Posts tagged woman
“The American” The Red Herring
Sep 14th
“The Red Herring”
THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.
Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.
Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”
What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.
The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.
So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.
He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.
Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.
Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.
Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.
As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.
Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.
THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Eat Pray Love – Movie Trailer
Aug 18th
A woman who once made it her goal in life to marry and rear a family finds her priorities suddenly shifting in Ryan Murphy and Jennifer Salt’s adaptation of author Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir. In the eyes of many, Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) was a woman who had it all — a loving husband, a great career, and a weekend home — but sometimes one realizes too little too late that they haven’t gotten what they truly wanted from life. On the heels of a painful divorce, the woman who had previously looked forward to a contented life of domestic bliss sets out to seek her true destiny by traveling first to Italy, where she learns to appreciate nourishment; then to India, where she discovers the power of prayer; and finally to Bali, where she unexpectedly finds the meaning of true love.
“Dinner for Schmucks” Dinner with Redemption
Aug 4th
“Dinner with Redemption”
DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS is a comedy that takes a long time getting to the laughs, and once it does, they are mean-spirited laughs and all at the expense of others.
Steve Carell plays Barry, a meek little man whose hobby is constructing elaborate dioramas that use dead mice dressed up as people in them.
Paul Rudd plays Tim, an analyst on the sixth floor of an investment firm who wants the office of a colleague who just got fired.
In other words, Tim wants a promotion to the top floor, and he gets an opportunity when he comes up with an idea to land a new client for their company who has $100 million to invest.
So, Tim’s boss invites Tim to a dinner party he hosts once a month called “Dinner for Winners,” and the next one is this Saturday. Each person brings a guest who has a skill or talent of some kind, everyone makes fun of them, the winner gets a trophy, and they all are released into the world no more the wiser.
Tim has doubts about this cruelty, and his girlfriend, Julie, doesn’t want him to attend, but then Tim meets Barry, who is a tornado of destruction and makes Tim’s personal life much worse.
Barry has an odd way of thinking, and as he tells Tim, “In the words of John Lennon, ‘You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.'”
Tim can’t convince Barry that he is leaving off three words at the end, but no matter. Barry doesn’t listen well to others.
You can see the gags coming ahead of time, but you will still laugh, mostly in spite of yourself, and there are two subplots that add to the gags at the dinner party, one involving a woman who has been stalking Tim for three years and the other involving Julie’s relationship with a self-absorbed artist.
The movie wants us to feed sad and sorry for Barry, but we can’t. Also, you might be getting tired of Carell playing an idiot, but he does it so well, doesn’t he?
And as much as you might want to hate this movie for its premise, remember that it is based on a French film, the 1998 THE DINNER GAME.
DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS to its credit, however, redeems itself at the end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
