Restaurant Review: High Point (Hamilton Place)

This restaurant is where Grady's used to be, on the Interstate side of Hamilton Place mall.

Grady's was a dump. High Point is not.

I'm told (although I've never been) that this restaurant is the second of same name, with the original being in Mont Eagle, TN.

The decor at High Point does leave a bit to be desired. The dark (i.e. matte black) painted brick arches make an already dark room darker. The matte finish of the paint also encourages a dusty, flat color quality in the room.

As for food, I most recently went with a dear friend and we just had some wine and a few appetizers. We had the baked Brie, which was simple and well-prepared. We had seared scallops, which for an appetizer portion was large (six scallops). They were just slighly overcooked for my taste, but then, I like sushi.

We finished up with a seared, almost blackened tuna. I like spicy foods, but this tuna, although well prepared with respect to not over-cooking the supposed-to-be-rare tuna, was excessively peppery! Aside from this inexperienced and overly-aggressive treatment of the tuna (the rule should be: rare meats are rare because the meat is supposed to shine, not the preparation), the dish worked well for us.

Oh, make sure that you request some of the hot dinner rolls, and be willing to wait for them to back them fresh. They're hot, fluffy and if you're into carbs, they're delicious!

Check it out. High Point Restaurant at Hamilton Place Mall.

Cheers!

Movie Review: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

The original, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was one my my favorite films growing up. Even today, if I'm surfing channels on TV and come across the film, I'll stop to watch it. So, I saw this contemporary remake with some trepidation.

Let's start out by saying that I think Johnny Depp is one of the best and most versatile actors around today... "Pirates of the Carribean," "Finding Neverland" both come to mind as examples of great roles for Depp.

"Charlie" (the movie) takes liberties with the original story by adding some character background about the chocolate-maker to let us know how he became who he is today. With an obsessive dentist father, who denies his son candy, the boy Wonka becomes himself obsessed with chocolate. How Wonka ends up looking like a combination of Prince (the clothes) and Michael Jackson (the complexion) is not explained.

There are all new musical numbers, and some slighly updated "bad child" characters (Mike TeeVee, for example, is a video game addict, rather than just a TV addict; and, Violet Beauregard is a Karate expert, for some unexplicable and unused reason).

All of the Oompa Loompas are played and digitally brought together by a single man, Deep Roy. I've read that he shot multiple version of the same scene in many instances instead of just having a single image of him being reproduced digitally. It was a little creepy seeing the identical person as all of the wee Wonka workers.

Speaking of creepy, let's talk about the plot itself and how it plays out. In this remake, Wonka is protrayed as a germ-phobic candymaker who clearly, if only slightly, enjoys seeing the demise of the bad children. In fact, there's some intimation early-on (based on Augustus Gloup's name being inserted in a song) that somehow Wonka planned the various accidents for the bad children. As we move along in the film, it does start to appear that Wonka is enjoying watching spoiled children get their come-uppance.

This adds a slighly malevolent tone... almost sadistic... to Depp's Wonka, which is decidedly different from Gene Wilder's portrayal of a more benevolent, if slighly unbalanced, Wonka.

This movie is all about Wonka, not about the children, and certainly not primarily about Charlie. Nonetheless, it's a very good picture. The visuals are beautiful. It still is fun to see how each spoiled child is dispatched ("Don't touch that squirrel's nuts," warns Wonka at one point to a demanding Veruca Salt). Once you reconcile Wonka as eccentric (at best) or clinical (at worst), I think you'll find this movie well worth your time (and money).

Movie Review: "March of the Penguins"

This documentary film about the life cycle of penguins (yes... you read that correctly) shows us the incredible journey undertaken each year by Antarctic penguins as they walk (waddle?) over 70 miles and several weeks without food in order to reach safe breading grounds. Once there, the highly individualist penguins (to themselves, I suppose) then go through courting rituals to find a mate -- to whom they will be manogamous for the entire mating season.

We saw the courtship... as well as what clearly appeared as affection between the mates, as well as the trouble of dealing with a fragile egg in the absolute worst of environments (sometimes not successfully).

It's a beautiful story of love, of life, of birth, of survival. Narrated by Morgan Freeman.

This movie is HIGHLY recommended if you can find it. I saw it at an art house in Atlanta.

Movie Review: "War of the Worlds"

I expected so much more... mainly because there was so much hype about how surprisingly good this film was. In the end, however, I walked away thinking: "Well, that was about all I should have expected from a Summer blockbuster."

Good special effects... Dakota Fanning is actually pretty good. Tom Cruise is an alien... wait, not in the film! He's dealing with other aliens (as opposed to psychiatrists... but, I digress).

See this at a matinee... that's about all it's worth.

"Yes Man" by David Iverson

Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to an unpublished book, "Yes Man" by British author David Iverson. I heard an interview with the author this morning on BBC World News Service. The general concept is that he had found himself saying "no" far too frequently. The result: he was staying in too much, not doing things with friends and family, and generally not enjoying life.

Somewhere along the way, a stranger told him that he should "Say 'Yes" more!" These three words totally changed Iverson's thinking. He went from being a NObody to a Yes Man. Now, I know that sounds like cheesy marketing soundbiting, but his concept is this: Saying "yes" more often allowed him to think positively, to look forward to doing things rather than in finding excuses for not doing things.

He tried his experiment of saying "yes" for about five months and had many unexpected experiences. He said "yes" to suggestions, dates, offers, etc., that he would otherwise have brushed off. But, in the end, he says that the experience was very empowering -- it changed his outlook completely.

What a strangely interesting concept... to have an outlook of positive momentum, as opposed to dampened conservatism.

After all, what are we waiting for in life, if not to live?

Daytripping in Chattanooga

Last Saturday, I spent the day with friends in Chattanooga visiting the Aquarium, seeing an IMAX-3D picture and having dinner at The Boathouse on the river.

The new ocean-oriented section of the aquarium was nice to see. Some really beautiful specimens. The "river" side of the aquarium also had some ocean-dwelling creatures; so, I'm not sure what the real difference is, other than the river side has a lot of turtles -- which I don't necessarily associate with rivers.

For the 3D IMAX experience, we opted for "Wild Safari," which was interesting (and air conditioned!), but not exactly "wild." I would have liked to see more animals jumping in virtual 3D at us, rather than gratuitous closeups of foliage passing the undercarriage of the vehicle. See the picture and you'll understand what I mean.

Overall, the day's experience was enjoyable. The renovations to the Riverwalk area are beautiful. The aquarium area was bustling with visitors -- a very pleasant site to see, and one I wish for in Catoosa County!

Cheers!

Chris