Hotshots Movie Reviews
Hotshots Movie Reviews by Dan Culberson
“Limitless” More Like ‘Overblown’
Mar 29th
LIMITLESS takes its title from the idea of how many opportunities are available to us if we were able to use 100% of our brains instead of the mythological 20% that we use in our everyday lives.
However, scientists say that we already use 100% of our brains, and so the premise of the movie needs a better explanation.
Bradley Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a writer with a book contract, but he looks more like someone with an alcohol or drug problem.
That might be because he doesn’t act like a writer, either, because he is behind on his book, having written only one word, and that word is the first-person, singular pronoun “I.”
Eddie gets even more down on his luck when his girlfriend Lindy breaks up with him, but then his life changes dramatically when he accidentally meets the brother of his ex-wife on the street.
Vernon tells Eddie that he is working for a company that has come out with a new pill called NZT48 that lets you access 100% of your brain, but then he gets interrupted by a phone call and has to leave.
However, Vernon gives Eddie his business card and one of the NZT pills “on the house,” saying that they normally cost $800 apiece.
And the rest, as they say, is this movie.
Special effects show an impression of what happens to Eddie when he takes the pill. “I wasn’t ‘high,’ I was just clear,” he tells us in voice-over narration. “I knew what I wanted to do and how to do it.”
And he does. The next morning, the effects of the pill have worn off, and Eddie gives his book manuscript to his publisher, saying that if she doesn’t like it, he will return the advance.
Then when Vernon doesn’t return Eddie’s calls, Eddie goes to see Vernon with the objective of getting more pills.
And here is where the movie starts leaving the audience with unanswered questions.
Here is also where more characters enter the story, including a Russian loan shark and his hooligans, a financial businessman played by Robert De Niro, a mysterious man who seems to be following Eddie around New York City, and even Eddie’s ex-wife, Melissa.
LIMITLESS makes a thriller out of limitless opportunities, but it is more like “overblown” with unanswered questions.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Hall Pass” Mixed Messages
Mar 21st
“Mixed Messages”
HALL PASS is the latest attempt at humor from the Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, who previously were responsible for the 1994 DUMB & DUMBER, the 1998 THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, the 2000 ME, MYSELF & IRENE, and the 2001 SHALLOW HAL, to name a few . . . too many.
So, to send you a mixed message, don’t waste any time seeing this movie.
However, if you are forced to see it now or accidentally see it later, be prepared for a load of crap, to be crude, and literal, and not funny.
Also be prepared for the movie to take way too long to get started, just as this review is taking.
It stars Owen Wilson as Rick and Jason Sudeikis as his best friend, Fred. Respectively, they are married to Jenna Fischer as Maggie and Christina Applegate as Grace.
Like all men, Rick and Fred take long looks at beautiful women whenever they can, and like all wives, Maggie and Grace take personal offense when their husbands do.
So, on the advice of a friend, Maggie decides to give Rick a chance to get his wanderlust out of his system. She says to him, “I’m giving you a hall pass. One week off from marriage.”
Grace does the same with Fred, and together Maggie and Grace take the kids and travel to Cape Cod to spend a week with Maggie’s father, leaving Rick and Fred in Providence, Rhode Island, to do whatever they want for a week with no wives around.
Then we get a day-by-day account of the expected horndog hilarity, which we know is going to end with a message, right? The movie also cuts back and forth from Providence to Cape Cod as we watch the wives encounter some unexpected situations, as well.
On Day 6 Richard Jenkins shows up in Providence as Coakley, a mentor and hero for Rick and Fred, and he shows them what he does that makes him succeed with women, especially by throwing a big party at his house with a lot of women and a lot of opportunities for Rick and Fred.
Well, I won’t spoil the movie for you by telling you what you can already guess, but I do suggest that you stay until after the credits.
HALL PASS contains mixed messages, some funny and others not at all.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Barney’s Version” One Man’s Marriages
Mar 17th
“One Man’s Marriages”
BARNEY’S VERSION tells the story of Barney Panofsky and covers 36 years in the life of this hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, hockey-loving Canadian TV producer and especially of his three marriages.
Barney is played by Paul Giamatti, and we can assume from the film’s title that what we see are Barney’s version of everything, in particular one event that resulted in the death of his best friend, who played a major part in the ending of Barney’s second marriage, which got off to a very bad start on the day of the wedding.
The film begins in the present, and we see Barney make a phone call at 3:30 a.m. supposedly to talk to Miriam, who was his third wife.
However, when a man answers the phone, he tells Barney that he isn’t going to wake up Miriam in the middle of the night just to talk to Barney.
So, Barney says, “Just ask her what she wants me to do with all these nude photos I have of her.”
Now, we never see those photos, and given what we will eventually learn about Barney, they might not even exist, but either that statement or possibly just the late-night phone call itself might have caused something serious to have happened to the man who answered the telephone.
Then we learn that a retired police detective has just published a book that claims that Barney got away with murder over an incident that happened in Barney’s past.
The movie then has its first of many flashbacks, and we are back in 1974 in Rome, Italy, where we see Barney living it up with all his friends.
Barney is the only one with a real job, and when the woman he is dating gets pregnant, Barney decides to do the decent thing and marry her.
However, Clara reveals information about herself that all comes up as a surprise to Barney, and when the baby is born, Barney learns that he isn’t even the father.
Then we switch to 1975 and Montreal, where Barney is working for his uncle, who introduces Barney to a nice Jewish girl from a wealthy family, who becomes Barney’s second wife.
We also meet Barney’s father, played by Dustin Hoffman, who is a retired policeman.
BARNEY’S VERSION is 36 years of one man’s very interesting marriages.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
