Posts tagged policeman
“Observe and Report” A Double Shock Ending
Apr 16th
A Double Shock Ending
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
OBSERVE AND REPORT is a very profane but also very funny movie about a shopping-mall security guard with aspirations to be more than he is and to have more than he currently has.
Excuse me. It is about a man who is “head of mall security,” and, no, I am not talking about the similar movie starring Kevin James that was released recently before this one.
This very funny, but very profane, movie stars Seth Rogen as Ronnie Barnhardt, and he has also broken into the ranks of leading-man status, most recently by appearing on the cover of PLAYBOY magazine.
Granted, there is a pretty girl on the cover with him, but as his “Playboy Interview” points out, only six times before has a man appeared on the cover of that magazine.
The story begins with a flasher in the parking lot, a man wearing apparently only a raincoat who targets women getting out of their cars, dashes up to them, and pulls open his coat.
Ronnie lives with his mother, and he says to her, “Part of me thinks that this disgusting pervert is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
You see, Ronnie wants to be a real policeman, and he believes that if he can solve the flasher case, he can apply to the local police department and get into the police academy.
Also, he might get the pretty girl at the cosmetics counter in the mall, played by Anna Faris, to go out with him.
However, when the flasher strikes again, the local police are called, and Detective Harrison, played by Ray Liotta, shows up, who not only puts a dent in Ronnie’s plans, but also disregards Ronnie and makes fun of him.
Also, whenever things start looking up for Ronnie and his aspirations, something happens to bring him back to reality, but then sometimes Ronnie surprises us and shows that he is more than we have come to expect.
The secondary characters are all also very good and funny, especially Ronnie’s mother, but when Ronnie goes undercover at the mall in an attempt to catch the flasher, you might think that the worst that could happen would be for Ronnie to blow his cover, right?
Wrong!
OBSERVE AND REPORT has a double shock ending you have to see to believe.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Milk” Poignant and Frightening
Dec 18th
Poignant and Frightening
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
MILK is the Gus Van Sant film about the political career of Harvey Bernard Milk, who in 1977 was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and was credited with being the first openly gay elected official in U.S. history.
Tragically, a year later when he was only 48, Harvey was shot and killed along with Mayor George Moscone in City Hall by Dan White, a former city supervisor who had resigned his position, but wanted his job back and took out his frustration on the mayor and Harvey.
Sean Penn plays Harvey, and he is just absolutely great in the role. Expect him to win a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Josh Brolin plays Dan White, and he could easily win a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, himself.
The film begins in November 1978 and uses the conceit of showing Harvey dictating into a tape recorder and commenting on the events that we then see in flashback as the film progresses.
In 1970 Harvey meets Scott Smith, played by James Franco, in New York City. It is Harvey’s 40th birthday, and he confesses, “Forty years old, and I haven’t done a thing that I’m proud of.”
Two years later they move to San Francisco together and open a camera store on Castro Street, the Number 1 destination for gays at that time. Harvey says that the police hated the gays, and the gays hated them right back.
Harvey became known as The Mayor of Castro Street, but he says that he might have invented that title for himself.
He decides to run for a real office, but he loses the election, being told that he is too old to be a hippie. In 1975 Harvey runs again, cleaning up his hippie appearance so that he looks like the successful businessman he was. He loses again.
Harvey’s personal life suffers, but he gains new friends as well as loyal supporters who finally help him win a seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1977.
Dan White also wins a seat, and Harvey forms an unlikely alliance with the former policeman and fireman on a number of causes they support. You could almost say that they even became friends.
And then all hell breaks loose.
MILK is poignant, enlightening, engrossing, and frightening, but mostly frightening in light of the recent current events.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Pride and Glory” Long and Complicated
Oct 30th
Long and Complicated
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
PRIDE AND GLORY is a police drama with problems, and one of its biggest problems is that it looks like too many other police dramas that we have already seen.
This could be the reason why it was released more than two years after it finished shooting and its release date has been postponed more than once.
On the other hand, it has a strong cast and it looks authentic, probably because director Gavin O’Connor and his brother Gregory, who are sons of a New York City cop, wrote the story together.
Colin Farrell plays Sgt. Jimmy Egan, and he has married into a police family. His brother-in-law, Ray Tierney, is played by Edward Norton, and his father-in-law, Frank Tierney, Sr., who is the chief of detectives in Manhattan, is played by Jon Voight.
Frank has another son, Frank Jr., who is the precinct captain of the station house where Jimmy works.
The story begins with the killing of four police officers in an apartment building, and the severity of the situation is such that only trustworthy cops are wanted to investigate it. All four officers worked in the station house with Jimmy, and one was Ray’s friend and former partner.
So, Frank Sr. asks Ray to be on the task force, telling him, “Raymond, do me a favor. Forget the past.”
You see, Ray has been off the streets for the last two years working in Missing Persons, whereas the previous eight years he had worked on the Major Case Squad before something happened when Ray got shot in the face, and he has the ugly scar to prove it.
Early on, the audience learns that Jimmy was somehow involved in the death of the four policemen, and a lot of cash also figures in the situation.
The story takes place at Christmastime, and we see a lot of family get-togethers with wives and children, but gritty police work is the emphasis of the film. That and the rough language that apparently goes along with it.
Even though Frank Sr. tells Ray to check in with him if Ray gets anything, Ray ignores that directive when Ray is informed that a policeman was involved in both the original killings and in another shoot-out later on.
Then Ray finds trouble.
PRIDE AND GLORY is too long and complicated.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”