Victoria - A one shot triumph

Victoria

Verdict: Must See
Streaming on Netflix

You probably haven't heard of the movie Victoria. It's a small independent movie with one big idea. It was all shot in one long take. That means they never stop. The actors, the camera man and the camera never stop. For about 2 hours the actors play out one long scene, which if it was a scene in which they were all trapped in one location would be difficult enough, but this movie takes it even a step further and takes this long scene through an entire city...crazy.

What is even more remarkable is that the story is even amazing. It stars a young actress named Laia Costa as, you guessed it, Victoria; who meets a group of guys outside a club. These guys take her on a party through the city and wind up in the craziest of situations. I don't want to say too much about it because the journey is the best part of the movie. Where these people end up and how they get there is the wildest ride and is only made better by the fact that it is all one shot. At one point they even ride bikes through the city which will seem like it was pretty easy compared to the crazy action that happens during this movie. I feel bad for the guy holding the camera, he got a heck of a work out shooting this film.

If you hadn't noticed, I love this movie, however it might not be for everyone. The first half hour or so is a little slow. They have to set up who the characters are and how they meet. There is a lot of standing around just talking, but believe me, you will want to keep watching. If you start to feel bored just marvel at the fact that they haven't stopped to use the restroom yet, which is especially nuts when you think about how much alchohol they seemed to be drinking.

This movie is worth seeing just for the spectacle of it, but it is also a really neat story about how crazy your day can go if you just said yes to someone who asks you to hang out with them. Watch the whole thing and thank me later. Let me know what you thought of the movie by commenting here or at Facebook.com/latetothepartyreview

Turtles and Parenting

No, this is not a review for the new Ninja Turtles movie. Although, I will say that I did not enjoy it. Sure, there were some laughs and pretty cool action scenes, but I would expect that most people my age that loved the turtles when we were younger to not like this one. Too many changes were made, which I vould list all day, but if you overlooked all that it is still not a good movie.

This is not a review however, it is more of a look at how awesome my parents were especially when it came to allowing me to embrace my nerdiness. 

It all started when i was five or six years old(probably younger, but it serves the story). My parents had taken me to the original Ninja Turtles movie. At some point in the movie, Rafael had left for some time and came back to find that his brothers were beat up or kidnapped or something (it was 25 years ago leave me alone). Anyway, when he saw this he went to the rooftop and screamed out "Damn!" Or "Shit!" (Need to rewatch for clarification). When he did that my five year old self stood up in my theatre seat and copied him, screaming "Damn!" or "Shit!" (I can't remember). My parents still bring up that story from time to time for a chuckle. So, when my mother took me to the theatre this time 25 years later to watch the  new Turtles movie, it was an awesome moment.

My parents have always fostered my nerdy side. We watched so many of the iconic nerdy movies together (i.e. Indiana Jones, Star Wars and The Matrix). They also bought me my first few gaming consoles. The Nintendo, then the Sega Genesis and the N64. My Dad even played sometimes. My mother enjoys watching bad Syfy channel movies. I love when we can watch or talk about them together.

I love who I am and it can mostly be attributed to my family who let me be the nerdy kid and even joined in sometimes. So, I ask you, how cool were your parents? Did they do nerdy things with you? Let me know in the comments. You can also yell at me about my terrible memory.

Girl Meets World Review

After watching the first episode of Girl Meets World, I'm worried. First and foremost, I have to realize, this is a pilot. Most pilots are terrible. If you want a great example of that, look up the non-aired version of Buffy the Vampire Slayers' pilot episode. (I would put a link, but it's difficult on my phone.)

Secondly, I need to realize that nostalgia will always be better than the real thing. I loved Boy Meets World, but going back and watching the first episodes of that you notice how much they don't quite hold up. (Still an amazing show overall. Smarter than you would expect if you ask me.)

So, this new show centers on Cory and Tapangas daughter, Riley, discovering her place in the world with her trouble maker friend Miya. The best moments of this first episode came from the parents Cory and Tapanga, along with the geeky kid Farkle annoying his teacher Mr. Mathews (remind you of anyone? Minkus)but that's probably my nastalgia kicking in.

The real problem, in my opinion, was the dialog. The writers were so determined in "teaching us a lesson" that they hammered the point accross so forcefully it came off phony and awkward. Anytime the kids talked it made me cringe. (Kids don't talk like that!) This show has suffered from the new disney format of television and that's exactly what I was afraid of.

