Noma! El Bulli No More Numero Uno

A restaurant lives and dies by the quality of the food it serves. That's the bottom line, plain and simple. Yes, food presentation, service and atmosphere do play their own parts as well but at the end of the day, isn't the food really what people go to a restaurant for? Now, if you are Ferran Adria, the Catalonian molecular gastronomy guru, the restaurant becomes your culinary playground-cum-laboratory and the food, well.....it becomes the stuff of almost science fiction. As for your your guests, they become sort of like privileged children who gets to play in that playground every 6 months out of the year.


The new culinary discipline of molecular gastronomy has gained prominence in the culinary world thanks in large part to Adria's creative genius in dazzling his guests with outlandish food creations like spherical olives, powdered yogurt, parmesan marshmallows, gorgonzola shell, popcorn cloud, melon caviar and various savory foams (here is a link to a gallery of Adria's creations). Adria's playful and almost whimsical ways in redefining and reinventing how we look at food is ingenious and certainly one of the most original ideas in the restaurant business in a very long time.

El Bulli, Adria's famed 3 Michelin Star restaurant is located in the town of Roses on the beautiful northeast coast of Spain. In 2006, El Bulli ascended to the throne of being named the world's best restaurant, an annual list compiled by Britain's Restaurant magazine, and has stayed on top ever since. Known as The "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant," this list, whose influence is debatable, has been published since 2002 and in the 8 years of its existence, only 4 restaurants have been honored with the best restaurant title, with El Bulli claiming an astonishing 5 of them (it also came out on top in the inaugural 2002 list). After playing second fiddle to England's The Fat Duck (another molecular gastronomy restaurant) in 2005, El Bulli has never looked back since. (Here's a list of books that has been published about El Bulli: A Day at El Bulli, El Bulli 2003-2004, El Bulli: 1998-2002 and El Bulli 1994-1997)
However, in January 2010, Adria shocked the culinary world by announcing that El Bulli would be closing its doors permanently at the end of the 2011 season, putting an end to one of the world's culinary meccas. Adria also announced that it will reopen in 2014 as an academy for advanced culinary studies. As to why El Bulli was closing, Mr. Adria revealed that the restaurant was losing as much as half a million Euros a year and was not able to sustain this level of financial loss any longer.

On the heels of that shocking El Bulli announcement comes the brand new 2010 list of the world's 50 best restaurants. Revealed just a few days ago, the list puts a sort of a coda on El Bulli's waning influence on the culinary world. After 4 years on top, El Bulli has finally been dethroned and is replaced by Noma of Copenhagen, Denmark. Noma was placed no. 3 in the 2009 list and has leapfrogged both El Bulli and The Fat Duck to become numero uno for 2010. Unlike both the restaurants that it beat to get to the top, Noma is not another forerunner in molecular gastronomy but features cutting edge regional and seasonal Nordic gourmet cuisine.

Here are the opening paragraphs of how Noma describes itself:

At noma, we aim to offer a personal rendition of Nordic gourmet cuisine, where typical methods of cooking, fine Nordic produce and the legacy of our common food culture are all being subjected to an innovative gastronomic approach. Carrying this line of thinking further, we view it as a challenge to play a part in bringing forth a regeneration of Nordic culinary craft, in its capacity to encompass the North Atlantic region and to brighten the world with its distinctive tastiness and special regional character.

What you will find here at noma is not centered so much on olive oil, foie gras, sun-dried tomatoes and Mediterranean black olives. We’ve been busy traveling around in the Nordic regions and we have been finding a number of simply phenomenal ingredients that we have flown into town for our use: Horse mussels, deep-sea crabs and langoustines from the Faeroe Islands, which are living right up until the moment they are served to our visitors. Halibut, wild salmon, cod and seaweed and curds from Iceland. Lamb, musk ox, berries and the purest drinking water from Greenland. In much the same fashion, we are constantly scanning for new sources of inspiration in Denmark, especially, as well as the other Nordic regions, for purposes of securing reliable sources of top-quality raw produce. This pertains both to very costly ingredients and also to ingredients of a more everyday character that we feel have come to be overlooked in the formulation of a salient Nordic approach to cooking: cereals, hulled grains and legumes, which you will come to experience here in the context of surprising preparations.

In a sense, this changing of the guard is an appropriate statement to how we see the culinary world today. Yes, experimentation, cutting edge food science and originality do have their places in this world but clean, regional, fresh and sustainable have become key ingredients to dining out. And Noma is now a perfect example of that concept.

Stark Contrast

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments. That said, the Iron Man review will contain SPOILERS, because if you haven't seen the first one yet, I doubt you'd be here.

The Internet is abuzz with reviews of Iron Man 2, the definitive beginning of the 2010 summer blockbuster season. With such widespread interest in the sequel, there's only one thing your Mad Prophet could do, true believers. That's right- go back and review Iron Man. You know, because this blog started just shy of the opportune time to do a review of that film. Nah, there will be a quick snifter at Iron Man 2 as well, so sit back and enjoy a blog post that scrutinises the ongoing adventures of Tony Stark.
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Iron Man begins with Tony Stark being ambushed by a terrorist group whilst in a military convoy in Afghanistan. He's a billionaire and genius, and his talents are understandably coveted by America's enemies. While in captivity, he pulls a Doc Brown by using the materials provided to create something much more awesome than he's meant to- in this case a mechanised suit of armour capable of dealing heavy firepower. Through these experiences, Tony's eyes are opened to the effects of his work, and when he returns to America, he vows to develop the armour and right his own wrongs as the titular superhero.

In the time since the film came out, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges has publicly decried Paramount's initial handling of the film, setting a release date and even starting shooting before they had a script or a cast locked down. In the same breath, he said that the film turned out as well as it did thanks to the improv skills of director Jon Favreau and leading man Robert Downey Jr. Certainly they make Iron Man the all-out riotous bit of fun blockbuster cinema that it is. You have to remember that Iron Man is no Superman or Spider-Man. With the upper tier characters spoken for, film studios are turning to lesser known characters, making this an unlikely hit when it originally came out.

