Posts tagged Scott Adsit
St. Vincent “Big Rewards”
Oct 29th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
ST. VINCENT is the latest film starring Bill Murray, and that is all you need to know to make you want to see it, and you will be pleased you did. Murray plays Vincent, who is the furthest thing you can imagine being a saint at the beginning of the movie.
Vincent lives in a run-down house in Brooklyn, he drinks, he gambles, and he has a so-called “friend,” who is a pregnant Russian stripper and hooker named Daka, who is played by Naomi Watts.
Well, one day some new neighbors move in next door, and things get off to a bad start when the moving truck breaks a branch off a tree in Vincent’s front yard, which falls onto Vincent’s car parked in his driveway and damages it.
The car, not the driveway.
The truck also runs over Vincent’s fence, and he wants the new neighbor to pay for that, too, although we have already seen Vincent run over the fence himself while driving his car into the driveway drunk and backwards.
The new neighbors are Maggie, a woman going through a divorce played by Melissa McCarthy in a surprisingly and thankfully toned-down performance, and her young son Oliver, who says when he is told about Vincent, “It’s gonna be a long life.”
Maggie has a new job at a hospital, and Oliver starts a new school, which happens to be Catholic, although he is not, nor are many of the kids in his class, as the teacher finds out when he introduces Oliver to the class.
The teacher, Brother Geraghty, is played by Chris O’Dowd.
On his first day at school, Oliver gets picked on by some bullies, and his clothes are stolen, and so when he gets home he is locked out of the house and goes next door to use Vincent’s phone in order to call Maggie.
When Oliver tries to explain why he wants to use Vinent’s telephone, Vincent says, “I don’t need to hear the whole story,” which Vincent will say more than once in this movie.
When Maggie gets home, she anticipates future needs to use Vincent, and so they agree that Vincent will babysit Oliver for a small wage whenever necessary.
Well, you can see where this arrangement is headed, can’t you?
ST. VINCENT pays off with big rewards.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
St. Vincent – Movie Trailer
Oct 24th
Maggie (McCarthy), a single mother, moves into a new home in Brooklyn with her 12-year old son, Oliver (Lieberher). Forced to work long hours, she has no choice but to leave Oliver in the care of their new neighbor, Vincent (Murray), a retired curmudgeon with a penchant for alcohol and gambling. An odd friendship soon blossoms between the improbable pair. Together with a pregnant stripper named Daka (Watts), Vincent brings Oliver along on all the stops that make up his daily routine – the race track, a strip club, and the local dive bar. Vincent helps Oliver grow to become a man, while Oliver begins to see in Vincent something that no one else is able to: a misunderstood man with a good heart.
“The Informant!” More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
Sep 24th
More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INFORMANT! is based on the true story of a whistle-blower in a giant corporation about an international price-fixing scheme, but it is much more than that.
It’s also a lough-out-loud comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh, who previously directed the 2000 ERIN BROKOVICH in all seriousness, but also directed the recent OCEAN’S movies as goofy crime capers.
Matt Damon stars as Mark “Corky” Whitacre, a high-level executive in Archer Daniels Midland, an Illinois-based agribusiness conglomerate. In 1992 a series of events leads him to believe that there is a “mole” in the company who is feeding information to the company’s Japanese competitors, thereby prompting the Japanese to request $10 million to reveal the identity of the mole and also correct another problem Corky’s company has with a virus.
Corky goes to the FBI, and when they question what his motive is, he says, “I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
The FBI is suspicious, because Corky is making $350,000 a year, and he becomes an informer on his own company. Again, he says, “Things are going on, I don’t approve of.”
Corky is only too happy to carry a concealed recorder to meetings in order to obtain evidence against his own company, because he believes that when all of this is over, he will be rewarded by being made the next president of the corporation.
No, Corky is not the smartest rung on the ladder, and he gives hilarious running commentary in internal monologues as the events unfold.
However, when the audience catches Corky in a lie to the FBI agents who are working with him, the audience thinks “Not so fast!” at this unusual and unexpected turn of events.
The FBI agents follow Corky to business meetings all over the world, and they become exasperated at Corky’s ineptness at being a spy, even though Corky brags that he is “Agent 0014,” because he is twice as smart as “007.”
Then something happens that causes the audience to think “Not so fast!” again.
So, hold onto your seats, because something else happens that causes a “Not so fast!” a third time.
In fact, as the film races to its conclusion, “Not so fast!” keeps coming again and again.
THE INFORMANT! takes more twists and turns than a drunken snake in a maze and is very rewarding.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
