Posts tagged Comedy
“The Guard” Funny, but Difficult
Sep 3rd
“Funny, but Difficult”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Guard is one of the funniest movies you will see all year, but it is also one of the most difficult to understand, too, because it takes place in Ireland, and although the characters speak English for the most part, their accents are unfamiliar to American ears.
I say “for the most part,” because one scene has characters speaking Gaelic, but it also contains subtitles for the audience’s benefit.
The story takes place in County Galway, in western Ireland, and Brendan Gleeson plays Sgt. Gerry Boyle, who prides himself as being “the last of the independents,” although the criminals in the story call him “unpredictable” and for good reason.
For example, when Sgt. Boyle and his new partner investigate a murder, Sgt. Boyle says that the victim looks like Brendan Foley. But then when the partner remarks that they know who the victim is, Sgt. Boyle says, “I said he looked like Brendan Foley. I didn’t say he was Brendan Foley.”
And then Special Agent Wendell Everett comes to town from the United States. He is played by Don Cheadle, and the authorities have been tracking a ship carrying half-a-billion dollars worth of cocaine on board, which they suspect will dock somewhere in western Ireland to unload the drugs.
The fact that Agent Everett is black gives Sgt. Boyle the opportunity to make some outrageous racist comments, but then Sgt. Boyle makes an excuse by saying that he is Irish and racism is part of his culture.
However, as Agent Everett points out, Sgt. Boyle could very easily be very dumb or very smart.
Eventually we learn that Sgt. Boyle is much smarter than he appears to be and also smarter than he acts.
We also follow the gang of drug traffickers who are waiting for the ship to arrive, and their interaction is just as funny as the interaction among Sgt. Boyle, Agent Everett, and the rest of the police force.
At one point you might think that there are too many side stories going on, but they all tie in together neatly at the end, which involves one of the funniest shoot-outs you will ever see.
The Guard is funny, it is difficult, but it is so good that you just might have to see it more than once to enjoy it all the more.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.
The Guard – Movie Trailer
Aug 31st
The Guard is a comedic fish-out-of-water tale of murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption. Two policemen must join forces to take on an international drug- smuggling gang – one, an unorthodox Irish policeman and the other, a straitlaced FBI agent. Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleason) is an eccentric small-town cop with a confrontational and crass personality and a subversive sense of humor. A longtime policeman in County Galway, Boyle is a maverick with his own moral code. He has seen enough of the world to know there isn’t much to it and has had plenty of time to think about it. When a fellow police officer disappears and Boyle’s small town becomes key to a large drug trafficking investigation, he is forced to at least feign interest when dealing with the humorless FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) assigned to the case.
“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” Stupid, Pointless, Waste
Aug 26th
“Stupid, Pointless, Waste.”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Crazy, Stupid, Love. has too many characters and too many love stories to be classified as having a plot about a “love triangle.”
No, call this one as being about a “love octagon,” and not all of the love stories are pleasant and tasteful.
Here are the characters: Steve Carell and Julianne Moore are Cal and Emily Weaver. They have been married 25 years, have three children, and Emily wants a divorce, because she hs been having an affair with David, a man she works with, who is played by Kevin Bacon.
Ryan Gosling is Jacob, a studly do-wrong who picks up any woman he wants in a bar every night of the week and takes her home for a one-night stand.
Emma Stone is Hannah, a young lawyer who is rejected by the man she is interested in and then sets her sights on Jacob, but she refuses to play his game and forces him to play her game.
Jonah Bobo is Robbie Weaver, the 13-year-old son of Cal and Emily, and he has a major crush on his babysitter, Jessica, played by Analeigh Tipton, but she is 17 years old, and she has a crush on an older man, who is also married.
And, finally, Marisa Tomei is Kate, Robbie’s eighth-grade English teacher who is also out in the dating scene and figures into the stories, too.
So, when Cal moves out of the house and gets his own apartment, he starts going to a bar to pick up women, but his pick-up line leaves something to be desired. He says to one woman, “My wife is having intercourse with someone who is not me.”
Jacob sees Cal, takes pity on him, and decides to mentor Cal in the ways of picking up women in a bar, as well as helping Cal to make other changes in his life-style.
However, Cal still has feelings for Emily and goes over to the house in the middle of the night to take care of the yard and garden without Emily’s knowing that he is doing so.
Meanwhile, Robbie keeps pestering Jessica about his love for her, and she keeps rejecting him, not only because of his youth, but also because of her desire for that older man.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. is just a stupid, pointless, waste.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots”
