Free Guy - Marcus Rosemount Theater

 I liked it.

I'd thought of this concept several years ago while playing an MMORPG called "City of Heroes". Plenty of NPC's in that game that all do relatively nothing. I liked the idea of thinking they had regular daily lives and routines they did when we players weren't looking.

That's kinda what this movie is about after a fashion. Really though its about two young programmers who sold their work to a bigger company to have it put up as an online game, only to see it get shelved. That company in turn took their work, built on it directly, and marketed it as their own online game. They didn't give credit, didn't provide royalties or acknowledgement of the prior work this was built on.

One of the programmers/creators works for the company now, the other is a paying customer of the game that has been searching through it looking for proof that this is their stolen creation.

In the midst of all this, an NPC in the game (non-playable character) is hoping for more from his life, to meet the girl of his dreams. This desire comes from the artificial intelligence programmed into the basic code of the game from the stolen program.

He eventually meets up with the second programmer in the game and together they search for the proof she needs.

I'm over-simplifying the story a bit, but that's the gist of it. It was a fun movie which I really enjoyed. It didn't take itself too seriously, didn't partake in any of the SJW or 'woke' crap that has been flying around for the last couple years (at least not that I noticed). It was a fun take on an alternate reality, both entertaining and fun. It was also easy to follow for people who aren't fluent in the gaming lingo.

Go see it, in the theater (if you can or feel comfortable doing so) before its gone. It's worth the ticket price.

I have seen it, will likely see it again in the near future, and will absolutely purchase this on disc and digital when its available.

Star Trek: Discovery - a Biased Review

After watching season one of Star Trek: Discovery the year it came out, I gave up on the show.

Lots of crying for a science fiction show, among many other problems.

After seeing several suggested clips on YouTube lately, I decided to give it another chance, so I started watching season two.

Still lots of crying, in every episode. Though there does appear to be a proper story to follow now, though it is slightly inept, pedantic, confused, and very hard to follow in places due to the way its been cut and edited. They also seem to be leaving out key bits of dialogue in places, forcing a viewer to either make certain assumptions to make the story flow or remain somewhat confused while the show moved past a key scene resulting in a lack of understanding for what follows.

It seems to me that the best way to watch this show is to turn off your mind and just let it flow. Don't try to absorb, analyze, understand or comprehend it. Just watch it.

So now it is background noise while I'm working from home.

That said, they take a great many liberties with established cannon and I find it disconcerting in many cases. They're effectively erasing or permanently modifying everything we've come to know about Star Trek since the 60's. I find myself annoyed and put-off by that.

I understand the need for them to create something new to garner and hold an audience, but the wholesale destruction of everything that came before it seems wasteful and short-sighted, and as has been seen over the last couple years has earned the ire of many fans of these shows as a whole. The other new series at least had the fore-site to take place in a future period, after the other shows we've all come to enjoy have ended. Discovery has inserted itself into an early Trek timeline, and introduces inconsistencies and issues into the established timeline as I mentioned earlier.

Also, there is an inordinate amount of crying by multiple characters. Something I find disconcerting actually because they use that so often it becomes meaningless and ineffective.

And of course season two of the show is heavily and repeatedly involved with one of the old Trek crutches: time travel. Whenever the previous Series' wrote themselves into a corner, they invoked time travel or another form of time manipulation to get out of it. Yes there were a couple good stories involving the use of time travel, but it seems Trek in general falls back on that trope again and again. Not saying it is a bad thing, but its been done so often as to become expected. Star Trek has gone from showing us all a possible Universe to showing us the different ways what we already know and have seen could play out.

That said, all of the different and varied changes to the timeline/s that Discovery heaps on us seemingly every week are a bit much to process and keep track of. Watching most the season two episodes, I find myself spending time trying to reconcile the differences between what I've seen or am currently seeing with what I already know as established Trek history. And while I'm trying to reconcile what they are showing me with what I already know from other shows, they're also effectively changing Trek history from what was already established in other previous shows, making it all that much harder to reconcile.

As I said earlier, I find it simpler to just not think about the show while I'm watching it. I treat this show as yet another alternative timeline in the Trek universe, having no effect or consequence on the other shows that I've seen in years past.

That said, I do enjoy some of the leaps in technology they have made since Enterprise and the Original Series, and from what I've seen in some of the YouTube clips i mentioned earlier, they're going to easily surpass any technology that has been seen in any Trek show or movie prior to it.

So now I find that at least for season two I do generally enjoy the show, though I must repeatedly remind myself that there are no consequences to come from it. It doesn't effect or change anything that came before it unless I allow it to in my mind. Much like the newer Star Trek movies are treated as the 'Kelvin Timeline', in my mind Discovery has become its own timeline and is writing its own parallel but separate history in the Star Trek Universe. That's the only way I can get this show to coalesce and co-exist with the other shows and movies that came before it in my mind.

UPDATE: a couple days later... I'm about finished with Season 3, and I must say that there are several parallels and mirrors of the Enterprise series episodes, at least the latter couple seasons seem to be that way. That said, I see the last season as more entertaining than the first two.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

 We never did a review of any Marvel films after Thor 2. So, by way of a correction for that we'll provide a brief entry here for each film to date.

