When I'd heard about "Julie & Julia", I was at first surprised that Meryl Streep would be playing Julia Child, but after I saw the trailer for the film, she actually looked terrific in the role. The movie sounded interesting, so I wanted to see it.
It's actually two movies in one, one following Julia Child during her experiences in France, based on her book "My Life in France" and another that follows a blogger named Julie Powell, who in 2002 decided that in one year's time, she would cook all the recipes in Julia Child's famous cookbook entitled "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and her blogging efforts were consolidated in the book "Julie and Julia".
Julia's husband Paul worked for the U.S. government, so he was stationed in many different countries, one of which was France. Julia didn't really have any kind of career or even hobbies really and was just looking for something to keep herself occupied. She happened upon cooking because she loved food, but she encountered a very snooty French woman in the cooking school who pretty much told her she'd never amount to any kind of cook simply because she was an American. Julia immersed herself in her cooking class, and while she had some difficulties to start with, she was determined to be good at it, and good she was. She then ended up helping to re-write a cookbook that was supposed to be designed to teach American women how to cook French food, which turned into the now-famous book.
Meanwhile, Julie has some issues of her own, and she decides to make a goal for herself. She's already a decent cook, but she decides that she's going to give herself a year in which to cook all the recipes in the French cookbook, and she's going to blog her experiences along the way. At first, she doesn't think anyone's reading, but her blog soon proves to be very popular, as she posts about the trials and tribulations of learning all the different techniques necessary to make all the recipes.
I really enjoyed this movie, and I liked following the dual tales. Of course, I knew who Julia Child was, but other than that she was a very famous cook and that there was that hilarious sketch on Saturday Night Live (I *loved* that they included that in the film) about her, I had no idea that she sort of happened her way into cooking. I liked seeing the development of the book and most particularly, I loved seeing the relationship between Julia and her husband Paul. I also liked following along with quirky Julie. I've heard that her depiction of herself in the book isn't particularly sympathetic, and that she's a bit more sympathetic in the film because of how Amy Adams portrays her, but I have to say, I did really like her. No, she wasn't perfect, and yes, she had her own flaws and melt-down moments. But that just makes her human. And I'm ok with seeing flawed, human people on screen.
It was also fun seeing her doing all that cooking, but I am really glad we had lunch right before the movie. Seeing that movie while even remotely hungry would have been torture. Speaking of torture, yeah, I'm a horrible person, but I found the lobster scene to be very amusing.
I thought the acting all around was stellar, led off by Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci as Paul and Amy Adams. I had seen the last film that Meryl Streep and Amy Adams were in together ("Doubt"), but this was obviously a much different story, and they don't even have any scenes together because of the structure of the film. The supporting players were good as well, including Julie's husband, Julia's cookbook co-authors and the other people they encounter. I liked seeing Mary Lynn Rajskub as one of Julie's friends, though she had a pretty small part with not much to do.
I absolutely *loved* that Julie's husband used the quote from Douglas Adams about the sound deadlines make as they fly by, and the fact that it was actually attributed to him. Who references Douglas Adams in movies? And how many people had no idea who he was when they heard that line?
I enjoyed the film enough that I'm actually interested in reading both books upon which the movie was based.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
rides from strangers
The past couple of months, I've somehow gotten to thinking a lot about the whole "don't accept rides from strangers" rule that kids are usually taught. And the same goes for picking up strangers, since you never know if random person you pick up is going to be an axe murderer or, even worse, someone who thinks that WDW's Fantasmic is better than DL's Fantasmic. They tell you not to hitchhike and also not to pick up hitchhikers because it's dangerous since you don't know anything about the other person or what their intentions are. ("The Hitcher", anyone?)
I wish there was a way to figure that out, because I have found myself on several occasions wishing I could safely offer a ride to a total stranger. The last time was a couple of weeks ago when I saw an older woman, maybe in her 60s or 70s, walking along the sidewalk and carrying two grocery bags which were obviously a little heavy. I assumed she was walking home from the store. It would have been really easy for me to just stop the car and offer her a ride. I wasn't in any big hurry to get anywhere, and I figure that if she was walking, she couldn't have been going too far, so it's not like it would have been completely out of my way.
On other occasions, I've seen people waiting at a bus stop in the pouring rain or the blistering heat, and I know that for a while at least, I'm going in the same direction as the bus they're waiting for, so it would be easy just to offer them a ride - they'd be more comfortable and it's not like it would be a hardship for me or anything to give them that short ride.
But then, I remember that no matter what they might look like, I don't know anything about them, and I'm not trusting enough to just give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't know what could end up happening, and it might just be that the first 99 times it happens, nothing bad comes out of it, they're happy to have had a stranger do them a favor, and I feel good about doing something nice for a stranger. But if something were to go terribly awry the 100th time I did it, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking that chance.
And on the flip side, I think I generally don't appear to be a sinister person, so I would probably look safe to accept a ride from, but again, looks can be deceiving, and they don't know that I'm not just going to kidnap them or do something bad to them once they get in my car. Who knows, I could be one of those decoys, someone who doesn't *look* like they'd do something bad, which is precisely who you want to lure people in so you can do bad things to them.
So I was trying to figure out if there was some way to build a car so that there were safeguards built in. There would have to be a separate compartment or something for the passenger to sit in so that no funny stuff could happen. Both the driver and the passenger would have to have the ability to separate the passenger from the car, so the driver can't kidnap the passenger against his/her will, and the passenger can't refuse to leave the car if the driver wants him/her out, so maybe some kind of detachable sidecar that has some kind of mechanism for control so that even if the passenger gets all creepy, and the driver detaches the sidecar, the sidecar doesn't just go careening into traffic - it would have to be able to be steered and stopped in a reasonably short amount of time. But then, that might be expensive for the driver, because now, they need a new sidecar, which I expect would cost a bit to replace.
So every time something happens that brings this dilemma back into my head, I try to figure out a way to make it work, and so far, FAIL.
And while I've never picked up a total stranger, I will admit that I've accepted a ride from a total stranger.
When I was going to Cal, they were notorious for having limited student housing, and I didn't make it into any of the on-campus housing slots. Cal rented out a dorm in another college a city away (about a 30 minute city bus ride), so that's where a bunch of us Cal students ended up staying. The college was up a dead-end hill, and the bus stop was at the bottom of the hill, so before I had a car, I hated that uphill climb every afternoon. One particular afternoon, it was POURING RAIN. I think I had an umbrella, I can't remember, but I was getting soaked as I trudged up the hill anyway. A station wagon pulled up next to me, and a woman was in the front seat. She said she lived nearby and asked if I was going up to the college and if so, did I want a ride, because she saw me drowning in the rain and felt bad for me. The walk up the hill went past a number of houses, so I did know that it was a residential district. She looked nice and concerned, and she was driving a station wagon for goodness' sake - she totally looked like a mom with kids, though there were none in the car at that moment. I hesitated for a second, heard the warning in my head about accepting rides from strangers, but then remembered I was still getting soaked, so I thankfully accepted her offer. She drove me all the way up the hill and pretty much to the front door of the dorm entrance. I thanked her profusely, and she said she was happy to do it and drove off. Since we were heading up a dead-end road to the college, I figured it wasn't like she could just easily take off in a different direction if she had any nefarious plans to kidnap me. I was also sitting in the back seat, so she couldn't grab me and hold me, and I could pretty much just open the door and get out any time I wanted to, jumping if necessary, I suppose. All of that, plus her appearance and the car and circumstances flashed in my mind as I hesitated that second before I accepted. And obviously, everything turned out just fine. And no, I've never done that again.
