Inception

Awesome! Fantastic! Whoa! Holy Crap that movie blew my freaking mind! These were the statements that my brother and I made as we walked home from the movie theater. Our dad couldn't make it to the showing that we went to, so we both went back and took my dad the next night. It was just as good the second time through, not necessarily better the second time but great in a different way because you can watch for the details that you missed the first time. The problem with reviewing this movie is that you don't want to give to much away.

Cobb is an extractor, someone who goes into dreams with people and takes information while there. The premise is that when you link two people together in a dream one person creates the physical space, the buildings and streets and stuff in the dream, and everyone else populates it with projections of their subconscious. Cobb and his team bring people into dreams and then steal valuable information from them. This is called extraction, the opposite of this, placing an idea in a person's subconscious, would be called inception.

So now you know basically what the movie is about. Get a team together and try to plant an idea that will stick. The movie is definitely confusing at first, you have no idea what the crap is happening. Stick with it and pay attention, I promise it will make more sense. Christopher Nolan is a gifted director and he will give you the information he wants to present not a moment before you need it. Pay attention and don't worry if you don't understand in the beginning a lot of things will be explained as you go on.

The characters were played beautifully. I am currently crushing big time on Joseph Gordon Levitt. Who knew he could play action, the little kid from Angels in the Outfield has definitely honed his acting chops. Leonardo DiCaprio has been a favorite of mine for a long long time, he had a remarkable ability to take on a character and translate emotion to the viewer. You see this best in a particularly painful memory for his character, your heart rips right out along with his. Ellen Page is feisty and determined in her role.

There were however a few things that bugged me in the movie though. The major issue for me was understanding the characters. Is it really to much to ask for people to enunciate while speaking, I mean it is you job. The worst person for this was Marion Cottilard, I know she is French but she won a freaking Oscar you would think she would know better. The only other real issue I had was a minor thing. There is a scene where they are being chased in the dream and the van is getting shot at, now they did not expect to be attacked I know, but seriously if you know its even a possibility shouldn't you dream up a bullet proof vehicle.

If you have not seen this movie, please step away from the computer and grab your keys. It is a must see. You should definitely shell out the money to see it on the big screen because it was made to surround the viewer, the effects will not envelope and entrance you as well when you rent it. Get ready for excitement, there is a scene where the gravity of the place is shifting while two people fight that may be the best fight sequence I have ever seen. If you liked the Matrix prepare to fall in love with Inception. If you thought the Matrix was over hyped and kinda dumb, prepare to thank your lucky stars that a far superior movie will now be the talk of geeks everywhere. Run, don't walk, to your nearest theater and get your ticket, you won't regret it a single dime.

Sex and the City 2

It is hard for me to differentiate my feeling for this movie from my feelings about how I watched this movie. I had a blast watching this. I had great company (thank you Mrs. Hamilton), and we watched it in the middle of the night. It was like a high school sleep over, except instead of parents asleep in the next room it was husband asleep in the next room. I felt so rebellious and young. All that being said I cannot actually say that I liked this movie.

It started out well, with some SATC frivolity that viewers know and love. It was nice to see the characters that we have come to care about still thriving and fabulous to see Stanford get his day. Then we start to introduce the necessary problems that are required to make a plot. Charlotte is learning that it is hard to be a mom and not willing to admit it due to her drive to appear perfect. Carrie is not thrilled with her husband's desire to stay in at night. Miranda has a boss that hates her. All of these seemingly trivial items are what would typically be solved in a 30 minute SATC episode on HBO. But we are in a full length picture here people, we have to do something more.

This is where I think that lost us. They went to freaking Abu Dhabi, how could they not lose us. The introduction of this trip was very out of the blue, and then here we are 4 girls in the lap of luxury in the desert. While it was kind of fun to see the heights of luxury that they got to embellish in, it was a little ridiculous. The whole thing felt like an ad for tourism to the UAE. Each lady got their own fully section of a plane, and when they got to the airport each lady had a car waiting for them. Thats right 4 cars to drive 4 ladies from a hotel to an airport. Let's stop for a minute here, I am not the most eco conscious person that you will meet, but lets show a little restraint and responsibility here. BP is not flooding our ocean's with oil because they insist on drilling for something we don't need. Now I know the oil spill hadn't occurred yet when this film was shooting, but seriously a little bit of respect for mother nature couldn't hurt. The hotel suite they are in comes with full butler service, one butler per person. It's ridiculous.