Guardians of the Galaxy overall was pretty good. It was a bit slow in a couple spots plodding through some backstory, but that was required as the GOTG were a relatively unknown quantity when the film came out. That said, good film with nice action and stuff and it built on the Infinity Stone storyline.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was also a pretty good film. It had several issues itself, mostly involving continuity with the previous films, but ended up being a pretty good addition to the MCU. Ultron himself and the way he came about has had some controversy. Personally,  I don't see why all the other characters blame Stark for that as he and Banner had no success themselves. The AI in the Mind Stone didn't come out until after they'd left (most people don't see it that way however, but that's how it looked to several of us when we first viewed the film). It seemed to skim over a few relevant things, and also plodded along in a few spots, but overall was also a good edition to the MCU.

Ant-Man was just a fun change of pace. This didn't do anything for the Infinity Stone storyline, but was a pretty good introduction to a new character and pretty solid story in itself. A few scenes or situations seemed to be forced, put there more for convenience of the plot than anything else, but it was and still is an entertaining film and a nice little cap on the MCU Phase 2.

Captain America: Civil War threw a lot of things at us and left many details to follow and keep track of through the film. A few confrontations seemed very forced, especially at the end between Steve and Tony, but it set the stage for the fall of SHIELD of the Avengers splitting up. I would've tweaked this story just a bit to place Thanos or one of his agents behind that breakup as it serves to further his overall purpose in the end. This is essentially a self contained story as it doesn't affect the Infinity Stone story at all (beyond the fall of Shield and the breakup as mentioned). Good film, entertaining, and serves to introduce some new characters that we'll see again down the road.

Doctor Strange brought us another Infinity Stone, and brought another type of magic into the MCU. It was a mind bending and trippy film, but quite entertaining and something of a small spectacle to see. It too introduces more characters that we'll see again down the road, and served as a good vehicle to introduce them.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: This had nothing to do with the Infinity Stones, but was a fun romp around the galaxy. It brought us Quills' father and much info on his origin story and how he came to be where we see him now. It also gave us more backstory and development on other characters and groups within that area. And everyone loved little baby Groot.

Spider-Man Homecoming was the reboot we needed. It folded Spider-Man into the MCU rather neatly. We didn't get an origin story this time around as that was already covered briefly in Civil War, but to be honest we didn't need it anyway as its already been done to death in recent years. Good film, entertaining, engrossing to a degree. 

Thor: Ragnarok was something of a weird film, and that was attributed mostly to the Director. It brought us to a new world, brought us a new version of the Hulk, brought Loki into the fold somewhat, and was a pretty entertaining film. The ending seemed a bit rushed in my opinion with Thor and friends suddenly needing to get back to Asgard without delay, but then when you realize that the film takes place over only a couple of days (in MCU time) then that sense of haste kinda disappears. Good, fun, brought us loads of new locations and characters to enjoy.

Black Panther: Another introduction to new characters and locations that end up being key in latter films. It felt slow initially, but a rewatch shows it was actually just maintaining a steady pace for the first half. I didn't at all like how Klaw was treated in the film, relegated to a small part of the really big picture after all is said and done. He became more of a plot device than a character, but served his purpose pretty well. Awful waste of a good actor though. Still a good film that brings Wakanda and all it possesses into the MCU.

Infinity War. Geez, lots of things happening here, and it starts early. Everyone of the major characters we've seen in MCU films before this gets involved and stays involved, before many of them end up turning to dust at the end. The group of people we saw it with in the theater talked about it all for hours afterwards. It was a good film, and did very well at setting the stage for the second half.

Ant-Man and the Wasp was another stand-alone film, though at the end it tied itself to Infinity War. A pretty good film by itself, certainly rewatchable, but I found it slightly less entertaining than the first film. We get to find and meet Wasps' mother finally, and potentially make a new friend in the end (though to date we haven't seen her again).

Captain Marvel: I hat to say it, but this is the first film that felt off and weird to me. I'm familiar with the character already before seeing the film, so had some few expectations going in. That wasn't the problem for me though. Our lead actor seemed a bit wooden or one dimensional through the whole thing and it constantly threw me off. She was outpaced by other actors with more engaging scenes in almost every case. That said, and putting that criticism aside, it was also largely an entertaining film. It was fun seeing our favorite Shield agents from an earlier time, and getting to see the Kree at all (including a notable character from an earlier GOTG film). That all being said, the film felt a bit disjointed. It spent a lot of time an character flashbacks in lieu of actual character building, and that was disappointing on the whole. It did however clarify a few things we saw from the Infinity War film (for those people that didn't recognize them initially). 

