Posts tagged local
“A Serious Man” A Serious Film
Nov 5th
A Serious Film
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A SERIOUS MAN is the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who write their films together, direct them together, edit them together, and finally share their awards together, which this film is likely to win more for them.
Ostensibly it is a comedy, because it contains many laughs even into the closing credits, but it also contains serious themes that can cause the audience to think about it long after the last laugh has burst forth.
After all, any film that mentions quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and Schroedinger’s cat, as well as has its basis in the Book of Job from the Bible can’t be all comedy.
The story takes place in 1967 in a suburb of Minneapolis, and it is about the life and hardships of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a local college.
Everything seems to be going just fine in Larry’s life, until one day from out of the blue his wife, Judith, tells Larry that she has been seeing one of Larry’s friends, Sy Ableman, and she says, “In short, I think it’s about time that we started talking about a divorce.”
Larry is stunned, especially about the part that Judith would be romantically involved with Sy Ableman, who even comes over to the house to talk to Larry in his unctuous manner.
Then everything that Larry thought was one way turns out to be another.
Larry is asked to move out of his own home and to stay at the Jolly Roger Motel, which he does.
He is being considered for tenure at the college where he teaches, and he keeps getting regular updates from the head of the tenure committee, but whereas the updates were favorable at first, eventually they become worse and worse.
One of Larry’s students appears to have offered a bribe of substantial money in exchange for a better grade in the class.
Larry’s teenage son and teenage daughter are constantly complaining to Larry about what he considers to be trivial matters.
Larry seeks the counsel of one local rabbi after another, but gets no help whatsoever.
And to top it all off, Larry keeps getting called by a representative of the Columbia Record Club about payment for records Larry never ordered or received.
A SERIOUS MAN is a serious film disguised as a comedy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” Rude, Crude, Extremely Lewd and Very, Very Funny
Aug 19th
Rude, Crude, Extremely Lewd and Very, Very Funny
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD is one of those movies that get talked about more than seen, which is a shame, because it is well worth your time, trouble, and money.
It just won’t win any awards for quality or be on anyone’s list of the best films of 2009 or any year.
Of course, this means that it will do bang-up business when it comes out on DVD.
Jeremy Pivens stars as Don “The Goods” Ready, and so the title can refer to him just as easily as it can to the concept of the movie, which is selling used cars.
In fact, the first sale in the movie is a classic, and it takes place before the opening titles.
But as Ready says at the end of an inspiring speech on an airplane to convince the stewardess to let him smoke, “I’m Don Ready, and I’ve got the goods!”
Then you have to see what happens next to believe it.
Don and his team of two men and one woman are freelance used-car sellers, and they are called to Temecula, California, to help save the dealership of Ben Selleck, played by James Brolin.
They will be in charge over the Fourth of July weekend to save the business that has been in the family for 40 years, and one method they use is to hire some dancers from a local strip club to loosen up the customers.
One subplot is that Selleck’s daughter, Ivy, is engaged to the son of Selleck’s rival, played by Alan Thicke, who wants to buy Selleck’s dealership and give it to his son as a place where his son’s band can rehearse.
Another subplot is that one of Selleck’s salesmen might be Don’s son from a one-night stand he had in Temecula 23 years ago.
And a third subplot is a running reference to something bad that happened to Don in Albuquerque, which we don’t learn about until near the end of the movie.
So, Don makes a deal with Selleck’s rival that they will sell every car on the lot by the end of the weekend, and if they don’t–. Well, you have to see the movie to know what the bargain is.
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD is rude, crude, extremely lewd, and very, very funny.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Observe and Report” A Double Shock Ending
Apr 16th
A Double Shock Ending
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
OBSERVE AND REPORT is a very profane but also very funny movie about a shopping-mall security guard with aspirations to be more than he is and to have more than he currently has.
Excuse me. It is about a man who is “head of mall security,” and, no, I am not talking about the similar movie starring Kevin James that was released recently before this one.
This very funny, but very profane, movie stars Seth Rogen as Ronnie Barnhardt, and he has also broken into the ranks of leading-man status, most recently by appearing on the cover of PLAYBOY magazine.
Granted, there is a pretty girl on the cover with him, but as his “Playboy Interview” points out, only six times before has a man appeared on the cover of that magazine.
The story begins with a flasher in the parking lot, a man wearing apparently only a raincoat who targets women getting out of their cars, dashes up to them, and pulls open his coat.
Ronnie lives with his mother, and he says to her, “Part of me thinks that this disgusting pervert is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
You see, Ronnie wants to be a real policeman, and he believes that if he can solve the flasher case, he can apply to the local police department and get into the police academy.
Also, he might get the pretty girl at the cosmetics counter in the mall, played by Anna Faris, to go out with him.
However, when the flasher strikes again, the local police are called, and Detective Harrison, played by Ray Liotta, shows up, who not only puts a dent in Ronnie’s plans, but also disregards Ronnie and makes fun of him.
Also, whenever things start looking up for Ronnie and his aspirations, something happens to bring him back to reality, but then sometimes Ronnie surprises us and shows that he is more than we have come to expect.
The secondary characters are all also very good and funny, especially Ronnie’s mother, but when Ronnie goes undercover at the mall in an attempt to catch the flasher, you might think that the worst that could happen would be for Ronnie to blow his cover, right?
Wrong!
OBSERVE AND REPORT has a double shock ending you have to see to believe.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
