Hotshots Movie Reviews
Hotshots Movie Reviews by Dan Culberson
“I Love You, Man” Overlook the Major Flaw
Apr 8th
Overlook the Major Flaw
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
I LOVE YOU, MAN is a very funny movie about a pleasant-enough man who intentionally tries to meet some men he can become close friends with.
Well, one, actually, and herein lies the major flaw in the story.
You see, Peter, played by Paul Rudd, has just gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Zooey, played by Rashida Jones, and it becomes clear that Peter doesn’t have any male friends, much less anyone he can ask to be his best man.
In fact, at a dinner with Peter’s parents, his mother, played by Jane Curtin, tells Zooey, “Peter always connected more with women.”
So, everybody and his brother try to fix Peter up with some men whom he can become friends with and maybe find a best man.
Naturally, the meetings are very funny, and naturally Peter doesn’t meet anyone he would like to become friends with, which means still no best man.
Peter is a real-estate agent, and his biggest project is to sell the house owned by Lou Ferrigno, the actor who played The Incredible Hulk on television.
So, Peter holds an open house for prospective buyers, and a man who shows up strictly for the food and perhaps to meet some recently divorced women is Sydney Fife, played by Jason Segel.
Peter and Sydney get to talking, and they exchange business cards.
Later, Peter decides to call Sydney, but he is so nervous that he rehearses what he is going to say, and when Sydney isn’t home, the message that Peter leaves is as funny as the rest of the movie.
However, they finally connect, agree to get together, and the rest, as they say, is what makes this movie worth seeing.
They share similar interests in music, they jam together, and Sydney gets Peter to open up more, although Peter tries too hard in practically everything he does, which is all the more funny.
And, of course, there are problems.
And, or course, they are overcome.
Now, the major flaw in the story is that I was being literal when I said “everybody and his brother,” because Peter does have a brother and you might wonder why Peter doesn’t ask him to be best man.
I LOVE YOU, MAN asks you to overlook this major flaw, enjoy the movie, and stay for the closing credits.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Sunshine Cleaning” False Promises
Apr 2nd
False Promises
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SUNSHINE CLEANING is a quirky little film that wants to be so much better than it actually is, given that it actually does display a great deal of promise.
It stars Amy Adams as Rose Lorkowski, Emily Blunt as her sister, Norah, and Alan Arkin as their father, Joe, a sort-of dysfunctional family living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a troubled past that is revealed about halfway through the film.
The film begins with a fairly dramatic and shocking scene that doesn’t so much set the tone of the film, but most likely was intended as a contradiction of what the film wants to be.
Then we see Rose in her bathroom reading what must be her daily
affirmation: “You are strong. You are powerful. You can do anything. You’re a winner.”
Rose works for a maid service, she was the head cheerleader in high school, where she dated the star quarterback on the football team, and she is the single mother of seven-year-old Oscar, who has a history of getting into trouble at school.
Rose’s high-school sweetheart, Mac, still meets with her occasionally, even though he is married to someone else, he is a detective, and he gives Rose the idea of starting her own cleaning service, which would specialize in cleaning up crime scenes, and thus is born the Sunshine Cleaning Service.
Rose convinces Norah to join her in the business, telling her that it is just like cleaning up a home, only there is blood and body fluids.
Norah just got fired from her job as a waitress, she likes weird stuff, and to say that Norah has quirks would be a gross understatement.
Their father, Joe, is a piece of work, too. He is always looking for a way to make some easy money, and when Rose leaves Oscar with Joe while she and Norah clean up crime scenes, sometimes Oscar works as Joe’s shill and Joe teaches Oscar what he calls “business acumen.”
However, when Rose attends a baby shower so she can see many of her old high-school friends, she sends Norah to a crime scene to begin the cleaning process, and Norah causes a disaster to occur.
SUNSHINE CLEANING has too many false promises that don’t deliver, just like Rose’s daily affirmation ritual, which doesn’t do much for her.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Knowing” Wants It Both Ways
Mar 25th
Wants It Both Ways
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
KNOWING is a film that looks promising at the beginning but then falls apart as it gets more and more preposterous.
Nicolas Cage stars as John Koestler, a professor of astrophysics at MIT, and one day his son, Caleb, comes home from school with an envelope that was handed out to him at a school ceremony which will change their lives and the world around them.
Before that, a prologue from 1959 has shown us what is in the envelope and who was responsible for it.
Back then, the new elementary school had a dedication ceremony for which the children were asked to draw a picture of what they thought the world would look like 50 years later in 2009, and the pictures were put into a time capsule that was buried at the school.
However, one strange little girl, instead of drawing a picture, had covered her paper with nothing but numbers. That is the paper that Caleb had been given.
John and Caleb have a special bond between them ever since John’s wife and Caleb’s mother was killed in an accident some years earlier. They repeat a ritual saying that goes “You and me together . . . forever.”
Well, late one night John is studying the list of numbers to try to make sense out of them, and he discovers “91101” in the list with “2996” immediately after it. On a hunch he researches the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and learns that 2,996 people were killed in the World Trade Towers that day.
Using that as his starting point, John then realizes that the date of every major disaster is in the numbers, along with the number of casualties following the date.
However, if that weren’t frightening enough, according to John’s system in the numbers, three major disasters haven’t occurred yet, but are going to happen soon within the next year.
Granted, there are more numbers than just dates and casualties, but when John discovers what they mean, the piece of paper becomes even more frightening.
Now, the special effects are fantastic, but here is where the story starts to become preposterous. Then it gets really preposterous.
And then even more preposterous than that.
KNOWING wants to have it both ways and then every way possible after that, but you have to see it to understand what I mean, and I don’t recommend it.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
