Have you ever been willing to watch a bad movie because an actor that you love is in it? I have. I've done this several times. Hell, there are about 6 Robert Downey Jr movies that I've watched and really wish I hadn't. Two of them I actually turned off before getting to the end. One of them, Robert was actually the reason I stopped watching it. Though it had nothing to do with his performance and everything to do with the character. Okay, so maybe it had a little to do with his performance. But that's beside the point.
I have sat through some truly horrible movies for actors that I like. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan. They all have those movies that you just wonder what the hell they were thinking when they agreed to do it. And then you realize that at certain points in their careers, they were just happy to have ANY job. Eating tends to be pretty important and when you really need a paycheck, the saying goes "Any paycheck is better than no paycheck." and boy have those guys proven it.
I'm not going to list specific movies because everyone's opinions differ and the movies that I think are horrible, you might not think are bad. But it all comes down to, when I like someone I track down everything they've been in and I watch it even if it's bad.
I sat through In Dreams for Robert Downey Jr. With long, stringy, bright red hair. That's love, man. That's love.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Baby Cakes Mini Waffle Stick Maker
As I have said about this blog, I will review anything and everything that I feel like reviewing and right now I feel like reviewing this. THIS IS NOT A PAID ADVERTISEMENT AT ALL! I really wish I was getting money for this, but alas I am not.
So Walmart has this display with Baby Cakes stuff on it. There's a donut maker and a waffle stick maker and other stuff. I decided that I wanted to get the waffle stick maker because it was only $10 and I like waffles.
I used the Bisquick waffle batter recipe because that's what I happened to have around the house. That amount of batter actually made 32 waffle sticks. I used a tablespoon of batter per stick.
This waffle stick maker is very easy to use. You plug it in and it starts heating up. When the light turns off, it's ready to use. It has a nonstick surface which makes it easy to remove the waffle sticks. The instructions say 3-4 minutes for cook time but I have found that 2.5 minutes is just perfect for the batter that I use. I've used this thing twice and I love it. The cool thing is that you don't absolutely have to use a timer to tell when they're done. When you first close it up it starts steaming and making kind of a squealing noise that sounds like the batter is screaming in agony. Those of us who are weird find that amusing. Anyway. When the painful cries of the batter stop and the steam dies down to a minimum, then they're done. It's that simple.
I feel like I got a really good deal for $10 and plan on using this again and again and again because waffle sticks are great for breakfast or snack. If you like waffles that are easy to dip, I recommend getting one. Even a little kid could use this thing.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Review reboot)
Now that I have seen the movie three times and have had time to calm down from the awesomeness of it, I have decided to completely redo my review of the movie. I still believe that it should be called Captain America: OMG THE FEELS. That's not changed at all. But I am going to try to be a little less fangirly and erratic with this review.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
I do like the scene when we first meet Sam. It shows the lighter side of Steve. Or as my friends like to call him Captain Sassy Pants. He does have a good sense of humor and they don't show it enough in the previous movies, I think. Natasha's line about picking up a fossil is pretty good too.
I'm going to take a little side note here. Marvel has this uncanny ability to find actors that embody the characters they play. When I watched this movie, I didn't see Chris Evans or Anthony Mackie or Sebastian Stan. I saw Steve and Sam and Bucky. And that's the way it is with all of their movies. I do not doubt that they will have continued success for this exact reason.
We've started to see that Steve is getting a little annoyed with the way things are in this day and age. "I'm getting tired of being Fury's clean up crew" or something along those lines. I can't remember the exact line. He follows orders and does his job, but he's really starting to not like it. The mission goes as he planned, until he finds out that Natasha had a separate mission. When things go wrong and he is obviously pissed at her because of it, you can see the actual disappointment on Natasha's face. She hates that she made him mad.
I'm not going to lay out the whole movie minute by minute because it has been a few days since I last saw it and I want to just hit the major points. And there's the whole, trying to stay calm and rational thing. Which is a lot harder than you guys realize for me.
Anyone who didn't know that Fury's death was staged doesn't pay attention to Marvel behind the scenes. Samuel L Jackson was contracted for nine Marvel movies and if you don't count Iron Man (because the contract was after that) he's only done five. So I knew that he wasn't actually dead. The emotions that were played in that scene, though, were beautiful. Especially Natasha. It was like she was losing her father or something. Pretty powerful. And definitely above par for Scarlet Johansson.