Of course it's also the film that largely gave Downey the stardom he finally secured in the last few years. He earns every bit of it with his sardonic portrayal of Stark, making the audience like him from barely a minute after the film starts. Favreau wisely keeps him on screen for as long as possible, because in a superhero film where the alter-ego is entirely concealed by a suit of robot armour, there's little room for performance in major action sequences.

Save for a few ingenious finishing moves, there's little to show that Stark is Iron Man, resulting in a number of open-helmeted exchanges when he does don the suit. On which note, it's nice to see they partially employ practical effects for the suit, and that it's near impossible to tell the difference between the effects and the physical suit.
Also to be applauded is his chemistry with literally everyone on screen. He sparks off of Gwyneth Paltrow as his long-suffering assistant Pepper Potts without the film resorting to a traditional romantic conclusion. He mocks Terrence Howard's Colonel Rhodes without ever letting the audience lose sight of the fact that they're best friends. Downey is perfectly cast as Stark and is simply one of the best things about this film.

The plot rattles along wonderfully, especially considering they improvised much of it, and the only real problem stems from Iron Man being a second-tier Marvel hero. The first-tier heroes are often so well-known because they also have everyone's favourite villains. In Iron Man's case, his nemeses are more often bigger or more metal versions of himself- another guy in a suit.

Even if the action climax fizzles out, it picks up for one of the better final scenes of any modern blockbuster- a complete subversion of the angst around preserving a secret identity when you have superpowers. Tony telling the press "I am Iron Man" leaves the audience wanting more from the film from the second it cuts to the credits. And who could blame any audience? This is a witty, gloriously acted and hugely enjoyable film that stands up on repeat viewings and doesn't adhere too closely to superhero genre formula. Iron Man defies expectations by pleasing both comic fans and broad audiences, setting up both the origins of the character and some pretty intense anticipation for a follow-up.
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It's that intense anticipation that threatens to overshadow Iron Man 2 for me. Beginning simultaneously with the first film's ending before skipping six months on, the sequel picks up with Tony being massively popular for the Iron Man brand and for "effectively privatising world peace." Opposition stirs within the US government, who want to replicate the armour for military usage, and across the globe, where a resentful Ivan Vanko plots vengeance on Tony. Whipping up an arc reactor of his own, Vanko embarks upon a mission to prove to the world that Iron Man is not indestructible...

On my first viewing? I don't think it's as good as the original. I wouldn't call it a disappointment, but it's just missing something. I will be seeing it again to check I wasn't compressing it under the weight of my expectations, but here's my review for now. The first hour or so is really pretty dull. The highlight, an fight scene at the Monaco Grand Prix, has been flogged to death in the marketing, and so has little impact in the context of the film. After a promising opening, it becomes bogged down in extended scenes of sub-poena hearings and corporate mix-ups, which is not what you want from a film called Iron Man 2.

After that second hour though, the film becomes preoccupied with selling the forthcoming Avengers film. The convergence of all the Marvel characters here takes up a sizable chunk of the second act, when I'd really much rather have seen a film solely about Iron Man. It wouldn't be fair to say it suffers from Spider-Man 3 Syndrome, but it does stretch itself massively to cover numerous plot points about SHIELD when giving proper focus to the narrative at hand would have been more satisfying. Despite the flab, it's a decent narrative with some strong action beats, but it seems divorced from the sense of fun that made Iron Man so good.
Of the cast, I can't really declare any faults. Downey is once again superb as Tony, becoming ever more isolated as the tide of opinion turns against him, but special mention should go to Sam Rockwell. Assess your wants and needs, and I guarantee you there is nothing you want as much as Justin Hammer wants to be Tony Stark. He's an incompetent shadow to Tony's genius and Rockwell knocks it out of the park completely in every scene he's in. Don Cheadle makes a better Rhodey-cum-War Machine than his predecessor Terrence Howard right from the off, and Mickey Rourke proves an interesting casting decision, playing Vanko. His righteous anger is pretty much the length and breadth of his character, but Rourke sells it well, proving a threatening screen presence throughout.

Downey has always been fast-talking as Tony, often speaking at the same time as an equally flustered and garbled Gwyneth Paltrow, but it really jars this time around in the early instances of their dialogue together. If there's one character who's perfectly legible and well-covered throughout, it's Happy Hogan, played by... director Jon Favreau. Expanding a cameo from the first film, he gets lots of dialogue in this one, gets involved in action scenes and at one point is pinioned between Scarlett Johansson's legs. If you have to do a cameo, make it more like Hitchcock and less like Shyamalan. I do have to wonder where director Jon Favreau's head was this time around, other than locked between ScarJo's thighs in that one scene.

Is Iron Man 2 solidly entertaining? Ultimately, yes, but it's not a patch on the first one. The unconventional ending of the first film is countered with a bog-standard denouement for two certain characters and a final scene that's kind of copied from the ending to one of the Star Wars films. And just prior to those scenes, we have a villain face-off similar to the end of Iron Man- as mentioned earlier, his opponents are invariably other robots, and that's the case here. I'll hand it to Favreau though, it still seems fresh if not entirely as enjoyable as what's gone before. And it held my attention throughout, so it's visually top-notch even if the meat in the story is a little thin at the outset.
It's funny really, how Iron Man proved a winning formula with little planning and a largely improvised production and this one didn't. The signs of aforethought are all too clear in Iron Man 2, and the half-hearted attempt to recapture that formula turns it into just that- a formula. There aren't many original thrills, but it has a better cast giving better performances than many other films you'll see this summer. Thankfully it hasn't attempted to stray into the intangible territory of "darkness" that many Hollywood sequels try to broach, but sadly it doesn't really try anything else new either.
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With the caveat that I may well be kinder to the sequel on a second viewing, let me know what you think of the Iron Man films with a comment below!