Avengers: Endgame started quick and ended up in the death of Thanos within just a few minutes. Then it plodded through a 5 year time jump, after which we had to wade through a smelly sea of the characters trying to get the Avengers back together to pull an Ant-Man style robbery throughout time. After that though is what everyone has been waiting years for: The fight to end all fights. It wasn't a disappointment, and brought a bunch of things hinted at in earlier films to blossom, like Steve handling Thor's hammer like a pro. It also brought the ridiculously huge army vs army fight we all were begging to see at the end. We lost a couple key characters after it was over, but the film was well worth it. (if you can, check out the deleted scenes for an extra treat or two)

Spider-Man: Far From Home is almost an epilogue to Endgame in many ways, and we see Spider-Man finally accepting who he is, the responsibility that goes with it, and the consequences of that. Entertaining, though the 'false' plotline with Mysterio seems to drag on for awhile longer than it maybe should have. The reveal at the end was just about pointless as we won't be seeing Spider-Man in the MCU anymore after this (that was the agreement between Marvel and Sony). Still a fun film and I've watched it a couple times since catching it in the theater the first time around. It was also a semi-decent ending or closer to Phase 3.

And that brings us up to today, waiting on the start of Phase 4 with Black Widow coming sometime in 2021. We've also learned there will be a third Spider-Man film in the MCU after all, so we'll get to see the outcome of the ending from SP2. We know a second Doctor Strange film is coming, and Scarlet Witch (Wanda) is a big part of that one. We have Thor 4 coming, along with another Black Panther, Ant-Man, and GOTG as well. There are a couple other films slated in Phase 4, but we honestly don't know much about them at this point so we don't have much by way of excitement or expectation for them. We do know that another Captain Marvel film is coming, and we've heard rumors around that the main character has been recast as the first actress ending up being a problem for Marvel and Disney and they decided they just didn't want to deal with her and her crap any more ('m paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it). We're all-in for Phase 4 and can't wait to get started with it.

Wonder Woman 1984 (a.k.a. WW84)

Overall rating:  Don't Bother

Well then. It's been a long while since we've put up a review. Life has been busy for us, and the COVID Pandemic hasn't helped things at all.

That said, we were able to view WW84 over its opening weekend. As Maryanne put it:  "I'm glad we didn't pay for that." We were able to get a short trial of HBOMAX at no cost, and that allowed us to see this film at no cost to us. We did watch it beginning to end, and had a short discussion afterwards. Below is the general summary of that conversation.

Initially, I was a bit perplexed at some of the content in this film when compared to the previous/first film and other Wonder Woman appearances in things like Justice League. One of the first things that struck me odd is that WW had a job, lived in a nice apartment in town, went out and did things in this film. Previously (Justice League), she had said at one point that she withdrew from the world for about 100 years having lost faith in humanity. So if she withdrew, how is it that she's working at a museum and entertaining dates and relationships, going out and doing the hero thing week after week somewhere in the middle of that 100 years? 

Regardless of that, within this film itself there are issues. Diana wishes for Steve to come back, and he does so (unknown to her initially because of the McGuffin plot device) but is inhabiting some other guys body. I'm pretty sure that isn't what she wished for, and I say that because at other points in the film people make wishes on this oddball crystalline plot device and the wording of the wish is followed very specifically. She wished for Steve, not his soul or essence or whatever in another body. So its not consistent (and stays that way), and we noticed this very early on.

As the film progresses, we find that the Convenient Story is very convenient to the various characters' needs. The big bad guy is in the Oval Office at one point taking power from the President, and it just so happens there are poster boards on display about a satellite system that can take control of any TV or screen across the planet. Just what the big bad guy needs to do what he wants to do with the world, and rather conveniently on display for him at just the right time.

WW learns to fly. WW learns to make thing invisible, so we can easily get the Invisible Jet just when the characters need it. Before WW learns to fly, we see that her magic lasso apparently has enough mass in itself to pull her off the ground when she throws the end of it out into the air. Physics might have something to say about that. She can also apparently lasso lightning to swing around, which I guess maybe could be explained away as possible by her being a daughter of Zeus I guess. 

Steve Trevor, the love interest, is just about wasted in this film. Other than piloting the jet once and helping out in a fight as WW has slowly been loosing her strength, he doesn't do anything else and doesn't actually help the story along.

Our other bad guy, or bad girl really, is also essentially wasted. Minerva does several thing to help Diana and Steve move the story along just like any other background character would, but she is also supposed to be an antagonist in this story and she and WW have a fight at the end. That fight was almost laughable really, and something of a waste of film in our minds. 

The real antagonist, after almost destroying the world ends up suffering no ill consequence for his actions. None. This guy brought the world from a reasonably stable place to a near-holocaust in a matter of hours. And when the McGuffin plot-device is finally destroyed (which I'm also not sure about) everything (things, not people) goes back to normal. The crystal thing which had been abused by the big bad guy, doesn't reappear after he goes back on his wish (and we're pretty sure it should have). 

This movie was very long, and it felt that way. It was tedious, boring in several places, and overall not very engaging. We could go on for several paragraphs or pages about the problems with this film, and knowing that I'm not going to bore you with a the problems that exist in just about every scene of this film. They had a good premise, and with a few tweaks it would've been a good story that could've been turned into a great screenplay. None of that happened though, and instead we got this film. There were a lot of possibilities with this film, and I was hopeful at the beginning that it would actually go places and make sense. I was hoping that the initial online reviews were being overly critical and extremely picky over every single little flaw. Turns out many of those reviews were actually being somewhat gentle to this film.