Now I know what you are thinking, isn't Abu Dhabi a very conservative place? You would be right. Aren't these women very liberal women? You would also be right. While it may be true that the middle east is evolving and accepting more and more western practice, it is still a country with very strict rules and governance. The breaking of these rules with very little regard for the people who made them was upsetting to me. While Miranda read up on and practiced the laws of the nation, they were flouted by the other women. None so much as by Samantha. Now the movie is called Sex and the City so it is not surprising that sex does come up in the film. But flouting the local religion and laws is inexcusable and I was not surprised at all by the turn of events that occurred after Samantha hooked up with a complete stranger on the beach. The movie at first seemed to say come visit the UAE it is very nice and your western ways will be ok here, then it said don't come here people are judgmental and the men will harass you. Make up your mind and make your point. Don't waver like that, you just look dumb.

The film wrapped itself up nicely everyone is happy again. Truth be told the only person I liked in this movie was Miranda. She was the calm to every one else's storm. Charlotte just got on my nerves, you don't get to complain about how hard it is to be a mom when you don't have a job and you have a full time nanny. Samantha is just kind of a farce of herself in this film, at some point she will have to grow up. Carrie is a nag of a wife, and a weak person, I just wanted to shake her and say get over yourself.

Everyone said this movie was bad, but I watched it anyway. I am glad I did. There were a few great moments that I would have been sad to miss. I had a blast watching the film and got to feel like a high school girl again. Ladies if you must see this one please do not drag any men into the process of watching it. Trust me, this is not one to stand your ground on. See it with some gal pals, and preferably with some fruity frozen adult beverages.

The Calm of Cooking

This weekend has been a rough one in my household. We lost our dog of 13 years to a particularly nasty cancer. There wasn't a lot we could do for her, she was not digesting food and did not even have the energy to hold her head up for extended periods of time. I am not the kind of person that can sit around and watch people suffer, I have to fix things. I try to find the right words to help heal a heart, or the right gift to lift spirits. I am not good at seeing emotions and just allowing them to be unless they are happy emotions. The thing is that people need to have time to be sad and to embrace the mourning process. Please don't get me wrong I too am feeling all the hurt but I have always preferred to mourn in solitude. I have been distracting myself through preparing food.

Last night I went to the Commissary (I am staying with my parents on a military base and for those of you not in the know that is what we call the community grocery store) and they had croissants on sale. I bought 4 croissants and a pound of end meat chicken from the deli, I also got a jalapeno and a shallot. All this for less than $4, they may not have great selection but the prices cant be beat.

I used the chicken along with some left over rotisserie chicken to make a chicken salad. Tip for the quick cook, rotisserie chicken is great for chicken salad. Just let it cool off and you can really get every last piece of chicken off of the bone with very little difficulty and no burning of the fingers. I mixed the chicken with some mayo, mustard and sweet relish to make chicken salad. Usually I like to add a little mango chutney and curry power to chicken salad, and to give it some texture I use almonds, dried apricots and grapes. I did not have great access to ingredients so i left the salad with just chicken and dressing, but I did add some flavor with some Tony Cachere's seasoning (I swear this stuff would even taste good on ice cream) and some cumin. The cumin added depth to the flavor of the chicken salad and I really liked what it became.

The shallot, the jalapeno (minus the seeds and veins because my mom doesnt love spicy) went into my food processor with an avocado and 1 and a half small tomatoes. A little splash of lemon juice and a few spins in the food processor yielded fairly edible guacamole. I wasn't too thrilled with the dip, but my mom swears it is the best she has ever had. I definitely recommend utilizing the full spice of the jalapeno when making guac, the avocado is so creamy that it can stand up to the heat really well. I also forgot the lemon juice (lime juice would work just as well if not better) until the end and it turned an interesting shade of brown. The acid in the lemon juice keeps the avocado from oxidizing and will keep it that nice green color. I am not sure that I love the guac from the food processor, it was too homogenous. One of the great things about guac is the chunks of avocado, which even though I am allergic to I still find almost irresistible. So lesson learned, take the extra time and dice your peppers and onions so that you don't need the food processor. Also I liked using the shallot instead of a regular onion, I am not a fan of raw onions and the shallot still gave that onion flavor without hitting you in the face with it.

