Posts tagged Waleed F. Zuaiter
Sex and the City 2 – Movie Trailer
Jun 3rd
The stars of the hit HBO series reunite with original writer/producer/director Michael Patrick King to deliver this sequel that finds the ladies venturing outside New York City for the adventure of a lifetime. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) are all married now, but they’re still up for a little fun in the sun. When Samantha (Kim Cattrall) gets the chance to visit one of the most extravagant vacation destinations on the planet and offers to bring them all along, they surmise that a women-only retreat may be the perfect excuse to eschew their responsibilities and remember what life was like before they decided to settle down.
“Sex and the City 2” Marriage Manual for Privileged Women
Jun 3rd
Marriage Manual for Privileged Women
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SEX AND THE CITY 2 is quite naturally the sequel to the 2008 SEX AND THE CITY, which of course was based on the successful HBO series of the same name, all of which have a built-in audience that doesn’t include men.
Once again we follow the exploits of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha as they wear fabulous clothes, say outrageous things, and have stunning experiences.
In other words, they don’t represent your average woman. They represent what your average woman would like to be: beautiful, loved, and privileged.
Oh, but don’t think that our stars on screen, as played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Kim Cattrall don’t have problems.
Carrie has been married to Mr. Big for two years, but she is afraid that the sparkle is missing from their marriage, especially when he gives her a TV set for their bedroom as an anniversary present.
Charlotte is having difficulty with being a perfect mother, and she is afraid that her perfect nanny will become too much of a temptation to her husband, and thus he might fall victim to the “Jude Law.”
Miranda has finally made partner at her law firm, but she has a co-worker who dismisses her and treats her as just another “woman.”
And, finally, Samantha is depressed, because she is struggling with the idea of losing her looks, getting old, and having hot flashes.
So, when Samantha meets a sheik who owns a hotel in Abu Dhabi, and he hires her firm to publicize it, he offers her and her three best friends one week at the hotel, all expenses paid. Cut to Act 2.
Miranda says to the girls, “We’ve got a lot of Abu Dhabi to do. Abu Dhabi do!”
They each get their own limousine, and they each get a personal butler for their stay. Carrie’s tells her that he has a wife in India, whom he gets to see only once every three months.
Now, the manufactured crisis for Carrie is that she happens to run into her old flame Aidan at the open-air market, and even though he is also married now, they share a kiss!
So, should she tell Big about the kiss or should she not?
SEX AND THE CITY 2 is nothing more than a marriage manual for privileged women.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Men Who Stare at Goats” Surrealist Insanity
Nov 12th
Surrealist Insanity
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is based on the 2005 nonfiction book by Jon Ronson, and it is a comedic look at real-life events about a top-secret branch of an experimental U.S. Army unit called the New Earth Battalion, which was created to change the way that wars are fought.
As the film says at one point, the Army was investigating how love and gentleness could win wars, and a notice at the beginning of the film says, “More of this is true than you would believe.”
Full disclosure: You might need to have served in the military in order to appreciate the full impact of this film. Otherwise, you might dismiss it as a fantasy instead of an honest account of just how cockeyed and wacky life can be in the military, even in the midst of a war.
In other words, young audiences today will probably not enjoy this film as much as older people who actually spent time in the military, as I did for three years back in the Sixties.
Most of the film takes place in 2003 in Iraq, but we also get flashbacks that show how the New Earth Battalion came to be and some of the training and experiences of recurring characters.
George Clooney plays Lyn Cassady, one of the Jedi Warriors, as they called themselves, and the most gifted psychic that another character who had served with Cassady had ever met.
That character tells Bob Wilton, a reporter played by Ewan McGregor, about the New Earth Battalion and says, “We were trying to kill animals with just our minds.”
That is where the title comes from, because in the early days the unit had a secret goat lab, and the men would try to kill a goat just by staring at it.
Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey also star in the film, and Wilton meets them all after he first meets Cassady in Kuwait and they travel into Iraq to accomplish Cassady’s secret mission.
CATCH-22, the 1961 novel by Joseph Heller that was made into a 1970 film, captured the surrealist insanity of World War II Army life during that war.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is the CATCH-22 of the war in Iraq, and as the film says, more of it is true than you would believe.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”