1/30/10: Super Bowl WOOWOO!!!

Super Bowl 44 is only 8 days away and I feel torn.  I'm extremely excited for this biggest of American sporting events and all the ballyhoo that comes with it, but it also spells the end of Football Season, my very favorite 5-month holiday.  In that spirit, I wanted to toss up a couple of the best super bowl plays of all time, and both actually from Super Bowl 43 last year, when the Steelers beat the Cardinals in on eof the most suspenseful, momentum-shiftin', lead-changin'est super bowls ever!  The first was voted as ESPN.com's #1 Super Bowl play of all time, and the second is the absolutely ridiculous game-winning touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Holmes for the win.  Just plain incredible.

1/27/09

Today Dan and I both worked a full day at ESM, but my group at work (Taria, Rachel, Matt, Michael and Lavina) were interested in having a healthy potluck, so I made a green bean casserole to share.  It's a casserole that is always a hit at any potluck or family dinner.  The recipe is online (cambell's site).   http://www.campbellkitchen.com/recipedetail.aspx?recipeID=24099

Taria brought in a memorable dish as well.  "Pan grilled veggie pasta primavera.  I'm really looking forward to making that someday soon.  I will most likely add shrimp and/or chicken to it.  :)

State of the Union is currently on and we're watching President Obama, the best speaker of all time (and a hell of a writing team that man has).  He's even firing back at the arrogant Conservatives.  I have to admit, I have quite a higher level of respect for this man from watching this.  I can't  say that's ever happened before.

-Nicole

First Trip to Thurman Cafe; German Village area

Thurman Cafe:  1/15/10:

Best burger.. period!


While thinking of new places to visit, Dan and I stumbled across a video of Man vs. Food on you tube for Columbus.  He visited Schmidt's in German Village, which was why we originally checked out the video.  In the process, we fell in love with the idea of visiting the hole-in-the-wall restaurant, Thurman Cafe, after seeing him stuff his face with the tallest, mouth watering, burger (topped with sautéed onions) I'd ever seen.  


When we arrived, we had to find our way through the crowded entryway to sign in.  While waiting, we decided to head to the bar, through tight (and very few) tables for a couple drinks.  In the process, the bartender suggested that we sit at the bar and eat, as waiting to be the next on the list could take a long time.  That's when I realized that although this place seemed quite short staffed for the number of customers, they maintained great customer service.  


Upon receiving the menus, we quickly discovered the endless burger options.  It was difficult to decide what to order since everything on the menu was something we knew we would eventually want to try.  Dan ordered the Jack cheese burger and I ordered the "great 3" burger (I do love my cheese).  While very difficult to get your mouth around, it was beyond worth the struggle to stuff these burgers in our mouths.  The meat itself is unlike any I've ever tasted; the juice drips onto your plate as you're sinking your teeth in and the "off the grill" taste of the meat hits your taste buds as you think "never again will I eat another average burger"... its simply irresistible.    The sautéed onions on these messy, gigantic burgers are so delicious, we ate them with our forks when they would fall off - we couldn't get enough.  At one point, I turned to Dan and stated "wow, I never realized burgers could even taste like this."  In addition, we ordered fries and onion rings.  The onion rings are the best Dan and I have ever had.  The scrumptious batter around the onion and how when you bite into the onion ring, the onion stays put, making each bite perfection, will make these a must have for every time we visit in the future.  This wasn't a fancy, impressive place, but the food more than made up for any of the cons.  


Pros:  Best burgers and onions rings we've ever had.  Unique, hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Nice servers.


Cons: Crowded and very little seating.  Loud.  Street parking.


