Posts tagged car
“The Joneses” Whole New Meaning
Apr 28th
Whole New Meaning
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE JONESES is a modern “morality tale” that could have been much better if the filmmakers had gone for the satirical jugular instead of watering it down with cheap, easy melodrama.
Demi Moore and David Duchovny play Kate and Steve Jones, they have two teenage children named Jenn and Mick, and they are moving into a new town.
The first thing we notice to be odd about this typical American family is when they are all in the car driving toward their new home and Steve says, “We’re going to do some damage in this town.”
Then after all their fancy new furniture has been moved in and they have received a welcome visit from their new neighbors Larry and Summer Symonds, the second thing we notice to be odd about the Joneses is that Steve and Kate wear matching new pajamas to go to bed, but they sleep in separate bedrooms.
The next day, Steve meets Larry for a round of golf and Kate goes into town to get her hair done, and there is a reason that they both have fancy new “stuff” with them that they are more than happy to show off and talk about to anyone who will listen.
But the third thing we notice to be odd is that evening, Kate and the kids didn’t bother waiting for Steve to come home, and he has to eat his dinner alone.
However, the fourth odd thing is the kicker. That night a naked woman slips into Steve’s bedroom and slides into bed with him. But before anything can happen, Kate comes to the door, turns on the lights, and tells Jenn to get out of Steve’s bed.
You guessed it. The Joneses aren’t a typical American family after all. In fact, they aren’t even a family. They are a team of actors who didn’t even know each other until they were hired by a company to move into a new town and persuade the people they meet to buy the fancy new products that they have and use for themselves.
Even the toilet bowl in their bathroom is an advanced new product.
THE JONESES has a nice little twist at the end, and it gives a whole new meaning to “Keeping up with the Joneses” and blatant product placement in movies these days.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Date Night” Date Night from Hell
Apr 14th
Date Night from Hell
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
DATE NIGHT is the perfect movie for married couples who have such rituals, but it should come with the following warning: “We’re professionals. Don’t try this when you leave home on your date night.”
Steve Carell and Tina Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, who live in New Jersey and who have the obligatory two young children. Phil is a tax accountant, Claire is a real-estate agent, and at the beginning of the movie we see what they do on a typical date night and their typical bedtime routine for discussing whether or not to have sex, both of which should be familiar and funny to couples in the audience.
Then when they learn that two friends of theirs who are married to each other are going to break up, Phil and Claire decide to change their usual date night of dinner at a local restaurant and instead go to a fancy restaurant in New York City, even though they don’t have reservations, which normally have to be made a month in advance.
So, while they are waiting in the bar for a table to open up, Phil hears the hostess calling “Tripplehorn, party of two” more than once, decides that the Tripplehorns are a no-show, says to Claire, “I want this night to be different,” and announces to the hostess, “We are the Tripplehorns.”
Once they are seated, they toast “Here’s to a great night” with empty wine glasses, and then all hell breaks loose.
Two men show up at their table and want to talk to Phil and Claire outside in private. The Fosters assume that they have been “busted” for taking the Tripplehorns’ reservation, but, no, the two men believe that they ARE the Tripplehorns and demand that they turn over a flash drive to them, a small, portable drive for a computer.
And thus begins a “great night” of laughs for the audience and certainly a “different” night for Phil and Claire.
There is at least a double case of mistaken identity, blackmail involving a mob boss, a crooked politician, crooked policemen, a building break-in, a slow chase across the lake in Central Park, and one of the funniest car chases you will ever see.
DATE NIGHT is a date night from hell for the Fosters, but a great night for the audience.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”