by Joseph Rossi
I’m in movie heaven. In one day I sat through two really good movies that aren’t stupid, juvenile or based on any toy or video game franchises. Adults everywhere can rejoice.
As summer action films go, Edge of Tomorrow is aces. The plot is routine. The world is under attack from a race of squid like aliens and Tom Cruise,who plays a solider, is dispatched onto the human front lines to defend their position. Here is the twist. He dies on the battlefield and wakes up the day before, fresh as a daisy. What I first thought to be a silly Groundhog Day meets Alien mélange turns out to be a well-made, well acted, science fiction thriller has Cruises’ character reliving the same day over and over again until he pieces together a plan to help win the war . Director Doug Liman hasn’t made a film this good since the first Bourne Identity in 2001. He and his technicians have constructed a technically flawless piece of work, with effects that are seamless and action that is put together with Spielbergian flair. The best effect is Cruise who after a bad couple of years turns up the star wattage and proves to us why he is a movie star.
Do yourself a favor and watch the movie Chef before you eat. It’ll make you hungry and you’ll be grateful for it because each bite will be so worth it. Director and actor Jon Favreau has made a love letter to chefs, restaurateurs and line cooks everywhere. He plays a chef who loses his passion and decides to open a food truck that sells simple, delicious Cuban food. His reconnection to the simple pleasures of food mirrors his reconnection with his 10-year-old son who joins his dad in a cross-country road trip that solidifies their relationship. And while together they sample the local foods of the lower 48 states that will have you drooling. Part family drama, part comedy, part travelogue, Chef has enough to satisfy.