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Spiritually Speaking

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.

Britain, Britain, Britain, as a good old Doctor intoned on a not-as-good comedy show. With the election currently rattling Britain up and down and all over the place, and multiculturalism still proving a thorny issue in some quarters, it's better to just go to the cinema and forget about politics. You can find a satire of religious and political differences with that bloke off the moneysupermarket.com ads in The Infidel, or a scathing and thinly-veiled look at Tony Blair's premiership in Roman Polanski's The Ghost.
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The Infidel centres around Mahmud Nasir, a British Muslim who is frequently agitated by the coverage of religious extremists in the media. The more moderate Mahmud just wants to clear his late mother's house out as his son asks him to be a good Muslim for a visit by his fiancée's new stepfather, a fundamentalist cleric. Mahmud resolves to muddle through, until he finds adoption papers in his mother's effects. Apparently his birth name was Solly Shimshillewitz, and he was born Jewish.

It's not the most conventional premise for a comedy, but I should say from the off that this won't upset nearly as many people as Chris Morris' upcoming Four Lions. That said, I don't think The Infidel is necessarily destined to be overshadowed by that film. It's an endearing comedy drama that doesn't skimp on laughs or more dramatic beats throughout its 1 hour and 45 minutes.

David Baddiel's script is witty and actually kind of profound, with Omid Djalili playing a role it's actually really difficult to imagine anyone else playing. When a performance makes an actor seem indispensable, it should really be applauded. The straight man to his loud antics is Richard Schiff, who's nicely sardonic as a Jew who decides to help Mahmud discover his identity with videos of Fiddler on the Roof and lectures on different types of Jew. Look out also for turns by the gorgeous Tracy Ann Oberman and the brilliant Matt Lucas.

Along the way, the hypocrisies and disputes of both Islam and Judaism are played up, but it's never disrespectful or offensive. Certain caricatures are brought into view, like a hook-handed right-hand man to a Muslim cleric or Jews having an in-built angst that entirely sums them up, but these are ultimately dispelled. The Infidel is not a film concerned with poking fun at religion, but rather in exploring its role in personal identity.

It's not going to set the world alight as Four Lions is expected to, but it is a warm and hilarious film that deserves to be more broadly seen. I even forgave it for its indulgence in the closing credits by finally having Mahmud do a funny dance, seeing as how Djalili seems to be known largely in Britain as "the bloke who does funny dances." And hey, it is still funny when they acquiesce to it- it is, after all, a funny dance!

It nearly outstays its welcome at a running time only a little longer than average for a comedy film, but it's an oddly strategic film. Baddiel's voice translates to the screen very well, and it feels like he knew exactly what he wanted to say and how it would unfold. The Infidel strikes at how ludicrous extremism is without forsaking righteousness, and it's a fine comedy drama that you should seek out if you get the chance.

The Infidel is now playing in selected cinemas across the UK.
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The Ghost refers to the nameless protagonist, played by Ewan McGregor, who is recruited to ghost write the memoirs of former Prime Minister Adam Lang, played by Pierce Brosnan. The previous manuscript is a crock of shit, but with Lang under investigation by the UN for war crimes, his rivals circle around the writer to try and get hold of its secrets. As he digs deeper, it transpires that Lang may have handed terrorist suspects over to the CIA for torture, and even his predecessor may have been murdered in the scramble to cover up the truth.

To begin, I'd like to quickly say a massive FUCK YOU to any self-righteous tits who've dropped by to accuse me of funding and/or endorsing statutory rape by seeing and reviewing a film by Roman Polanski, as they have elsewhere. It's possible to enjoy this film and still want Polanski to go to jail for his crime, and I don't need moralising from Mail-reading tossers like you. Ahem.

The director's real-life controversy has obvious effects from the opening seconds of The Ghost. He finished editing the film from a Swiss prison, but the name change in foreign markets from The Ghost Writer to The Ghost has left Optimum tacking a poor graphic from the end of the international trailers onto the beginning of the film. It's blunt and poorly implemented, and I can't be the only one who thinks The Ghost Writer sounds better anyway.
What follows though is rather consummately realised, given the circumstances of its post-production. It's a taut thriller, maintaining a strong air of political paranoia and conspiracy theory without ever being any less than exhilarating. The only lull I can remember is somewhere around the last half hour, and it comes right before a glorious peak in the intrigue. The parallels with Tony Blair are there to be read into, as was intended in the Robert Harris novel the film is based on, but it still stands up entirely on its own merits.

Pierce Brosnan is making a fine showing at the multiplex this week, and I've been dazzled by him in both this and Remember Me. Maybe he's finally casting off the shadow of Bond as a character that captures all of Blair's charisma and self-importance while still feeling unique. I was surprised how little he's in the film- we're fully half an hour in before his first appearance and his appearances are intermittent thereafter, but his presence is always felt. Ewan McGregor seems to have got a comparative drubbing for what many have called a poor Mockney accent, but I heard nothing wrong with the offending dialect. Olivia Williams and Tom Wilkinson shine too where many others might fade into the background to McGregor and Brosnan, and it's worth watching everyone in the sprawling narrative.

Sprawling would ultimately be the key word to describe The Ghost. It's come through the problems of its production admirably to stand as one of the better films of the year so far. With its acknowledgement of Hitchcock's similarly paranoid thrillers and occasional echoes of Polanski's earlier horror film The Tenant, it almost feels out of its time in 2010, despite all contemporary parallels. Although the plot becomes ever so slightly inscrutable after the big twist, the impact of that twist is enough to leave a strong impression on the audience, along with a truly haunting final shot. Exciting, entertaining, and if this is the end to Polanski's somewhat eclectic career, it's a very fine swansong indeed.

