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Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes – DVD Review

Ants on a Shrimp? What the heck does that mean? That and many other culinary questions will be answered in the documentary film, Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes. Chef Rene Redzepi and his team from the world-renowned Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, travel to Tokyo, Japan on a mission. That mission? To fuse Noma’s menu with the delicacies and tastes of Japan in fourteen unique dishes over the course of a five week timeframe.

What results is a challenge that energizes, a culinary quest to bring two cultures together through the power of food. It’s very interesting to watch as Redzepi and his team search marketplaces for new flavors to infuse into dishes that would not normally be available in his native Copenhagen, Denmark.

Will Redzepi and his team overcome the obstacles put in their way? Will they be able to create fourteen unique and tasty dishes that the locals will enjoy? Is there really a dish called “Ants on a Shrimp” and if so what does it taste like? These questions and more are reveled in this food-centric documentary.

Ants on a Shrimp: Noma Tokyo, The Creation of Fourteen Dishes is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite film about food? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Childhood of a Leader – DVD Review

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Too often we forget that all leaders – whether it’s Obama, Bush, Clinton, Castro, or Hitler – have one thing in common: they all were children. Each had their own experiences, heartaches, triumphs, and setbacks that made them the leaders they would eventually become. For good or ill, whether they were loved or hated, the leaders mentioned above, and thousands more like them, were influenced by events that transpired in their childhoods.

Enter The Childhood of a Leader, a gripping drama about a young sociopathic boy named Prescott whose primary mission in life appears to make the lives of the adults around him a living hell. With his tantrums and crazy behavior, Prescott’s world revolves around leaving chaos and destruction in his wake for all who encounter him. Taking the brunt of his abuse is his devoted and pious Mother who does everything within her power to control her son; with little effect.

Set against the backdrop of post-WWI Europe, The Childhood of a Leader is an allegory that shows the rise of Fascism that would eventually entangle the rest of the world in the second World War. Is Prescott destined for greatness, or destined for great destruction?

With its superb visuals and excellent score, The Childhood of a Leader is intriguing and engaging entertainment for fans of historical drama. Featuring Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones), Robert Pattinson (the Twilight saga), and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac: Part I and Part II), this brilliant piece by first-time director Brady Corbet is powerful filmmaking at its finest.

I recommend The Childhood of a Leader!

The Childhood of a Leader is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite period drama? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Land – DVD Review

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Every human being on the planet has some level of drive, desire, and ambition. To be the best at something and do what they can to achieve that goal. Even if they fall on their face in defeat, sometimes trying and failing is truly better than never attempting at all. When we meet our four heroes in The Land, they, too, have dreams and aspirations. True, theirs may not be groundbreaking feats of power or prestige, but in their world of skateboarding, what they desire to do makes them legends in their own time.

Cleveland, Ohio. A city of many stories, and four of those belong to friends Cisco, Junior, Patty Cake, and Boobie, four friends with a passion and desire to skateboard their way through summer. Well…they also enjoy carjacking people with the help of their skateboards, which is all well and good until the one day they steal the car of the wrong dude.

While plundering his trunk, the foursome come across bags of pills – MDMA to be exact – that their de factor leader, Cisco, decides is their ticket to skateboarding Nirvana. But when the drug tycoon who owns the pills finds out that the pills have been taken, what happens takes the four friends on a dangerous adventure they won’t soon forget.

With a solid soundtrack and gritty visuals, The Land is a gripping drama about four young men whose fates change forever over the course of a summer of mishaps, missteps, and misadventures.

The DVD includes a short featurette about the making of the film and the film’s trailer.

I highly recommend The Land!

The Land is available now on DVD.

What’s your favorite film or TV series based in Cleveland, Ohio? Leave a comment and let us know!

Blood Father – Blu-ray Review

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Blood Father is a suspenseful, action-packed film that shows what lengths a father will go to to help his estranged daughter get out of a pretty complex situation. Mel Gibson delivers a powerful and intense performance as John Link, an ex-con and recovering alcoholic whose daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty), has been missing for years. When the two reunite, she’s got the weight of the world on her back and a price on her head. It’s a good thing her dad’s got a few tricks up his sleeve and few friends to enlist for help along the way.

From that point forward, John and Lydia are on the run, dodging bullets, hotwiring cars, and hitching rides to stay off the beaten path to keep Lydia out of harm’s way. Will the cartel catch up to her and make her pay for her transgressions? Will John keep her safe?

Blood Father is an exciting and tense ride that also includes the talents of William H. Macy (Shameless), Michael Parks (Django Unchained), Miguel Sandoval (Jurassic Park), and Dale Dickey (Hell or High Water). Director Jean-François Richet delivers an excellent balance between the father-daughter dynamic and the action sequences that gives both depth and nuance as the film progresses. No shot or scene is wasted in this well-crafted film.

