Posts tagged Bill Murray
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” All Style and No Substance
Apr 2nd
“All Style and No Substance”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is the latest movie written and directed by Wes Anderson, and of all his movies that I have seen, I have either liked them or didn’t like them.
This one falls in the latter category.
Full disclosure: Granted, I have not seen all of his movies, but I did enjoy RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and THE LIFE AQUATIC OF STEVE ZISSOU, which I enjoyed very much.
I believe that this latest movie has more style than substance and is as filling probably as the confectioneries that play such an important part in the story.
Oh, it contains plenty of story, just as it contains plenty of actors, such as Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Soirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and Owen Wilson, many of whom were recognizable because of the size of their parts, but a couple I missed because they weren’t on screen long enough to recognize them.
Sure enough, the story is about a hotel, but it is not in Budapest, but rather in the fictional Republic of Zabrowka, which apparently is in Europe.
The story also jumps around in time, but mostly takes place in 1932, between the two world wars, which also play a part.
Mostly the story is about a concierge at the hotel, M. Gustave, played by Ralph Fiennes, and Zero, the Lobby Boy he hired on a trial basis, and whom Gustave tells, “Remember, I am always with you.”
Well, there is a dowager countess who dies and leaves Gustave something priceless in her will, but which is contested by her son.
Not only is there a second will, but also a second copy of the second will and a confidential message that goes along with it.
There is a murder investigation, a prison sentence, a prison escape, a love affair between the Lobby Boy and a pastry maker, a cat thrown out of a window, some fingers cut off in a door, and a wild chase through the snow.
Now, I subscribe to the philosophy of Vincent Canby, respected film critic for THE NEW YORK TIMES, which was “One man saw a movie, and I am that man.”
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL was that movie, and I hated it!
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Movie Trailer
Apr 1st
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — all against the back-drop ofa suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.
“The Monuments of Men” Hitler’s Museum
Feb 12th
“Hitler’s Museum”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE MONUMENTS MEN is based on the men of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the United States Army during World War II, as depicted in a fine new movie by George Clooney.
Based on the 2009 book by Robert Edsel, the men with special knowledge about art were recruited by the Army and charged with finding and retrieving works of fine art that had been looted and stolen by the Germany Army and to try to return the pieces to their rightful owners.
Clooney plays Frank Stokes, tasked with assembling the experienced men, and in 1944 we see him meeting James Granger, an art restorer and museum director played by Matt Damon, and asking him, “You want to get in the war?”
Also on the team are Bill Murray as an architect, John Goodman as a sculptor, Bob Balaban as a curator, Jean Dujardin as a Frenchman, and Hugh Bonneville as an Englishman, all with interesting back stories.
So, the men all go through rudimentary basic training, because they will be close to the front lines and in the midst of the fighting, even as the war is winding down.
They are told that they are fighting for their culture and their way of life, and they learn that Hitler has ordered that all the stolen art is to be destroyed by the Nazis if he dies or if Germany loses the war.
A running joke has Granger believing that his ability to speak French is much better than it really is, and he is sent to Paris, where he meets Claire Simone, played by Cate Blanchett, a Frenchwoman who was forced to help the Nazis catalogue all the pieces of art that they had stolen in and around Paris.
The team has enough trouble on their hands with fighting the Germans and discovering where they have hidden much of the artwork, but now the Russian Army is moving in from the east, and the Russians want to take whatever art they can find as reparation for all the losses that they have suffered at the hands of the Nazis.
The story has both comic elements and tragic elements as the team tries to retrieve the artwork that Hitler wanted in order to supply his own personal museum.
THE MONUMENTS MEN resonates to this day.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
