Posts tagged funny
“Hit & Run” Has Gags That Just Keep On Coming
Sep 2nd
“Gags Just Keep On Coming”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hit & Run is a comedy that is basically just one funny car chase after another, but it doesn’t get old, because each one keeps adding a new aspect and twist to it.
One fresh aspect to the movie is that you might be pleasantly surprised whenever a new recognizable actor shows up in the story, which occurs even into the closing credits.
The story is about a guy and a girl, Charlie Bronson and Annie Bean, who are in love with each other and living together. Charlie doesn’t like Annie to pull his hair, because he says it is thin, but Annie says that it is the only way she can defend herself.
However, when the movie opens, they are in bed together, and Charlie says, “If you want, I will spend every day with you for the rest of your life,” and Annie says, “Okay, I want.”
Charlie has some secrets, however, some of which he has kept from Annie during the year that they have been dating, and some others which will be revealed later on.
Charlie is in the witness protection program, which Annie knows about, and he cannot leave the town they are living in. Then we meet Randy, the U.S. marshal assigned to guard Charlie, and every time Randy shows up, something funny happens and usually to Randy.
Annie is a professor, and she suddenly gets an opportunity to be in charge of a new department in her field, conflict resolution, but the interview is in a few days in Los Angeles.
Charlie says that he can’t let her leave, but he also can’t stay there without her, and so he uncovers his supercharged automobile that has been under wraps, puts all her stuff in the trunk, and says that he will drive her to Los Angeles, even though that will violate his agreement with the witness protection program he is in.
However, that is just the beginning of their problems. In addition to Randy chasing after them when he finds out what Charlie is doing, Annie’s ex-boyfriend gets upset and goes after them, the local sheriff and his partner join the pursuit, and then there are even the people who are the reason that Charlie is in the program.
Hit & Run is very funny, and the gags just keep on coming.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
Aug 4th
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Watch is a comedy that combines the subjects of a neighborhood watch group; a compulsive, obsessive, paranoid leader; and an alien invasion in the suburbs, and if you believe that concept is potentially funny, then this movie is potentially for you.
Otherwise, don’t bother.
The story takes place in Glenview, Ohio, and Ben Stiller plays Evan Trautwig, the manager of the local Costco store who forms a neighborhood watch group when his night watchman is mysteriously murdered and his body is horribly disfigured.
Evan wants to solve the watchman’s murder and find who did it, but Evan also has a history of forming clubs just so he can be a member of them and make new friends.
This time, however, Evan tells his wife Abby, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, “It’s not a club. It’s a task force.”
Only three people show up for the organizational meeting: Bob, played by Vince Vaughn; Franklin, played by Jonah Hill; and Jamarcus, who is British and has a funny haircut to go along with his funny accent.
The organizational meeting that Evan planned is too boring and so against Evan’s wishes, the meeting moves to Bob’s house, where they can have fun and drink some beers.
Bob has a teenage daughter named Chelsea who is rebellious and who will play an important part later on in the story.
The watch group’s stakeout on the first night doesn’t go well, as you can imagine, and not only do they have a run-in with the local police, but they also have trouble with some teenage boys.
The group finds a strange and mysterious globe with unusual powers which seems to be out of this world, because it is.
Evan also has a creepy and mysterious new neighbor named Paul who keeps inviting Evan to come to a party, but that turns out not to be what you expect, to say the least.
Eventually, the group discovers that there are aliens among them and that the aliens are using Glenview and even Costco as the sources of their invasion of Earth.
Now, don’t even bother counting the number of bullets fired in the final shootout at the end, which may or may not be satisfying, depending on which side you are rooting for.
The Watch may not be satisfying, either, so don’t even bother.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” All Right in the End
May 19th
“Everything All Right in the End”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is about a hotel in India of that name, but ending in even more words of “For the Elderly & Beautiful,” it is a beautiful, lovely, and funny movie, and it just might be the best movie you will see all year.
Based on the 2004 novel These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach, the movie follows seven British pensioners who accept the offer from the hotel’s new owner and manager to travel there and kick-start its business.
In fact, the brochure that persuaded the seven strangers to go to India for a new adventure was Photoshopped to look like what the young manager hopes it will look like, and after they arrive, he adds “Now with Guests” to the hotel sign.
The manager’s name is Sonny Kapoor, he is played by Dev Patel of the 2008 Slumdog Millionaire, and when the new arrivals complain about the hotel’s condition, Sonny assures them with his optimistic philosophy, “Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, then it is not yet the end.”
The most well-known actors playing the pensioners, who are all there for different reasons, are Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith, and although it is difficult at first to keep them and their stories straight, just sit back, relax, and let them all be as wonderful and enjoyable as the sights, sounds, and colors of India itself.
One of the pensioners has been forced to sell her London flat, another one lived happily in India 40 years ago and is returning to settle a matter that has been bothering him all that time, another one doesn’t like foreigners, but requires a cheap hip replacement, one unhappily married couple lost money in a bad investment, one woman is looking for a rich husband, and the final pensioner is a man who is lonely and just looking for some female companionship.
In the meantime, Sonny has his own romantic problems, because his mother doesn’t approve of his girlfriend and has her own plans for his future bride.
And don’t think that the pensioners will find what they are looking for within their own group.
Remember Sonny’s optimistic philosophy?
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, when it comes to the end, will leave you thinking that everything is all right.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”