I think I can sum-up our feelings on this movie in a simple statement:  2020 was a near-complete dumpster fire because of the pandemic, and reviewing this film gives me the same feelings that this year has been giving me. Boring, tedious, lacking any real direction or plan, with everyone hoping that next day (or in this case the next scene) will have some redeeming quality and improve things overall. 

I agree with Maryanne in that I'm glad this ended up not costing us any money to see. The Director (who was also a writer on this) either lost direction during the writing and shooting of this film (which could also be why there were so many callbacks for reshoots) or somehow lost control of the process early on in shooting, resulting a lackluster, boring, waste of time and money.

That's WW84. Not a film that we'll be buying on disc when (if) it comes out. Characters are either poorly fleshed out, poorly explained, or otherwise wasted over the course of the film. The plot itself makes some sense, but the story around that plot is precarious and relies heavily on people not understanding the plot (the whole 'suspension of disbelief' thing) and just going with it for the duration. We found several spots where the story and/or characters contradict themselves (back and forth in a couple cases) and it just destroyed any sliver of believability in the plot or story behind it.

The trailers for the film related the best bits of the this movie, and there weren't really any more good bits. Things happen or can be done in the film because they need to in order for the story to happen. WW discovers new powers and abilities within herself and things she carries. New props/items/things introduced in the film and up being near useless to the film i.e. the amazon armor she's been holding onto that was explained as being impenetrable ends up coming apart during the weak and uninteresting fight between the good girl and the bad girl near the end of the film. If the armor is that strong and capable, then why does the story destroy it? And inversely if the big bad girl is just that powerful, then why spend precious film time earlier explaining about how it was made and how strong it was? Simply confusing, and that is what most of this film breeds: confusion. 

The first WW film wasn't without some issues, but it had a solid story driving a good plot that resulted in an overall good film that served as a good origin story for the character. This film did nothing to service that, and I daresay it detracted from it in no small degree. 

And before folks start attacking me because I'm a guy and fear powerful women, you need to keep in mind that many above words came from Maryanne and I echo them as I feel the same about this film as she does. This review is about the film and story, not that actors or their politics.

Having said the above, I should note that I'm happy to see a mid-credits scene with Lynda Carter. It was a nice nod to the actress herself and the years she put in playing this same character, and I was happy to see it. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Marcus Rosemount Theater

I....  Well... I really wanted to like it.... But...


Must See In Theater (if your a big X-Men fan), otherwise rent it.

It wasn't bad really, but it plays a lot with history, even history kinda already established in the other films. I say kinda because apparently they found just the right sized history-hole to put this film in, and then the film in-turn takes that established history and puts it in a blender.


The gist of it:
Way future. Mutants are at war with the Humans mostly. Mutants are losing big-time due to the improved Sentinel robots taking them out. These bots were invented/created back in the very early 1970's during the Nixon era (they said the exact year, but I forget now). These bots have no metal in them (which is impossible in that era of tech). The very future versions are far improved and rather lethal, having gained the ability to adapt to their opponents powers. That ability was taken from an extensive diagnosis of Mystique's transforming ability (via autopsy and experimentation) back in the 1970's again.......   which already destroys the first X-Men movies since that never happened.

Wolverine gets MENTALLY sent back in time (his future brain/mind wakes up in his past body) to prevent the war from ever starting; discredit the Sentinels and their creator, make the President understand that Mutants aren't the enemy, that kind of thing. Kitty Pride sends him back with her newly developed power to do so (convenient that is, eh?).


I honestly don't recall a whole lot about the movie because they broke science and physics to greater and lesser degrees multiple times throughout the story once the time travel thingy got going. I have a hard time accepting, for example, that you can have a 1970's tech giant robot that can fly, detect mutants, and is generally autonomous without it containing any metal (they were built with Magneto in mind). So, well, how does the electricity work? And the computer/electronics? Sensors? Movement of servos for arms and legs? In the 70's that was all metal baby, so this is a ludicrous statement. We also see conflict between Magneto and Mystique in this, to the point that she walks away from him (wants nothing to with him at the end of the film). We know that she almost blindly follows him through the first few films in the franchise, so what the heck happened between then and now to make her so totally obedient to him?

This film feels more like an attempt to reboot the entire X-Men universe so they can get more films out it with younger actors. Much like the Star Trek reboot a few years back.

It was entertaining, and the less science and technical types will get more enjoyment out of it than I did I'm sure. We'll probably end up buying this one just to maintain the movie collection, and for the kids in the future to watch, but no other reason than that.

Cloud Atlas - Blu-Ray

OK, ok, I know this is from Blu-Ray and not the theater, but we couldn't get out to see it at the time. In fact I'm the only one out of all of us that has seen it.

That being said...

Rent it.

