Tag: Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Pizza and a Movie: The Martian

This Last weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Arugula
  • Bacon
  • Sun Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

The Martian

Yes, I know this movie is no longer playing in theaters. We missed it when it was,* and since nothing at the cinema at the moment seemed interesting, we decided to go home and watch this film.

We had both recently read the book, and we both liked the movie. But, as is often the case, the book was better, and there were some things left out of the film 😦 But it was still really good.

What made it really good, for me (now I wish it had won an Academy Award; I think it was nominated for 3, including Adapted Screenplay, yay) weren’t the science of it, or the special effects. I don’t even (normally) like science fiction. Though I know we aren’t sending people to (make that, leaving people on) Mars yet, I felt like this story could actually be happening. Now.

No, what made it so good were A, the characters (all) – notice I didn’t say actors, though it was well cast; B, the humor (mostly in dialogue); and C, the story itself. And B was the best. Same thing for the novel by Andy Weir, which I highly recommend.

When is Hollywood going to figure out that it’s about the writing?

We passed on going to see The Boss, and I guess we will go see that soon. I hear it’s funny. However, it will be a different kind of humor than what Weir did in his book, and what was in the movie.

Now for the pizza. He wanted Arugula. The other toppings gave it the crunch and the tang (and flavor) we wanted. Yum.

Bon appétit.

*Two others we missed and plan to watch at home are Mad Max: Fury Road and Steve Jobs. We did see Creed, though, and it was fantastic. Blood and all.

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Pizza and a Movie: Star Wars (encore)

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Black Olives
  • Anchovies
  • Sun-Dried Tomatoes

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Movies:

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Yes, we saw Star Wars again (see “Pizza and a Movie” post of 12/30/15), but this time, at our favorite theater in the USA. Without the French subtitles, it was even better (and easier for me to follow) the second time, here at home. I dare say that’s because, in France, I kept checking to make sure the French words on the screen were what the actors were saying. It was slightly distracting.

This is an absolutely great movie, and if you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so.

As for the pizza we ordered, my husband demanded really wanted Black Olives, and he wanted me to choose the other two toppings. I chose what I did off the top of my head, and it seemed to work.

By the way, since the Oscar nominations just came out, I wanted to compare the nominees for Best Film with my top rated movies of the year (see my “List Post: Nouvelle Année – janvier 2016” of 12/31/15).

My top 5 were (in order):

  1. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
  2. Bridge of Spies
  3. The Gift
  4. Brooklyn
  5. Inside Out

and my “Want to See” movies were: 

  1. Mad Max: Fury Road
  2. The Martian
  3. Creed
  4. Steve Jobs
  5. The Big Short

The Oscar nominees were:

  1. The Big Short
  2. Bridge of Spies
  3. Brooklyn
  4. Mad Max: Fury Road
  5. The Martian
  6. The Revenant
  7. Room
  8. Spotlight

How did Star Wars not make it? Je ne sais pas. And I really enjoyed the other 2 movies on my top 5 list that didn’t make it. But 2 of my top 5 did, and 3 of my want to see’s did, too. I saw The Big Short, finally (and also, twice), and I now want to see The Revenant. The only nominees I’m not keen on seeing are #s 7 & 8.

So, there you have it.

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Pizza and a Movie: Bridge of Spies

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Artichoke Hearts
  • Bacon
  • Sun-Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

Bridge of Spies

This movie is my favorite one of the year, so far. (My second favorite is The Gift.)

I was riveted to this story about the exchange of prisoners (spies), and all the actors – especially Tom Hanks, in the lead role as Jim Donovan – did a fantastic job. I love stories set during World War II and the Cold War. This one was set during the latter, in the late 1950s. It was an amazing, true story, and well told. I predict at least one Academy Award.