But see, there are drivers and passengers who are perfectly nice people who don't have any sinister plans and who just want to offer a nice favor or who just might be the grateful recipient of a nice gesture - if only there was a sure-fire way to tell.
I wish there was a way to figure that out, because I have found myself on several occasions wishing I could safely offer a ride to a total stranger. The last time was a couple of weeks ago when I saw an older woman, maybe in her 60s or 70s, walking along the sidewalk and carrying two grocery bags which were obviously a little heavy. I assumed she was walking home from the store. It would have been really easy for me to just stop the car and offer her a ride. I wasn't in any big hurry to get anywhere, and I figure that if she was walking, she couldn't have been going too far, so it's not like it would have been completely out of my way.
On other occasions, I've seen people waiting at a bus stop in the pouring rain or the blistering heat, and I know that for a while at least, I'm going in the same direction as the bus they're waiting for, so it would be easy just to offer them a ride - they'd be more comfortable and it's not like it would be a hardship for me or anything to give them that short ride.
But then, I remember that no matter what they might look like, I don't know anything about them, and I'm not trusting enough to just give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't know what could end up happening, and it might just be that the first 99 times it happens, nothing bad comes out of it, they're happy to have had a stranger do them a favor, and I feel good about doing something nice for a stranger. But if something were to go terribly awry the 100th time I did it, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking that chance.
And on the flip side, I think I generally don't appear to be a sinister person, so I would probably look safe to accept a ride from, but again, looks can be deceiving, and they don't know that I'm not just going to kidnap them or do something bad to them once they get in my car. Who knows, I could be one of those decoys, someone who doesn't *look* like they'd do something bad, which is precisely who you want to lure people in so you can do bad things to them.
So I was trying to figure out if there was some way to build a car so that there were safeguards built in. There would have to be a separate compartment or something for the passenger to sit in so that no funny stuff could happen. Both the driver and the passenger would have to have the ability to separate the passenger from the car, so the driver can't kidnap the passenger against his/her will, and the passenger can't refuse to leave the car if the driver wants him/her out, so maybe some kind of detachable sidecar that has some kind of mechanism for control so that even if the passenger gets all creepy, and the driver detaches the sidecar, the sidecar doesn't just go careening into traffic - it would have to be able to be steered and stopped in a reasonably short amount of time. But then, that might be expensive for the driver, because now, they need a new sidecar, which I expect would cost a bit to replace.
So every time something happens that brings this dilemma back into my head, I try to figure out a way to make it work, and so far, FAIL.
And while I've never picked up a total stranger, I will admit that I've accepted a ride from a total stranger.
When I was going to Cal, they were notorious for having limited student housing, and I didn't make it into any of the on-campus housing slots. Cal rented out a dorm in another college a city away (about a 30 minute city bus ride), so that's where a bunch of us Cal students ended up staying. The college was up a dead-end hill, and the bus stop was at the bottom of the hill, so before I had a car, I hated that uphill climb every afternoon. One particular afternoon, it was POURING RAIN. I think I had an umbrella, I can't remember, but I was getting soaked as I trudged up the hill anyway. A station wagon pulled up next to me, and a woman was in the front seat. She said she lived nearby and asked if I was going up to the college and if so, did I want a ride, because she saw me drowning in the rain and felt bad for me. The walk up the hill went past a number of houses, so I did know that it was a residential district. She looked nice and concerned, and she was driving a station wagon for goodness' sake - she totally looked like a mom with kids, though there were none in the car at that moment. I hesitated for a second, heard the warning in my head about accepting rides from strangers, but then remembered I was still getting soaked, so I thankfully accepted her offer. She drove me all the way up the hill and pretty much to the front door of the dorm entrance. I thanked her profusely, and she said she was happy to do it and drove off. Since we were heading up a dead-end road to the college, I figured it wasn't like she could just easily take off in a different direction if she had any nefarious plans to kidnap me. I was also sitting in the back seat, so she couldn't grab me and hold me, and I could pretty much just open the door and get out any time I wanted to, jumping if necessary, I suppose. All of that, plus her appearance and the car and circumstances flashed in my mind as I hesitated that second before I accepted. And obviously, everything turned out just fine. And no, I've never done that again.
But see, there are drivers and passengers who are perfectly nice people who don't have any sinister plans and who just want to offer a nice favor or who just might be the grateful recipient of a nice gesture - if only there was a sure-fire way to tell.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Napa Rose - restaurant review (dinner)
Napa Rose at the Grand Californian Hotel in Downtown Disney (Anaheim) is one of our favorite restaurants, so when a friend wanted to have dinner there on her birthday, we were more than happy to join her. She'd been to Napa Rose many times before, but she'd never sat at the chef's counter, and she wanted to try it this time. Ummm, yeah, twist my arm.
The chef's counter has two seating times - 5:30 and 8:30 - so we decided on the earlier seating, which is just as the restaurant opens. I had met up with her about an hour and a half beforehand, and we spent a little bit of time inside DCA before heading to the restaurant. We were a little bit early, so we checked in and then waited in the lounge and chatted. The husband joined us a bit later, and shortly after that, we were taken to our seats - seats 5, 6 and 7 at the counter, which are between the food pass (where the food is delivered by the kitchen to the runners to take to the tables) and the dessert pass (where the desserts are delivered for delivery to tables. Napa Rose has an open kitchen, so those seats also overlook the meat and garnish stations and the dessert station. Seats 5 and 6 are generally where the husband and I like to sit when we go to Napa Rose.
The Executive Chef of Napa Rose is Andrew Sutton, and shortly after we were seated, he came by to say hello to us. I introduced him to our friend and mentioned that it was her first time at the chef's counter, so he welcomed her there.
The husband ordered sparkling water for us and still water for our friend. The last time I was there with another friend and we had the still water, it was actually bottled Smartwater, which I like and so was happy with. This time, I noticed it was Dasani, which I decidedly *don't* like, so I'll have to keep that in mind for future reference.
We all perused the menu and made our dinner choices.
Napa Rose has a special four-course menu called the Vintner's Menu that changes every week starting on Friday and usually features whatever is currently in season. On many occasions, that's what we end up ordering, though I'll admit that sometimes, I go in hoping I won't like the Vintner's Menu so that I can have an excuse to just order off the regular menu.
Following is the Vintner's Menu for the current week. I definitely liked the selections, so I decided to have that, but I'm not much of a wine person, so I skipped that. The husband also decided to have the Vintner's Menu but with the suggested wine flights. The friend decided to order off the regular menu.
Vintner's Menu from Friday, August 28, 2009 through Thursday, September 3, 2009.
At Napa Rose, when you order the Vintner's Menu, you also get an extra little taster course, referred to as "amuse bouche". We've noticed that if a significant portion of your party orders the Vintner's, then the entire table gets the amuse bouche, probably so that the others don't feel left out, and the little extra taster also engenders good will.
The amuse bouche this night was a watermelon cube with basil sorbet surrounded by melon froth. I think this is the first time that I've experienced where the amuse bouche was closer to a dessert dish than a regular food item, but it was quite good. The watermelon was crisp and sweet and juicy, and the basil sorbet was really, really good - the friend jokingly wondered whether she could get a pint of that to take home - and the froth added a little extra flavor. Very nice indeed.
The first course on the Vintner's was prawns with a side of halibut ceviche. The prawns were nicely cooked and seasoned (with a tamarind rub on part of it), and the ceviche was absolutely delicious. And the presentation of the dish was quite nice.