- Nicole 

One Minute Review: Legion

We saw Legion last night at the Movie Tavern, here's what I thought:

Two thumbs way down.  Anybody thinking about dropping some dollars on this apocalyptic train wreck must already understand that this is no Oscar contender, as it bills itself as more of a supernatural action shoot-em-up.  With angels.  It starts out semi-decent, while it isn't taking itself too seriously.  You can use Tyrese as a simple barometer for this transition, as his presence in any movie prevents me from taking it seriously, which is exactly what this movie needs.  Around the time he dies, we are brought into a way-too-serious flashback which pulls the bath tub drain chain, and we watch all the campy humor swirl into the sewer.  We're left with a horrendously acted and written Biblical slugfest that doesn't even try to make sense.  Don't waste your time.

- Dan

Movie Reviews: Paranormal Activity/A Christmas Carol, 2012, Avatar

I'm pretty sure Nicole is working on our first official post for this new project, I'm just planning to put up a few movie reviews I've written in the last couple months.  I'm going to be putting a lot up here, so I figured I'd archive -for-access some of the ones I've already written for the office newsletter..

Paranormal Activity/A Christmas Carol

With my favorite movie season of the year approaching, we find ourselves in the wonderful holiday-filled time of year between Halloween and Christmas.  In that spirit, for this first movie review I'd like to cover two movies that show the delectable contrast between terror and joy: Paranormal Activity and A Christmas Carol.

I walked into the theater for Paranormal Activity having heard a lot of hype.  The film had just been released nationwide after an unprecedented online marketing campaign that centered around website requests for local screenings and trailers showing only audience reactions.  Naturally, I was intrigued; and since I hadn't seen a good horror movie in what felt like years, this one made my must-see list.  

When I left the theater, I felt like I had just seen a low-budget masterpiece that lived up to every bit of hype I had heard.  It's a masterful use of slow-starting, seemingly everyday monotony that had me squirming with suspense every time I saw a shadow or swinging chandelier.  If you're a fan of the recent Hollywood bloodbaths that pass for horror nowadays, you may not appreciate the beautiful subtlety that defined the horror-suspense classics this movie models so well.  But if you want a movie that will make you chuckle at the absurdity of trying to deal with this situation while the lights are on, and will terrify you the minute the sun goes down, this is the horror flick for you.

A Christmas Carol was pretty much everything you would expect from a Disney Christmas movie based on Charles Dickens, and doesn't add a whole lot to the classic story you've seen portrayed in hundreds of different ways.  But I, being a huge fan of the amazing 3D technology in use nowadays, wanted to check out this movie basically designed around the new medium, and wasn't disappointed.  As the miserly Scrooge soars around London, past and future, we fly right beside him through the amazingly life-like CG animation on a ride that will leave you wanting a few visits from the Christmas ghosts yourself.  While it may be a bit intense for the youngest children (a few were walked out when Marley's ghost floated his chains through Ebenezer's wall) it's a great modern take on the literary classic that children and adults will be watching through 3D glasses for many Christmases yet to come.

Note: While many movies that have the option aren't enhanced much from the extra dimension (which, in my opinion, is worth the few extra dollars every time) this one is a MUST SEE in 3D!

2012

Your chances of enjoying a movie like 2012 depend entirely on your expectations.  If you've seen any of director Roland Emmerich's other films (Independence Day, The Patriot, 10,000 BC) you should know what to expect from 2012.  With the exception of The Patriot, which I rather enjoyed, all of his movies have been emotionally vacant special effects extravaganzas that try really hard to inject moments of humanity into the tiny cracks between the explosions, alien attacks, and dinosaur stampedes, but never with any success.  In 2012 especially, it begins to seem like a direct insult to the audience's intelligence when they try to suggest that this is a movie about a family that fixes its problems as the world falls apart.

The spectacle of disaster in this movie, while visually gorgeous, comes in the most cliché of forms.  And not just once, but over and over and over again.  It's obvious the film had an almost unlimited budget to spend on these scenes of fire- and water-based cataclysm, and quite a shame that they couldn't come up with anything more original.  Each and every one reads like a page out of  Mad Libs:

“John Cusack and family are in a __1__  fleeing/approaching an enormous __2__ at incredibly high speeds and against all odds survive with only inches to spare”. 

1: Limo, RV, small plane, big plane, Noah-scale-ark, etc.

