Mock Squid Soup - February 12, 2016 - Chef

So if you read my wife's post on her website, Hungry Enough To Eat Six, (she has been giving me updates on the number of folks who have tried clicking over from her site to see my comments) you'll know the movie we watched this month is the Jon Favreau vanity project from 2014, "Chef".

Currently #526 on my flickchart list

After directing the first two Iron Man movies and producing the third, along with both Avengers movies, Favreau had, what I've often heard referred to as, "F you money."  I am not writing that in a dismissive way.  He had enough money to get this movie made.  He had an idea, researched it, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in a movie he truly believed in.

And it is not a bad movie.  It's just not my sort of movie.  It was enjoyable.  The soundtrack was fun.  But the movie is flat.

SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR A TWO YEAR OLD MOVIE FOUND ON NETFLIX

For me, the gist of the movie is as follows:  a relatively happy chef, Favreau, working at a dream job, suddenly realizes he is somewhat stifled creatively working for Dustin Hoffman.  This comes to a head when a food critic is dismissive of his current work.  The chef gets disproportionately upset by this, sleeps with Scarlett Johansson, and flies to Miami with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara) and their son to rediscover what he loved about cooking.  Once in Miami, Vergara has her other ex-husband, Robert Downey, Jr., bankroll Favreau's mid-life "crisis" and allow him the chance to reconnect with his son.  The movie ends with the critic returning to visit Favreau and bankrolling a NEW restaurant for the both to run....and Favreau remarries Vergara.

Aside from a scene where the son burns a sandwich and is, at first, somewhat dismissive of the burned sandwich, this movie is relatively free from strife.  There is no real change to any of the characters.  The movie feels like it is missing its second act.  There is no conflict.  Every misstep by a character is rectified almost instantly.

I was also bummed because by trimming some of the language, this would have been a great movie for our "Family Movie Night".  I love the things my son and I share in common and those parts of this movie resonated for me.  But I can't share the movie with him because it was unnecessarily crass.

That being said, I'm late posting this and Nan and I just came back from our current favorite activity, drunk grocery shopping, so what do I know.

Mock Squid Soup: February 2016: Three Clues

Here are my three clues for this month's movie!

1)  Of the first ten actors credited in this movie, eight have had roles in movies based on comic books or comic strips...but this is NOT a comic book movie!

2)  The writer and director of this movie is credited with directing three major comic book movies...but this is NOT a comic book movie!

3)  The star of the movie (who also wrote, produced, and directed the film) says this film was loosely inspired by the owner of the Kogi Korean BBQ food trucks of Los Angeles.

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The Armchair Squid and I are proud to present Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society!

This month, everyone gets to throw a movie of their own choice into the pot.  The week before our gathering, on Friday, February 5th, everyone is invited to post three clues about his/her movie for others to guess.  Our next regular meeting is Friday, February 12th.   No need to sign up twice.  The Squid used the same link list for both.  If you are interested in joining us, please sign on to the list below.

This is a Blog Hop!

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1. The Armchair Squid	2. Cherdo on the Flipside
3. Birgit	4. Hungry Enough To Eat Six
5. What's Up, Mock?

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Mock Squid Soup: November Entries

I have fallen off the blogging wagon and am not following through on the theme for this month's hop.  I am not a good blogging co-host.

Instead, I will share ALL of the movies I watched last weekend.  I spent last week in Doha, Qatar visiting some schools and attending an education summit.  The flight home allowed me to watch ALL of the following movies.

My current flickchart rating is under each image. I currently have 1,209 movies on my flickchart list.

Only The Prestige and The Social Network were repeat viewings.  All the others I was seeing for the first time.

#754

#105

#47

#75

#104

 If you have seen this, you know it opens with a stunt on an airplane.  This was what I was watching as our plane took off!

#466

 If you have seen the marketing for this one, you know it is an earthquake movie.  Watching it while experiencing turbulence added to the effect.  I can't say it made the movie better.

#39

That's it!

This is a Blog Hop!

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1. The Armchair Squid	2. Birgit
3. Musings of a Creative Writer	4. A Space Blogyssey
5. Cherdo on the Flipside	6. The ToiBox of Words
7. MOCK!

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Mock Squid Soup - August 14, 2015 - Sleepless in Seattle

I am sitting in the last day of class and received a text from Nan that we forgot to do our posts!

I think everyone figured out I watched Sleepless in Seattle.  It was a big favorite, due to the soundtrack, to watch in the video store back in the day.  Last week, I put it on while I was starting to set up my classroom.

