Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

Ratatouille

A Rat With a Spoon and a Bold Dream

I have been wanting to see this film for some time - you may have noticed that I am a wee bit food obsessed so how could I not go and see a flick about a rat with dreams of cooking. Generally we are loath to go to the theatre to see an animated movie because we don't wish to be inundated with children. (note to theatre owners - how about adult only screenings!  LOL) Because the city seems so quiet on this August long weekend we decided to risk it. The movie was wonderful and while there were some chattering kids their joy at the film was infectious (although had the theatre been full of said chattering children that joy would have dissipated quickly!)

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, and Peter Sohn.

Synopsis: Remy has always dreamed of becoming a great French chef the only problem is…he’s a rat! But that doesn’t stop him. Despite his family wishing that he would accept what he is and give up his dreams, he believes that he can make it. No matter how dangerous it is.

Ratatouille is Disney's latest animated flick. Don't dismiss it as just another example of perfect animation by Pixar. It dishes out wisdom with the speed of a fast food restaurant but with all the trimmings associated with fine dining. And in buffet style too. Take as much wisdom as you please.

What's on the menu?

Anyone can cook. Gusteau's motto is the overall theme of the movie. He encourages Remy and other chefs in training or by profession to take the bold leap and chase after that dream. His dictum is applicable to anything that we set out to accomplish. We just have to keep working at it.

Stealing is bad and is never right.The end does not justify the means. Whatever your reason may be, never take what isn't yours.

You can always count on family. Friends may desert you in the most trying of times but family will always be there.

Don't take credit for other people's accomplishments. Bask in your own glory. Do not pass off other people's work as your own.

Accept help even from unlikely allies. Do not brush off people just because you don't see eye to eye with them or because you're from two different worlds. Successful ventures have come out of unlikely partnerships.

Be prepared to be wowed. Sometimes, we are too eager to criticize. Compliment when praise is due. Keep your eyes open to see both the good and the bad. If you must criticize, at least be fair.

Give others a chance. Don't dismiss anyone just because you think he is lowly. Allow him room to move up. If you can, mentor or extend a helping hand.

Don't be afraid to experiment. While there are some areas in life that you need to stick by the rules, there are others wherein you have the free hand to follow your heart or instinct. You will never know the possibilities until you try.

Fancy does not always satisfy. Sometimes, it is the simplest that brings comfort. Food or otherwise.

As Anton Ego said, in reference to Chef Gusteau's motto,

'Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.'

Thus, Ratatouille is more adult-oriented with its surprisingly advanced sense of humour and rather dark themes and subject matters that could go way over the heads of the kids. Granted, there are seamless action sequences that are hilarious and energetic and the interaction and the developing relationship between the rat and the boy are constant in drama. But this film is more “talky” compare to Brad Bird’s previous movies.

We shouldn’t underestimate children, however, as it all comes together in the finale, and hopefully they’ll be able to appreciate the sheer simple beauty of it: a genuinely moving conclusion that is never sentimental but intensely sincere and heartfelt nonetheless that advances the film’s ongoing motto “Anyone can cook” to “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” This finale is punctuated by a brilliant transformation of the film’s severe and mean-spirited food critic, Anton Ego (voiced with such dignified Shakespearean delivery by Peter O’ Toole). His paradoxical speech about both the uselessness and the importance of critics is right on the spot, and I couldn’t help but nod my head because of its delicate poignancy in its unabashed truthfulness.

Although the story line has its charms, the precisely rendered detail of a professional kitchen will appeal to the food-obsessed.

The Pixar crew took cooking classes, ate at notable restaurants in Paris and worked alongside Mr. Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif.

“As a former actor and dancer, I have spent a lot of time in restaurants, but I had no idea of that vast difference between France and America, and especially the three-star restaurants in Paris,” said Brad Lewis, the producer.

The spectacle of French service was of particular note, and the film’s examination of how it can fade was influenced by studying La Tour d’Argent, a centuries-old Paris restaurant that lost two of its three Michelin stars. The cheese course in the film is copied directly from the one at the Parisian restaurant Hélène Darroze.

