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KJ-Movie-Watcher
Reviews
Spinning Plates (2012)
One in Three good
This movie is about 3 restaurants. I was watching it because I'm interested in food but only 1/3 restaurants actually fulfilled my desire. Two were about peoples lives running restaurants and quite miserable. We actually fast forwarded them and just watched the section about Grant Achatz. That was amazing seeing his molecular gastronomy his genius and passion. Would love to eat at Alinea or Next. 10/10 for that section. The other two literally made me upset and annoyed to watch. One about a Mexican couple whose restaurant was not going well. Instead of trying to improve, look at their marketing strategies, how to get more customers, how to make better food, they just prayed. And god didn't answer. The other was about a guy super helpful, creating a community in his restaurant and serving the most unhealthy looking food ever. Chicken fried chicken, steak, etc. How can you make a doco about this unhealthy food? If you like food, just watch Achatz. If you like drama watch all 3.
Monkey Puzzle (2008)
Hardly worth watching
OK I live in the Blue Mtns and so i was interested to see a film shot there. I had already checked the IMDb rating & didn't have high expectations however the film certainly didn't exceed my extremely low expectations.
Firstly... as everyone has commented, the characters are very annoying with implausible character flaws. OK some people are a bit strange so i can accept that, however it was still hard to connect with them.
Secondly, why were they abseiling 20 M down the 200 M Gross valley? It made no sense. Either they should rap down properly where there are chains with 2 ropes, info about it is not that hard to find, or they should walk down a gully.
Thirdly, where they were walking, its hard to be so isolated. I mean its literally in the middle of a valley which, if you walk uphill you will be out of. There are gullies going back up and the Bells line of road & great western highway is on either side of the valley. Its prob 2 hrs bush bash for a hiker or maybe 4-6 hrs for the useless invalids in the film.
Fourthly, they could've had a bit more of a positive spin on the film, ie shown it to be beautiful etc instead of just having a negative vibe the whole way through the film.
Finally, the shots of the Gross valley were terrible quality. Some decent cinematography would've made a big difference.
Overall the only thing i can say positive is that it's good to see an Australian film, and nice to have the BM scenery. I think the actors look promising if they were well directed...
Have low expectations and you may enjoy it.