Posts tagged car
“End of Watch” a Buddy-Cop Movie with a Twist
Sep 29th
“Buddy-Cop Movie With a Twist”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
End of Watch is a powerful, almost traditional buddy-cop movie, but the language is raw, the action is violent, and it has an ending with an unexpected twist to it.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, who work in the Los Angeles Police Department as partners ane whose area that they patrol is the rough arena of South Central Los Angeles, which Taylor says has three major food groups: drugs, money, and guns.
When the movie opens, it is the first day back on the job for Taylor and Zavala after they were cleared by an investigation into a shooting they were involved in, and once they are out in their patrol car, Zavala says, “Dude, it’s good to be back, Man.”
Taylor has a recording device in his uniform for a class project he is working on, and so a lot of the footage we see is from the point of view of that device, which is called “found footage” these days, but don’t worry. The whole movie isn’t from that POV, but enough is so that at times the movie gets confusing.
So, we watch and listen to the good-natured banter between these two friends as they drive around the city between calls, we learn about their personal lives as they talk and even see some aspects of them at various points in the movie, and we witness many of the calls they go on and see just how rough and dangerous being a policeman in today’s Los Angeles can be, both for them and other police officers who are called in to help.
In addition to the commonplace calls that Taylor and Zavala make, the main story point is a turf war between two rival gangs, one composed of black people and the other composed of Latinos, who have connections with drug cartels operating out of Mexico and who are also involved with the trafficking of illegals being brought up from Mexico and kept in terrifying and dangerous conditions.
In fact, Taylor and Zavala stumble into the ramifications of the main story more than anything else, and once again we see how in movies situations can go from bad to the worst you can imagine.
End of Watch is terrific and get ready for the twist at the end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.
“Premium Rush” Is Breakneck Fun
Sep 24th
“Breakneck Fun”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Premium Rush is the ultimate chase movie through the streets of New York City centered around a story about Manhattan bicycle messengers.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Wilee, an obvious reference to Wile E. Coyote of the Road Runner cartoons, but a more appropriate nickname would have been Road Runner itself, or maybe Double R, or possibly even Runner, but that would have been confusing, because he spends most of his time on a bicycle riding and not running.
However, throughout the movie Wilee is not the chaser, but the chasee. Because of an envelope he is delivering for his service, at one time or another Wilee is chased by a mysterious man in an automobile, by a policeman on a bicycle, and even by a plainclothes policeman in his automobile.
Yes, it is a dangerous job being one of the 1,500 bicycle messengers in New York City, and Wilee even says in a voice-over, “One time or another, we all get hit.”
In fact, the movie starts with Wilee having an accident at 6:33 p.m., and then we get a flashback to 5 p.m. when Wilee picked up the envelope, which was a premium-rush delivery that has to be delivered by 7 p.m.
Once he is outside after picking up the envelope, Wilee is stopped by a man who asks for the envelope with a logical story for why Wilee should turn it over.
However, Wilee is suspicious, because a bike messenger’s rules are after a delivery is put in his bag, it is given only to a person at the address where the package is to be delivered, and so Wilee takes off running–I mean, riding.
Then the man chases after Wilee in his car, and they both tear through the streets, avoiding traffic and pedestrians and even running red lights until we are back at the point of Wilee’s accident at the beginning of the movie.
Wilee is different from other messengers in that his bicycle has no brakes and no gears, and he prefers it that way.
Eventually we get more flashbacks for background explanation as to why the envelope is so important to so many people, and the premium rush of the title becomes a premium rush for the audience, as well.
Premium Rush is breakneck fun for everyone.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Hit & Run” Has Gags That Just Keep On Coming
Sep 2nd
“Gags Just Keep On Coming”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hit & Run is a comedy that is basically just one funny car chase after another, but it doesn’t get old, because each one keeps adding a new aspect and twist to it.
One fresh aspect to the movie is that you might be pleasantly surprised whenever a new recognizable actor shows up in the story, which occurs even into the closing credits.
The story is about a guy and a girl, Charlie Bronson and Annie Bean, who are in love with each other and living together. Charlie doesn’t like Annie to pull his hair, because he says it is thin, but Annie says that it is the only way she can defend herself.
However, when the movie opens, they are in bed together, and Charlie says, “If you want, I will spend every day with you for the rest of your life,” and Annie says, “Okay, I want.”
Charlie has some secrets, however, some of which he has kept from Annie during the year that they have been dating, and some others which will be revealed later on.
Charlie is in the witness protection program, which Annie knows about, and he cannot leave the town they are living in. Then we meet Randy, the U.S. marshal assigned to guard Charlie, and every time Randy shows up, something funny happens and usually to Randy.
Annie is a professor, and she suddenly gets an opportunity to be in charge of a new department in her field, conflict resolution, but the interview is in a few days in Los Angeles.
Charlie says that he can’t let her leave, but he also can’t stay there without her, and so he uncovers his supercharged automobile that has been under wraps, puts all her stuff in the trunk, and says that he will drive her to Los Angeles, even though that will violate his agreement with the witness protection program he is in.
However, that is just the beginning of their problems. In addition to Randy chasing after them when he finds out what Charlie is doing, Annie’s ex-boyfriend gets upset and goes after them, the local sheriff and his partner join the pursuit, and then there are even the people who are the reason that Charlie is in the program.
Hit & Run is very funny, and the gags just keep on coming.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”