Posts tagged London
Closed Circuit – Movie Trailer
Sep 2nd
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
In the international suspense thriller “Closed Circuit,” a high-profile terrorism case unexpectedly binds together two ex-lovers on the defense team – testing the limits of their loyalties and placing their lives in jeopardy. One morning, a busy London market is decimated by an explosion. In the manhunt that follows, only one member of the suspected terrorist cell survives: Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto), who is arrested and jailed. Preparations begin for what promises to be the trial of the century. But there’s a hitch: the government will use classified evidence to prosecute Erdogan, evidence so secret that neither he nor his lawyers can be allowed to see it. Hence the need for the Attorney General (Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent) to appoint a Special Advocate, an additional government-approved defense lawyer (Claudia Simmons-Howe, played by Golden Globe Award nominee Rebecca Hall), one who has clearance to see classified evidence and who can argue for its full disclosure when the trial moves to “closed” session. The rules for the Special Advocate are clear: once the secret evidence is shared with her, Claudia will not be allowed to communicate even with the defendant or with other members of the defense team. But just as the case is on the eve of going to trial, Erdogan’s lawyer dies suddenly, and a new defense attorney, Martin Rose (Eric Bana), quickly steps in. Martin is tenacious, driven, and brilliant – and an ex-lover of Claudia’s. The two lawyers make an uncomfortable pact to keep their former affair hidden. But as Martin begins to piece the case together, the outlines of a sinister conspiracy emerge, one that will draw him and Claudia dangerously close again.
“Skyfall” Explains “Last Rat Standing”
Nov 17th
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“Last Rat Standing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Skyfall is the 23rd “official” James Bond movie, which began 50 years ago with the 1962 Dr. No, and the third one starring Daniel Craig as British spy, Agent 007.
And of all the Bond films over the years, official and unofficial, both serious and spoof, this is definitely the most recent one.
Oh, all the traditional, key elements are there: Bond looks good, damn good, when he is dressed to kill; there is a memorable villain, played by Javier Bardem, but he has a back story that we have already seen before in the 1995 GoldenEye; there is another in a long line of so-called “Bond girls,” but her name isn’t as striking as previous ones; there are chases aplenty; there are gadgets for Bond, but some of them we have literally seen before; and finally there are familiar names, but they are played by new characters.
In other words, call me jaded or call me old, but I have pretty much seen it all before.
Except for the opening sequence, which features a motorcycle chase across the rooftops of buildings in Istanbul, a fight between Bond and another man atop a moving train, and then while Bond’s backup agent can shoot to save him, but doesn’t have a clear shot, the agent is ordered by M back in London, “Take the bloody shot!”
Unfortunately, the agent misses the villain, hits Bond, and Bond falls off the train into a river, over some falls, and he is missing from the story long enough for M, again played by Judi Dench, to write his obituary and have his government-paid apartment cleaned out of all Bond’s possessions.
But not to worry. Bond comes back, perhaps reluctantly, when things go bad in London for M, MI6, and the entire secret agency.
However, Bond has to prove that he is still able and fit for his license to kill, and he is back on the job.
He goes to Shanghai, he goes to Macao, and he encounters Silva, who has a personal grudge against M from days long past.
The story ends in Scotland, the meaning of the film’s title is revealed, and the movie ends with a comment about “last rat standing.”
Skyfall also ends with a promise that James Bond will return, but I say give it a rest.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Hysteria” about the Singular Most Popular Sex Toy
Jun 23rd
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“Singular Most Popular Sex Toy”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hysteria is about the invention of a device that is widely used, but not commonly discussed, and when it is, usually there are snickers and Monty Python nudges of “Know what I mean? Know what I mean?”
And I am not talking about the candy bar.
The word “hysteria” comes from the Greek word meaning a woman’s womb, and in the 1800s when it was used to mean a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, and visceral functions leading to behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unimaginable fear or emotional excess, doctors in England believed that behavior in women was caused by their uterus, and the way to treat them and to cure that behavior was to apply stimulation to the woman’s organ.
What I don’t understand is why any woman paid a doctor to treat her that way for the all-purpose catchword of hysteria would go back to him and pay him again for treatment when she could just treat herself at home for free.
All puns intended.
The story begins in 1880 in London, and Hugh Dancy plays Dr. Mortimer Granville.
Dr. Granville interviews for the job as assistant to Dr. Robert Dalrymple, who asks Dr Granville, “But tell me, Doctor, what do you know of hysteria?”
Dr. Dalrymple says that the work of treating women for hysteria is tedious and boring, but Dalrymple is London’s leading specialist in women’s medicine, and his waiting room is always full of women waiting to be treated by him.
Know what I mean? Know what I mean?
Dr. Dalrymple has two daughters, Emily and Charlotte, who is played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and they, too, are doctors. Emily lives at home and is a phrenologist, or a scientist who feels the bumps on someone’s head, which determines the person’s mental faculties and character.
Charlotte, however, is at odds with her father, because she is always borrowing money to keep her Settlement House in the East End open, where she treats poor people and many women and children. When we first meet Charlotte, she is having an argument with her father and storms out of his office, slamming every door behind her.
Hysteria takes too long to get started, could use some good editing, but eventually gets around to the discovery of the singular most popular sex toy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”