Posts tagged film
The Men Who Stare at Goats – Movie Trailer
Nov 6th
Loosely adapted from a nonfiction book by Jon Ronson, Grant Heslov’s directorial debut The Men Who Stare at Goats begins as heartbroken reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) heads off to imbed himself with troops as the Iraq War starts, but Wilton can’t get himself into the country until he chances upon Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). It turns out Lyn spent decades as part of the New Earth Army — a platoon of men, led by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), who lived a new-age lifestyle in an attempt to cultivate extrasensory perception that would allow the U.S. army to win wars nonviolently. Bill now has a secret mission in Iraq, and allows Bob to come along. As the duo gets into a series of misadventures, Lyn shares with Bob the colorful history of the New Earth Army and chronicles the nefarious machinations of Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), whose jealousy of Lyn’s remarkable skill brought an end to the group.
“A Serious Man” A Serious Film
Nov 5th
A Serious Film
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A SERIOUS MAN is the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who write their films together, direct them together, edit them together, and finally share their awards together, which this film is likely to win more for them.
Ostensibly it is a comedy, because it contains many laughs even into the closing credits, but it also contains serious themes that can cause the audience to think about it long after the last laugh has burst forth.
After all, any film that mentions quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and Schroedinger’s cat, as well as has its basis in the Book of Job from the Bible can’t be all comedy.
The story takes place in 1967 in a suburb of Minneapolis, and it is about the life and hardships of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a local college.
Everything seems to be going just fine in Larry’s life, until one day from out of the blue his wife, Judith, tells Larry that she has been seeing one of Larry’s friends, Sy Ableman, and she says, “In short, I think it’s about time that we started talking about a divorce.”
Larry is stunned, especially about the part that Judith would be romantically involved with Sy Ableman, who even comes over to the house to talk to Larry in his unctuous manner.
Then everything that Larry thought was one way turns out to be another.
Larry is asked to move out of his own home and to stay at the Jolly Roger Motel, which he does.
He is being considered for tenure at the college where he teaches, and he keeps getting regular updates from the head of the tenure committee, but whereas the updates were favorable at first, eventually they become worse and worse.
One of Larry’s students appears to have offered a bribe of substantial money in exchange for a better grade in the class.
Larry’s teenage son and teenage daughter are constantly complaining to Larry about what he considers to be trivial matters.
Larry seeks the counsel of one local rabbi after another, but gets no help whatsoever.
And to top it all off, Larry keeps getting called by a representative of the Columbia Record Club about payment for records Larry never ordered or received.
A SERIOUS MAN is a serious film disguised as a comedy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Amelia” You Won’t Be Enthralled
Oct 29th
You Won’t Be Enthralled
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
AMELIA is the story of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to perform a number of flying accomplishments in the Twenties and Thirties, and she is played stunningly by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank.
Unfortunately, if the film were a jet airplane, it would have to be called a flameout, whereas everyone involved with it and many in the audience were hoping that it would soar to wonderful and exiting heights.
Part of the reason is that we know how the story ends, and so there is hardly any suspense at all.
Another part is the construction of the film. It jumps back and forth in time and setting without warning, so that the audience is disoriented along with being dissatisfied.
As a matter of fact, the opening scene takes place in June 1937 in Miami, Florida, at the beginning of Earhart’s ill-fated attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world.
Then we jump back to April 1928 in New York City and see the preparations for Earhart’s first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, in which she didn’t fly the airplane, but was just a passenger, although she was named the “commander”
of the flight over two men who did the actual flying.
Now, some of these jumps are identified by titles for the audience, but others aren’t, and scenes from Earhart’s final flight keep being thrown into the somewhat chronological story at this point.
We see Earhart’s relationship with publisher and promoter George Putnam, played by Richard Gere, and the first time he asks her to marry him, she says, “I don’t want to get married, George. I’m not the marrying kind.”
However, they do get married, only without the part in the marriage vows about “obey.” Earhart says that she can’t promise that.
We also see Earhart’s relationship with flying instructor Gene Vidal, played by Ewan McGregor, the father of Gore Vidal, who appears in the film as a young boy.
Also, many shots of beautiful scenery are thrown in that have nothing to do with the story but just look pretty.
All in all, the film is too melodramatic, but without much drama and certainly without any suspense.
AMELIA might teach you something you didn’t know about Earhart’s life, but you won’t be enthralled with it, whereas I wanted to be enthralled.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
