'Ripped' is strong

Ripped (2007)
Starring: Paul Gray and Freda Evans
Director: Christian Linke
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A artist (Gray) finds a mysterious sketchbook that gives him the power to eradicate what he draws from existence.

"Ripped" is another excellent film that I found while wandering through the deep recesses of Facebook. I thought I recognized the filmmaker's name, but I can't find anything else that's done that I might have reviewed, nor can I find him anywhere on my contact lists. I hope he's done other things since leaving film school, because this is a really neat film.

Writer/director Christian Linke says he was inspired to make this film by episodes of the original "Twilight Zone" series. He's done a great job capturing the look and mood of some of the most iconic episodes of that show while also bringing an appropriate silent movie aesthetic to the actors' performances that echo the best of what that era had to offer. The storytelling is fast-paced, the camera- and lighting-work is creative, and the special effects are simple and effective. Linke did a fine job in general.

There are only two things that dragged the film down from the Seven Rating I was thinking about to the Six Rating that I ultimately gave it. 

First, I found some of the stock music that Linke used distracting. One bit featured a motif that I knew from somewhere, so I found myself thinking more about where from than what was happening on screen. Once I placed the music, I began to wonder why he chose that particular piece; was he trying to evoke the very famous films and even more famous character that it's associated with, or was it just coincidental? (This could just be a "me" issue--I have the same problem when Chinese films lift famous film scores and use them for scenes and genres that have nothing to do with where it was taken from. It could be I notice these things more because I'm a nexus point for film-buffery and music criticism, so this might be a non-complaint complaint as far as most viewers are concerned.)

Second, I kept wanting the stakes to be a little higher, especially in light of the ending. When the Arist realized he could make things vanish via the magic sketch pad, he should have moved onto things far more impactful than just nick-nacks, escalating past annoying pets and to people in quick succession. The film is so well-made that this isn't a huge problem, but it still something I had to "ding" it for.

All that said, I think if you enjoy things like "The Twilight Zone" and "Tales From the Crypt" or classic short-form horror comics, I think you'll get a kick out of "Ripped". Take a few minutes to check it out... and perhaps even let me know in the comments if you could tell what music I found distracting.

Musical Monday with Sleaping Dreaming

Sleaping Dreaming is a Brooklyn-based, three-member band that plays shoegazing rock that swings from borderline heavy to gauzily ethereal. Here's a beautiful, thought-provoking video in support of their song "Ring of Fireflies". I hope you find the film and music as fascinating as I did.
 

Ring of Fireflies (2020)
Starring: Claire Davison and Beau Dobson

Director: Xing Xu

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

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Claire Davison, the featured actress and dancer in the "Ring of Fireflies" music video, has been with the American Ballet Theatre company as a dancer and choreographer since 2012. She has performed in several other music videos, worked as a choreographer for several ballet companies, and she's one of the many dancers who've been part of Dane Shitagi's Ballerina Project. Here are some of the photos she posted for.

Coffee Beanery's Hazelnut

This week's coffee review talks about a flavor that is known far and wide and found everywhere coffee can be had.

COFFEE BEANERY: HAZELNUT

If Colombian coffee is the "basic" unflavored coffee, is hazelnut the "basic" of flavored coffee? Or is it just omni-present?

Anywhere they have free coffee creamer (and/or free coffee), you'll find hazelnut-flavored creamer. The only creamer that is more omnipresent is French Vanilla. In college and early in my working life, I was a regular at the 7-Eleven coffee bar, with their "House Blend" with Amaretto creamer, or a mix of Chocolate Caramel and French Vanilla creamers being my go-to drink. Although there were always lots of Hazelnut creamers, it was never a flavor I felt inclined to try.

But, among the flavors in the Coffee Beanery Sample Pack was Hazelnut (subtitled 'MVP of Coffee') so after 30+ years of drinking coffee on a regular basis, I would finally getting around to trying this flavor standard!

As with most of the Coffee Beanery offerings in my review queue, the Hazelnut-flavored blend has as its foundation medium-roast Arabica beans. When I opened the pack, a sweet, nutty aroma filled the air. That aroma hovered around the coffee maker during brewing. 

The smell was so delightful that I wondered if I'd been missing out on Flavor Greatness for all these years? Maybe Hazelnut really IS an MVP of Coffee?

