Opine Away

Hell, boy!

Fun, fun, fun. I find it a great movie. Any movie that starts with John Hurt gets extra points unconditionally. If it starts with John Hurt reading – pffff, double the points.

The movie is funny, has good comic-book action, has the charm of Hellboy’s humane characteristics (yes, the red horned Ron Perelman has charm as much as it is hard to believe) which is making it so hilarious. Selma Blair is doing a great job, and her relationship and dialogs with “the boy” are most excellent. Doug Jones is doing a perfect Abe Sapien and has one of the funniest scenes in the movie with Hellboy… will not spoil…  Action scenes, if it is Hellboy’s brute force or the prince’s smooth moves, all done great and are fun to watch. Costumes and scenery are awesome.  Computer graphics are excellent.

No need to write a long reveiw on this one.  It is a fun movie that you want to see. 

L.

Mantra Restaurant

Surprised me. 

www.mantranj.com

275 E, Rt 4 (Westbound)

Paramus, NJ 07652

Phone: 201-342-8868

Map

There used to be a different Indian restaurant in the same location. No comparison. This restaurant is higher-end one, with nice NYC-style decor, a bar that opens till late (relative to this area’s close-by-9PM places) and… very good food. I admit I ate here only once (yesterday…) but I’ll go again and if anything will change, I’ll update.

Been there with a friend, and we both were surprised and very pleased. Had Samosas for appetizer, Chicken Tikka Masala (not on the menu, they have the Chicken Makhani which is the same without onions and bell peppers, but if you ask they’ll make it Tikka Masala), Rogan Josh, bread basket and rice pudding. All were excellent, served in nice dishes, and I’m getting hungry again thinking of it.

Prices are not cheap. We had a glass of wine and a couple of bottles of sparkling water and ended up paying just over $50 each including tip, but it is justified by the excellent food, good service and refreshing atmosphere for a suburban restaurant. Will definitely go there again.

Opine Away rating of Mantra:

Rating index:  0 – Don’t bother. “-“ - irrelevant.  1 to 10, 10 is best. Price $ to $$$$$

L.

Update 9/13/2008 - Been there with a large group (11). Service was terrible. Slow, mistakes, everything that can go wrong did. The food was still very good. Even after complaining to the manager, they just couldn’t keep up with the service. We had two salads that the vegetables were not fresh. I still recomend this restaurant, but for small parties only.

Oh so dark and never ending …

Why? Why keep me in the theatre for 2.5 hours?

Overall acting was great. Michael Caine is one and only, Heath Ledger did an amazing job, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, all great actors, each in his own (if somewhat crazy) way… but who casted Eric Roberts? Come on…. Maybe it’s me, but on his first appearance there I flinched, and every time he reappeared or spoke I got goose bumps (in a bad way). Luckily he was kept relatively quiet. And I leave it at that. Next time use Julia.

So, let me opine on the movie. It is very well made, lots invested in it, very realistic action scenes, even the comic book style ones are believable… but to me it was also very disturbing. It was as they had too much evil put into a comic book movie. Heath (the poor chap) plays his part so well, that it becomes disturbing of how evil he is – first thing that came to mind was Islamic terrorism – being bad with no reason and with no common sense behind it, bad for the sake of being bad. Even Michael Caine’s jokes did not ease up the disturbing feeling I had.

I want to enjoy a movie, not be disturbed by it. This movie is a llllllllllllllong two and a half hours of disturbing scenes. Without being a spoiler I’ll say that even the “pencil disappear” scene, that could’ve been a funny one with many bad guys, became a disturbing one with Heath’s way too realistic Joker.

The scene with Oldman’s kid at the end? Come on… this is a comic book movie…

I guess I made my point about that….

Visually the movie is excellent. I wonder if The Joker’s makeup resemblance to Blade Runner’s Daryl Hannah’s character, Pris, was intentional. His scars, again, are way too realistic. And they used more close-ups than any British TV show has ever done… did I say disturbing?

