Hotshots Movie Reviews
Hotshots Movie Reviews by Dan Culberson
“Bride Wars” First Thing Women Want
Jan 14th
First Thing Women Want
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BRIDE WARS is a silly chick flick that is NOT a romantic comedy, just a comedy.
However, the only people laughing in the audience when I attended were women, and some of them were laughing hysterically. (No pun intended.)
Starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, the story is about two best friends from childhood for the past 20 years who have been inseparable ever since they saw a wedding together at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
So, all their lives they have dreamed and planned to have their own weddings at the Plaza and that each of them would be the maid of honor for the other one.
And then the complications ensue.
They both get engaged at about the same time, and so they meet together with Marion St. Claire, the most sought-after wedding planner in Manhattan, played by Candice Bergen.
Earlier, they had criticized a wedding, one of them saying, “It ain’t June,” and the other one adding, “And it ain’t the Plaza.”
So, they settle on two of the only three available dates in June, which is 3-1/2 months away, and here is where the complications ensue.
Marion’s assistant mistakenly books them both on the same date, and let the forced comedy for women begin.
I know what you’re thinking: “Are there any men in this movie?”
Yes, there are. Two fiances, a brother, and an assistant, but except for the assistant, the men are so nondescript that you can’t even tall them apart, and they have almost no role in the story.
And any men in the audience will start losing interest when the two women start fighting with each other. You see, guys would just split the check down the middle, have two separate weddings, order pizzas, and turn on the ball game.
Now, men would ask what is so funny about two brides fighting. Or sympathetic about their making up?
But then the movie isn’t over when you think it’s over. We get an added scene that is a ho-hum setup for a sequel.
BRIDE WARS is a chick flick times 2 that is apparently all about the first thing women want, which in the end might not be anything more than leading to a sequel that would be a chick flick times 4 about the second thing women want and named BABY WARS.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Reader” Dealing with Guilt
Jan 7th
Dealing with Guilt
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE READER is a searing examination of guilt and not as straightforward as you might think it is from reading about it.
Starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, the film questions how one’s life can be tragically affected by keeping a secret or by not revealing all of the truth.
In other words, how does one deal with guilt and shame?
The film begins in 1995 Berlin, but then it uses flashbacks to jump back and forth between 1995 and 1958, when the story begins.
We meet 15-year-old Michael Berg, who becomes sick and throws up in the entryway to an apartment building. A young woman in her thirties named Hanna Schmitz lives there, and she stops to help him.
Michael ends up with scarlet fever, and when he is able to leave his room, his parents tell him that he must go back and thank Hanna, which he does, as well as taking her some flowers.
However, before they know it, they wind up in bed together, which prompts Hanna to say, “So, that’s why you came back.”
Michael becomes a regular visitor, and when Hanna learns what he is studying in school, she asks him to read to her, eventually making their routine that first he reads to her and then they make love.
It takes three such visits before Michael even learns Hanna’s name, and she usually refers to him as “Kid.”
This goes on for quite some time, but one day when Michael arrives at Hanna’s apartment, she is gone and has moved out without having told him.
Then we jump to 1966, and Michael is in Heidelberg Law School. The class attends the trial of six female guards of a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, and Michael is shocked to see that Hanna is one of the former guards on trial.
Watching the trial and hearing the testimony, Michael comes to a realization about Hanna that he had never suspected during all the time that they had been together that wonderful summer eight years before.
And as the trial progresses, Michael watches Hanna withhold information that could have helped her defense, and then he struggles with himself over whether he should provide that important information that could help her.
THE READER is much more than just a story about lost love and dealing with guilt.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Frost/Nixon” Worthy Opponents
Dec 31st
Worthy Opponents
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
FROST/NIXON is the fantastic film based on the award-winning stage play, and if you think it is going to consist of two men playing David Frost and former president Richard Nixon just sitting down and conducting the interviews that resulted in the May 1977 broadcasts, think again.
Directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon, the film covers the time between August 1974 when Nixon became the only president to resign while in office and immediately after the last interview was broadcast three years later.
In other words, we also see the beginning of Frost’s idea to conduct the interviews in order to rejuvenate his own career in television, the tricky negotiations to get Nixon to agree, the preparations on both sides for the taping of the interviews, and then the interviews themselves, which resulted in Nixon’s famous exclamation, “I’m saying that when the president does it, it’s not illegal!”
Yes, there are many obvious parallels between Nixon’s presidency and the current President Bush Administration and the situation in Iraq, and those parallels are obviously intentional.
It was also obvious from the film that Nixon didn’t agree to the interviews just to set the record straight. He was paid $600,000 and would receive 20% of any profits, the interviews took place in a rented house not far from Nixon’s home in San Clemente, California, Nixon would not see the questions beforehand, and Frost had total editorial control of the finished product.
The only stipulation was that no more than 25% of the interview would be about Watergate, and as we see from the film, that led to a controversial discussion as to the definition of “Watergate.”
Kevin Bacon plays Jack Brennan, an aide to Nixon who figures prominently in the preparations, and based on the film’s publicity, you might not even have realized that he appears in the film.
Even given the importance of the two people involved and the subject matter of the interviews, Frost and his producer had a difficult time selling advertising for the project and even getting a television network to air the results.
If you want to see the finished product as broadcast, those interviews are now available on DVD.
FROST/NIXON is an excellent dramatization of those worthy opponents, and there is suspense up until the final shot.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