Ratatouille Trailer:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- Review

Last night Paul and I went to check out this movie. We decided to go to the 10:00 evening showing assuming that there would be fewer children there. We were correct except for one couple who brought a toddler and a young baby. Good lord people - get a babysitter!

We enjoyed the movie (except for the rather annoying couple and spawn) - Paul declared it to be the best of the series to date and I agree with him.

As is the case of all films in a series, there is to be an assumption of knowledge on the part of the audience regarding what's gone on before so. The problem with that, however, is that it may have been a while since you've either read the book or seen the last film. Happily I had reread the books last month (preparing for book # 7 to be released) and Paul and I had watched the last film yesterday afternoon.

The screenwriter, Michael Goldenberg, did a good job of paring the book, which is 734 pages, down to a manageable running time on the screen and tightening up the narrative. This is the first in the film series where JK Rowling allowed parts of the book to be changed in the transition from book to film. Some may scream about that but I think it made for a more rich and smooth story. So all in all, I think the translation from book to screenplay went well.

I continue to be impressed with the ability of both the story and the actors to maintain a strong sense of continuity from installment to installment. Harry Potter has grown, in more ways than one, into the role life has handed him yet he still has that sense of innocence, wonder, and self-doubt that infused him in the first film. He has been tested and beaten down, but he still strives on when others, especially teens, would have said something along the lines of "I'm outta here!" to the place the world has put him.
The rest of the company is also aging well. Rupert Grint as Ron and Emma Watson as Hermione aren't nearly half as annoying as they were in the first two, and Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman are worth the price of admission alone.

Voldemort’s busy assembling an army of darkness, but this fantasy universe’s current administration seems hell-bent on scapegoating and burying its collective head in the sand by appointing Imelda Staunton’s relentlessly prim and proper Dolores Umbridge to usher in a repressive, almost Orwellian regime of mindless conformity and authoritarianism at Hogwarts. A pink-clad fascist fond of cats and corporal punishment, Staunton’s twee totalitarian is the most original movie villain in ages.

Leave it to Potter to kick-start an underground pubescent insurgency, inspired by his sly, kindly godfather Sirius Black (the fantastic Gary Oldman), whose own Order of the Phoenix operates under the cover of night in secret locations, prepping to take down that dastardly Voldemort, should he ever show his semi-formed face again.

Like most 15-year-old boys, Harry Potter is an extremely angry young man, trying to wrap his still-forming mind around the fallibility of authority figures, the finality of death, and the all-around shit-stinking unfairness of the way the world really works. Fortunately, Harry's friends won't leave him alone -- even when he's surly toward them -- and he receives a much-needed support system from best buds Ron Weasley (Grint) and Hermione Granger (Watson) as well as a seemingly spacey blonde named Luna Lovegood (newcomer Evanna Lynch, wonderfully embodying the most interesting of the new characters).

In this manner, the film echoes The Empire Strikes Back: The mood is grim, the heroes are reeling, and the villains are on the move. But with a little help from their friends, not to mention a strong belief in the "force" of good, these kids may yet save the day.

Pirates of the Caribbean; At World's End

Tonight we decided to see this latest installment in this Disney series. My opinions will be moot for most folk (as compared to the rest of the world who couldn't care  less about my thoughts) whom I'm sure who have already seen this movie but here goes anyway:OK I'll admit that we haven't seen a flick for awhile.

Should you find yourself in line to see this movie . . . RUN. It matters not to where you run, just get the hell out of the theatre because anywhere else would be preferable to sitting through three hours of this movie.

Apparently it was not enough to have a drug addled Keith Richards in the movie in one of the worst 'rock star cameos' ever. I can't remember, was this before or after he fell from the coconut tree . . . that is right - who can tell? Presumably they let him helm the writing and directing of the film as well in his mind altered state. (Parents everywhere - use this clip as a lesson for your children - see Sue - looks what happens when you free base heroin?)

Dear God, what a load of tripe!

