Posts tagged Ricky Gervais
“Muppets Most Wanted” Most Enjoyable
Mar 26th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“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
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
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.
“The Invention of Lying” And That’s the Truth
Oct 8th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
And That’s the Truth
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INVENTION OF LYING is a delightful little film that examines how life would be boring if everybody told the truth all the time and how life would be so much more interesting if we just bent the truth in small ways or in large.
Yes, it is a romantic comedy with social overtones.
Ricky Gervais plays Mark, and he is going to have the distinction of telling the world’s first lie when he is put in a situation in which he realizes that he could improve his circumstances if he just said something that didn’t reflect how things actually were.
However, before we get to that momentous event, we watch Mark go out on a first date with Anna, played by Jennifer Garner.
Only the audience is surprised when Anna greets Mark at the door and says, “Hi. You’re early. I was just masturbating.”
Now, you might think that the movie starts off slow, but it gets better as it goes along, especially when you pay attention to the background and all the signs and advertising. Truth in advertising might be refreshing, but it also sure would be boring.
Well, one day Mark needs to clean out his bank account of $300, but when he gets to the bank, the teller says that the computer isn’t working and asks him how much money he has in his account.
Mark has a brilliant thought, and he tells her a number other than 300, and she gives him that amount while apologizing that the computer is down.
Mark is able to turn his life around just by saying things that aren’t really, well, “true,” and he convinces Anna to go out on a second date with him.
But the biggest change occurs when Mark visits his mother in the “Sad Place Where Homeless Old People Come to Die,” which we would call an “Old Folks Home.”
His mother is concerned about dying and her life turning into black nothingness, and so Mark comforts her by making up a story that she is instead going to go to a wonderful place of happiness that is watched over by a “Man in the Sky.”
The story spreads, other people learn about it, and Mark’s life changes completely.
THE INVENTION OF LYING is funny, will ruffle some feathers, and that’s the truth.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”