1 Star Reviews

Of course Babel lost, thats generally the end result for a movie that sucked.

I am not going to mix words since I lost 2 1/2 hours of life to this movie that ranks right next to Elizabethtown, Bandidas, Weatherman and I “heart” Huckabees for the worst movies I have seen in the last few years.

So if this movie came and went with a small amount of chatter that would be the end of it, as not all movies appeal to all people, but the fact that it was nominated is a complete joke.

This movie seems to have stacked up alot of good critic’s reviews and then a huge percentage of “users or patrons” that thought it to be beyond bad. I dont see this type of diverse opionion without issues.

This movie was and is boring, way too long for such little conflict or story, unconnected to itself and completely without a point, plot or actual story of interest.

This movie spends so long trying to unravel itself in a slow and interesting way that you will find that you just dont care anymore what the point is. The best part to this conclusion is that it never does get around to its point.

2 hours into the movie I was looking at the clock thinking “this cant possibly save itself with only 20 minutes left?!”. This never does save itself, it only gets worse with more plot holes at the end and unconnected story points and preaching.

The small group that praises this film says it a story about the “limits of communication”, which is a fancy way to say its about nothing but if you dont love it then you just aren’t insightful enough to “get it”. These people are fools, and this movie is just plain bad. If you find this statement harsh, please go rent this movie and suffer through it, then comment on how right I was to be harsh.

The movie has 4 main and seperate plotlines. Of the 4 main platlines any one could be completely removed from the movie and the story would still be exactly the same.

The entire section of this movie taking place in Japan, we will refer to as the ‘porn section’ of the movie, has nothing at all to do with the story. Those trying to say this is a good movie will make a slight connection about the “butterfly effect”, or how the action of this character in the past led to the other plotlines, but the connection is so obscure it really doesnt matter.

To make the matter of no story or plot of interest worse they pepper the movie with obvious political agenda which means way “over the top dramatic” injections about the world.

The movie gives us Middle eastern charaters “just try to live in violence” and illegal immigrants “just trying to be good American’s”, and in the background you see the purposely placed picture of George Bush.

This movie is bad, if you think its great then you are likely trying to make yourself feel superior. I can not find any other “Oscar nominated movies” where 30-45% of all viewers thought it sucked.

Visit Yahoo.com and pan through the user reviews and see what the people say about this movie. You will find that 2 of every 5 viewers hated this movie. I didnt just say 40% didnt like it much, I said they hated it. Also, you will see the reasons for this hate were the same across the board. This 40% of viewers all found it pointless with no plot, preachy and boring to the point of many walking out.

Take a look and see, and ask yourself how can so many people who walked out or thought this movie completely awful not have some basis of this opinion.
40% of Babel Viewers Hated it, the rest acted superior

Here is what an Oscar Movie looks like, it gets almost all A’s with perhaps 1 in 20 viewers saying they hated it as opinions come in all shapes and sizes.
A true best Picture - Amadeus

Any finally here is what the best movie of 2006 looks like. This is by far the best movie of 2006 without question. Read through the hundreds of reviews written by patrons of this movie and see that it is all A ratings with a handful of F’s. Those who didnt like this movie all had the same simplistic complaint, “too much violence”. You will see those who said it was bad because of “violence” all generally still commented on how beautiful the sets and story were. You will also see the very few who didnt love this movie all expected it to be like Harry Potter IE: for kids.

Pan’s Labyrinth is the best movie of 2006, and Babel is the worst movie to ever be a nominee for best picture.
Pan’s Labyrinth is the best movie of 2006

Bravo Cucina Italiana Northlake

Charlotte 28269
1-704-597-1455
 
Finally tried the new Bravo Cucina Italiana North Lake Mall Location that just opened about 1 month ago, as this is yet another new restaurant in a growing area of North Charlotte.

The North Lake Mall is a major disappointment so far, and sorry to say the main anchor restaurant that decorates the main entrance fountain area, is equally so on our first visit.

The restaurant is very roman in design, and really is a step above any of the competitors in decoration. If the Bravo Cucina Italiana North Lake Mall was designed to compete with Carabas and Macaroni grill, then they succeeded in creating an atmosphere, which is clearly more sophisticated and refined. It really is a nice place inside, and will impress any date or make for an extra special feeling a night out with the wife.

This was the intention for myself that fell short. The menu has a nice assortment with a good amount of all meats, seafood, pizza, and flatbreads. This can make for a very nice wine sipping meal with excellent music throughout the great layout of the establishment. BUT Here comes the but, about halfway through our meal at 6:15 pm on a Monday the manager apparently forgot to pay his electric bill or has canine blood and eyesight, as they dimmed the lights far beyond what would be viewed as romantic.

I believe they did so to keep you from getting a look at the somewhat steep prices on the menu.

While we sat there in near blackness struggling to read the menu, and see that the average plate is about -19, which is a good price for the plate, but not the food on the plate. This is to say, they provided a huge plate with food neatly filling the middle 15% of the plate.

While this may just be viewed as sophistication, in Italian food this appears that someone ate half my food before it arrived.

I view Italian eating a filling large impressive plate, save the fancy half empty look for French food.

BREAD: the big question with any Italian meal…Small very dry, and may have come out of a bag, not going to make me cry, nor make me return.

The wife ate pasta alfredo with chicken which she tells me was very good, but this fell on deaf ears as with what happened with my meal. I ordered the House special grilled pork chops. When they arrived I was pointing out how incredibly soft the chops were and thinking what a great job of cooking the pork tender. I was eager and dying to dive in to a great looking 1 1/2 inch chops.

Too bad the chops were completely pink in the middle. Not to say the pork was a “bit raw”, but more to the point that it still had a curly tail and was uncooked to the point of health risk.

I cut them both in half and sure enough they were ice cold raw in the middle. I informed the waitress and sent them back. She apologized about 15 times, perhaps realizing what I thought having eaten a bite of a raw pork chop.

She offered to put it on a separate plate and take it back to be cooked right, when I just gave here the entire plate since the entire thing was 1 inch from bleeding. So back went my $`18 pork chops to be re-thrown on the grill, which will surely lock in that great flavor.

Offering to start from scratch seemed more fitting when a customer just chewed on “Disney’s babe” the uncooked chop.

After my wife had finished her entire meal and I still sat staring at the empty breadbasket, I called the waitress over and said she could keep the chops, bring me the check. I was of course not charged, and I checked to see if “cooking was extra” but that wasn’t what happened.

The place is nice and will impress most anyone, and the waitress was polite and attentive, the prices were too much to justify eating there again for what we received.

Really considering the bread was bland, dry and very small (4 pieces the size of melba toast), I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t just save and go to Olive Garden. perhaps it isn’t so “phony-Sheik”, but at least you get the breadsticks and a cooked piece of meat every time. This establishment was definitely a bit to fancy for its own patrons or neighborhoods good. We all know we like Olive Garden, but we just never want to admit it.

I would personally stick with that example of a better meal at a lower less pretentious price.