Posts tagged England
“Like Crazy” an Unconventional Love Story
Nov 26th
“Unconventional Love Story”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Like Crazy has a very simple plot: Girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back.
Or does she?
You see, complicating this “simple” love story at first glance is something that we all have encountered at one time or another: bureaucratic red tape, which is more serious in this case because it prevents the girl from getting back into the United States so that she can be reunited with the boy she fell in love with.
Anna is British, Jacob is American, and they meet at a college in Los Angeles where she is studying journalism and he is studying furniture design.
They share a writing class together, and Anna initiates their “meet cute” when she leaves a note to him underneath the windshield wiper of his car in the parking lot.
At the bottom of the note, Anna writes, “P.S. Please don’t think I’m a nutcase.”
So, they get together, discover they have a few things in common, and the first time Anna invites him in for a quiet drink, Jacob remarks that the chair she uses for all her writing is uncomfortable.
Then after we see a series of scenes showing them on numerous dates, having fun, enjoying each other’s company, and obviously falling in love, one day Jacob gives Anna a wooden chair that he designed and built for her, and he shows her that underneath the seat he engraved the words “Like Crazy.”
Well, unfortunately Anna’s student visa is up at the end of the school year, and she is scheduled to go back to England for the summer, but young love prevails, they agree that 2-1/2 months is too long for them to be apart now, and so Anna rashly decides to stay and tells Jacob that they can spend all summer in bed.
However, after Anna does return to England, she gets a job with a magazine, but then when she has a chance to come back to the United States to see Jacob, she is held up in Customs because she had violated her prior visa, and she is immediately sent back to England.
They make half-hearted statements over the telephone to be just friends, but they also both get involved with other people.
Like Crazy is an unconventional love story, and I wasn’t crazy about it.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Straw Dogs” an Exercise in Violence
Sep 24th
“Another Unnecessary Remake”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Straw Dogs is a remake of the classic 1971 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George that was directed by acclaimed director Sam Peckinpah, who was known for the violence in his movies.
This 2011 version stars James Marsden and Kate Bosworth and was directed by Rod Lurie, and the location has been changed from a small town in western England to a small town in Southern Mississippi.
The title comes from the straw dogs that were used as ceremonial objects in ancient China. They were used as sacrifices, dressed up, put on the altar, and then when the ceremony was over, they were thrown into the street.
David and Amy are married, and when they drive into Blackwater, Mississippi, where Amy grew up, she mentions that the young good ol’ boys in town don’t have much to do anymore after their glory days of high-school football are over, and David compares them to the “straw dogs” of ancient China.
David is a Hollywood screenwriter, Amy recently starred in a television series, and they are in Blackwater because Amy’s father died and they are there to fix up his house and then sell it.
So, when they meet Charlie in town and find out that he has a small construction business, they hire Charlie to repair the roof on the barn.
Charlie says, “We take care of our own here,” and then he says to Amy, “Remember when I took care of you?”
And that is when David learns that Amy and Charlie had been high-school sweethearts.
Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you? Charlie and his construction team are rude and obnoxious, they ogle Amy because of the provocative way she dresses, and they belittle David almost every chance they get, because he doesn’t understand their small-town Southern culture, doesn’t fit in, and unknowingly insults them.
And then when Charlie and the boys invite David to go hunting with them, David feels obligated to go with them as a gesture of good will, but, of course, things don’t end well.
Things don’t end well at all, which can also be said about the whole movie.
There are some small subplots that attempt to flesh out the main plot, but basically the movie is an exercise in violence.
Straw Dogs is just another unnecessary remake.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The King’s Speech” Bertie’s Greatest Test
Jan 6th
“Bertie’s Greatest Test”
THE KING’S SPEECH portrays the unusual events in 1930s England that led to the coronation of the father of the current Queen Elizabeth to become King George VI, but more importantly the difficult personal struggle that the king went through in order to be able to speak in public.
As hard as it is to feel sorry for a king, this delightful film makes the audience feel sorry for the stammering monarch who was known as Bertie to his family, as well as to feel admiration for the three actors who portray Bertie, his speech therapist, and his supportive wife.
Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter play the three roles, and all of them have been mentioned for awards for their fine acting performances.
The story begins in 1934, and Prince Albert, the Duke of York, has been asked by his father, King George V, to give an address at Wembley Stadium in London. To watch him struggle is as painful to the audience in the theater as it must have been to the crowd in the stadium.
So, Bertie and his wife, Elizabeth, see various speech therapists with no success until Elizabeth finds Lionel Logue, an Australian self-taught therapist.
Elizabeth tells him that her husband has a terrible stammer and is required to speak in public, to which Lionel says, “Perhaps he should change jobs.”
Elizabeth tells Lionel that her husband cannot change jobs and then reveals her husband’s identity by saying, “And what if my husband were the Duke of York?”
Lionel’s methods are controversial, he and the duke must treat each other as equals, and all sessions must take place in Lionel’s rooms–no exceptions.
When King George V dies, Bertie’s older brother, David, becomes king, but he shirks his duties and doesn’t want to be king if he can’t marry the woman he loves, which he can’t, because she is twice divorced, and as head of the Church of England, the king cannot marry a divorced woman.
And, of course, the winds of war are increasing in Europe, and when England declares war with Germany, the new king, that is to say our old Bertie, must be able to give a stirring speech on live radio to the British people.
THE KING’S SPEECH is an excellent film all around of Bertie’s greatest test.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”