The Ghost is playing in cinemas now.
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If you've seen either of these films and want to comment on them, on my reviews, or to congratulate me on not celebrating my 50th post in any way whatsoever, why not share you comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Rosemary-Rubbed Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apricot & Ginger Glaze

Here's a great cooking idea if you are ever in the mood for roasting pork tenderloins. I first used a rosemary-spice rub to roast the tenderloin with and then finish it up with an apricot-ginger glaze, flavors that go very well with the fresh rosemary and pork.

Let's start by talking about the rosemary rub. I simply mix together fresh chopped rosemary with salt, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, coriander powder, chili powder and fresh ground black pepper. Clean the pork tenderloin by removing excess fat and then rub the mixture all over the pork, letting it sit for about an hour or so in order for the spice rub to penetrate the meat. When ready, pre-heat your oven to 375F and start roasting the pork for about 45 minutes. Check for done-ness by inserting a meat thermometer into the tenderloin. If it register 155F and above, it is done. But in this case, you don't want it to cook all the way through yet. Remember the glaze? We'll finish up cooking the pork after we get the glaze on.

To make the glaze, I used:
1 packet of preserved apricots
2 inches of fresh ginger (sliced)
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups of water
2 tablespoons of salt

Add all the ingredients above in a small pot and bring it to a boil and then a medium simmer. Cook until the apricots are very tender and turn to mush when pressed with a spoon. Add more water as needed. This process may take up to an hour to complete. Remove the ginger slices when done or you can just leave them in the glaze to maintain the flavor.

OK, now back to the pork roast. The pork is almost ready and it it needs now is the apricot-ginger glaze that we just made. Generously glaze the pork with it and put it back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes. When the tenderloin is done, remove from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Slice it just before serving and you can serve it together with roasted rosemary-garlic potatoes (which can be roasted at the same time as the pork). Bon appetit!

Round the Twist

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. Given how I'm talking about twist endings, there will be some spoilers here for Remember Me. It's been on release for a good while now, but if you haven't seen it yet and want to, do not read the review.

If you're M. Night Shyamalan, your entire oeuvre revolves around the twist ending. Hell, even your upcoming Last Airbender film will probably follow suit ("The air is bending US!") if his previous works are anything to go by. Seeing as how most film-makers are not M. Night Shyamalan, you'd think they'd be halfway competent at doing twists every once in a while.

And yet rattling around multiplexes at the moment are romantic drama Remember Me and sci-fi action flick Repo Men, both of which resort to lame twists to bolster audience response in the final reel. As mentioned above, there will be spoilers for Remember Me in the review, but the Repo Men review will remain largely spoiler-free, as usual- that comes first...
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Repo Men takes place in the near future, where shady medical insurers The Union provide the world with synthetic organ transplants on the terms of a strict payment plan. If you fall behind on payments, the eponymous bailiffs will track you down and take your organs. One of the repo men, Remy, has an accident at work that wasn't his fault, but rather than getting in touch with Claims Direct, he's saddled with a payment plan on his replacement organs. He's also grown a conscience in the process, and seeks to bring down The Union.

Does the beginning of that sound familiar? You may have seen Repo! The Generic Opera, an ultimately ephemeral attempt to make a Rocky Horror equivalent for the torture porn generation. Still, it's succeeded on a moderate level as a cult classic and has Anthony Head, which is always good. This only has Jude Law. But then both films were pipped to the post by a great gag in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, (and Repo Men overtly references said gag) so let's get that argument out of the way before it even transpires.

As mentioned, this does have Jude Law. The man is anathema to me except for a few select roles, including his recent turn as Watson in Sherlock Holmes, which is probably the best screen version of that character ever. Here, Law never convinces as a gung-ho action hero of the American ilk- he's too smarmy and posh. And it's a problem that he's less likeable than Liev Schrieber, because Schreiber is playing one of the antagonists.
One thing that does make Repo Men worth a watch is the turn by Forrest Whittaker. The man has made some mootable efforts both before and after his Oscar win for playing Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, but he's a joy to watch here. His character is like a cross between the buddy cop and the over-the-top villains you'd see in 80s action films. Nick Frost in Hot Fuzz meets Vernon Wells in Commando, and just as funny. Others might sleepwalk through a role like this, but Whittaker actually makes it feel like a bold choice for an actor of his calibre. And kudos to him for it- what the hell have Halle Berry or Adrien Brody done lately?

Sadly, there's not much else to recommend about the film. Like its equally grisly forebear (only without the songs), it falls short of the concept's inherent potential by deploying excessive visual stimulus and next to no substance. The future may not be bright, but does it have to look like Blade Runner with product placement? A few moments are reminiscent of the brainless fun of Crank and Shoot 'Em Up, but these pale next to a misjudged social parallel that's already been explored in last year's Saw VI. Healthcare sucks in America! We get it! Let Obama sort it and stop making sub-par movies.

The lovingly orchestrated violence goes remiss in Repo Men because it's taking itself too seriously. Screenwriters Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner have contrived a few scenes you won't see elsewhere this year, like a 9-year-old surgeon replacing a knee-cap and some unexpected typewriter violence, but its offset by an annoying and smug narration from Jude Law and that downright worthless twist ending I mentioned above. And the ending is borrowed from a much better Terry Gilliam film, which I won't name here. Ultimately disappointing stuff, although that great turn from Forrest Whittaker might be worth a watch once the film comes on telly.
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Last warning- here there be spoilers. Remember Me is the latest vehicle for Bicycle Seat Face himself, Robert Pattinson. He plays Tyler, a tearaway university student who nihilistically romps around New York with his family issues in full view. After incurring police brutality from a widowed detective, Tyler's frat boy roommate sets him up with Ally, the detective's daughter, in a plot to seduce her for revenge. Or something. Tyler and Ally pontificate on the importance of living for the moment as they grow closer, because life can be too short. And if that's not foreboding, I don't know what is.