Now on to Robert Redford. I have always admired him as an actor. I remember on my flight to Germany the in flight movie was The Sting. I haven't seen a lot of the movies that he's done, but the ones I have seen I have enjoyed very much. So seeing him playing Pierce just made me happy. Because I'm not used to seeing Robert Redford play a bad guy. Not a really, asshole bad guy. Maybe a bad guy with a heart of gold kind of thing. He did a beautiful job of making you think he was on the right side and then bam, you get the realization that he's not.
So now we come to the pivotal part of the movie. The real feels come out when Steve realizes that Winter Soldier is actually Bucky. Sebastian Stan did a wonderful job with those simple five words. "Who the hell is Bucky?" There's no emotion. No recognition. And that causes Steve to crumble. Just absolutely break. And it's scenes like these where I absolutely hate Chris Evans for being such an amazing actor. My heart broke right along with Steve's. It really did.
But, that wasn't even the most heartbreaking part of the movie for me. Bucky starts to remember. And never have the words "But I knew him" held so much feeling than they did in that moment. And the reason that scene is the most heartbreaking for me is because he knew that he was going to get his memory wiped. He knew that everything he'd started to remember would be gone. He knew that it was going to hurt like hell to have it done. And he just sat back and let them do it. Knowing everything that he would have to go through, he still let them do it. And that hurt me more than any other part of the film.
Now, like I said, I'm hitting on what I consider to be the most important parts. Yes, we find out SHIELD is infiltrated by Hydra. Honestly, I was annoyed by this. Hydra? Really? Of all the organizations out there they pick Hydra? And to find out that Hydra was responsible for Howard and Maria's deaths? I don't know. It just bothered me.
Quick mention of the flashback. The only real reason for this was the line "I'm with you 'til the end of the line." That's it. That's all they needed it in there for. But it was still a touching scene. Especially since Bucky knew that Steve wouldn't just come live with him without trying to pull his own weight. And you can tell by Bucky's suit and shoes that he's not much more well off than Steve. The suit doesn't fit quite right and the shoes are dirty. Best friends to the end.
And now we come to the final fight scene with Steve and Bucky. Bucky obviously doesn't remember that he's Bucky. And he's forcing Steve to do a whole bunch of stuff that he really doesn't want to do. You can tell that every minute of it is just breaking Steve's heart, even though he is defending himself. He didn't want to have to hurt Bucky, but he had no choice. And of course, Steve saves the day even though he's been shot like three times, one of which being in the gun through his back. But this is Steve we're talking about, right? And he's not just going to leave Bucky trapped. He has to save his friend. Because deep down inside there Bucky is still there. "You're my friend." "You're my mission." It's just so sad. But in the end, he does save Steve. Yes, he leaves him to bleed to death on the shore of the Patomac, but at least he didn't let him drown, right?
I knew as soon as I saw Mackie sitting where he was sitting in the hospital that the "on your left" line would make another appearance. I just knew that.
I would like to say that I really do love the fact that they had Fury still in a sling and Steve all healed up and looking perfectly fine. Their way of proving that Steve heals faster than normal people. I love that they did that. I really do. And now we have a general idea of what Cap 3 might possibly be about. Maybe this time they won't have Steve falling into some water at the end. I don't know.
Over all, I will say that this is the best Marvel movie to date. It is amazing and wonderful and completely enjoyable. Other than the whole Sitwell situation which I won't get into because it makes me mad. He's supposed to be Coulson's buddy! But anyway. So I highly recommend the movie and think that everyone should go see it as soon as possible.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
I do like the scene when we first meet Sam. It shows the lighter side of Steve. Or as my friends like to call him Captain Sassy Pants. He does have a good sense of humor and they don't show it enough in the previous movies, I think. Natasha's line about picking up a fossil is pretty good too.
I'm going to take a little side note here. Marvel has this uncanny ability to find actors that embody the characters they play. When I watched this movie, I didn't see Chris Evans or Anthony Mackie or Sebastian Stan. I saw Steve and Sam and Bucky. And that's the way it is with all of their movies. I do not doubt that they will have continued success for this exact reason.
We've started to see that Steve is getting a little annoyed with the way things are in this day and age. "I'm getting tired of being Fury's clean up crew" or something along those lines. I can't remember the exact line. He follows orders and does his job, but he's really starting to not like it. The mission goes as he planned, until he finds out that Natasha had a separate mission. When things go wrong and he is obviously pissed at her because of it, you can see the actual disappointment on Natasha's face. She hates that she made him mad.
