Posts tagged Movie
“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.”
Casa de Mi Padre – Movie Trailer
Mar 25th
Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has lived and worked on his father’s ranch in Mexico his entire life. As the ranch encounters financial difficulties, Armando’s younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) shows up with his new fiancée, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). It seems that Raul’s success as an international businessman means the ranch’s troubles are over as he pledges to settle all debts his father has incurred. But when Armando falls for Sonia, and Raul’s business dealings turn out to be less than legit, all hell breaks loose as they find themselves in a war with Mexico’s most feared drug lord, the mighty Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal).
“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.”
