Country Kitchen, Cannon Falls - September 30

Her perspective: B+

We were seated immediately and the host asked us for our drink order. Our server was out shortly to bring out our drinks and asked if we needed more time to decide, but we were both ready.

I ordered the Country Scramble Combo and asked if I could get blueberry pancakes with it instead of plain. She said she could certainly do that, but did not say it would be an extra charge. I expected it would be, though, and I was right. I also asked for skim milk with the meal. William ordered the Barn Buster, which is a huge amount of food for $10.

Our food came out in a normal amount of time, and the only issue we had was that William's eggs were ever so slightly overcooked. Everything tasted really good. I had a hard time stopping eating, even though I was in danger if over stuffing myself. I simply could not eat it all. The server did check back, but it wasn't until we were about halfway through our meals, but other than that, she was very attentive and gave us what we needed when we needed it.

Everything was clean, including the caddy on the table, everything in it ( all the bottles, etc.) and the games they leave on the tables.

It was really refreshing to get good service and good food in the same place. It is such a change to what usually happens when we go out, that we were impressed by the normalcy of what we remember when we were kids. We will definitely be back - regardless of the 30 minute drive to get there.

TGIFriday's, Burnsville - September 28

I used to work at Friday's in Maplewood, so I know what the exact corporate standards are.

However, I'm getting very tired of writing bad reviews, so I'll just give this one a C- and move on...

Enjoy! Apple Valley, MN - September 8, 2012

Her perspective: C-

It started out well - we were celebrating our anniversary (since it falls on a Monday this year) and Enjoy! has 2 glasses of champagne and free dessert for your anniversary. We were seated promptly and greeted promptly as well. The server was quite friendly, went through the specials and got us our first drinks. We were thinking of getting both the crab cakes and the scallops (to try since Bill had never had them and I had not had any good ones) as appetizers. It turned out they had an appetizer sampler on the specials menu that had crab cakes, scallops, shrimp scampi and calamari. Quite pricy at $38 (as was everything else), but we decided to try it. The crab cakes and shrimp were quite good, the calamari was just ok and the scallops were pretty good, they just cooled so quickly, I only got a couple of bites. I didn't eat much of the calamari, either, but that was because I wanted to save room for the main course. When we pushed the appetizer plate to the edge of the table to indicate we were finished with it, our server asked if we wanted the calamari boxed up. Um, that doesn't reheat well...so, no.

William ordered the 8 oz filet with herb risotto, topped with herb butter. I ordered the filet/lobster special which is a 4 oz filet (prepared the same as William's), a 6 oz lobster tail, herb risotto and asparagus. I also asked for a side of bearnaise. When we got our meals, the food runner did not ask if we had everything we needed, and I, of course noticed right away that the bearnaise sauce was missing. I cut into my steak to find out it was quite undercooked. It was Medium Rare when I had ordered it Medium Well. I am usually not that picky, but since I am pregnant now, I have to be very careful about eating undercooked meats. It took me until after I was done with my lobster and William was done with his entire meal before I was able to catch our server's attention and by that time the risotto was cold. I sent it back and the manager came out shortly to ask if I wanted to order something else or if there was anything else they could get for me or if I was too full. I told him I just wanted the steak I had ordered in the first place as I was still hungry. I would have been perfectly happy if they had put that one back on the grill, done some new risotto and added a side of bearnaise, but they had already thrown the other steak away so they had no choice but to cook a new steak. Meanwhile, William had to sit there with no food, no drink (he was finished and no one asked him if he wanted another one) while we waited for my new steak and then would have to wait for me to eat it.

While we were waiting, our server stopped by to see if I wanted anything in the meantime such as getting our dessert and champagne. Huh? Why on earth would we want dessert before I had finished or even gotten the correction of my entree???

When I got the new steak, it wasn't even on a plate, it was in a rarebit (boat), so it was difficult to cut. It was tasty and the bearnaise was excellent, but I had to ask for a fork since they had taken mine with the undercooked steak. William finally got his second drink and predicted it would be really strong (to make up for my issues and him having to sit and wait for me), which was correct. He had to let it sit and dilute with the melting ice to make it palatable.

