"Kingsman: The Secret Service" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Kingsman: The Secret Service" and DVDs  "Song One" and "Horrible Bosses 2."  I also alert you to a noteworthy bit of television:  "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief." The Book of the Week is  "How To Cook Everything Fast" by Mark Bittman.  I also bring you up to date on "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project:" "Three Kings"]
 

Kingsman: The Secret Service

A secret gentleman spy organization recruits a young street kid as they wage war against a diabolical villain who has a misguided solution to global warming.

 

The film begins with a botched raid in the Middle East in 1997 where a rookie ("Lancelot") within The Kingsman organization, a private spy group based on The Knights of the Round Table and noted for their bespoke suits (they operate out of a tailor's shop on Savile Row) and ingenious weaponry, sacrifices himself to save his colleagues.  Colin Firth is Harry Hart AKA Galahad who must tell "Lancelot's" wife, Michelle (Samantha Womack) and her young son Gary AKA as "Eggsy" (Taron Egerton) that her husband is dead.  He feels guilty about losing "Lancelot" and gives her a bravery medal telling her if she ever needs anything to call the number on the back of the medal. 

 

Fast forward 17 years. 

"Eggsy" is now unemployed, a delinquent, and living with his mother and her abusive boyfriend.  He is arrested for stealing a car and decides to take Harry up on his offer, hoping he will get him out of jail.  However, it just so happens that The Kingsman need a new "Lancelot ("Lancelot's" don't do too well.  Yet another one bit the dust) and Harry takes "Eggsy" under his wing, where he joins some other young recruits to try to snag the position.  Harry introduces "Eggsy" to the leader of the group, Arthur (Michael Caine) and Harry's trusted side-kick Merlin (Mark Strong).

 

Meanwhile, billionaire philanthropist Richmond Valentine (a lisping Samuel L. Jackson) is meeting with the world's heads of states, some of whom mysteriously go missing.  He also announces that he plans to give a free SIM card and free Internet and cellular service to everyone in the world.  Mmmm, what is it they say about "too good to be true?"  Also "you get what you pay for" might also apply here.

 

Colin Firth is always wonderful.  I don't think I can ever give him a bad review, not since his Mr. Darcy, anyway, and I don't need to, because he is perfect for the role of Harry Hart, a gentleman spy.  And young Taron, in his first big role, is likable and believable. But Samuel L. Jackson is a stand-out. He's not your usual villain.  He has a hilarious lisp and an aversion to blood so his side-kick, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), with her razor-sharp bionic legs does his dirty work.  Mark Hamill plays a kidnapped professor and is almost unrecognizable.  I think it's an inside joke.

 

Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and directed by Vaughn, "Kingsman" is a comedy-thriller based on the Mark Millar comic book series "Secret Service."  They poke fun at past James Bond films and throw in all kinds of literary and pop culture references from "My Fair Lady"  to McDonald's  It's witty, exciting, original, full of surprises and just plain fun.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...Highly recommended, especially if you loved the original James Bond films.  You will love this R-rated version.

 

 

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)

 

 

 

Song One (2014)

 

 

A young woman whose brother is in a coma seeks out his favorite musician in hopes his music will awaken him.

 

Anne Hathaway stars as Franny.  She is working on her anthropology Ph.d in Morrocco studying nomadic tribes when she receives a call from her mother (Mary Steenburgen).  Franny's busker brother (Ben Rosenfield) has been hit by a car and lies in a coma.  She rushes home to his bedside, feeling guilty because they had not spoken since he had left school to pursue music and she had not approved.  But hoping that sounds and music will bring him out of his coma, Franny wanders around New York City recording buskers in action and the sounds of New York, much as an anthropologist would, to play for him.  

 

In going through her brother's things, Franny discovers that he had been sending his songs to James Forrester (Johnny Flynn, who in real life really is a musician), a well-known singer/songwriter.  Unbelievably, she also finds a ticket to one of Forrester's concerts and while there, gets up the courage to go to the merch table and introduce herself to him.  Again, after that encounter, unbelievably, Forrester shows up at her brother's hospital room. 

