Chef

Written, directed and produced by Jon Favreau, Chef did not live up to my expectations.  It surpassed them.  This is a movie that follows the decline and rise again of the career of chef Carl Casper played by Jon Favreau.  Favs actually managed to get me to like Sofia Vergara which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Everything starts to fall apart for Carl when he receives a mediocre (at best) review from food critic Ramsey Michel who is played by the wonderful Oliver Platt.  That man is and forever shall be, in my opinion, the best Porthos in the history and future of Three Muskateers movies, but I digress.

With an all star cast which included Dustin Hoffman, Scarlet Johansson, John Leguizamo, and Robert Downey Jr, I honestly believed this movie would be good before I even bought the tickets.  I was wrong.  The movie is great.  It touches your heart in ways that I never thought a movie about food could.

John Leguizamo made my life in this movie.  I love it when he plays characters like this.  I feel like you get to see a side of him that he rarely lets out.

As for Marvin, played by Robert Downey Jr.  There could not have been a more perfect part for Mr. Downey.  I thoroughly believe that it was really just Robert showing up and being himself.  Marvin is off the wall and erratic and weird and that's the impression I get of Robert when he's not playing Tony Stark.  Or should I say Tony Stark when he's trying to convince everyone that he's really Robert Downey Jr?

Like the many fine meals that were prepared therein, this movie is a masterpiece.  If you love cooking, or even if you just love food, go see this movie.  I really did enjoy every minute of it.  And I loved the integration of social media into the film.  Gave it a real world vibe that you don't see much anymore.

Thank you, Jon Favreau, for making this movie and thanks to the people that helped bring it to theaters.  I will certainly be buying it when it becomes available.

And do stay for the credits.  There's a little behind the scenes moment right before the very end that is definitely worth the wait.  

Forget the men, I just want the cars

When people find out I am a Supernatural fan, the question is always asked "Would you rather have Sam or Dean?" to which I answer "Can't I just have Baby?"  That's right, I would rather pass up on both of the Winchester boys for a chance to ride in that car.  And that made me realize that it's kind of been that way my whole life, really.  As much as I would crush on the men in the cars, it was the cars I wanted more than anything else.

This is the car that started it all.  Maxwell Smart's 1965 Sunbeam Tiger.  Not only is it in one of my all time favorite colors, but it's a convertible too.  I loved this car so very very much.  I really hated it when they changed cars later on.  This one was my absolute favorite.  

My second vehicular love affair was the 1936 Auburn belonging to Remington Steele.  Yes, Pierce Brosnan buttered by bread back in the day, but it was that car that got my motor running.  Even though I was only like 10 at the time.  Didn't matter.  I wanted that car.  

And then there was KITT.  Voiced by the man who would later become Mister Feeny on Boy Meets World, this car was awesome.  A 1980s (not sure of the specific year) Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.  With all of those wonderful features that can only be found in the wonderful land of Knight Rider.  The car made me happy and I loved seeing it more than seeing Hasslehoff every week.  

I know that I have mentioned this before in my "Celebrity Husbands" post but it bears repeating.  The Ferrari 308GTS used in Magnum P.I. was a joy to me.  It's the only Ferrari I've ever actually liked, to be honest.  And it was a beautiful car.  Driven by a beautiful man.  And once again, a nice bright red.  

I can't talk about my love affair with cars without mentioning this beauty.  The 1983 GMC G Series that transported my favorite team of military criminals turned heroes.  I loved that van just as much as B.A. did.  And I was not the only one.  My dad had a 1977 Dodge van that he tried to paint to look exactly like the A-Team van.  It didn't work out well but he did try.  It was an awesome van.  

Of course I have to show Baby.  This 1967 Impala is the highlight of the show.  When the car that carries them around is an actual character in the show, you know it rocks hard core.  I actually feel worse about bad things happening to Baby than I do when Sam and Dean get hurt.  I love that car more than both Winchesters combined.  Hell, I love that car more than I love Crowley.  That should tell you something right there.  

And last but certainly not least we have my most recent vehicular love affair.  

