Posts tagged Ben Stiller
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
Aug 4th
“The Watch” Don’t Bother
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Watch is a comedy that combines the subjects of a neighborhood watch group; a compulsive, obsessive, paranoid leader; and an alien invasion in the suburbs, and if you believe that concept is potentially funny, then this movie is potentially for you.
Otherwise, don’t bother.
The story takes place in Glenview, Ohio, and Ben Stiller plays Evan Trautwig, the manager of the local Costco store who forms a neighborhood watch group when his night watchman is mysteriously murdered and his body is horribly disfigured.
Evan wants to solve the watchman’s murder and find who did it, but Evan also has a history of forming clubs just so he can be a member of them and make new friends.
This time, however, Evan tells his wife Abby, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, “It’s not a club. It’s a task force.”
Only three people show up for the organizational meeting: Bob, played by Vince Vaughn; Franklin, played by Jonah Hill; and Jamarcus, who is British and has a funny haircut to go along with his funny accent.
The organizational meeting that Evan planned is too boring and so against Evan’s wishes, the meeting moves to Bob’s house, where they can have fun and drink some beers.
Bob has a teenage daughter named Chelsea who is rebellious and who will play an important part later on in the story.
The watch group’s stakeout on the first night doesn’t go well, as you can imagine, and not only do they have a run-in with the local police, but they also have trouble with some teenage boys.
The group finds a strange and mysterious globe with unusual powers which seems to be out of this world, because it is.
Evan also has a creepy and mysterious new neighbor named Paul who keeps inviting Evan to come to a party, but that turns out not to be what you expect, to say the least.
Eventually, the group discovers that there are aliens among them and that the aliens are using Glenview and even Costco as the sources of their invasion of Earth.
Now, don’t even bother counting the number of bullets fired in the final shootout at the end, which may or may not be satisfying, depending on which side you are rooting for.
The Watch may not be satisfying, either, so don’t even bother.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Watch – Movie Trailer
Aug 2nd
Four everyday suburban guys come together as an excuse to escape their humdrum lives one night a week. But when they accidentally discover that their town has become overrun with aliens posing as ordinary suburbanites, they have no choice but to save their neighborhood – and the world – from total extermination.
“Tower Heist” High-Rise Hijack High Jinks
Nov 10th
“High-Rise Hijack High Jinks”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
TOWER HEIST has a story so topical that it could have been ripped from yesterday’s headlines–if a gang of bumbling thieves had schemed to rob Ponzi-meister Bernie Madoff’s penthouse of his stashed millions before he was sent to prison.
Ben Stiller plays Josh Kovacs, the building manager of a residential skyscraper in New York City known as “The Tower,” which is the most expensive real estate in North America.
Living in the penthouse of The Tower is Arthur Shaw, played against type by Alan Alda, who is best known for playing lovable rapscallion Capt. Hawkeye Pierce in the long-running “M*A*S*H” TV series.
Shaw manages money funds for financial investors, but his personality is such that he demands that Josh personally deliver all of Shaw’s meals, because, as he says, “I don’t want the help spitting in my coffee.”
Well, one day to the surprise of everybody except the members in the audience, Shaw gets arrested by the F.B.I. for securities fraud of epic proportions, which is of great importance to Josh, because he had convinced all the employees of The Tower to invest their pension funds with Shaw, and now that money is all gone.
So, when Josh learns from Special Agent Clair Denham, played by Tea Leoni, that $20 million is still missing from Shaw’s accounts, which they suspect was Shaw’s escape fund, Josh concludes that the money must be hidden in a secret safe in Shaw’s penthouse, he enlists the aid of some fellow employees, and they decide to break into the penthouse, find the safe, and steal the money, even though Shaw is under house arrest in the apartment, which is guarded by security cameras and F.B.I. agents outside the door.
Now, Josh IS smart enough to realize that they probably can’t do all this on their own, and so he also enlists the aid of a professional thief that he passes every day on his walk to work who is named Slide, whom he also knew as a kid, and who is played by Eddie Murphy.
Of course, nothing goes quite as planned, and they even have to change their plans when they do manage to get into the apartment, do find the safe, and do get it open.
TOWER HEIST is nothing more nor less than highly entertaining high-rise hijack high jinks.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”