Two things in particular about it touched me on a personal level:

  1. My parents went to Milligan College with the reconnaissance pilot who was shot down in the film, Francis Gary Powers. He was a year ahead of my mom in school, but she knew him well and they had a biology class together. She says he was very smart and somewhat shy. Like her, he grew up in a coal mining town in southwest Virginia.
  2. My daughter, who is studying in France this fall, recently visited Berlin.

I’ve never been to Berlin–it was divided into East and West when I spent a year in France as a college student, and getting to West Berlin was just too difficult back then. Until I saw this film, I hadn’t realized when the Berlin Wall was constructed, or what that was like. (I thought it happened not long after the war.) As I watched the scenes in East Berlin, I wondered what the city of Berlin is like today, and what it feels like to live there, with its history.

There were some tense scenes, and some very scary ones, and I felt myself propelled back to that time as the story unfolded. The dialogue was great, too. If you see the movie, you’ll notice that one character repeats this line over and over: “Would it help?” I won’t tell you what he or she means, but trust me, it’s a good line.

Now for the pizza. My husband wanted artichoke hearts, which I always love. I picked bacon (why not), and we agreed on the sun-dried tomatoes. It was yummy, and just right.

After taking last Friday off due to Thanksgiving, it was nice to be back at the Corner Pizza together. The only problem was that we somehow forgot to take home our take-home box of the pizza we couldn’t eat. Oops. We left it on the table by mistake. Next time I’ll put it next to my purse, so when I reach for it, I’ll grab the box, too.

Maybe that would help.

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Mistress America

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Artichoke Hearts
  • Bacon
  • Sun Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

Mistress America

These pizza toppings were a particularly good combination. The pizza was tangy, yummy, and semi-healthy.

Ahead of time, my husband and I had agreed on the Artichoke Hearts. We waited until the last second to choose the other two toppings. Looking over the menu, my eyes fell on Bacon and his fell on Sliced Tomatoes, and after a short discussion, we modified that to the Sun Dried version.

A few weeks ago, we walked into Corner Pizza with no preconceived notions of what toppings to select. As we were discussing the choices, a young couple sitting at the bar watched and listened, and once we made our decision, they told us we were “cute.”

I took it as a compliment.

As for this week’s movie…well, I can’t give it more than a C. I didn’t think it was particularly funny or witty, and both of us later decided that the older step-sister was bipolar. I walked away thankful that A, I don’t live in NYC or up north, and B, I’m not the age of the characters in this film.

It would just be too complicated for me.

Now, if you’re a northerner, please don’t take offense. I love visiting “the city” and have traveled up north a good bit – but mostly in the summer and fall. Once I went to New York in January, but lucked out with the weather. It was simply very cold (freezing by Atlanta standards) but not horrible or blizzard-y. In fact, the folks I spent time with who live up there thought it was “nice.” Another time, I visited the city in December, and it was even colder (and windy) but it didn’t snow, thank goodness.

In the movie, I liked the fact that one character was a writer. But a lot of the dialogue seemed, well, pretentious. On the other hand, that worked (and was very funny) in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine. I loved that movie, and laughed a lot while watching it.

Now, I don’t like all Woody Allen films (who does?) but I admire the fact that he’s always working on something. He keeps on “showing up.” It’s what I try to do, as a writer.

When you think about it, Mistress America sounds like it could have been the title of a Woody Allen movie. Right now, I’m struggling with a title for my next thriller. I’ve finished writing it, and it’s been edited and is ready to go, except for its name.

I may just have to figure it out at the last second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Vacation

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Chicken
  • Poblano Peppers
  • Sun-Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

Vacation

UGH. Unless you’re a fan of crude, offensive, gross-out humor, RUN, don’t walk, away from this film!

