Posts tagged Reese Witherspoon
“Safe House” Is Next to Nothing
Feb 19th
“Next to Nothing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Safe House is a bang-bang, shoot-’em-up, run-run-run, bang-bang, shoot-’em-up-some-more action thriller that is the very epitome of a movie with more style than substance.
It stars Denzel Washington as a rogue CIA agent who has been on the run for nine years and Ryan Reynolds as an inexperienced CIA agent who is in charge of a safe house run by the CIA in Capetown, South Africa.
Matt Weston has been in charge of the safe house for only 12 months, but hasn’t seen any action or activity at all in that year.
In fact, at the beginning of the movie, when he checks in with his superior at CIA headquarters, Matt says, “I’m dying here. What happened to the post in Paris?”
And then everything changes drastically for Matt. A team of agents bring rogue agent Tobin Frost to the safe house for questioning.
Frost is so notorious that even inexperienced Matt recognizes him.
However, during the interrogation, a team of men break into the safe house and start killing everyone, and only Matt and Frost are able to escape, leading to an unbelievable car chase through the streets of Capetown.
Frost is in handcuffs, and he tells Matt that the men want Frost alive, but they will kill Matt if they can.
Back at CIA headquarters, they are aware of what is happening in South Africa, and they admit that Matt is all they have to keep Frost in custody, and so they relay directions to another safe house out in the country and tell Matt to take Frost there.
However, before Matt can get Frost there, they are still being chased by the men intent on killing Matt and capturing Frost, and Matt also has to worry that someone in the CIA set everything up and is directing the chase.
So, whenever Frost escapes from Matt, Matt has to track him down and capture him again, dodge the bullets from the men trying to kill him, and still get Frost to the new safe house.
Oh, and all the action takes place over only two days, there are surprises in store for the audience, but you might be able to guess the final surprise.
Safe House is full of sound and fury, signifying next to nothing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
This Means War – Movie Trailer
Feb 19th
The world’s deadliest CIA operatives are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman. Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis ever – each other.
“Water for Elephants” Story Construction Rip-Off
Apr 27th
“Story Construction Rip-Off”
Water for Elephants, as we are told at the beginning of the film, is about pretty much the most famous circus disaster in history, and it stars three of the most popular actors in the movies these days.
However, don’t look now, but the story construction of the film is pretty much an exact rip-off of an earlier, more successful disaster film.
Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz star, but before we meet them, we see Hal Holbrook show up at a circus after it has shut down for the night. He has left the nursing home where he is living and wanted to see the circus for old-time’s sake.
The manager of the circus invites him inside while the manager tries to figure out what to do with this old-timer who seems to know a lot about circuses.
The old-timer tells the manager that he was there when the circus disaster occurred in 1931 with the Benzini Bros. Circus, and he says, “I had a good life, you know. A good life.”
Then as the old man starts reminiscing and telling his story, his voice changes to that of a young man, Jacob Jankowski, and we see and hear Pattinson narrate the story.
A personal tragedy forces Jacob to change his plans to become a veterinarian, and while he is hitchhiking to Albany, he jumps onto a passing train that happens to be the Benzini Bros. Circus train.
The roustabouts take a liking to Jacob, and the next day he is taken to meet the owner and ringmaster, August, to apply for a job. August says that Jacob can have the job of carrying water to the elephants, but the joke is that this is a third-rate circus, and it doesn’t have any elephants.
However, when Jacob’s experience as a veterinarian is revealed, he becomes the veterinarian of the circus animals, which brings him into contact with Marlena, the boss’s wife and the star-attraction trick rider.
Of course, Jacob and Marlena become attracted to each other, of course August is a cruel and possessive taskmaster, and of course events are not going to turn out well for everybody, even when the circus does acquire an elephant.
Water for Elephants is okay as a love story, but it has the same story construction as the 1997 Titantic.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
