Posts tagged Adventure
“The Brothers Bloom” Not the Perfect Con
Jun 3rd
Not the Perfect Con
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE BROTHERS BLOOM is one of those movies that feel better to talk about than to actually see.
By that, I mean that it has very good ingredients, but when they are all mixed together, you can end up feeling cheated, because you didn’t enjoy it as much as you thought you would.
Written and directed by Rian Johnson, whose first film was the much- acclaimed 2006 BRICK, this film is about two brothers who have been con artists all their lives.
The film begins when they are kids after they have been through 38 foster homes and Stephen devises a con designed to allow his younger brother Bloom to get the girl in school that he pines for.
The plan doesn’t end the way they had hoped it would, but that doesn’t stop them, as we see 25 years later in Berlin and the conclusion of their most recent con.
Stephen, now played by Mark Ruffalo, and Bloom, now played by Adrian Brody, are successful, but Bloom wants out of the game and tells his brother, “I want an unwritten life.”
Bloom says he is going to take off where Stephen and their colleague, an Oriental woman named Bang Bang, can never find him.
Well, naturally, they can, and three months later Stephen and Bang Bang show up in Montenegro, where Bloom is living. Stephen outlines what he says will be their last con together, and the mark is Penelope Stamp, played by Rachel Weisz, even though their rule has always been “No women.”
Penelope lives alone in the largest private estate on the East Coast of America and is incredibly rich, and at this point you will probably guess the ending, but you would be only half right.
Stephen has designed an elaborate step to get Bloom to meet Penelope, and to say that it doesn’t go exactly as planned would be the understatement of all understatements.
However, the first part of the con works, and Penelope accompanies them on a steamer to Greece, and at this point you might conclude that the only ones being conned are the audience.
We are told that the perfect con is the one in which everyone involved gets just the thing they wanted.
THE BROTHERS BLOOM is not the perfect con, because the audience doesn’t get the enjoyment they wanted.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Terminator Salvation” The Beginning of the End
May 27th
The Beginning of the End
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
TERMINATOR SALVATION is the fourth in the series of movies beginning with the 1984 TEH TERMINATOR, which started the story of robots taking over society in the future and sending a robot back in time to kill the woman who has the child who will defeat the robots in the future.
That child, John Connor, is all grown up in this movie, which takes place in 2018, and he is played by Christian Bale, most recently famous for his profanity-laced tongue-lashing of a crew member last year on the set of this movie.
The gimmick in this movie is that a robot is sent into the future and ends up helping Connor in his battles against the robots.
He doesn’t start out as a robot, however, but as a prisoner in 2003 who agrees to have his body turned over to the authorities after his execution in prison.
So, when Marcus Wright shows up in 2018, he looks exactly like he did
15 years earlier, except that he has mechanical underpinnings and can heal any injuries to his flesh almost instantly.
The other gimmick is that Kyle Reese, the man who was sent back in time to help Connor’s mother and ends up becoming Connor’s father, is a teenager in this movie.
When Marcus meets Reese and his young partner, Reese says, “We’re the Resistance, L.A. branch.”
Everything has been pretty much destroyed by the robots in what the humans call “Judgment Day,” and the future of the human race looks as bleak as the landscape all around them.
However, Reese is the key to the past and the future, although he, of course, doesn’t know that at this point in his life.
On the other hand, this is all the back story that the audience needs to know in order to understand what is going on.
If you don’t know the background information, then watching this movie can lead you to the conclusion that modern stories don’t have to make sense or be logical anymore. And special effects can allow the filmmakers to do anything they want.
Special effects also allowed them to include a surprise cameo of a guest appearance that builds on “I’ll be back.”
TERMINATOR SALVATION is the beginning of the end, and I’d just as soon hope there won’t be any more.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Terminator Salvation – Movie Trailer
May 21st
The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be mankind’s last true hope in the war against the machines. Opening in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation finds John Connor’s certainty about the future shaken by the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose last memory is of sitting on death row and awaiting execution. Unable to determine whether Marcus was sent from the future or rescued from the past, Connor begins to wonder whether there is still any hope left for the human race as the robots grow more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It appears that Skynet is preparing a devastating final attack designed to eliminate the human resistance once and for all, leaving Connor and Marcus with no choice but to strike back at the cybernetic heart of Skynet’s operations. Once there, the two battle-scarred soldiers discover a devastating secret regarding the potential annihilation of all humankind. Anton Yelchin fills Michael Biehn’s shoes as a young Kyle Reese in the first installment of a planned Terminator trilogy from director McG (Charlie’s Angels).