Posts tagged Paris
“Midnight in Paris” Convoluted Way to Make Simple Point
Jun 15th
“Convoluted Way to Make Simple Point”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen’s latest film, it was the opening film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and it has been called one of Allen’s best movies in years.
You be the judge.
It takes place in the present, and so you might be surprised to know that some of the characters in it are Cole Porter, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, T.S. Eliot, and a number of other well-known and not-so-well-known artists from the past.
How can this be, you ask?
Well, therein lies the story, which may or may not be a pun.
Owen Wilson stars as Gil Pender, Rachel McAdams plays his fiancee, Inez, and they are freeloading along with her father and mother on a business trip to Paris that her father is taking.
Even though Gil is a successful Hollywood screenwriter, he becomes enamored with Paris, and he tells Inez, “I can see myself living here.”
Gil happens to be working on a novel, and he considers himself to be a Hollywood hack who never gave literature a shot. He also says that he would have liked to have lived in Paris in the 1920s.
Well, one night after a serious wine tasting, Gil takes a walk through the streets of Paris while the others in the party all go dancing.
Gill is drunk, gets lost while trying to find the hotel, and just as a clock strikes midnight, a 1920s-era taxicab drives by full of party revelers.
They stop, and they invite Gil to join them and go to a party.
At the party, Gil is amazed to see Cole Porter playing the piano and singing, and he meets Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Later, they take their movable party to a cafe, and there is Ernest Hemingway sitting and drinking. Gil tells Hemingway about his novel, and Hemingway offers to show it to Gertrude Stein for her opinion.
Gil leaves to get his manuscript at the hotel, but when he immediately turns around to arrange where they will meet, the cafe is gone.
The next night Gil tries to show Inez what had happened, but she gets bored and leaves before midnight.
But it happens again.
Midnight in Paris is a convoluted way to get a simple point across.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Tourist” Very Disappointing Movie
Dec 15th
“Very Disappointing Movie”
THE TOURIST stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, and so what more do you need to know in order to see this movie?
Well, whether or not it is any good would be nice, and in this case, it is not.
Oh, it looks well enough, that is for sure, taking place in Venice, Italy, and once the two stars check into a fabulous hotel, every scene in the movie looks like a picture postcard.
And, then, of course, it stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.
The movie even starts in Paris, where Angelina is a target and being followed by who we eventually learn is Scotland Yard.
She receives a note by courier, telling her to take a train to Venice, and in addition the note says, “Pick someone my height and build, and make them believe it is me.”
So, Angelina, knowing she is being followed, heads for the subway and loses her followers by the old subway trick.
We then learn that the note was from a man named Alexander Pearce, who stole an enormous amount of money from an international mobster and is wanted in 14 countries, so Angelina is also being followed by Interpol and the mobster’s men.
When she gets on the train, Angelina sees Johnny sitting alone, picks him, and sits down across from him, engaging him in conversation.
He tells her that he is a math teacher from Madison, Wisconsin, and once the surveillance team identifies him, we learn even more about him.
Unfortunately, the mobster and his men believe Johnny is Pearce, and after Angelina entices him to check into the hotel with her, it is picture postcard time–except for the mobster and his men, of course.
So, now there are going to be chases throughout Venice, and it almost becomes a comedy when Johnny is chased across rooftops in his pajamas.
However, once the story shifts to a fancy dress ball, the movie begins to go downhill fast.
The premise makes no sense if we are to believe all the so-called “facts” we are given, and the audience is played for suckers.
The movie is better as the film it pretends to be instead of the one it turns out to be.
THE TOURIST has a good premise, excellent previews, preposterous execution, and, finally, is very disappointing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Tourist – Movie Trailer
Dec 13th
American tourist Frank (Johnny Depp) meets a mysterious beauty who drags him into a dangerous world of intrigue and espionage while traveling through Europe in director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s paranoid thriller. When Frank met Elise (Angelina Jolie) on the train, he thought it was a chance encounter. Little did Frank realize it was all part of a much bigger plan, one that would soon find him dodging bullets through both the historic streets of Paris and the winding canals of Venice. Now, the faster Frank and Elise run, the more intense their romance grows.