Posts tagged Michael J. O’Hara
The Drop “Definitely Worth Seeing”
Sep 22nd
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE DROP is a very good, dark, and gritty movie that revolves around a bar in Brooklyn called Cousin Marv’s, which used to belong to Marv, played by James Gandolfini.
Bob, played by Tom Hardy, who actually is a cousin of Marv’s, tends bar there, and the bar is sometimes used as a “drop bar,” where bookies and dealers leave bundles of cash in envelopes for the crime bosses who control them to come by after hours to collect the money.
There is a rotating circuit of bars that are used as drop bars, but one night when Cousin Marv’s is the drop bar, it is robbed by two men wearing masks, and even though Marv tries to warn them about whose money they are stealing, the two robbers take the money anyway.
Bob notices that one of the men is wearing a wristwatch that is broken, but when he mentions this to the police who investigate, Marv gets upset with Bob.
One night Bob had been out walking in the neighborhood, and he discovers a bleeding puppy in a garbage can. The woman who lives in the house behind the garbage can comes out and starts talking to Bob about the puppy, which is not hers, nor does she know anything about it or why it had been left in her garbage can.
Bob promises to think about taking the dog to the shelter if she will just keep it until Saturday when he will come back to pick it up.
The woman’s name is Nadia, and Bob decides to keep the dog, but because he has never owned a dog before, Nadia goes with Bob to the store and helps him buy the necessities that Bob needs in order to keep he dog, which he names Rocco.
Meanwhile, the police keep coming around to investigate the robbery, the owners of the bar show up wanting the money that had been taken in the robbery, and a menacing man named Eric Deeds, who used to be involved with Nadia, shows up at Bob’s apartment, claiming that the dog is his, but he will let Bob keep Rocco if Bob will pay him $10,000.
The bar is designated the drop bar for Super Bowl Sunday, and everything comes to a head.
THE DROP is definitely worth seeing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Drop – Movie Trailer
Sep 15th
THE DROP is a new crime drama from Michaël R. Roskam, the Academy Award nominated director of Bullhead. Based on a screenplay from Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), THE DROP follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) through a covert scheme of funneling cash to local gangsters – “money drops” in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), Bob finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood’s past.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” an Exercise in Excessive Excess
Jan 13th
“Exercise in Excessive Excess”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Wolf of Wall Street was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio based on a 2007 memoir of the same name written by Jordan Belfort.
DiCaprio plays Belfort himself.
Right at the beginning of the movie Jordan says, “I always wanted to be rich,” and we see him at the start of his career as a licensed stockbroker for a big firm on Wall Street.
Matthew McConaughey plays his mentor at the firm, and he tells Jordan, “The name of the game is to move the money from your clients’ pockets into your pocket.”
Unfortunately, Jordan’s first day as a broker was October 19, 1987, the biggest plummet of the stock market since the 1929 crash, and Jordan was out of a job before he even got started.
Jordan believes that Wall Street swallowed him up, but he finds a job with a tiny firm that sells penny stocks and is surprised to learn that he receives a 50% commission on his sales whereas his previous job would have paid him only 1%.
So, Jordan is selling garbage to garbagemen, as he puts it, and he begins making money hand over fist, so much so that one day in a restaurant he attracts the attention of Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, and Donnie tells Jordan that if Jordan can prove how much money he is making, Donnie will quit his job right there over the phone and come work for Jordan.
Donnie does, they start their own company with some misfit salesmen, and Jordan teaches them how to sell penny stocks to rich people.
The firm becomes highly successful from practices that are not always entirely legal, Jordan meets and marries a beautiful woman named Naomi, and drugs, wild parties, prostitutes, and naked women become a large part of everyone’s lives in and away from the firm.
And, of course, they attract the attention of the FBI, which starts investigating Jordan, Donnie, and their brokerage firm.
So, the merry band of brokers go through the intricate and illegal process of moving their money into Swiss bank accounts, but of course everything doesn’t go according to plan.
Nothing ever does in the movies, does it?
The Wolf of Wall Street might be too rough for many people’s taste and is just an exercise in excessive excess.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