Oh yes, did I say I didn't like the movie? Oh, you figured that out already? I am nothing if not subtle!  *smile*

If you unfortunately do choose to join this rowdy cruise to the netherworld and back, plan to purchase a couple of meals' worth of popcorn and your beverage of choice. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End packs more characters, more action, more surprises, more metaphysical nonsense, and more Jack Sparrows into 168 minutes—yes, that's right, almost three hours—than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy packed into the entire series.  Oh yes, you'll have to sit through twelve minutes of closing credits to see the movie's predictable epilogue (because apparently modern movie goers are too daft to use their own imaginations to reach their own conclusions!). But most moviegoers will have already walked the plank, emerging seasick (vomit bags at the ready), full of strange tales, and drunk on plot-twists, double-crosses, and baffling revelations.

The previous Pirates movies have shown a fun flair for the grotesque, and this time, they pull out all the stops. In fact, they dismember and rip them to bits. Characters have a troubling tendency to snap off digits (who really needs that toe or tentacle), gouge out eyes (and suck on them EWWW), rip brains out of craniums (and lick them again - EWWWW), and yank out beating hearts (and maybe even stab them). It's like touring the popular "Bodies" exhibit at the Science Centre, only to see the corpses come to life and dissect themselves with apparent glee.

Gore Verbinski, who has directed all three Pirates films, really needed to pull Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End out of the bag if the franchise was to survive, and the bad news is that he’s failed miserably. Good news for movie fans everywhere - we won't need to sit through another one (although the movie dearly tries to set up yet another sequel in the last moments of the movie)

Picking up from where the last film ended with the surprise return of Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), the crew of the Black Pearl and voodoo priestess Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) try and rescue Captain Jack from Davy Jones’ Locker, a kind of purgatory for drowned sailors (by now I wished someone was coming to rescue me from my own movie going purgatory).

Once they escape back into the world of the living, the Black Pearl joins a gathering of nine pirate lords and engage in a giant battle with The Flying Dutchman captained by Sparrow’s arch enemy Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and massed fleet of the East India Trading Company. If your imagination hasn't been stretched to the brittle point of no return by now just wait . . . it is coming!

Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have turned in a script so convoluted and full of flip-flopping character allegiances I confess we gave up trying to make sense of it. Instead we let the fascinating visual effects wash over us (there, I did say something positive, mom always said to be positive . . . has it helped?).

Verbinski seems to have somehow lost his way and now seems uncertain exactly what it was about the first film that made it so successful. It certainly wasn't the insipid relationship between Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, who do for acting what George W. Bush has done for World peace) but nonetheless we're treated to more of them, when just about everyone wanted less. Watching Knightley try to 'rally' the pirates to fight in the coming battle (a la Aragon in Lord of the Rings) only serves one to wonder why she wasn't locked up and sent back to acting 101 boot camp (and normally I quite like Knightley who was brilliant in Bend it Like Beckham) Only the always amazing Geoffrey Rush gets the tone right, camping it up as Barbossa with plenty of shiver-me-timbers fun.

So, if you, like us, were waiting for the crowds to die down to check out this flick . . . save your $ 10.50, buy a bottle of something with a good kick and escape reality that way because this film won't do it for you!

The Oscars

OK

I've recovered enough from my lack of sleep to finally write about the show.

In the interest of full disclosure - I always watch the Oscars. I don't know why but I do. Generally I haven't seen all of the movies nor do I really care about them but I watch the chow.

This year Oscar turned 79. I rate the telecast a 5 out of 10.

I didn't find the telecast to be gripping not all that amusing. However, it is the Oscars, it isn't supposed to be any of those things. If you want wild and crazy you should catch the Golden Globe Awards.

The Oscars are getting predictable. With the exception of the Best Picture nod for the Departed I was able to guess all of the winners - not because I have seen the performance/picture but because I had read and had a sense of how people would vote. (Anyone who thinks the Oscars are a reward for talent should give their head a shake, but I digress.)

Highlights for me - Ellen, the acceptance speeches by Forrest Whittaker and Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson winning (were you watching Simon Cowell?), Al Gore laughing at himself, fashion was generally understated and elegant.

The bad spots - not enough Ellen, Clint Eastwood presenting (bring your glasses next time!), the above mentioned predictable nature of the awards, the 'lesser' Oscars being handed out first (by the time they got to Best Picture who on the planet really cared anymore?), the Dreamgirls performance - if you need a screamfest go backstage (although I admit I LOVE seeing Beyonce being so thoroughly upstaged by Jennifer Hudson!).

There, go back to sleep for another year.