Posts tagged smart
“The Informant!” More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
Sep 24th
More Twists Than a Drunken Snake
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INFORMANT! is based on the true story of a whistle-blower in a giant corporation about an international price-fixing scheme, but it is much more than that.
It’s also a lough-out-loud comedy directed by Steven Soderbergh, who previously directed the 2000 ERIN BROKOVICH in all seriousness, but also directed the recent OCEAN’S movies as goofy crime capers.
Matt Damon stars as Mark “Corky” Whitacre, a high-level executive in Archer Daniels Midland, an Illinois-based agribusiness conglomerate. In 1992 a series of events leads him to believe that there is a “mole” in the company who is feeding information to the company’s Japanese competitors, thereby prompting the Japanese to request $10 million to reveal the identity of the mole and also correct another problem Corky’s company has with a virus.
Corky goes to the FBI, and when they question what his motive is, he says, “I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
The FBI is suspicious, because Corky is making $350,000 a year, and he becomes an informer on his own company. Again, he says, “Things are going on, I don’t approve of.”
Corky is only too happy to carry a concealed recorder to meetings in order to obtain evidence against his own company, because he believes that when all of this is over, he will be rewarded by being made the next president of the corporation.
No, Corky is not the smartest rung on the ladder, and he gives hilarious running commentary in internal monologues as the events unfold.
However, when the audience catches Corky in a lie to the FBI agents who are working with him, the audience thinks “Not so fast!” at this unusual and unexpected turn of events.
The FBI agents follow Corky to business meetings all over the world, and they become exasperated at Corky’s ineptness at being a spy, even though Corky brags that he is “Agent 0014,” because he is twice as smart as “007.”
Then something happens that causes the audience to think “Not so fast!” again.
So, hold onto your seats, because something else happens that causes a “Not so fast!” a third time.
In fact, as the film races to its conclusion, “Not so fast!” keeps coming again and again.
THE INFORMANT! takes more twists and turns than a drunken snake in a maze and is very rewarding.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Burn After Reading” Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy
Sep 25th
Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BURN AFTER READING is the Coen brothers’ first movie since their award- winning success with the 2007 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and they could easily win an Academy Award two years in a row, first with a drama and then with a comedy.
And don’t be surprised if Brad Pitt wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Chad Feldheimer, a trainer in a gym whose attempt to take advantage of an opportunity doesn’t go as well as he had hoped, to say the least.
If most of the characters in this film talk smart and act stupid, then you would have to say that Pitt’s character, Chad, talks the smartest.
The story begins when Osborne Cox, a CIA analyst played by John Malkovich, quits the agency. However, as someone says later about Washington, DC, “Most of the people in this town who quit are fired.”
Ozzie is told he has a drinking problem, which of course he denies, but he will investigate a suspicious noise in his house with a drink in his hand.
Ozzie tells his wife, Katie, played by Tilda Swinton, that he has been thinking about writing a book, “or a sort of memoir,” and he does. But then a computer disc of his tell-all “memoir” accidentally gets lost at a local Hardbodies gym, and the rest, as they say, is laugh-out-loud comedy.
Chad and his partner in attempted crime, Linda, played by Frances McDormand, believe that the disc contains incriminating secrets that someone should be willing to pay $50,000 for. Linda is also a trainer at the gym, she wants the money for plastic surgery on four areas of her body, and she is actually the “brains” of the outfit.
Linda tells Chad, “This is our opportunity. You don’t get many of these.”
Meanwhile, George Clooney plays Harry, a federal marshal who gets involved with everybody, but not how you would expect. Although happily married, he is having an affair with Ozzie’s wife, Katie, meets Linda through an Internet dating service, and panics when he believes he has killed a government agent.
In other words, everybody is connected to everybody else, everybody seems to have someone watching them and following them, and everybody is funny in some way.
BURN AFTER READING made me laugh from the opening to the closing logo.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Up to Date News
Sep 21st
Valencia, Spain, Pope Benedict XVI criticizes the Spanish for legalizing gay marriage, on the other side of the galaxy HAT-P-1 the largest planet known but is so far away that its not much to report on. Dubai, United Arab Emirates delay money transfers due to suspecting terrorists just because of the peoples names. Great Britain, John Rushton suggest that women are not as smart as men. Chicago, are fat people really as jolly as they are set out to be? And Boulder, is it a jungle?