I had two bites left when our server came back to ask if he could get our dessert and champagne started. At this point, I really felt like we were being rushed out of there. I told him I wanted some more time since I hadn't finished my entree yet. I had just finished my last bite when - there was the server again - whisking my plate away and asking if he could get our celebratory champagne. I said that was fine, but I didn't expect him to order the desserts right then, though. It took about 10 minutes for him to get our champagne and, actually, the food runner arrived with our desserts about 2 seconds before the server arrived with our drinks. Since I was still a bit full from dinner, not having had any time to let that settle before the desserts arrived, I didn't eat much of the desserts which consisted of a small sliver of  cheesecake (which tasted like an oreo cheesecake blizzard from Dairy Queen), a tiny creme brulee (which had the consistency of room temperature butter), and a small square of tiramisu. The champagne was some cheap stuff that did not go well with those desserts. They need a lesson in food/wine paring, I guess.

We got to a point where the cheesecake and tiramisu were gone, but about half of the creme brulee remained,but we were done. Our server stopped by and asked us if we wanted the rest of it boxed up. Huh again? Creme brulee doesn't keep, folks.

Upshot is, we got the desserts and champagne for free for our anniversary and they took off my entire meal for the problems we had with it. Approximately $60 worth and our bill was still almost $100. Seriously overpriced: my filet/lobster meal was $42!

We might go back in a month or so to see if it's any better, but for this visit, we did not "enjoy."

Oh, and Happy Anniversary to us!

The Bourne Legacy

I'm borrowing this write up from another online source named Nate Z. He echo's almost exactly what I would have to say about the movie with just a couple edits of my own...

The Jason Bourne spy series has been a financial wellspring for Universal studios, so when Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (United 93) decided they had enough spy capers and hijinks, you can understand the studio's concern. They elevated Tony Gilroy, a writer from the beginning of the series, to director. Gilroy has done some well-received directing gigs of his own now (Michael Clayton), so his ascent made sense from a continuity standpoint. I did wonder how much liberty the studio was going to give him, whether he was going to be boxed in to a style that had worked for the series. I never knew I should have had bigger misgivings, namely that The Bourne Legacy would ransom its conclusion and force the audience to make Legacy a hit.

Apparently Jason Bourne wasn't alone. The C.I.A. has a team of six different super agents, each undergoing rigorous training and chemical alterations to their DNA via a series of daily pills. Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is out in the Alaskan wilderness when the C.I.A., led by Col. Eric Byer (Ed Norton) and Adm. Mark Turso (Stacy Keach), burn all their agents. They plan on starting over and that means eliminating all evidence of the spy program that gave birth to Bourne. That means Cross has to go as well. That also means the chemists and scientists working on the program must also be silenced permanently, and Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) narrowly escapes a workplace shooting. Cross seeks her out for her medical expertise. They both have a common enemy that wants them dead. Together, the duo heads over to Manila where Shearing's company manufactures the super meds and so Cross can become a permanent super agent.

What the hell did I just watch? I know it's labeled The Bourne Legacy, Universal's attempt to squeeze more life out of its successful spy thriller franchise. That part I get. What I don't understand is that the filmmakers are trying to extort the viewing public into granting a Legacy sequel. Let's cut to the chase. This movie has no ending. I don't mean a bad ending. This movie is completely absent an ending. Not just an ending but also a third act. It's like the filmmakers lopped off the third act and said, "If you want to see where this story ends up, you better get us a sequel." There is no resolution for ANY STORYLINE in the entire movie. None. The good guys are still scrambling, figuring out how to blow the big bad conspiracy. The big bad conspiracy is still alive and kicking. The patsy for their wicked shenanigans is still the patsy. There is nothing that can be construed as an ending. At least the Damon Bourne movies each had a beginning, middle, and end and tied up their film plots. Sure the characters carried over and there were some larger, overarching storylines, but at least those movies felt complete. The Bourne Legacy is badly incomplete, a gaping void of a third act, and a blunder that makes me question the sanity of the filmmakers. How could you make a big budget summer action movie and not provide any semblance of closure? When the Moby tune kicked in on the soundtrack, I sat stunned, pinned to my seat in disbelief. "No, it can't be over. They couldn't possibly just end things here." Oh, and they do. So enjoy 2/3 of a movie, folks.

