Posts tagged money
“End of Watch” a Buddy-Cop Movie with a Twist
Sep 29th
“Buddy-Cop Movie With a Twist”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
End of Watch is a powerful, almost traditional buddy-cop movie, but the language is raw, the action is violent, and it has an ending with an unexpected twist to it.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, who work in the Los Angeles Police Department as partners ane whose area that they patrol is the rough arena of South Central Los Angeles, which Taylor says has three major food groups: drugs, money, and guns.
When the movie opens, it is the first day back on the job for Taylor and Zavala after they were cleared by an investigation into a shooting they were involved in, and once they are out in their patrol car, Zavala says, “Dude, it’s good to be back, Man.”
Taylor has a recording device in his uniform for a class project he is working on, and so a lot of the footage we see is from the point of view of that device, which is called “found footage” these days, but don’t worry. The whole movie isn’t from that POV, but enough is so that at times the movie gets confusing.
So, we watch and listen to the good-natured banter between these two friends as they drive around the city between calls, we learn about their personal lives as they talk and even see some aspects of them at various points in the movie, and we witness many of the calls they go on and see just how rough and dangerous being a policeman in today’s Los Angeles can be, both for them and other police officers who are called in to help.
In addition to the commonplace calls that Taylor and Zavala make, the main story point is a turf war between two rival gangs, one composed of black people and the other composed of Latinos, who have connections with drug cartels operating out of Mexico and who are also involved with the trafficking of illegals being brought up from Mexico and kept in terrifying and dangerous conditions.
In fact, Taylor and Zavala stumble into the ramifications of the main story more than anything else, and once again we see how in movies situations can go from bad to the worst you can imagine.
End of Watch is terrific and get ready for the twist at the end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.
Flagler College releases economic impact study
Sep 27th
The economic impact study was produced for the college by EconImpact LLC of Louisville, Ky., one of the leading providers of economic impact studies for private colleges. The purpose of the report was to detail the ways in which Flagler College contributes both directly and indirectly to the local economy.
According to the report, during the 2010-2011 fiscal year, Flagler College contributed $218 million to the Greater Jacksonville area, including St. Johns, Duval, Flagler, Baker, Clay and Nassau counties. The college, along with its employees, students and visitors, were responsible for $179 million; alumni contributed $24 million in increased earnings and $12 million in social benefits due to positive lifestyle choices.
The City of St. Augustine treasury received a $343,214 net benefit due to the presence of Flagler College. St. Johns County received a $2.7 million net benefit.
Some other highlights of the report:
• The college provided full and part-time employment opportunities for 412 people.
• There are 3,045 working Flagler alumni in the Metro Jacksonville area.
• The Flagler College community contributed $188,482 in community service activities in 2011: $101,764 by Flagler students and $86,718 by Flagler employees. Flagler College students participated in 7,428 hours of community service in Metro Jacksonville.
• Visitors who came to St. Augustine because of Flagler College brought more than $18 million in new money to Greater Jacksonville in 2011
• The direct spending by the college, its employees, students and visitors was $78 million. This money was spent and re-spent several times in the community. The amount of the turnover was $100.7 million in 2011.
“The college produces alumni who earn more than individuals who did not complete a degree in higher education,” said Kevin Stokes, who wrote the final study. “The college provides employment opportunities, not only through jobs on campus, but also through jobs generated by business the college and its members conduct locally.”
For the full report, visit http://www.flagler.edu/news/current_news/FLAGLER-ECONOMIC-IMPACT-REPORT-2012.pdf
Source: Flagler College
“For a Good Time, Call…” Don’t Even Bother
Sep 16th
“Don’t Even Bother”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
For a Good Time, Call… is a small movie that was shot in only 16 days, and it shows.
It also has a subject that not everyone will find appealing, much less amusing, and that shows, too.
And finally, its crude subject is portrayed crudely, and that shows three.
The story is about two women and their mutual gay friend, Jesse, played by Justin Long, whom you will recognize from many other movies, but all he does in this one is embarrass himself.
Or maybe not. After all, he did take the money, assuming there was enough money in the budget to pay the actors for making this piece of crap.
Katie is living in a nice apartment in New York City, but due to circumstances that I won’t bother to go into, she has to get a roommate to help pay her rent.
Meanwhile, Lauren is living with her boyfriend, Charlie, but Charlie is moving to Italy because of his job, and Charlie breaks up with Lauren, saying he is bored with their relationship.
So, when Katie and Lauren tell their woes to Jesse, he says to them, “Why don’t you just live together for the summer and see how it goes?”
Well, when Lauren moves in, they discover that they had met each other ten years ago at a college party, the meeting didn’t end will for reasons that are too distasteful to go into here, and so they immediately don’t like each other.
Then Lauren loses her job, and wouldn’t you know it, she finds out that one of the many jobs that Katie has is as a phone-sex operator, but Katie isn’t making very much money at it.
So, more as a plot point than anything else, Lauren advises Katie on how she can make more money, one thing leads to another, and she and Katie start their own phone-sex business.
Well, Lauren becomes intrigued, and she decides that they can make even more money if they double their operators, and so she starts accepting calls from horny men, too.
Then we have to watch Katie train Lauren, then we have to watch various phone calls that are really unpleasant with cameos from some actors you might know, and then it still isn’t over.
For a Good Time, Call… isn’t even worth the call.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”