Posts tagged right
“Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps” Money Talks, Too
Sep 30th
“Money Talks, Too”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is the sequel to the 1987 WALL STREET, also directed by Oliver Stone and starring Michael Douglas in his Academy Award-winning performance as shady financier Gordon Gekko.
In fact, this film opens in 2001, and Gekko has spent almost eight years in prison for insider trading. He is released, given back the personal belongings he had when he went in–one of which causes a laugh from today’s audience–and there is absolutely no one to greet him on the outside.
Then it is seven years later, and Gekko has written a book entitled IS GREED GOOD? which is a reference to his famous statement in the first film.
Meanwhile, we meet young Jake Moore, played by Shia LaBeouf, a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street. His girlfriend is Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan, who just happens to be the estranged daughter of Gordon Gekko, and she even refuses to watch him being interviewed on television.
Jake is given a “spot bonus” check of over $1 million by his boss for his work, but this is just before the crisis that sent stocks plummeting.
Jake’s boss is Louis Zabel, the managing partner of an investment bank and played by Frank Langella. Jake asks Louis, “Are we going under?” and is told that is the wrong question. The right question is “Who isn’t?”
So, when their firm does fail, Jake goes behind Winnie’s back to seek out Gekko for some advice and learns that the man probably responsible, Bretton James, played menacingly by Josh Brolin, has a “history” both with Jake’s boss and with Gekko himself. Both of them now have a reason to seek revenge on James, but Gekko needs some money to play with.
The story hits close to home in a lot of ways both personal and professional, and Mulligan is simply great in her role, whereas LaBeouf isn’t so bad himself. Of course, Douglas is always good, and Stone must be laughing all the way to the Academy Awards next year.
Just as “Greed is good” is a shortened version of what was really said in the first film, “Money never sleeps” is also a shortened version of what Gekko says.
WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS also brings to mind “Money talks, but all it says around me is “Goodbye.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Takers” Expect to Be Surprised
Sep 1st
“Expect to Be Surprised”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
TAKERS is a crime caper with plenty of action, plenty of shoot-outs and chases, and plenty of surprises, the first of which is how good and entertaining it is in spite of not being very original.
It opens with a bank robbery by five professional and very efficient bank robbers who use one of the most innovative and imaginative means of escape ever conceived.
Meanwhile, across town two detectives are making a bust in an apartment, and one of them is Detective Jack Welles, played by Matt Dillon. One of the men he and his partner try to arrest escapes, and this event will play a major role later on in the story.
Then we cut to a man being released from prison. He goes by the name of Ghost, and he is released a year early because of good behavior.
Ghost used to be a member of the team of bank robbers, but he got caught during one of their previous jobs. However, he never revealed who the other members were while incarcerated, and now he feels that they “owe him,” especially his cut of the money from that previous job.
So, Ghost talks to the other five thieves and tells them about his plan to rob an armored car for $30 million.
The problem is that the job has to be accomplished in five days, and the team likes to take at least a year to plan a robbery. But as one of them says, “Bet big, win big. That’s the only way to play.”
Now, while we see them plan the complicated robbery, Jack and his partner are searching through the surveillance tapes of the bank robbery, looking for clues that will help them solve the case. In addition, there are family matters that Jack has to deal with, and so does the leader of the team of robbers.
The day of the robbery comes, and naturally everything doesn’t go as planned, but then the movie fun begins. There are chases right and left and in and out and over and under. And that’s just on foot.
And then just when you think the movie is over, something even more exciting happens to get your adrenalin running all over again, and that’s not even counting the double-crosses.
TAKERS is surprising, and expect to be surprised.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Dinner for Schmucks – Movie Trailer
Jul 30th
An ambitious executive accepts an invitation from his boss to attend a dinner party where high-powered professionals make fun of unsuspecting dimwits in this remake of Francis Veber’s 1998 comedy The Dinner Game. Upwardly mobile executive Tim (Paul Rudd) has just landed his company an extremely wealthy Swiss client when his boss, Lance (Bruce Greenwood), invites him to an exclusive, yet unusually mean-spirited dinner party where each of the high-powered executives brings a guest to make fun of. Recognizing that his long-awaited promotion is finally within reach, Tim begins to have second thoughts about participating in the elaborate charade when his longtime girlfriend, Julie (Stephanie Szostak), the successful curator at a local art gallery, voices intense disdain for the idea. The following day, Tim is looking for a way out of the dinner when fate throws the perfect guest right in front of his luxury car. Barry (Steve Carell) is a sweet but dim-witted IRS agent with an unusual hobby: he creates elaborate dioramas featuring stuffed mice. His latest project is “The Last Supper,” and he’s just put the finishing touches on a tiny mouse Jesus to set at the center of the table. Tim knows that Barry is his ticket to a big corner office on the seventh floor, but the closer the party looms, the more he realizes that his bumbling new acquaintance isn’t just an idiot, but also is a magnet for chaos.