Why the spoilers? For a change, I can't really talk about this film without talking about the ending, because it changes so much of how you view it. For the most part, I'll honestly say that "RPattz" hasn't been in a film this good since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which isn't really saying much, especially as he's still rubbish at acting. But this ending can't even be defended as a tribute to New York and its people's perserverance, as its people in this film are all white and middle-class. Basically, Tyler reaches a turning point in his daddy issues and finds happiness with Ally. As he goes to a meeting in his father's office building, it's revealed that his father works in one of the Twin Towers, and the date is September 11th 2001.

I'd been informed of this twist in advance, and indeed only saw the film to confirm it actually existed. Sadly, it does, and the film-makers were actually brazen enough to evoke the biggest tragedy of the 21st century in a cloying and utterly reprehensible twist. As Kick-Ass has shown, "morally reprehensible" is a phrase that critics use to say "I didn't like this and you definitely shouldn't", so I won't say that outright. But you judge for yourself, whether this largely soggy romantic drama is wrong to use real human tragedy to masquerade as something more profound or emotional.

All of this said, as soggy romantic dramas go, it's not all that bad. Excluding the last five or so minutes (yes, it really comes into play that late), it's a reasonably engaging romance, which is quite an achievement when the lead character is a teaky RPattz. The guy still can't act, as shown most potently in a showdown with his screen father, a surprisingly good Pierce Brosnan. Arms firmly by his sides, he mopes uncomfortably as Brosnan brings a real energy to the argument. Emilie de Ravin does a good job of romancing her driftwood co-star too.

It's not without flaccid character stereotypes though, with Chris Cooper reprising his awkward father figure from American Beauty and Tate Ellington appearing on my radar simply to annoy me as a wacky comic-relief frat boy. I do concede that Ruby Jerins isn't bad as the token younger sister, she's just poorly utilised. As I've said though, the film didn't really raise my hackles until the last five minutes. Inoffensive is exactly the word to use, in direct contrast to the sheer affront of the tacked-on 9/11 twist. I could have respected it a lot more if they'd made the exact same point without such an epic and gratuitous device- the film opens with a young Ally's mother being mugged and murdered by random thugs, why would an ending reflecting that with Tyler have been any less profound?

That ending notwithstanding, Remember Me is still a film that is utterly overshadowed by its competition in the cinemas at the moment. Cemetery Junction is an infinitely more moving and enjoyable portrait of teenage rebellion. Clash of the Titans isn't a masterpiece, but it doesn't invoke Greek mythology as clumsily or as broodingly as this. Kick-Ass is less "morally reprehensible". Vested in a vehicle for Robert Pattinson, the better aspects of the story never really come forward. And sadly, so much of what was decent about the prior 100 minutes is wiped out by the last 5. The highest praise I can grant it as a whole is "almost passable".
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Although I reckon you're best off waiting for DVD at the very least, both Remember Me and Repo Men are both playing in cinemas nationwide. If you've seen either of them, why not share your thoughts on the films, the reviews and on Snape killing Dumbledore/other twists in the comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

The Short and Sweet of It - Short Ribs, That Is

Short ribs, when done right, are such succulent beasts. A cut of beef taken from the primal rib and plate cuts, it is a less tender portion of the cow, thus lending itself better to the slow and long cooking method of braising. And out of the many types of braise that I've tried, the Asian style braise is still the one to beat. Maybe it's my Asian palate but there's something about the sweet, spicy and tangy flavors as you bite into an amazingly tender and juicy piece of braised short ribs that just can't be beat. Ever!

First and foremost, short ribs can be bought quite easily from either a supermarket, grocery store or your local butcher. Most of the time, you can find them as bone-in chunks of about 2 -3 inches long (like the picture above), which is also known as an English cut. Also available are boneless cuts, which in my opinion is less superior to the bone-in one. Although they may not be cheap (they usually go for between $5 - $8 per pound) but every once in a while, shouldn't we treat ourselves?

So now that you have your short ribs on hand, let's gather the rest of the ingredients for the braise.

2 medium sized carrots (peeled and cut into large chunks)
1 onion (peeled and quartered)
2 stalks scallions (white portion only, leave the green parts for garnish)
4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 pieces of star anise
1 inch ginger (sliced)
1 piece rock sugar (palm sugar or brown sugar can be used as substitutes)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup orange juice
5 pieces of orange peel
4 pieces of dried chili
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 - 3 quarts chicken stock (or beef stock)

To braise, you would need an oven-safe pot or better yet, a cast-iron dutch oven (here are some great ones sold on Amazon: Lodge Color Enamel Cast-Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven, Caribbean Blue, Circulon 5-1/2-Quart Dutch Oven or Calphalon One Infused Anodized 8-1/2-Quart Dutch Oven with Stainless Steel Lid). Start by heating up about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the pot. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper and then brown them on all sides in the pot. When done browning, pour away most of the oil, leaving only just enough to sweat the vegetables. So, your next step should be to add all the vegetables plus the chilis, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks and star anise. Cook for about 5 - 10 minutes until soft. Next, add the short ribs back into the pot together with the vegetables. Now we can add all the liquids, starting with the rice wine vinegar. Make sure the level of the liquid almost covers the short ribs. Cover the pot with tin foil paper and put the pot into the oven at 350F. Leave it in the oven to braise for about 2 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.

When done, remove the meat from the pot and strain the braising liquid, leaving only the carrots behind. What you need to do now is to reduce the braising liquid on the stove until it turns into a syrupy consistency. You can now use it as a sauce for the short ribs. For side dishes, I cooked some jasmine rice and sautéd a bunch of asparagus. And there you have it, Asian-style braised short ribs. Yummy and so, so tender!

Pru Romance

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant make a more dramatic effort in their first feature film together, Cemetery Junction, set in the Reading district of the same name in a seemingly endless summer of 1973. Three lifelong friends, Freddie, Bruce and Snork, rattle around the small town causing havoc. They all feel they're destined for greater things outside of their home, even if they're not sure what yet.

