Hotshots Movie Reviews
Hotshots Movie Reviews by Dan Culberson
“Hope Springs” Has Some Nice Touches
Aug 21st
“Nice Touches”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hope Springs is a comedy starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple who have been married 31 years and who spend a week taking intensive couples counseling.
You see, perhaps because they have been married 31 years, their marriage is in a deep rut. They sleep in separate bedrooms; every morning Kay cooks Arnold’s breakfast of one egg and one slice of bacon, which he eats while reading the newspaper and then leaves for work without saying anything; and every evening Arnold falls asleep in his easy chair while watching the golf channel on TV.
So, when Kay sees a book called You Can Have the Marriage You Want, by Dr. Bernard Feld, she signs up for Arnold and her to attend Dr. Feld’s Center for Intensive Couples Counseling, which is held in Great Hope Springs, Maine.
Kay says, “I want a real marriage again, Arnold.”
She tells him that she has already booked the flight, which leaves tomorrow, and when Arnold refuses to go, Kay calls a cab and leaves for the airport alone.
Well, of course, Arnold gives in, and when he shows up at the last minute and sits down next to her on the airplane, he says, “I hope you’re happy.”
Steve Carell plays Dr. Feld, but he is much more subdued than his usual comedic roles, and the laughs come from the situations that Kay and Arnold put themselves in and the things they say, as well as the things they don’t say.
In fact, Streep is a great actress without even saying anything, and Jones is no slouch, either. Carell must have picked up some acting tips from them, because even he holds his own in the Laughs Without Saying Anything category.
Kay tells Dr. Feld that Arnold doesn’t touch her anymore, when he used to touch her arm, her shoulder, just because he wanted to. And so Dr. Feld gives them an exercise for that evening back in their motel room to just put their arms around each other and hold each other.
Each session and each exercise gets more intense, and even though it might sound repetitious and boring, it isn’t.
Hope Springs has some nice touches in it–all puns intended–and this is one movie that is impossible to walk out during the closing credits.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Total Recall” Is Total Overkill
Aug 13th
“Total Overkill”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Total Recall is the 2012 version of the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and if you have seen the first film, you will keep asking yourself whether you remember it or whether it is a false memory.
One thing is sure, however: Colin Farrell is a better actor than Ah-nold.
Spoiler Alert! The story begins with a dream. Or maybe not.
Doug Quaid has been having a recurring nightmare, and he wakes up in bed with his wife, Lori, played by Kate Beckinsale.
Doug lies to her about the dream–or maybe not–and when she leaves for work, Doug says, “Sleep scares me.”
The time is the future, and there are only two places on Earth left inhabitable: the United Federation of Britain, which is where Great Britain is now, and the Colony, which is where Australia is now.
Doug lives in the Colony, but he works in Britain as an assembly worker, making the commute to and from work in “the Fall,” a super elevator between the two through the center of the earth.
Well, Doug is bored with his life, and after work he goes to a Rekall Lounge where he can have exciting memories implanted in his brain.
However, something goes wrong–or maybe it doesn’t–and the next thing he knows, robotic policemen called “Synthetics” are trying to kill him. So, maybe his choice of memory implant for “secret agent” worked, or maybe it didn’t because he was a secret agent all along with lost memories.
Anyway, a woman named Melina, played by Jessica Biel, shows up to save him, and she is a resistance fighter who claims that he is one, too. Or is he?
Could he be a double agent for the Establishment pretending to be working for the Resistance, could he be pretending to be working for the Establishment but really working for the Resistance, or could everything that is happening to him just be the memory implant from the Rekall Lounge?
What should you believe and what should you disbelieve? When does it stop being interesting and just a screen filled with a confusing story and lots of explosions and special effects, which for this movie are called “visual effects”?
When does the suspension of disbelief become the suspension of belief?
Total Recall is nothing more than total overkill.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
Aug 4th
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Watch is a comedy that combines the subjects of a neighborhood watch group; a compulsive, obsessive, paranoid leader; and an alien invasion in the suburbs, and if you believe that concept is potentially funny, then this movie is potentially for you.
Otherwise, don’t bother.
The story takes place in Glenview, Ohio, and Ben Stiller plays Evan Trautwig, the manager of the local Costco store who forms a neighborhood watch group when his night watchman is mysteriously murdered and his body is horribly disfigured.
Evan wants to solve the watchman’s murder and find who did it, but Evan also has a history of forming clubs just so he can be a member of them and make new friends.
This time, however, Evan tells his wife Abby, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, “It’s not a club. It’s a task force.”
Only three people show up for the organizational meeting: Bob, played by Vince Vaughn; Franklin, played by Jonah Hill; and Jamarcus, who is British and has a funny haircut to go along with his funny accent.
The organizational meeting that Evan planned is too boring and so against Evan’s wishes, the meeting moves to Bob’s house, where they can have fun and drink some beers.
Bob has a teenage daughter named Chelsea who is rebellious and who will play an important part later on in the story.
The watch group’s stakeout on the first night doesn’t go well, as you can imagine, and not only do they have a run-in with the local police, but they also have trouble with some teenage boys.
The group finds a strange and mysterious globe with unusual powers which seems to be out of this world, because it is.
Evan also has a creepy and mysterious new neighbor named Paul who keeps inviting Evan to come to a party, but that turns out not to be what you expect, to say the least.
Eventually, the group discovers that there are aliens among them and that the aliens are using Glenview and even Costco as the sources of their invasion of Earth.
Now, don’t even bother counting the number of bullets fired in the final shootout at the end, which may or may not be satisfying, depending on which side you are rooting for.
The Watch may not be satisfying, either, so don’t even bother.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
