BAI THONG - TUCSON, AZ

We used to go to this Thai restaurant all the time but the food started losing some quality. The chicken wasn't all white meat and it wasn't tender and there was a lot of gristle in pieces. Plus the general flavor of the food just didn't have the zip.

So we boycotted it for more than a year; went back and the same assessment. So then we avoided it for about 3 years. Last night we decided to try again and oh are we glad!

We shared a Mussaman curry with chicken and Pad Woon Sen with chicken. Both dishes were outstanding. The chicken  was plentiful and tender and there were lots of veggies in the noodle dish which had the very thin glass almost translucent noodles. We ordered the curry dish medium and it was just on the edge of my heat tolerability.

The service has always been good even when the food was not and this continued on our recent visit. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with lots of temple posters and landscapes of Thailand and beads and red and gold hangings and tinsel.

We are so glad we took the risk and gave this place "one more try". Its located on Speedway close to Swan right next door to the 99c store and the New Life Health Center.

ST. VINCENT

Bill Murray is Vincent an elderly crabby drunk who lives alone with his cat. Melissa McCarthy is Maggie, a single mom, who is Vincent's new next door neighbor. and Naomi Watts is a prostitute and pole dancer who is pregnant and who services Vincent weekly. oh, and Terrence Howard is Vincent's bookie (cuz of course Vincent also gambles) who is owed money.

All the acting is good. Murray has the foul mouthed fast witty rejoinder sarcastic role down pat. McCarthy plays her role 'straight' and is very good though her humorous way of expressing thoughts is still, fortunately, present. Her 8 or 9 year old son, Oliver, was perfectly cast; not too cute or too wise. Watts was in a role that was only there for filler plus to add some pathos to the already over-mushy ending.

Its basically a tale of how all the characters affect and change each other. The first half is hilarious and there was a lot of out loud spontaneous belly guffaws from me and Bill and the rest of the small audience. The humor was very good and the dialogue fast and the 3 stooges bits (there were a couple of scenes; one involved Maggie's movers and the other was vincent over the top inebriated;) were very funny.

However, after a medical event happened, it got pretty unbelievable and way too obvious in its pulling out all the kleenix stops. and i kept wondering how everything could have ended so well and where the hell did the money come from? (Vincent had no money in the bank and owed a lot from lost horse bets.)

Though i have to confess I cried just where the director wanted me to. Because the acting was so good and the fact that in spite of the Pollyanna ending, i was entertained, we both gave this film a 6.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART 1

We both gave this movie a well-executed and entertaining 7. We were expecting a 3 or 4 so we were really pleased at the level of enjoyment and the movie's pace and plot.

We loved the first Hunger Games but was sorely disappointed and bored by #2 so didn't think we'd see this latest sequel. However, I was under the impression that The Imitation Game (story about Alan Turing) would be released right after Thanksgiving and that would be our movie of the week but it didn't come out in the theaters here in Tucson. So this was the substitute movie.

I had read a few reviews that said there was not enough action and too much talking in this film but i don't agree. The plot was simple; the have-not's who are all living underground in Districts and whose 'supervisor' is Julianne Moore with her assistant Philip Seymour Hoffman (may he RIP) are rebelling against the have's who live in resplendent wealth and privilege in the Capitol and who are led by a wonderfully cruel and cold Donald Sutherland.

Really the story of the one-percenter's and the almost poor.

The acting was good and the action was exciting and moved along at a tense fast pace.  Pleasant Surprise!