 

Franny and James meet again in a club where he shares with her that he has been having trouble writing and tells her he must leave soon to do some recording.

 

You can see where this is going from a mile away, but there is a sweetness about this film and lots of indie music, though none of it particularly memorable.

 

Flynn's acting is a bit wooden, but he displays a vulnerability and sensitivity and there is chemistry between Hathaway and him.  Steenbergen is particularly good as Franny's flibbertijibbet mother, but I was distracted by the fact that it appears she has succumbed to that face lift frenzy actresses of a certain age fall victim to - those lines, almost like a clown smile, that form at the corners of the mouth are tell-tale signs.  She would have looked better if she had just let age happen.

 

Written and directed by Kate Barker-Froyland, this film is a poetic little love song to people who yearn to be musicians and who will sing in subways to do it if they have to.  But this is Anne's movie and she even gets to sing a bit, though you would think with her Oscar from "Les Miserables," there would be more of that here.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a sweet story that will remind you of "Once."

 

 

Now from the sweet to the ridiculous...

 

Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)

 

 

Dale (Charlie Day), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Nick (Jason Bateman) return, this time to start their own business.  But a series of events leads them to a hair-brained kidnapping scheme.

Our hapless trio have invented "The Shower Buddy," a shower head that also delivers shampoo and conditioner.  Along comes rich investor Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his son, Rex (Chris Pine) who cheat our moronic heroes out of their invention.  So what does one do when one is cheated?  One, or should I say three, plot revenge. 

If you remember the first film (and it would help if you did), our guys planned to kill their mean bosses.  So they can't do that again here.  So they decide to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom.

Jennifer Anniston is back as the dentist, Dr. Julia Harris, an insatiable sex addict, who still wants to seduce Dale. This time around she is running a sex addict support group which works well for her to find fresh blood. Some of the raunchiest stuff in this movie comes out of her mouth, none of which can be repeated here.  Kevin Spacey returns for a cameo and manages to chew the scenery and Jamie Foxx is also back as "Motherfucker" Jones, an ex-con they consulted in the first film.

If there are any redeeming features of this film (and there really aren't), Chris Pine, despite his unbelievable handsomeness, is quite funny as the jerk Rex who also has it out for his Dad and does some double-crossing.  And Jennifer Anniston is funny, too, except there is just not enough of her.
 

Speaking of the first film, except for possibly Dale, these buddies don't really resemble the characters they played before.  Kurt is a hopeless womanizer and Nick seems to have lost any sense he displayed the first time around. And also remembering the first film, I think it was kind of funny. 

Unfortunately, this one is not funny at all.  Just gross bathroom humor and humor that is in really, really bad taste. None of it funny. When the outtakes at the end while the credits are rolling are the funniest things about a movie, you have a problem. 

Oh, there was actually one funny bit that made me laugh.  When asked "What do you know about executing a kidnapping? the reply was "Zip ties."  It was funny at the time.  Maybe you had to be there.  But don't.

 

How can a film with Jason Bateman, Christoph Waltz, Kevin Spacy, Jennifer Anniston, Jamie Foxx and Chris Pine suck so badly?  I don't know, but it does.

After suffering through another really unfunny sequel, "Dumb and Dumber To," I am starting to fear for the state of comedies these days.  As for sequels, I am always wary of those.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Forget the "Bosses" part.  This was just plain horrible.

 

***Noteworthy Television***

Going Clear (2015)

Alex Gibney's HBO documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief (2013)."

The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and received praise for its brief history of Scientology and founder L. Ron Hubbard combined with interviews by ex-members (as notable as director Paul Haggis, who won an Oscar for "Crash") who shed light upon abuse and exploitation within the church.  How the church woos and keeps Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta is also explored.  Needless to say, the Church of Scientology was not happy about this documentary. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a riveting and eye-opening look at the Church of Scientology.  Church or cult?  You decide.
(Playing on HBO through April 14)

 

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

269 To Go!

 

Have YOU seen this one?

Three Kings (1999)

This film tells the tale of the first Gulf War (1991) through the eyes of three American soldiers who begin the war as naïve yahoos and come out exposed to the cruelty, the innocent lives lost and the corruption that is war.