I first tried this blend hot and black. The hazelnut flavor blended nicely with a fairly mild coffee flavor. This was a blend that even someone like me who cuts virtually any coffee with some sort of milk or creamer or booze could tolerate if I had to. And all I needed to make it suitable for my delicate palate was to add a dash of Stevia.

When I added Unsweetened Almond Milk or the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, the sweet, nutty flavor grew stronger, and the flavors remained stable as the coffee cooled to room temperature. Even better, the delightful smell of hazelnuts rose from the cup as I drank and even after it was empty. Despite this strong aroma, the nutty flavor was never overwhelming. 

Unfortunately, I was so enchanted by Coffee Beanery's Hazelnut blend that I drank so much of it hot or at room temperature that I didn't have enough try the blend iced. Basically, I forgot that Coffee Beanery sample packs are much smaller than the ones I get from the Bones Coffee Company. What I did drink, though, makes me recommend it very highly... and I think that maybe the Beanery people weren't bragging with their tagline: The Hazelnut blend is most certainly an MVP among their offerings.

Is Christy thinking it's nuts to not like Coffee Beanery's Hazelnut?

COFFEE NOSTALGIA POST-SCRIPT

After remembering how often I used to get coffee at 7-Eleven and subsequently realizing that's been at least five years since I last got coffee at one of their stores, I went a little out of my way to get some. At first, nothing seemed to have changed at the long counter with the coffee makers, dispensers, selections of creamers, and cupholders. But then I noticed that they didn't have any of the little Amaretto creamers that I used to get. They didn't even have Amaretto flavoring in the pump bottles. Is there a Amaretto supply chain shortage I hadn't heard about? 

Instead of what I had intended to be a trip down Amaretto memory lane, I instead took the opportunity to try the 7-Eleven version of Hazelnut coffee by way of a Large  House Blend with three little cups of Hazelnut Creamer added. It was delicious. I should have done this years ago! (Once again, I was put in the mindset that coffee snobs may have to get over themselves... the coffee at 7-Eleven and gas stations can be perfectly fine.)

My search for Amaretto at 7-Eleven may have ended in failure, but it's inspired me to go looking for offerings from coffee roasters with that flavor. Hopefully, what I find will match the fond memories of cheap late-night coffee of my younger days rather than the disappointment I experienced when I returned to Starbuck's Pike Place blend after not having it for several years.

Space Girl Adventures, Part Twenty-three

THE SPACE GIRLS ARE BACK!

Since 2011, we've been bringing you installments of Travis Charis' gorgeous "Space Girl" comic strip on an irregular basis. We've just received a transmission from Space Station Delta, so for the next few weeks, Space Girls Adventures will continue for the next several Saturdays! Look for two Charest strips and at least one portrait of other females who roam among the stars.

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What Has Gone Before: Spacegirl is trying to get off Delta Moon Station before the sinister Cadet Alpha and the security forces capture her!

SPACEGIRL

By Travis Charest

To Be Continued...

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We mark the return of space girls to Shades of Gray with a portrait of long-time favorite space-faring female. It's Ron Randall's Mercy St. Clair, the lead character in his signature series "Trekker".

'Alice's Wonderland' isn't wonderful

Alice's Wonderland (1923)
Starring: Virginia Davis and Walt Disney
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

The night after visiting the studio where Walt Disney (Disney) and his fellow animators give life to cartoon characters, little Alice (Davis) is transported to Cartoonland as she sleeps. Here, she's treated like a superstar by the cartoon animals... except for the savage lions who want to make her their dinner!

"Alice's Wonderland" (1923) was an early effort from Walt Disney. It spawned a series that ran from 1923 through 1927, with some installments produced... although judging from what's offered in this first one it's a little surprising it even spawned one sequel. 

 
Released as part of the "Laugh-o-Gram" anthology series, each episode "Alice" merged live-action footage with animation in a similar way to what Max Fleischer had been doing with his "Out of the Inkwell" series starring Ko-Ko the Clown. Unfortunately, Fleischer's team did a much better job with this sort of thing that Disney and his cohorts were able to do. In fact, at this stage in the history of animation, and even standard filmmaking, Fleischer & Co. were far, FAR out of Disney's league.

