Posts tagged Hotshots
“Sparkle” Is Overblown
Aug 26th
“Overblown”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Sparkle is the 2012 remake of the 1976 film of the same name and story, but not of the 2007 film of the same name but different story.
This film also has the distinction of being the last film that Whitney Houston made before she died, and she was also one of the executive producers of it.
Houston said in an interview that the original film inspired her so much when it came out, and “I would go every Saturday for, like, four months straight, and I would watch the matinee to the evening show.”
This version moves the story from the 1950s to the 1960s, but it is still about a trio of sisters who want to make it big as a singing group in the music business.
No, Houston does not play one of the sisters. She plays their mother, who doesn’t approve of her daughters’ ambition, because she used to be a singer in the business, but she has bitter memories because it almost killed her.
The story begins in 1968 in Detroit, and the sisters are named Sparkle, Dolores, and, confusingly, Sister.
Sparkle is shy, but she loves music, and she writes the songs; Dolores, who also goes by Dee, actually wants to be a doctor, but she gives support to her sisters’ ambitions; and Sister is the outgoing one who starts out singing by herself, is impressive with her performances, and could succeed.
Of course, there are men around, too. Levi is dating Sister, and his cousin Stix, who is visiting from Kansas City, takes an interest in Sparkle, and when the girls starts singing as a group, Stix becomes their manager.
However, Sister becomes involved with a professional comedian named Satin, they get serious, but Satin is a bad influence and he introduces Sister to some very bad habits, personally and professionally.
All the while, Mama disapproves, and things just go from very bad to worse.
In other words, the story is a classic story about show business: Girls have ambition and want to be successful in show business, girls achieve success, girls lose success because of a tragedy, girls find success again but in different ways and to different degrees.
And don’t worry. Houston also sings a song, but not on stage.
Sparkle is overblown, overdone, and doesn’t sparkle at all.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Total Recall” Is Total Overkill
Aug 13th
“Total Overkill”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Total Recall is the 2012 version of the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and if you have seen the first film, you will keep asking yourself whether you remember it or whether it is a false memory.
One thing is sure, however: Colin Farrell is a better actor than Ah-nold.
Spoiler Alert! The story begins with a dream. Or maybe not.
Doug Quaid has been having a recurring nightmare, and he wakes up in bed with his wife, Lori, played by Kate Beckinsale.
Doug lies to her about the dream–or maybe not–and when she leaves for work, Doug says, “Sleep scares me.”
The time is the future, and there are only two places on Earth left inhabitable: the United Federation of Britain, which is where Great Britain is now, and the Colony, which is where Australia is now.
Doug lives in the Colony, but he works in Britain as an assembly worker, making the commute to and from work in “the Fall,” a super elevator between the two through the center of the earth.
Well, Doug is bored with his life, and after work he goes to a Rekall Lounge where he can have exciting memories implanted in his brain.
However, something goes wrong–or maybe it doesn’t–and the next thing he knows, robotic policemen called “Synthetics” are trying to kill him. So, maybe his choice of memory implant for “secret agent” worked, or maybe it didn’t because he was a secret agent all along with lost memories.
Anyway, a woman named Melina, played by Jessica Biel, shows up to save him, and she is a resistance fighter who claims that he is one, too. Or is he?
Could he be a double agent for the Establishment pretending to be working for the Resistance, could he be pretending to be working for the Establishment but really working for the Resistance, or could everything that is happening to him just be the memory implant from the Rekall Lounge?
What should you believe and what should you disbelieve? When does it stop being interesting and just a screen filled with a confusing story and lots of explosions and special effects, which for this movie are called “visual effects”?
When does the suspension of disbelief become the suspension of belief?
Total Recall is nothing more than total overkill.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”