The 1962 Corvette Convertible lovingly known as Lola.  I don't even car about all the fancy SHIELD gadgets in this car.  I would take her as is off the factory line.  Lola is a beautiful piece of machinery and I love her as if she were my own.  Clark Gregg is a very lucky man just for getting to sit in her.  Wonderful car.  

I'm sure there are more cars that belong on this list but those are the ones that are first and foremost in my mind.  Those are the cars that have made a lasting impression on me.  The ones that I would do anything to own.  

I should mention Christine in here.  The 1958 Plymouth Fury is a gorgeous car.  I think I didn't mention it originally because I've never actually seen the movie.  I just know about the beautiful car.  

Yet another beautiful red one.  I would own this car if I could.  I would own any of them if I could, honestly.  They're all amazing cars and I love them very much.  Almost as much as I love my daughter and certainly more than I love the people that drive them.  So there you go.  I would take cars over people any day.  Even one that is a demonically possessed killer car.  

Godzilla (2014)

This movie was very very good.  It did the old 1960's Godzilla justice, that's for sure.

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of details this time around because I feel like spoilers would just ruin your enjoyment of this movie.  I will say that the cast was amazing and did an excellent job.  David Strathairn always makes my life.

If Bryan Cranston does not get a million and a half awards for his performance in this movie I will be very, VERY upset with every kind of award issuing agency.  He was absolutely heart wrenching.  He needs to win everything.  Absolutely everything.

If you are a fan of the old rubber suit nonsense Godzilla you need to go see this movie because it is wonderful and I think a perfect addition to the Godzilla line up.  It's awesome.

Music hath charms to sooth the savage beast.

I found out today that the right music can make any day awesome.  So I turned on Pandora right when I got to work, which I do quite often when I'm taking out the trash and so forth, and it was playing what I call "Awesome Day Music."  The music was fun and I could dance to it and it was songs that I really like.  I don't remember most of them, but it was cool.

Also a lot of really awesome songs were playing on my iPod in my car.  Songs that I just have to sing along to like Techno Cumbia by Selena and other stuff.  Upbeat and fun.  Even some of the sad music that played still kept me in a good mood.

And all of this was going on while I was averaging less than $2 a delivery.  Today I took 9 deliveries and I only made $16 in tips.  But I am still in a good mood because I had amazing music to listen to all day long.

So there you have it.  Awesome music equals awesome day regardless of the actual events.

Spiderfoot!

So I am using this blog to plead for a little help for my friend comedian and painter Chris Bonno.  He was recently bitten by a spider and had some serious foot issues because of it.

http://www.gofundme.com/8wb23s

If you can please go there and donate.  It'd help him out a lot.  He's tried to help me with my fundraising campaigns and so this is the least I can do for him.

Thanks in advance peeps.

The Iceman

So I watched The Iceman today.  It's a very good movie.  A little on the strange side but what else can you say about a movie that is based on a book about a hit man.  The cast was amazing.  Ray Liotta tends to be very good at playing a dick.  I'm not sure why.  He just is.  And Winona Ryder did a wonderful job as well.  There were a lot of familiar faces in the cast that I don't know their names.

Michael Shannon plays Richard Kuklinski (say that five times fast) who is known as The Iceman.  He starts out working in the porn business and ends up being a hit man.  The story is a lot more involved than that and you really need to watch the movie to get it all.

Over all the movie was very good and I do highly recommend it.  Now, the main reason I watched this movie is because Chris Evans is in it.  Most people sit there and look at Chris Evans and think "He is Steve Rogers."  And I would agree with them.  But then I watched this movie.  In The Iceman he plays a fellow hit man known as Mr. Freezy.  This guy is sick and twisted and willing to kill children if necessary.  He works out of an ice cream truck and yes, he does occasionally sell ice cream.  Ice cream that he keeps in the same freezer as the bodies of the people he kills.  He freezes them so that the cops can't tell the time of death.  And not only does he freeze them, he dismembers them.  And seems to get a genuine joy out of doing so.

I think the worst part of this movie for me was how good Evans was at playing such a sick and twisted individual.  He was very convincing.  Scarily so.  He's just that good of an actor.

I know that I spent most of this review talking about one of the minor characters rather than one of the major ones, but all I can say is rent this film and watch it.  It's very good.  You won't regret it.

Bad Movies

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.