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“Mud” Just Another Mysterious Stranger Movie
0June 15, 2013
“Another Mysterious Stranger”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Mud stars Matthew McConaughey, he has received praise for his performance in this film, but once again he does what he seems to do in all of his films, and that is to take his shirt off.
The story takes place in Arkansas along the Arkansas River near the Mississippi River, and it is basically another in a long line of movies about coming of age.
It begins in the middle of the night when a boy named Ellis, who is 14 years old, sneaks out of his parents’ houseboat and meets his best friend, Neckbone, where they take a boat out onto the river and motor downstream to the Mississippi, where they beach their boat on the shore of an island.
They walk inland for a while, come to a tall tree, and one of them says, “There it is.”
“It” is a boat in pretty good condition stuck high up in the tree from some previous time when flood conditions caused it to get stuck up there.
Although they claim the boat as theirs, they soon discover that someone is living in the boat, and he shows up telling them that the boat is his, because he is living in it.
The man tells them to call him Mud, says that he grew up around there, and he will trade them the boat for food.
Mud is waiting for someone, a woman named Juniper, and when she shows up, they will leave and the boys can have the boat.
Back home, Ellis’s mother tells him to be home that evening by 7, so they can have a sit-down dinner and talk.
Then while he is in town, Ellis sees an older boy picking on a girl Ellis knows named May Pearl, and Ellis punches the boy to get him to stop.
Ellis and Neckbone also see a pretty woman in town they had never seen before, who turns out to be Juniper, played by Reese Witherspoon.
Later, Ellis learns that his parents want to separate, his mother wants to move back into town, and they will lose the houseboat.
And this is all just the beginning of the story, which has too many parallels and is not original.
Mud is just another movie about a mysterious stranger who shows up and changes the lives of others.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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“Now You See Me” Misdirection in Its Own Right
0June 9, 2013
“Misdirection in Its Own Right”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Now You See Me combines the genres of a movie about magicians with a heist movie, and it ends up with an example of more is less.
Even the appearances of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine can’t pull this movie out of the doldrums.
The story begins when four magicians who each have different specialties are all summoned to a locked apartment in New York City which is full of clues that they have to figure out in order to learn why they were summoned.
The four magicians are Daniel, played by Jesse Eisenberg, who is a master of misdirection; Henley, played by Isla Fisher, who is Daniel’s former assistant; Merritt, played by Woody Harrelson, who is a mentalist; and Jack, played by Dave Franco, who is an expert at card tricks.
Incidentally, Dave Franco is the brother of James Franco.
Then we shift to one year later in Las Vegas, the four now call themselves The Four Horsemen, and they put on a spectacular show in a casino, where Daniel announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we are going to rob a bank!”
Well, not only do they rob a bank of 32 million Euros, but the bank is in Paris, France, and the robbery occurs during the show with the assistance of a man pulled at random from out of the audience.
Now the FBI gets involved with Agent Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, another agent from Interpol, a woman named Alma Dray shows up to assist him, and after an interrogation that is unproductive for the authorities, The Four Horsemen are off to their next big show in New Orleans, which is publicized as the setup for their third show, the “Big Punch,” in New York City.
The thing about magic, however, is that if you know how a trick is done, you lose interest in watching that trick again, and a famous magician tells Agents Rhodes and Dray how The Four Horsemen managed to rob that bank in Paris.
The movie tries to spice things up with races through the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but again The Four Horsemen escape, and they are on to New York City, where a car chase through the streets and over a bridge don’t help much, either.
Now You See Me itself is all misdirection.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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Obama pulls plug on wolves life support
0June 7, 2013
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“Disconnect” a Heavy-Handed Look at Serious Problems
0April 27, 2013
“Heavy-Handed Look at Serious Problems”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Disconnect has three separate, but connected stories about the serious problems that can be the result of today’s activities with the Internet, computers, and smart phones.
One of the stories ends in a tragedy.
The first story is about a lonely teenage boy who is tricked into thinking that he is communicating with a girl who is interested in him when in fact two other boys in his school are behind the deception.
The second story is about a television reporter who is researching a story about teenage runaways, but ends up interviewing a teenager who performs on an Internet porn site.
And the third story is about a couple who are having marital problems to begin with, and then they discover that they are the victims of identity theft, and all of their credit cards are maxed out.
Some of the characters are connected to only one story, some of the characters are connected to two stories, and at least one of the characters is connected to all three stories.
So, in essence, the three stories are disjointed, but interconnected.
And a key point in solving one of the mysteries in one of the stories is when a character texts, “We didn’t mean for this to happen.”
The only actors of note in the movie are Jason Bateman, wearing an uncharacteristic beard, and Hope Davis, who plays his wife.
Now, although an ad for the movie claims that one critic calls it “The Best Film of the Year,” you might think differently when you see how the serious subjects of the film are handled.
In other words, the filmmakers would have done well to have remembered “A little discretion goes a long way.”
Also, be aware that the movie contains nudity and violence, but neither one is exploited.
However, the movie does point out how extensive social media is being used in today’s society, how it can get out of hand, and how destructive some of those results can be to innocent, unsuspecting victims.
Although the movie does single out one person as being a villain in the circumstances making up one of the stories, most of the characters are victims of the situations, either because of intent or accident.
Disconnect is a heavy-handed look at serious problems that can lead to coincidental, interesting, and devastating results.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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2013 Conference on World Affairs Boulder: Pot Atheism Communism
0April 10, 2013
It started out with a Bang! Science over religion. Then it was an attack on faith, God, Christianity, Judaism placated only by a shallow look at Islam and pity for it’s women. What a disgrace this conference has turned into. Shame on everyone involved.
The entire conference has had overtones of bigotry with attacks on men, corporations, capitalism and America. The unbalance continued with gender bashing celebrating victimization of women and Gays. The gender bashed was men and the culture bashed, heterosexuals For what reason pray tell??
Leftist politics kept the entire conference off balance with insulting token conservative presentations and embarrassing feminism at every turn. It was the usual man hating conference on world affairs. They continued to bash the US military, the United states government and finally the Supreme court. But there was much praise for China. Swell. Young clueless entrepreneurship was also praised, but American business bashed.
The promotion of drug use was in full swing and the entire concept of addiction was scuttled. Pushing pot on the conference was in full swing, while the University was heartily attacked for its handling of 4/20 pot celebration.
The element of spirituality was non-existent reduced to junk science and feelings. All religions were roundly attacked through out the conference while new atheism was pushed. Did I say This conference was an embarrassment and a low point for the University of Colorado.
In attendance were the usual suspects: senior citizens, retired leftists, leftists, and more leftists.. CU student attendance was at a low ebb because quite frankly there wasn’t much that interested 17 to 22 year olds. There never is. It is an old fart conference. This conference is out of touch with reality.
From the Peoples Republic of Boulder
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
Jann Scott’s Journal is the story and life of Boulder Icon and talk host Jann Scott. He has been in print, on radio and on TV in Boulder since 1989. Some consider him the voice of Boulder’s soul.