Even at its best--when the live action footage dominates over the animated during the film's first few minutes--this film is clumsy and pedestrian when compared to even early "Out of the Inkwell" installments. From the very beginning, Fleischer attempted to seamlessly merge reality and animation, while Disney barely attempts that, instead mostly keeping the animated characters on a page, even if they are able to interact and acknowledge the "real people" beyond their two-dimensional world. There is nothing like the overlapping of animation and live footage that is commonplace in the Fleischer films.

Where "Alice's Wonderland" truly fails, though, is in the animation department. The jokes and sight gags are uninspired, the character designs are lazy, and the animation is so lazy that it makes the film unintentionally creepy: Most of the animated characters have dead, lifeless eyes and faces. The parade scene from which the still illustrating this review was taken becomes unintentionally creepy because no one blinks, no one shifts their heads to look at Alice as she passes by... they just stand there, frozen. In fact, the parade ends up feeling a bit like some sort of time loop, as the elephant-riding Alice passes the same group of onlookers, over and over, as they stand paralyzed. Alice may be oblivious to the horror of the situation, but I wasn't.

A perhaps even bigger problem is that the second half of the film is made up of sequences that go on entirely too long. Even the amusing climactic chase scene--with Alice fleeing or fighting a pack of hungry lions--goes on and on and on for long enough to become tedious.

"Alice's Wonderland" is yet another early effort from Walt Disney that makes me think he might have been far better at spotting, hiring, and managing creative talent than doing the creating himself. It's another of his early films that has moments, but the overall the bad drags down the good.

But don't just take my word for all of that. Take a few minutes to watch the film for yourself. Let us all know in the comments below if you agree or disagree with my take. (Meanwhile, I'll watch a few more entries in this series to see if they get better and more competently executed as time goes by.)

Wonder Woman Wednesday

We rounded up some more portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon, almost as effectively as she rounds up bad guys with her Lasso of Truth!

Before Bill & Ted's adventure, there was 'De Düva'

De Düva (aka "The Dove") (1968)

Starring: George Coe, Pamela Durell, Sidney Davis, Madeline Khan, Peter Turgeon, and David Zirlin

Directors: George Coe and Anthony Lover

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

In the twilight of his life, a brilliant scientist (Coe) returns to region of his youth and remembers the time he met Death (Davis).

"De Düva" is a hilarious 14-minute short film that pokes fun of the more idiosyncratic hallmarks of Ingmar Bergman's films from the 1950s and 1960s, with "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries" being the most obvious targets of the spoof. A highlight of the film is one of the one the earliest lampoons on Bergman's famous Death character and his love of games; it's almost as goofy as what would appear in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" some 20 years later. 

Film students and lovers of "art films" and "foreign films" will get a kick out of every moment of "De Düva". Even the blurry, worn quality of the film is there to make you smile, as it isn't the result of a copy or a copy or a worn copy, but rather originally made to look like that. The film even makes fun of how many older "lesser" films reach us lovers of cinema, even now in the age of digitization.

The cinematography and acting styles are perfect send-ups of Bergman, with the very emphatic deliveries of all lines greatly adding to the comedy. Even the subtitles have jokes, including what appears to be a mistranslation that casts the relationship of the main characters (young lovers played by George Coe and Pamela Durrell) in a very disturbing light. Although, given some of the themes in Bergman films, perhaps I am hoping that's an intended joke...

One of the things I found to be the most hilarious in the film is the language it was made in. Most of Bergman's films were made in Swedish, and, coming to this one not knowing what to expect other than a spoof, I figured it would be in Swedish, given the title. It is NOT in Swedish, however. I don't know whether you have to be a polyglot to find the made-up language spoken by the actors hilarious, but I was laughing out loud at a lot of it. (Spoiler alert: All dialogue in the film is delivered in a made-up language that kinda-sorta sounds like a cross between English and Swedish but is actually neither. It is then subtitled in English, mostly accurately.)

As the title of the embedded video below states, "De Düva" was in the running for a "Best Short Film" Academy award in 1968. That, plus the fact it marks the first film appearance by Madeline Khan and the first leading role by George Coe, makes it worth watching for those with an interest in film history. I think everyone else  will enjoy it as a goofy spoof of what film snobs find entertaining.