What I actually enjoyed almost as much as the cooking was setting the table for the meal. I put my croissants in a wicker bread basket, and the salad in a bowl. I sliced some tomatoes and ripped up some lettuce and left that on a plate and put it all on our lazy Susan. It was build your own chicken salad sandwich. For mine I chose sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper and then a big mound of salad. Delicious.

Dessert may have been my favorite part of this meal. I made strawberry shortcakes, but again I made them to be assembled at the table. Strawberries are in season here in Germany so we had a ton of them in the house. Quarter your strawberries, place them in a nice bowl and sprinkle them with just a hint of sugar. Place the bowl in the fridge and the strawberries will macerate, this just mean that their juices start to flow. It concentrates the flavor of the berry and gives them a nice sauce. I am not a believer in shortcakes on those prepackaged little cake things. I like mine on a biscuit. I know you think this sounds strange, but trust me. Get some flaky biscuits in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, you know the kind that you can peel off in layers. In a bowl place a thin layer of biscuit, then top with a few strawberries. Dont use to many here, three or four pieces at most. Repeat layering biscuit and berries until you reach the top of the biscuit. You want at least 2 sections of strawberries in the middle of your biscuit, preferable 3 sections. Here comes the weird part. I know you are thinking, hey lady the biscuit was weird enough, but trust me again here. Take some cream, like the kind you put in your coffee. Please, for your heart, dont use heavy cream here, half and half or whole milk will do nicely. Pour about an ounce of cream over your biscuit. Top with a generous spoonful of berries, and a dollop of whipped cream if you are so inclined, and you have a tasty shortcake that itsnt too sweet.

Hope you try some of these things in your culinary adventures this summer. Definitely take advantage of in season fruit like strawberries, the flavor cannot be beat.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is a stand out this summer. As a general rule sequels are worse than the original. Additionally three-quils are usually abysmal. This summer, however, we have a few rule breakers. Eclipse was phenomenal more on that one to come after I see it a second time tomorrow. Toy Story 3 was perhaps even better than the first one.

The story goes like this: Andy is all grown up now and heading to college. He has to decide what to do with his old toys. Through a series of movie misunderstandings the toys end up at Sunnyvale Day Care center. Here we meet some really fun new toys, like Ken. Sunnyvale turns out not to be the utopia everyone thought it would be so they have to escape from there and they end up at a dump. After some terrifying dump adventures they make their way back towards Andy's house. Sounds pretty basic right?

The beauty of this story lies in letting go. I truly believe that this story was made for a more mature audience. The original toy story debuted 15 years ago and this movie was definitely intended for those early viewers. We have grown up, our days are no longer filled with creating complex stories for our toys to act out. We have magazines and iphones and texting to occupy ourselves. It is time to let go of our old selves and embrace maturity. It is so easy to wax nostalgic about the easy times, before we got involved in a thousand extra-curricular activities and forgot about our inanimate best friends.

Parents should use caution when taking children to this movie. The Pixar label does not always indicate a movie for children. Younger children will enjoy the colors and the cartoons and may laugh at some of the physical comedy. Children who are more aware may be frightened by a good portion of this film. A young boy sitting behind me in the theater was quite petrified and wanted to leave the theater. There is a very creepy baby doll, monkey and clown that quite honestly even freaked me out a little. Parents should also know that the end of this film will make you cry. I literally boohooed like a little girl at the film's conclusion. But don't get me wrong here, if you like the toy story genre this film is for you. The story feels authentic and the scenes are fantastically created. I think I liked it even better than the first film, and certainly better than the second.

Fame

First let me please apologize to all two of you follow this blog. The end of the school year got a little crazy and honestly there were not very movies that I was excited to go see. Nothing really stands out in my mind as I am sitting here trying to come up with movies I have seen recently that deserve any kind of mention in the blog-o-sphere. I did however just finish watching a truly bad movie that I fell I must warn you about.

The 2009 version of Fame leaves a lot to be desired. Faithful followers will recall that I was urged to start this blog after watching a truly bad movie. I fell compelled yet again to mount up on my soapbox and spread the warning against this crime against bad movies.

