THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

What an over-the-top, entertaining, fun, oversexed (in all positions  and with various assortments of sexes), drugged out, racist and sexist and totally politically incorrect, hilarious film! I loved it. The 3 hours went by so fast and Bill didn't even get up to pee (which makes his rating of 8 incomprehensible to me; i gave it a 9.3)

The music was wonderful and real toe tapping. The theater was pretty full and there was a lot of laughing out loud and groans and inhaled breaths and "oh nooooooooooooooo's". Watching a movie with a verbally appreciative group increases the fun for me.

And the acting was superb. This was Leonardo DiCaprio's best role EVER. He was absolutely mesmerizing. I loved watching him especially during his motivational speeches (this film is about the rise and fall and semi-rise of stock market manipulator Jordan Belfort) to his employees. He and Jonah Hill (who was also wonderful as the right hand man) had some roaringly hilarious drug scenes.

Of course all the women were dispensable with big tits and there were lots of party scenes. Matthew McConaughey had 3 short scenes in the very beginning of the movie as a stockbroker at the first firm (before the crash in '87) Jordan worked for. He counsels Jordan about the in's and out's of his job and he is superb. All the dialogue was witty and funny; especially the conversations between Jordan and his core team.

Great way to spend the last afternoon in our Road Trip #1 place. Now we are headed down the road but still in Tucson.

AMERICAN HUSTLE

An entertaining fast paced and well acted film with awesome music from the '70's. One of the best of the year? No. Clever? No.

The story was a fictionalized and dramatized and maximised re-telling of the Abscom sting operation in which congressmen and other politicians were caught on video and audio accepting bribes.

The movie features some excellent performances; Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Lewis C.K., and especially Jeremy Renner. Bradley Cooper playing the FBI agent who willingly cut corners and went against dept. policy to be the big shot who brought all the 'fixers' down was way over the top for me. I know all the parts were exaggerated caricatures and no one except maybe for Renner who was the mayor of New Jersey was believable as someone you'd meet in your ordinary life, but Bradley Cooper was even beyond that. In fact some of his scenes resembled his mentally out of balance acting in Silver Linings Playbook.

The final twist was anti-climactic and in fact, Bill needed to explain it to me even though i understood (or thought i did) all the scams and deals and con's that peppered the film before that.

We rated it a 7.5.

FRESCO PIZZERIA - TUCSON, AZ

Every time we've passed this place (near country club and speedway), i've always dismissed it because it didn't look like they had any inside seating. But they do; limited but enough for our group of 7.

Bill and I ordered the combo pizza which had onions, sausage, pepperoni, olives, mushrooms on a thin crust. It was really good and we have leftovers for lunch. The sauce had a nice mild spiciness to it.

Everyone else got a pasta dish which ranged from spaghetti and meatballs to ravioli to lasagne to shrimp alfredo. The portions were huge and accompanied by 2 big slices of garlic toast.

This restaurant has their bathroom in  the back so you have to walk through the cooking and baking and washing area. Oh, i hate that. I try to avert my eyes because i don't want to see dirty dishes, mounds of greasy food or anything that might alert the kitchen cops to give a critical violation. I've never walked through "to the back" in gleaming stainless steel splendor; maybe because those restaurants have their bathrooms  in the patron area.

So this march to the toilet was done carefully; as i'm trying to limit my peripheral vision and yet be on the lookout so i don't bump into a vat of liquid bubbling oil or slip on greasy lumps of sausage. The bathroom was one of the worst of "these sorts"; really dirty and it had a funky odor. But the toilet flushed, there was hot water and lots of paper towels and soap.

Ah back to the 'front' and pizzeria redemption.

NEBRASKA

Wow this movie had the pace of old people living in a rural small town. So slow.

I think the theme was the relationship or non relationship between a father and son. The father had early dementia but it was difficult to say how much dementia and how much was just lack of communication and not being present and being of a generation and culture where no one said much of anything.

Bruce Dern played the dad and Will Forte (from SNL; i think this is the first time I've seen a former SNL performer doing a dramatic role; Forte was very good) was the son. Dern got a promotion letter from a magazine subscription service telling him he had won a million dollars IF and there was  the small print which he didn't read or understand. So he gets obsessed with going to Lincoln, Nebraska (from Billings, MT) to claim his prize.

And the movie is about the relatives who want a piece of that money, a former co-owner of a garage who felt he was owed money, a girlfriend of Dern's before he married his wife, some information about Dern's early life that the son had no idea about, etc.

There was no tension in the movie; just a leisurely telling of this man's quest to get his money and the son who took him on the trip.

The movie was shot in black and white which i didn't like and because i was always conscious of watching a movie, this lack of color bothered me pretty much throughout the film. I think the director wanted to emphasize the bleakness and mediocrity and sameness of the landscape of both the land and the people but i think that could have been accomplished with color.

We rated it a 7.

OUT OF THE FURNACE

I rated this movie a 10 for acting by ALL the actors but only a 5  for the movie as a whole and especially the story which was ho-hum and nothing different or clever.

