Happy Birthday, Safira!

Hey there, everyone (whoever tunes in after over three months of this blogger's absence)! High Steaks is back from the dead to tell you about my little sister's birthday!

Have a rockin 17th, Safira!

That self portrait was ripped right of her myspace-page as she is an infamous internet surfer. She meets a lot of people through her love of music and chatrooms discussing music. I think it was in some blur forum where she met one Irish guy named Dave, who she just came back from visiting in Dublin. So except for school starting pretty darn soon, again, her life is all sunshine and lollipops. Uhm... or so I hope. Have a great year, Safira. Next year you'll be an adult! I'll try and have a steak in your honor!

2007 at the Movies: Back in Steakville

Alright, after a long time of being absent from this shabby lil steak joint, I've been washed back to shore again. Some of my readers have been complaining that I ceased to do my film reviews. Now, my plans to give you a week by week account of my moviegoing shenanigans have gone out the window, but I decided to randomly grab a bunch of ticket stumps from my messy desk and to rate some of the flicks I've seen in the last three to four months. So here we go (in no specific order):

Turistas - This was pretty solid and entertaining. Since it's about American tourists getting ripped to shreds in a faraway travel location, it has been compared to the gory, sadistic, sexist and all around idiotic torturefest Hostel, but it's actually just a well made popcorn thriller with attractive people in bathing suits. Look for the ever lovely Olivia Wilde and a rather original underwater chase. Rating: Four Steaks

The Reaping - A religious horror thriller about a town suffering from biblical plagues, which plays like laughable Christian propaganda (see also The Exorcist series, The Omen series, Lost Souls or worst flick of 2006 The Exorcism of Emily Rose - come to think of it, don't see those). Only horrorific thing about this movie - somebody greenlit it. Oh well, it turns out Hilary Swank makes a great blonde, not every British actor can succesfully fake American accents and after The Bridge to Terabithia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. AnnaSophia Robb (as the evil kid) continues to show promise as a bright star of the future. Rating: Two Steaks

The Good German - Well made, well acted, well shot and designed, solidly written, but too gimmicky, lengthy and ultimately boring. Rating: Three Steaks

300 - Sadly, this one has become a cultural phenomenon. It is visually stunning for about five minutes, then the whole comic look thingy becomes tiring - and the score, sounds and screamy acting accompanying it just amount to a lot of noise. Ironically, the picture tries to balance out it's overtly homoerotic imagery with blatant homophobia. But the worst thing: This is the film that Joseph Goebbels wet dreams were made of, a flick the Nazis would have loooved. Being busy with creating the "awesome" comic strip look, director Zack Snyder naively made a war-mongering, facist propaganda piece giving all the wrong comments on the current state of the world. Well, for it's bold visual concept , this one will not receive the worst rating, but I'll give it Two Steaks.

Sunshine - Like almost every Danny Boyle picture this outer space thriller has an original ensemble cast, powerful visuals, a pretty darn good first act, a solid second act and a fuckin stinker of a third act. Enjoyable classically told Sci-Fi flick that turns into a third rate slasher by the time it's over. Still, since it was very entertaining for most parts, it'll get Four Steaks

Spider-Man 3 - I thought the first Spidey outing was near perfect superhero entertainment. The cast, the FX, the action, the drama, the dialogue, the humour, the music - just great. Only the shitty Goblin costume and the underwhelming final battle weren't up to speed. Now, the highly praised second Spidey flick was still pretty good, but vastly overrated by most critics. It still had a great cast, funny scenes, good FX and a great score, but the soap-operaesque script was way too cheesy to ring true. Oh, and that train sequence was lame. And Spider-Man getting unmasked in front of half of Manhattan... oh well. The third Spidey did a good job tying all those storylines from part two neatly together, but it had way too much villains (Sandman, New Goblin, Venom and even Tobey Maguire himself as ...uhm... ego bloated Asshole Spider-Man) and thus way too much storylines. Considering the money that was spent some of the FX looked pretty unfinished. And that first Goblin vs Parker duel was almost unwatchable. But hey, it had a great cast, funny scenes and some of the score didn't suck. So I guess, it was satisfying, but really didn't give you the bang for buck ratio of the first one. But since I generously gave Four Steaks to the flawed Sunshine and the cinematically insignificant Turistas this entertaining monster also gets Four Steaks. PS: You gotta love anything that has Kirsten Dunst in it. So there. Four Steaks.

