Restaurant Review: Dari Dip (Ft. Oglethorpe)

From the outside, the banner "From Ice Cream to T-Bones," may sound appealing... I find it a bit confusing. I mean, it's in reverse order... who starts with the ice cream then eats the t-bone? Maybe it's a neon typo... perhaps it should read "from ice cream to t-cones." Now, assuming there is such a thing as a t-cone in the frozen treat industry, that might make sense.

Alas, I am unable at this time to review the restaurant in its entirety, or at least in its interior, because, they closed.

Yep, less than a couple of months after opening, they've thrown in the t-owel, citing a too-small lunch crowd.

Personally, I'm not interested in eating for lunch either ice cream or t-bones.

That's just me.

Sorry Entrepreneurs! Good try, and better luck next time!

DaVinci Code

So, I went to see the movie on opening weekend. Saw it at a matinee (although, I wouldn't have been disappointed had I paid full price).

I read the book. And, as usual, movies aren't as good as their books. There's just so much more detail in books. And the mind, of course, is the greatest director, as well as cameraman, if only in the imagination. That said, the movie was pretty good. The action moved along fairly well. The plot was a bit jumpy at times, but that's largely due to the director trying to piece together an otherwise fairly complicated and technical plot. Lots of information included in the book had to be omitted for brevity sake. (But, at 2 hours 29 minutes, it's hard to refer to the movie as brief.)

Anyway, the movie is certainly good enough for a summer romp and is worth seeing.

What I'm more pleased with is this: First of all, nut-job Tom Cruise's movie, MI:III had an opening weekend of less than $50M. DaVinci Code opened at well over $200M, and was the second highest opening weekend gross of all time (second only to Star Wars, Episode 3). You won't be seeing a review of MI:III... I refuse to see it.

Secondly, and most importantly, I find it very entertaining to see how right-wing religious nut-jobs (that word works yet again), steeped in intollerance and unable to countenance even the slightest challenge or comment to their particular brand of blind religion zealotry, are appalled at the mere suppositions raised in the movie, to wit, that Jesus, while on Earth, may have had a mortal life... I won't go into details to avoid any spoilers for the movie.

But here's the thing: Dan Brown has been interviewed (many times) and has commented that his intent with the book was to get people thinking and talking about religion. (It worked.) "What if some aspects of the Bible are equally as ficticious as his book?" he asserts.

And, if the movie is total bunk, as many G-Fearin' folk would say, then why draw more attention to it by condemning it so publicly? All you're doing is making more people want to see the movie, to see what the fuss is all about. (However, based on the book sales, it would appear that most of the world read the book.)

Anyway, the movie raises some very interesting and apparently unresolved "issues" about the provenance of various bible stories...err, gospels -- namely, which ones were intentionally excluded/included and why. The controversy has certainly challenged my thinking and encouraged me to do research.

If your faith is so fragile as to be shattered (or even threatened) by a mere movie, sounds like there's a problem...

Getting Attention...

Some companies will do just about anything to get attention, I suppose...

These pictures make you think twice about drinking and driving... or at least, if you're going to drink and drive in Georgia, make sure it's not Pepsi!

Talking about stopping...

Phyllis (seen in distance at podium) talking about accidents "es-kew-lating" and needing a stop sign...

Ok... There may be a need (I really don't know)... But after hearing seemingly unending comments about barking dogs, I just lost all will to listen any more...

Movie Reviews: Holiday '05

Quick-and-Dirty reviews of a few films:

Chronicles of Narnia: B+. Mostly for kids, but very well done. Based on famous series of books. Somewhat Tolkein-esque. Worth seeing. Better to see it on big screen.

Walk the Line: B. Everyone told me, "even if you don't like Johnny Cash, you'll just love this film." It's pretty good, but not fantastic. Performance by Joaquim Phoenix as Cash is a wonderful impersonation, I suppose. Witherspoon as Joan Cash was a little contrived and cutesy. Film will garner Oscar nominations, though.

Brokeback Mountain: A-. An amazing, genre-busting, against-the-current film. Gay cowboys. This film is about the struggle of outsiders... people who find themselves not conforming with their surroundings and how they cope with it. Heath Ledger will get Oscar nomination and may get the award (watch out for P.S. Hoffman in "Capote," still my favorite role of the year). This is a sad film, mostly because it holds the mirror to our own intolerance and prejudice.

The Family Stone: B-. Great cast: Diane Keaton; Sarah Jessica Parker; Dermot Mulroney. Fairly predictable, but well-done and enjoyable romantic comedy. Nice uplift after Brokeback.

