Posts tagged right
“The Iceman” about a Cold-Hearted Killer
May 25th
“Cold-Hearted Killer”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Iceman is based on a true story about a man named Richard Kuklinski who worked for many years as a hit man for organized crime on the East Coast.
The movie begins in 1964 in New Jersey and we meet Richie, played by Michael Shannon, as he finally gets a girl named Deborah, played by Winona Ryder, to go out with him.
She works across the street from where he works, but right off the bat he is secretive about his personal life. When Deborah asks Richie what he does for a living, Richie tells her, “I dub cartoons.”
Actually, however, Richie makes duplicate copies of pornographic films for his mobster boss, Roy, played by Ray Liotta.
When Deborah asks about Richie’s family, he says that he has a brother who is around somewhere, but Richie doesn’t talk to him, and later we will find out why in a scene that foretells Richie’s own future.
Deborah thinks that Richie is funny, is glad that he asked her out, and tells him that she had a really good time.
Well, a year later, Richie and Deborah are married, they have a baby girl, Deborah likes the way that Richie takes care of her, but she wants them to move into a bigger apartment.
At the same time, Roy tells Richie that he is closing the pornography lab, but he gives Richie a chance to make money by working for him as a hired killer, and Richie takes it, after proving to Roy that he can do the job.
Then we skip ahead 10 years, and we see more of Richie’s work, as well as more of the men who work for Roy and how he makes sure that jobs will get done.
Richie and Deborah have two daughters now, and Richie is devoted to his family, but he tells everybody that he makes money in currency exchange.
Meanwhile, another of Roy’s workers, Josh, played by David Schwimmer, messes up, and Richie is given a job that Roy also hired another hit man to take care of at the same time.
The other hit man is Mr. Freezy, played by Chris Evans, and by a series of circumstances Richie and Mr. Freezy start working together.
The Iceman is about such a cold-hearted killer that he was called “The Iceman.”
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Big Wedding” Lives Up to Its Name
May 13th
“Lives Up to Its Name”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Big Wedding is like a French farce, only without the madcap pacing, which is halfway understandable, because it is adapted from a 2006 French comedy, Mon Frere Se Marie, which means “My Brother Is Getting Married.”
Those French sure have a way with words.
Anyway, speaking of the pacing, this adaptation starts off slow, but then really takes off, which might be explained by the fact that it was scheduled to be released in 2012, but came out in 2013.
The impressive cast includes Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams, although Williams sticks out like a sore priest, which is what he plays.
Here is the plot: Don and Ellie were married for 20 years, but they have been divorced for the last 10 years. Their adopted son, Alejandro, who was born in Colombia, is getting married, and his birth mother is coming to the wedding.
However, the mother is very religious and conservative, and so Alejandro asks Don and Ellie to pretend that they are still married.
No problem, right? In fact, their own daughter tells them, “So, just pretend to be married for the weekend. What’s the big deal?”
Well, as the title says, it is going to be a big wedding on Don’s estate, Don’s girlfriend Bebe is living there with him, his own birth son Jared is 29 and still a virgin, and the groom’s mother is also bringing her pretty daughter to the wedding, who falls for Jared and keeps trying to seduce him.
Wow, this has all the makings of a French farce, doesn’t it? The French part we get, the farce coming up.
Now just add equal parts of Don’s being a successful sculptor of what could be called shockingly erotic subjects, as well as having a very healthy libido; the bride’s parents both having a previous history with Don and Ellie; Don’s daughter is estranged from him because of a previous indiscretion; and she has her own personal problems in her own relationship which result in two big surprises that are going to affect her.
As somebody always says, you couldn’t make this stuff up, but of course they did.
The Big Wedding lives up to its name with a big cast, a wedding, and even more, much more.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Company You Keep” a Blast from the Past
May 4th
“A Blast from the Past”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Company You Keep is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Neil Gordon; Robert Redford produced, directed, and stars in it; and it is about an anti-war protester from the Seventies who has been underground all this time, but is now being chased by the FBI for a murder that occurred in a bank robbery that went bad.
This is somewhat ironic, because the protester, Nick Sloan, was a member of the Weather Underground, also known as Weathermen, who used bombs to draw attention to their cause, which was an anti-Establishment protest against the war in Vietnam.
The story erupts into motion when a woman who was also a part of the movement is captured by the FBI, and a young newspaper reporter, played by Shia LaBeouf, starts digging into the details of her arrest and discovers a link between her and a lawyer named Jim Grant, who lives in the area.
The reporter’s editor tells him, “You keep telling me you’re a good reporter, right? Prove it.”
After more digging into Grant’s background and the details of the bank robbery in Detroit, the reporter believes that Grant is actually Nick Sloan, whom the FBI has been looking for since the Seventies and making them look bad, because they could never catch him.
The reporter’s suspicions prove to be true, and after Sloan gets his brother to take care of Sloan’s daughter, who is 11 years old, Sloan takes off across country with both the FBI and the reporter after him.
Although the FBI believes that Sloan is just running to escape capture, the reporter thinks that Sloan has something else in mind, and the reporter is right.
Sloan is searching for Mimi Lurie, another protester from back in the day, and he is looking up other colleagues who might be able to help him find Mimi, because Sloan believes that her help is the only way that he can get his daughter back.
The people that Sloan gets in touch with are all played by famous actors, so many, in fact, that their appearance can become distracting.
The Company You Keep is a look back at a time when the whole country was in turmoil and a protest group believed idealistically that what they were doing was right, a blast from the past.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
