Posts tagged profane
“This Is 40” Can Just Be Skipped
Dec 30th
“Can Just Be Skipped”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
This Is 40 is written and directed by Judd Apatow, and some are calling it a sequel to his 2007 Knocked Up, but it is only an elaboration of two of the characters in that earlier movie.
Paul Rudd plays Pete, and Leslie Mann plays Debbie, and she also happens to be Apatow’s wife.
Pete and Debbie have two daughters, Sadie, who is 13, and Charlotte, who is 8, and they also happen to be the real daughters of Apatow and his wife.
But before you start thinking, “Oh, isn’t that nice,” be aware that the language used by the two girls is so profane that they wouldn’t even be allowed to see their own movie in the theater.
Not that they, or anyone else, for that matter, should want to see this movie.
Pete and Debbie are both turning 40 in the week of December 5, and the movie opens with a scene of both of them in the shower, but the conclusion is not expected, and we hear, “That is the worst birthday present you could ever give anyone.”
Yes, the beginning is gross, but supposed to be funny, which could also be said about the entire movie.
Then we get a cliche scene about Debbie’s birthday cake, which claims that Debbie is only 38, and Pete explains to the daughters that their mother doesn’t want to be 40, and so the cake indicates 38.
You couldn’t write this stuff, and if you read a recent story about Apatow, it might not have been written, because the story says that Apatow likes to shoot a lot of footage of the actors improvising the scene, and if Apatow thinks the improvisation is good, he will go back and keep shooting the scene with the new ideas until he has what he wants.
And even then, that scene might not make it into the final cut.
Meanwhile, back to the movie, we see Pete planning his own elaborate birthday party, Debbie having to figure out if one of her employees is stealing money from the store, the girls constantly fighting while being obsessed about watching episodes of the old “Lost” television series, many references to modern celebrities and excessive use of modern technology, and disjointed scenes that don’t really fit together.
This Is 40 can just be skipped.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Argo” Is Funny and Serious
Oct 20th
Hotshots, October 17, 2012
“Funny and Serious”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Argo is an excellent film based on a true story you might never have heard about concerning the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy for 444 days by Iranian militants.
It is also a very funny film that pokes fun at the filmmaking business in Hollywood, which together makes it a sure-fire candidate to be recognized at the 2013 Academy Awards.
As a matter of fact, the film was a surprise hit at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival, where director Ben Affleck told a screening audience that he tried to make a film that was one part action thriller, one part comedy, and one part inspired by a 1970s film like the 1976 All the President’s Men.
He succeeded, and he should be very proud of the results.
What the world didn’t know at the time was that when the American Embassy was taken over in November 1979, six men and women managed to escape and hide out in the Canadian Embassy.
Affleck also stars as Tony Mendez, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist, and he comes up with a risky and dangerous plan to get the six Americans out of Iran without the militants knowing about it.
Once Tony’s plan is approved, his boss, played by Bryan Cranston, tells him, “The whole world is watching you; they just don’t know it.”
What Tony proposed was that he pretend to be a Canadian filmmaker, get into Iran with all the necessary documents for himself and the six Americans, and then convince the Iranian authorities that all seven of them were a Canadian film crew who were in Iran scouting for locations for a science-fiction movie they were making, using a script for an actual movie in turnaround called Argo.
However, in order to do that, Hollywood has to be convinced that the story is real, as well, and Tony gets the help of a producer played by Alan Arkin and a makeup artist played by John Goodman.
The title of the ARGO movie is used in a very funny and profane way, and you won’t be able to hear the word again without smiling or laughing.
When Tony tells the six Americans what he wants them to do, they aren’t completely cooperative, and the tension keeps building and building until the very end.
Argo is very funny and serious.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
END
“Observe and Report” A Double Shock Ending
Apr 16th
A Double Shock Ending
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
OBSERVE AND REPORT is a very profane but also very funny movie about a shopping-mall security guard with aspirations to be more than he is and to have more than he currently has.
Excuse me. It is about a man who is “head of mall security,” and, no, I am not talking about the similar movie starring Kevin James that was released recently before this one.
This very funny, but very profane, movie stars Seth Rogen as Ronnie Barnhardt, and he has also broken into the ranks of leading-man status, most recently by appearing on the cover of PLAYBOY magazine.
Granted, there is a pretty girl on the cover with him, but as his “Playboy Interview” points out, only six times before has a man appeared on the cover of that magazine.
The story begins with a flasher in the parking lot, a man wearing apparently only a raincoat who targets women getting out of their cars, dashes up to them, and pulls open his coat.
Ronnie lives with his mother, and he says to her, “Part of me thinks that this disgusting pervert is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
You see, Ronnie wants to be a real policeman, and he believes that if he can solve the flasher case, he can apply to the local police department and get into the police academy.
Also, he might get the pretty girl at the cosmetics counter in the mall, played by Anna Faris, to go out with him.
However, when the flasher strikes again, the local police are called, and Detective Harrison, played by Ray Liotta, shows up, who not only puts a dent in Ronnie’s plans, but also disregards Ronnie and makes fun of him.
Also, whenever things start looking up for Ronnie and his aspirations, something happens to bring him back to reality, but then sometimes Ronnie surprises us and shows that he is more than we have come to expect.
The secondary characters are all also very good and funny, especially Ronnie’s mother, but when Ronnie goes undercover at the mall in an attempt to catch the flasher, you might think that the worst that could happen would be for Ronnie to blow his cover, right?
Wrong!
OBSERVE AND REPORT has a double shock ending you have to see to believe.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