For a starter, the friend had decided on the zucchini blossoms stuffed with goat cheese. She really enjoyed the dish.
The second course on the Vintner's was a goat cheese tart topped with mission figs on duck prosciutto. The tart was very nice, and the fig added a really nice flavor to it. I love duck and I love prosciutto, so combine the two together - YUM!
Next up was a nice little gift from Executive Chef Andrew - Napa Rose's signature portobello mushroom "cappucino" bisque. If you really like mushroom, this is definitely something to order. There are lots of bits of mushroom at the bottom, and even the broth is rich in mushroom flavor - so much so that you can just smell it. I had been raving about it when I told the friend about the mushroom bisque earlier, so she had initially ordered that as her starter, but Andrew was listening in as the server was taking our order, and he had told her she couldn't order that because she was going to get it anyway because he was going to be giving it to her, so she had ended up ordering a different starter. So, we had known she'd be getting the bisque, but it was a nice surprise to get it ourselves as well. The serving was a taster portion of the soup - the appetizer portion is actually larger - but it's still a decent-sized tasting. And really, REALLY yummy.
The main course on the Vintner's was the Santa Barbara style barbeque tri-tip. After we got our courses, Andrew came by to explain what the Santa Barbara barbeque style was, and you could really taste the smoking in the meat. It was absolutely delicious and very tender, and the accompaniments went very nicely. The chili in the sauce also gave it a nice kick. The only "complaint" that I have about Napa Rose and the Vintner's Menu is that the entree portion is actually larger than it needs to be. The entree is pretty much the same size as a regular entree, but you've already had two courses (and the amuse bouche) at that point, not to mention dessert still to come. The tri-tip was four generous slices, and I ended up only eating two of the slices - I took the rest home.
The friend had chosen the duck breast for her entree. Andrew also explained how it was prepared and all the ingredients that were used in the marinade for the duck, all of which I've forgotten now, but it was pretty amazing. The friend loved her entree. She gave me a little bite, and it was indeed very tasty.
The dessert for the Vintner's was a root beer float shooter with root beer Baked Alaska. I am not a particular fan of root beer, but it did sound good, and I'm glad I had it, because it was quite nice. I had a drink of the shooter, and the root beer was quite tasty - I wish I could remember what kind of root beer Andrew said it was, and he mentioned that he quite liked it, because I would probably drink it myself. I ended up having the rest of it last, so by then, the ice cream had melted some, and drinking it was very easy - no spoon necessary. The float came with a rolled stick of white chocolate, but since I'm not a fan of white chocolate, I didn't eat that. The Baked Alaska was really cute when the dessert chef took it out of the freezer. It had root beer ice cream inside, and root beer granitas on top with root beer pearls on top of that. The husband referred to the pearls as "root beer ikura" because other than the color, they did look like ikura - raw salmon eggs used in sushi. It was a really delicious dessert all around.
Customarily, when you're celebrating a birthday, Napa Rose comps the dessert for the birthday person, so I wasn't surprised when the server, instead of actually bringing the dessert menu for the friend, just asked her what she was interested in for dessert. I had been extolling the virtues of their amazing strawberry ice cream earlier, so she decided to have that, coupled with a scoop of the mango sorbet. Her dessert came very nicely plated.
All during dinner, we enjoyed good conversation amongst ourselves and with the kitchen staff. From those seats, you have a very good view of what the chefs are preparing for the other diners in the restaurant - we noted that the walnut-encrusted rack of lamb and the short ribs entrees were quite popular. One of the line cooks working in front of us had various interesting things he was working with, and we couldn't always tell what they were, so a few times, we were able to ask him about them, and he very kindly answered our questions. There were a couple of things that the dessert chef was doing that I wanted to ask about, but she was so incredibly busy, and she was a little bit farther from us, so I didn't want to yell to her, and I didn't want to interrupt her work. We also had a chance to talk to Andrew about a few things, both related to the food and the restaurant itself as well as other related promotions.
It was another remarkable dinner at Napa Rose. They never disappoint.
The chef's counter has two seating times - 5:30 and 8:30 - so we decided on the earlier seating, which is just as the restaurant opens. I had met up with her about an hour and a half beforehand, and we spent a little bit of time inside DCA before heading to the restaurant. We were a little bit early, so we checked in and then waited in the lounge and chatted. The husband joined us a bit later, and shortly after that, we were taken to our seats - seats 5, 6 and 7 at the counter, which are between the food pass (where the food is delivered by the kitchen to the runners to take to the tables) and the dessert pass (where the desserts are delivered for delivery to tables. Napa Rose has an open kitchen, so those seats also overlook the meat and garnish stations and the dessert station. Seats 5 and 6 are generally where the husband and I like to sit when we go to Napa Rose.
The Executive Chef of Napa Rose is Andrew Sutton, and shortly after we were seated, he came by to say hello to us. I introduced him to our friend and mentioned that it was her first time at the chef's counter, so he welcomed her there.
The husband ordered sparkling water for us and still water for our friend. The last time I was there with another friend and we had the still water, it was actually bottled Smartwater, which I like and so was happy with. This time, I noticed it was Dasani, which I decidedly *don't* like, so I'll have to keep that in mind for future reference.
We all perused the menu and made our dinner choices.
Napa Rose has a special four-course menu called the Vintner's Menu that changes every week starting on Friday and usually features whatever is currently in season. On many occasions, that's what we end up ordering, though I'll admit that sometimes, I go in hoping I won't like the Vintner's Menu so that I can have an excuse to just order off the regular menu.
Following is the Vintner's Menu for the current week. I definitely liked the selections, so I decided to have that, but I'm not much of a wine person, so I skipped that. The husband also decided to have the Vintner's Menu but with the suggested wine flights. The friend decided to order off the regular menu.
Vintner's Menu from Friday, August 28, 2009 through Thursday, September 3, 2009.At Napa Rose, when you order the Vintner's Menu, you also get an extra little taster course, referred to as "amuse bouche". We've noticed that if a significant portion of your party orders the Vintner's, then the entire table gets the amuse bouche, probably so that the others don't feel left out, and the little extra taster also engenders good will.
The amuse bouche this night was a watermelon cube with basil sorbet surrounded by melon froth. I think this is the first time that I've experienced where the amuse bouche was closer to a dessert dish than a regular food item, but it was quite good. The watermelon was crisp and sweet and juicy, and the basil sorbet was really, really good - the friend jokingly wondered whether she could get a pint of that to take home - and the froth added a little extra flavor. Very nice indeed.
The first course on the Vintner's was prawns with a side of halibut ceviche. The prawns were nicely cooked and seasoned (with a tamarind rub on part of it), and the ceviche was absolutely delicious. And the presentation of the dish was quite nice.
For a starter, the friend had decided on the zucchini blossoms stuffed with goat cheese. She really enjoyed the dish.
The second course on the Vintner's was a goat cheese tart topped with mission figs on duck prosciutto. The tart was very nice, and the fig added a really nice flavor to it. I love duck and I love prosciutto, so combine the two together - YUM!
Next up was a nice little gift from Executive Chef Andrew - Napa Rose's signature portobello mushroom "cappucino" bisque. If you really like mushroom, this is definitely something to order. There are lots of bits of mushroom at the bottom, and even the broth is rich in mushroom flavor - so much so that you can just smell it. I had been raving about it when I told the friend about the mushroom bisque earlier, so she had initially ordered that as her starter, but Andrew was listening in as the server was taking our order, and he had told her she couldn't order that because she was going to get it anyway because he was going to be giving it to her, so she had ended up ordering a different starter. So, we had known she'd be getting the bisque, but it was a nice surprise to get it ourselves as well. The serving was a taster portion of the soup - the appetizer portion is actually larger - but it's still a decent-sized tasting. And really, REALLY yummy.
