Posts tagged plot
“A Good Day to Die Hard” a Video Game of Mass Destruction
Mar 10th
“Video Game of Mass Destruction”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth in the series of movies starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking action hero John McClane, which began in 1988, and of all the movies in the series, this one is the most recent.
In other words, if you can see only one of the five movies, don’t start with this one.
Yes, there is plenty of action, yes, there are plenty of explosions, yes, there is plenty of gunfire, yes, there are plenty of McClane wisecracks, but no, there is no plot.
Unless you call McClane going to Russia to shoot it up and blow it up to help his estranged son a plot.
McClane hasn’t heard from Jack in years, doesn’t know what he has been doing lately, and yet McClane says, “He could never get out of his own way, he had a lot of problems, but he’s still my kid.”
So, when McClane hears that Jack is on trial for murder in Moscow, McClane decides to go to Russia and help Jack in whatever way he can without even being asked.
And let the mayhem begin.
Jack is willing to testify under oath that another man on trial, Yuri Komarov ordered Jack to kill a third man, but the real purpose of the trial is to force Yuri to hand over a sensitive file he has to authorities.
McClane arrives at the courthouse just as all hell breaks loose, there are explosions, Jack and Yuri escape and seem to be working together, and then McClane joins them to Jack’s obvious displeasure.
McClane and Jack are estranged, remember?
So, now the three of them try to keep from being captured or killed, retrieve the sensitive file, get Yuri’s daughter, and all escape the country.
There are foot chases, there are car chases, there are truck chases, and there are even helicopter chases, all with an excessive amount of gunfire and explosions and even a double cross or two.
Oh, and don’t forget that McClane and Jack will obviously reconcile whatever problems caused their estrangement.
In other words, there is a lot of blithering blather in the movie, too.
A Good Day to Die Hard is nothing more than a video game of mass destruction, and I say don’t waste your money on this sorry excuse of a movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Quartet” More Than Just the “Big Game” Gala
Feb 17th
“More Than Just ‘The Big Game’ Gala”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Quartet is another in a string of recent movies about colorful, quirky oldtimers, the first film directed by actor Dustin Hoffman, and much more entertaining than you might have expected.
The credit for a large part of that has to go to the cast, which includes Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, and Michael Gambon.
The film is adapted from the 1999 play written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Donald Harwood, and it takes place in England at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians.
Consequently, the film contains plenty of delightful music, as we encounter many of the residents throughout Beecham House doing what they have done all their professional lives: performing music and singing.
One day a new resident arrives, Jean Horton, played by Maggie Smith, who is so well known that when she walks into the main hall, the residents recognize her and give her a standing ovation.
However, Jean is not as pleased to be there as the other residents are pleased to see her, and at one point she says, “This isn’t a retirement home; this is a madhouse.”
Now, a major plot point is a tired, old hackneyed one: The retirement home is in financial difficulty, and it needs to raise money to keep it going, which is achieved every year by a so-called Big Gala performance by the residents to which tickets are sold to the public.
However, this year tickets are down by 60 percent, and the musical director has to come up with a great idea in order to increase the ticket sales.
You see, the arrival of Jean means that all four performers of a famous quartet of opera singers who sang together in the Ritoletto opera by Guiseppe Verdi, the most important opera composer of the 19th century, are now staying at the retirement home.
Unfortunately, Jean exclaims that she doesn’t sing anymore, and that is final. But more important, bad blood exists between Jean and another member, Reginald, because they were once married to each other and the marriage ended very badly, so badly that when Reginald learns that Jean now lives there, he wants to move.
Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?
Quartet is much more than just “The Big Game” gala at the end, and it is funny and also very entertaining.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Promised Land” Is a Big Tease
Jan 13th
“A Big Tease”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Promised Land is a film about the controversial subject of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in which an oil and gas company drills into the ground and pumps liquid chemicals into the earth in order to release the oil and natural gas that is trapped in the rocks below the surface.
Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, and he and his partner, Sue, played by Frances McDormand, work for one such company, and their job is to visit the property owners in a small community and purchase the drilling rights on their land so that the company can drill there.
Because of the economy, the property owners, many of whom are farmers, are struggling, and by buying those leases starting at $2,000 an acre, Steve says, “I’m not selling them natural gas; I’m selling them the only way they have to get out.”
Steve and Sue are the best team the company has, having closed out more towns than the team behind them by triple digits, but Steve is under additional pressure for their current assignment, because if he does well, he could get a promotion to a job in the company’s New York City headquarters.
So, we see Steve and Sue come into town, buy the clothes they believe will help the property owners identify with them, and go out on their sales calls.
They also have to overcome the stories about fracking causing some people to be able to light their drinking water on fire and causing the property owners to become sick.
Steve’s argument that fracking is far from a perfect process isn’t enough to refute those stories, and he also has to fight the arguments from Frank Yates, played by Hal Holbrook, a local resident with enough experience to know what he is talking about when he objects to the owners selling their drilling rights.
However, the biggest obstacle that Steve and Sue have to overcome is Dustin Noble, played by John Krasinski, an environmental activist who shows up in town and says that he is from Nebraska where fracking ruined his home town.
Damon and Krasinski wrote the screenplay for this film, which was directed by Gus Van Sant, and I have to warn you that it has a plot twist which might make you disappointed in it.
Promised Land is a big tease.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”