It's not all bad. Aside from the parents, another character from disney past shows up and adds some funny moments to the show. Hopefully we will see more from this character (trying not to spoil it).

Overall, I'm not impressed and worried I will not like this show, but if I put aside my nastalgia for the last show, maybe it will settle into it's own world.

Prisoners Review - Don't take Wolverines children

                                           

How far would you go to save someone you loved? Prisoners, a movie about two girls who are kidnapped from their home and a father, Hugh Jackman, who will do anything to get them back, asks that very question. Although, for a movie that is two hours long, the writer/director never really explores the question. 

With strong performances all around, Jake Gyllenhaal's character, a police detective trying to solve the case, steals the show in my opinion. He plays a quiet tattooed detective, who is impeded every step of the way by Jackman's character who is driven by vengeance. 

Without spoiling too much, Paul Dano plays a suspect in the film who has the mental capacity of a 10 year old. So, being a suspect, Jackman takes Dano and tortures him trying to learn the location of the girls. Dano gives an interesting performance playing the menatlly challenged suspect who just gets beat up the whole time. 

This movie is purposefully dry and pondering, trying it's hardest to let the emotions from the actors speak for themselves, but when you have two hours of what most cop shows on television do in 42 minutes it is hard to stay entertained. With the main focus being on the emotional consequences of torturing someone, they never fully delve into it, they merely keep torturing the person and asking the audience, "Do you feel anything yet?". 

This seems like a negative review, however I actually enjoyed it as a whole. I think, however it would have been much more enjoyable at an hour and a half and it would have been better to show the emotional stress Jackman's character should have been going through and the effects it had on him.  

Restuarant Week and Tommy Bahamas

Today is the start of one of my favorite weeks of the year, restaurant week. Each year in partnership with Three Square Food Bank several restaurants around the Vegas valley offer specialty priced meals and a portion of the meal will be donated to Three Square.

Each year my husband Jon and I try to pick a new restaurant from the list to try out. Typically these are all restaurants that we can’t normally afford so we really enjoy partaking each year. Last year we opted to try out one of the newest Gordon Ramsey restaurants to hit the strip, BurGR. This year we decided to try Tommy Bahamas located at the Town Square shopping center.

Neither one of us had been to this restaurant before and felt it had one of the best selections with a sticker price of $20.14 per person. Overall the food was really good, the atmosphere was very relaxing, and the service was ok at best. This particular meal offered 3 courses and a few different selections in each course. For the first course the selections included Chicken Tortilla Soup, Coconut Shrimp, or Macadamia Nut Encrusted Goat Cheese. The second course offerings included a choice of Blackened Fish Tacos, Grilled Chicken & Mango Salad, or The All American Burger. Last but not least was the dessert course which offered a choice of Key Lime Pie, Triple Chocolate Cake, or Pina Colada Cake.

For the first course we both decided on the coconut shrimp which offered papaya-mango chutney along with an Asian coleslaw. The Asian coleslaw was the real surprise on this plate. It had cabbage, cilantro, lime juice, red onion, and some fried crispies similar to what you receive at Chinese restaurants.

For the second course I chose the Chicken & Mango salad while Jon chose the Blackened Fish Tacos. The Tacos offered a tomato relish, chipotle aioli, lime sour cream and was finished off with the same Asian coleslaw offered with the appetizer. I tried one of the tacos and they were really good. Picky eater Jon even liked them and surprisingly enjoyed the lime sour cream as well. He doesn’t like sour cream so when the tacos came out he was a little upset until he tried it. At first he didn’t even realize it was sour cream, but knew he liked it. The salad came with toasted almonds and macadamia nuts, dried blueberries, feta, pumpkin seeds, along with lemon vinaigrette. In my opinion the best part was the combination of the blueberries with the feta. I was really surprised by this combination. The blueberries offered just enough sweetness to offset the bite of the feta.

Last but not least was dessert. We both played it safe and selected our personal favorites. I enjoyed the key lime pie and Jon chose the triple chocolate cake. The key lime pie was your standard key lime pie and the chocolate cake was a very dense, rich, and large piece of cake. In the end Jon was unable to finish the piece he had. At the end of the meal the general manager came around and invited us to visit again offering us a free appetizer on our next visit. I am not sure when the next time we will be visiting but it was a very generous offer to end the meal.