The main course on the Vintner's was the Santa Barbara style barbeque tri-tip. After we got our courses, Andrew came by to explain what the Santa Barbara barbeque style was, and you could really taste the smoking in the meat. It was absolutely delicious and very tender, and the accompaniments went very nicely. The chili in the sauce also gave it a nice kick. The only "complaint" that I have about Napa Rose and the Vintner's Menu is that the entree portion is actually larger than it needs to be. The entree is pretty much the same size as a regular entree, but you've already had two courses (and the amuse bouche) at that point, not to mention dessert still to come. The tri-tip was four generous slices, and I ended up only eating two of the slices - I took the rest home.
The friend had chosen the duck breast for her entree. Andrew also explained how it was prepared and all the ingredients that were used in the marinade for the duck, all of which I've forgotten now, but it was pretty amazing. The friend loved her entree. She gave me a little bite, and it was indeed very tasty.
The dessert for the Vintner's was a root beer float shooter with root beer Baked Alaska. I am not a particular fan of root beer, but it did sound good, and I'm glad I had it, because it was quite nice. I had a drink of the shooter, and the root beer was quite tasty - I wish I could remember what kind of root beer Andrew said it was, and he mentioned that he quite liked it, because I would probably drink it myself. I ended up having the rest of it last, so by then, the ice cream had melted some, and drinking it was very easy - no spoon necessary. The float came with a rolled stick of white chocolate, but since I'm not a fan of white chocolate, I didn't eat that. The Baked Alaska was really cute when the dessert chef took it out of the freezer. It had root beer ice cream inside, and root beer granitas on top with root beer pearls on top of that. The husband referred to the pearls as "root beer ikura" because other than the color, they did look like ikura - raw salmon eggs used in sushi. It was a really delicious dessert all around.
Customarily, when you're celebrating a birthday, Napa Rose comps the dessert for the birthday person, so I wasn't surprised when the server, instead of actually bringing the dessert menu for the friend, just asked her what she was interested in for dessert. I had been extolling the virtues of their amazing strawberry ice cream earlier, so she decided to have that, coupled with a scoop of the mango sorbet. Her dessert came very nicely plated.
All during dinner, we enjoyed good conversation amongst ourselves and with the kitchen staff. From those seats, you have a very good view of what the chefs are preparing for the other diners in the restaurant - we noted that the walnut-encrusted rack of lamb and the short ribs entrees were quite popular. One of the line cooks working in front of us had various interesting things he was working with, and we couldn't always tell what they were, so a few times, we were able to ask him about them, and he very kindly answered our questions. There were a couple of things that the dessert chef was doing that I wanted to ask about, but she was so incredibly busy, and she was a little bit farther from us, so I didn't want to yell to her, and I didn't want to interrupt her work. We also had a chance to talk to Andrew about a few things, both related to the food and the restaurant itself as well as other related promotions.
It was another remarkable dinner at Napa Rose. They never disappoint.
Friday, August 28, 2009
"Run for the Roses" by Dan Fogelberg
There are a lot of songs from Dan Fogelberg that are terrific, but the melody and feel of this particular song has always been beautiful to me. So, I'm dedicating it to a fellow Dan Fogelberg fan today. (Oh, and the video has pretty pictures of horses, too.)
Happy Birthday, Dodie!
Happy Birthday, Dodie!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
"Glee" - pilot episode spoiler review
I hadn't known anything about "Glee" until some friends of mine started talking about it after the pilot episode had been broadcast. I hadn't even known about the pilot and didn't really know what the show was about. After hearing more about the show from a particular friend and learning that the pilot was available on Hulu, I decided to check it out.
The show started a bit slow for me, but I think that's a problem all new shows run into because they have to set up the story and the cast of characters. The quirks of the various characters were a bit much at first, but as they started to gel, I liked the show better. Each of the characters was drawn with basically one particular identifying quality, but that makes remembering them easier, and while many of the characters are currently stereotypes, I'm hoping those get flushed out as the show progresses.
The main character in the show is teacher Will, who has come back to his old high school to teach and who ends up being the new teacher to run the glee club. His efforts are hampered by a lack of funds and a lack of resources but mostly, the perception that glee club is for losers, resulting in there only being 5 kids in the club. Will accidentally discovers that one of the football jocks (Finn) can actually sing and resorts to questionable tactics to convince said jock to join the glee club.
Will has problems at home as well, with an extremely high-maintenance wife, but life gets even more complicated when his wife announces that she's pregnant. Will initially decides to quit his teaching job to apply for the higher-paying accountant job that his wife has been pushing him towards, but when he sees that the glee club kids have put all their effort into putting on a show, he decides to stay and do what he loves instead.
I liked most of the lead characters, even the "bad" characters. The only exception is Will's wife, who comes off simply as a shrill spoiled brat who you basically just want to stuff in a box. I'm hoping that they give her some redeeming quality so that you can at least not root completely against her.
Much of the conflict is going to arise from the division in the school between the popular kids and the losers, with Finn being the tenuous bridge between the two.
The kids are fun to watch as they sing and dance, and there are some really funny bits in the show. But the show-stopper is the finale of the show, when they've arranged a version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". The lead singers are very good, and the backup kids aren't bad either. And really, it's a terrific song - how could you go wrong?
The songs really got me into the show. The use of Journey songs as well as REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" - ahhh, it's the 80s songs that I love so much!
I liked the show enough to give it a try when the regular season starts. The pilot will be re-aired on Fox on September 2, Wednesday at 9pm, which will be its regular time slot. The first episode of the season will then air on Wednesday, September 9 at 9pm. A friend who went to Comic-Con this year has already seen the first episode and was telling me about it, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
The show started a bit slow for me, but I think that's a problem all new shows run into because they have to set up the story and the cast of characters. The quirks of the various characters were a bit much at first, but as they started to gel, I liked the show better. Each of the characters was drawn with basically one particular identifying quality, but that makes remembering them easier, and while many of the characters are currently stereotypes, I'm hoping those get flushed out as the show progresses.
The main character in the show is teacher Will, who has come back to his old high school to teach and who ends up being the new teacher to run the glee club. His efforts are hampered by a lack of funds and a lack of resources but mostly, the perception that glee club is for losers, resulting in there only being 5 kids in the club. Will accidentally discovers that one of the football jocks (Finn) can actually sing and resorts to questionable tactics to convince said jock to join the glee club.
Will has problems at home as well, with an extremely high-maintenance wife, but life gets even more complicated when his wife announces that she's pregnant. Will initially decides to quit his teaching job to apply for the higher-paying accountant job that his wife has been pushing him towards, but when he sees that the glee club kids have put all their effort into putting on a show, he decides to stay and do what he loves instead.
I liked most of the lead characters, even the "bad" characters. The only exception is Will's wife, who comes off simply as a shrill spoiled brat who you basically just want to stuff in a box. I'm hoping that they give her some redeeming quality so that you can at least not root completely against her.
Much of the conflict is going to arise from the division in the school between the popular kids and the losers, with Finn being the tenuous bridge between the two.
