Dan Culberson
Dan Culberson is an author, TV performer, editor and publisher who has been writing about culture, politics and religion since 1994. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English literature in the Honors Program from the University of Colorado and was president of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was born in Carmel, CA, but grew up all over the U.S. and Europe, living in Monterey, CA: Medford, OR; Lawton, OK (twice); Pampa, TX; Minot, ND; El Paso, TX; Tacoma, WA; Kennewick, WA; Erlangen, Germany; Lebanon, MO; Colorado Springs, CO (where he attended high school); Boulder, CO (where he attended college and now lives); and Heidelberg while serving in the U.S. Army and Sindelfingen, Germany while on assignment for IBM. He served three years in the U.S. Army, retired from IBM after 25 years with a career in publications and is a writer, editor and publisher who came of age in the Sixties, which he remembers quite well. He was named a Boulder Pacesetter in 1985 by the BOULDER DAILY CAMERA in the first year of that program and was a film reviewer from 1972 to 2014 for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV programs.
Homepage: http://c1n.tv
Posts by Dan Culberson
“The Five-Year Engagement” More Like the Five-Year Movie
May 5th
“More Like the Five-Year Movie”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Five-Year Engagement was made by the same people who made the 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and so it must be good, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is good in some places, and no, it is not good in other places, mainly the scenes that go on for too long and the scenes that should have been cut in the first place.
Jason Segal and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet. They met a year ago at a New Year’s Eve party, which we keep seeing in flashbacks at various times throughout the movie.
They get engaged, and during a meeting with Tom’s relatives to plan the engagement party, one of the men comments that the men will all be wearing yarmulkes, of course. Violet says to Tom that he doesn’t have a yarmulke, and he replies that he does and, “It’s in my Jewish drawer.”
The story begins in San Francisco, and you can guess from the title that the engagement isn’t going to go smoothly, right?
Correct. Violet is working on her doctorate in psychology, and she gets accepted to a position at the University of Michigan, which will take two years to complete.
However, because Tom is a chef in a restaurant, he says that he can always find a job anywhere, and so they decide that Tom will move to Michigan with Violet, and they will postpone the wedding for two years.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, couldn’t they get married in San Francisco before moving to Michigan, or couldn’t they even get married in Michigan?
But if they did that, then the filmmakers would have to change the title of the movie, wouldn’t they?
Well, you can guess from the title that the two-year plan isn’t going to go smoothly, either, right? Violet’s work at the University of Michigan gets extended, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but at one point the situation gets so bad that it looks like there won’t be any wedding at all.
Now, you know how the DVD version of some movies contains deleted scenes? Maybe the DVD of this movie will thankfully be missing some scenes that should have been cut.
The Five-Year Engagement lives up to its reputation of being a comedy, but it is more like the five-year movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Think Like a Man” Is Funny, but Predictable
Apr 28th
“Funny, but Predictable”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Think Like a Man has so many characters in it that at first it is difficult to tell who is who and who is dating whom, and then by the time you do figure it out, the movie is over.
The title comes from a real book written by comedian Steve Harvey that became a best seller in 2009 and was titled Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and had the subtitle of “What Men Really Think about Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment.”
It was an advice book for women written by a man, and it plays an important part in this movie, which is a comedy, and Harvey himself appears throughout the movie talking about the book on a daytime talk show and then again from time to time giving advice straight to the audience.
The story follows a number of men and women who are dating each other, the men are all friends with each other, and their group also includes one man who is getting a divorce and another man who is happily married.
When one of the men says at the beginning of the movie, “Life is great, Fellows, may it never change,” we in the audience can predict that it is going to change, and it might not be so great for them, either.
You see, the women in the movie discover the advice book, they all read it, and they start manipulating the men they are dating in order to make the men do what the women want.
Now, the men aren’t so easily manipulated, because they are men, after all, but when they discover that the women they are dating are all reading the book and using its advice to try to change the men, the men all read the book, too, and try to use its advice to their own advantage.
And that is what makes this movie a comedy, because things don’t always work out as planned when you try to change someone.
Here are just two of the women’s situations.
One woman has been going out with a man for nine years, and she decides that she is going to require him to propose to her.
Another woman has a son and she is dating a mama’s boy.
Think Like a Man is funny, but predictable.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Three Stooges” Is Soitainly an Embarrassment
Apr 21st
“Soitainly an Embarrassment”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Three Stoges: The Movie is how the publicist wants references to be made about this movie, which is so bad, it is lucky to have any references made to it at all.
However, speaking of references, what first comes to mind is a parody from the Bible: “When I was a child, I enjoyed the antics of The Three Stooges, but when I became a man I put away childish things and don’t find them funny anymore.”
The second reference that comes to mind is that the story is straight out of the 1980 The Blues Brothers: raising money to save the orphanage in which the title characters grew up.
This story starts off with three babies being tossed out onto the steps of the orphanage, and they look just like the identifiable mugs that we have come to recognize by their haircuts, Moe with his bowl-cut style, Curly with his shaved pate, and Larry, who is half bald and half wild and curly haired.
Incidentally, Moe is still the self-appointed leader of the group, but the grownup Larry is played by Sean Hayes, who is more well known than the actors playing Moe and Curly, and so Hayes is billed as the star of the movie.
Then we see the Stooges 10 years later, and they are doing the same shtick that we enjoyed watching them do when we were children. A young couple choose Moe for adoption, but it doesn’t end well, and they return Moe and choose another young boy instead.
Then it is 25 years later, the boys are all grown up now, and everybody learns that due to lack of money, the orphanage will be shut down at the end of the month.
The orphanage needs $830,000 to be saved, and Moe says, “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
All they know how to do is handyman work, however, and of course they aren’t even very good at that. But the Stooges are pure of heart and dim of wit.
And what follows is a falling out among the Stooges, Sofia Vergara as a rich woman who hires them for some dirty work, and a wasted and tasteless introduction of the reality stars from “The Jersey Shore.”
The Three Stooges: The Movie is not much of a movie and soitainly an embarrassment.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”