Posts tagged Movie Review
“Casa de Mi Padre” Worth a Couple of Chuckles
Apr 1st
“A Couple of Chuckles”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Casa de Mi Padre is Will Ferrell’s latest comedy, and the first thing you notice is that the title is in Spanish.
The second thing you notice about the “House of My Father” is that the entire movie is in Spanish, but with English subtitles for the benefit of those of us who aren’t fluent in Spanish.
Well, not the entire movie, because there are a couple of American characters in the story, which takes place in modern-day Mexico, and they speak what the Mexican characters call “American.”
Ferrell plays Armando, the son of a rancher, and at the beginning of the movie, Armando and his two buddies, Esteban and Manuel, are moving some of the father’s cattle to a new pasture, and Armando says, “I hope nothing bad happens on the way home.”
Then they witness an execution that was caused by the nasty drug business that is going on in the country and which will have ramifications later on in the story.
When the three rancheros get home, Armando’s brother Raul shows up with his fiancee, Sonia Lopez. Raul is the son that his father always loved, and if we hadn’t already figured it out, we learn that Armando is not smart, and his father always tells him that.
Armando also has a secret that we learn when he and Sonia go out riding together and they arrive at the Pond of Seven Tears, where Armando’s mother died when Armando was a little boy.
Armando and Sonia take a liking to each other, and Sonia tells Armando that his brother Raul is in the drug business, but Raul doesn’t sell drugs to their fellow Mexicans, only to Americans.
Unfortunately, Raul is trying to do business in the territory of the most infamous drug dealer, Onza, who also has a close connection with Sonia.
Well, you can see a showdown coming up, can’t you? As well as a Mexican standoff and a final shoot-out that is all the funnier because the participants are drinking and smoking cigarettes at the same time as they are blasting away at each other.
The movie spoofs telenovelas and B-movies, production values, and anything else that Ferrell could think of while memorizing his lines phonetically.
Casa de Mi Padre has a good ending, of course, and is worth a couple of chuckles.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Jeff, Who Lives at Home” Is Good, but Unoriginal
Mar 25th
“Good, but Unoriginal”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Jeff, Who Lives at Home may strike you as being familiar as you reach the end, which once again proves what I have been saying for years: Hollywood has run out of ideas.
If you have seen the 1998 Simon Birch, when you get to the climax in this movie, everything that leads up to it will suddenly become clear and you will quickly realize that you might have been watching a remake, only with the title character of this movie grown up from the title character of the previous movie.
However, the biggest clue comes at the beginning of the movie when Jeff says in a voice-over, “I can’t help but wonder about my fate.”
Jeff is played by Jason Segal, he is 30 years old, he lives in the basement of his mother’s house, and he believes that everything happens for a reason.
So, when he answers the phone and the caller is looking for someone named Kevin, that starts a series of events that guides Jeff through the rest of the movie, and they are mostly comic events.
Jeff’s mother, Sharon, played by Susan Sarandon, also calls Jeff from her workplace, and she sends Jeff on an errand that contributes to this day in the life of Jeff, who lives at home, also.
Then there is Pat, Jeff’s older brother who is played by Ed Helms. Pat is married, although there are problems in the marriage, and Pat doesn’t help their problems any when he surprises his wife by buying a new Porsche that they can’t afford.
The story takes place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and thus it is possible that Jeff and Pat could run into each other while Jeff is out fulfilling his errand, it is possible that while Pat is showing off his new Porsche to Jeff that they happen to see Pat’s wife and believe that she is having an affair with the man she is meeting, and it is also possible that the subplot involving their mother with a co-worker could bring everyone and everything together for the climax at the end.
And, yes, it is possible that the filmmakers of this movie didn’t realize they were copying the plot of that previous movie, only with grownups instead of kids.
Jeff, Who Lives at Home is good, but not original.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Friends with Kids” Has Its Ups and Downs
Mar 17th
“Ups and Downs”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Friends with Kids is a comedy about three sets of couples who are all friends, but if you want to talk about it, you almost need a scorecard in order to keep everybody straight and to understand everything that goes on.
First of all, the movie was written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt, who also stars as julie, the only woman in the three sets of friends who isn’t married.
Julie’s best friend is Jason, played by Adam Scott, who also stars in the “Parks and Recreation” TV series. Julie and Jason have been best friends forever, but they aren’t romantically involved with each other.
Second of all, Westfeldt’s real-life boyfriend, Jon Hamm, plays Ben, who is married to Missy, played by Kristen Wiig, who currently stars in “Saturday Night Live.”
And finally, the third couple are Leslie, played by Maya Rudolph, and Alex, played by Chris O’Dowd, who are also married and who are the first of the friends to have a baby.
When Ben and Missy also have a baby, there seems to be pandemonium whenever the friends get together, and the couples who have kids seem to be fighting more.
Meanwhile, Jason and Julie would also like to be parents, but because they are still looking for a romantic mate, they decide that they will have a baby together, but not get married, and Jason assures Julie, “I will be 100% committed to this half the time.”
Jason and Julie live in the same apartment building, and so it is easy ehough for them to share the parenting duties of their baby son, and they still discuss their respective dates with other people together, while they still search for “the one.”
Then they all go on a ski trip together, including Jason’s new girlfriend and Julie’s new boyfriend, and you can guess that something is going to happen that changes the lives of all the friends, but it is not what you expect.
You can also guess how the movie is going to end, but you might be wrong on that count, too, including a scene that contains the least romantic seduction you can imagine.
Friends with Kids goes on a little too long to get to where we expect it is going, and it has high points and low points and ups and downs.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
