Posts tagged kids
“Grown Ups” One Big Letdown
Jul 7th
One Big Letdown
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
GROWN UPS isn’t just bad, it is embarrassingly bad.
This movie is so lame that it gives lame a bad name.
To modify a line from Robert Benchley, this is one of those movies in which all the actors unfortunately enunciated very clearly.
This movie reminded me of sex, or in other words the most fun you can have without laughing, except for the part about fun.
I’m not in the habit of forgetting movies, but in this case I will make an exception.
But I digress.
Adam Sandler is responsible for this sorry excuse of a movie, and you get the notion that he just called four or five of his buddies and said in the best Mickey Rooney tradition, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s make a movie!”
The premise is that in 1978 five kids won a championship basketball game on the last shot at the buzzer, it was the only championship team the coach ever had, and Coach “Buzzer” was very special to those boys.
Well, 30 years later, the coach has died, and the kid who made the winning shot, Adam Sandler, arranges for the other four team members to all show up for the coach’s funeral in New England with their families.
The other team members have grown up to be Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider, and they all show up with their wives, children, and other assorted baggage.
They all stay together in a cabin by a lake, and there are lots of jokes about the kids texting instead of just talking, lots of jokes about rude and obnoxious kids, lots of breast-feeding jokes, lots of fart jokes, urinating jokes, more fart jokes, old-age jokes, and jokes about city kids learning how to play outside without video games.
Finally, you just wait for the movie to be over, and you ask yourself what is Salma Hayek doing in this movie, what is Maria Bello doing in this movie, and even what is Steve Buscemi doing in this movie?
And, of course, at the end there is too much talking as all the couples become honest with each other, but even worse than that, there is a Big Game rematch with the grown-up kids from the other team.
GROWN UPS is just equal-opportunity put-downs and one big letdown.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Babies” Baby’s Home Movies
May 12th
Baby’s Home Movies
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BABIES is an interesting, sometimes amusing, sometimes fascinating documentary that follows four babies from around the world during the first year of their lives.
The four babies are Ponijao in Namibia, Africa; Bayarjargal in Mongolia; Mari in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie in San Francisco.
There is no narration, very little dialogue, none of which is translated, and only a few titles to tell us the names of the babies and where they were born.
In other words, this movie is like four sets of home movies called “Baby’s First Year.” On the other hand, who can resist seeing pictures of a sleeping, yawning baby?
We first meet Ponijao in Namibia. She and a sibling are pounding rocks together, and then they get into a fight over an old bottle, which results in some biting and crying. A title says “A few months earlier,” and we see Ponijao’s mother giving birth to her.
We cut to Mongolia and see a pregnant woman exercising in front of a television set while an exercise program is playing, and then later she gives birth to Bayarjargal. A nurse wraps him up tightly, and he is driven home on the back of a motorcycle in his mother’s arms behind his father and young brother.
Tokyo is next, and we see baby Mari while she is feeding, and a cat comes in and joins her.
Finally, we are in San Francisco, where we meet Hattie, and from here on the movie doesn’t show the four babies in order anymore, but instead shows different scenes in the lives of the babies and their activities in their first year.
Consequently, we see the similarities of raising a baby around the world, but we also see the differences, as well as the interesting differences in the four cultures that are represented.
All babies are given baths, but there are differences in the techniques.
All babies have animals in their lives, but there is a vast difference in what those animals are.
And all babies explore their body parts, but there are differences in what they wear, what toys they are given to play with, and how their parents try to amuse them to keep them from becoming bored.
BABIES is “Baby’s Home Movies,” yes, but who can resist babies, who are adorable no matter where they live?
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Babies – Movie Trailer
May 11th
Filmmaker Thomas Balmes offers an adorable glimpse at the first phase of life in this film following four newborn babies through their first year of life. Ponijao, Bayar, Mari, and Hattie were born in Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and California, respectively. By capturing their earliest stage of development on camera, Balmes reveals just how much we all have in common, despite being born to different parents and raised in different cultures.