Why it's a Must See:  [This] is a millennium-capping antiwar film that employed what was then state-of-the-art tools (fast edits, dizzying camera work, color schemes that pop off the screen) and combined them with a helping of old-fashioned M*A*S*H-style politics...It's heady, even dense, stuff made accessible and urgent through a snappy script, relentlessly energetic pacing, dassling visuals, and taut acting...it's part war story, part heist thriller, and wholly an antiwar creed..."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

David O. Russell ("American Hustle") wrote the script and it is original and fast-paced. I found it frenetic and chaotic.  And with that, since I am not a huge George Clooney fan nor do I like war films, it was bound to fail for me.   Hubby liked it.  Maybe it's a guy thing.

Rosy the Reviewer says...despite the message, I didn't need to see this one before I died.  Didn't like it.

***Book of the Week***

How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman (2014)

Prolific columnist and write Bittman has produced a compendium of 2000 main dish recipes that you can prepare in a hurry.

What makes this cookbook stand out from others are the time management tips Bittman offers.  For example, instead of having to refer back to the list of ingredients all of the time, he includes the measurements again in the instructions.  Likewise, he lists in blue text prep you can do while other things are cooking.

Bittman takes classic recipes such as Spaghetti and Meatballs and shows you how to speed up the process by "dropping" the meatballs rather than rolling and shaping and also includes many ethnic treats such as "Caramel Stir-fried Beef with Green Beans" and "Warm Tabbouleh with Mussels."

Rosy the Reviewer says...sure to be a kitchen classic.

 

Thanks for Reading!

That's it for this week.

See you Tuesday for

"The Good and Bad News About Aging:

How To Advocate

For a Happy Old Age"

 

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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Note:  Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

Here is a quick link to get to many of them.  Choose the film you are interested in and then scroll down the list of reviewers to find "Rosy the Reviewer."
Or you can go directly to IMDB.  

 
Find the page for the movie, click on "Explore More" on the right side panel and then scroll down to "External Reviews."  Look for "Rosy the Reviewer" on the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Perfect 24 Hours in Portland (and Some Travel Tips You Can Use Anywhere)!

I grew up in Michigan but moved to California at 22 and lived there for over 30 years. But when we decided to move North, we couldn't decide between Portland and Seattle.  Portland had yet to be "glorified" on the TV show "Portlandia," but we were already aware of its virtues:  Powell's Books, it's a foodie's paradise, a bastion of liberalism, wine country, gorgeous parks, beer...

But Seattle won out because of its closeness to Canada, Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. being two of our favorite cities.  And, best of both worlds, we were still only three hours from Portland.

And Portland has always been a destination.

Recently our daughter visited us in Seattle prior to a library conference in Portland (yes, my daughter is also a librarian - I wrote about our parallel careers in my post "Passing the Baton."). After her visit with us, we thought it would be fun to drive her down there and spend the night, which we did. 

And it was a wonderful 24 hours.

Perfect, in fact.

How do you spend a perfect 24 hours in Portland?

I will now channel Anthony Bourdain and his wonderful series "The Layover," where he shows the viewer all of  the cool things you can do in 24-48 hours in exotic locales:  where to stay, where to eat, and what to do.

So in the spirit of Tony (I am such a fan he lets me call him Tony) - here is how to have a perfect 24 hours in Portland with some of my astute travel tips that you can use anywhere.

First, where to stay?

We like the old world charm of The Benson, right downtown in the heart of the action.

It's a venerable mainstay that has been around since 1913 and with its hand-carved Circassian walnut paneling from Russia and the Italian white-marble staircase, it reeks of First Class.  Every sitting president beginning with Harry Truman has stayed there.  If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me!  It's classy Palm Court Lounge is also a destination (I'll get to that later).

Travel Tip #1:  If you like quiet rooms, booking a room in an older hotel is for you. The thick walls and high ceilings block out the sounds of the other rooms.  Who wants to hear people flushing their toilets, taking showers and doing god knows what at 3am?  In an old hotel, you won't hear a peep.

