Posts tagged Movie Review
“Safe House” Is Next to Nothing
Feb 19th
“Next to Nothing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Safe House is a bang-bang, shoot-’em-up, run-run-run, bang-bang, shoot-’em-up-some-more action thriller that is the very epitome of a movie with more style than substance.
It stars Denzel Washington as a rogue CIA agent who has been on the run for nine years and Ryan Reynolds as an inexperienced CIA agent who is in charge of a safe house run by the CIA in Capetown, South Africa.
Matt Weston has been in charge of the safe house for only 12 months, but hasn’t seen any action or activity at all in that year.
In fact, at the beginning of the movie, when he checks in with his superior at CIA headquarters, Matt says, “I’m dying here. What happened to the post in Paris?”
And then everything changes drastically for Matt. A team of agents bring rogue agent Tobin Frost to the safe house for questioning.
Frost is so notorious that even inexperienced Matt recognizes him.
However, during the interrogation, a team of men break into the safe house and start killing everyone, and only Matt and Frost are able to escape, leading to an unbelievable car chase through the streets of Capetown.
Frost is in handcuffs, and he tells Matt that the men want Frost alive, but they will kill Matt if they can.
Back at CIA headquarters, they are aware of what is happening in South Africa, and they admit that Matt is all they have to keep Frost in custody, and so they relay directions to another safe house out in the country and tell Matt to take Frost there.
However, before Matt can get Frost there, they are still being chased by the men intent on killing Matt and capturing Frost, and Matt also has to worry that someone in the CIA set everything up and is directing the chase.
So, whenever Frost escapes from Matt, Matt has to track him down and capture him again, dodge the bullets from the men trying to kill him, and still get Frost to the new safe house.
Oh, and all the action takes place over only two days, there are surprises in store for the audience, but you might be able to guess the final surprise.
Safe House is full of sound and fury, signifying next to nothing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Woman in Black” Is a Movie in Trouble
Feb 11th
A Movie in Trouble
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Woman in Black is a traditional ghost story, and of all the movies about ghosts that have ever been made, this is one of them.
In fact, the only reason to see this yawner with all the tricks and twists and turns of a traditional ghost story is to see Daniel Radcliffe trying to act like an adult in his first starring film role after the “Harry Potter” movies ended in 2011.
Now, seeing as how this is a story about ghosts that wants the audience to take it seriously and realistically, you have to ask yourself one question: “Do you believe in ghosts?”
Well, do you? And then ask yourself more questions.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, who works for a law firm in London in either the late 1890s or the early 1900s, whose wife died four years earlier while giving birth to their son, Joseph.
Arthur is sent to a little village in northern England to go through the papers of an old woman who died and report if the law firm should take over the house that she left, which is known as the Eel Marsh House and sits on a piece of land whose only access by road is covered by water whenever the tide comes in.
Arthur is told that this assignment is to prove his worth to the head of the law firm and is his “final warning.”
When Arthur arrives at the village, he gets no cooperation at all from the villagers except for one man, Sam Daily, whose son died many years ago, and whose wife could only be called crazy.
In fact, many children in the village have died, and Arthur eventually learns that there is a connection between their so-called “accidental” deaths and the appearance of a mysterious “woman in black” who is seen occasionally and who has a connection with Eel Marsh House.
Well, naturally Arthur stays at the house to go through all the old woman’s papers, scary things naturally happen, and naturally Arthur sees the woman in black more than once, along with many more mysterious events.
Of course, there are many cheap audio and visual shocks designed to scare the audience, but it is possible not to be scared.
The Woman in Black is a movie in trouble with a really cheap ending.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Albert Nobbs” Is Lovely, Sweet and Tragic
Feb 3rd
“Lovely, Sweet and Tragic”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Albert Nobbs is a project that star Glenn Close has been working on since she won an Obie for playing the role in 1982 in a play in New York City.
Finally released in 2011, the film not only stars Close, but she also cowrote it, coproduced it, and wrote the lyrics for the film’s theme song.
The story takes place in 19th-century Dublin, and the title character is a waiter working in a hotel who has a closely held secret: Albert is actually a woman posing as a man in order to earn a steady wage in the harsh Irish economy and repressed society.
In fact, Close herself said in an interview about the situation of women at that time, “Women had absolutely no rights if you had no money and no family.”
Eventually we learn the tragic story that caused Albert to pose as a man in order to earn money for herself, and we see her try to be as inconspicuous as possible as she goes about her duties in Morrison’s Hotel.
The guests refer to Albert as “such a kind little man,” and Albert doesn’t show any outward reaction to the shenanigans of the more rowdy and roisterous guests.
Every night Albert counts the money she has earned that day, records the amount in a ledger, and hides it all underneath a floorboard in her room upstairs in the hotel before going to bed.
You see, Albert has a dream: She is saving her money to buy a small store in which she can own a tobacco shop and run it from behind the counter.
And then Albert’s plans change.
She gets the idea that it would be easier if she were to marry a woman while still posing as a man, and then the two of them together could run the tobacco shop. And so Albert begins courting Helen, a young maid who works at Morrison’s Hotel, and who is played by Mia Wasikowska.
Unfortunately, Helen is in love with Joe, a young handyman who also works and lives at the hotel, who has told Helen about his plans to take them both to America.
However, Joe encourages Helen to go out walking with Albert in order to get as much from Albert as she can.
Albert Nobbs is lovely, sweet, and tragic.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