It does seem to be both a relic of its time but still holds up well enough to be enjoyable.

And now I must get back to class!

This is a Blog Hop!

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1. The Armchair Squid	2. Cherdo on the Flipside
3. Birgit	4. Two Square Dogs
5. The ToiBox of Words	6. Hungry Enough To Eat Six
7. MOCK!	8. Musings of a Creative Writer

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Mock Squid Soup: August Trivia Teaser

>cough cough<  This blog is a little dusty...let me turn on a light.  

Ahh...that's better.  Let's see...the last post was...June 12?!?!?  Holy cow!  Well, I'll pretend nothing has happened!

It is time for this month’s gathering of the Mock Squid Soup, hosted by the Armchair Squid and by myself! Today, we provide 3 clues to keep you on the edge of your seat! Next Friday we will share our movie choices and reviews. 

1.  Despite being a romantic comedy, the two leads share less than 2 minutes of screen time together.
2.  The lead actor won the Academy Award for Best actor for another movie he starred in the very same year!
3.  At one point in the movie, the male lead does an impression of a different actor, who starred in a  1957 film, clips of which feature prominently throughout the movie.

There you go!

This is a Blog Hop!

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1. The Armchair Squid	2. Cherdo on the Flipside
3. Birgit	4. Two Square Dogs
5. The ToiBox of Words	6. Hungry Enough To Eat Six

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This list will close in 7 days, 21 hrs, 23 min (8/15/2015 9:16 AM North America - Eastern Standard Time)

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Mock Squid Soup - June 12, 2015 - Mad Max: Fury Road

MOCK! and The Armchair Squid are proud to welcome you to Mock Squid Soup: A Film Society, meetings on the second Friday of each month.  Last week, society members posted three clues as to their chosen film for the month.  Today is the big reveal.

Last month, I thought I knew what this month's movie was going to be.  I had intended to re-visit an old favorite but instead...

I had not intended to see this film.  I don't recall if I've seen the original trilogy.  But shortly after this was released, a friend texted that he was interested in seeing this.  We were supposed to go see "American Sniper" together this past winter, but those plans fell apart.  So, since I hadn't seen him in a bit AND he had convinced another friend I had only seen briefly the week before, I jumped in.

And I am quite glad I did.  This was a bombastic, in-your-face, senses assaulting thrill ride.  I have read somewhere that there were about 15 pages of dialog when the script was written and 3500 stills for the storyboarding of the action scenes.  It just picks up after a low key opening monologue and doesn't stop for its entire two hour running time.

It has strong female characters, lots of humor and action, and a nice set up for a new trilogy.  While not overly gory, it is definitely not for everyone.  

But it was fun.
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Mock Squid Soup: June Trivia Teaser

Today, as an added treat for this month's edition of Mock Squid Soup, all society members are invited to post three hints about their film choice for the month.  All are welcome to guess, of course.  Here are the three clues for my movie:

-Twenty years ago, the writer/director of this movie worked on a film that earned seven Academy Award nominations (including his adapted screenplay) but that film only won one award...for Best Visual Effects.

-Since the inception of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, one of the animated movies this movie's writer/director helmed became one of only two animated features to ever beat a Pixar film for the award. (That's a clunky sentence!)

-Playing anti-heroes in this movie, both lead actors were nominated for Teen Choice Awards for their roles, in two separate movies, as "Best Choice Villain" (She in 2012 and he in 2013).

That was harder than I thought it would be.

Mock Squid Soup - May 8, 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Could it be anything else?

Nan and I had grand plans to watch movies and tease trivia, but, alas, it was not meant to be!

Currently, it stands as my favorite Marvel movie and it cracks the top ten of all my movies on Flickchart.

I saw it during previews with Nan and our son, then saw most of it at the drive-in the next night with a large group of friends (including my son, my daughter and her boyfriend) and then again on Saturday with my two cousins in Rutland.

There are stories behind each viewing, but the clock on the wall says I have to head to school.  I might find my placement for next year today.  And then I have a big presentation tonight for my Masters project so it will all have to wait.

I hope you are all well.

MOCK Squid Soup: Pulp Fiction: December 12, 2014

One of the surest ways for me to NOT like something is to be told that I MUST like it.  Such was the case with Pulp Fiction when it came out.

I saw it shortly after its theatrical run, when it first debuted on VHS.  I was thoroughly underwhelmed.  People who had seemed smart to me were praising it.  People who I detested thought it was the greatest movie ever made.  It seemed that it was "hip" to enjoy it.  I was not hip.  Never have been and never will be.  But I am petty and those memories are powerful.

