The American – Movie Trailer
Sep 14th
Academy Award winner George Clooney stars in the title role of this suspense thriller. As an assassin, Jack is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, Jack retreats to the Italian countryside. He relishes being away from death for a spell as he holes up in a small medieval town. While there, Jack takes an assignment to construct a weapon for a mysterious contact, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). Savoring the peaceful quietude he finds in the mountains of Abruzzo, Jack accepts the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues a torrid liaison with a beautiful woman, Clara (Violante Placido). Jack and Clara’s time together evolves into a romance, one seemingly free of danger. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
“The American” The Red Herring
Sep 14th
“The Red Herring”
THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.
Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.
Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”
What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.
The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.
So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.
He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.
Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.
Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.
Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.
As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.
Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.
THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Takers” Expect to Be Surprised
Sep 1st
“Expect to Be Surprised”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
TAKERS is a crime caper with plenty of action, plenty of shoot-outs and chases, and plenty of surprises, the first of which is how good and entertaining it is in spite of not being very original.
It opens with a bank robbery by five professional and very efficient bank robbers who use one of the most innovative and imaginative means of escape ever conceived.
Meanwhile, across town two detectives are making a bust in an apartment, and one of them is Detective Jack Welles, played by Matt Dillon. One of the men he and his partner try to arrest escapes, and this event will play a major role later on in the story.
Then we cut to a man being released from prison. He goes by the name of Ghost, and he is released a year early because of good behavior.
Ghost used to be a member of the team of bank robbers, but he got caught during one of their previous jobs. However, he never revealed who the other members were while incarcerated, and now he feels that they “owe him,” especially his cut of the money from that previous job.
So, Ghost talks to the other five thieves and tells them about his plan to rob an armored car for $30 million.
The problem is that the job has to be accomplished in five days, and the team likes to take at least a year to plan a robbery. But as one of them says, “Bet big, win big. That’s the only way to play.”
Now, while we see them plan the complicated robbery, Jack and his partner are searching through the surveillance tapes of the bank robbery, looking for clues that will help them solve the case. In addition, there are family matters that Jack has to deal with, and so does the leader of the team of robbers.
The day of the robbery comes, and naturally everything doesn’t go as planned, but then the movie fun begins. There are chases right and left and in and out and over and under. And that’s just on foot.
And then just when you think the movie is over, something even more exciting happens to get your adrenalin running all over again, and that’s not even counting the double-crosses.
TAKERS is surprising, and expect to be surprised.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