Freddie is focused on more prudential matters than his friends, getting a start away from his working class roots in the life assurance business ran by the imperious Mr. Kendrick. His daughter Julie is Freddie's childhood sweetheart, and when she returns to his life, he finds himself torn between realising his dreams or following Kendrick into a life that's profitable, if not complete.
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Cemetery Junction was not at all what I was expecting. Sure, I'd heard that this was a more serious outing for Gervais and Merchant, who have still regularly inserted proper human drama into the hysterics of The Office and Extras, but what this film offers is something that's consistently both moving and funny. Their influences admittedly stem from Saturday Night Fever and Rebel without a Cause, but I caught more of a whiff of Stand By Me from this, albeit setting the teenage unrest trope in a sleepy English suburb rather than across America. It somehow still feels fresh though.

In no small part, this is down to the cast's performances, none of which are really any less than excellent. To single out one truly wonderful performance, Emily Watson makes a very powerful turn with a few brief scenes as Mrs. Kendrick. To Freddie, she comes to symbolise all that is unfulfilled about your dreams and potential when you're a kid. Her performance is understated, but you can't take your eyes off her whenever she trudges on-screen as the wife to a marvellously sardonic Ralph Fiennes, as Mr. Kendrick.

Even though Watson very much forms its heart, the meat of the story largely goes to Christian Cooke as Freddie, with a nice bit of rebellious angst for Tom Hughes as Bruce. Cooke is the tit who was in Demons and the like on telly, but his big-screen transfer shows he is capable when he has a good script. He sparks off against his winsome love interest Felicity Jones very well, and their romance echoes Tim and Dawn in The Office rather than aping it. Elsewhere, Hughes commands as much attention as anyone else in the story with his troubled relationship with his dad, bringing one of the most moving moments of the film at its climax.
However, Gervais and Merchant don't spare on the comedy they're known for in Cemetery Junction. The state of the police pre-PACE Act, previously played up in Life on Mars, gets a few laughs in the shape of a schlubby and likeable copper who isn't above dishing out a beating to help Bruce learn a lesson. Gervais himself makes a marvellous double act with Anne Reid and they get some of the film's biggest laughs as Freddie's dad and nana respectively. Jack Doolan is endearing as Snork, effectively serving as the dirty-minded comic relief, but even his character gets a resolution before the closing credits. "Barry from Eastenders" is nowhere to be seen, but there's certainly no shortage of comedy, including the reason why Noddy wears a hat with a bell on it.

Despite its vast menagerie of characters and themes, the film never loses focus. Although the art direction is excellent, there isn't too much time given over to it, as in the recent Tom Ford flick, A Single Man. By making you care for its cast of characters and making the period anciliary to the plot, it's closer to last year's An Education. Although that period detail is there if you're looking, the story never stops driving forward, covering an awful lot of ground in its 94 minutes. Not since Lone Scherfig's film have I felt so acquainted with a period I wasn't even alive in.

Even though it still covers an everyman making good and a message that you should never settle for what you're expected to do, Cemetery Junction still marks the turn of a corner for Gervais and Merchant. Even though they've never indulged in the over-the-top antics of some sitcom comedy in their previous works, this feels even more restrained, and is all the better for it. So much of Emily Watson's restraint in the film speaks for the film as a whole, and some of the best and most moving scenes in the film don't even have any dialogue, proving the duo's directorial skill as well as their considerable writing talent. It wears its influences on its sleeve, but it's still as good (and better, I would say) than many of the texts that birthed it.

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Cemetery Junction is playing in cinemas nationwide now. If you've seen it, why not share your comments on the film and on my review below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Guess What? The Grilling Season is On!

Well, spring is finally upon us and as the weather keeps getting warmer and the days keep getting longer, the cooking can now be shifted outside to the outdoor grill. My Weber charcoal grill has been out of its winter storage home (ie. the garage) for a couple of weeks now and on this gorgeous, breezy spring day, I thought what better ways to enjoy the waning evening hours than to grill some burgers and a couple of juicy steaks for dinner. It's official, grilling can now commence with vigor!

The burgers are a mix of ground beef (75%) and pork (25%) and spices like coriander, garlic powder, a touch of cumin, oregano flakes, chili powder, salt and pepper, together with eggs and breadcrumbs as binders. Mix everything together and let it sit for about an hour in the refrigerator in order for the mixture to come together. As for the type of bread, I like to use buttered slices of sourdough, grilled and oozing with melting cheddar cheese. As for the steaks, I like NY strips and T-bone or Porterhouse cuts. As for seasoning for the steaks, I like McCormick Grill Mates Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning and I use it on all my steaks and also on pork roasts.

I'm so excited. Grilling season just started and I'm already bristling with various ideas of what to put on the grill in the coming months. Can't wait and I'll be sure to bring you with me!

Gorgeous New England Countryside in Groton, MA (Also Where I Live & Work)

With the strains of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" blaring on my car's stereo, I slowly wind my way up the long driveway to the Gibbet Hill Grill restaurant located in Groton, MA. It is a gorgeous spring afternoon here in rural New England, one in an unbroken string of six mild and cloudless days. After all the rain that fell in the past month or so, this is a nice respite and it's great to be rewarded with such extraordinarily good weather for a change. Parking my car at the usual employee parking area, I stepped out and was immediately greeted by a strong but cool breeze blowing against my face and a nice warm embrace by the sun's rays--an ecstatic combination that has to be experienced to enjoy (words simply can't describe the feeling). Breathing in the clean country air, I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to be working at such a beautiful setting that's just 6 minutes away from where I live. Talk about a dream commute.