With the anticlimactic end in mind, I now understand why the first hour felt so draggy. It's because they had to fill out a two-hour running time. Especially for the Bourne franchise, the first hour seems to really be paced lackadaisically. For an action movie, it sure takes its time to get going. I wouldn't have minded if I felt like we were setting up something exciting, but really the story is about a super agent who just wants to get his meds. He travels across the U.S. and the world so he can get his pills, and then he does, and then the movie abruptly ends. I'm simplifying matters in a crass way, I admit, but doesn't this storyline just feel a tad slight? Legacy also starts to feel like a retread when it comes to its plot mechanics. The C.I.A. is burning all their super spy agents through suicide pills. They are destroying everything before Congressional oversight can reveal their true dastardly deeds. But then we need an antagonist, right? So the government goons reveal they have a SECOND even more super secret program to train super assassins/spies ("It's Treadstone without the inconsistencies"). How far are they going to take this? Is there going to be a third super duper ultra secret level of killer spies? It's repeating the same steps the franchise has already taken, the expert spy vs. spy clashes, but now it's starting to get silly in a way the franchise had previously avoided.

The action sequences are serviceable but they're not any better than what the franchise has produced before. Cross has a few nifty escapes but nothing that reminds you of Jason Bourne's sheer ingenuity. What other man can take down bad guys simply with a rolled up magazine or a book? Aaron Cross just can't compete with that. The final motorcycle chase is nice but it just seems to be repeating the same danger with little variation. The best action sequence is actually a bit macabre. It involves a workplace shootout. To even call it an action sequence is a bit of a disservice since it's actually a tense and horrific scenario that is coming eerily all too familiar in the news. Weisz's character has to hide while her co-worker methodically guns down his fellow lab workers. Oh, and he also took off the door handles, making it dire for help from the outside to get inside. It's a horrific sequence that's played out to stomach-knotting levels of tension, as the dread slowly mounts and the pessimistic inevitability looms. Now, obviously Weisz was going to survive, as we know this, but the sequence still resonates with real, primal terror.

So what does The Bourne Legacy have going for it in its favor? Well the duo of Renner and Weisz is a pretty good pairing. Renner (The Hurt Locker) has been rolled out as the next thinking man's action hero, and he finds interesting depth to his spy character in a rather routine plot. But he's even better when he's onscreen with Weisz (The Constant Gardener). There's plenty of shouting matches and intensity but they have workable chemistry and Weisz's character gets to be an essential part of the spy heroics rather than a tagalong. I cannot fault the actors for the film's flaws.

I understand why the Universal suits felt like they needed to pump new blood into their lucrative Bourne franchise. After a while, an amnesiac super spy is going to hit a breaking point; he's going to run out of essential memories to recall (Bourne 5: where Jason Bourne gets back the memory that he does not like Indian food). I like Renner and Weisz. I even like Tony Gilroy as a director. What I do not like is only getting 2/3 of a movie. Whose bright idea was it to just lop off the third act and provide no resolution? The ending is so unbelievably jarring, so staggeringly incompetent, that I have to dock this movie major points. I can't say the ending out and out ruins the film considering I was only marginally liking it beforehand. The Bourne Legacy is proof that sometimes imitation is not the best substitute for ingenuity. Gilroy is no Greengrass. Cross is no Bourne. Legacy is no complete movie.

Nate's Grade: C+

Now, for my notes:

Cross could be as good as Bourne, but they need to really WORK on that to change the characters image/perception by the viewing audience. I'm not happy with Gilroy as a director, at all. I also agree that the 'end' of the movie, well, isn't. It's obvious to me that they are planning on a sequel, there can't be any other reason to leave the movie end like that, unless it was something like "Oh, wait! We're making the movie too long! Let's just stop it.... HERE."

