Posts tagged 2008
“Four Christmases” Four Disappointments
Dec 12th
Four Disappointments
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
FOUR CHRISTMASES starts off bad, goes downhill from there with a lot of cheap laughs and easy shtick, and then it even also ends poorly, which all make it the perfect representation for Christmas.
Reese Witherspoon stars as Kate, Vince Vaughn is Brad, and they have been dating for three years with no intention of ever getting married or having children.
They live in San Francisco, and every year at Christmas they have lied to their parents in order to avoid spending Christmas with them.
As Brad tells his friends at one point, “You can’t really spell ‘families’ without ‘lies.'”
However, I am getting ahead of myself: The opening of the film is cheap and bogus, and it is designed to fool the audience more than to lend an insight into Kate and Brad.
So, rather than spend Christmas with either of their parents, they lie to them and tell them that they have to go off somewhere and do charity work, when in reality Kate and Brad are off to some exotic country for a vacation.
This year they plan to go to Fiji, but when they get to the airport, intense fog has caused all flights to be canceled, and they happen to be interviewed live by a local television crew about their canceled plans.
Of course, their parents see them on the news being interviewed, call them immediately, and guilt them into visiting on Christmas. Only problem is, both sets of parents are divorced, and thus Kate and Brad have to make four visits in one day, which adds up to “four Christmases.” Get it?
The four parents are played by Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen, and so we are not dealing with lightweight actors here, just lightweight material.
They visit Brad’s father first, and Kate learns some secrets about Brad that he had never told her. Then they visit Kate’s mother, and Brad learns some secrets about Kate that she had never told him.
Do you see a pattern here?
Yes, in satisfying their parents at Christmastime and meeting each other’s siblings, Kate and Brad learn more about each other, which can either strengthen their relationship or end it altogether.
And the moral of the story is nothing really beats being honest.
FOUR CHRISTMASES is nothing more than four disappointments.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Frost/Nixon – Movie Trailer
Dec 5th
Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard adapts playwright Peter Morgan’s West End hit for the silver screen with this feature focusing on the 1977 television interviews between journalist David Frost (Michael Sheen) and former president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). At the time Nixon sat down with Frost to discuss the sordid details that ultimately derailed his presidency, it had been three years since the former commander in chief had been forced out of office. The Watergate scandal was still fresh in everyone’s minds, and Nixon had remained notoriously tight-lipped until he agreed to sit down with Frost. Nixon was certain that he could hold his own opposite the up-and-coming British broadcaster, and even Frost’s own people weren’t quite sure their boss was ready for such a high-profile interview. When the interview ultimately got under way and each man eschewed the typical posturing in favor of the simple truth, fans and critics on both sides were stunned by what they witnessed. Instead of Nixon stonewalling the interviewer as expected, or Frost lobbing softballs as the truth-seekers feared, what emerged was an unguardedly honest exchange between a man who had lost everything and another with everything to gain. In this film, viewers are treated to not only a recreation of that landmark interview, but a behind-the-scenes look at the power struggles that led up to it as well. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Brian Grazer team to produce a film adapted for the screen by original play author Morgan (The Queen and The Last King of Scotland).
“Australia” Simple Stories Writ Large
Dec 4th
Simple Stories Writ Large
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
AUSTRALIA is the big epic film starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman that was directed by Baz Luhrmann and which will likely remind you of many other movies and possibly annoy you with its many endings.
The difference between all those other movies and this one? All those other movies are stitched together into one movie and relocated Down Under in Australia just before World War II.
The reason there are many endings? All the stories are stitched together, one right after the other, each with its own ending, so that just as you think the movie is over at one satisfying ending, another familiar story begins with the same characters and leading to another ending. More than once.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: Hollywood has run out of ideas. This time, big time.
The first story begins in September 1939 at a cattle station called Faraway Downs in the Outback of Australia. We hear the narration of Nullah, a little boy who says he belongs to no one, because he is a “creamy,” a child of mixed race whose father was white and whose mother is an Aborigine.
Nullah sees cattle being stolen, comes face to face with the body of a murdered man, and then proceeds to tell the story of whom he calls “The strangest woman I’ve ever seen.”
She is Lady Sarah Ashley, and we see her in England complaining that her husband spends too much time in Australia. So, she travels to Australia in order to sell Faraway Downs and return to England.
Then we meet The Drover, whose occupation is to drive cattle from one place to another. He was sent to meet Lady Ashley in Darwin and take her to Faraway Downs.
They “meet cute,” with a lot of cheap laughs. They travel to Faraway Downs, which is no easy task. She learns that her husband has been murdered in a connection to steal her cattle and buy out Faraway Downs by a competing rancher.
Then comes the “Cattle Drive” story in which seven people–Lady Ashley included–drive 1500 head of cattle to Darwin to sell to the Army. If you have seen one cattle-drive story, you have seen this one.
But, wait! There is more. Many more.
AUSTRALIA is nothing but simple stories writ large.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
