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madhattertx
Reviews
Barry: 710N (2022)
Doesn't top ronny/lily, but best of this season so far.
This now ranks as my 2nd favorite episode of Barry. Only ronny/lily from season two was better in its complete craziness and laughs from beginning to end. I couldn't look away to see what would happen next. This remains one of the best shows on television with its excellent cast, writing and creativity.
Chef (2014)
A movie you want to like, but it stabs you in the back with a chef knife
I wanted to enjoy this film and have it live up to its hype, but I couldn't. I thought I might be watching a homage to food like "Sideways" was to wine, but the last minute was written like like Favreau was running out of ink or paper for his script. It starts out fine, but after the Chef is fired/quits/takes the night off after the bad review, he goes home and preps all this great food. I thought he intended to invite the critic to eat this food, but instead he goes back to the restaurant without the food and screeches at him at the top of his lungs. Wha? Then, I get the buddy/father/son road trip across country in the food truck. I'm thinking "Sideways"...then they get to LA and the last minutes of the movie derail this movie completely: the critic loves the food truck food a little too much & offers Chef a job at his restaurant. Wait a second: the owner of the first restaurant promised Chef total food control too & later changed their deal so Chef would cook only what the owner wanted. So, I thought the food truck was about having sole control again. Nope: chef decides to accept the deal and enter into another deal working for somebody else, just like how he started at the first restaurant. That makes no sense. The food truck vanishes in an instant to be replaced by the restaurant and we see the chef married to his ex-wife for only the sole reason that she inadvertently blurted out she loved her ex a couple minutes earlier in the film. Wait, what? This could have been a 10 movie, if only Favreau had focused on what the premise of the movie was supposed to be: a chef in love with cooking standing on his own two feet and succeeding. Instead, I'm left with the impression that this movie was more a statement about the good/evil of using social media (mainly Twitter). Maybe the movie should have been called "Cyberbully"?
Insidious (2010)
Not a bad movie though very derivative...
Starts out very slow with loud, annoying music and laughable credits. Essentially, the plot is a blend of Poltergeist, The Shining, The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror and other movies that deal with possession, hauntings and demons. I kept expecting Barbara Hershey to be playing the same character she did in The Entity...which this movie has elements of too...If you can get past all that, there is a good chunk towards the end of the movie that makes it at least interesting. I will warn you to turn down the volume on your surround sound system before the last scene ends or you will feel the makers of this film trying to ear and face assault you with their huge end title and screeching sound as the film ends.
Saidoweizu (2009)
Japanese interpretation of Rex Pickett's Sideways
I guess fair is fair considering all of Hollywood's remakes of outstanding Japanese horror films, but as a devoted fan of Alexander Payne's 2004 film and Rex Pickett's novel, I wasn't sure how well this effort would translate into Japanese culture.
The movie's start is plodding. There is a lot of narrative by the Michio Saito character to set up the story. I found his character truly unlikable, but then again, so was Miles to a lesser degree. The chemistry between Michio Saito and Daisuke Uehara was lacking, making it difficult to accept that these two were ever really friends. As the supposed ladies man Jack character of this version, Daisuke Uehara was pretty unbelievable.
All of the acceptable behaviors of Japanese society and culture are present in the film. The characters don't take on the American traits of the characters from the 2004 movie or Pickett's novel. Even when completely outraged or even angry (such as the revelation that Daisuke Uehara is fooling around while engaged to another woman), the characters show very little to viewers beyond raised voices to one another. There is no smashing of Daisuke Uehara's face by his unknowing mistress or screaming, crying and then running off.
The biggest omission for me in this movie is wine. The book and the movie emphasize the connection that wine has to the characters and especially Miles. Here, wine is more of a prop. Only one character has any real connection to wine and it isn't Michio Saito. He seems to enjoy the wine, but without the almost fanatical devotion shown by Miles.
It was an interesting effort, but one that I personally wouldn't care to view more than once.