The shots above are taken just outside the restaurant and you can see (in a distance) a small herd of Black Angus cattle roaming in the pastures. Gibbet Hill was founded in the 1600's. A farmhouse that was built in 1690 still stands on the property. The word gibbet (pronounced jib-bet) actually means a gallows-type structure where dead bodies of executed criminals are hung for public display. Whether this hill was so named because of what it was used for is unclear. In the early 1900's, a prominent physician bought the property and turned it into a private sanitarium. Since then, it had been used as a private hospital for tuberculosis patients and a hunting lodge for the Groton Hunt Club. In 1947, Gibbet Hill was turned into a farm to breed Black Angus cattle. 40 years later, the herd of cattle had grown to more than 600 and was producing "superior" Black Angus meat for public consumption. A decade later, the farm was in decline and was put up for sale and plans were afoot to build residential housing on the property. In 2000, a local entrepreneur bought the farm to stop the imminent development and in 2004, Gibbet Hill Grill, a steakhouse, opened its doors and has since built up a reputation for great food and service. Besides dining on some of the best steaks in town, customers are able to walk around the property and enjoy the beautiful countryside.

Last year (2009), the restaurant embraced the gaining popularity of the farm-to-table philosophy by developing a 2-acre lot on the property to supply the restaurant with fresh, locally-grown produce. If you think about it, this move is quite a no-brainer since the property is surrounded by farmland and what better way to build a niche market for itself than to embrace that concept wholeheartedly. This latest farming development brings the Gibbet Hill Farm full circle as corn was first planted on the property back in the 1980's. After going through some lean times, the farm is finally back. With a talented farm manager on staff, the farm is ready for a great 2010 planting season and has set up a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture to provide local residents with the opportunity to directly purchase fresh, seasonal produce grown on the farm.

Seriously, I can't think of a better way for the restaurant to promote buying from your local farmer and also having the freshest ingredients on hand for the chef to work with. Expect some amazing dishes from the restaurant come June when the farm is in full swing.

Moore Than A Feeling

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.

I saw a Julianne Moore double feature this week in the form of much-acclaimed romantic drama A Single Man (not to be confused with a certain excellent Coen Brothers film) and multiple-personality horror Shelter.
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Shelter opens on Cara Jessop, a skeptical psychologist, condemning a death row inmate to execution with her conclusion that multiple personality disorder does not really exist. Her father is determined to open her mind, to which end he's referred her to a number of patients suffering from the disorder. The latest is Adam, who violently and physically lapses into the persona of David, a disabled boy who was murdered several years before. As more personalities emerge, Cara discovers that Adam personifies a number of other murder victims, and gradually begins to consider the impossible as the bounds of faith and science are stretched.

Screenwriter Michael Cooney also brought us classics such as Jack Frost (no, not the Michael Keaton one, the other one) and its sequel Jack Frost 2- Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman. So this was never going to be The Exorcist was it? If anything, the script is the very weakest part of Shelter. Cooney has no real flair for dialogue and is often over the top in his impatience to get to the creepier parts of each scene. He also brazenly evokes "ill-conceived Hollywood movies" as a reason for Cara's skepticism, while the film still wears Night of the Living Dead on its sleeve as an influence, with frequent mentions by Cara's hipster brother. There's an obvious debt to Romero as Adam's conditions take a supernatural turn. Paradoxically, this doesn't bring the whole film tumbling down, and I actually liked it, in a weird way.
For one thing, the supernatural side to proceedings has not been telegraphed in the trailers, and this at least distinguishes the film from Cooney's other scripts around the same theme, namely Identity and The I Inside. And the reliably excellent Julianne Moore acts everyone off the screen, to say nothing of how much classier she is than your usual female horror lead. Then again, there's some decent support from Jeffrey DeMunn and John Peakes. The big weak link is Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Adam. See Christian Bale in American Psycho for how well a psychologically unbalanced but good looking bloke can be done- Rhys-Meyers is risible here. He hams it up and fails to bring anything to the table.

Avid readers will notice that my review for Den of Geek has a 3/5 rating affixed, but in hindsight, it's closer to a 2/5. Maybe a 2.5/5. The point is that while Shelter may be horror by numbers, it's genuinely unsettling in places, and doesn't massively outstay its welcome in 112 minutes, a long running time for a horror flick like this. It's certainly not the 1/5 film that the other rather scarce reviews on the web have declared it, even if it's not going to give any hardened horror fans a sleepless night. Moore elevates the script, the direction is even and capable, and the film doesn't rely on sound editing for its scares. The best film containing the phrase "Satan-worshipping mountain witches" that you'll see this year.

Shelter is playing in select cinemas nationwide.
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Elsewhere, in A Single Man, Colin Firth plays George Falconer, an English professor whose partner Jim died eight months prior to the beginning of the film. We find him at the beginning of the day he can't take it anymore and that decides he's going to end his life after just one last day. He goes about saying goodbye to his loved ones, including best friend Charley, and discovering something new in the obsession of a young student. As George goes about his final day, he sees everything for the last time, and thus appreciates it all for the first time.

You may have seen perfume ads that looked like this, but you haven't seen a perfume ad with as much depth as this. At one point, a flashback enables us to see Matthew Goode as Jim, in his pants, in black and white, on a beach. The Hugo Boss logo never arrives, but the visual sensibility of fashion designer-cum-director Tom Ford isn't to be sneered at altogether. For the most part, it really pays off quite well, with milky visuals characterising George's humdrum existence without Jim. And when some of the beauty in life that George has forgotten about shines through, it blushes into colour. Not a subtle device, but a highly effective one. The art direction is also superb, wonderfully evoking the 1960s.

As I've said, it's a handsome film that also has depth, due in no small part to the performances it offers. Colin Firth really should make films like this all the time, because he's clearly a tremendous actor. Fair play to him if he likes those other films, but there's nothing as powerful in Mamma Mia as his constrained fury when he realises that Charley has singularly misunderstood him. Nor does St. Trinian's have anything as gleeful as his deadpan threat to kill the boy who lives next door because he keeps pretending to shoot him every day. A Single Man really showcases his talents in a way I can't remember any other film matching. Julianne Moore holds her own against him, making a comparatively brief but very memorable appearance as a glamorous spinster. She and Firth are what makes the film such a compelling watch.