He gave it a C+, I have to start with a C-. After the movie ramps up a bit (after the first hour or so), it is actually a bit entertaining as an action movie. You can see where some of the chase scenes (and parts of other chase scenes) are nearly duplicates of previous chases Bourne films (change a vehicle type here, or change the terrain there) but still, if you just sit back with a big bowl of popcorn it's not a bad flick.

I agree completely though that they spent way too much time on the build-up. I read another review that basically says Cross is a drug addict and is working through the whole film to just get more drugs. Well, yes he is trying to find more medicine or "chems" as they are called in teh movie. He needs it so that he doesn't revert back to his normal mental state of 'stupid'. Apparently the character had an IQ that was so low that in order to get into the military as a younger man the recruiter had to fake an IQ test and report his numbers as higher than they were. Part of the medical marvel that is Cross is that two certain and very specific genetic changes were made to him as part of his particiaption in this spy program, and without the chems he is desperately trying to get a hold of, those changes will go away. Think of a heart patient who is on an aspirin regimen everyday. The chems are the same kind of thing, and if he stops taking them then the changes go away.

I'd give this a C overall, but being this is supposed to be a continuation of-sorts of the Bourne franchise, I have to give it a D. So far at least it's not a very good follow-up film for Bourne. Yes they make some great and consistent tie-ins to the previous films, but this honestly doesn't deserve a Bourne title, unless it was something like "The Bourne Movie Clone Part 1" or something.

It's worth seeing in the theater I guess, but definately as a matinee or dollar theater show. After all the hype, it's not worth a full price admission.

The Amazing Spiderman

Not so amazing. I mean c'mon, we've seen all this kinda thing before. So you changed the web shooters and some of the origin story, still the same stuff.

And this is another one of those films that uses deleted scenes in the previews and TV commercials. I find that rather annoying.

Overall though it was enjoyable, even generated a few laughs from in some of the funny bits. Worth a matinee showing I guess, but not a full price admission and I doubt the 3D version is all that spectacular either.

Baker's Square, Apple Valley

Her perspective: C-

We were greeted and seated right away. Our server was a little slow to greet and seemed a bit nervous.

I ordered a Calypso Berry drink which was little more than water with a ton of garnishes and was not "sparkling" as it was supposed to be. I "sent it back" (it stayed on the table for the duration of our meal) and ordered a Mango Iced Tea, which was too warm to keep ice and too cold to melt sugar.

For my entree, I ordered the Monte Christo French Toast, with ham and Swiss cheese. It was pretty tasty, but needed syrup, which I had to ask for.

Every time the server checked back, our mouths were full, so I couldn't get another drink and had to ask at the register for them to take the drink off because we were still being charged for it.

The server was attentive, but because our mouths were full every time he stopped by, we were never able to give good feedback. Also, I got very tired if looking at the drinks that didn't taste good while eating my meal.

Marvel's The Avengers

Ok, I have to start this by saying that we're going to see this again in the theater. Not only because it was good, but because we missed some lines of dialog due to laughter throughout the theater at times. We're hoping we'll be able to get to a showing somewhere perhaps next weekend that won't be so packed with people and we;ll be able to hear. Second, we show this at the ShowPlace ICON theater, and the only showing available was in 3D. Now, the 3D in this movie is actually not overly noticeable. Not in a bad way mind you, it's just done in a way that seems almost natural. While you watching the movie, you almost forget it's in 3D (except for the glasses you're wearing). For me, those glasses tend to 'dim' the picture to a point that it's not nearly as bright or vivid as I'd like. So our second showing will be in 2D for sure.

Having said all that:

Must See, Must Own...   MUST MUST MUST!

I hope they get this to blu-ray before Christmas.

This is seriously one good movie. I'm not normally vocal at all during a movie. This one had me laughing, and at one point giggling like a school girl (there's are apart during the big fight when Loki faces off against the Hulk). I still giggle when I think about that scene.

