38.
You couldn’t write this stuff, and if you read a recent story about Apatow, it might not have been written, because the story says that Apatow likes to shoot a lot of footage of the actors improvising the scene, and if Apatow thinks the improvisation is good, he will go back and keep shooting the scene with the new ideas until he has what he wants.
And even then, that scene might not make it into the final cut.
Meanwhile, back to the movie, we see Pete planning his own elaborate birthday party, Debbie having to figure out if one of her employees is stealing money from the store, the girls constantly fighting while being obsessed about watching episodes of the old “Lost” television series, many references to modern celebrities and excessive use of modern technology, and disjointed scenes that don’t really fit together.
This Is 40 can just be skipped.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Seven Psychopaths” Is Gruesome Twisted Fun
Oct 27th
“Gruesome Twisted Fun”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Seven Psychopaths is a very funny, very bloody, and very violent comedy that keeps you laughing, but you almost feel guilty about doing so.
It begins with a surprising double murder that seems to be out of place with the rest of the movie until an explanation later on identifies the killer as the first of the psychopaths.
Colin Farrell plays Marty, who is living in Los Angeles and writing a screenplay, but all he has so far is the title, Seven Psychopaths.
Sam Rockwell plays Billy, Marty’s best friend who is also a struggling actor, but he has a profitable enterprise which gets him into serious trouble.
Billy steals dogs from people, and then another friend named Hans, played by Christopher Walken, returns the dog to its owner and modestly accepts a reward for the dog’s return.
Meanwhile, Marty gets drunk at a party, his girlfriend throws him out of the house, and he wakes up the next morning in Billy’s house. And yet when Billy accuses Marty of having a drinking problem, Marty says, “I don’t have a drinking problem. I just like drinking.”
Then Billy helps Marty with his screenplay by thinking up additional psychopaths, and we see scenes of the film as Marty narrates it.
However, when Billy makes the mistake of stealing a shih-tzu named Bonny, all hell breaks loose for everyone involved and some who aren’t involved.
You see, Bonny belongs to a mob boss named Charlie, played by Woody Harrelson, and Charlie will do anything to get Bonny back.
Anything.
As if that weren’t enough of a problem, Billy puts an ad in the local newspaper asking for psychopaths to answer the ad, so that they can help Marty and him with the screenplay.
A man named Zachariah, played by Tom Waits, shows up holding a rabbit, and he tells his gruesome story, which we also see.
Meanwhile, Charlie and his henchmen start closing in on Billy, and so Billy, Marty, Hans, and Bonny take off to the desert, where they can all work on the screenplay and where Billy thinks that the desert is the perfect place for a final shootout.
Now, don’t walk out of the theater when the closing credits start, because the movie isn’t over, and there are additional laughs coming.
Seven Psychopaths is gruesome, twisted fun.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”