Even when Bruce (Bale) gets beaten by a dog they show the wounds twice, and real close, to make sure you get it… two face’s burns…no place left for imagination… I did say disturbing right?

Surprisingly, except for very short scenes and no real close-ups, no real hot babes scenes (ok, a little on the yacht and party, but very short). Come on, you got Bale taking off his shirt, what about some balance? A little relief from the neck tightness from the rest of the dark dark scenes…

To start and wrap this long review – this movie sets a new level in marketing and quality of the product, no doubt. Heath’s tragic death is definitely serving the hype even more. Acting is amazing (even Roberts doesn’t spoil it), picture and action scenes are excellent, so, make sure you go early, drink coffee and make sure you pee before the movie, and go and see it, but be ready to be very… disturbed.

L.

Yawn….

This is a movie that at the end you think to yourself “Why did they make it”?  “Was there anything original or surprising there? Nah.”.

It is not a bad movie when you consider  the acting or the way it is made, but… it is slow, predictable, the music can put you to sleep faster than, well, real fast. Yes, there are shooting scenes, they are all technically done well, but it is so predictable and un-climaxy (yes, I take the liberty to abuse the English language) that you will snooze even on the action scenes, and will be snoring in the in-betweens.

Jodie Foster is paying her regular serious put-me-in-a-bad-situation character that smiles on rare occasions if at all. Terrence Howard is OK playing the cop, and Naveen Andrews as Jodie’s boyfriend looks like he knew the producer so they gave him the part, I felt like it was forced casting. The acting is OK, but just not a good fit.

Sorry Jodie and the gang, just can’t recommend this one… skip it….

L.

Ah, if only it was played by someone else.

Look, chapeau to Sly, he’s made a huge franchise(s) and got his undeniable fame and fortune, and the bottom line speaks for itself… The movie is fun…. but….

I can’t ignore looking at his face and getting the sensation that he “ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed”. And the scenes with shooting the whole Burmese army with the .50 machine gun, and blowing off heads with the Barret .50 sniper gun,  is making it look cheap in my opinion.

But, taking it as a no-brainer action movie, it is fun to watch. The first Rambo,  First Blood,  was a movie that is a land mark – the first Mad Max, the first Indiana Jones,  The first Rocky, the first Jaws…  so even that his face reflected to me the same brightness in the first movie, it worked OK with the new idea and fresh excitement about the movie.

As I wrote, take it as a no-brainer… you know that he’ll be alone somewhere, miserable, that he’ll have to save people that got into a situation (probably because they did something special), that he’ll do it because he feels like he’s got to, that someone will speak to his heart to ask him do it,  that he’ll save the people he respect… no spoiler here, because that’s all a prerequisite from a Rambo movie…  yes, they also try to sell us the Burmese situation as a noble cause to create the movie, and push Christianity (ha) as a way to categorize people as good hearted (both the Burmese victims and the people who help them), both I find unwelcomed, but ignored completely as I dumb myself to enjoy it…

So, if you’re looking for an action movie to enjoy, make sure you leave your wits behind and dive into it with a blank mind with close to zero processing.

As a side comment – I find School Boy, the sniper character played by Matthew Marsden, I found the coolest of the bunch, and maybe the best character in the movie…

So, rent and have a fun hour and a half with it….

L.

And I like it…

Fun movie, good story if a little predictable at some point, and Charlize Theron is really hot (well, maybe Will is hot too, but I don’t swing that way…).

The movie is done well, funny, has good action in it, realistic in a comic-book sense, where the super hero has power but his shades still break. 

Will Smith is playing great, cool, and beefed up for the job… A few corny moments, but many funny cool ones.  Jason Bateman is excellent at his role, it’s no news he’s a good actor, and he keeps his reputation intact.

There are a few parts of the movie that are over-doing some stuff, some parts that are too corny and predictable, but nothing is bad or long enough to spoil the fun.

Go and see it, you’ll like it.

L.