The kids are fun to watch as they sing and dance, and there are some really funny bits in the show. But the show-stopper is the finale of the show, when they've arranged a version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". The lead singers are very good, and the backup kids aren't bad either. And really, it's a terrific song - how could you go wrong?
The songs really got me into the show. The use of Journey songs as well as REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" - ahhh, it's the 80s songs that I love so much!
I liked the show enough to give it a try when the regular season starts. The pilot will be re-aired on Fox on September 2, Wednesday at 9pm, which will be its regular time slot. The first episode of the season will then air on Wednesday, September 9 at 9pm. A friend who went to Comic-Con this year has already seen the first episode and was telling me about it, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Megan Fox's public service announcement
Many celebrities use their fame for personal reasons like restaurants and clothing lines and such, but since celebrities do have some influence on the public, many of them also agree to do public service announcements to draw the public's attention to important issues or to provide encouragement and support to those facing difficulties.
Megan Fox is one such celebrity who has agreed to use her influence to help kids in school who might be facing difficulties. Here's the public service announcement that she recorded.
In case there are any issues with the video above, here's the direct link.
Yeah, pretty awesome video, huh? :) I heard about it from the Kevin and Bean morning radio show, and I thought it was just too damn funny, especially since it's a promotion for the film "Jennifer's Body". I hadn't known anything about the film until I saw a one-sheet, and what caught my attention was not Megan Fox, but rather, Amanda Seyfried.
I *loved* Amanda in "Mamma Mia", and I like Megan Fox ok, so I was interested to hear that they were in a movie together. And then I found out it was a horror movie. I'm not really that big into horror movies, so I still wasn't sure, even though I was amused that it was written by the same person who had written "Juno".
And then last week, when we were at the movies, we saw the trailer for the film. And yeah, it looks like it has the regular elements of the horror genre, but it also has a *lot* of humour in it, which I really appreciated. Amanda looks really good in this too, and I could enjoy a chick fight scene or two between her and Megan. I won't be looking forward to the make-out scene between the two that is also purportedly in the film as much as a lot of other people, but it won't bother me either.
I was leaning a little more towards going after seeing the trailer, but I was still unsure - until I heard about this PSA and saw it for myself. That kind of wicked sense of humour is right up my alley, so I've decided I'm definitely going. Heck, I was the one (along with a friend) who wanted to see "Jason vs. Freddy", that the husband came with us to see, because I wanted to see if they did a good job with melding those two franchises.
For "Jennifer's Body", I'm just going to have to make sure that I have Teddy with me.
Here's the trailer for "Jennifer's Body".
Even though there are a number of stellar lines in the trailer, here's my favorite exchange:
And one of my friends who is (hopefully) reading this will know *exactly* why I find that so frickin' hilarious. ;)
Megan Fox is one such celebrity who has agreed to use her influence to help kids in school who might be facing difficulties. Here's the public service announcement that she recorded.
In case there are any issues with the video above, here's the direct link.
Yeah, pretty awesome video, huh? :) I heard about it from the Kevin and Bean morning radio show, and I thought it was just too damn funny, especially since it's a promotion for the film "Jennifer's Body". I hadn't known anything about the film until I saw a one-sheet, and what caught my attention was not Megan Fox, but rather, Amanda Seyfried.
I *loved* Amanda in "Mamma Mia", and I like Megan Fox ok, so I was interested to hear that they were in a movie together. And then I found out it was a horror movie. I'm not really that big into horror movies, so I still wasn't sure, even though I was amused that it was written by the same person who had written "Juno".
And then last week, when we were at the movies, we saw the trailer for the film. And yeah, it looks like it has the regular elements of the horror genre, but it also has a *lot* of humour in it, which I really appreciated. Amanda looks really good in this too, and I could enjoy a chick fight scene or two between her and Megan. I won't be looking forward to the make-out scene between the two that is also purportedly in the film as much as a lot of other people, but it won't bother me either.
I was leaning a little more towards going after seeing the trailer, but I was still unsure - until I heard about this PSA and saw it for myself. That kind of wicked sense of humour is right up my alley, so I've decided I'm definitely going. Heck, I was the one (along with a friend) who wanted to see "Jason vs. Freddy", that the husband came with us to see, because I wanted to see if they did a good job with melding those two franchises.
For "Jennifer's Body", I'm just going to have to make sure that I have Teddy with me.
Here's the trailer for "Jennifer's Body".
Even though there are a number of stellar lines in the trailer, here's my favorite exchange:
Amanda Seyfried's character: I thought you only murdered boys.
Megan Fox's character: I go both ways.
And one of my friends who is (hopefully) reading this will know *exactly* why I find that so frickin' hilarious. ;)
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Star Wars and Indy LEGOs!
Some new Lego sets in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes have been announced, and I think some of them are really cool.
This is a motorized walking AT-AT, which I think would be awesome to have, though I'm not sure about actually putting the thing together. I love all the little details and that it even comes with a dangling Luke!
This set depicts the Battle of Endor and comes with a lot of figures (including Ewoks!) and the glider and the chicken walker too.
Even though I'm not a fan of certain aspects of this film and this sequence, the Temple of Doom set still looks pretty spectacular. However, I think I might be tempted to just burn the Willie minifig...
Here's the link to the full list of new sets.
This is a motorized walking AT-AT, which I think would be awesome to have, though I'm not sure about actually putting the thing together. I love all the little details and that it even comes with a dangling Luke!
This set depicts the Battle of Endor and comes with a lot of figures (including Ewoks!) and the glider and the chicken walker too.
Even though I'm not a fan of certain aspects of this film and this sequence, the Temple of Doom set still looks pretty spectacular. However, I think I might be tempted to just burn the Willie minifig...
Here's the link to the full list of new sets.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tamaya Restaurant - restaurant review
I met a friend for dinner a couple weeks ago, and she took me to a new place that she'd discovered a little while previous. She knew that I was a fan of ramen, and she said this place had a ton of ramen choices, so she really wanted me to try it. For most ramen places I've been, they do indeed have a fairly good selection of ingredients that you can add to your ramen, so I figured another good ramen place to go to is always a good thing.
Well, when we got there, she had not been exaggerating. In addition to the customary soy sauce and miso choices of soup base, they had a couple of others as well. They also had more than just the normal choices of ingredients to have in your ramen. It actually took me a while to look through the menu at all the available choices, but I loved that the menu had pictures of most everything. I know some people find picture menus to be tacky, but I'm a fan because I like having the description and the visual, especially if it's something I'm not totally familiar with.
In addition to ramen, they also had some rice dishes, side orders, and random other dishes. They also had a "make your own ramen combination", where you could combine one of the ramen dishes with one of the mini dishes. They also had a set combination special for each month, and I ended up getting the special for August.
I had been looking at the chanpon (seafood) ramen because it came with a nice selection of seafood. The August special was the chanpon ramen with a spam roll. Now, I remember having spam as a kid, but I haven't had that stuff in years. I'm not a particular fan, though I'm not as adverse to it as some people. I do remember liking it when it was cooked hot in some things, but I'd also had it in other things that I decidedly did NOT care for. I had heard of spam sushi and decided it was *not* my thing. Well, my friend had had it before, and she said it was very good, and when I expressed my concerns, she said that wasn't how it tasted, so she ended up convincing me to try it. August set menu combo special it was.
I really enjoyed the chanpon ramen. The mix of ingredients was indeed quite good, and the broth was very tasty. I actually ended up liking the spam roll ok. I did dip it in soy sauce, and it wasn't bad. It's not something that I'd be racing out to get, and I'm not sure how often I'd get it as part of a combo meal, but I wouldn't be adverse to having it again.