Travel Tip #2:  Also if quiet is your thing (it's definitely mine), book the top floor.  Even if you are in one of those hotels where you can hear everything going on next door, why add people stomping around overhead to the mix?  Also, the higher up, the better the view.

Travel Tip #3:  It never hurts to ask nicely when checking in that your room be away from the elevator, maid's closet and ice and vending machines.  We once had a room with the elevator going up and down next door.  Ugh.  Likewise, the drunken laughter of other guests getting on and off the elevator can get annoying.  And who wants to hear the maids getting ready to clean rooms at 6am (as you know, I am NOT an early riser)?  And I can't even bear the thought of an ice-machine running next door. So be sure to check on those things.

Next, where to eat?

After checking in at The Benson, we were hungry.  Nonstop in a car for three hours, one works up an appetite.

So off we went to Higgins for lunch.

Owner Greg Higgins was an early champion of local and sustainable foods and this restaurant has been winning awards since 1994.  It is most known for its charcuterie platter (he was one of the first to offer such a thing) and it's burger is considered by many to be the best in town.  So naturally Daughter and I ordered the charcuterie platter and it did not disappoint.

I am still salivating over the duck rillettes.  And Hubby's burger lived up to it's reputation. But with accolades come high prices.

Travel Tip #4: Dine at high-end, high-priced restaurants for lunch rather than dinner.  You get the same good food often for less.

Travel Tip #5:  Order the specialty of the house.  There is a reason why it is the specialty.

While Hubby and I like the grand gesture that old hotels make, Daughter opted for an Airbnb. 

In case you are not familiar with this concept, Airbnb is a website where regular folks rent out lodging. It all began in 2008 when the founders could not afford the rent on their loft in San Francisco.  So they made their living room into a Bed and Breakfast, with air mattresses and breakfast to accommodate three.  Since then it has grown to over 800,000 listings in 33,000 cities and 192 countries and you can expect much more than an air mattress these days.  The listings range from rooms to entire houses, modest to opulent.

So off we went to the Mississippi neighborhood, an up and coming trendy area in Portland just perfect for Daughter, so she could check into her Airbnb.

She fit right in.

(When our daughter travels, Airbnb has been her accommodation of choice and it has worked very well for her). 

Mississippi Avenue is the main drag running through the Mississippi neighborhood, thus its name.  Hubby noticed another street, Failing Street, and remarked that it's a good thing they didn't name the neighborhood after that street.  Hubby is astute like that.

While our daughter was checking into her Airbnb, we checked out the neighborhood.  She was just one block off the main street which was filled with coffee houses, restaurants and boutiques and it was only three Max stops from the conference center.  After we checked out the little house she would be staying in, we looked for a place to have a glass of wine.  It was Happy Hour, after all.  We settled into Equinox, a lovely little restaurant and bar.

Travel Tip #6:  A Happy Hour in a fine restaurant is another way to save some money while still enjoying the restaurants fine food and drink.

Next, what to do?

NW 23rd Ave, also known as "Trendy-Third" is a fine walking destination because of its hip shops, bars and restaurants, many of which are in old Victorian houses, thus lending the street to a quaint hippyness reminiscent of what Union Street in San Francisco used to be like about 30 years ago.

We got our 10,000 steps in (see my blog post about Fitbit for more info) and headed to Paley's Place for dinner.  Paley's Place is situated in a lovely old house with a cozy bar and dining room.  It's a James Beard Award-winning restaurant with a French influenced seasonal menu. 

Now I am a firm believer in making reservations, even when dining at an unfashionable day or time, but since it was a Tuesday night and we were feeling lucky, we waltzed right in, only to discover WE SHOULD HAVE MADE A RESERVATION!  But the maitre'd did not shame us, which I appreciated, and he said if we wanted to wait in the bar, he would see what he could do.  Well, what he didn't realize is that we actually LIKE sitting at the bar. We like the casual atmosphere chatting with the bartender.  So when the maitre'd came back to say he had a table, we were perfectly content right where we were.