The lone special feature is a very intriguing and insightful documentary, Lost Souls: On the Road With Blood Father, which gives us a closer look at the production and the process of adapting a novel into a feature film. Very enjoyable!

I highly recommend Blood Father. It’s a solid piece of filmmaking with excellent performances from Gibson and the entire cast.

Blood Father is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Download.

What’s your favorite Mel Gibson movie? Leave a comment and let us know!

Mike & Molly: The Sixth and Final Season – DVD Review

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

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I have loved Mike & Molly since the pilot, and thoroughly enjoyed every episode all the way through the series finale. There was a special magic that the series had. A genuine mix of hardcore laughs and real heart that made the show’s characters multi-dimensional and downright entertaining. They were characters you wanted to watch, wanted to see in their greatest moments and darkest defeats. Mike & Molly delivered so many memorable moments over its much too short six season run. It’s a series that I will definitely miss.

I have been to four tapings of Mike & Molly at Warner Bros. Studios (yes, it is a live audience), and you could tell that this cast loved what they were doing. Two of the four times I had the opportunity to meet the cast and get their autographs. Very nice people. A cast that truly was grateful for fans that enjoyed their work and their love of delivering laughs on a weekly basis.

When I heard the series was being cancelled and that the final season would be cut down to only 13 episodes, I was a bit surprised. It’s a solid Chuck Lorre series, the man who brought us Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mom, had yet another feather in his cap with Mike & Molly. It had even earned star Melissa McCarthy an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Then, of course the rumors as to why it was cancelled began to circulate, but all of them seemed like merely rumors and not the real reason why the show had ended so soon. Even so, I am glad that the series did get a legitimate finale and wasn’t just cancelled out of the blue with no closure for the storyline and its characters.

Mike & Molly mixed edgy, broad comedy with heartwarming moments from flawed, outspoken characters. It was unapologetic in its approach to getting laughs, much like Two and a Half Men. But while Two and a Half Men was joke-joke-joke, Mike & Molly had the ability to balance the joke-joke-joke formula with many touching and even tear-inducing moments over the course of its run. I think it’s what made it easier to connect with them: they weren’t just joke machines; they came across as real people in a lot of ways.

Watching such a talented cast bring 110% to each episode was always a treat. Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell brought us Molly Flynn and Mike Biggs, two strangers who met at an Overeaters’ Anonymous Meeting. Their story grew from first date, to moving in together, to engagement, to marriage, to trying to have a baby, to changing careers, to deciding to adopt all in six short seasons.

Along for the ride were Mike’s best friend Carl (Reno Wilson); Molly’s mom and sister, Joyce and Victoria, (Swoosie Kurtz and Katy Mixon); Carl’s eventual roommate, Samuel (Nyambi Nyambi); Joyce’s husband, Vince (Louis Mustillo); Mike’s mom, Peggy (Rondi Reed); and Carl’s Grandma (Cleo King). And, of course, we can’t forget Peggy’s dog, Jim (Suzie Q).

When you have a supporting cast like these performers, it’s no wonder the series had as many laughs as it did. All of them were spot-on with their characters, never missing a beat, always on their game and ready to play comedy hardball. I feel the sign of a great cast is when you can mix random characters together and the comedy still plays. The Mike & Molly cast is one of these ensembles. You can have any character paired with any other character and there will be guaranteed laughs.

I would like to add a note about Melissa McCarthy. She is amazing as a sitcom actor. It’s definitely a medium she is comfortable in and I would love to see her back doing it again. Her ability to not only deliver great comedic lines but also her penchant for physical comedy and her no-fear attitude put her in the same category of Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Veep) in my book of great sitcom comediennes.

So, what did I think of the final season? I loved it. It was WAY too short, but I loved every minute of it. I guess it’s better for the series to end on a high note than to end and people ask “Was that still on?” I have to admit I did shed a tear during the final moments of the finale.

Yeah, it’s silly, but I did meet the cast and could tell how much they loved working together. Just like any job, it can be hard to find a group that you have a real chemistry with. I feel like this cast had that. No drama. No tabloid lunacy. Just a true passion and love for their work.

The only special feature is the Gag Reel, which is hilarious as always.

I highly, highly, highly recommend Mike & Molly: The Sixth & Final Season on DVD. Oh, and if you really love the show and don’t have any seasons, Mike & Molly: The Complete Series comes out the same day.

I love it, I’ll miss it, but it’s on DVD forever so at least it’s not gone forever!

Thank you, Mike & Molly cast and crew for six great seasons of laughs!

Mike & Molly: The Sixth & Final Season and Mike & Molly: The Complete Series are available Tuesday, October 11, 2016 on DVD!

What was your favorite season, scene, moment, character of the series? Leave a comment and let us know!