Posts tagged out of
“One Day” Contrived Love Story
Aug 27th
“Contrived Love Story”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
One Day is a gimmicky love story starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess as two British friends who eventually become lovers.
The gimmick is in the construction of the story, which begins on July 15, 2006, and then suddenly flashes back to July 15, 1988, and then shows us what these two people are doing on that day every year from then until now.
The reason that date is significant is that it is known as St. Smithin’s day in Great Britain, and British folklore says that whatever the weather is on that day will continue for the next 40 days.
And the reason that the first date in 1988 is significant is that that is the date that Emma and Dexter became involved after graduation from college and a night out of celebration with mutual friends and fellow graduates.
At the end of the evening, Dexter walks Emma home, and although Dexter thinks they have never met before, Emma says that they have met several times.
One thing leads to another, but then they change their minds about sleeping together and they exchange “Sorry, I’m not good at this” and “That’s fine, maybe we can just be friends.”
And so the story skips to each year on that date of July 15 to show us what they are doing, how their lives have changed, and how their relationship with each other is developing.
Emma wants to be a poet and take London by storm, but London swallows her up, and she ends up working in a Mexican restaurant.
Dexter goes to India and becomes a teacher, but they exchange long letters with each other while he is away.
In 1992 they go on holiday together, but Emma establishes some rules for them, which include separate bedrooms, no flirting, no skinny-dipping, and no playing Scrabble. Some of those rules are broken, and with comic results.
Dexter becomes famous with a television show that he hosts, but audiences love to hate him, which isn’t satisfying.
Both of them get involved with someone else, but they stay in touch and even see each other when Emma moves to Paris, which, of course, is the City of Romance.
One Day is a contrived love story, and maybe you will guess the ending and maybe you won’t, but you will be surprised.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” Stupid, Pointless, Waste
Aug 26th
“Stupid, Pointless, Waste.”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Crazy, Stupid, Love. has too many characters and too many love stories to be classified as having a plot about a “love triangle.”
No, call this one as being about a “love octagon,” and not all of the love stories are pleasant and tasteful.
Here are the characters: Steve Carell and Julianne Moore are Cal and Emily Weaver. They have been married 25 years, have three children, and Emily wants a divorce, because she hs been having an affair with David, a man she works with, who is played by Kevin Bacon.
Ryan Gosling is Jacob, a studly do-wrong who picks up any woman he wants in a bar every night of the week and takes her home for a one-night stand.
Emma Stone is Hannah, a young lawyer who is rejected by the man she is interested in and then sets her sights on Jacob, but she refuses to play his game and forces him to play her game.
Jonah Bobo is Robbie Weaver, the 13-year-old son of Cal and Emily, and he has a major crush on his babysitter, Jessica, played by Analeigh Tipton, but she is 17 years old, and she has a crush on an older man, who is also married.
And, finally, Marisa Tomei is Kate, Robbie’s eighth-grade English teacher who is also out in the dating scene and figures into the stories, too.
So, when Cal moves out of the house and gets his own apartment, he starts going to a bar to pick up women, but his pick-up line leaves something to be desired. He says to one woman, “My wife is having intercourse with someone who is not me.”
Jacob sees Cal, takes pity on him, and decides to mentor Cal in the ways of picking up women in a bar, as well as helping Cal to make other changes in his life-style.
However, Cal still has feelings for Emily and goes over to the house in the middle of the night to take care of the yard and garden without Emily’s knowing that he is doing so.
Meanwhile, Robbie keeps pestering Jessica about his love for her, and she keeps rejecting him, not only because of his youth, but also because of her desire for that older man.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. is just a stupid, pointless, waste.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots”
“30 Minutes or Less” Dueling Pairs of Idiots
Aug 17th
“Dueling Pairs of Idiots”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
30 Minutes or Less is a comedy about an elaborate plot to rob a bank to pay a hitman to kill the father of one of the characters, so that he can inherit his father’s lottery winnings.
What could go wrong, right?
Well, practically everything, considering that one pair of idiots hatches the plot and gets another pair of idiots to carry it out for them.
When the movie opens, we meet Nick, played by Jesse Eisenberg. He delivers pizzas in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Vito’s Pizza, whose slogan is the title of the movie. If you order a pizza and it isn’t delivered in 30 minutes or less, then the pizza is free.
So, Nick is dashing through the street in his own beat-up car to make a delivery to two teenage boys, and he is rushing, because if he doesn’t make the delivery in time, then the cost of the pizza comes out of his own wages.
Well, the teenagers have pulled a con on Nick to get a free pizza, but then Nick pulls an even better con on the teenagers to get his money and a tip, too.
Then we meet Dwayne, played by Danny McBride, and his buddy Travis, played by Nick Swardson. They spend the day watching movies and playing video games in the house owned by Dwayne’s father, The Major, played by Fred Ward.
The Major, who is extremely unpleasant, is a retired Marine who won $10 million in a lottery, and when he asks Dwayne and Travis what they do, they say hesitatingly, “We’re business partners.”
They also blow up watermelons for fun, and Dwayne gets an idea for how to make their lives even easier: kill The Major and inherit his home and money.
Naturally, they aren’t capable of doing it themselves, and so after finding a hitman, now they have to come up with $100,000 in order to pay him.
So, putting their watermelon skills to bad use, they kidnap Nick on a false pizza-delivery run, strap explosives to his body, and tell him that he has to rob a bank for them or they will blow him up.
In a panic, Nick gets his roommate to help him, who is played by Aziz Ansari.
30 Minutes or Less is a study in dueling pairs of idiots.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”