Mad Max: Fury Road

broderic on May 22, 2015

When first announced, I thought Mad Max: Fury Road was going to be a waste of time. Do we need to go down that road once more? Mel Gibsons not Max. This rehash of 80s movies is getting out of hand. Why another one?

YEAH! I was wrong.

It was awesome. The best action movie of the millennia. I’ve seen it twice. I want to see it again in 3D!

Don’t miss it. It makes all other action films with CGI look like films done inside a computer. Mad Max: Fury Road brings back live filmed stunts. There were CGI shots, but the majority was cars crashing into cars. It just made the movie.

5 of 5 stars.

Ex Machina

broderic on May 22, 2015

If you wanted to see an AI built from the hubris of man, you can watch The Avengers: Age of Ultron. You could also watch Ex Machina. This AI was just as hell bent on destruction of a more personal kind.

The film, for those who haven’t seen it which is all of you, is about a programmer sent to his boss’s remote home to conduct a ‘Turing Test’ on a robot to see how human she is. Ava, the robot, has a woman’s face and hands, but the rest is a sleek, sexy android. Data has nothing on her. She was built by a programmer modeled on a mishmash of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and the founders of Google. His company is also a mishmash of those actual programmer’s companies: Facebook, Microsoft, and Google.

The worker was chosen as being the best in the company. It was a test of who was the alpha programmer. It really was the boss who was the alpha. He played his underling, but played himself into a corner.

I thought this was sly. I thought the robot was being naive. She was really being human — complicated, conniving. I really wondered if we were all being played.

3 of 5 stars.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

broderic on May 15, 2015

There was a whole lot going on with The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It wrapped up the Hydra plot, introduced Ultron and (SPOILER) the Vision to the Marvel Cinema Universe, added the Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver to the Avengers line up, set up the conflict for Captain America: Civil War, and brought us the Infinity War/Gauntlet. All this in two and a half hours.

That is why it was not as good as the first one. It had too much. Although, it was missing Tigra. Overstuffed is the word for it. Still lots of action, but it feels like the middle of a larger story like being at the crossroads or at a train station junction. Lots going on, but people are passing through to better destinations.

3 of 5 stars.

Link of the Day [5.13.15]

broderic on May 14, 2015

Need a website for today’s Link of the Day. Can’t find anything to talk about. Here’s one I saved the link to my desktop. Don’t know why.

Wait. I do.

It’s because I was watching some J-Drama on Crunchyroll in which one of the models was an actress in the show. It was a fine J-Drama. Is there any Pinoy dramas like it?

http://furisode.joyful-eli.com

Link of the Day [5.12.15]

broderic on May 12, 2015

Need to keep up with Link of the Day posts so as not to miss out on the palindrome fun.

Today's is SPOILER ALERT filled. Don't read it unless you have seen the movie Ex Machina.

I have, and the essay in the link does contribute to a lot of what I thought about the movie. I should write my review, but in short, I thought it was a refutation of the male gaze that contributes to nerd hubris. Hmm…

I really should write that review.

http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/feminus-ex-machina

Link of the Day [5.04.15]

broderic on May 4, 2015

Pacquiao/Mayweather.

It was really disappointing. Not just because Manny lost, but because it didn't even seem to be good boxing.

Watching it occur, I felt the weight of the Filipino nation urging Manny on. Watching him take the loss, I felt the disappointment as well. Are we not as good as them? He had heart. All Pinoys have heart. He showed the world. Yet, we still lost.

http://grantland.com/features/manny-pacquiao-floyd-mayweather-maypac-boxing-philippines-mandaluyong-city-viewing/

Roasted Vegetable Barley Soup

broderic on April 29, 2015

I don’t cook. I make dishes, but I am not really a cook. I’ve made a few dishes, but not like the one I made for dinner tomorrow. I didn’t have a recipe. All I had was an idea and meager skills gathered from watching television cooking shows or reading Seriouseats.com. Is that enough to make a decent dish?

Last week I went to stock up my cupboard after returning from a long vacation. Since my brother had a heart attack, I thought to buy lots of vegetables. It’s asparagus season, so I bought a bunch. I also bought a pound of carrots, a couple onions, a bag of fresh spinach, and a cucumber. I made lots of asparagus dishes last week, but still had plenty left over. I needed to make a dent in the amount of vegetables in my kitchen.

I formulated a soup. They’re pretty easy to make. I’ll just throw vegetables into stock and cook for an hour. Viola!

All last week I was roasting asparagus. I would trim them and season with salt and ground pepper then throw them in an oven for 15-20 minutes. They came out nice and tender, and I threw them into the dishes I had made. Roasting gave me an idea for the soup!

Today, I roasted carrots, cucumber, onions, garlic, and asparagus. I seasoned them with rosemary, thyme, salt, and ground pepper before placing them on a baking sheet in the oven for 25 minutes. After they cooled down, I chopped them up and placed in a soup base I was making.

The base started out by frying spinach then in went some barley and the beef stock. There was also a little bit of chicken stock left in the freezer so I added it as well. The stock made it 2 quarts, then I added another 2 quarts of water. The roasted vegetables went in, a little bit of salt, a dash of patis, and more ground pepper. I brought it to a boil before turning down to a hard simmer for an hour. Towards the end, I added some lemon juice to brighten the taste.

So far I’ve had a small cup and it was great. Better than I expected. I think that lemon juice brought the whole thing together. Hopefully, this will keep for a few days.

While We’re Young

broderic on April 23, 2015

I think I will watch anything Naomi Watts is in, so I found myself in the matinee show of Noah Baumbach’s latest film, While We’re Young. The film is about Generation X and Millennials.

Ben Stiller is an older documentary film maker in a rut in his 40s. His latest film has been in work for years, and he makes excuses for finishing it up. His hot wife, Naomi Watts, is just hot.

Adam Driver is a young, hip videographer who styles himself after Affleck. His hot wife is Amanda Seyfried, and she makes ice cream. Unfortunately, I don’t find her hot. I wish it was Greta Gerwig.

Charles Grodin is in it, and he plays Watts’ father. He is also a successful documentary film maker and represents the Baby Boomers. Ad Rock is in it. He plays a new father friend of Stiller’s. He’s meant to symbolized the adult Gen Xer. He’s got old, too.

Stiller and Driver become friends after a film lecture by Stiller. They are soon going out on couple’s dates and block parties together. Stiller is enamored of the young man’s inhibitions. He even goes out to a ridiculous new age, peyote ceremony. He is liberated from his stodginess.

Unfortunately, the final third of the film tries goes into old man mode: ‘Get a hair cut, ya hippie!’ The film creates conflict just to indict Millenials: Driver isn’t as genuine or truth striving as Stiller. It is rather shallow, but it does throw out the good cross generational feelings as done in the earlier bonding scenes. Perhaps it just goes to show that when you’re old, the young suck.

I’ve seen two and a half Noah Baumbach movies. Most of them I did not like because they made me uncomfortable. I did like his collaboration with Gerwig in Frances Ha. This film really is his most accessible. As a Gen Xer without kids, I liked it. The slight jabs at Millenials remind me that you can hate the young, but that was you at that age, too. Youth is wasted on the young

4 of 5 stars.