Dinner and a Movie 4/25-27/08

Friday night: I went out to the suburbs to visit my good friend Jenn and her roommate and we went to dinner and movie. We ate at RAM in Northbrook, which is usually notorious for bad service every other time we've been there, but that night they seemed to have scheduled a wait staff with a brain. Our waitress was attentive and brought out our food in a timely manner, a good thing since everyone was starving. I had coconut shrimp and a side of fries. The coconut shrimp were good and stuck on upright wooden skewers like kebabs which were in turn jammed into a giant piece of pineapple. The sauce was supposed to be some kind of sweet dipping sauce, but that really wasn't very good. I made a mental note to order limes next time to squeeze on my shrimp - that's really all you need with coconut shrimp, especially after you've had the tastiest, authentic coconut shrimp from the Yucatan. Mmmmm, when are we going back to Mexico?

But I digress. We finished pretty early with enough time to go back to Jenn's place for an hour before the three of us set out again to the movie theater to catch Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. I didn't have very high expectations for this movie after seeing the first one, which is probably a good thing too. That said, it was still pretty funny and although it's been a few years since I saw the first Harold and Kumar, I thought this one was a little funnier. The jokes are the same, they're just even more over the top and they go on a lot longer. All in all, a good way to wind down on a Friday night after a long, hard week at work!

Saturday: My sister and I caught a 5pm showing of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was absolutely hysterical. I cannot stress this enough. Jason Segal gives the best facial expressions of anyone I've seen in comedy for a while. I was a little disappointed that Paul Rudd's character didn't have just a teensy bit more screen time, but he played the usual quirky wackjob and was still pretty funny. I have to admit I partially wanted to see it because I loved the TV show Veronica Mars, so seeing Kristen Bell play another CSI-type crime fighter was pretty funny, especially in the little bit during the credits. But I have to say I am traumatized after seeing her in the "who can scream louder" sex scene, I don't think cute little Veronica Mars will ever be the same for me! The rockstar boyfriend she dumps Jason Segal for is so funny, he's pretty much been removed from reality for a long time, I think. And finally, just three words: Dracula puppet musical. Yeah.

After the movie, we sent to Pizzeria Via Stato, which has some of the best thin crust pizza I have had in Chicago so far. They aren't kidding when they say paper thin, you really need a fork to eat it because if you pick it up the crust is too flimsy to hold the toppings. But it is a nice crispy crust and the amount of toppings isn't too much. I had the margherita pizza again (same as last month when we did the same thing after seeing The Ruins - also an excellent movie, I'll put an addendum at the end of this post about that movie as well.) and boy, was it tasty! They have the sweetest, most succulent tomatoes, really tasty cheese, and fragrant basil which makes this absolutely THE best margherita pizza I have ever had. It goes nicely with a Blue Moon beer, which is saying something since I normally don't really like beer, but I found out I do like that kind. :) Our waitress was friendly and attentive, and you really can't beat the price, it's around $11 for a personal pizza with flavor that is out of this world.

Sunday: Lunch at Adobo Grill with Jenn. We of course had to have the guacamole made table-side, and let me tell you, that is some damn good guac! Since we got there around 2, it was actually still brunch time and I got the pleasure of having the blue corn-plantain hot cakes. This was an assortment of 2 eggs, chorizo (it was too spicy and I'm not a fan of chorizo so I left that one alone), and pancakes made from plantains and blue corn flour and topped with cajeta and agave syrup. Oh my stars, first I found the best French toast in the world at Victory's banner, and now I just may have found the world's best pancakes!

I didn't go to the theater to watch a movie, however I did watch Halloween II, 50 First Dates, and Carlos Saura's flamenco version of Carmen all on DVD throughout the day on Sunday whilst cleaning my room and performing other household chores, so it was a nice relaxing day.

Addendum: The Ruins

I saw this movie 3 or 4 weeks ago with my sister (after when we also went to Pizzeria Via Stato - I had the same thing and it was deeeeelish!). I didn't expect this movie to be as good as it was, but the previews made it look fun and scary so I didn't care, I just wanted to have a good time. It ended up being really suspenseful, as a lot of it has to do with human nature and paranoia when you're stranded somewhere. About halfway through the movie *SPOILERS* when we learned that the real villain they had to be on the lookout for was a killer vine, had it been any other movie, I probably would have said, okay I'm outta here, that is retarded. But for some reason it works, I think it was because they didn't try to do too much with the vine, it's just always there in the background, waiting for the stranded kids to die of dehydration or starvation if they don't kill each other first. The only complaint I really had was that the ending was cut pretty short and it was a total cop out, but then again, how many scary movies these days have good endings? So up until the last 30 seconds it was actually pretty great. It is pretty gross at some points because there are some nasty bloody scenes, but I can overlook that because the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie and I didn't look at the time once, and I can't remember the last movie where I didn't do that.

After hearing that the author of the original book also wrote the screenplay, I was excited to read the book. I went out and bought it right away and the book is even creepier than the movie, the vine has more of a mind of its own and seems to be able to think, or at least to predict certain stimuli, unlike the movie where it seemed to mostly just react to what was happening. Once again, ordinarily I would have thought this was pretty lame, but Scott Smith has a way of writing that keeps the suspense moving and makes potentially lame ideas actually believable and enjoyable. I finished the book in just a few days and loved it. Now I can't wait to read his other novel, A Simple Plan, which was his debut and of which a movie was also made a few years ago. I haven't seen it or had the time to start that book yet (I must finish Atonement so I can see THAT movie!!), but I can't wait, all the reviews seem to be pretty good for that book too.