“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

The Drop - Movie PosterTHE DROP is a very good, dark, and gritty movie that revolves around a bar in Brooklyn called Cousin Marv’s, which used to belong to Marv, played by James Gandolfini.

Bob, played by Tom Hardy, who actually is a cousin of Marv’s, tends bar there, and the bar is sometimes used as a “drop bar,” where bookies and dealers leave bundles of cash in envelopes for the crime bosses who control them to come by after hours to collect the money.

There is a rotating circuit of bars that are used as drop bars, but one night when Cousin Marv’s is the drop bar, it is robbed by two men wearing masks, and even though Marv tries to warn them about whose money they are stealing, the two robbers take the money anyway.

Bob notices that one of the men is wearing a wristwatch that is broken, but when he mentions this to the police who investigate, Marv gets upset with Bob.

One night Bob had been out walking in the neighborhood, and he discovers a bleeding puppy in a garbage can. The woman who lives in the house behind the garbage can comes out and starts talking to Bob about the puppy, which is not hers, nor does she know anything about it or why it had been left in her garbage can.

Bob promises to think about taking the dog to the shelter if she will just keep it until Saturday when he will come back to pick it up.

The woman’s name is Nadia, and Bob decides to keep the dog, but because he has never owned a dog before, Nadia goes with Bob to the store and helps him buy the necessities that Bob needs in order to keep he dog, which he names Rocco.

Meanwhile, the police keep coming around to investigate the robbery, the owners of the bar show up wanting the money that had been taken in the robbery, and a menacing man named Eric Deeds, who used to be involved with Nadia, shows up at Bob’s apartment, claiming that the dog is his, but he will let Bob keep Rocco if Bob will pay him $10,000.

The bar is designated the drop bar for Super Bowl Sunday, and everything comes to a head.

THE DROP is definitely worth seeing.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”