Desipio Message Board

http://deadspin.com/this-ones-for-all-the-cubs-fans-who-didnt-live-long-eno-1788530112

https://www.bing.com/search?q=coltrane+theme+for+ernie&form=PRUSEN&pc=UE01&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=ee194dd976d942beab96867af4d7a5f1&ghc=1&qs=HS&pq=coltr&sc=8-5&sp=1&cvid=ee194dd976d942beab96867af4d7a5f1

This is a little gem that deserves a following.  The title refers to where you go when you die if you were a good person.  But in this case the female protagonist was not a good person and got there by mistake.  The setting is reminiscent of a great series from around 40 years ago titled "The  Prisoner", with Patrick McGoohan.  In the current show the residents wear an outlandish blue and gold zig zag outfit, but the female protagonist (she is no heroine) wears a tee shirt and jeans.  Everyone is a model of civil behavior, which she finds to be "bullshirt".  She thinks that certain people are "ashholes"  You can't swear there.  Her guide is played by a very goofy Ted Danson.    Although at first she feels out of place, then she learns that the "other place" truly is Hell, she decides that she wants to stay.  The place a paradise, but her arrival bodes bad things coming.  Paradise develops cracks in it.  Earthquakes, and bad weather show up.  Giant insects roam.  Clearly she has to go to permit Paradise to return, but she is going to fight to stay. 

Woody Allen is not everyone's "cup of tea".   But if you enjoy his movies I think that you will agree that this is his best in a long time.  Jesse Eisenberg plays a night club manager whose character might just as well have been named Woody Allen.  The character has all of Woody Allen's mannerisms and schtick.   And that includes Woody's misplaced belief that he is irresistible to attractive women.  Eisenberg plays a 1930's nightclub manager.  I would tell you about the plot, but there really isn't a plot, and the movie abruptly ends with nothing being resolved, but there wasn't anything to resolve.  The movie is just a vehicle to present very clever dialogue. As a fan of Woody Allen, I didn't care.  I don't know how old Eisenberg is, he was too young to play this character.  Nonetheless, I found it a quite enjoyable movie, especially the parts showing the main character's family, one of whom is a gangster who is frequently shown burying his victims in cement.  Another is his mother, who delivers some of her funniest lines in Yiddish.  (I translated for my assimilated wife.)  Then there is his sister, who knows that one of her brothers is a gangster, but feels that if she doesn't acknowledge that fact out loud then it isn't true.  Her husband is a self declared philosopher, a guy you obviously knew and tried to avoid when you were in school.   All in all, I had a wonderful day at the movies.

I sent the picture of the Olympic kayaker who was capsized by a submerged sofa to my son.  He responded. "Have they found the matching end tables yet?"  I bet that Chicagoans are thinking, "Serves you right, Olympic Committee."

Chapman in the ninth inning against the Marlins.

When I was a kid there were two places that my father would drive us to from the Northwest side into the great State of Indiana, now famous for being the home of the Great Mike Pence.  One was Phil Smidt's Restaurant. which in those days was "all you can eat", and the other was an ice cream place called Schol's, either in Hammond or Gary.  Does anyone remember these?

You will have to search around to find this movie.  It is worth the hunt.  I read that Jane Austen was 15 when she wrote the short book on which it is based.  That lady was a comic genius.  The funny lines come at you so fast and in most cases with such subtlety that by the time you figure it out you missed the next one.  I plan to see it again so I can enjoy what I missed.  Kate Beckinsale plays a young aristocratic widow who ostensibly is attempting to find a husband for her daughter, but has never put anyone  else's interests before her own.  The cast is loaded with talented English actors fresh off of Masterpiece theater.  Parts of the movie are pure slapstick.  They might as well be throwing pies at each other.  But mostly it is clever wit and sarcasm, and throwaway lines that put a constant smile on my face.   

Shame on me for not posting this earlier.  This is a TV adaptation of a 2010 movie.  It is about a pathological criminal family.  It is violent and profane and absolutely enthralling.  Ellen Barkin plays the devious and manipulative matriarch of a totally amoral gang that preys on society and each other.  It is on TNT but apparently one can watch the whole thing on "On Demand".

Do not go to see this movie.  It is high on my list of the worst movies ever made.  The original movie starred Will Smith.  He wasn't in this turkey.  I think that after they showed him the script they couldn't offer him enough money to be associated with this drek.  Robert Loggia repeated his role from the first movie.  He died shortly after appearing in this move.  I wonder if there is any connection?  I don't miss the money that I spent on the tickets, but I sure wish that I had those two hours back.  Was it only two hours?  It felt like I wasted the entire weekend.  I hope that this message reached you in time.

That's all.  Nothing left to say.

I am a fan of the Coen Brothers.  Therefore I expected this to be funnier.  Instead it is a very harsh spoof of Hollywood.  Fortunately, no one gave George Clooney the message, so he played his part for laughs.  The funniest scene features Rafe Fiennes, of all people, trying to teach a cowboy actor how to deliver his lines like a cultured, upper class Englishman.  One of the last laughs in the movie is the "work-around" that they devise to get past the problem.  Channing Tatum,  (once again "of all people")  delivers a great tap dance routine.  Scarlett Johanssen is the beautiful starlet who has the voice and vocabulary of a stevedore.  I think that we saw that in "Singing In The Rain", a better movie about Hollywood.  It is not the movie that I hoped to see. 

