Posts tagged credit
“Extract” Dumb, but Extremely Funny
Sep 9th
Dumb, but Extremely Funny
Hotshots” looks at a movie!
EXTRACT is the latest comedy written and directed by Mike Judge, who previously made the 1999 OFFICE SPACE and created the TV series “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “King of the Hill,” and so you know that you are in for a treatment of one poor schlub swimming against a sea of dumb guys and gals.
Rudyard Kipling wrote about keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs. Well, Jason Bateman does an excellent job as Joel, who is trying desperately to keep his head while everyone around him is losing theirs and some are even being stolen.
Joel owns a company that makes flavoring extracts, but his two biggest problems are trying to avoid talking to his annoying neighbor, expecially when Joel is trying to get home to his wife every evening after work before Suzie puts on her sweat pants and ties the knot.
That means that there will be no sex that night, and Joel laments to his buddy, Dean, that there hasn’t been any sex in months.
Dean is played by Ben Affleck, and he is a bartender where Joel used to work. Dean calls himself “an entrepreneur, spiritualist, healer,” but mostly he dispenses advice and pharmaceutical drugs.
When Joel tells Dean about his problem with Suzie and that a new hot-looking temp he hired seemed to be coming on to him, Dean advises, “You hire a gigolo to cheat on your wife.”
That way, you see, if Suzie takes the bait and cheats on Joel with the gigolo, then Joel can cheat on Suzie with the new temp and not have a guilty conscience.
To his credit, Joel resists the advice, but when Dean gives Joel a pill to calm him down, he gets his pills mixed up and gives Joel a horse tranquilizer instead. So, without thinking clearly, Joel takes Dean’s bad advice, hires a dumb kid that Dean knows to pretend to clean Joel’s swimming pool, and even agrees to pay Dean 10 percent.
Meanwhile, a freak and very funny accident at work causes an employee to lose a testicle, the hot-looking temp is much more than she appears to be, and Joel ends up with more problems at work than he has at home.
EXTRACT is full of the dumbest characters you will ever meet, but also extremely funny.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Confessions of a Shopaholic” Pretty Lame
Mar 11th
Pretty Lame
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC starts off bad, goes downhill from there, and then manages to redeem itself just enough that all in all it is not good, not bad, but just okay.
This says something about a movie that, after all, is making fun of what is a serious problem for some people.
No, I am not talking about compulsive behavior that causes some people to spend money beyond their means. I am talking about the compulsion that some people have to search for romantic love.
Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Greenwood, a young and attractive magazine writer in New York City who discovered the power of shopping when she was a little girl and the fact that you didn’t have to pay money for anything if you had a “magic card,” which is what she called a credit card.
Now she has 12 of them and the bills to prove it.
To explain her compulsive behavior, Rebecca says, “When I shop, the world gets better, and then it’s not anymore and I need to do it again.”
When the magazine that Rebecca works for fails, she buys an expensive green scarf that she cannot afford for an interview with a fashion magazine for a job that she believes will make her happy forever if she gets it.
Then through a series of ridiculous setups and even more ridiculous payoffs, Rebecca is hired to be a columnist for a financial magazine and to write about how to save money.
Hugh Dancy plays Luke Brandon, the editor of the magazine whom Rebecca lied to about her credentials, and so now she is in serious trouble, right?
Wrong. Rebecca’s even more serious problem is that she has a bill collector after her who she tells Luke is an ex-boyfriend who is stalking her.
So, Rebecca is advising people about debt and she is up to her eyeballs in it, she lied about herself to her editor to get the job, she has a bill collector after her, and what else could go wrong?
Well, for one thing she attends a meeting of Shopaholics Anonymous and when she talks about shopping, she causes all the other members to relapse.
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is pretty lame from beginning to end, but if you’re a sucker for romance–and who isn’t–it redeems itself.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Confessions of a Shopaholic – Movie Trailer
Feb 13th
A Manhattan shopaholic (Isla Fisher) whose buying sprees have buried her in immense debt lands a columnist gig dishing out financial advice in this Touchstone comedy based on Sophie Kinsella’s series of books. P.J. Hogan (My Best Friend’s Wedding) directs, with producing duties being handled by Jerry Bruckheimer. Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) can’t seem to break her habit for making impulsive purchases, and while she’s always decked out in the latest styles, her credit card bills are as thick as a telephone book. If Rebecca could somehow manage to land her dream job at a high-profile fashion magazine, perhaps she could transform what is now a simple addiction into something that could really benefit her professionally. When Rebecca becomes an advice columnist at a financial magazine published by the same company as her favorite fashion magazine, her fresh approach strikes a chord with readers and she quickly becomes the toast of the town. Meanwhile, her bank account is still bone dry, wreaking havoc on her love life and placing her career in jeopardy. As Rebecca teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, she gradually begins to reassess her priorities in life. Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Hugh Dancy, and Krysten Ritter co-star in the Touchstone Pictures production.