King Kong: A-. For a big-budget flick where we already know the plot, this film was way better than I expected it to be. Adrian Brody -- one of my favorite actors -- plays the screenwriter well. P. Jackson's special effects are brilliant, and probably Oscar-worthy. This is definitely worth seeing, and on the big screen.

Syriana: A. One of the best movies of the year, although not in the top five. This one hits so close to home it's scary. I expected to see a disclaimer at the end telling me "The events and characters portrayed in this film are based on actual events and people." G. Clooney's transformation into the soft and frumpy CIA hitman-turned-scapegoat is believeable. There's a scene at the end of the film where some terrorists are attacking a petroleum tanker ship that is a little snippet of directorial brilliance.

OK. That's all I've got for now... enjoy the movies!

Cheers!

Movie Review: Hostel

OK. I don't typically see horror films any more. They're usually fixated on meeting some mimimum number of slashings or a gore-per-second quotient. However, Hostel had two things going for it: (1) Quentin Tarrentino was involved; (2) average critic ratings was about a "B" or "B-" and in horror terms, having a B-rating is quite high. So, I went to see the film...

Mistake.

Here's the concept: College-age kids go backpacking in Europe mostly looking for a little action, and staying in youth hostels along the way. They hear about some "really hot girls" in this hostel in Slovakia -- way out of the way, but worth the trip. They go. One by one, the guys are kidnapped and taken to the hostel, waking up to find themselves the playthings of torture-for-hire customers. It should not come as a SPOILER to hear that the final guy miraculously and improbably escapes and is about to get away, only to be pulled back as he hears the screaming of some girl.

Awwwww........

Even more improbable than his initial escape is how he re-enters the torture complex, finds the girl, helps her escape and returns to the get-away spot again... Oh! I forgot to mention that he's doing all this after both of his hands were mangled. Yeah. That wouldn't slow him down. Not much.

OK. So, QT didn't actually direct this film. I'll admit that going in I thought QT was the director and I was looking for some his trademarks -- significant music; respectful references to other films. Instead, what we got was a re-hashing of that same old tired plot from the 80's and 90's where rich guys pay sleezy guys so they can hunt/torture/kill humans. Usually though, it's an American redneck who's the sleeze providing the quarry. This time, it's a former Soviet block group acting as host.

Don't waste your time seeing this film. Wait till it's on free cable.

In my next post, I'm going to give some quick-and-dirty reviews of a few films I saw during the '05 holidays. Some good ones there!

Cheers!

Movie Review: CAPOTE

In this biographical movie about author Truman Capote and the writing of "In Cold Blood," actor Phillip Seymore Hoffman plays Capote and delivers what I'm sure will be an Oscar-nominated performance.

The movie focuses not on the murders depicted in "In Cold Blood," but the relationship between Capote and one of the convicted killers. Capote befriends (to some extent) the killer in the process of discovering his perspective on how his life events had led him to the point of committing such an horrific act of violence.

"In Cold Blood" turned out to be the final completed work written by Truman Capote. Many believed -- as did Capote himself -- that writing that book completely exhausted him -- it took the very best of him as he wrote the one of the very best of American literature.

This is a fascinating and illuminating story as much about the eccentric author as it is about his subject.

Don't miss this movie.

Cheers!

Ft. Oglethorpe's Carmike 10-Plex & SAW II Review

I finally went to the new theater on Battlefield Parkway - Carmike 10-Plex. I went to see SAW II, the sequel to SAW. Before I get into the review, I have one issue with the theater: Why is there no road-side marquee showing the movies? The reason I haven't gone to this new theater thus far is that when driving down 2A, I'm never informed or inticed about any movie playing. I'm sure that there's some sign ordinance or restriction; but if I was Carmike, I'd find some way to advertise what's playing...

The original SAW was a clever concept, just not implemented as well as it could have been. With the sequel, and as with most sequels in the horror genre, my expectations were not exactly high. That said, I was given basically what I expected. The typical pattern for horror movies is that in each successive iteration of a horror movie concept, the killings must do two things:

1. Become more disgusting and gross; and,
2. Become more numerous.

SAW II did exactly that. In the original movie, one of the things that made it interesting was that the real tension was the interplay between two characters trapped in a room. In SAW II, there were about eight people trapped in a house, with increasingly novel death traps awaiting them.

As with all sequels, the novelty is gone. The only suspense is about who or what will the "twist" be? Other than that, it's just kill, hack, bleed... same ol' horror stuff.

Disappointing, but about what I expected.

If you liked the original SAW, then you'll probably like this one... or at least not hate it. But, try to see it at least at a matinee. That way, you won't hate yourself for paying full price.

Cheers!

Birds everywhere!

Sitting at the red light this AM, I heard some noise...thought it was the car next to me. Then I looked up to see a very Hitchcock-ian sight: The Birds - Redux!