Posts tagged Edward Norton
Stone – Movie Trailer
Oct 27th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
A convicted arsonist schemes to get out of prison by convincing his debauched wife to seduce his retirement-ready parole officer in director John J. Curran’s adaptation of a play by Angus MacLachlan (who also authored the screenplay). His career as a parole officer winding down after years of service, Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) reluctantly accepts an assignment to reassess inmate Gerald “Stone” Creeson’s (Edward Norton) case for an upcoming parole hearing. Convicted of setting a fire to make the murder of his grandparents look like an accidental death, Stone will do anything to get out from behind bars, and his wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich), is willing to do whatever it takes to help secure her husband’s freedom — including seducing Jack. Meanwhile, Jack’s devoted wife, Madylyn (Frances Conroy), has suffered with the emotional weight of her husband’s demanding job for far too long.
“Stone” But None of Them Satisfying
Oct 27th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“But None of Them Satisfying”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
STONE is the latest movie starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, and then when you add Milla Jovovich to that couple of actor’s actors, then you have got yourself a movie, right?
Well,not so fast.
Next you need a believable story, a good script, and a satisfying ending, and this one fails on all three counts.
The movie begins with a dramatic opening scene in the past that will have repercussions many years later in the future.
Then we cut to a present-day funeral for a character named Robert Mabry, and his brother Jack says in his eulogy, “If it wasn’t for Bobby, I don’t know where I would have wound up.”
Jack is a parole officer who works in a prison, he is close to retirement, and he wants to keep his current cases to see them through to their reviews.
One of his cases is Gerald Creeson, who says that his people know him as “Stone,” and he prefers to be called “Stone.”
Stone tells Jack that he just wants to talk to him, and then maybe they can both get what they want. Stone says that he is so ready to be out of prison and what can he and Jack do to make that happen.
Stone has been married for nine years to Lucetta, he calls her a “dime,” a perfect “10,” and he says that she is an alien from another world. He asks Jack how long he has been married, and Jack tells him 43 years.
Stone was convicted of burning down his grandparents’ house, and he claims that his cousin killed his grandparents first, which Stone didn’t even know until after his cousin came outside and told him.
As you can tell, Stone talks a good story.
Then Lucetta, who is a grade-school teacher, starts calling Jack at home, wanting to meet him so that she can plead Stone’s case, all of which is against the rules.
But not against the rules of a movie story, right?
Eventually, Jack and Lucetta do meet, at first openly and then surreptitiously.
Unfortunately, this movie is constructed so that it contains what could have been any number of different endings, and any one of them would have been just as valid.
STONE, therefore, has many endings, but none of them is satisfying.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Invention of Lying” And That’s the Truth
Oct 8th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
And That’s the Truth
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INVENTION OF LYING is a delightful little film that examines how life would be boring if everybody told the truth all the time and how life would be so much more interesting if we just bent the truth in small ways or in large.
Yes, it is a romantic comedy with social overtones.
Ricky Gervais plays Mark, and he is going to have the distinction of telling the world’s first lie when he is put in a situation in which he realizes that he could improve his circumstances if he just said something that didn’t reflect how things actually were.
However, before we get to that momentous event, we watch Mark go out on a first date with Anna, played by Jennifer Garner.
Only the audience is surprised when Anna greets Mark at the door and says, “Hi. You’re early. I was just masturbating.”
Now, you might think that the movie starts off slow, but it gets better as it goes along, especially when you pay attention to the background and all the signs and advertising. Truth in advertising might be refreshing, but it also sure would be boring.
Well, one day Mark needs to clean out his bank account of $300, but when he gets to the bank, the teller says that the computer isn’t working and asks him how much money he has in his account.
Mark has a brilliant thought, and he tells her a number other than 300, and she gives him that amount while apologizing that the computer is down.
Mark is able to turn his life around just by saying things that aren’t really, well, “true,” and he convinces Anna to go out on a second date with him.
But the biggest change occurs when Mark visits his mother in the “Sad Place Where Homeless Old People Come to Die,” which we would call an “Old Folks Home.”
His mother is concerned about dying and her life turning into black nothingness, and so Mark comforts her by making up a story that she is instead going to go to a wonderful place of happiness that is watched over by a “Man in the Sky.”
The story spreads, other people learn about it, and Mark’s life changes completely.
THE INVENTION OF LYING is funny, will ruffle some feathers, and that’s the truth.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”