Posts tagged P. Diddy
“Muppets Most Wanted” Most Enjoyable
Mar 26th
“Most Enjoyable”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
MUPPETS MOST WANTED reminded me of that old vaudeville saying, “a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants,” as the Muppets once again do what they do best: act silly and be entertaining during the course of a story that brings them all together.
All your favorite Muppets are back, and many of your favorite human entertainers appear in surprising cameos or as major characters advancing the story.
The cameos include such entertainers as Tony Bennett, Hugh Bonneville, Sean Combs, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Salma Hayek, Frank Langella, Ray Liotta, Usher, Stanley Tucci, and Christoph Waltz, who in fine Muppet tradition dances the waltz onstage during a performance in Berlin.
The story has the Muppets reuniting and being convinced to go on a world tour by Dominic Badguy, played by Ricky Gervais, who promises them houses that will be sold out and worldwide adoration if they will hire him to be their manager.
Dominic says, “Kermit, how about the Muppets go on a world tour?” and says that his last name is pronounced “Badgee” even though it looks like “Badguy,” because it is French and actually means “Good guy.”
Meanwhile, Constantine, the World’s Most Dangerous Frog, breaks out of a gulag prison in Russia and becomes an integral part of the story, because he looks just like Kermit, except that he has a dark mole above his lip.
Well, Dominic has a dastardly plan for the cities he picks for the world tour, and, sure enough, Constantine replaces Kermit on the tour, and Kermit is arrested as Constantine and sent back to the Russian gulag, whose commandant is Nadya, played by Tina Fey.
After a museum robbery in Berlin engineered by Dominic and Constantine, Interpol sends Jean Pierre Napoleon, played by Ty Burrell, and Sam Eagle from the CIA shows up to solve the case, but after interviewing all the Muppets, they conclude that the Muppets are too stupid to be behind the robberies, which now include another museum robbery in Madrid.
Meanwhile, back at the gulag, Nadya has ordered Kermit to be in charge of the annual musical review, and she has started to have fond feelings for Kermit.
Incidentally, stay for the end and Nadya’s solo, which is priceless.
MUPPETS MOST WANTED of course contains a major marriage subplot with Miss Piggy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Muppets Most Wanted – Movie Trailer
Mar 25th
Disney’s “Muppets Most Wanted” takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid, Dublin and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine-the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit the Frog-and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais. The film stars Tina Fey as Nadya, a feisty prison guard, and Ty Burrell as Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon.
“Get Him to the Greek” Self-Indulgent Knockoff
Jun 10th
Self-Indulgent Knockoff
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
GET HIM TO THE GREEK starring Jonah Hill and Russell Brand is a major disappointment if you were expecting something original from the team that made the 2008 FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL.
On the other hand, as I have been saying for years, “Hollywood has run out of ideas,” and what can you expect when almost every other new movie is a sequel, a prequel, a remake, or even “based on the characters” from another movie as this one is?
This movie should have a title in the closing credits that says “Based on the premise of the 1982 My Favorite Year,” which starred Peter O’Toole and Mark Linn-Baker.
You be the judge: Leonard Maltin says in his MOVIE GUIDE that the earlier film is “about a young writer on TV’s top comedy show in 1954 who’s given the job of chaperoning that week’s guest star, screen swashbuckler and off-screen carouser Alan Swann.”
This film is about a record-company intern who’s given the job of chaperoning a British rock star from London to the Los Angeles Greek Theater in 72 hours, where he is scheduled to give a concert, and the rock star’s name is Aldous Snow. Same initials. Coincidence? Or intentional?
Anyway, the record-company executive is played by Sean “P. Diddy” Puff Daddy Do-wah Diddy Combs, and he tells his staff, “We got to thicken our revenue stream.”
Aaron Green suggests the idea of putting on a 10th anniversary concert at the Greek with Aldous Snow, and once that Snow agrees, Aaron is given the task of getting Snow from his home in London to Los Angeles in time for the concert.
And, of course, nothing goes as Aaron plans.
Snow believes that the concert is in two months and that Aaron chenged the date on him. So, Snow would rather party than catch a flight.
To keep Snow sober, Aaron drinks all of Snow’s booze in his flask and smokes all of Snow’s weed.
A stop in New York City for an appearance on the “Today” show doesn’t go well at all.
Snow asks Aaron to do something for him that is illegal as well as disgusting.
And then Snow changes their flight to go to Las Vegas so he can visit his father.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK is not much more than a self-indulgent knockoff.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
