Posts tagged William Hill
“The Company Men” Devastating, Yet Heartwarming
Jan 30th
“Devastating, Yet Heartwarming”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE COMPANY MEN is a very good, yet devastating look at what the effect the economic recession of 2008 had on a group of successful businessmen who worked for the same company, as well as how it affected their families when they got fired.
No, “fired” is such an ugly word. Let’s just say they got “laid off.”
The company in question is an international transportation company with headquarters in Boston that started out as a shipbuilding company.
Ben Affleck stars as Bobby Walker, the head of the sales division for one of three shipyards in the company, where he has worked for 12 years, and he comes into work one morning all excited about the round of golf he had just shot only to be greeted by silence in a conference-room meeting of his department.
“What’s the matter?” he asks. “Did somebody die?”
Even though consolidating divisions had been discussed for months, two of the shipyards were closed, and the company lawyer, Sally Wilcox, played by Maria Bello, had fired Bobby without even telling him.
Excuse me. “Laid him off” without telling him.
When Bobby gets home, he tells his wife, Maggie, that he doesn’t want to tell anybody else what happened until he gets another job. Is he showing pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene McClary, who started the company with his college roommate. He is friends with Bobby and invites him to lunch, but Bobby gets up and leaves after refusing Gene’s offer to help him.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Bobby believes that he is a 37-year-old loser without a job who can’t support his family, and when Maggie’s brother offers Bobby a job working construction with him, Bobby turns him down, too.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Incidentally, Kevin Costner plays Maggie’s brother, and his phony Boston accent doesn’t help the suspension of disbelief any.
We follow other company men who get laid off, including Phil Woodward, played by Chris Cooper, whose wife won’t let him come home until after six o’clock every day, because she doesn’t want the neighbors to know that he lost his job. He even has to carry his briefcase with him.
This might sound like a real downer of a movie, and it is until toward the end, when it becomes quite heartwarming.
THE COMPANY MEN is devastating, yet heartwarming.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Company Men – Movie Trailer
Jan 27th
Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is living the American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and co-workers Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands, and fathers.
Bobby soon finds himself enduring enthusiastic life coaching, a job building houses for his brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) which does not play to his executive skill set, and perhaps the realization that there is more to life than chasing the bigger, better deal. With humor, pathos, and keen observation, writer-director John Wells (the creator of “ER”) introduces us to the new realities of American life.
“Gran Torino” Beyond Self-Parody
Jan 28th
Beyond Self-Parody
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
GRAN TORINO is the latest film directed by Clint Eastwood, he also stars in it, and he has said that it might be his final acting job.
That would be a shame, because it doesn’t represent his best acting work, nor does it show his best directing, either.
Clint plays Walt Kowalski, and the film opens at the church ceremony for the funeral of his wife, Dorothy. Walt is clearly uncomfortable, and he also makes it obvious that he doesn’t approve of the way his teenage granddaughter dresses and acts.
However, one of his sons says something to the other one that gives us an insight into Walt. He says, “There’s nothing anyone can do that won’t disappoint the Old Man.”
Walt is retired, after having worked for the Ford Motor Co. for 50 years, and his prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino, which he tells people he even helped assemble. He doesn’t drive it, but keeps it clean and pristine in his garage.
I don’t believe that it is a coincidence that 1972 was also the year that DIRTY HARRY was released, and later we will see Walt use some mannerisms that an old, retired Dirty Harry Callahan might use.
Walt lives in the same Detroit neighborhood that he and Dorothy always lived in, only now it is almost unrecognizable with the influx of immigrants.
A family of Hmong people live in the house next door, and Walt reluctantly gets to know them better.
One night he catches their teenage son, Thao, trying to steal the Gran Torino out of Walt’s garage, which was to be the initiation requirement for Thao to get into the gang his cousin runs with.
When the gang tries to take off with Thao, Walt points his rifle at them and actually says, “Get off my lawn!”
However, Thao was being forced to join the gang, and when Walt prevents it, Thao’s family bring Walt food and flowers out of appreciation, which Walt doesn’t approve of one bit.
Walt becomes a hero in the neighborhood, and Thao is sent to Walt to work off the debt he now owes Walt.
Whatever humor is in the film is Walt teaching Thao how to be a man like him.
GRAN TORINO has loose directing, poor acting, not very good writing, and sinks to beyond self-parody.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
