Star Wars: The Force Awakens was made, and made well, from top to bottom, by people that love Star Wars. Though heavy on the nostalgia, it skips today’s rampant “reimagining” and captures the fun and excitement of the universe while standing up as a modern movie. A great addition to the series.
Category: reviews
52 Word Review: Mad Max: Fury Road
George Miller pulled off an impressive feat with Mad Max: Fury Road. After a 30 year hiatus, he managed to craft a movie that is better in every conceivable way than the previous 3 installments. It’s everything an action movie should be: fun, fresh, relentless, uncompromising, and extreme but, perhaps most surprisingly, not dumb.
Boston’s Best Steakhouses
Hardly an exhaustive list, more of a work in progress.
Best
Better
Good
Avoid
52 Word Review: Watchmen
Watchmen is an adaptation of a comic series that should have been longer into a movie that should have been shorter. Action was slick and acting was much better than expected, but the story preserved the uneven pacing of the source rather than remedying it. A noble and ambitious attempt with mediocre results.
Vista: Day 600
So, I had meant to do this sooner, but here’s the follow-up to my 1-day update after 18 months of using Vista.
- I haven’t downgraded to XP, nor felt any need to. On the flip side I’m still running XP at home, and haven’t felt the need to upgrade.
- It hasn’t crashed. Nope, not once.
- The one vista feature I’ve grown to use is the “Start Search” box, which is basically a slower/simpler version of Quicksilver, but provides most of the functionality you need (i.e. finding programs and files you don’t use all day).
Well, that’s about it.
Oh, the Macbook I gave to Phil when I got the PC? He used it for a while, but after too many problems with it, he eventually had to go and buy a replacement (his 4th Macbook in 2 years).
52 Word Review: Step Brothers
Ferrell and Reilly redeem themselves for Talledega Nights in this one. Step Brothers starts OK, peaks in hilarity, then falters towards the end, but is the funniest comedy of the year so far. The most immature scene of the movie was also the first to have me in tears in a long time.
52 Word Review: Strange Wilderness
This movie was so uniformly bad I couldn’t even finish watching it. It’s basically a really bad Adam Sandler movie without Adam Sandler. It has people in it who have otherwise been reliably funny, so it’s difficult to fathom the odds of that many funny people making an entirely unwatchable movie. Wow. Horrible.
Gordon Ramsay & The White Barn Inn
I’ve lately been fortunate enough to eat at two amazing restaurants. The first was Gordon Ramsay at the London in New York City, the second was The White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport, ME.
Ramsay’s was quite simply the finest meal and dining experience I’ve ever had. Reeny is a big fan of his show, and I’ve watched it here and there, so I had some confidence he knew what he was talking about and that he had very high standards (important since he is not actually the chef there). The food was astonishingly good, from the artichoke soup to the Black Cod to the Kobe short rib, everything was A+. The highlight was either the soup or the scallop, both were so good it’s impossible to pick. The service was perfect too, we never felt like we were waiting nor did we feel rushed. If you’re even in NYC, make sure you visit this place, assuming you can make reservations two months ahead…
The White Barn Inn, a recommendation of Dina, was also memorable. While not quite as good as Ramsay, it’s easily the best place I’ve been to in New England. I opted for the lamb, Reeny for the beef, and both dishes were great as well as the other courses. The atmosphere is cozy, the service was very good, highly recommended when you’re down east.
52 Word Review: Superbad
Superbad, the newest Apatow -flavored flick, is yet another “high school is ending” teen comedy, but unlike too many of its predecessors, it’s hilarious. The humor actually masks the fact that it’s a well-written, well-paced story, so even if you’re too old to laugh at it, you’ll probably enjoy it.
52 Word Review: Eagle versus Shark
I went to see Eagle vs. Shark because I think Jemaine Clement is one of those inherently funny people. If you agree, you will probably like it. Otherwise it’s an “offbeat” Napoleon-Dynamite-style romantic comedy from New Zealand. What it lacks in hobbits it makes up for in Awesome clothes and nunchucks.