Posts tagged Hotshots
“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” Surprises All the Way to the End
Nov 4th
“Surprises All the Way to the End”
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST is the third Swedish film in the Millennium Trilogy that includes THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, it is just as good as the first one, and it leaves you wanting more.
We know that there will be more, because Hollywood is working on its own version of the first film, and there are rumors that the manuscript for a fourth novel was found on the computer belonging to Stieg Larsson, the Swedish author who died tragically at 50 before the novels were even published.
This film begins, naturally enough, where the second one ended, and Lisbeth Salander, the 27-year-old title character, lies in the hospital in pretty bad shape, having had a bullet removed from her brain.
Mikael Blomkvist is the investigative journalist who has been helping Lisbeth in the first two films, and his sister Annika is a lawyer who agrees to defend Lisbeth against the charges of three murders that the audience already knows she didn’t commit.
Lisbeth tells Annika, “I don’t need a lawyer.”
However, of course she does, and she also needs luck and help in her hospital room, because other people are trying to kill her.
Now, it might be confusing to try to understand who all the old people in the story are and to keep them straight after you have seen them, and it will definitely be confusing if you haven’t seen the first two films. So, the place to start is with the excellent first film, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.
You might also think that a movie that spends most of its time in a hospital and then later in a courtroom is not going to be very exciting, especially considering all the action in the first two films, but there is action aplenty in this one, as well.
It is also a kick to see Lisbeth get her punk look back when she walks into the courtroom. She is definitely her own woman, and there is already talk about an Academy Award in 2011 for the Swedish actress who plays her, Noomi Repace.
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST is as excellent as the first film, it contains surprises all the way to the end, and I want a fourth one.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Stone” But None of Them Satisfying
Oct 27th
“But None of Them Satisfying”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
STONE is the latest movie starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, and then when you add Milla Jovovich to that couple of actor’s actors, then you have got yourself a movie, right?
Well,not so fast.
Next you need a believable story, a good script, and a satisfying ending, and this one fails on all three counts.
The movie begins with a dramatic opening scene in the past that will have repercussions many years later in the future.
Then we cut to a present-day funeral for a character named Robert Mabry, and his brother Jack says in his eulogy, “If it wasn’t for Bobby, I don’t know where I would have wound up.”
Jack is a parole officer who works in a prison, he is close to retirement, and he wants to keep his current cases to see them through to their reviews.
One of his cases is Gerald Creeson, who says that his people know him as “Stone,” and he prefers to be called “Stone.”
Stone tells Jack that he just wants to talk to him, and then maybe they can both get what they want. Stone says that he is so ready to be out of prison and what can he and Jack do to make that happen.
Stone has been married for nine years to Lucetta, he calls her a “dime,” a perfect “10,” and he says that she is an alien from another world. He asks Jack how long he has been married, and Jack tells him 43 years.
Stone was convicted of burning down his grandparents’ house, and he claims that his cousin killed his grandparents first, which Stone didn’t even know until after his cousin came outside and told him.
As you can tell, Stone talks a good story.
Then Lucetta, who is a grade-school teacher, starts calling Jack at home, wanting to meet him so that she can plead Stone’s case, all of which is against the rules.
But not against the rules of a movie story, right?
Eventually, Jack and Lucetta do meet, at first openly and then surreptitiously.
Unfortunately, this movie is constructed so that it contains what could have been any number of different endings, and any one of them would have been just as valid.
STONE, therefore, has many endings, but none of them is satisfying.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Nowhere Boy” A Bit Like You and Me
Oct 21st
“A Bit Like You and Me”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
NOWHERE BOY is the haunting story of John Lennon’s troubled teenage years from when he learned some important secrets about his family that had been kept from him since he was five years old to just before the Beatles were formed and the lads from Liverpool made rock ‘n’ roll history.
The story begins about 1956 when John is 16, and he is always getting into trouble in school. One day while he is being disciplined, John is told, “You’re going nowhere,” and John responds in his quick, witty, and irreverent fashion, “There’s nowhere for the geniuses, Sir.”
Then John’s life takes the first of many sudden and drastic changes. He is living with his Uncle George and Aunt Mimi, and Uncle George dies suddenly, leaving John alone with Aunt Mimi, who is a very strict disciplinarian and who constantly tells John to wear his glasses whenever he leaves the house.
Uncle George was more than just an uncle to John, and at the funeral we see a red-haired woman whom John has known as Aunt Julia. Now John is told that he should call the red-haired woman “Mum.”
A friend knows where Julia lives, and he and John go to visit her, which is within walking distance of Aunt Mimi’s. Julia has two little girls, and they all go to Blackpool for a day of fun, where Julia gets a little wild from the excitement.
At the end of the day when John is going back home to Aunt Mimi’s, Julia tells him, “Don’t tell Mimi. Please. This is our secret.” And then she adds, “I love you. You’re my dream. Don’t forget that.”
John slowly begins to learn more of the details behind this complicated relationship, and it is about this time he becomes aware of Elvis Presley and fascinated with the success and popularity of the American singer.
So, Johns asks Aunt Mimi to buy him a guitar, gets some of his mates to join him in forming a rock ‘n’ roll band, and calls the neophyte band “The Quarrymen.”
A friend of a friend named Paul shows up, he knows how to play his left-handed quitar better than John does, teaches John some new chords, and, well, you know the rest.
NOWHERE BOY is, like the song says, a bit like you and me.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