Not to destroy the story line for folks that still haven't seen it...
The way they jumped back and forth through the different stories or parts of stories was a bit infuriating at times, made it difficult to keep up with everything. I'm still trying to figure out what the thing in the past was that sparked the thing in the future. Was it the music? The repeating message about equality and acceptance? Honestly, I think I'd have an easier time if I ripped the movie onto a computer, and recut it to put all the same-story bits together, and then put those larger bits together in chronological order.

I found this movie hard to get through, mostly due to the already noted jumbling of timelines and story bits. The acting for the most part was fine, with a well known actor doing his best to be different in each case (and mostly succeeding) and another well known female actor seeming to reprise roles/character types that she has already done before (read: limited range of characters).

If I wathc this again (or a couple more times), I might change my mind as I start collecting and remembering enough information about each bit and segment to start piecing things together in a more coherent way.

For now....   I'd have better spent my money on something else. I bought this based on the many glowing reviews, and I'm usuaully not disappointed when I do that. In this case I kinda was.

Thor 2: The Dark World

Ehh.

Too late to see in the theater now. If you haven't seen it, then rent it before you buy it unless your a true Marvel fan.

I'm mixedon this one. Seemed to drag just when you thought it was going to build up, and when it finally built up to something, it dragged a bit more then ramped up quickly.

The whole story seemed a bit far-fetched to be honest. Dark Elves bent on destroying the universe? I recall my myth's mentioning dark elves where the norse are concerned, but I'm not so certain about the destroy and remake th universe the part. I know it's a movie and they get to take some creative license with it, but still....

Enjoyable, though weird in places.

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier

Holy smokes! Forgot we'd seen this one already.

You should really see it in the theater, unless you have a really nice theater setup at home.

It dragged for awhile, honest. But once it ramped up, it kinda stayed there. There was a definate sense of urgency in most of the movie, and for me that only bred anticiaption.

You've all seen the previews by now so you know the deal. If you've been watching Marvels Agents of Shield on TV at all, then you know the aftermath of this movie.

Honestly, I'd go see it again in theater if I had a chance. With these current Marvel films I've been finding that seeing them again reveals things I missed the first time. This was certainly entertaining enough, but like I said it seemd to drag, almost as though the called-for scenes were written to be about 20 minutes long, and they got cut down to 8 or 12 minutes instead, when they likely should've been 3 minutes. Not all of them, not everywhere, but it became noticable half-way thru.

Still a good film, and Marvel fans will truly enjoy it.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 - Regal Cinemas, Eagan, MN

Ehhh... I dunno. I guess I'd say Wait for this one.

We saw this at a local theater since we were suddenly able to do so (read: babysitter available).

The Regal has gone downhill just slightly in my mind. I recall the food and beverage selection being better a few years back (and I used to go to this theater quite often before I was married). Still it was comfortable, and since the theater was nearly empty it was also quite quiet.

The movie itself seemed to drag on and on for the first hour or more. Then we had a bunch of action that seemed a bit disjointed at times, followed by another lull running 10 minutes longer than it should have, and then a short action sequence right at the end, that gets cut-off to run the credits right when it gets good. I'll bet that other folks like me that saw this bit in the trailers are gonna get slightly upset over it.

Overall, it was a decent effort. Jaimie Foxx actually did rather well in this. He showed a depth I hadn't seen from him before. The kid playing Harry Osborn shouldbe replaced. He looked sleepy all the time (facial expression) and seemed to want to be on the beach rather than in the movie.

I'll likely end up buying this on blu-ray after it hits the bargain bin at the local store, just to maintain the movie collection.

We've had a busy year.

Some of our reviewers have had job changes (for the worse in some cases), we've had a child of our own who is now 1 year old, and everyone has generally been pinching pennies lately.

That said, now that our son is getting more managable and we're getting used to how to do things around town with him, and now that we have a couple go-to babysitters when really needed, we can all finally get out and do some stuff again. We're all still watching our money, but sometimes you've simply got to get out and see a movie or something.

So, yeah this blog has been pretty quiet for awhile, but that'll start to change.

Suzie's Kitchen, Rosemount, MN

I really wanted to like this place, and honestly I'm a bit conflicted over the experience.

We arrived near the end of the morning rush, waited short of 10 minutes for a table. As it turns out the people at that table were waiting on the waitress to bring their credit receipt to sign. So they sat and looked impatient while we stood at the door waiting on them waiting on her.

After being seated, we started looking at reviews a bit closer. The reviews out the gross and nasty placemat menus are correct. Sticky, dirty, coming apart at the snipped-off corners, stained. The chairs were a bit sticky too. The menus and the wait set the tone for the rest of our meal.

A number of minutes after being seated, the waitress came over with water, took drink and food orders and left.

20 minutes later we got our food. We asked about our drinks, which she ran off to get and returned with right away.

While we were sitting there with water, the rush had about ended and there were now a few open tables. An older couple came in and sat at the table next to us. They were greeted within just a couple minutes, had water right away, and actually got there food before we did. Odd that.

Her egg meal was actually tasty, the Taco Omelet. I had the mighty number 2 (three eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, toast) and we ordered a single pancake for our little boy.

