TED Talks: Chew On This (2011)

Various food, sustainability, and nutrition experts in a series of TED talks about humans' most basic need... the food we eat.

If you're not familiar with TED talks, then this review might go right over your head, but basically this Netflix collection is a series of lectures by experts.  They are almost always thought-provoking or amusing or both.  This series of fourteen lectures of varying lengths center around food... what we eat, how we eat it, how we produce it, and/or our relationship with it.

It's probably no secret that one of my passions is a belief that we need to return to a more simple, less processed way of preparing and eating our food.  I think that the phasing out of teaching Home Ec in schools, particularly the kitchen and sewing sections, was a death-blow to our children.  I once had a male friend I met online admit to me that he spent over $2,000 a month eating out because he didn't know how to cook.  For someone who doesn't even make that much money a month, I found that figure to be staggering.  And the economics of it isn't even the worst part.

The top three disease killers in America are completely preventable through dietary changes.

I won't go into the details of all the lectures here.  They can say it far better than I can.  But if you're a crafter who likes to have something thought-provoking and informative to listen to while you're knitting or whatever, this series is perfect for that, and you can concentrate your vision on your work while listening.

I highly recommend this series.  Even if you have no interest in cooking for yourself, improving the environment or the biodiversity of our ecosystem, the idea of how interconnected the way we live our lives is with the health and welfare of ourselves and others is an idea worth listening to.

Give it a try.

Alien Outpost (2014) NR

Douglas Tait (Jack the Reaper), Adrian Paul (Highlander), Joe Reegan (The Crazies)

In 2021 the Earth was invaded by aliens we called "heavies" but we pushed most of them out.  Ten years later, remote outposts established by the United Space Defense Force are there to clean up the last of the enemy stragglers, but they are underfunded and forgotten.

Shot in an after-the-fact hand-held documentary style, you will either love or hate this movie.  As a veteran of the first Desert Storm conflict, I find that military-themed

Ender's Game (2013) PG-13

Asa Butterfield (The Wolfman), Harrison Ford (Blade Runner), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi)

In a future where aliens have attempted to invade Earth, humans use the flexible minds of children to find the next great military commander who will save our species from the next attack.

Based on the series of books by Orson Scott Card (this being the first of four books in one quartet, with further series after), this movie takes a complex novel and attempts to condense it down into a manageable chunk for Hollywood standards.  It succeeds in some ways, and does not in others... much the way my one-sentence synopsis of the movie fails to capture all the nuances of the movie.  It's about how we treat our soldiers, it's about leadership, it's about family, and duty... far too complex to condense down to 114 minutes and include everything.

As entertainment, this movie works but feels understandably rushed.  They had to condense years of battle training down or risk creating a mini-series of just the first book.  And as tired as I am by movies populated with children, in this film it was required by the script, and thus forgivable.

The CGI effects during battle sequences are gorgeous, yet the animation during the storybook game sequence was terrible... probably due to the "uncanny valley".  The actors were all amazing, even those whose appearance onscreen was almost far too brief to do the character justice.

As a movie for crafters, this is semi-okay, depending on your project and your level of concentration.  Subtle facial expression and battle nuances will be missed if you're not paying attention.  It will not affect your ability to follow the story, but it may affect your appreciation of the film as a whole, as only listening to it may make it feel very flat.

Three laugh out loud moments for me, and that's it.  Possibly any surprise or shock value at events or the ending were ruined for me by reading the book first.  Knowing what I did going in, there was very little to make me exclaim out loud, and I'm working a very basic stockinette stitch on a pair of mittens, so I can work those without dropping the needles to concentrate.

Ultimately, I give this a four out of five stars.  There's just too much material, and too many nuances for this to be condensed down for this adaptation.  It's no-one's fault really, except maybe Card's for creating such a complex piece of writing that defies Hollywood standards... and that's not a bad thing at all.  This is good for a family movie night if you want to get a little knitting done yet still appease the sci-fi fans in the family, but the book is better, and I'd recommend the audio Whispersynch version if you want to try that for your Kindle.

  

Vegucated (2010) NR

A vegan filmmaker takes three self-proclaimed hard-core carnivores and documents them completing the challenge of going vegan for six weeks.

To be honest, I went into this documentary thinking it would be a slightly-preachy food documentary along the lines of "Super-size Me" where we'd see people eating three meals a day and how they dealt with it.  That's not what I got.  This was a very depressing thing to watch first thing in the morning.