Restaurant week will be running through Friday March 14^th and later this week the ladies of Very Awesome Girls will be checking out Culinary Drop Out at the Hard Rock Hotel. For more information and a listing of restaurants participating in restaurant week please visit www.helpoutdineoutlv.org.

Las Vegas Restaurant Week                                                Tommy Bahama TownSquare

Benefiting Three Square Food Bank                                   6635 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Suite 125

March 7th  – 14th                                                                 Las Vegas, NV 89119

www.helpoutdineoutlv.org                                                   (702) 948-8006                                                                                                www.tommybahama.com

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Gravity Review - Falls on its Face in Space

How much does hype affect movie experiences? I watched this movie on video after it was in theaters and had heard from several people who saw it in the theater that this movie was great. After seeing it, I think I know why they thought it was great and I didn't. 

Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is a movie about a team of astronauts working on a satellite when disaster strikes after the Russian government shoots down one of their own satellites and accidentally sends a lot of debris toward the American team. 

When the poop hits the fan this movie shines. All the scenes where things are blowing up, flying around, and there are a lot of little pieces on the screen is when I was most entertained. After all, this movie is darn pretty to look at. This movie is a technical achievement, however I think that is all it is. 

So, here is my problem. There is a point in this movie in which the director asks you to suspend your disbelief. This particular scene asks the viewer to completely forget about the rules of "Gravity" or lack there of and just go along with it. That was particularly hard for me. I don't want to spoil anything, but it was a pretty important scene. After that, I began to question every scene and it's logic. I kept saying to myself, "That wouldn't happen in space." or "That's not how Gravity works stupid!". I feel, that if you name your movie "Gravity" you should probably know how the properties of gravity work. This I feel is just another example of how American cinema is tailored to the lowest common denominator. It asks the audience to not think and just "believe what we tell you". There are some movies that can get away with that, like comedies, because its not supposed to make sense, it is just being funny. Gravity, however is trying to be accurate and realistic and fails. 

If you enjoyed this movie, that's great I'm not trying to call you dumb, you were just better at enjoying the action and Sandra Bullocks amazing performance better than me. I have to admit, if I had seen this in an Imax theater, I probably would have liked it more than I did. 

The Lego Movie Review - Everything is Awesome

I should really stop watching trailers. Movies would be much more enjoyable if you just went in not knowing anything. I feel like half of the jokes for The Lego Movie were in the trailer, however, (spoilers) I loved this movie. 

The Lego movie stars Chris Pratt as Emmett, the happy go-lucky Lego guy that stumbles upon the one Lego piece that could save all the Lego lands from the evil "Lord Business" played by Will Ferrell. He is joined by an all-star cast of characters including Morgan Freeman, the wise wizard, Elizabeth Banks, as Wildstyle the super spy "Master Builder" and Will Arnett who plays Wildstyle's boyfriend, "Batman". Joining the bad guy ranks is Liam Neeson who plays a good cop and a bad cop with a twistable Lego head with each cop on one side(It's hilarious). There are more celebrities in this movie to list, but they are all very entertaining and each one gets there time to shine. Will Arnett is my favorite part of the movie as "Batman". Lego Batman is more of a full of himself "cool guy" and I thought he stole every scene he was in(which was a lot). 

Every part of the story is another joke and nod, so I won't go into it too much, but what I will say is that the creators of the Lego Movie crafted(see what I did there) a wonderful world that melds real world with fantasy. It is brilliant. For example, the bad guy "Lord Business" is using the ultimate weapon called the Kragle to freeze the Lego world so he can have everything where he wants it. (Spoiler) You find out that the "Kragle" is just a worn out squeeze bottle of Krazy Glue where the only letters visible are KRAGLE. There are many more jokes like this which makes everything feel "real" and part of a complete world. 

Also worth noting are the visuals. The movie absolutely captures the look and feel of Lego. Even though most of the movie is computer generated the world looks like someone took the time to build everything out of millions of Lego pieces(That would take forever). Even when the characters need to build something you will see serial numbers pop up in the air of the actual Lego piece in real life(I'm assuming. Like I'm going to do research). 

If there was a negative I could say about this movie it would be about a sequence that happens at the end. I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say Will Ferrell tries to act serious and it just comes off as out of place. However, it has to be in there to serve the story. 

The Lego Movie has an all-star cast, hilarious jokes, stunning Lego visuals and a heartfelt story reminiscent  of a classic Disney movie. This movie is perfect for kids and adults alike and it teaches both that you don't have to take things so seriously and that everyone is special, just like this movie.