“Date Night” Date Night from Hell
Apr 14th
Date Night from Hell
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
DATE NIGHT is the perfect movie for married couples who have such rituals, but it should come with the following warning: “We’re professionals. Don’t try this when you leave home on your date night.”
Steve Carell and Tina Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, who live in New Jersey and who have the obligatory two young children. Phil is a tax accountant, Claire is a real-estate agent, and at the beginning of the movie we see what they do on a typical date night and their typical bedtime routine for discussing whether or not to have sex, both of which should be familiar and funny to couples in the audience.
Then when they learn that two friends of theirs who are married to each other are going to break up, Phil and Claire decide to change their usual date night of dinner at a local restaurant and instead go to a fancy restaurant in New York City, even though they don’t have reservations, which normally have to be made a month in advance.
So, while they are waiting in the bar for a table to open up, Phil hears the hostess calling “Tripplehorn, party of two” more than once, decides that the Tripplehorns are a no-show, says to Claire, “I want this night to be different,” and announces to the hostess, “We are the Tripplehorns.”
Once they are seated, they toast “Here’s to a great night” with empty wine glasses, and then all hell breaks loose.
Two men show up at their table and want to talk to Phil and Claire outside in private. The Fosters assume that they have been “busted” for taking the Tripplehorns’ reservation, but, no, the two men believe that they ARE the Tripplehorns and demand that they turn over a flash drive to them, a small, portable drive for a computer.
And thus begins a “great night” of laughs for the audience and certainly a “different” night for Phil and Claire.
There is at least a double case of mistaken identity, blackmail involving a mob boss, a crooked politician, crooked policemen, a building break-in, a slow chase across the lake in Central Park, and one of the funniest car chases you will ever see.
DATE NIGHT is a date night from hell for the Fosters, but a great night for the audience.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Hot Tub Time Machine” Party Like It’s 1986
Apr 7th
Party Like It’s 1986
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE has a title that either sells itself or turns people away, which is unfortunate, because if you see it, as I was forced to do, you will discover that you will enjoy it much more than you expected to.
You will also laugh much more than you expected to.
John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry play three best friends named Adam, Nick, and Lou. When Lou has an accident that could be interpreted to have been a suicide attempt, they all decide to take off for the weekend and go to Kodiak Valley ski resort, where they once spent a memorable weekend over 20 years ago.
Tagging along with them is Jacob, Adam’s nerdy teenage nephew.
They are shocked at how much the town has changed and become run down, but they check into the hotel anyway and get the same room that they had stayed in the last time, where they had some of the best times of their lives.
The bellhop, played by Crispin Glover, has only one arm, and thus he isn’t very efficient in getting their luggage up to the room. But after he does, Lou says, “Let’s have some fun! Let’s create a memory!”
The first thing they do is they all jump into the room’s hot tub, which has also seen some better days, or more likely nights, and something weird happens.
The next morning they go skiing, and the first thing they notice is that all the skiers are wearing bright, colorful ski clothes. Then they see a television set with President Ronald Reagan giving a speech, and the word “Live” is written across the screen.
Yes, they are back in 1986 and living the same weekend that they had spent there before. However, they look just like they do currently to the audience, but to the other people and in mirrors to themselves, they look 20 years younger, except for Jacob, of course.
Jacob is freaked out and convinces them that they have to do everything exactly the way they did before, or they might make Hitler president.
Yes, that is funny, but not logical, and there is a running gag about how the bellhop lost his arm.
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE is funny, not logical, and makes you want to party like it’s 1986.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Hot Tub Time Machine – Movie Trailer
Apr 6th
Disappointed at the way their lives have turned out, four longtime friends reunite at the ski resort where they used to party and find themselves transported back to the year 1986 by a magical jacuzzi. Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson), and Jacob (Clark Duke) have all seen better days; Adam’s and Nick’s love lives are in the dumps, Lou is clinging to his hard-partying past, and video-game addict Jacob can’t even muster the courage to walk outside. A fun stay at the ski resort where the gang made some of their best memories seems like just the thing to cheer everyone up, but after a night of heavy drinking in the hot tub, the four friends wake up to find they’re about to live through the ’80s a second time. Determined not to make the same mistakes twice, Adam, Lou, Nick, and Jacob decide to take full advantage of the unique opportunity presented to them, and create the lives they’ve always wanted. Chevy Chase, Crispin Glover, and Lizzy Caplan co-star.
