Posts tagged Kent Shocknek
Nightcrawler – Movie Trailer
Nov 12th
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou thrives. In the breakneck, ceaseless search for footage, he becomes the star of his own story.
Nightcrawler “Good and Creepy”
Nov 12th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
NIGHTCRAWLER is a fascinating and dark movie that affects you the way passing an accident on the highway does: You want to look at it, but you feel a little bit guilty in doing so.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Louis Bloom, a petty thief who does come across an automobile accident in Los Angeles, and the experience changes his life so much that he becomes a different man because of it.
It is the middle of the night, Lou stops his car to observe what is happening at the scene, he watches a videographer record footage for morning news programs, and when he sees the footage on television, Lou decides that he can do that, and so he buys himself a camcorder and a police scanner and sets out to become a freelance videographer specializing in accidents and crime scenes that happen in the middle of the night.
Lou makes his first sale for $250, and when the news director tells him he has a good eye, Lou says, “I’m a very, very quick learner; you’ll be seeing me again.”
A carjacking crime wave going on in the city causes business to be so good for Lou that he hires a young homeless man for $30 a night to be his assistant.
Rick’s job is to ride shotgun, watch the traffic, give directions, and handle a second camera for different angles at the scenes.
Well, one night Lou and Rick come onto a crime scene that will change their lives.
It involves shootings during a home invasion, and because Lou and Rick arrive on the scene before the police do, they see the shooters leave the house, and Lou even records them.
Then Lou goes inside the house to get exclusive footage of the victims while Rick stays outside and stands watch.
Lou has no compunction against moving evidence inside the house for better camera angles before the police arrive and gets away with it.
For now.
Lou establishes a business relationship with the news director of one of the TV stations, who is Nina, played by Rene Russo, but he would like their relationship to be more than just business.
Rick wants more money, the police question Lou, and then all hell breaks loose.
NIGHTCRAWLER is fascinating to watch, very good, but very very very very creepy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Company Men” Devastating, Yet Heartwarming
Jan 30th
“Devastating, Yet Heartwarming”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE COMPANY MEN is a very good, yet devastating look at what the effect the economic recession of 2008 had on a group of successful businessmen who worked for the same company, as well as how it affected their families when they got fired.
No, “fired” is such an ugly word. Let’s just say they got “laid off.”
The company in question is an international transportation company with headquarters in Boston that started out as a shipbuilding company.
Ben Affleck stars as Bobby Walker, the head of the sales division for one of three shipyards in the company, where he has worked for 12 years, and he comes into work one morning all excited about the round of golf he had just shot only to be greeted by silence in a conference-room meeting of his department.
“What’s the matter?” he asks. “Did somebody die?”
Even though consolidating divisions had been discussed for months, two of the shipyards were closed, and the company lawyer, Sally Wilcox, played by Maria Bello, had fired Bobby without even telling him.
Excuse me. “Laid him off” without telling him.
When Bobby gets home, he tells his wife, Maggie, that he doesn’t want to tell anybody else what happened until he gets another job. Is he showing pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene McClary, who started the company with his college roommate. He is friends with Bobby and invites him to lunch, but Bobby gets up and leaves after refusing Gene’s offer to help him.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Bobby believes that he is a 37-year-old loser without a job who can’t support his family, and when Maggie’s brother offers Bobby a job working construction with him, Bobby turns him down, too.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Incidentally, Kevin Costner plays Maggie’s brother, and his phony Boston accent doesn’t help the suspension of disbelief any.
We follow other company men who get laid off, including Phil Woodward, played by Chris Cooper, whose wife won’t let him come home until after six o’clock every day, because she doesn’t want the neighbors to know that he lost his job. He even has to carry his briefcase with him.
This might sound like a real downer of a movie, and it is until toward the end, when it becomes quite heartwarming.
THE COMPANY MEN is devastating, yet heartwarming.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