My memory of it was such that when I went to check on flickchart, I had rated it 17 times and it was the LAST movie on my list.  Dead last.

Re-watching it with Squid moved it up to 281 on my list.  While I am still underwhelmed,  I can understand the impact it has on people.  I liked the juxtaposition of the "real" world with the seediness going on at the same time.  I liked the use of the soundtrack as another layer within the movie (a technique done even better earlier this year with Guardians of the Galaxy).  Some of the dialogue was clever.  The non-sequential story telling didn't seem to be necessary.

My kids don't understand my love of the first Star Wars movie.  They see things like it all the time.  They see movies with better effects.  They see actual Star Wars movies and television shows any time they want.  They don't know what I went through growing up.  I had three movies.  And I didn't get a VCR until Return of the Jedi was already 5 years old.

Perhaps my inability to understand the adoration for Pulp Fiction comes from everything I have seen since that was inspired by it.  Or not being able to grasp the "revolution" it set forth in modern cinema (which parallels my inability to understand the music revolution of the same era and my distaste for most "indy" music).

Or maybe I just know what I like and I'm okay with that...

Why not check out the other folks who signed up for this month's film:

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	Scouring Monk
3.	Cherdo on the Flipside

Lastly, check the Squid's site for exciting information about January's title!  Guest hosts!  Guest picker!  I will not be partaking as we have a movie I just can't bring myself to view again....but perhaps you will!

Mock Squid Soup: Space Battleship Yamoto: November 14, 2014

Please check out The Armchair Squid's site for details on our bloghop and the story around our choice of movie this month.

Another short post as the real world seems to prevent blogging right now.  No sob story...just so busy.

Currently #394 on my flickchart list

Space Battleship Yamoto was a fun romp.  The visuals were impressive.  The characters fun.  It really seemed to embody the cartoon (granted I have a VERY limited exposure to the television show).

The only real negative for me was the subtitles.  I've never been a fan of subtitles given the nuances you lose in the delivery of the dialogue.  There seemed to be a few jumps in logic/the story that might not have taken a native speaker by surprise.



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Please check out the other folks who have watched the movie!

1.	The ToiBox of Words	2.	The Armchair Squid
3.	Cherdo on the Flipside	4.	MOCK!
5.	Two Square Dogs

A Bloggers' Film Society: September 2014: Burn After Reading

Has a month come and gone already?  The start of the school year has meant a dearth of posts from yours truly.  Either way it is time for another installment of A Bloggers' Film Society hosted by The Armchair Squid and yours truly.

Our Society is just starting out.  Please consider checking out the other folks who have signed up to review this month's offering by clicking HERE!  And perhaps YOU will join us next month?

Currently #812 on my flickchart list

As you may or may not know, The Squid and I are friends in real life.  I love the man like a brother.  The Venn diagram of us has more in the middle than not.  That being said, our entertainment tastes do not always line up.  From the outside looking in, one might consider him more...cultural...in a great many ways.  I like that we do line up enough so that when we are not in sync, we can have intelligent conversations none-the-less.

I really wanted to like this movie.  But I did not.

I am not a Focus Film fan.  For awhile, Nan and I used it as our buzzword to dismiss a movie out of hand.  And like most Focus Films, this one seemed to be trying too hard, Frances McDormand and George Clooney especially.  I kept expecting one of them to pull out the old Jon Lovitz as Master Thespian "ACTING!" line.  And like Clooney's overall performance, I felt the movie couldn't pick a style and stick with it.  Serious drama?  Wacky comedy?  Spy flick? Comedy of errors?  If it wanted any or all of them, I do not feel it succeeded.

Looking over the Coen brothers' body of work, I realize that I have seen many of their films but have liked few.

But there were parts I liked in here.  Some of the dialog and scenes really crackled, especially early on.  John Malkovich was a hoot.  JK Simmons' world-weary, semi-clueless CIA boss was a delight (though, to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen him in a role I didn't like).  And whereas some actors (like Clooney, Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise) often have a hard time convincing me they are playing a character that is NOT them, Brad Pitt usually surprises me.  This time was no different.  I think I just like the guy as an actor.

Overall, the movie started out intriguing.  I was hooked and interested,  but at some point it just sort of lost its way.  Perhaps it was intentional.  I do not know.  But at that point I no longer cared.

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Please consider joining us next month.  Squid will reveal our next installment on his blog.  He and I are planning on watching the movie together with our Third Musketeer.  I am looking forward to the movie and the company!