Followers will also remember that I am a fan of "bad" movies, the movies that are predictable and cheesy and written to prey on the minds of teenage girls (and a 26 year old girl). Perhaps thats why I was drawn to Fame. It had all the makings of a truly great bad movie:

high school full of extraordinary students - check

singing and dancing - check

complicated yet predictable plot - check

a powerful theme song - check

What Fame lacked was the ability to cohesively tell any kind of story. It left you without any real victories. At least when I watch Step Up 2 : The Streets I get an ending that satisfies. They win the battle and gain the respect of the snooty dance school they go to - everyone celebrate and feel good. The end of Fame showed a few students graduate from high school. Thats seriously it. There were so many characters that it was virtually impossible to connect to any one person. Of the characters that actually achieved something, none of them were people you actually got to know through the film. The characters you actually really invested in stood on a stage at the end of the movie having no jobs coming and no real achievement through the 4 years that the movie tried to show you in under 2 hours.

One exception was the very stereotypical urban black man, Malik. His father ran out on them, mom works 3 jobs, sister was shot and killed in a drive by. He learns to accept the things that have happened to him and embrace them to become a better actor and rapper. Or at least thats what we are supposed to believe because his teacher is smiling when he raps near the end. Seriously Hollywood, aren't you tired of that. Why couldn't the kid with the rough life be the white kid, why couldn't his struggles exist with a father at home, why do you insist on perpetuating a stereotype that only teaches young people to accept it. Why not push the next generation of this country to not make judgments based on the color of a persons skin but on the caliber of their soul. Why do you refuse to let us out of our boxes, we are pushing on the walls and screaming for freedom yet you continue to pigeon hole our generation. My only solace is that it appears that very few people have seen this piece of dribble that you call a film. The generation of Americans that is rising up as I type this will hopefully continue to push and scream for new definitions of itself. Black doesnt equal fatherless, hispanic doesnt equal poor, and white doesnt equal entitlement. Quit trying to teach us that it does.

Remember Me

OK OK, you got me, I will admit it. I did go see this movie because Robert Pattinson is in it. Wait a second before you judge me though. I don't like Pattinson in Twilight, he is better than his insipid costar sure, but I am still not thrilled with him in these films. I did like him as Cedric Diggory though, and there are a few moments in Twilight where you see that he may have some depth as an actor. In this film he plays Tyler Hawkins, brooding poet living in a crappy New York apartment and chain smoking his way through life. No one does brooding quite like Robert Pattinson.

The rest of the cast is phenomenal. Pierce Brosnan plays Charles Hawkins, Tyler's distant business minded father. The always classy Lena Olin plays Diane Hirsch, Tyler's remarried and loving mother. Emilie de Ravin plays Alysa "Allie" Craig a college student aspiring to be a social worker specializing in criminal justice. Chris Cooper plays Sgt. Neil Craig, Alysa's overbearing father and investigator for the NYPD. Finally we have relative newcomer Ruby Jerins who plays Caroline Hawkins, Tyler's adorable little sister. Ruby was divine in this film and I hope to see her get more traction as an actress from this role.

The film follows the Hawkins family and the Craig family through a summer in New York, focusing primarily on Tyler and Allie. The movie starts on a NY subway platform where an 11 year old Allie is waiting for a train with her mother. As the train approaches two young men pull guns and take the mother's purse. They get on the train to leave but when the doors open one last time the shoot the mother and leave with the departing train. We first meet the Hawkins family at a graveside. We find out later that it is Tyler's older brother who died on his 22nd birthday.

The complexities of grieving family are something that could be endlessly studied. No two people grieve in the same way. When you get together more people all grieving the same thing but in different ways, things can get very tense. Some people try to hide from their grief, some embrace it and move on, some languish in their grief never willing to heal. Tyler and Allie find each other through interesting circumstances, but what I think bonds them is that they have both suffered great losses.

The film goes through the typical romantic comedy style interactions for Allie and Tyler. They meet cute, go on a clever first date with an activity aside from dinner. They flirt, the make out and they fight and break up. All of this you should expect. This movie is good for the parts of the film outside of this relationship. True, there are two incredibly hot make out sessions that are fast forward-to-the-good-part worthy. The films true charms, however, are in the little things outside of the main romance. Ruby Jerins portrays the artsy little sister with true panache. She makes you wish this little girl were real so that you could be her friend and mentor. If you watch this movie and don't want to crawl into the screen and give this little girl a hug and ask her about her drawings you must really dislike children.

