Joey B's is, believe it or not, a good place to watch the Kings lose. You can still watch the game while you're in the bathroom! You can watch the game while you walk to the bathroom. In short, there are TVs EVERYWHERE. And they turn the sound on, which is really important for me because it's hard for me to follow basketball without the announcers telling me what is happening. The beer selection is pretty shitty, of course, and so is the wine list, but at happy hour they give you big pours of their house red for four bucks. The place was pretty empty all night and there was only one server for the whole cavernous space. No one was ordering anything more substantial than hot wings, anyway. It seems to be another example of a mis-managed restaurant. The one table that did want food was being neglected by the server, and for some reason which the bartender couldn't explain the kitchen wasn't making pizza even though they have some happy hour deal with pizza and beer so the only other group that wanted to eat was grumbling about that. I glanced at the menu on the way out and Joey B's offers all those typical plates of grilled salmon and steak and such for like fifteen dollars that I bet no one orders.
Got a reliably good dinner at Amarin last night. I ordered the "country style" curry for the first time which is super spicy. The spiciest thing I've had there. Then me and smiller saw When A Stranger Calls. I give it a squished popcorn. Totally terrible. So ineptly directed. The director, Simon West, previously directed Con Air and Tomb Raider so he is seriously slumming. I hated Con Air with a passion and haven't seen Tomb Raider but I don't remember thinking that Con Air was poorly directed, it just sucked in other ways. The imdb review says that this movie "makes the original look like the Godfather". Funny.
Have any of you guys seen any Lukas Moodyson movies? I saw Lilya 4-ever cuz (I think) Anthony Lane creamed over it and it was devastatingly depressing. And now looking at the imdb thing I see that it's based on a true story which makes me want to kill myself. I have another one of his movies, A Hole In My Heart at home from Netflix but haven't watched it yet.
moodysson's TOGETHER is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteimdb is untouchable for technical credits and pretty much everything under the sun -- in fact it's hard now to imagine a world without it -- but if'n you want actual reviews from non-basement boys always go to www.mrqe.com.
ReplyDeleteHecka I second that about Joey B's being a good place for games. It is pretty cheesy along with all of the other new restaurants opening in town but it never seems as crowded and you can always find a perfect seat for viewing one of their dozens of TV's. RM
ReplyDeleteI'd like to second TFF's recommendation of TOGETHER -- a brilliant film about a Swedish commune in the 70s. Lots of laughs, very well drawn characters, and unexpected turns. It's one of the few movies about which my wife didn't say, "Yeah but, do we really need to OWN it?!" when I came home with the DVD. Trust me: that's a big endorsement...
ReplyDeleteAlso, TFF, I had a look at your blog and really enjoyed it. Very well-written, good mix of subjects... Gosh, all these folks have come to Kabinet events and I don't even know who you are. It was great to see the MADE IN USA screening blogged -- thank you! Hope you'll join us again some Sunday, and please introduce yourself when you do. For what it's worth, I've been trying to turn the Kabinet website into a film blog for some time now, but I seem to have too many distractions. But I'm in the midst of recruiting some other local cinephiles to add their voices. Obviously, you've got your own forum, but if you ever feel like contributing, please get in touch.
J.