Task 37 - "Lincoln Lawyer" Movie Review

(37) Watch 26 Movies (6/26)

Movie: Lincoln Laywer

Rating: 4-Stars

The Lincoln Lawyer is based on the bestselling novel by Michael Connelly and tells the story of a L.A. criminal defense lawyer named Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) who conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car while representing a high-profile Beverly Hills client Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillipe).

Accused of a savage attack on a prostitute the slick, suave playboy real estate agent Louis Roulet claims his innocence and hire’s Mickey Haller to represent him. Roulet’s overbearing mother will do anything to clear her son's name. With cost being no issue Mickey has his first high-paying client in years and quickly begins the messy journey to finding justice. Digging into the case, Mickey and P.I. Raul Levin (William H Macy) reveal a darker picture of Roulet's personality and evidence of a past crime. When another murder hits close to home and his family is threatened Mickey questions if he's finally in over his head and how can he make things right with a past client who was wrongly convicted. His pursuit becomes a question of morality and even a question of his own mortality.

The lawyer has spent all his professional life afraid that he wouldn't recognize innocence if it stood right in front of him. What he should have been on the watch for was evil, evil as pure as a flame.

Task 37 - "Sucker Punch" Movie Review

(37) Watch 26 Movies (5/26)

Movie: Sucker Punch

Rating: 4-Stars

Dan and I went and saw Sucker Punch at the Verizon IMAX Theatre at Jordan’s Furniture in Natick.  First let us talk about the theatre. The Verizon IMAX theatre features a screen that is seventy feet high, 12,000 watt surround sound, & 272 Tempurpedic seats with "butt-kicking" sub woofers built in to help you feel the action. This is definitely the way to see an action movie.

Now the movie. Sucker Punch is an epic action fantasy that takes the audience into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. It begins with the death of Baby Doll’s (Emily Browning) mother and the murder of her sister at the hands of her evil stepfather. A traumatized Baby Doll finds herself committed to a mental hospital where she is at the mercy of an unscrupulous orderly named Blue (Oscar Isaac) who arranged an unnecessary lobotomy to protect the stepfather in exchange for money.   With five days until the procedure she begins a journey to find freedom for her and fellow inmates Rocket (Jenna Malone), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Blondie (Venessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung). 

With the help from a Wise Man, their unbelievable journey…if they succeed…will set them free. The wiseman tells her that she must acquire 5 items to achieve freedom:  a map, fire, knife, a key, and finally an unknown item only Baby Doll can find. Each will require her to fight to get and to survive. She is convinced they work in a brothel where Blue is the Club Owner/Pimp and they are just tokens to satisfy the wealthy visitors he brings in.  When Baby Doll dances her audience is transfixed and she believes she and the girls engage in fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents to capture the next piece of the puzzle.

The plan sadly unravels and three of the girls end up dead as their hits a roadblock and Blue discovers they are plotting an escape.  With only two girls left and one final roadblock to freedom Baby Doll realizes she must sacrifice herself to save Amber. The movie ends with her lobotomy completed and Amber finding freedom.

Task 30 - Maria's Italian Villa Restaurant (Milford, MA)

(30) Eat in 10 New Restaurants (3/20)

  

Restaurant: Maria’s Italian Villa
Location: 67 Medway Road, Milford, MA 01757

Rating: êêê

Having worked in Medway for nearly 5 years and eating out regularly for lunch I had never been to Maria’s and decided to give it a try for lunch with the boys.

Maria’s touts itself as an Italian Villa with homemade American-Italian food designed to satisfy a hearty appetite. In a town of chain restaurants this sounds like a recipe for success but Maria’s falls short of a win.

Its interior was divided into smaller more intimate rooms which gave hope to a quite meal with good conversation, but the bright glow from the Keno screens over powered intimate ambiance.  It was also very cold and we were forced to put our coats back on to be comfortable.

Our waitress was what I would refer to as a “Townie” and I’m sure after work you would find her in the bar having a rowdy night with the locals chatting loudly. She was nice and fairly pleasant but proper etiquette and table side manners left a much to be desired.

We each ordered from Maria’s lunch menu which offered the “Best of Maria’s” according to our waitress. Each lunch special starts with a soup of your choice. We all selected the Italian Wedding soup. For our entrée’s I ordered the Housemade Eggplant Parmigiana and the boys ordered the Italian thin crust pepperoni pizza.

The soup was hearty and satisfying but a bit on the cool side.  It was packed full of more than just broth but lacked flavor and taste. Each of us felt the soup had its pro’s and con’s.

The entrée’s took entirely too long to come out and left us feeling abandoned at the table. My Eggplant parm with rigatoni was a total failure. The pasta was cook to about an inch of its life and the pasta drowned in a canned sauce with no flavor. The eggplant parmagiana was clearly not freshly made. It was piping hot on the outside and ice cold on the inside suggesting it had been a poorly timed microwave reheat. The breading was soggy and the eggplant chewy.

Sadly the thin crust Italian pepperoni pizza left the boys disappointed. It was more like a greek pizza in style and was dripping with oil and soggy at the center.  It too shared the tasteless flavorless sauce as the eggplant parmagiana.

We exited quickly and all commented that 5 years in the area and we had never eaten there and laughed that we hadn’t missed much.