Film watchers be warned, this movie requires a pack of tissues, it is not the stuff of summer romance that you might expect. Tyler's legal troubles that develop through the movie lead him to a fate that none could have predicted as Allie's father's world is turned upside down. The end of the movie is beautiful in the pain that in inflicts, you never see it coming, just like the real event.

Inglorious Basterds

I have already mentioned that I wanted to see the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars, it should be noted that I failed miserably. I managed to see 3 out of 10. I will eventually see most of them, but 10 is a big number. I did manage to see Inglorious Basterds before the awards show, and I am tremendously glad that I did. I wasn't sure how I felt about this movie going into it. I had heard that is was incredibly violent, and knowing Quentin Tarantino movies I didn't doubt this. I also thought that this would be a very sad movie, you don't often go to a WWII film and laugh your way through it. I watched this one because my roommate wanted to, and I ended up loving it.

The title of the film refers to a group of Jewish-American soldiers who tromp through Germany killing and scalping Nazis. This group is led by Leiutenant Aldo Raine, played by the brilliant Brad Pitt, a soldier from Tennessee. The Basterds are very good at what they do and their name is soon feared by all Nazi soldiers. The Basterds are a very violent group, and much of the film's gross out moments come when they are on the screen. The scalping, while disgusting, was not too bloody for me, the chicken, to watch. I did turn away when they took a bat to a Nazi's head but apparently it wasn't too terrible to watch. Another name among the Basterds is BJ Novak from The Office. His character doesn't talk much, but it was interesting to see him play someone very serious and stoic.

While the title of the film would indicate that the story is about these Basterds, I would have to say that the movie is only half about them. The rest of the movie is taken up by two brilliantly portrayed nemeses. Christoph Waltz won an Oscar for his role in this film as Colonol Hans Landa of the Third Reich. Col. Landa is known as the Jew Hunter among his peers, and Waltz does a stunning job of bringing out this man's true brilliance and creepiness at the same time. I truly hated this man while watching this film, and while I guess that is probably not hard to do while playing a Nazi I really believe that Waltz took it to another level. His nemesis is Shoshanna Dreyfus played by Melanie Laurent.

Col. Landa and Shoshanna first encounter each other in the dairy region of France when Landa slaughters her family and she narrowly escapes. This is our first glimpse of the relentless heartlessness of Landa. Shoshanna picks her life back up in Paris where she runs a relatively small cinema. Landa and Shoshanna are reintroduced when the Third Reich decides to hold a movie premiere at Shoshanna's theater and Landa is in charge of the security. The brilliance of these two actors is highlighted in a cafe scene where Landa goes on and on about putting creme on Shoshanna's apple strudel. The scene is so incredibly tense, you sit on your edge the whole time, yet really they are just talking about dessert.

The movie comes to a peak as we near the movie premiere. The movie is about Frederick Zoller a sniper that held down a town for the Nazis single handedly. Frederick, who plays himself in the movie called Nation's Pride, falls for Shoshanna. It is his idea to have the premiere at her cinema. The Basterds hear about the premiere from a prominent German actress, Bridget von Hammersmark played by Diane Kruger, who has turned against the Third Reich. When they hear that Hitler himself will be at the premiers the Basterds come up with a plan. The Basterds are going to go into the premiere with Bridget and with tons of explosives strapped to their ankles.

What the Basterds, and the Third Reich, don't know is that Shoshanna has devised her own plan for taking out the people in the theater. Shoshanna and her projectionist have a large collection of film as you would expect a theater to have. The upside for them is that at this time in history film is one of the most flammable items on the planet. They have enough to burn the theater to the ground.

I won't tell you how the whole things comes to an end because I really want you to see it. If you don't mind a little blood and a lot of tension, you will love this film. It's a good story, everyone loves to hate the Nazis. Brad Pitt is always talented, and you will definitely want to hear him try to speak Italian with his Tennessee accent. There is enough humor in this film to break up the tension and find that perfect balance of action and comedy.