Reviews

This is a very enjoyable movie about the life of Julia Child and a young woman, Julia Powell, who decides to cook and blog about every recipe in Child’s cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Meryl Streep, of whom I’ve never been a fan, does an amazing job of portraying Julia Child. She captures her mannerisms and vocal patterns perfectly and makes you believe that she truly is Julia Child. I looked it up and found that although nominated for the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role she did not win. Instead the Oscar went to Sandra Bullock for her role in “The Blind Side.” Bullock was wonderful in that movie but Streep did something really special here and it’s a real travesty that she did not win.

Before watching this movie I assumed that Julie would somehow have met Julia and that the movie would be about their interactions. Turns out that is not the case at all. Surprisingly the two never met. The movie is actually two separate stories, one about Julia Child’s life in France and her learning to cook and getting the book published while the other is about a self-centered, annoying, unhappy young woman who finds meaning in her life cooking Child’s recipes and blogging about them.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie is very good, but in the end I found myself wondering why they just didn’t make a movie about Julia Child instead. The woman had a fascinating life and they didn’t have enough time to cover it because of the dual threads in this movie. The Julie story, while somewhat interesting, really amounted to nothing in the end; just an unhappy woman with an obsession about Julia Child. I guess they probably figured the Julie aspect might bring in younger viewers but it seems to me like they really missed an missed opportunity.

Cast
Jessica Chastain – Ava
John Malkovich – Duke
Colin Farrell – Simon
Common – Michael
Geena Davis – Bobbi

Director: Tate Taylor
Screenplay: Matthew Newton

This is another one of those movies that makes me ask myself “Why all the hate?.”

It gets a 5.4 rating on IMDB and on Rotten Tomatoes the critics give it a 17% rating while the audience doesn’t do all that much better, rating it at 30%.

The movie is about a young woman assasin. The organization that she works for finds out that she’s been asking her targets, “What did you do?” before killing them and that has them worried. They decide that she may be feeling guilty about her killings and they believe that she has become risk to the organization and needs to be eliminated. The man that recruited her is not sure about it and does his best to protect her.

During the course of the movie we find out she’s a reformed alcoholic, grew up in a house with a not so nice father and mother and had a serious relationship with the man who now dates her sister.

It’s not a pleasant movie; theres no happy ending and almost all of the characters are not nice people and have done bad things in their lives. That said, there’s a good amount of action, a pretty decent story and lots of interesting characters.

Ava won’t win any awards and probably won’t be remembered in the coming years but it’s entertaining and better than a lot of other stuff out there and worth a few hours of your time.

McDonald’s has had a whole bunch of great slogans over the years. Classics like “Look for the Golden Arches”, “You Deserve a Break Today”, “Two All-Beef Patties” and “I’m Lovin’ It.”

Might I suggest a new one for them… “We no longer give a s#*t!”

Really. Has there ever been a corporation that puts in less effort than McDonald’s? The menu rarely changes and when it does it’s usually just a minor tweak of an existing product. The few times that they’ve come out with something mildly interesting they get rid of it after a few months. Their burgers are small and lack flavor, unlike a lot of the competition, and their fries have steadily declined in quality over the years.

They really don’t seem to care, but then again why should they. Their stock price has steadily increased over the years and although they’ve experience negative growth for the last four years, their net income has held steady. I guess there’s something to be said for just being convenient.

It’s sad really. Management should be ashamed of themselves. With a little effort they could be so much more, but I’m sure the executive team walks away with a nice bit of compensation so why bother.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Their current marketing campaign is “Worldwide Favorites.” They describe it on their website as “Try some of our most popular international McDonald’s favorites, in the U.S. for a limited time. Around the world is now around the corner.”

OK that could be interesting and worth a try.

In Japan they have an Ebi Filet-O Shrimp Burger, which consists of panko-battered ship, covered with a tempura sauce and lettuce. In Austria, they serve McNoodles, which are noodle dishes mixed with various vegetables. In India there’s a McCurry Pan; a crispy bread container with curried vegetables baked in a cream sauce and best of all in Germany there’s a McNurnburger, which consists of three bratwurst on a bun with mustard and onions. All of these things could be interesting to try.

So what are the foreign favorites that they’ve chosen to bless their American customers with.

First on the list is the Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger from Spain.

The Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger consists of one of their crappy 1/4 lb (weight before cooking) burgers, topped with a slice of applewood bacon, some gouda cheese and their smokey McBacon sauce. They really went out on a limb with that one.

I was curious about the Gouda cheese, is that really big in Spain? A web search revealed the following: there is currently no production of Gouda cheese in Spain and even worse, Spain isn’t even a big consumer of Gouda; they’re not even in the top ten. Goudas a product of the Netherlands. That’s in Europe though so I guess that’s close enough for McDonald’s. The rubes in the U.S. will never know the difference.

How about that McBacon sauce. That’s probably something uniquely spanish. Here’s the ingredients list, you judge for yourself:

Ingredients: Soybean Oil, Water, Tomato Paste, Sugar, White Wine Vinegar, Capers, Egg Yolks, Salt, Contains 2% or Less: Cucumbers, Baker’s Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Distilled Vinegar, Caramel Color, Lactic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Onion, Garlic, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Calcium Disodium EDTA (Protect Flavor).

Next on McDonald’s list of international favorites are Cheesy Bacon Fries from Australia.

Cheesy Bacon Fries are made from Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes and are covered with chopped Applewood bacon and real cheddar cheese sauce (note they don’t say real cheddar cheese, but real cheddar cheese sauce. I’m guessing they are two very different things) Turns out Russet burbanks are from the U.S. and Shepody potatoes are from New Brunswick, Canada. Doesn’t seem very Australian to me but to be fair they never said they were from Austrialia, only that they were a favorite in Austrailia. Using this criteria they could probably just throw a Big Mac on the list cause the mates love them.

Not to be out done, the Canadians also have an entry on the menu. The Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich.

The Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich is comprised of crispy chicken, tomatoes mozzarella cheese, lettuce and herb sauce. Nothing here very much Canadian. You would have a least thought they would have added some maple smoked bacon to the mix. Also, if you’re going Canadian, how about some Poutine, which are Canadian fries covered with gravy and cheese curds. That would seem like a natural for them. They already seem to have a supply of Shepody potatoes, but I guess they’re saving them for the Australian dish.

There’s a few other items on the menu, but like the ones I listed above, they’re basically just the standard McDonald’s items with minor changes so that marketing can build a campaign around them.

Like I said before. Zero effort. It really seems like they no longer give a s#*t!”