This is one hot film. I'm not going to sum it up so I don't throw any potential spoilers out for folks since this is still opening weekend. Just go see it.

The Mezz Bistro Lounge, Burnsville Paragon Theater, April 1, 2012

Her perspective: D+

We were given VIP tickets and a certificate for 2 drinks/2 appetizers as a gift. We were given only 2 drinks and 2 appetizers to choose from. None of which looked particularly appetizing: xrated mojito or blue sno cone for drinks and roasted red pepper humus or island turnovers for appetizers.

William didn't want either drink, so I got 2 of the xrated mojitos and he ordered a coke. He was served a Pepsi, and was not told or asked if that was ok.

We picked the lesser of two evils for appetizer-the turnovers. They were rather bland, just a bit of spice, and one of them was obviously overdone (there were 4 on each plate). We also said that we just wanted one in case we decided to try the other one, but she brought out 2, completely disregarding what we asked for.

My mojitos were ok, a little bit of an odd taste because they added Malibu passion fruit and X-Rated Fusion to a traditional mojito.

The bartender came out and asked how everything was tasting. I replied that it was just all right and he asked William (whose mouth was full), standing there like he wanted him to hurry up and swallow so he could answer.

Overall, service is terrible, food is mediocre at best and the VIP seating is just balcony seating that you can bring food and liquor into.

The only redeeming quality is the decor, which is very nice. It's basically trying to be something it is clearly not and charging exorbitant prices to make you feel like you're in an upscale place.

We would return in the normal theater here, but after this second try for VIP, we will stick to the Icon Theater in St Louis Park.

This Means War

Saw this at the Showplace ICON Theater at West End in St. Louis Park, MN just last Saturday afternoon.

We did not get the VIP Reserved Seating as the film wasn't being shown in a theater with that option. Still, even the regular seats are quite comfy.


I had mixed feelings about this movie. Chris Pine is an up-and-coming actor, and he wasn't too terribly bad in this but I was constantly reminded of him in the Star Trek reboot movie. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of depth in his acting, but that's the kind of thing that develops with time and experience.

Tom Hardy was almost forgettable in this, he didn't seem to have as much screen time, or even the best lines in the film.

You may hate me/us for this, but Reese Witherspoon was a poor choice as the love interest for this film as well. She's not overly attractive, not a very good actress, and I couldn't see myself or anyone I know fighting for her affection. That said, her acting style seemed to fit the type of character she was playing.

Overall, the movie is a bit slow, and feels repetitive as you progress through the film. There are some genuinely funny bits in the film that got me laughing out loud, but overall it was a forgettable film. Maryanne had a similar reaction when we discussed it after the movie. There was potential for it to be much better than it was, honest. It just never got there.

To be honest, I had to go look up the show times at the theater website to remember the name of the movie. That should be a pretty good hint right there about how 'good' this movie was.

I'd Wait for this to come out as a rental, or a $1 theater somewhere before you see it unless you really like one or more of the actors in the film. It's just not worth full price in my opinion.

Fist of the North Star (1995)

Ever seen the movie? Not the animated series or any of a number of similar titled films, but the one at that we linked to here at IMDB?

Well, don't.

Red Lobster, Burnsville - Feb 6

Her perspective: C

5 minute wait on a Monday night when there were quite a few open tables.

We both ordered Cokes which didn't taste right and neither did the second round. We ended up with water.

I ordered the New England Lobster Bake, which is 3 petite lobster tails with potatoes and corn on the cob. When it arrived, I was informed that they ran out of corn, so she substituted broccoli and was that ok? I was wondering why she didn't ask me before it was made. Granted, that's probably what I would have gotten, it just irked me that she decided for me without checking. What if I was allergic to broccoli?

The lobster bib was unusable because it was melted together. It's a good thing I didn't need it. The lobster was quite tasty, soaked in garlic butter.

We observed several times when employees dropped garbage or napkins on the floor and it was several minutes before anyone picked it up.

Our dessert was obviously microwaved.

The server wasn't very attentive until we were at the end of the meal.

It'll probably be a while before we come back.