I'm not going to lay out the whole movie minute by minute because it has been a few days since I last saw it and I want to just hit the major points. And there's the whole, trying to stay calm and rational thing. Which is a lot harder than you guys realize for me.
Anyone who didn't know that Fury's death was staged doesn't pay attention to Marvel behind the scenes. Samuel L Jackson was contracted for nine Marvel movies and if you don't count Iron Man (because the contract was after that) he's only done five. So I knew that he wasn't actually dead. The emotions that were played in that scene, though, were beautiful. Especially Natasha. It was like she was losing her father or something. Pretty powerful. And definitely above par for Scarlet Johansson.
Now on to Robert Redford. I have always admired him as an actor. I remember on my flight to Germany the in flight movie was The Sting. I haven't seen a lot of the movies that he's done, but the ones I have seen I have enjoyed very much. So seeing him playing Pierce just made me happy. Because I'm not used to seeing Robert Redford play a bad guy. Not a really, asshole bad guy. Maybe a bad guy with a heart of gold kind of thing. He did a beautiful job of making you think he was on the right side and then bam, you get the realization that he's not.
So now we come to the pivotal part of the movie. The real feels come out when Steve realizes that Winter Soldier is actually Bucky. Sebastian Stan did a wonderful job with those simple five words. "Who the hell is Bucky?" There's no emotion. No recognition. And that causes Steve to crumble. Just absolutely break. And it's scenes like these where I absolutely hate Chris Evans for being such an amazing actor. My heart broke right along with Steve's. It really did.
But, that wasn't even the most heartbreaking part of the movie for me. Bucky starts to remember. And never have the words "But I knew him" held so much feeling than they did in that moment. And the reason that scene is the most heartbreaking for me is because he knew that he was going to get his memory wiped. He knew that everything he'd started to remember would be gone. He knew that it was going to hurt like hell to have it done. And he just sat back and let them do it. Knowing everything that he would have to go through, he still let them do it. And that hurt me more than any other part of the film.
Now, like I said, I'm hitting on what I consider to be the most important parts. Yes, we find out SHIELD is infiltrated by Hydra. Honestly, I was annoyed by this. Hydra? Really? Of all the organizations out there they pick Hydra? And to find out that Hydra was responsible for Howard and Maria's deaths? I don't know. It just bothered me.
Quick mention of the flashback. The only real reason for this was the line "I'm with you 'til the end of the line." That's it. That's all they needed it in there for. But it was still a touching scene. Especially since Bucky knew that Steve wouldn't just come live with him without trying to pull his own weight. And you can tell by Bucky's suit and shoes that he's not much more well off than Steve. The suit doesn't fit quite right and the shoes are dirty. Best friends to the end.
And now we come to the final fight scene with Steve and Bucky. Bucky obviously doesn't remember that he's Bucky. And he's forcing Steve to do a whole bunch of stuff that he really doesn't want to do. You can tell that every minute of it is just breaking Steve's heart, even though he is defending himself. He didn't want to have to hurt Bucky, but he had no choice. And of course, Steve saves the day even though he's been shot like three times, one of which being in the gun through his back. But this is Steve we're talking about, right? And he's not just going to leave Bucky trapped. He has to save his friend. Because deep down inside there Bucky is still there. "You're my friend." "You're my mission." It's just so sad. But in the end, he does save Steve. Yes, he leaves him to bleed to death on the shore of the Patomac, but at least he didn't let him drown, right?
I knew as soon as I saw Mackie sitting where he was sitting in the hospital that the "on your left" line would make another appearance. I just knew that.
I would like to say that I really do love the fact that they had Fury still in a sling and Steve all healed up and looking perfectly fine. Their way of proving that Steve heals faster than normal people. I love that they did that. I really do. And now we have a general idea of what Cap 3 might possibly be about. Maybe this time they won't have Steve falling into some water at the end. I don't know.
Over all, I will say that this is the best Marvel movie to date. It is amazing and wonderful and completely enjoyable. Other than the whole Sitwell situation which I won't get into because it makes me mad. He's supposed to be Coulson's buddy! But anyway. So I highly recommend the movie and think that everyone should go see it as soon as possible.
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