Christian Bale and Casey Affleck are brothers in Braddock, PA. Rodney (Casey) has just finished 4 tours of duty in Iraq and has a lot of anger issues. Russ (Christian) is a mild mannered mill worker. The love and loyalty between them was nicely done in the beginning of the movie; showing that through various circumstances and situations (jail for DUI, breakup  of a relationship, unemployment, the dying and then death of their father) they stick together and stick up for each other.

 Rodney starts street fighting for money and he works with Willem Dafoe. Rodney keeps wanting to make more and more money so he pressures Dafoe to contact a real hard ass psychopath played by who else? Woody Harrelson. I don't want to give away what happens next even though its not much of a surprise.

The 2 best scenes of the movie (which was slow even during the violent scenes) was Rodney raging to Russ about some of the things he saw and did in Iraq and how he didn't want to live a loser life by settling down and working at the mill and the other great scene was Woody Harrelson's shooting up with crystal meth and rushing to peak mania.

bill also gave this movie a 5. Next Christian Bale fix for me  will be watching him in American Hustle.

HA LONG BAY - TUCSON, AZ

Another great meal at this Vietnamese restaurant. We shared 2 dishes; one new and one of our favorites.

Ordered their special house soup (i had been freezing all day and bill declared i was finally catching up to him re: cold tolerance. Bill wears flannels and fleece at the first hint of cool weather.) It was a clear onion-y broth filled with shrimp, tender delectable pork slices, celery, carrots, broccoli and dumplings (wonton). Absolutely delicious.

We also shared a Bun dish. We usually always get one of these. A big bowl with vermicelli noodles (very thin and glass like), lettuce, peanuts, carrots, pickled chives, bean sprouts and topped in the version we ordered with an egg roll and lots of grilled lemon grass chicken.

Oh i was so happy even though i had to tilt my head to the side so no food would fall into (and get lost) the empty cavity where a tooth had been just the day prior to the meal.

KENNEY D'S - TUCSON, AZ

This restaurant on 22nd past Sarnoff - way into the 'scary' far east section of Tucson - must have been started by an owner of Luke's Chicago Italian Beef. Or maybe started by a black sheep cousin. Their menu and sandwiches were exactly the same.

However, there were differences; some good but most not. The sandwiches were about a dollar cheaper than the Luke's in the center of Tucson (most notably the one at Grant near Swan) and are about triple the size. I could not take one bite of the italian beef sandwich without a lb. of meat falling out and it was very tender and delicious and thin sliced beef. I asked for it dry but the cook didn't let the meat drain enough from the au jus so the bread got really wet and started falling apart (the reason why i get it 'dry').

The fries were not as good as the "other" luke's. the guy who took our order at the counter was unfriendly. There were no takeout containers (needless to say, bill has mega piles of beef for lunch today.). The place looked like a warehouse with a few Cubs memorabilia on the walls. 2 tv's were blaring 20+ year old bad bad sitcoms. the bathroom was dirty. AND it had a smell of cleaning solution.

Because of all that, the very cheap prices and huge portions aren't worth the experience of eating here again.

Bill had an italian sausage sandwich which he said was better than the "other" Luke's.

ENDER'S GAME

Ender is the name of the kid who was picked to head the command strike force to wipe out another species who had waged war on the U.S. years before. Ender trained to lead the battle through many simulation battles and competition with other kids. Harrison Ford played the ruthless leader of these juvenile fighters. He is aging well; more wrinkles and grizzly marks but he still has a rugged attractiveness and he hasn't puffed out at all.

I think there were multiple subplots and messages in this movie with the biggest one being waging war doesn't stop war. But the movie was all about watching how these kids got picked and how they got trained and the struggle to be on top and be promoted. And i have to say that kept my interest up. But once the last simulation was waged (which wasn't really what it seemed), it turned sort of maudlin.

We both gave it a 6. I gave it this score because even though i enjoyed watching the movie there wasn't anything new; there certainly wasn't anything sci-fi about it and there were no twists or anything clever.

Thought for the day: learn to make friends with alien species.

GUSTO'S - TUCSON, AZ

Very good meal. I had reserved a booth for us and Kent and Molly so it was a comfortable space.

We shared stuffed mushrooms which were excellently zippy. I had Ricotta Pork Tenderloin (very rich and very tender) accompanied by spaghetti with marinara sauce. The noodles were regular linguine and i like angel hair plus the sauce was too tomato-y.

The bread that came to the table when we were first seated was excellent; warm and crusty and full of herbs.

Bill had grilled pork tenderloin with spinach. Kent had the veal special which he liked but it looked pretty unappetizing to me; in fact, the color resembled our recent Hamburger Helper foray which will NOT be repeated. Molly had a salad which looked delicious.

The service was a little too efficient. The waiter came by too many times asking if we were through (when we weren't) and clearing dishes when we were still nibbling.

Both bill and i had leftovers but we aren't going to eat them because its way too rich for lunch. Though i am going to pick at the spaghetti with sauce along with my Denny's Thanksgiving  chicken fingers. Yum.