My friend ended up getting a combo with the gyoza ramen and inari sushi. She enjoyed her meal as well.
For dessert, we ended up sharing an order of ice cream. Normally, it's a trio of vanilla, green tea and red bean, but they were out of the red bean, so we had one scoop of vanilla and two scoops of green tea instead.
The restaurant is on a corner location but while there is signage out front, I don't think it's necessarily an attention-grabber, so the place might be easy to miss. There's a small parking lot behind the restaurant, but there's also parking on the street. It's not a very large restaurant, but I liked it. The service was good, and our waiter was very nice. They were good about coming and refilling our water glasses. The decor is very casual, and since they weren't that crowded on this particular Saturday night, we sat and chatted for a while after dinner since we didn't figure they needed our table.
Tamaya Restaurant
645 E. Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-458-8388
11:30am - 9:30pm daily
second location
17142 Colima Road, #E
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
626-581-3223
11:30am - 9:30pm daily
Well, when we got there, she had not been exaggerating. In addition to the customary soy sauce and miso choices of soup base, they had a couple of others as well. They also had more than just the normal choices of ingredients to have in your ramen. It actually took me a while to look through the menu at all the available choices, but I loved that the menu had pictures of most everything. I know some people find picture menus to be tacky, but I'm a fan because I like having the description and the visual, especially if it's something I'm not totally familiar with.
In addition to ramen, they also had some rice dishes, side orders, and random other dishes. They also had a "make your own ramen combination", where you could combine one of the ramen dishes with one of the mini dishes. They also had a set combination special for each month, and I ended up getting the special for August.
I had been looking at the chanpon (seafood) ramen because it came with a nice selection of seafood. The August special was the chanpon ramen with a spam roll. Now, I remember having spam as a kid, but I haven't had that stuff in years. I'm not a particular fan, though I'm not as adverse to it as some people. I do remember liking it when it was cooked hot in some things, but I'd also had it in other things that I decidedly did NOT care for. I had heard of spam sushi and decided it was *not* my thing. Well, my friend had had it before, and she said it was very good, and when I expressed my concerns, she said that wasn't how it tasted, so she ended up convincing me to try it. August set menu combo special it was.
I really enjoyed the chanpon ramen. The mix of ingredients was indeed quite good, and the broth was very tasty. I actually ended up liking the spam roll ok. I did dip it in soy sauce, and it wasn't bad. It's not something that I'd be racing out to get, and I'm not sure how often I'd get it as part of a combo meal, but I wouldn't be adverse to having it again.
My friend ended up getting a combo with the gyoza ramen and inari sushi. She enjoyed her meal as well.
For dessert, we ended up sharing an order of ice cream. Normally, it's a trio of vanilla, green tea and red bean, but they were out of the red bean, so we had one scoop of vanilla and two scoops of green tea instead.
The restaurant is on a corner location but while there is signage out front, I don't think it's necessarily an attention-grabber, so the place might be easy to miss. There's a small parking lot behind the restaurant, but there's also parking on the street. It's not a very large restaurant, but I liked it. The service was good, and our waiter was very nice. They were good about coming and refilling our water glasses. The decor is very casual, and since they weren't that crowded on this particular Saturday night, we sat and chatted for a while after dinner since we didn't figure they needed our table.
Tamaya Restaurant
645 E. Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-458-8388
11:30am - 9:30pm daily
second location
17142 Colima Road, #E
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
626-581-3223
11:30am - 9:30pm daily
Sunday, August 23, 2009
"Alive in Joburg" - original short film
Further to my review of "District 9" yesterday, a friend mentioned to me last night that the original short film upon which the feature film is based, "Alive in Joburg", was available on YouTube.
I just watched the short, and it's really an amazing piece of work. I can imagine seeing that and completely being on board to letting him make a full-length film version of the story. You can see a lot of the same themes and styles that are expanded upon in the feature film. The actor who plays Wikus, the lead in "District 9", also has a small part in the short.
Here's the link in case you want to go there directly.
I just watched the short, and it's really an amazing piece of work. I can imagine seeing that and completely being on board to letting him make a full-length film version of the story. You can see a lot of the same themes and styles that are expanded upon in the feature film. The actor who plays Wikus, the lead in "District 9", also has a small part in the short.
Here's the link in case you want to go there directly.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
"District 9" - spoiler movie review
Going in to see "District 9", I really didn't know anything about the movie. For some time previous, I'd seen the billboards and bus stop ads and such about non-humans being spotted in places and to report them, or that they weren't allowed in certain places. I think maybe I saw a one-sheet at some point, but I'm not even sure about that. I don't think I ever saw a trailer in the theatres - I think I might have seen one TV spot, so I did know that it was about aliens on Earth who were pretty much marooned here. It looked interesting, and the husband really wanted to see it, so ok, we went.
However, we ended up going at a time that I hadn't really expected, so I was totally unprepared. We were out running errands for something else and then ended up going to the movie, so I didn't have Teddy with me. (For those who don't know, "Teddy" is a vampire teddy plush from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" who I generally bring to movies with me when I think there's going to be a lot of tense stuff going on. Since he's soft, I can grip him, saving me from ripping the husband's arm off. Teddy has come in quite handy on many occasions.) I had known that I'd need Teddy for this film, especially after I heard somewhere that the R rating was partially because of scenes of "bloody violence". And here I was, sitting in the theatre without Teddy. Uh oh. (Oh, and there's also "pervasive language". Yeah, they're not kidding. F bombs are dropped left and right pretty much throughout the entire film, sometimes in rapid succession.)
Luckily, since I'm currently carrying around a Vera Bradley purse, which is made of soft cloth, I ended up using that instead. Yeah, I'm sure it would have looked weird to anyone who would have been looking at me, as I was clutching my purse, but it sure helped.
It's a little hard to describe "District 9". Yes, it's a science fiction movie to some degree, but the aliens from outer space are really a plot device. The key is that they're "aliens", foreign to the world in which they find themselves, foreign to the people already living in that location. And to a large degree, people are afraid of and don't want to be around things that are foreign. Their home is very far away, and they look very different, and they speak a different language, but that could be true of many other cultures - theirs just happens to be on another planet.
The often documentary style of the film reminded me a lot of "Cloverfield", including the use of many hand-held cameras. Anyone who has read any of my reviews knows that kind of technique is not a friend to me, and yes, it did bother me in many cases. It wasn't quite as bad as in "Cloverfield" in that I actually watched very little of that movie because of the camera movements. I did see most of this film, though I did look away in parts where the jarring camera was exceptionally bad. But, as with "Cloverfield", I did understand the need for using that device, and it worked very well.
This film is based on a short film called "Alive in Joburg" which "District 9" director and co-writer Neill Blomkamp created back in 2005 which also incorporates much from the childhood that the director spent in South Africa during apartheid.
The movie starts off with an interview with Wikus Van De Merwe, a government official who ends up being our guide through the story. It's then revealed that an alien ship had arrived on Earth 20 years previously, stopping right over Johannesburg, South Africa. After some time, the ship was boarded by U.S. forces and alien creatures were found in squalor conditions. The survivors were moved to District 9, a cordoned-off section on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the aliens were housed in makeshift shacks.
There were many clashes between the aliens and local citizens, and there were many harsh feelings towards the aliens, not just for their presence alone, but for the money being spent to house them.
