Posts tagged prison
“The Fighter” The Pride of Wahlberg
Dec 30th
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“The Pride of Wahlberg”
THE FIGHTER is a terrific knockout of a boxing movie about two real-life brothers from Lowell, Massachusetts, who had somewhat of a successful boxing career, one more than the other.
Mark Wahlberg produced the film and also stars as Micky Ward, the younger brother, Christian Bale stars as Dicky Eklund, the older brother, and Melissa Leo stars as Alice, their mother, who had them with different husbands, along with seven daughters.
The three major stars are contenders for acting awards in 2011, also including Amy Adams, who plays Micky’s girlfriend, Charlene.
The film begins in 1993 in Lowell with an HBO film crew interviewing Dicky, who is sitting on a couch and talking into the camera.
Dicky, who is called “The Pride of Lowell” because he is said to have once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard down in a fight, believes that he is being filmed because he is planning to make a comeback, but HBO has a different story in mind, which we learn later, also along with doubt about Dicky’s knockdown of Leonard.
Micky comes into the frame and sits down, and Dicky says, “This is my younger brother. I taught him everything he knows.”
Micky is also a welterweight boxer, Dicky is his trainer, and their mother is the manager of both their boxing careers.
However, Dicky is also a crack addict now, he is undependable and sometimes goes off on his own schedule, and Micky has lost three fights in a row.
Then Micky meets Charlene, who is working in a bar, and they start going out together. Charlene is also brought by Micky to family meetings, and to say that his family is “quite a family” would be a huge understatement.
Micky’s next fight takes an unexpected turn when his opponent catches the flu and can’t fight, but the promoter finds a substitute boxer who is just out of prison and is 20 pounds heavier than Micky.
But if Micky doesn’t fight, nobody gets paid, and so Micky takes one for the family.
However, Micky doesn’t like the way things are going with his career and especially with his family’s involvement with his career, and so he gets rid of Dicky and Alice, even though she has been managing both of them for 15 years.
THE FIGHTER can be called “The Pride of Wahlberg.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Next Three Days” One Terrific Thrill Ride
Nov 25th
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“One Terrific Thrill Ride”
THE NEXT THREE DAYS is an exciting thriller that has you on the edge of your seat trying to guess what happens next and wondering if it is going to turn out the way you want it to.
Now, if you heard that it’s about a married couple in Pittsburgh, he’s a college professor and she’s his wife, you would probably pass on seeing it, right?
Right, but you would be wrong.
Russell Crowe plays John, Elizabeth Banks plays Lara, and they are anything but ordinary.
You see, three years earlier Lara was arrested, tried, and convicted of murdering her boss in a parking garage, but we don’t know if she did it and John is convinced that she couldn’t have done it.
In fact, when he and their son Luke visit her in jail, John tells her, “Everything is going to be all right. I promise.”
And then begins the extraordinary part of the story in which this mild-mannered college professor begins to figure out a plan in which he can break Lara out of prison, because all their appeals have failed.
First, he begins with an expert, Damon Pennington, played by Liam Neeson, who tells John in a wonderful scene that escaping from prison is easy, but the hardest part is staying free. He also tells John that Pittsburgh is “tough” and gives John exact details about what the authorities will do once someone breaks out of prison.
Naturally, John runs into difficulty acquiring the fake IDs he needs, as well as obtaining enough money to live on for five to six years.
In addition, John might be being watched by the police, and he can’t tell Lara about his plan, because he knows that she wouldn’t agree to it.
And then once the breakout occurs, the movie turns into one exciting scene after another, and it couldn’t get any more exciting.
A major hitch in John’s plans comes up, the story gets tighter, time is running out, and then a shock to end all shocks occurs, and it still isn’t over.
You ask yourself how you want it to end, and then there are some very nice touches at the end.
THE NEXT THREE DAYS is one terrific thrill ride without anything being blown up that keeps you guessing all the way to the end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Next Three Days – Movie Trailer
Nov 25th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
His wife convicted of a murder she swears she did not commit, a college professor plots to break her out of prison in this thriller starring Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson. John Brennan (Crowe) and his wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks), were happily married and raising a family when their lives fell apart in the blink of an eye. Lara has been charged with murder, and despite every effort to prove her innocence, the judge sentences her to an extended prison sentence. Meanwhile, on the outside, John files multiple appeals while struggling to raise their children and maintain his career. Lara’s future starts to look especially grim, however, after the final appeal is rejected, and she admits that she’d rather commit suicide than spend the rest of her life behind bars. Determined to save his wife after the justice system fails her, John seeks the advice of ex-convict Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), who staged his own daring prison escape, in order to draw up an airtight plan. Later, John prepares to put his life on the line for the woman he loves, and sets the plan into motion with the knowledge that one false move could be their last.