Posts tagged Dan Culberson
“Friends with Benefits” Game, Set, and Match
Jul 28th
“Game, Set, and Match”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Friends with Benefits is a romantic comedy that tries to be an unromantic comedy just because of the title.
The title, of course, means two friends who have sex with each other, but without any romantic feelings, and if you believe that is possible, there is still a bridge in Brooklyn and swampland in Louisiana someone would be willing to sell you.
Justin Timberlake stars as Dylan Harper, and Mila Kunis stars as Jamie, the two friends who try to make the title work, and I don’t think I’m giving anything away by telling you that this sort of sexual arrangement is doomed from the start.
When the movie begins, Dylan and Jamie don’t even know each other, and they both go through a breakup with someone that leaves them disillusioned about romance.
In fact, they both use a variation of the same line of “I’m just going to shut myself down emotionally, like George Clooney.”
And this is just one of way too many references to popular culture, movies, and television shows the writers thought were going to be funny, clever, or enlightening to the audience instead of being annoying and distracting to me.
Dylan and Jamie meet “awkward” instead of meet “cute” at a New York airport when she greets him on his arrival from Los Angeles for a job interview.
You see, Jamie is a corporate recruiter, or “head hunter,” and she found Dylan, who is a graphic designer in Los Angeles, and got him an interview to be the art director for a magazine in New York.
Dylan likes the open spaces of Los Angeles and doesn’t really want the job, but he gets it anyway, and then Jamie works at selling Dylan on New York City, because if he quits or gets fired before a year is up, Jamie doesn’t get her bonus for finding Dylan.
After they become friends, they discuss sex, and they decide that two people should be able to have sex like they’re playing a game of tennis, and so they decide to have sex, but without any emotions.
Now, if you have ever played tennis, you know that players do get emotional about it, and the very first score of every game is love-love.
Friends with Benefits is game, set, and match and not worth the effort.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“A Better Life” A Wonderful Film
Jul 21st
“A Wonderful Film”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A Better Life is a terrific film that deserves as much publicity as it can get, because otherwise audiences will probably overlook it and not give it the attendance it deserves.
It also has a simple story that might not be popular, because it is about the relationship between an undocumented foreigner from Mexico and his teenage son, who live in Los Angeles.
Carlos Galindo has a steady job as a gardener working for another Mexican’s gardening business, and he sleeps on the couch in the living room at home so that his 14-year-old son, Luis, can sleep in the bedroom.
When Carlos finds out that Luis has missed 18 or 19 days of school so far this year, he asks him, “You want to end up like me?” to which Luis answers “No.”
Luis has some resentment toward his father, because he blames Carlos for his mother leaving them, whom Luis never wants to talk about.
Meanwhile, the man for whom Carlos works, Blasco Martinez, wants to retire, and he offers to sell Carlos his beat-up truck so that Carlos can have his own gardening business.
To Carlos, he wouldn’t just be buying a truck. He would be buying the American Dream.
However, not only doesn’t Carlos have the $12,000 that Blasco wants for his truck, but Carlos doesn’t even have a driver’s license, and if he ever gets stopped by the police, he could be deported back to Mexico. That is why Carlos wants to try to stay “invisible.”
Meanwhile, Luis gets suspended from school for fighting, and Carlos is concerned that Luis has a fascination with gangs and might even end up in a gang.
Carlos asks his sister, Anita, for a $12,000 loan, promising to pay the money back and telling her that if it works out, everything is going to change. He won’t have to work on Sunday anymore and can spend more time with Luis, if Luis wants.
Anita loans Carlos the money without telling her husband, who she says is the cheapest man in the world.
So, Carlos buys the truck from Blasco, but his life doesn’t change as he had imagined. Almost immediately, the truck is stolen, and Carlos and Luis have to try to get it back while staying invisible.
A Better Life is a wonderful film.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Horrible Bosses” Great Fun
Jul 13th
“Great Fun”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Horrible Bosses has built right into the title that the bosses in question are much worse than just “bad bosses,” doesn’t it, but the best thing about it is that the movie might just be better and much funnier than you expected it to be.
So, if you have ever had a bad boss or, worse yet, a horrible boss, you owe it to yourself to see this movie and be prepared to laugh your head off.
On the other hand, if you have ever been accused of being a bad boss, or if you think you might have been a bad boss, then you owe it to your employees to see this movie and perhaps learn how to repair the error of your ways.
No, I’ll make it easier for you: Are you now or have you ever been a boss? Then see this movie, even if you have just known a boss, but don’t expect to get any tips from it, either on how to be a bad boss or how to handle a bad boss.
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis star in the movie, but they are not the bosses of the title. They are the ones who have the bad bosses, who are played by Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, and Colin Farrell, respectively, although you might not recognize Colin Farrell at first.
Early in the movie, Spacey tells Bateman’s character, Nick, “If you want a promotion, you’ve got to earn it.”
And then Spacey does everything in his boss powers to prevent Nick from getting a promotion.
Well, Nick, Dale, and Kurt are friends going back to high school, and they meet regularly for drinks. One night while they are engaged in a mutual commiseration society, they come up with the idea to kill their bosses.
I didn’t say it was a good idea.
They know that they can’t do it themselves without getting caught, and after one hilarious attempt to hire a hit man on the Internet, they end up paying Jamie Foxx in a great performance as their “murder consultant.”
Now, because this is a comedy, you know that everything isn’t going to go as planned, even though the plan seems so simple and even draws from the great mystery writers and also Alfred Hitchcock.
Horrible Bosses is great fun.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”