Hotshots Movie Reviews
Hotshots Movie Reviews by Dan Culberson
A Most Wanted Man “Just One Fault”
Aug 5th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A MOST WANTED MAN is based on a John le Carre novel published in 2008, but it is most notable in that it’s the final major performance of Philip Seymour Hofman, who died in February 2014.
Hofman plays Gunther Bachmann, a German intelligence agent based in Hamburg, Germany, and the story involves Bachmann and his team in pursuit of Issa Karpov, a Russian Muslim who has entered the city illegally.
What does Karpov want? What is his story? Is he a terrorist, or is he just escaping Russian oppression and attempting to join the large Muslim community in Hamburg?
Gunther asks himself these questions, keeping in mind that Hamburg was where the 9/11 terrorists involved in the 2001 attack on the United States hatched their plan, as well as the fact that Gunther has the stain of a failed mission in Beirut, Lebanon, that haunts him.
So, when Karpov gets in touch with Annabel Richter, a civil liberties lawyer played by Rachel McAdams, Gunther questions her for information, and she tells him, “He asked me to find someone for him. A banker.”
The banker is Tommy Brue, played by Willem Dafoe, and Karpov has a letter that will identify him to Tommy and establish that Karpov has a legitimate claim to a large sum of money that Tommy’s bank is holding, upwards of 10 million Euros.
Gunther doesn’t want anyone to get to Karpov before he and his team can, and he is warned to watch his back, because the Americans are taking an interest in Karpov, as well.
Gunther is told by his authorities that he has 72 hours to handle the situation or else others will take over the case.
Gunther believes that Annabel is now in danger, and for a start, she must be saved from anything that might happen.
In addition, for some time now Gunther and his team have been tracking the Arabic head of an Islamic charity, because they believe that he has been using the charity to funnel money to terrorists, and Gunther must also deal with the problem that one of his informants has become frightened and wants out of the game, saying that he can’t do it anymore.
A MOST WANTED MAN is rich, deep, and complex, but you might find one fault in it as I did.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Sex Tape “As Promised”
Jul 29th
SEX TAPE is a movie that resembles its title: lots of skin and boring story.
Now, be honest: Have you ever watched a “porno” that had a good story? The answer has got to be “no,” because the whole point of a porno is to see the naked bodies and the acts of copulation themselves.
In other words, if you want a story, read a good book.
If you want to see the naked bodies of Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel pretending to have sex, recording it for their own amusement, and then spending the rest of the movie trying to recover all the copies that accidentally got released up into the “Cloud,” then go ahead and see this movie, but prepare to be as bored as anyone is who actually watches a porno film.
Incidentally, the truest line in the movie and perhaps even the funniest is when Jay says to Annie, “Nobody understands the Cloud!” in his frustration when he can’t easily retrieve the copies that have been sent there.
However, most of the movie consists of their attempts to obtain the tablets that they gave to people, not realizing that a copy of their video is on each tablet.
One of those tablets was given to Hank, played by Rob Lowe, who might become Annie’s new boss, and they show up late at night at Hank’s front door, pretending to be collecting money for a charity, and the plan is for Annie to distract Hank while Jay goes searching through Hank’s house looking for the tablet.
Remember that tired old line, “That was so funny, I forgot to laugh,” which is said after a joke or a situation that wasn’t funny? That applies to this subplot, too.
There is another subplot involving somebody texting Jay who claims to have a copy of the video and threatens to blackmail Jay for $25,000 or else the video will go public.
Now, I can’t prove the reason for this, but are you as surprised as I am whenever a relatively known actor in a relatively important part in a movie doesn’t get listed in the credits?
Such is the case here with the actor sho plays the owner of a porn site who tells Jay and Annie, “There’s no shortage of sex tapes.”
SEX TAPE proves that.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Begin Again “Not Memorable”
Jul 21st
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BEGIN AGAIN has a typical setup for a romantic comedy, but the most untraditional ending ever for a romantic comedy.
John Carney wrote and directed this film, and he directed the 2007 ONCE, which also had a theme about music, but of a different kind and in a different country, as well as having more romance in it.
Mark Ruffalo stars as Dan, an executive of a record company in New York City who is down on his luck, being separated from his wife and teenage daughter, as well as having recently lost his job at the company he started with his business partner.
Keira Knightley stars as Greta, and she isn’t doing so well, either, having recently broken up with her boyfriend, whom she wrote songs with, and now he has become a successful singer, but who cheated on her.
So, when the movie begins, Greta has been pressured into going on stage in a small club and singing one of her songs, where Dan happens to be after having too much to drink.
However, Dan is so impressed by her song and her singing that after her performance he goes up to Greta and says, “I want to make records with you.”
Unfortunately, the time couldn’t have been worse, because Greta is planning to leave New York the next day and go back home to England, because of her breakup with Dave, who is played by Adam Levine.
Well, Dan turns on all the charm he can muster and convinces Greta to stay and have a meeting with his partner in order to get his opinion about Greta’s possible future as a successful singer-songwriter in the music business.
Sure enough, the next day they meet with Dan’s business partner, but he recommends that they make a professionally produced demo before he will make any decisions that might cost him money.
Naturally, neither Dan nor Greta has the money to produce a demo in a studio, and so Dan comes up with the harebrained idea of skipping a demo and just recording an entire album of Greta’s songs on the streets of the City and thus have a finished product as leverage.
And so the rest of the movie consists of their doing just that.
BEGIN AGAIN won’t leave you with any songs running through your head.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”