Posts tagged funny
“Hot Tub Time Machine” Party Like It’s 1986
Apr 7th
Party Like It’s 1986
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE has a title that either sells itself or turns people away, which is unfortunate, because if you see it, as I was forced to do, you will discover that you will enjoy it much more than you expected to.
You will also laugh much more than you expected to.
John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry play three best friends named Adam, Nick, and Lou. When Lou has an accident that could be interpreted to have been a suicide attempt, they all decide to take off for the weekend and go to Kodiak Valley ski resort, where they once spent a memorable weekend over 20 years ago.
Tagging along with them is Jacob, Adam’s nerdy teenage nephew.
They are shocked at how much the town has changed and become run down, but they check into the hotel anyway and get the same room that they had stayed in the last time, where they had some of the best times of their lives.
The bellhop, played by Crispin Glover, has only one arm, and thus he isn’t very efficient in getting their luggage up to the room. But after he does, Lou says, “Let’s have some fun! Let’s create a memory!”
The first thing they do is they all jump into the room’s hot tub, which has also seen some better days, or more likely nights, and something weird happens.
The next morning they go skiing, and the first thing they notice is that all the skiers are wearing bright, colorful ski clothes. Then they see a television set with President Ronald Reagan giving a speech, and the word “Live” is written across the screen.
Yes, they are back in 1986 and living the same weekend that they had spent there before. However, they look just like they do currently to the audience, but to the other people and in mirrors to themselves, they look 20 years younger, except for Jacob, of course.
Jacob is freaked out and convinces them that they have to do everything exactly the way they did before, or they might make Hitler president.
Yes, that is funny, but not logical, and there is a running gag about how the bellhop lost his arm.
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE is funny, not logical, and makes you want to party like it’s 1986.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Up In The Air” One Perfect Movie
Dec 23rd
One Perfect Movie
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
UP IN THE AIR is a delightful film about a very undelightful subject: firing people from their jobs.
Written and directed by Jason Reitman, who previously made the 2006 THANK YOU FOR SMOKING and the 2007 JUNO, this film has already won some awards and is sure to win many more.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a “termination engineer” based out of Omaha, Nebraska, who flies all over the country to fire people whose own bosses don’t want to do it themselves.
In a voice-over narration, Bingham says, “Last year I spent 322 days on the road, which means that I had to spend 43 miserable days at home.”
Yes, Bingham loves to travel, which he has developed into a science of efficiency, and he doesn’t spend a nickel if he can help it, unless it adds to his frequent-flyer miles. He wants to hit 10 million miles and become one of only seven people to have reached that prestigious mark.
However, Bingham encounters an obstacle to his plans the next time he goes home and sees his boss, played by Jason Bateman, at the company that employs him.
His boss has hired Natalie Keener, a young efficiency expert fresh out of college, and she has come up with a way that the company doesn’t have to have
23 people on the road at least 250 days a year.
Yes, fire people long-distance by using videoconferencing to give them the bad news.
Of course, Bingham is against this way of working, and their boss tells him to take Natalie out on the road with him to show her the ropes of flying and of firing people face-to-face.
In the meantime, Bingham has met another frequent flyer on the road working for another company, and they try to arrange their schedules so that they can meet in the same city occasionally and share a hotel room together, if you catch my drift.
As another subplot, Bingham’s sister is getting married, and he has been given the task of taking a large cutout photo of the couple with him on his travels and photographing the cutout in front of various landmarks.
UP IN THE AIR is smart, it is funny, it is thoughtful, Clooney is terrific, and it is one perfect movie up in the air or on the ground.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”