After last week’s Trainwreck, I thought I could handle anything raunchy, but…Well, I hate to say anything bad or to criticize a movie that some people (might) like – I’m a “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” kind of person, when it comes to reviews of movies and books. So, I’ll tell you what (little) I DID like about Vacation:

  1. There were a few genuinely funny moments/gags, if you can get past the silliness. One was a redux of a highway scene in the original Vacation (when a much younger Chevy Chase was driving); another was during a dialogue between Audrey (Chevy’s grown up daughter) and her husband, Stone, at their patio table in Plano, Texas *
  2. I like Ed Helms from The Office in anything, most of the time; as Rusty Griswold, he did fine
  3. Hmm… can’t think of anything else

I’m not a huge fan of Vacation or Christmas Vacation (though we have the latter, to watch during the holidays, and I do think it’s funny). As I sat through this Vacation, I thought of another, much better movie about a cross country road trip that was also pretty crude but was far funnier, much better done, and had another The Office actor (Steve Carrell) in it: Little Miss Sunshine.

[Let me add that, in Little Miss Sunshine, the purpose of the trip and its destination seemed much more important. Not only that, but in Vacation, they took detours that didn’t make sense, even from a plot standpoint.]

Plot? What plot? Oh, yeah…

Now for the Pizza:

Occasionally, my husband makes individual pizzas from scratch for dinner (he’s the family chef). The toppings we chose this time reminded me of those, because he uses ingredients we have in the fridge, like (leftover) chicken, sun dried tomatoes, and poblano peppers, among others. This pizza was just as good, and very tasty.

Going to the movies as often as we (currently) do, we’ve seen some bad films, some mediocre ones, and some really good ones. But our pizzas are almost always fantastic.

* I got married there, and I don’t think it looks anything like the Plano, Texas in this film!

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Far from the Madding Crowd

For my first Pizza and a Movie blogpost, here’s what we had at Corner Pizza, and here’s the movie we saw last Friday night (click on the tab above, for more info, and the archive list):

Pizza toppings:* 

  • Anchovies
  • Ground beef (hamburger)
  • Sun-dried tomatoes

Movie:

Far from the Madding Crowd 

Not everybody likes anchovies, but my husband and I do – occasionally. We rarely choose hamburger as a topping (it was his selection, that night), but we often choose sun-dried tomatoes.

It was that rare combination of both a Friday and a mid-month payday, and it was a beautiful spring evening.** I wanted to see the movie we chose (it was conveniently showing at 7:30), and my husband didn’t object. (We both like British literature, British movies, and Downton Abbey.) Plus, we had recently seen Ex Machina, so I was in the mood for something completely different.

Our pizza was very good (as usual), but, not knowing I was going to write a blog post about it, I didn’t take a photo of my first slice. On the way to the show, we discussed the name of the film. Without troubling to check, I insisted that the title was Far from the Maddening Crowd.

“It’s madding, not maddening,” said my husband.

“I say it’s maddening,” I replied. [Maddening just sounded like what it ought to be, and I hadn’t read the book.] “Let’s make a bet.”

“Okay,” he said. “You’re on.”

When we arrived, I found out I was wrong. Oh, well. It was kind of fun to guess and see if I knew it, instead of immediately looking the title up to see. The movie was very entertaining, and well done–both of us enjoyed it–and the characters were engaging. It was a great date movie!

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* Here are the topping choices at Corner Pizza:

  1. Anchovies
  2. Artichoke Hearts
  3. Arugula
  4. Bacon
  5. Banana Peppers
  6. Black Olives
  7. Capers
  8. Chicken
  9. Corn
  10. Feta
  11. Fresh Garlic
  12. Green Olives
  13. Ground Beef (hamburger)
  14. Ham
  15. Italian Sausage
  16. Jalapeño Peppers
  17. Mushrooms
  18. Pepperoni
  19. Pineapple
  20. Poblano Peppers
  21. Portobellos
  22. Red Onion
  23. Shallots
  24. Sliced Tomatoes
  25. Spinach
  26. Sun-dried Tomatoes
  27. Xtra Cheese

** And the crowd was neither madding nor maddening!

Note: In your comments, I ask that you not be critical, snarky or judgmental of our topping choices, movie selection, or my post itself…and your topping (and movie) suggestions are welcome!

 

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