I had requested basted eggs. Turns out they were lightly fried and steamed, not basted. I say steamed do to the unmistakable taste of water on the eggs. Hashbrowns were also apparently steamed on the grill, or they went ont he grill straight from frozen.

The only butter we had was the little bits on the almost-toast (more like soft, browned bread) and the pancake. The bacon was not remotely close to crispy, in fact I'm not even sure it was actually completely cooked through. One sausage link was barely warmed, the other was black and crispy on one side.

Lots of salt and pepper masked most of the taste (more than I would normally use), and it was certainly edible as I did eat everything and so far have suffered no ill effects (been a day or more).

Since moving down to this end of the Cities, I'd been looking for a local diner to replace my need for Mickey's. So far I haven't found anything remotely close.

I should point out that a number of other tables that we observed had similar service issues to ours. One table never got their water, even after the waitress approached them and commented on that fact. Other diners had the napkin-wrapped silverware bundle like mine: soaking wet napkin with ditry forks or knives inside.

We spent a lot of time waiting on our waitress to come around to ask for things, but after the rush had apparently ended, she was suddenly all around us all the time. Not sure why that is, and I can only guess that during the rush period she was helping in the kitchen or something.

Like I said, I wanted to like this place. But between the average or lower food quality, the poor service and forgetfullness, and the place just generally being dirty I doubt we'll go back. I say dirty with a note: anything between the floor and about 6feet in height was clean, everything above appeared grimy with dust clumps and stuff hanging off it. Even the plug-in air freshener I saw in a high-up wall outlet was apparently having a tough time. Speaking of air, they need to fix the HVAC in the place. It was warm and a bit damp/muggy in there the whole time, and we could feel the air coming out the of the vents moving around the room, but it just wasn't cool at all.

I highly doubt we'll be back again, even with the better than average prices.

W.A. Frost & Company, September 14, 2013

Her perspective: C

We had been here a couple of years ago and did their tasting menu - without the wine pairings - but it was FABULOUS, so for our anniversary dinner this year, we decided to do that again because it was so good last time when every dish had been so delicious and they spaced the courses perfectly.

We did the wine pairings this time (one course was a beer pairing) and they were off. They either did not compliment the dish at all or they only complimented only one part of the dish - which was disappointing. The cheese course had a beer pairing, which did not sit well in my stomach with the rest of the wines that were served.

So, course-by-course:

Amuse: House Cold Smoked Salmon with Pine Yogurt, Watercress, Citrus, Jalapeno, Radish
Pairing: La Marca, Prosecco, NV, Italy
This was the absolute best dish by far! The salmon was buttery and all the flavors just blended together perfectly. I just didn't think the wine enhanced the dish.

1st Course: Sweet Corn Soup with Crispy Glazed Pork Belly, Cherry Tomato, Avocado
Pairing: Rose, Chateau L'Ermitage, 2012, Rhone Valley, France
The pork belly was fantastic and the wine did compliment that. Also, the cherry tomatoes were very nice. The soup was underseasoned and you could not taste the avocado at all. The dish as a whole was just OK, but I could have made a meal from that pork belly.

2nd Course: Roasted Duck Breast with Rainbow Chard, Sweet Corn Polenta, Cherry-Black Pepper Gastrique
Pairing: Pinot Noir, Martin Ray, 2010, Russian River
Unfortunately, the best part of this dish was the Gastrique, except for the big piece of black pepper I got at one point that set my mouth on fire. The duck was too rare (not fully cooked to a rare temperature) so I could not taste duck. I felt like I was getting more corn soup with the polenta (too much corn) and the combination of the components did not compliment one another. The wine was just - there. It did nothing to enhance or compliment the dish.

3rd Course: Grilled Petite Filet Mignon with Potato-Parmesan Gratin, Summer Vegetables, Sherry Jus
Pairing: Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Creek, 2011 Paso Robles
The filet was cooked a perfect rare. We like our steaks at least medium rare, but ate it as prepared, hoping it would be a better flavor with the rest of the dish. Again, the components did not go together and it seemed as if the Summer Vegetables were just whatever they had left over from other dishes, rather than a well-thought-out part of the dish. The Jus was very tasty, though. This particular Cabernet was too heavy for Filet.

Cheese Course: Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Rhubarb Compote, Almond Granola, Micro Greens, Honey, Sesame Lavasch
Beer Pairing: Lonely Blonde, Fulton Brewing Co. Minneapolis, MN
The cheese was pretty good with a smoky flavor, but got lost when you started putting it together with other things on the plate. The Almond Granola and Micro Greens were scattered around the plate, which made it pretty, but not very conducive to eating them. The Honey was only there to keep the whole berries from moving around on the plate and did not add anything to the flavor of the dish. I have learned since that this particular cheese is being served by every Tom, Dick and Harry restaurant in the area, so it would have been nice to have something unique. The beer is an IPA, and, while I don't like hoppy beers, I tried it anyway. I couldn't even finish the small tasting glass of beer and definitely did not go with this dish at all. I would have been much happier with a nice Pinot Grigio or some sort of medium-dry white instead of beer with this dish.

