Posts tagged Movie
“127 Hours” Don’t Try This on Your Own
Feb 2nd
“Don’t Try This on Your Own”
127 HOURS received a number of Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Actor for its star, James Franco.
Franco, of course, plays Aron Ralston, the hiker who in 2003 was hiking by himself in a remote area in Utah when his right arm got pinned underneath a boulder, which he wrote about in his book, BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE.
The most interesting part of the story, of course, is that after failing for days to be able to dislodge the boulder, Ralston amputated his arm with a small knife in order to save himself from dying.
So, if you already know the whole story, you might think, why bother seeing this movie?
Well, because of all those Academy Award nominations, of course, and the way that the story is told on screen by director Danny Boyle.
The story begins on a Saturday with Ralston arriving in the area where he is going to start hiking.
He encounters two young women who are lost, and he tells them how to find the place they are looking for, but they look at him with suspicion.
Realizing why, Ralston removes the bandanna from his face and says, “I’m only a psychopath on weekdays. Today is Saturday.”
While the three of them spend some time together, Ralston tells them that he is an engineer, but hiking in areas like this is what he really wants to do, and he considers this his second home.
The girls invite Ralston to a party the next night at the place where they are staying, they say goodbye, and then the interesting part of the story begins.
Ralston falls in a crevice, and a large boulder dislodges and traps his arm against the rock wall.
The girls are out of shouting distance at this point, and now, you might ask, how can the story be interesting for the rest of the movie?
It might not be if the rest consisted of just grimacing, struggling, frustration, more struggling, more grimacing, even more struggling, and even more grimacing, but don’t forget all those Academy Award nominations and the talents of the writers, director, and actor.
127 HOURS is worth all the awards it receives, but don’t try this on your own.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Company Men” Devastating, Yet Heartwarming
Jan 30th
“Devastating, Yet Heartwarming”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE COMPANY MEN is a very good, yet devastating look at what the effect the economic recession of 2008 had on a group of successful businessmen who worked for the same company, as well as how it affected their families when they got fired.
No, “fired” is such an ugly word. Let’s just say they got “laid off.”
The company in question is an international transportation company with headquarters in Boston that started out as a shipbuilding company.
Ben Affleck stars as Bobby Walker, the head of the sales division for one of three shipyards in the company, where he has worked for 12 years, and he comes into work one morning all excited about the round of golf he had just shot only to be greeted by silence in a conference-room meeting of his department.
“What’s the matter?” he asks. “Did somebody die?”
Even though consolidating divisions had been discussed for months, two of the shipyards were closed, and the company lawyer, Sally Wilcox, played by Maria Bello, had fired Bobby without even telling him.
Excuse me. “Laid him off” without telling him.
When Bobby gets home, he tells his wife, Maggie, that he doesn’t want to tell anybody else what happened until he gets another job. Is he showing pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene McClary, who started the company with his college roommate. He is friends with Bobby and invites him to lunch, but Bobby gets up and leaves after refusing Gene’s offer to help him.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Bobby believes that he is a 37-year-old loser without a job who can’t support his family, and when Maggie’s brother offers Bobby a job working construction with him, Bobby turns him down, too.
Pride? Stubbornness? Stupidity?
Incidentally, Kevin Costner plays Maggie’s brother, and his phony Boston accent doesn’t help the suspension of disbelief any.
We follow other company men who get laid off, including Phil Woodward, played by Chris Cooper, whose wife won’t let him come home until after six o’clock every day, because she doesn’t want the neighbors to know that he lost his job. He even has to carry his briefcase with him.
This might sound like a real downer of a movie, and it is until toward the end, when it becomes quite heartwarming.
THE COMPANY MEN is devastating, yet heartwarming.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Country Strong” Country Cliche
Jan 27th
“Country Cliche”
COUNTRY STRONG is the story of a six-time, Grammy-winning, country-music superstar who starts off the movie in rehab for alcohol addiction, and thus the audience thinks, “So, what else is new?”
Unfortunately, that comment can be applied to the whole movie, as well.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, and we are told that she fell off the stage the year before in Dallas at her previous concert when she was drunk, disorderly, and pregnant.
Well, Kelly has become close friends with one of her sponsors in rehab, Beau Hutton, who is also a country-music singer and songwriter, but he is happy to perform just at local bars and clubs.
Then James shows up to get Kelly out of rehab a month early in order to start performing again. James is Kelly’s husband and manager, he is played by Tim McGraw, whose name country-music fans might recognize, and yet he is the only experienced professional singer who doesn’t sing any songs in the movie.
At one point, Kelly says to James, “I’m sorry about Dallas. We should talk about it sometime.”
Unfortunately, they don’t talk about it, and if they had, this might have been a better movie, but at least the music is pretty good.
Kelly wants to give Beau a break and let him be the opening act for her comeback tour, but James–in addition to being suspicious about Beau–has a new singer in mind to open for Kelly, a young and pretty beauty winner named Chiles Stanton, who is so new in the business that she gets stage fright and freezes up during her chance to audition for James.
Well, you can see that this story is headed for a love triangle if ever there was one, or more likely a love rectangle, and a square one at that.
So, there are the obligatory stops and starts and stops and restarts on Kelly’s comeback tour that James has lined up for her, which of course either helps or hurts the chances of Beau and Chiles to become successful and fan favorites.
In addition, there are the obligatory advances and setbacks in the love aspects of the characters, not unlike what the stories of most country songs say in music.
COUNTRY STRONG is more like “Country Cliche,” but at least the music is pretty good.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