The Numbers Station (2013) R

John Cusack (1408), Malin Akerman (Catch .44)

A tired CIA field agent is given a last-chance assignment to protect a numbers station in a remote part of England.  When the station comes under siege, can his talent and her brains find them a way out alive?

Slightly atmospheric but not terribly sexy, this spy thriller is a perfect vehicle for Cusack.  What does it say about a guy who is consistently typecast as either the lovable everyman in High Fidelity or the hitman with a heart in Grosse Pointe Blank?  What does that say about us, the viewing public, who will accept him as either type?

Playback (2012) R

Johnny Pacar (The Remaining), Christian Slater (Without Men), Ambyr Childers (We Are What We Are)

A journalism student uncovers a grisly, horrifying secret when he digs into a bloody local murder from fifteen years ago.  Worst of all, the videotape footage from the first reporters on the scene seem to have taken on a life of its own.

This film starts with shaky "found footage" of the original murders, taken by the killer's

Headhunters (2011) R

Nickolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Aksel Hennie (Pioneer)

A corporate headhunter steals art from his clients to maintain his expensive lifestyle... but did he just steal a painting from the wrong man?

I don't know why, but having seen quite a bit of Norwegian and Scandanavian TV and film (for an American) I can honestly say I always come away from it both entertained,

Vanishing On 7th Street (2010) R

John Leguizamo (Chef), Hayden Christensen (Jumper), Thandie Newton (Retreat)

Detroit becomes darker than usual when the shadows can cause you to vanish.

The Search for General Tso (2014)

Have you ever gone to a Chinese restaurant and wondered just who General Tso was, and why nearly every Chinese restaurant serves his chicken?  This documentary attempts to answer that question.

This turned out to be a cute, rather short documentary on the history of Chinese cuisine in America, with a side trip to the Hunan province of China.

The Internship (2013) PG-13

Vince Vaughn (The Breakup), Owen Wilson (Shanghai Noon)

Best friends and super-sales partners for a watch manufacturer find themselves suddenly without a job.  Can they leave their old-guy ways behind them and fit in with the twenty-something tech crowd at Google?

Part fish-out-of-water comedy, part super-ad for Google services, this actually turned out

Let's Be Cops (2014)

James D'Arcy (Screwed), Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed), Damon Wayans Jr. (Dance Flick)

Two struggling best friends in L.A. wear cop outfits to an out-of-season costume party and get mistaken for real police officers.  They're having fun with it until bad guys start messing with their neighborhood, and it becomes an all-out war where they may have to put their lives on the line.

With a second-generation Wayans and the doofy guy from New Girl, I expected this to be slightly funny, really crude, with very little redeemable value.  I was pleasantly surprised. 

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (2010)

A documentary about one Australian's trip across the US while doing a juice fast to reboot his declining health.

Ever since I was a kid, I've heard the saying that "you are what you eat", and that is certainly true.  Your body can't pull the nutrients it needs out of thin air through your

Sharknado (2012) TV-14

Tara Reid (American Pie), Ian Ziering (Guiding Light)

A freak hurricane off the coast of California starts flooding L.A. and dumping sharks into the streets. 

A perfect movie for those folks who are looking for films that are so bad, they're good. 

Tracers (2014) PG-13

Taylor Lautner (The Twilight Saga: New Moon),  Adam Rayner (The Task), Marie Avgeropoulos (The 100)

An over-extended bike messenger is intrigued when a pretty parkour expert wrecks his bike and buys him a new one.  After tracking her down he finds himself caught up in a world of crime and can't see a way out.

The Maze Runner (2014) PG-13

Will Poulter (We're the Millers), Dexter Darden (Joyful Noise), Aml Ameen (Kidulthood)

In a dystopian future, kids are dumped into a green glade with no memory except their name.  Surrounded by a gigantic cement and metal maze that seems to be their only way out, a small group of boys navigate its ever-changing landscape daily while avoiding the guardians that patrol it.

Storage 24 (2012) R

Noel Clarke (Star Trek: Into Darkness), Colin O'Donoghue (The Rite)

Charlie (Clarke) and Shelley, in the middle of dividing their belongings in a storage unit after breaking up, find themselves trapped in the secured building with their friends, the employees, and an alien from a crashed military plane.

Beyond the joy of seeing Noel Clarke, a.k.a. Mickey from Doctor Who, still working, I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  That is not to say it didn't have its odd moments.

Finding Normal (2013)

Candace Cameron Bure (Full House), Lou Beatty Jr. (Fast & Furious), Trevor St John (Payback)

An LA doctor is caught speeding through a tiny town in North Carolina and sentenced to three days community service for unpaid parking tickets, but the local judge/doctor