Dessert Course: "Cheescake and Berries": Cheesecake Pudding, Glazed Berry Salad, Graham Cracker Pavlova, Strawberry Pate de Fruit
Pairing: Moscato di Asti, Vietti Cascinetta 2011, Piedmont, Italy
There's a reason the title is in quotes - because it wasn't actually cheesecake. The Cheesecake Pudding was just plopped on the plate and seemed like it was cheesecake that they didn't wait until it was fully set. William commented that it was like a "deconstructed" cheesecake. The berries were very good and fresh - the best part of the dish. While I always like anything "Asti", it did not help with the richness of the dessert, so I ate as much as I could (leaving half the cheesecake pudding, and not because I was full), then drank the wine down so that would be the last thing I tasted. It did go well with the berries, though.

Our server did check back after each course, but did so when both our mouths were full, so all we could do was nod. William had gotten a Coke at the start of the meal and, even though he wanted a refill, he was never asked for one or given the opportunity to ask for it himself. After dinner, I got a coffee and William got an Irish Coffee. His was at least a double-shot and all the sugar was at the bottom (not mixed in), he almost couldn't drink it. All the regular sugar packets in the caddy for my coffee had been wet at some point. I could break them in half and pointed that out to the server, who guessed they had been left out on the patio. Funny, the Spenda and Sugar In the Raw packets were just fine...

One other note: the portion sizes were considerably smaller than the last time we did this, but the prices stayed the same. We understand that food costs have gone up and we would rather have paid a little more for the same experience we had the last time we did this.

If we go back, it will be a long time, and we'll think long and hard before doing the tasting menu again.

We're still looking for that restaurant in the Cities with consistently good food and service. If you have suggestions, please let us know.

Which Wich - July 8, 2013

We decided to try this place on our way to a movie. You pick up a bag inside the door and mark your order on it. Bring that to the register where you pay, then wait for them to make your sandwich. The lady in front of us in line noticed that those making the sandwiches were touching the bags with their gloved hands after the customers have been touching all the bags which is very unsanitary.

We ended up waiting about 10 minutes for our sandwiches, and while mine was supposed to be turkey bacon ranch, there was no ranch dressing on the sandwich because I had not marked that on my bag. Regardless, neither sandwich was very tasty and it was quite expensive. Better to go to Subway for this kind of sandwich. It's cheaper, faster, and better tasting. Not to mention, more sanitary.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Umm... I've seen this before. Wasn't it called Star Trek? Where the lil' ship has to fight the big ship and win, David and Goliath style? Pretty sure I've seen that one already.

Long movie for how much entertainer value it has. When the hell did Kirk developed a Tony Stark anxiety complex??? Wholly out of character.

The opening to the movie was fun (first scenes). After that it became terribly predictable and to a degree increasingly difficult to watch and take seriously. After I figured out that it was going to be a big ship vs little ship battle again, I lost interest. 

Hey, movie people! If you're going to reuse a storyline in a new movie, be sure you do something different so it isn't so obvious.

Was the movie overall entertaining? Sure. Should you see it in the theater? Only if you feel a need to see it on a big screen. I'd do a matinee show regardless (which we did).

We're back!

After multiple issues, both on the internet connection and with the site host, we're back in business.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Marcus Rosemount Theater

Well, that was sufficiently disappointing.

We see two good-guy characters return from the first movie, and one of them dies 15 minutes into the film.

I'm not sure what the point of this film was. Honest.

Iron Man 3

Well, even with the new baby we were still able to get a few hours free last Sunday to go see a movie. Since I'm a big Marvel fan....

Let me begin this by saying that I'm overall rather disappointed. I ended up getting distracted by so many elements of the film that clash with the established Marvel history as I know it and so much so that there are still parts of the film that I don't recall actually watching.

The Mandarin. One of Stark's 'ultimate' foes from prior comics and cartoons; reduced to being a hired actor strung out on drugs? The Iron Man suits, the ones to take a huge beating in the first two movies and The Avengers, now so easily destroyed by a small missile?  Those same suits that are supposed to be powered by the arc reactor in Starks' chest now running without it? Not only running without but recharging from a car battery?? And the prototype suit that seems weaker than all the other suits (and in fact tends to fall apart apparently at the slightest touch)? Or that the Iron Patriot (aka rebranded War Machine) armor is simply taken even though it has (or at least did have) security measures in place to prevent exactly that? 

And since when can you instantly heat a hunk of metal to melting point? I'm not talking about the instances where a bad guy was heating up a suit to get someone to come out, I'm referring to the big fight scene at the end of the film where the bad guys are instantly, and I mean on contact, melting and punching through the different suits with zero lag time and bits of melted metal fall away. They were talking earlier in the film about the temp being 3000 degrees, though I have to admit I didn't catch whether that was Kelvin or Celsius or what, but even then, assuming Kelvin, that's 5000 degree F. It takes steel a couple seconds, literally, to heat up and melt at temps like that. Based on prior movies, the Iron Man suits are a bit tougher than that.  