All right, I'm tired now, but I'll be back with more randomy picked reviews - if someone buys me steak, that is.

Dancin' With Myself

While I'm still pondering whether to fully return to reviewing films and the finer things of life on this blog, you might wanna look at this lil youtube gem pretty much representing my level of sanity at the moment. Wonder if steak might help.

Baby Mine

I found a clip a father made for his daughter on youtube. It's a bunch of cute baby animal pictures (just in case you're not sure whether it's worth to tune in) and features Bette Midler's version of "Baby Mine" - a song I used to sing to Baby all the time. Incidentally, it also features a Baby lookalike (no, not the panda, although it does remind me a bit of her) and a message in the end, that very much reflects my everyday feelings regarding my lost one.

I'm still contemplating, whether to get my two blogs up and running again or not. Times are harsh and I might have to devote my energies elsewhere. The steaks are high. Very high.

Farewell, Beloved Baby

My sweet beloved cat Miss Amanda Jones has passed away. To me she has never stopped being the tiny baby kitten I picked up from a farmhouse in Northern Germany 20 years ago, which is why I lovingly refer to her as Baby. As it only turned out today, Baby had suffered from a severe lung tumor and was no more able to breathe properly, which is why I had to send her to her final rest. I hope she will not be gone forever and that there's a better world beyond that eventually reunites us. Rest In Peace, Little One.

2007 at the Movies: Week # 3 - Nic Returns (kinda)

Have you been waiting for this? No? Well, here it is anyway:

Film #7: Charlotte's Web - Beloved children's book classic or not, this lil flick was a total waste of Dakota Fanning's talents and played like a third rate version of the wonderful Babe. Mildly amusing family entertainment. Rating: Three Steaks

Film #8: Dogville - So, yeah, this flick is three years old, three hours long and it's the third time I've seen it. But you see, I'm suffering of serious Nic withdrawal and this is one of her best works. So if it's on, I gotta go. Great writing, terrific acting, still thought provoking. Rating: Six Steaks

Film #9: Mein Führer - Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler - Unfortunately this German satire about the last days of Hitler is badly written and muddled. Helge Schneider is hilarious as Hitler, but the rest of the flick is a misguided crapfest. Rating: Two Steaks but with a tasty side of cole slaw and fries

Film #10: The Pursuit of Happyness - Will Smith is really good in this, so is the cinematography and the editing. The director managed to make something quite watchable out of a pretty average cookie-cutter screenplay, that reads like a celebration of the Reagan era. But hey, it's based on a true story, isn't it. Rating: Four Steaks but with a rancid side of cole slaw and fries.

Speaking of happiness. I haven't been to happy, lately. And I still don't think, steak's gonna fix this.

2007 at the Movies: Week #2

Here we are at the wrap-up for week two in cinematic experiences of 2007. Fittingly, I only watched two flicks in week two. Here they are:

Film #5: The Prestige - This is a well-made fun ride drama about a couple of battling illusionists in London. It has quite the charming cast (look out for David Bowie's return to the silver screen), a nice score and beautiful camera work. Unfortunately it's get's a little too self-indulgent with it's less than clever twists towards the end. Still quite a treat. Rating: Four Steaks

Film #6: The Queen - I could give a rat's ass about the Queen of England's publicity trouble during the mourning period for Proincess Diana, but Stephen Frears' latest film about that subject is actually quite entertaining, I'd even say brilliant. With a sharply written script, clever camerawork, a smart film score and a stellar cast the film manges to be funny, touching and intellectually involving. Yes, Academy Award shoe-in Helen Mirren is very, very good in this picture, but I thought Michael Sheen's performance as Tony Blair was even more impressive. Too bad, he almost never get mentioned. Rating: Five Steaks.

Argh! Just as I wrote this my DVD player kicked the bucket. Fuck! And I'm as broke as ever! Not even a steak can fix this.