A Single Man is gloriously shot and oddly life-affirming for a film about a man who decides to commit suicide. It's a bittersweet drama that boasts great performances from its cast and a strong core to keep the more enquiring mind occupied. It's a near overwhelmingly visual debut for Ford, to the point that you almost scoff when numerous characters tell a bereft but well-coiffed George how terrible he apparently looks. Sharp suits and trendy glasses may be the order of the day, but there's just as much substance as style to be found here.

A Single Man comes to DVD and blu-ray on 7th June.
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If you've seen either of these films, why not share your comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

The Zero Room #1- The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below

Welcome to the first of the promised occasional feature reviewing the latest series of Doctor Who. I'm a massive fan of the show, so I hope my already very indulgent readers will allow me a little fanboy post every now and then.

This week, the first two episodes, The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below, introducing the new Doctor, played by Matt Smith, and his companion Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan. Reviews will contain spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode yet, toddle over to the iPlayer, or watch BBC Three at some point in the next century's worth of repeats.

So in The Eleventh Hour, following the bombastic ending to The End of Time, Part Two, a newly regenerated Doctor is about to prang his crashing TARDIS in quite spectacular fashion by wiping out a shed in someone's back garden. Luckily, the only person at home is a little Scottish girl called Amy, who's enchanted by the raggedy figure who sweeps into her life. An accident with navigation leads the Doctor to abandon her for 12 years, finally turning up in the small village of Leadworth again to reunite with the grown-up kissogram Amy has become. However, as is custom for Doctor Who, there's a peril lurking in Amy's spare room that may cause the planet to be incinerated in just 20 minutes.

All eyes are invariably on Matt Smith for this first outing, despite the best efforts of the costume department to have us ogle short-skirted Amy. Well that's there as well, but Smith is massively charismatic. There are echoes of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in this first performance, but that's not without precedent in these post-regeneration episodes. Smith finds his own voice by the end of the episode, replete with student/professor get-up and bow-tie. And legs aside (yes, they're lovely too), Karen Gillan is immediately likable as Amy. Although Steven Moffat has previously written episodes like The Girl in the Fireplace, where a girl waits years for the Doctor's various visits to her life through unstable time corridors, Gillan's performance made it seem fresh.

The similarities to what has gone before don't end there. Moffat has previously expressed how great a script his predecessor's Smith & Jones was, and this opener covers remarkably similar ground. An alien prisoner hides out in a hospital, while big old space police romp about threatening to destroy every human involved if it's not brought to justice. And it's at that stage that you wonder if six episodes of Moffat per series might turn out to be too much of a good thing. Such fears are quickly dispelled by the performances, some marvellous one-liners and a novel solution to the crisis involving Patrick Moore and a porn-surfing tech guy. Yes, really.

The Eleventh Hour closes with our first look at a retooled TARDIS interior- the last of a number of revamps in this opening episode. Like its new crew, it's wondrous to behold and feels fresh even though it's something fans are innately familiar with. It does feel a little drawn out at 65 minutes though. While it's totally understandable that they want the maximum exposure for the Eleventh Doctor, the ticking clock elements would have felt better and tighter in a standard length episode. Nevertheless, a cracking statement of intent that embraces what has gone before while still inexorably pushing forward to a brand new era.

Amy Pond finally hops on-board the TARDIS and in The Beast Below, she finds herself a thousand years in the future on-board Starship UK. The ship is populated by all of the citizens of the UK, escaping until the extreme weather conditions on planet Earth ease off. The trouble is, the Doctor thinks it's not moving. That it couldn't ever move. The menacing Smilers seem to enforce a police state, preventing anyone from shedding light on the mystery except the enigmatic Liz Ten. But when anyone makes any headway, they're given the choice to "forget" or "protest", and almost everyone chooses the former. The Doctor however, has a much harder choice ahead...

Second episodes invariably take a starry-eyed new companion to amazing only-in-a-time-machine adventures, and this is no exception. And if The Eleventh Hour lacked action for Amy in its showcase of the new Doctor, then make no mistake- The Beast Below is Amy's episode. She wanders off to explore, as is the wont of any companion in this series, and gets to the heart of what's going on long before the Doctor. The problem is, she chooses to forget, a mistake that nearly gets her sent home by her outraged companion. Smith pulls back some of the attention here in a truly frightening turn that explores the character's darker side just two episodes into his tenure. But the culmination of the story marks Amy as a truly marvellous character, probably more capable than any companion since 2005, and a best friend to the Doctor rather than a romantic interest or eye candy for the audience.

It's still a very busy episode, with the Smilers and Liz Ten and the voting booth and the Winders and that final tantalising hook to next week's episode. But I'd only really say the Smilers lose out in Moffat's framing of the action around the Doctor-companion relationship. The Smilers are really quite frightening villains that may spook out a lot of the show's younger viewers- and that's what they watch for, of course- but the episode doesn't quite get the mileage from them that you'd hope for. I'd have liked to see more of Sophie Okenedo's feisty Liz Ten too, a character who was variously and very cleverly deployed for comic relief and pathos. The political allegory of the protest or forget choice is somewhat timely, as if Moffat knew there'd be a general election announced this week, and it all leads up to a potent denouement with the Star Whale's release from torture.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan continue to be the best things about this new series, which is some feat when you have writers like Steven Moffat at the helm. In The Beast Below, we already have Smith beating Tennant with a terrific second episode. In something of a misstep, Tennant's second outing was the sub-par romp New Earth, but this is more akin to a Ark in Space or Four to Doomsday. Indeed, that's what the episode closely reflects- the classic series. It's largely studio-bound and distills the essence of the show into an excellent 45 minute mini-movie, with all of what has been added since 2005 still in there. There's a real fairytale quality to these first two episodes, but I'm not sure if that'll continue with next week's episode, so marvellously teased at the end of episode 2...
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I'll be back in three weeks' time with reviews of the next two stories. Until then, why not share your comments below?


The next episode of Doctor Who, Victory of the Daleks, airs on BBC One and BBC HD on Saturday 17th April at 6.30pm.