It's getting really hard to suspend my disbelief on this one.

I tried to stay engaged throughout the film but found I kept wandering into and out of sleep and day dreams during the viewing. I hate to say it but I'll have to watch it again to get all the parts I missed (I'll wait for a Dollar theater to do that).

I fear for the future of the entire Phase 2 franchise based on this movie. Hopefully the next Thor and Captain America films will fair far better than this one. Many people are calling this the best Iron Man story yet, and many others are sounding just like me saying it couldn't have been much worse.

Ok, now, let's pretend for a second that these characters are a bit more real and talk frankly. Since when would Tony Stark build a suit, prototype or not, that was so seemingly flimsy and flawed? The Mark 42 armor had more bugs in it than Windows 98 when it was first released. Couldn't fly at first, then had no weapons (and yet some of them worked anyway....), and apparently had a few leaks in it. Remember the suit was starting to fill up with water even before Jarvis told Stark to take a deep breath. You can recharge the suit off a car battery? Whatever happened to powering the suits from the all-powerful arc reactor?? Also, minor side note, the Mk. 42 suits was sized to fit Tony. If you've been paying attention over the last couple years, you'd note that Pepper is a bit taller than Tony, and yet the armor fits her just fine?

Since when does Tony have to tell Jarvis NOT to target Pepper? Doesn't Jarvis know her already, and based on past behavior would likely point out that she was one of the Extremis targets before taking a shot at her?

Another thing; since when was Stark's home address a secret? Recall the film before this where he had a house full of guests for a birthday bash with catering, valet parking and such? How secret is that?

Something else kinda unrelated is that Tony apparently had a lot of time since the New York Incident to build a small army of armors. We got to see them all for about 10 minutes total. It would've been awful nice to see more of them, especially since he went to all that trouble of building them in the first place.

And now, after all that, Tony finally gets the surgery to remove the rest of the shrapnel from his chest, something he could've done a few years earlier had he really wanted to. And then he just chucks the old chest reactor into the ocean. For a guy was so terribly paranoid about folks getting his tech and using it against him, he seems to just be throwing it all around and leaving it lay about now.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that in this film, we see Pepper being Pepper like we'd expect. We see Happy being Happy like we'd expect. We see Tony do a near 180 degree flip on his personality which is so far removed from his character/personality as to be a little unsettling (recall he was held captive in a cave for months, tortured, threatened daily, that whole 'phoenix personification' thing). He came out of everything being even tougher than when he went in. Now, IM3 shows him having anxiety attacks and being, for lack of better phrasing, afraid of his shadow? When did this happen??

And, not a single mention or appearance by a SHIELD agent anywhere. You'd think with a threat like they made the Mandarin appear to be that SHIELD would at least be in the loop somewhere watching things.

And the Mandarin. I was so looking forward to the tech vs. magic fight.

For those that are unaware, and I'll put this simply and quickly so folks can understand, the Mandarin was just a guy, a regular joe, until he found/acquired the 10 rings. A-HA! You remember the 10 Rings? The terrorist group from the first film? As soon as I heard that mentioned in the first film I had visions of where everything was heading. Anyway, these rings were each a magical item in their own right, and each had a specific power or ability. For example, one could manipulate Time to a degree, another could heal, some had power over the basic elements and weather, etc. etc.  All ten of them together were a significant force to be reckoned with. The Mandarin himself, in some incarnations, was an anti-technology zealot which is why Stark was the perfect target. The two foes would battle back and forth, one trying to eradicate all technology from the planet (and thereby become the most powerful person and hence the new Ruler of the planet) and the other using every thing he could to prevent that and foil the evil plot.

So now out comes this movie, and the Mandarin is nothing of the sort, not at all even remotely like what we were expecting. And other than seeing the symbol of the 10 Rings terrorist group, there is no mention of them what-so-ever. We do get introduced to AIM though, and that was even a bit of a let down. AIM was always after Stark tech, to sell or reverse engineer and stuff. In the film, AIM was kind of a joke actually.

Remember back when Iron Man was flying and took a tank launched exploding sabot shell to the head? Plummeted to the ground and made a small crater at impact? Then crawled out, destroyed the tank with a small missile and proceeded on his merry way? Fast forward now to IM3 where the Mk. 42 armor gets hit by a truck and falls apart. Where a single medium missile destroys all the Suits from Mk. 1 to 7 (and by destroyed I mean blown into tiny little bits). Even the suit that took the exploding shell to the head disappeared in a puff of fire and smoke. Either that was one terribly powerful missile, or somebody wasn't doing their homework when they wrote this script.

I could go on and on here about all the things I saw as problems or issues or contradictions in this film, but I think you get the idea. This was a decently entertaining movie for the most part, even though I had trouble staying awake in a couple spots. But it just grates on me so much knowing some of the histroy of Stark and Iron Man and seeing it all flipped over and flattened on a pancake griddle set to high heat.

Lil' problem...

We have a newborn in the house. Our baby boy is going to take lots of attention, and prevent Maryanne and I from doing our jobs here. We'll try to poke the others a bit and get some action for you.

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...