Posts tagged Official Site
“The Adjustment Bureau” Gimmicky Love Story
Mar 10th
“Gimmicky Love Story”
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a love story set in a modern world of fantasy which argues that the fate of the world is predetermined by a group of men all wearing dark suits and hats.
However, when you learn that the film is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, that premise doesn’t seem so unreasonable.
And then when an important person in the plan doesn’t want to follow his predetermined destiny, what happens to the plan and the people pulling his strings?
When we first meet those men in suits and hats, Richardson, the team leader played by John Slattery, says to the team, “Everybody needs a vacation. Even us.”
The immediate object of their adjustment work is David Norris, a charismatic young man running for senator of New York. However, when something embarrassing from his past is revealed, he loses the election.
Then when he believes that he is alone in the men’s room and is rehearsing his concession speech, a beautiful young woman named Elise comes out of one of the stalls, where she had been hiding from security for having crashed a wedding in the hotel.
They talk. They bond. They kiss.
And then they part, and all David has is her first name.
Then years later, they accidentally meet on a bus when David is going to work for a big corporation. This time Elise writes her phone number on a card for him, but again forces intervene, and they have to part suddenly.
However, when David gets to the offices where he works, he sees something that he wasn’t supposed to see, and the Adjustment team has to intervene. They take him aside, explain what is going on, and Richardson takes the card with Elise’s number on it.
You see, the fate of the world has already been planned, and it will be screwed up if David and Elise get together. Therefore, the Adjustment team has to keep them apart by interfering with any circumstances that would allow them to get together, because they would fall in love and ruin the Adjustment team’s plans.
But now David doesn’t want to play by the rules and live according to plan anymore.
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU has an interesting concept, but is basically a gimmicky love story.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“127 Hours” Don’t Try This on Your Own
Feb 2nd
“Don’t Try This on Your Own”
127 HOURS received a number of Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Actor for its star, James Franco.
Franco, of course, plays Aron Ralston, the hiker who in 2003 was hiking by himself in a remote area in Utah when his right arm got pinned underneath a boulder, which he wrote about in his book, BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE.
The most interesting part of the story, of course, is that after failing for days to be able to dislodge the boulder, Ralston amputated his arm with a small knife in order to save himself from dying.
So, if you already know the whole story, you might think, why bother seeing this movie?
Well, because of all those Academy Award nominations, of course, and the way that the story is told on screen by director Danny Boyle.
The story begins on a Saturday with Ralston arriving in the area where he is going to start hiking.
He encounters two young women who are lost, and he tells them how to find the place they are looking for, but they look at him with suspicion.
Realizing why, Ralston removes the bandanna from his face and says, “I’m only a psychopath on weekdays. Today is Saturday.”
While the three of them spend some time together, Ralston tells them that he is an engineer, but hiking in areas like this is what he really wants to do, and he considers this his second home.
The girls invite Ralston to a party the next night at the place where they are staying, they say goodbye, and then the interesting part of the story begins.
Ralston falls in a crevice, and a large boulder dislodges and traps his arm against the rock wall.
The girls are out of shouting distance at this point, and now, you might ask, how can the story be interesting for the rest of the movie?
It might not be if the rest consisted of just grimacing, struggling, frustration, more struggling, more grimacing, even more struggling, and even more grimacing, but don’t forget all those Academy Award nominations and the talents of the writers, director, and actor.
127 HOURS is worth all the awards it receives, but don’t try this on your own.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
