Posts tagged chase
“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.”
“Safe House” Is Next to Nothing
Feb 19th
“Next to Nothing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Safe House is a bang-bang, shoot-’em-up, run-run-run, bang-bang, shoot-’em-up-some-more action thriller that is the very epitome of a movie with more style than substance.
It stars Denzel Washington as a rogue CIA agent who has been on the run for nine years and Ryan Reynolds as an inexperienced CIA agent who is in charge of a safe house run by the CIA in Capetown, South Africa.
Matt Weston has been in charge of the safe house for only 12 months, but hasn’t seen any action or activity at all in that year.
In fact, at the beginning of the movie, when he checks in with his superior at CIA headquarters, Matt says, “I’m dying here. What happened to the post in Paris?”
And then everything changes drastically for Matt. A team of agents bring rogue agent Tobin Frost to the safe house for questioning.
Frost is so notorious that even inexperienced Matt recognizes him.
However, during the interrogation, a team of men break into the safe house and start killing everyone, and only Matt and Frost are able to escape, leading to an unbelievable car chase through the streets of Capetown.
Frost is in handcuffs, and he tells Matt that the men want Frost alive, but they will kill Matt if they can.
Back at CIA headquarters, they are aware of what is happening in South Africa, and they admit that Matt is all they have to keep Frost in custody, and so they relay directions to another safe house out in the country and tell Matt to take Frost there.
However, before Matt can get Frost there, they are still being chased by the men intent on killing Matt and capturing Frost, and Matt also has to worry that someone in the CIA set everything up and is directing the chase.
So, whenever Frost escapes from Matt, Matt has to track him down and capture him again, dodge the bullets from the men trying to kill him, and still get Frost to the new safe house.
Oh, and all the action takes place over only two days, there are surprises in store for the audience, but you might be able to guess the final surprise.
Safe House is full of sound and fury, signifying next to nothing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Hanna” Bad Premise, Worse Execution
May 12th
(“Bad Premise, Worse Execution”)
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hanna is one of those movies whose filmmakers believe they are being clever by making the movie come full circle from beginning to end, just as they must have believed they could make the story more interesting by omitting important details.
And the premise is so simple that the one-sentence pitch to studio executives could easily have been “Sixteen-year-old girl as James Bond.”
Then just to turn the story on its head even more, the Bad Guys in this movie are usually the Good Guys in a James Bond film.
Hanna is played by Saoirse Ronan, who received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of the “evil sister” in the 2007 Atonement.
When we first see Hanna, she is living with her father, played by Eric Bana, in a cabin in the wilds of northern Finland, where they have been living for 15 years and he is training her for some sort of life-or-death mission.
In fact, he tells her, “She won’t stop until you’re dead. Or she is.”
“She” is Marissa Wiebling, played by Cate Blanchett using a Texas accent that is so phony it is laughable, and Hanna’s father and Marissa have a history that we get only a glimpse of in one flashback.
We eventually learn that Hanna’s father used to be a CIA agent until something went wrong, and that is why he and Hanna are hiding out in northern Finland, because Marissa and her fellow CIA agents are still searching for them.
However, when Hanna believes she is ready, she activates a signal that identifies her location to Marissa, and Hanna’s father then takes off after confirming with Hanna where they will meet in Berlin.
So, Hanna is captured, and then the movie gets even more ridiculous.
Hanna escapes from Marissa in a gruesome and unbelievable scene, but she discovers that she is in Morocco, and she must somehow get to Berlin without any money.
In other words, the movie becomes an absurd chase movie.
As a matter of fact, the movie goes from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous and then to be so ridiculous that it is laughable and finally forgettable.
The premise is bad, and the execution is worse.
Hanna is a quite elaborate rendition of a simple story made more complicated by the omission of significant details.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