Government officials have created a new area, District 10, where they want to move the aliens to, which is further away from the populated city. It's advertised as being a nicer complex, but it's really a modern-day version of a concentration camp for the aliens. They decide they need to evict the aliens from their current abodes and come up with the preposterous plan of having the aliens sign forms agreeing to be evicted. Wikus is put in charge of the entire operation.
What starts off as an iffy proposition anyway turns worse when the aliens object to being moved. The government officials are accompanied by armed forces, who show no hesitation at shooting and killing the aliens when they deem necessary, and some of them even enjoy doing it. When one particular alien refuses to be relocated, Wikus decides to threaten to take the alien's child away under the guise of unsafe conditions.
Unbeknown to any of the humans, though, two aliens have been scrounging for the means to get back to their ship. Wikus happens upon the liquid that will power the alien aircraft hidden underground, and he is sprayed with the dark liquid when he opens the cannister. It turns out that the liquid slowly acts to turn him into one of the aliens, and for the remainder of the film, we see the effects on him as he deals with the bureaucracy that he was once proudly a part of, one that manufactures lies in order to cover up the atrocities that they're committing, including experimenting on and murdering members of the alien species.
I'm actually pretty glad that I went in to the movie with no expectations and with very little knowledge about the film. It was really an amazing piece of work, impressive beyond any description, pretty much all around. The acting on all fronts was stellar, good guys and bad guys and in between. I didn't find any of the storytelling to be heavy-handed, and I can't imagine the creators of the story and film didn't understand the significance of where they chose to set the film. The treatment endured by the aliens isn't all that different than the treatment endured by many other cultures who have been deemed by their surrounding society as being unworthy and beneath them. They're not being viewed as living creatures who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. They're like insects, further devalued by being affixed with the derogatory name of "prawns", because "that's what they look like". (The aliens actually reminded me quite a bit of the title character in the "Predator" films.)
Taking the journey through the film with Wikus was pretty interesting. He has no idea that he was really put there as a pawn by his father-in-law, who sees nothing wrong with lying to his own daughter about her husband, as long as it suits his purpose. Wikus shows complete disregard for the aliens, even as he tries to get their "signature" on his bogus forms.
One of the most disturbing scenes for me involves a building that Wikus comes upon. Yeah, it does look pretty disgusting in there, per human standards, but Wikus takes great pleasure in setting the building on fire, and he even makes gleeful comments that it sounds like popcorn with the little bits individually exploding inside. And he makes all of these comments with the greatest degree of joviality, after he has already explained that the building was actually a nursery that was created to feed the embryo of the aliens. The building he set on fire was housing the potential children of the aliens, and the "popcorn" sound he referenced was the sound of each baby alien exploding.
Wikus really does do some heinous things in the course of the film, but oddly enough, he comes back from that because of his own bewilderment and horror at turning into one of the aliens, especially after the government starts experimenting on him once they figure out that his now-alien left arm has the ability to make one of the alien guns work.
There's also this whole side-story having to do with Nigerian gangsters who are taking advantage of the aliens. It's an interesting story in and of itself and adds to the overall problems encounted by Wikus.
As much as he dismissed the aliens previously, Wikus ends up joining forces with one of them to retrieve the black liquid to power the ship. The alien has told him that if they go back to the mother ship still hovering above, he has the means to reverse the effects of Wikus' alien transformation.
Complications arise, though, and while the alien and his son are able to make it to the ship and back to the mother ship, Wikus stays behind to ward off the military forces.
I really loved the ending of the film, with it being already established that Wikus had made little things for his wife, and after all is said and done, his wife found a flower on her front step, made of metal petals. She wants to believe that Wikus made it for her, though everyone tells her it's impossible and that he's dead. They then show an alien while he was making the flower, and yes, it's very clear that it was Wikus in his full-alien form. As far as the alien and his son that escaped, there is debate about whether they've gone away for good or whether they will bring backup forces to wage war on Earth and to rescue their fellow aliens.
One of the things I really liked about this film is that it's not your normal aliens-come-to-Earth story. In most depictions, the aliens are the aggressors and are trying to take over the world, and the people are just trying to defend the Earth from them. In this film, the aliens aren't really that much different than a boat or plane of people who have crash-landed in hostile territory. The aliens are *not* human and so are treated as sub-human, even in a land where division of the races have been so horrible even in recent memory. It seems that there's always a hierarchy, someone who's the oppressor and someone who's the oppressed, some group of people (or in this case, creatures) that are considered undesirables and treated accordingly.
About the only complaint I had about the film was a small plot point that ends up needing to drive the story. The alien admits to Wikus that the process to reverse his transformation will take three years because now that he knows his own people are being held captive and tortured and experimented on, he needs to go back to their home planet to get reinforcements, and he will need all of the liquid for that and so can't spare any to help Wikus. I was surprised that he told Wikus this at that point rather than telling him once they'd gotten back to the ship. I would think he would have expected Wikus' outraged reaction at having to wait that long, though he perhaps wouldn't have expected Wikus to knock him out and take the ship.
The special effects in this film are fantastic. All of the aliens are CGI, but you can't tell at all. The effects were done by Peter Jackson's powerhouse company, Weta Digital.
I do think this is a terrific film, completely worthy of recommending to anyone, but I know that two factors - the genre elements of aliens and science fiction as well as the extremely graphic violence - will keep a lot of people away, and that's really too bad. I suppose that eventually, a version edited for regular television broadcast could at least reduce the violence, but in this film, the violence is actually intrinsic to the story. They very graphically show aliens, and people, being blown into smithereens by the various weaponry. But that's the nature of the disregard bestowed on the aliens as well as the consequences whenever the aliens decide to finally fight back. The scene towards the end when Wikus is saved from the military guy when aliens converge on them, and the aliens end up literally tearing the guy limb from limb is gross and violent and graphic, yes, but it's also vital to the story, of what that military guy has done to so many aliens, of the aliens finally being able to make a stand, and the transition that Wikus is making from human to alien, both physically and with regard to being in each world and culture.
I know someone who I think would really appreciate this movie, but she doesn't do the fantastical, so I've told her that if she can get past that the aliens are from outer space, I think she'd be ok, since the violence wouldn't really be an issue for her.
You don't often get science fiction films that are this thought-provoking. This is truly an amazing piece of work.
However, we ended up going at a time that I hadn't really expected, so I was totally unprepared. We were out running errands for something else and then ended up going to the movie, so I didn't have Teddy with me. (For those who don't know, "Teddy" is a vampire teddy plush from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" who I generally bring to movies with me when I think there's going to be a lot of tense stuff going on. Since he's soft, I can grip him, saving me from ripping the husband's arm off. Teddy has come in quite handy on many occasions.) I had known that I'd need Teddy for this film, especially after I heard somewhere that the R rating was partially because of scenes of "bloody violence". And here I was, sitting in the theatre without Teddy. Uh oh. (Oh, and there's also "pervasive language". Yeah, they're not kidding. F bombs are dropped left and right pretty much throughout the entire film, sometimes in rapid succession.)
Luckily, since I'm currently carrying around a Vera Bradley purse, which is made of soft cloth, I ended up using that instead. Yeah, I'm sure it would have looked weird to anyone who would have been looking at me, as I was clutching my purse, but it sure helped.
It's a little hard to describe "District 9". Yes, it's a science fiction movie to some degree, but the aliens from outer space are really a plot device. The key is that they're "aliens", foreign to the world in which they find themselves, foreign to the people already living in that location. And to a large degree, people are afraid of and don't want to be around things that are foreign. Their home is very far away, and they look very different, and they speak a different language, but that could be true of many other cultures - theirs just happens to be on another planet.
