Posts tagged FBI
“The Heat” Good Enough to Reheat
Jul 6th
“Good Enough to Reheat”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Heat is another comedy about buddy cops, but the difference in this case is that the two buddy cops are both women.
In fact, I have read that this is the only film this summer in which the two stars are women, and yet it is definitely not a chick flick.
Sandra Bullock stars as Sarah Ashburn, an FBI agent who is slim, prim, and grim, so much so, in fact, that none of her fellow agents like to work with her.
Melissa McCarthy stars as Shannon Mullins, a Boston police detective who is rude, crude, and lewd, and whose unorthodox methods make her very successful.
After Shannon captures one criminal, she tells him, “It’s not about luck, Pal. It’s not about luck.”
Now, Sarah’s boss is going to be moving up and out, and Sarah wants to be promoted and to take over his job. So, she is transferred temporarily to Boston to find and capture a drug lord, and if she is successful, her boss tells her that they will talk about the promotion.
Well, Sarah is forced to partner with Shannon on the case, even though neither of them wants to, but again Sarah’s boss tell her that she has to show that she can work with Shannon before they will talk about her promotion.
Shannon tells Sarah that Shannon is intuitive and says what she feels, especially when they go undercover into a nightclub and they change Sarah’s appearance to make her more attractive in order to get close to a criminal that they are after.
Shannon also isn’t afraid to use Russian Roulette in order to get a suspect to talk during an interrogation.
Naturally, there will be times for Sarah and Shannon to go out socializing together, and naturally they will all be funny.
Shannon also has occasion to take Sarah home to meet Shannon’s family, which is interesting because the family doesn’t like Shannon for what she did to her brother, but ultimately funny in the discussion between “narc” and “na’c.”
You can imagine that Sarah and Shannon are successful in catching the drug lord, and you can also imagine that a sequel to this very funny film might already be in the works.
The Heat is good enough to see again, especially if the second time is Part II.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Now You See Me” Misdirection in Its Own Right
Jun 9th
“Misdirection in Its Own Right”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Now You See Me combines the genres of a movie about magicians with a heist movie, and it ends up with an example of more is less.
Even the appearances of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine can’t pull this movie out of the doldrums.
The story begins when four magicians who each have different specialties are all summoned to a locked apartment in New York City which is full of clues that they have to figure out in order to learn why they were summoned.
The four magicians are Daniel, played by Jesse Eisenberg, who is a master of misdirection; Henley, played by Isla Fisher, who is Daniel’s former assistant; Merritt, played by Woody Harrelson, who is a mentalist; and Jack, played by Dave Franco, who is an expert at card tricks.
Incidentally, Dave Franco is the brother of James Franco.
Then we shift to one year later in Las Vegas, the four now call themselves The Four Horsemen, and they put on a spectacular show in a casino, where Daniel announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we are going to rob a bank!”
Well, not only do they rob a bank of 32 million Euros, but the bank is in Paris, France, and the robbery occurs during the show with the assistance of a man pulled at random from out of the audience.
Now the FBI gets involved with Agent Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, another agent from Interpol, a woman named Alma Dray shows up to assist him, and after an interrogation that is unproductive for the authorities, The Four Horsemen are off to their next big show in New Orleans, which is publicized as the setup for their third show, the “Big Punch,” in New York City.
The thing about magic, however, is that if you know how a trick is done, you lose interest in watching that trick again, and a famous magician tells Agents Rhodes and Dray how The Four Horsemen managed to rob that bank in Paris.
The movie tries to spice things up with races through the streets of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, but again The Four Horsemen escape, and they are on to New York City, where a car chase through the streets and over a bridge don’t help much, either.
Now You See Me itself is all misdirection.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Now You See Me – Movie Trailer
Jun 3rd
“Now You See Me” pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against “The Four Horsemen”, a super-team of the world’s greatest illusionists. “The Four Horsemen” pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt business leaders during their performances, showering the stolen profits on their audiences while staying one step ahead of the law.