Posts tagged escape
“Moonrise Kingdom” a Weird Piece of Crap
Jun 30th
“Weird Piece of Crap”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Moonrise Kingdom is the latest film from acclaimed writer and director Wes Anderson, and if you thought his previous films were weird and offbeat, get ready for this one.
To say that the films of Anderson are an acquired taste would be an overstatement. Each of his films is an acquired taste, and this latest one left a bad taste in my mouth.
The cast doesn’t lack for fame and talent, and it includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Harvey Keitel, but all of them play supporting roles in the story, which is about two 12-year-old misfits who fall in love and decide to run away together.
Now, if you think that is quirky, even the location of the story is quirky. It takes place in 1965 on an island off the coast of New England.
We learn that a year earlier Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop had met when she was appearing in a pageant and he went backstage where Suzy was in makeup and asked her, “What bird are you?”
They took a liking to each other, apparently because they were both troubled kids without any friends, and they became pen pals, writing to each other regularly for the past year and making plans to escape together.
Now, remember that they are both 12 years old and living on a small island, and so you can see some ready-made flaws in their plan, right?
Anyway, they meet on schedule and take off to a small cove where they plan to hide out. The adults discover that the kids are missing, and so they start searching for them.
There is also a storm coming that is going to turn into a hurricane.
We see many scenes of Sam and Suzy swimming and dancing around in their underwear that are uncomfortable to watch, especially when Sam paints a picture of Suzy lying down that is a direct copy of the painting scene in the 1997 Titantic, except for their ages and their underwear.
Also, everyone–including the adults–acts deadly serious, which must have been the director’s choice for comic effect, but it just comes across as stupid.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any weirder, it does.
Moonrise Kingdom is just a piece of weird, stupid crap.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Safe House” Is Next to Nothing
Feb 19th
“Next to Nothing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Safe House is a bang-bang, shoot-’em-up, run-run-run, bang-bang, shoot-’em-up-some-more action thriller that is the very epitome of a movie with more style than substance.
It stars Denzel Washington as a rogue CIA agent who has been on the run for nine years and Ryan Reynolds as an inexperienced CIA agent who is in charge of a safe house run by the CIA in Capetown, South Africa.
Matt Weston has been in charge of the safe house for only 12 months, but hasn’t seen any action or activity at all in that year.
In fact, at the beginning of the movie, when he checks in with his superior at CIA headquarters, Matt says, “I’m dying here. What happened to the post in Paris?”
And then everything changes drastically for Matt. A team of agents bring rogue agent Tobin Frost to the safe house for questioning.
Frost is so notorious that even inexperienced Matt recognizes him.
However, during the interrogation, a team of men break into the safe house and start killing everyone, and only Matt and Frost are able to escape, leading to an unbelievable car chase through the streets of Capetown.
Frost is in handcuffs, and he tells Matt that the men want Frost alive, but they will kill Matt if they can.
Back at CIA headquarters, they are aware of what is happening in South Africa, and they admit that Matt is all they have to keep Frost in custody, and so they relay directions to another safe house out in the country and tell Matt to take Frost there.
However, before Matt can get Frost there, they are still being chased by the men intent on killing Matt and capturing Frost, and Matt also has to worry that someone in the CIA set everything up and is directing the chase.
So, whenever Frost escapes from Matt, Matt has to track him down and capture him again, dodge the bullets from the men trying to kill him, and still get Frost to the new safe house.
Oh, and all the action takes place over only two days, there are surprises in store for the audience, but you might be able to guess the final surprise.
Safe House is full of sound and fury, signifying next to nothing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Artist” Sounds Familiar, but It’s Silent
Jan 21st
“Sounds Familiar”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Artist is one of those films that Hollywood loves to make, because it has a simple story that has been retold many times before, it wins many awards both at home and abroad, and it is about Hollywood itself.
So, what is it that makes this version different, you ask?
Well, it is a silent movie with only music on the soundtrack except for one scene that is designed to trick the audience, and it takes place in the 1920s in Hollywood when movies were just beginning to be made with sound and the famous sign still said “Hollywoodland” as it originally did.
And even that isn’t original, because Mel Brooks did the same thing with his 1976 Silent Movie, and the one word of dialogue that we hear in that movie was more original, clever, and funny.
This film is a comedy, as well, and the story begins in 1927 when we see a movie within the movie within this movie, which is called A Russian Affair.
Of course, that film is silent, and we see a scene in which the hero is being tortured, and he says what we see in the subtitles, “I won’t say a word. I won’t speak.”
Then the hero is rescued by a dog, they escape, and the movie is over.
The hero is played by George Valentin, a silent-movie star at the top of his success, and he has been backstage while his movie has been showing, and after the movie is over and the audience is applauding, he comes out from behind the screen and takes a bow, calls the dog out, too, and they ham it up for the audience.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Peppy Miller arrives in town, and naturally she wants to be a movie star.
She accidentally bumps into George on the street while he is playing to the crowd, she hams it up, a photographer takes her picture, and the story makes the front page of a newspaper with the headline of “Who’s That Girl?”
So, Peppy does get into the movies just as “talkies” start to be made, George refuses to do sound movies, and his career fades as Peppy’s starts to rise.
Sound familiar? See any version of A Star Is Born.
The Artist sounds familiar, even though it’s silent.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”