Safety Not Guaranteed: Sweet and Tangy Rhubarb Pie Recipe
/Don’t be fooled by the thin tissue of cynicism and vulgarity that wraps this 2012 movie package. Inside it’s an undiscovered gem.
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Often been surprised by a movie after what a film critic said about it? Ever felt cheated out of big bucks on the recommendations of a punk 24-year-old? Or really loved the ones they panned? Well, you no longer need to feel out of step with the current movie review band. Different Drummer is for you. Read more about our take on the film world. And get ready to relive your favorite movies with the recipes that follow each review. You can find many other great recipes in Different Drummer’s own Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook.
*The Way, Way Back: Warm Crab Parmesan Dip Recipe
/Taunted by his wannabe step dad, ostracized by the mean girls at the beach, and almost invisible to his single mom, 14-year-old Duncan faces the summer vacation from hell. While this 2013 Sundance coming of age crowd pleaser veers into familiar territory, it is not formulaic. Rather, it is an epic adventure, even if the great seas are reduced to the small struggling Water Wizz Park in East Wareham, Mass.
Read MoreLone Survivor: Afghan Lamb Kebabs
/Step aside Iron Man and Batman. America's real heroes are here. Lone Survivor carries on the patriotic legacy. The film makes you realize what our troops do for our country and how government rules and our media can literally kill our soldiers.
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Knowing: Clam Dip Recipe
/Eye-popping special effects, the cerebral mystery of science fiction, and the frenetic action of a thriller, all tied together with the philosophical musings of Nicolas Cage. You’re either going to despise it or be riveted to your seat for the entire two hours. Count me in the latter category.
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Siver Linings Playbook: Crabby Cakes
/An ode to dysfunction, almost a celebration of it, this film pulls us in even as we realize we are being artfully manipulated by all the old tricks. It is everything we love and loathe about American culture and Hollywood – coarse, crude, and comic, yet also brashly candid and even painfully introspective.
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Snow White and the Huntsman: English Apple Traybake
/Forget Disney's Snow White waving her handkerchief as Dopey, Grumpy and the rest of those assorted dwarfs scoot out the cottage door to strains of "Off to Work We Go." This summer reboot of the fairy tale classic is imbued with the same sense of dark urgency as Christian Bale's Batman Begins. And both reboots blow away their saccharine or campy predecessors.
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In Good Company: Baked Ziti-A La Italian
/Scarlett Johansson utters the film's critical death knell when her character says, “I’m cursed with an utterly functional family.” Not surprising that most critics could barely mete out two stars. I say it's unexpectedly fresh and definitely worth watching.
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Enchanted: New York Street Food
/What if Alice didn’t stumble into Wonderland, but instead the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts exploded out of the rabbit hole into our world? Something along those lines happens when a Beautiful Princess, her Prince Charming, and a persistently annoying Evil Queen erupt from a manhole in modern Manhattan.
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Thor: The Dark World: Scandinavian Almond Bars,
/His hammer is still hot, but the saga tastes a little like a warmed over Danish. What was fresh and surprising in the first film now seems pre packaged. Like the franchise is trying too hard to generate the next sequel.
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Mission: Impossible III: Vatican Capers and Crostini
/Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III is as credible and grounded as the sometimes loopy star is not. So, forget his public persona and catch this testosterone-charged heart-stopper that explodes onto the screen.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: English Summer Pudding
/Darker and deeper than the young wizard’s earlier film excursions, this Potter outing is less concerned with whimsical magic than the ominous reality of evil. So, instead of a respite from the chilling events of our times, it is a reminder of them.
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Anna Karenina: Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe 🥁🥁🥁
/Over-stylized and artificial, the tail wags the dog in this pretentious reinvention of this Russian classic. Tolstoy’s story of the “doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky” should have been enough to carry the film.
Read MoreBabel: Mexican Wedding Cakes
/While its title predisposes us to think that language and culture divide us, a closer look at Babel reveals the most profound chasms are between those linked closest in blood and intimacy. Whether it is the barren deserts of Morocco, the stark skies and steely towers of Tokyo, or the warm night air that wraps itself around a boisterous Tijuana wedding, the struggle to connect continues to plague us.
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Independence Day: Resurgence: Red, White, and Blue Cocktail Recipe
/It’s a somewhat decent popcorn movie, but it isn’t the extra butter deluxe item we remember from 20 years ago.
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Captain America: The First Avenger: Brooklyn Cocktail Recipe
/We have to travel back to World War II to do it, but this action film reminds us of our better angels. Captain America, a 98-pound weakling transformed into a super soldier hunk, wows us more with his character than his exploits, a red, white and blue package of courage, patriotism, and innocence as invincible as his Vibranium shield.
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Stardust: English Fairy Cakes
/This fairy tale is as sweet and light as a summer sorbet. It’s about young love, cold beauty, evil crones, a swishy pirate, conspiring princes and the fallen star that compels them all.
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Steve Jobs: Spiced Warm Apple Cider Recipe
/Put down your smart phone. Let go of your turbo mouse. And take a look behind the curtain at the man largely credited for giving them to you. It’s not exactly a pretty picture.
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Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles: Hunan Orange Beef Recipe
/Don’t rent this Zhang Yimou film expecting the epic beauty and proportions of his recent Hero or The House of Flying Daggers. But his latest minimalist work tells as much or more about quiet dignity and heroics than the two more lavish productions.
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Jurassic World: Fossil Fuel Cocktail Recipe
/Hollywood, the ultimate arcade. Video games, comic books, and now a theme park brought to the big screen in all their slick and superficial glory. Corporate moneymakers that slyly impugn corporate greed while they revel in it.
Read MoreThe Monuments Men: Baked Brie Recipe
/Ocean’s Eleven do World War II. But what happened in Vegas should have stayed in Vegas, since the flippant tone doesn’t work here. Someone should have told George Clooney that taking it to the man in Sin City doesn’t equate with defying the Nazi in war-ravaged Europe.
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