2: Earthquake, volcanic eruption, collapsing casino, Mt. Everest... you get the idea.

Fill in the blanks and voila!  You've got yourself a $300 Million cinematic mess that would undoubtedly make Michael Bay proud.

Without even going into the utterly absurd amount of product placement (it becomes painfully obvious how they afforded all the brilliant CGI, they didn't; Sony did) the most annoying part of this movie is actually when all the chaos dies down.  As soon as any temporary calm comes over the film, we know we're going to be treated to some superficially earnest attempt to make us care about some of the characters.  Often times this takes the form of introducing characters we haven't seen yet and then killing them off before we even know what's going on.  More often than not, crying will follow, but certainly not from the audience.

The only saving grace comes in the form of a virtuoso performance from Woody Harrelson as a crackpot conspiracy theorist who broadcasts a radio show from his camper about the impending apocalypse.  When it turns out he's less of a crackpot and more of an eccentric whistle blower, he ends up smashed by a flaming rock before he gets a chance to make this movie watchable.

All in all I'd give this movie two thumbs down.  Don't get me wrong, the special effects are amazing, and if you have any interest in watching it, I'd recommend waiting for the DVD so you can put it on mute once you start to realize it has absolutely nothing else to offer.

Avatar

I was initially going to review a few films today, a sort of “winter special” with several of the great movies I've seen in the past month or so, but not devoting a full review to the undisputed heavyweight champion film of the past year (arguably the past decade) seems like a crime.  The film is James Cameron's “Avatar”, and for those followers of his influential sci-fi movies and, of course, Titanic, it should be no surprise what to expect.  For those of you who either don't follow Mr. Cameron's work, were one of the half-dozen people who didn't see Titanic, or have just been under a rock for the past year, you're in for a treat.

              “Avatar” isn't just a movie, it's a completely immersive experience, and when I walked out of the theater I felt less like an audience member and more like a participant in a high-flying, hard-fought resistance to the hostile takeover of an alien utopia.  I was borderline exhausted, and not in the usual “this movie was way too long” way (though it was almost three hours).  As I left, I felt almost as one does when boarding a plane at the end of a too-short tropical vacation to head back to Ohio.  Almost immediately, we are treated to stunning visuals of amazing technology, gargantuan machines, and flora and fauna that is so incredibly imaginative, so different, so frightening, and so beautiful that it appears to spring simultaneously from our wildest dreams and our craziest nightmares.  As a matter of fact, the experience is so unforgettably magnificent to some that there are reports of viewers slipping into a bit of a depression/separation anxiety at the thought of returning to our relatively dull, imperfect planet Earth after the credits roll.

              While that all may be a bit melodramatic, there's no arguing with the technical wizardry achieved by the (record high) $250 million-ish spent to bring the gorgeous moon of Pandora, plus all it's inhabitants and invaders, to life.  Relatively few familiar actors are present, and mostly fill out Cameron's usual “tough chick” roles, including Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez.  But our lead soldier/savior is played adequately and believably by the soon-to-be-household-name Sam Worthington who serves as our naïve, excitable guide through the beauty and conflict.

              Critics of this movie will inevitably point out the “seen it before” plot as something that holds the movie back from its incredible potential, but I think that's a bit unfair.  While this certainly is a familiar story in the vein of Dances With Wolves and even The Last Samurai, what makes this movie so special is the way the story is presented.  Simply put, the visual grandeur of this epic is something impossible to put into words.  As a lover of the finer things in film, I am never one to put presentation before substance, but I am more than comfortable making an exception here.  This particular presentation,  in addition to changing the landscape of film production forever, might be enough to carry this film all the way to the Oscar podium; even in categories like Best Original Screenplay where it otherwise wouldn't belong.

              As subtlety certainly isn't one of this film's virtues, I recommend it more as a vacation than a casual film viewing.  If you need a little break from the soggy, often depressing Ohio weather, nothing beats a quick trip to the tropical paradise moon of Pandora.

- Dan