The often documentary style of the film reminded me a lot of "Cloverfield", including the use of many hand-held cameras. Anyone who has read any of my reviews knows that kind of technique is not a friend to me, and yes, it did bother me in many cases. It wasn't quite as bad as in "Cloverfield" in that I actually watched very little of that movie because of the camera movements. I did see most of this film, though I did look away in parts where the jarring camera was exceptionally bad. But, as with "Cloverfield", I did understand the need for using that device, and it worked very well.
This film is based on a short film called "Alive in Joburg" which "District 9" director and co-writer Neill Blomkamp created back in 2005 which also incorporates much from the childhood that the director spent in South Africa during apartheid.
The movie starts off with an interview with Wikus Van De Merwe, a government official who ends up being our guide through the story. It's then revealed that an alien ship had arrived on Earth 20 years previously, stopping right over Johannesburg, South Africa. After some time, the ship was boarded by U.S. forces and alien creatures were found in squalor conditions. The survivors were moved to District 9, a cordoned-off section on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the aliens were housed in makeshift shacks.
There were many clashes between the aliens and local citizens, and there were many harsh feelings towards the aliens, not just for their presence alone, but for the money being spent to house them.
Government officials have created a new area, District 10, where they want to move the aliens to, which is further away from the populated city. It's advertised as being a nicer complex, but it's really a modern-day version of a concentration camp for the aliens. They decide they need to evict the aliens from their current abodes and come up with the preposterous plan of having the aliens sign forms agreeing to be evicted. Wikus is put in charge of the entire operation.
What starts off as an iffy proposition anyway turns worse when the aliens object to being moved. The government officials are accompanied by armed forces, who show no hesitation at shooting and killing the aliens when they deem necessary, and some of them even enjoy doing it. When one particular alien refuses to be relocated, Wikus decides to threaten to take the alien's child away under the guise of unsafe conditions.
Unbeknown to any of the humans, though, two aliens have been scrounging for the means to get back to their ship. Wikus happens upon the liquid that will power the alien aircraft hidden underground, and he is sprayed with the dark liquid when he opens the cannister. It turns out that the liquid slowly acts to turn him into one of the aliens, and for the remainder of the film, we see the effects on him as he deals with the bureaucracy that he was once proudly a part of, one that manufactures lies in order to cover up the atrocities that they're committing, including experimenting on and murdering members of the alien species.
I'm actually pretty glad that I went in to the movie with no expectations and with very little knowledge about the film. It was really an amazing piece of work, impressive beyond any description, pretty much all around. The acting on all fronts was stellar, good guys and bad guys and in between. I didn't find any of the storytelling to be heavy-handed, and I can't imagine the creators of the story and film didn't understand the significance of where they chose to set the film. The treatment endured by the aliens isn't all that different than the treatment endured by many other cultures who have been deemed by their surrounding society as being unworthy and beneath them. They're not being viewed as living creatures who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. They're like insects, further devalued by being affixed with the derogatory name of "prawns", because "that's what they look like". (The aliens actually reminded me quite a bit of the title character in the "Predator" films.)
Taking the journey through the film with Wikus was pretty interesting. He has no idea that he was really put there as a pawn by his father-in-law, who sees nothing wrong with lying to his own daughter about her husband, as long as it suits his purpose. Wikus shows complete disregard for the aliens, even as he tries to get their "signature" on his bogus forms.
One of the most disturbing scenes for me involves a building that Wikus comes upon. Yeah, it does look pretty disgusting in there, per human standards, but Wikus takes great pleasure in setting the building on fire, and he even makes gleeful comments that it sounds like popcorn with the little bits individually exploding inside. And he makes all of these comments with the greatest degree of joviality, after he has already explained that the building was actually a nursery that was created to feed the embryo of the aliens. The building he set on fire was housing the potential children of the aliens, and the "popcorn" sound he referenced was the sound of each baby alien exploding.
Wikus really does do some heinous things in the course of the film, but oddly enough, he comes back from that because of his own bewilderment and horror at turning into one of the aliens, especially after the government starts experimenting on him once they figure out that his now-alien left arm has the ability to make one of the alien guns work.
There's also this whole side-story having to do with Nigerian gangsters who are taking advantage of the aliens. It's an interesting story in and of itself and adds to the overall problems encounted by Wikus.
As much as he dismissed the aliens previously, Wikus ends up joining forces with one of them to retrieve the black liquid to power the ship. The alien has told him that if they go back to the mother ship still hovering above, he has the means to reverse the effects of Wikus' alien transformation.
Complications arise, though, and while the alien and his son are able to make it to the ship and back to the mother ship, Wikus stays behind to ward off the military forces.
I really loved the ending of the film, with it being already established that Wikus had made little things for his wife, and after all is said and done, his wife found a flower on her front step, made of metal petals. She wants to believe that Wikus made it for her, though everyone tells her it's impossible and that he's dead. They then show an alien while he was making the flower, and yes, it's very clear that it was Wikus in his full-alien form. As far as the alien and his son that escaped, there is debate about whether they've gone away for good or whether they will bring backup forces to wage war on Earth and to rescue their fellow aliens.
One of the things I really liked about this film is that it's not your normal aliens-come-to-Earth story. In most depictions, the aliens are the aggressors and are trying to take over the world, and the people are just trying to defend the Earth from them. In this film, the aliens aren't really that much different than a boat or plane of people who have crash-landed in hostile territory. The aliens are *not* human and so are treated as sub-human, even in a land where division of the races have been so horrible even in recent memory. It seems that there's always a hierarchy, someone who's the oppressor and someone who's the oppressed, some group of people (or in this case, creatures) that are considered undesirables and treated accordingly.
About the only complaint I had about the film was a small plot point that ends up needing to drive the story. The alien admits to Wikus that the process to reverse his transformation will take three years because now that he knows his own people are being held captive and tortured and experimented on, he needs to go back to their home planet to get reinforcements, and he will need all of the liquid for that and so can't spare any to help Wikus. I was surprised that he told Wikus this at that point rather than telling him once they'd gotten back to the ship. I would think he would have expected Wikus' outraged reaction at having to wait that long, though he perhaps wouldn't have expected Wikus to knock him out and take the ship.
The special effects in this film are fantastic. All of the aliens are CGI, but you can't tell at all. The effects were done by Peter Jackson's powerhouse company, Weta Digital.
I do think this is a terrific film, completely worthy of recommending to anyone, but I know that two factors - the genre elements of aliens and science fiction as well as the extremely graphic violence - will keep a lot of people away, and that's really too bad. I suppose that eventually, a version edited for regular television broadcast could at least reduce the violence, but in this film, the violence is actually intrinsic to the story. They very graphically show aliens, and people, being blown into smithereens by the various weaponry. But that's the nature of the disregard bestowed on the aliens as well as the consequences whenever the aliens decide to finally fight back. The scene towards the end when Wikus is saved from the military guy when aliens converge on them, and the aliens end up literally tearing the guy limb from limb is gross and violent and graphic, yes, but it's also vital to the story, of what that military guy has done to so many aliens, of the aliens finally being able to make a stand, and the transition that Wikus is making from human to alien, both physically and with regard to being in each world and culture.
I know someone who I think would really appreciate this movie, but she doesn't do the fantastical, so I've told her that if she can get past that the aliens are from outer space, I think she'd be ok, since the violence wouldn't really be an issue for her.
You don't often get science fiction films that are this thought-provoking. This is truly an amazing piece of work.
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