I wasted four hours (including the half time show and post game) of my life that I can never get back.  I didn't appreciate the fact that I was watching something historic.  But the internet has set me straight.  Instead of a poorly played fumble and interception ridden fiasco what I watched was a classic struggle of age versus youth, with my side, (age of course), coming out victorious.  Pour me another Budweiser, please.  Spring training starts next week  Happy Lunar New Year!

"Superb Bowl"  did you see what I did there?

This is the first movie I have seen since early November.  (Sitting for two + hours is a chore immediately following hip surgery.)   It was worth the wait.  I remember the incident from in 1957.  The United States exchanged a soviet spy, Walter Abel, for a downed U2 spy plane pilot, Gary Francis Powers.  If this comes as a spoiler, then shame on you, its in the history books.  Tom Hanks is absolutely perfect as the insurance defense lawyer who the U.S. recruited as its representative to negotiate the deal.  I wasn't surprised by how good Hanks is in this movie.  Except for a few stinkers (Joe and the Volcano) Hanks just doesn't make bad movies.  This movie was made by Speilberg and the Coen brothers, so you aren't taking a big chance when you fork over the equivalent of an hour's pay before payroll tax deductions.  Much of the movie takes place in East Germany in the Winter, and they did such a good job you feel the chill in your bones.  (Forgive me, you may be reading this in Chicago during the Winter, so you don't need a description.)  You may ask, "What's to negotiate?  They wanted Abel, we wanted Powers, so nu?"  That's how good movies differ from the not so good.  The Russians had two prisoners that we wanted, we had only one that they wanted.  I am not going to tell you anymore, because that would be a spoiler.

I posted a recollection in the General Discussion thread about a wonderful Dijon mustard that was served in the 1940's at a concession stand on a beach on Lake Michigan's shore.  I remember the taste very well and have been trying to find a mustard that comes close for decades.  No luck.  Are there any suggestions?  It had a salty after taste and there were no incongruous herb flavors. 

My 7 year old grandson and I saw this epic on Saturday.  What can I say?  He enjoyed it.  I didn't understand any of it.  However, it became very funny when Grandpa Vampire showed up toward the end.  Why not?  It was Mel Brooks.  Adam Sandler did the voice of a Count Dracula character.  Every time he spoke I thought to myself, "Adam Sandler is no Hans Conreid."  Adam Sandler should be banned from making movies and TV.  But it was enjoyable taking a grandchild to the movies and stuffing him with popcorn and candy.  Don't tell his parents.  For those of you who have young children and don't want them overloading on sweets, don't entrust them to their grandfather.

Every so often you see a movie where the story (plot) is secondary to the acting.  This movie is an example.  It showed off Ian McKellan's talent.  He plays Sherlock Homes at the end of his life, which this movie places after World War II.  There are no murders.  There aren't even any crimes.  In fact you don't even know what the mystery is until Holmes reveals it.  The movie could have been accurately titled "Adventures In Bee Keeping."  Yet the movie is engrossing.  It welds together three different time periods and stories from each.  McKellan makes you feel the vulnerability of old age, and to understand that the worst part of old age is not the physical deterioration, but the mental and memory loss.  The brilliant detective is reduced to writing memory clues on his shirt cuff.  That is one scary movie.   

I know that political talk is generally eschewed on this board.  But the Republican debate (?) last night wasn't as much politics as it was entertainment.  It was broadcast on the West Coast during the "there is nothing on TV to watch" time period of 6 pm to 8pm.  So of course it had our rapt attention.  The star of the show was Donald.  However, I was disappointed by his hair.  I seemed flatter and less alive than it usually looks.  But he made up for it with his pursed mouth expression.  The way that he purses his mouth makes it look as though he is concentrating.  I think that expression was adopted to offset Rick Perry's studious glasses.  Speaking of hair, Chris Cristie is training that curly lock of hair in the middle of his forehead to make him look like a latter day Betty Boop.  I can't wait for the next debate.  The Democrats don't debate until October.  That's when I get to see my hero, Bernie Sanders, in action.  Bernie is white haired, Jewish and a septuagenarian.  That is my demographic!   Go Bernie!!!!!!!

Struggled my way through this book.  I kept thinking that it would get better.  I was wrong.  I suppose that they will make a movie since (for reasons that I can't comprehend) it is a best seller.  I won't go to see the movie.

Melissa McCarthy is a very funny actor.  The producer of this film, (who happens to be Melissa McCarthy) apparently believes that if a little bit of Melissa McCarthy is funny, a lot of Melissa McCarthy would be a lot of funny.  Unfortunately, this movie has too much Melissa McCarthy.  She is in the center of every scene, leaving very little room for anyone else.  (Yes, I said that.)  The movie is about a half hour too long and not only ceases to be funny, it gets violent and nasty.  I don't know why she thought that multiple killings on screen would fit in this comedy, but I think that it was a miscalculation.  She shoots everyone who happens to share a scene with her.  Although that is a unique way of focusing our attention on her, we lose any kind of identification with her character.  Let's face it.  Melissa McCarthy is not an action heroine.