Surrogates – Movie Trailer
Sep 25th
The filmmaking trio behind the hit sci-fi sequel Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines re-team to explore a future in which humans live in isolation while only communicating with their fellow man through robots that serve as social surrogates and are better-looking versions of their human counterparts. Bruce Willis stars as an FBI agent who enlists the aid of his own surrogate to investigate the murder of the genius college student who invented the surrogates. As the case grows more complicated, however, the withdrawn detective discovers that in order to actually catch the killer he will have to venture outside the safety of his own home for the first time in many years, and enlists the aid of another agent (Radha Mitchell) in tracking his target down. Jonathan Mostow directs co-screenwriters Michael Ferris and John Brancato’s adaptation of the graphic novel by author Robert Venditti and illustrator Brett Weldele.
“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.”
Capitalism: A Love Story – Movie Trailer
Sep 23rd
Twenty years after his influential debut, Roger & Me, Michael Moore returns to his roots by pulling back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of the American dream for many people. Back in 1989, auto workers in Flint, MI, were lamenting layoffs and wondering how they would support their families without jobs to pay the bills, or benefits to ensure their health. Flash forward two decades, when cities all across the country are feeling the same pressures that Flint residents were back when GM left them high and dry. With an average of 14,000 U.S. jobs lost every day and taxpayer money constantly being pumped into failing financial institutions, the question must be asked: how long can this go on before the entire system collapses? Is there really any hope for Americans who are losing their homes to foreclosure and seeing their savings get wiped out at an unprecedented rate? In order to seek out an answer to this question and many more, Moore takes a trip to our nation’s capitol, engaging average Americans in conversations about the prospect of repairing America’s failing, debt-ridden economy along the way.
