Posts tagged kids
“Chasing Mavericks” More Like “The Surfer Kid”
Nov 3rd
“The Surfer Kid”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Chasing Mavericks is not a story about ranch cowboys chasing after motherless calves, but is instead based on a true story about one particular teenage boy who wanted to learn how to surf some of the most dangerous waves in the world.
Those waves are located near Santa Cruz, California, they are created whenever an El Nino weather system occurs, and they are called “the mavericks.”
The story begins in 1987, and we see 8-year-old Jay and his slightly older friend Kim playing near a beach with heavy surf. Jay jumps into the water to save Kim’s dog, but then Jay gets caught by the waves and could easily drown.
Suddenly a man who had been surfing appears, and he pulls Jay out of the water.
The man is Frosty Hesson, played by Gerard Butler, and surfing is his passion, his life, and his escape.
Jay learns how to surf, and then we jump seven years later when he is now played by Jonny Weston. Coincidentally, Frosty lives right across the street with his wife and two kids from where Jay lives with his alcoholic mother, played by Elisabeth Shue.
One night Jay hitches a ride on Frosty’s van when Jay sees him leave to go surfing, and he watches Frosty and three men surf the most powerful waves you can imagine, which are talked about in the area, but no one knew for sure that they existed.
As Frosty tells Jay, “That wave is a myth, and the four of us want to keep it that way.”
Well, you can imagine the rest of the story. Jay asks Frosty to teach him how to surf the mavericks, Frosty reluctantly agrees, and then we watch a regimen of training right out of the 1984 The Karate Kid, but fortunately without the “Wax on, wax off” scenes, only there are some shots of Jay waxing his surfboard.
Although the movie is about surfing and includes many scenes of surfing, there are additional subplots involving Jay’s personal and home life, Frosty’s relationship with his wife and family, and Jay’s relationship with Kim.
In other words, it is a traditional movie about a nontraditional subject, and the “big game” at the end this time is surfing the “big wave.”
Chasing Mavericks could even more likely have been called The Surfer Kid.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Moonrise Kingdom” a Weird Piece of Crap
Jun 30th
“Weird Piece of Crap”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Moonrise Kingdom is the latest film from acclaimed writer and director Wes Anderson, and if you thought his previous films were weird and offbeat, get ready for this one.
To say that the films of Anderson are an acquired taste would be an overstatement. Each of his films is an acquired taste, and this latest one left a bad taste in my mouth.
The cast doesn’t lack for fame and talent, and it includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Harvey Keitel, but all of them play supporting roles in the story, which is about two 12-year-old misfits who fall in love and decide to run away together.
Now, if you think that is quirky, even the location of the story is quirky. It takes place in 1965 on an island off the coast of New England.
We learn that a year earlier Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop had met when she was appearing in a pageant and he went backstage where Suzy was in makeup and asked her, “What bird are you?”
They took a liking to each other, apparently because they were both troubled kids without any friends, and they became pen pals, writing to each other regularly for the past year and making plans to escape together.
Now, remember that they are both 12 years old and living on a small island, and so you can see some ready-made flaws in their plan, right?
Anyway, they meet on schedule and take off to a small cove where they plan to hide out. The adults discover that the kids are missing, and so they start searching for them.
There is also a storm coming that is going to turn into a hurricane.
We see many scenes of Sam and Suzy swimming and dancing around in their underwear that are uncomfortable to watch, especially when Sam paints a picture of Suzy lying down that is a direct copy of the painting scene in the 1997 Titantic, except for their ages and their underwear.
Also, everyone–including the adults–acts deadly serious, which must have been the director’s choice for comic effect, but it just comes across as stupid.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any weirder, it does.
Moonrise Kingdom is just a piece of weird, stupid crap.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”