Travel Tip #7: You can often find seating in the bar at popular restaurants (though I have noticed in recent months a tendency at some restaurants to require reservations for the bar as well), and often you can walk right in and take a seat.  The full restaurant menu is almost always available at the bar, you get good personalized service, and can chat up the bartender if you don't have anything to say to your partner.

After a lovely dinner (I had the asparagus bisque and the halibut),

we made our way back to The Benson to enjoy some cocktails in the beautiful Palm Court Lounge.  Even if we were not staying there, it's always a destination for a drink and to soak in the beautiful, cozy wood paneled bar.

Unfortunately, this time sitting at the bar we were accosted by a local who wanted to regale us with his knowledge of the hotel.  He was obviously a barfly.  But he was rather amusing.  It was the OTHER guy, a fellow barfly, but this guy was making the rounds to every hotel bar in town and you could tell.  He was conversing with the bartender and Hubby said something conversationally and he turned to Hubby and said, "I didn't see that you were part of this conversation," or something equally rude.  So, OK, you don't want to talk, but when he started making wise cracks at the conversation our daughter was having with someone else, we decided to move.

Travel Tip #8:  Don't be afraid to move away from a drunken idiot at the bar.  We actually enjoyed sitting at a table better anyway.

After our drinks, we bid farewell to Daughter, sending her back to her Airbnb in a cab (another nice thing about a downtown hotel:  there is someone to hail a cab for you).

Travel Tip #8:  Don't be afraid to stick your head into the cab and tell the cabdriver to take good care of your daughter.

The next morning, Hubby went off to a local and famous doughnut establishment, Voodoo Doughnuts ("The Magic is in the hole!") while I slept in (we all know I'm NOT a morning person).

Travel Tip #9:  Find spots where you can hang out with the locals.


Then it was off to do a Portland stair walk.

Yes, people, Portland also has stair walks and if you have been reading my blog, you know that Hubby and I are avid stair walkers here in Seattle. I wrote about it in my blog post "The Joys of Stair Walks: Urban Walking Adventures in Seattle and Beyond," where we walked all 25 stair walks from the book "Seattle Stair Walks" by Jake and Cathy Jaramillo over the course of a year and a half.  

So we were so happy to discover "The Portland Stairs Book" by Laura O. Foster.

We chose the Nob Hill and Westover Streetcar Stairway Jaunt with 169 stairs up and 364 stairs down.  We were in stair walking heaven.

And Spring had already sprung in Portland!

The fun thing about these stair walks is that you experience parts of town you might never see otherwise.  Here we were led to what is considered one of the prettiest streets in Portland.

And to a tree that seems to defy gravity.

After our stair walk, we wanted to grab some lunch before beginning our three hour drive home. We were over in the "Trendy-Third" area again, so started looking for a place to eat lunch. 

Not really having anything in mind and my getting crabby because my knee hurt and declaring if we didn't find a place to eat immediately I would start screaming, we happily found Lela's Bistro, a Vietnamese spot in a little house.  We had bahn mi and soup and it was delicious.

Travel Tip # 10:  Don't be afraid to try something new, especially ethnic restaurants.  And I will say right now, you never can go wrong with Vietnamese fare:  bahn mi, bun (pronounced boon), pho (pronounced "fa"), spring rolls - yum - and usually at very reasonable prices.

So we headed home with the bonus that it wasn't pouring down rain.  In fact it was a lovely day.

But since it's a long drive, I was happy to have content on my IPad especially when (yawn) Hubby was listening to sports broadcasting on the radio.


"Keep Portland Weird" is a popular slogan you see around Portland.  And Portland can be weird.

But I like weird.  That's perfectly Portland.

Now I know there are many Portland sights I didn't mention here.  I am not new to Portland.  This was just a perfect moment in time.  And I will be back.

But what made this visit perfectly perfect?

Spending it with our perfectly beautiful daughter.

In the Palm Court Lounge at The Benson Hotel

Now I hope I have inspired you to create your own perfect 24 hours -

in Portland or anywhere. 

Thanks for Reading!

See you Friday

when I will be reviewing

the new movie

"Kingsman: The Secret Service"

as well as some

DVD's to see or avoid

and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before

I Die Project."

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer