Posts tagged Hotshots
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” So Credible, It’s a Cliche
Mar 22nd
“So Credible, It’s a Cliche”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone may appear to be fresh and original, but if you examine it closely, you will realize that you have already seen this movie many times before.
It has the same plot as many other movies before it, and all you have to do is change the profession, the setting, and whether you want to make it a drama or a comedy.
Here is the basic plot: Two lifelong friends are in business together, they have a falling out when an edgy newcomer arrives on their turf and starts taking business away from them, one of them seeks the advice of the person, now retired, who got them started in the business in the first place, there is a reconciliation in time for a final resolution, and the ending credits.
In this case, the profession is magic and magicians, the setting is modern-day Las Vegas, and the genre is a comedy.
Oh, and because the two magician partners are men, there is also a woman in the story, but in this case she doesn’t come between them, and their falling out isn’t because of her, but because of professional differences.
And let the record show that the quote of note in this movie is when the title character says about the newcomer, “He’s not a real magician, he doesn’t even have a costume.”
So, to fill in the remaining blanks, Steve Carell plays The Incredible Burt Wonderstone; Steve Buscemi plays the lifelong friend and partner Anton Marvelton; Jim Carrey plays the edgy newcomer Steve Gray; Olivia Wilde plays the love interest Jane, although there are many laughs caused by her being called Nicole; and Alan Arkin plays Rance Holloway, the retired magician who caused Burt and Anton to become magicians in the first place when they were kids.
Incidentally, Arkin seems to be the go-to guy in comedies these days, and he doesn’t let us down in this one.
Now, we will see all the standard magicians’ tricks during the course of the movie, but there is one at the end that you probably have not seen before, the disappearing audience trick.
Afterwards, we get to see how that trick is done, and it is more funny than amazing.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, however, is not only credible, but it’s so credible, it’s a cliche.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Last Exorcism Part II” Not Really
Mar 16th
“Or Is It?”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Last Exorcism Part II has a title that makes you think, whereas the movie itself just makes you cringe or laugh, sometimes simultaneously.
Maybe the filmmakers just wanted to cash in on the popularity of the trend in blockbuster series of movies having two parts to the final episode in the series, but the operative word here is “blockbuster,” which this movie isn’t, and neither was its predecessor.
Anyway, this movie is just as confusing as it is silly, and it continues where the first movie left off, which wasn’t called “Part I.”
Once again, we follow the story of Nell Sweetzer, who is 17 years old and living in Louisiana. Nell is trying to build a new life after escaping the events of the first movie.
Nell is living in New Orleans, and she can’t remember entire portions of the previous months except that she is the last surviving member of her family, and the evil force that once possessed her is back.
In other words, the last exorcism didn’t work, and now it is apparently time for another one.
Or, as a doctor tells Nell, “It’s your life. You get to decide who you are.”
Nell lives in a house with other troubled teenage girls, who are all under the supervision of the doctor.
Nell has a job as a maid at a motel, where a young man named Chris also works, and they act as if they like each other.
However, strange things start happening to Nell.
A radio talks to her, she answers the telephone, and a strange voice says disturbing things to her.
Nell and the other girls go to watch the Mardi Gras parade, and ominous people in unsettling costumes and masks stare at her, and she also thinks she sees her dead father across the street watching her, but of course he suddenly disappears.
Nell also has disturbing and erotic dreams, and so we never know if what we are watching is supposed to be real or just another one of her dreams.
Eventually Nell meets a woman with special powers who tells Nell that the demon that was in her before loves Nell and wants her.
So, naturally this woman arranges for an exorcism to get the demon out of Nell.
The Last Exorcism Part II … or is it?
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“A Good Day to Die Hard” a Video Game of Mass Destruction
Mar 10th
“Video Game of Mass Destruction”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth in the series of movies starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking action hero John McClane, which began in 1988, and of all the movies in the series, this one is the most recent.
In other words, if you can see only one of the five movies, don’t start with this one.
Yes, there is plenty of action, yes, there are plenty of explosions, yes, there is plenty of gunfire, yes, there are plenty of McClane wisecracks, but no, there is no plot.
Unless you call McClane going to Russia to shoot it up and blow it up to help his estranged son a plot.
McClane hasn’t heard from Jack in years, doesn’t know what he has been doing lately, and yet McClane says, “He could never get out of his own way, he had a lot of problems, but he’s still my kid.”
So, when McClane hears that Jack is on trial for murder in Moscow, McClane decides to go to Russia and help Jack in whatever way he can without even being asked.
And let the mayhem begin.
Jack is willing to testify under oath that another man on trial, Yuri Komarov ordered Jack to kill a third man, but the real purpose of the trial is to force Yuri to hand over a sensitive file he has to authorities.
McClane arrives at the courthouse just as all hell breaks loose, there are explosions, Jack and Yuri escape and seem to be working together, and then McClane joins them to Jack’s obvious displeasure.
McClane and Jack are estranged, remember?
So, now the three of them try to keep from being captured or killed, retrieve the sensitive file, get Yuri’s daughter, and all escape the country.
There are foot chases, there are car chases, there are truck chases, and there are even helicopter chases, all with an excessive amount of gunfire and explosions and even a double cross or two.
Oh, and don’t forget that McClane and Jack will obviously reconcile whatever problems caused their estrangement.
In other words, there is a lot of blithering blather in the movie, too.
A Good Day to Die Hard is nothing more than a video game of mass destruction, and I say don’t waste your money on this sorry excuse of a movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”