Posts tagged New York
“City Island” We’ve All Got a Secret
May 6th
We’ve All Got a Secret
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CITY ISLAND is a terrifically enjoyable little film that has the audience chuckling all the way through it and sometimes causes outright laughter.
The title refers to a little island off the east side of The Bronx in New York that is only one square mile in size and that used to be an old fishing village. We are told that if you live there, you would never think about moving somewhere else.
Vince Rizzo and his family live on the island, they are one of the most interesting and unintentionally funny families you will ever meet, and they all have a secret that they are keeping from each other, some small and others very big indeed.
Vince is played by Andy Garcia, his wife, Joyce, is played by Julianna Margulies, and they have an older daughter named Vivian who isn’t currently living at home and a teenage son named Vince Jr. who is in high school. All of the actors are outstanding with their parts and characterizations.
The time is spring break, and Vivian is home from college, or so her family believes, but Vivian’s secret is much more than just she has dropped out of college and doesn’t really want to be home.
Vince is a correctional officer who makes a point of telling people that he is not a “prison guard,” and once a week he tells his family that he has a poker game with friends, but that isn’t where he goes, although he is not having an affair, which is what Joyce thinks he is really up to.
Joyce’s secret at first is just that she smokes in secret, and when she learns that smoking isn’t allowed in prison, she says, “Being in prison and not being allowed to smoke? That’s like being in jail!”
Junior’s secret is that he has a fetish for overweight girls and for one of their neighbors in particular.
Then when Vince brings a prisoner home to stay with them for a while, the prisoner becomes Vince’s biggest secret of all his secrets, and their first dinner together with everyone is priceless.
However, the final showdown when all their secrets are revealed is classic and priceless.
CITY ISLAND is a terrific film about a family who could have their own television show called “We’ve All Got a Secret.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Kick-Ass – Movie Trailer
Apr 16th
Adapted from Mark Millar’s hyper-violent comic book of the same name, director Matthew Vaughn’s (Layer Cake) vigilante superhero film tells the tale of an average New York teenager who decides to don a costume and fight crime. Comic book geek Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) may not have good coordination or special powers, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a fully capable crime fighter. After purchasing a flashy wet suit on the Internet, Dave starts busting up baddies with nothing but brute force. He calls himself Kick-Ass, and he can take a beating as good as he can dish one out. Before long, Kick-Ass has become a local sensation, and others are following his lead. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) are a father-daughter crime-fighting duo who have set their sights on local mob heavy Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). They’re doing a decent job of dismantling Frank’s sizable underworld empire when Kick-Ass gets drawn into the fray. But Frank’s men play rough, and his son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), is about to become Kick-Ass’ very first arch nemesis. When Chris assumes the persona of Red Mist, the stage is set for a superhero showdown that could spell the end of Kick-Ass once and for all.
“Chloe” Raises Questions about Sexual Fidelity
Mar 31st
“Raises Questions about Sexual Fidelity”
CHLOE is a domestic thriller and a sexual suspense film that raises questions about sexual fidelity, but the answers are much too nicely tied up at the end to prevent any embarrassment to the characters.
Or confusion for the audience, either, for that matter.
Julianne Moore plays Catherine, a successful gynecologist in Toronto, and the story begins with her arranging a surprise birthday party for her husband, David, who is played by Liam Neeson.
David is a college professor, and he is in New York City giving a lecture on opera. When a pretty girl asks him out to dinner after the lecture, David changes his plans to fly directly back to Toronto and thus misses the surprise birthday party that Catherine was giving for him.
The next morning back in Toronto, David lies to Catherine and tells her that he missed his flight back and that was why he was late getting home.
However, Catherine sees a text message on David’s phone that says, “Thanks for last night. Miranda.”
Catherine doesn’t confront David about his lie, but instead does something more drastic. David has always been too flirtatious with women he just meets to suit Catherine, and she suspects that he is cheating on her.
So, when Catherine meets Chloe, a high-priced call girl played by Amanda Seyfried, Catherine hires Chloe to “accidentally meet” David, just to see what David will do and then report back to Catherine.
Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Or maybe not.
Chloe and David meet a second time, but when she reports back to Catherine, Catherine says that she shouldn’t have involved Chloe in this, she made a mistake, and she tells Chloe to stop.
However, something happens which causes Chloe not to stop, and the relationship between her and Catherine changes. Not only that, but when Chloe is at Catherine’s office, Chloe meets Catherine’s teenage son, Michael, and a fourth major character enters the messy situation.
For what it is worth, this film by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan is based on a 2004 French-Spanish film called NATHALIE, which has been called a “pretentious character study,” but which I have not seen.
CHLOE kept me guessing right up until, oh, about the halfway point when I figured out what was going on, and then I lost interest.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