 

Stumbling across this little gem in the distant corners of YouTube reminded me that I've had Bergman's "Hour of the Wolf" (1968) in my To Watch pile for several years now. I need to get around to watching and reviewing it!

On this 4th of July...

... everyone here at Shades of Gray is joining all our American friends in celebrating Independence Day!

Ann Blyth is cos-playing as Lady Liberty and being very dignified ...

... Anita Page is being unsafe with fireworks ...

... and Colleen Moore is skipping all the preliminaries and going straight for the Big Bada-Boom!

Bones' Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition

In this week's coffee review, we return to the flavor-filled world of Bones Coffee!

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: 

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE CHOCOLATE EDITION

I think I am closing in on having tried and reviewed 50 different offerings from the Bones Coffee Company. I've loved most of them, and I can only remember finding one of them completely vile: the Strawberry Cheesecake blend. (If you haven't read that review, maybe you should. I refer to it quite a bit in this one.)

But a few weeks ago, I noticed that Bones was taking a second run at the blend, reformulating it and adding a "Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition" blend to their line-up. While I am not going to subject myself to the basic Strawberry Cheesecake blend again, I love chocolate enough that I am willing to give them a chance with this variant. Plus, more often than not, Bones has delivered coffees that delighted me.

Sophia Loren feels dubious about this coffee-tasting adventure.

When I opened the bag of Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition, I immediately became nervous, because the smell of strawberries that wafted up from it was every bit as powerful as it had been with the original Strawberry Cheesecake blend. When it brewed, though, the aroma wasn't quite as pervasive and overwhelming as what had permeated through my entire home when I made a pot of the original blend. What hadn't changed was that the smell was something akin to candied strawberries. This was looking more and more like a bad idea.

It turned out not to be. The Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition does not rank among my favorite blends, but it wasn't as horrifyingly terrible as the original. 

First, while it's a fruity, sweet taste is what defines this blend, it did not overwhelm the taste of coffee. When I drank it black, this was a mixed blessing, because the coffee taste was a bit more on the bitter side than I'm used to from a Bones Coffee medium roast. It wasn't terrible, but, for someone who likes their coffee mild, it was a bit much for me. On the plus side, while the sweetness wasn't quite a strawberry flavor, but it was closer than the original.

There was still a bit of a tendency for the flavor to grow stronger as you drain the cup or mug, but not to the degree that the original blend did. Although I couldn't detect much in the way of cheesecake flavor when I drank the blend hot (as it had been with the original variety), an undercurrent of chocolate was very much detectable in this reformulated variety, and a flavor of strawberries grew stronger in my mouth the more I drank. Perhaps the chocolate is what kept the horrible, cloying sweetness that made the original blend so vile in check?

When mixed with the Unsweetened Almond Milk, the bitter coffee edge of this blend seemed to become more strongly accented while the Strawberry sweetness and the chocolate faded. Maybe what I perceived as a coffee flavor was something else? Regardless, this blend didn't fare well with the almond milk, whether it was hot or room temperature.

When I tried it with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, the effect was pretty much reversed. The bitterness faded and the sweet strawberry flavor returned strongly, mixing with the chocolate and the creamer. It was almost like I was drinking a chocolate covered strawberry. I still did not pick up on any cheesecake, but it was very enjoyable. As this mix cooled to room temperature, I think I some cheesecake flavor finally crept in. Hot or lukewarm, this was good.

Unfortunately, the Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition blend has something of the same problem that the original version did: A strong salty flavor emerges when it is chilled and iced. It doesn't become undrinkable the way the original one did, but it tastes more like coffee with salt and sugar added than any flavors described on the bag. Adding Unsweetened Almond Milk does not alleviate the problem, but the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer brings out the chocolate a bit, and the resulting flavor is a bit like a salted caramel coffee with a fruity accent. It's an interesting flavor, but not what it should be, based on the bag. On a positive note, the chocolatey flavor does get stronger as you drain your cup while the saltiness remains constant.

But what I liked best of all about Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition? This blend didn't contaminate my coffee maker the way the original Strawberry Cheesecake blend did. Despite the aroma from the ground coffee being just as strong as the original blend, it did not leave a residue that had to be cleaned off by brewing some non-flavored coffee though it (as I discussed in the article linked at the top).

Anne Hathaway can't lap up Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition fast enough!

Given how awful the original Strawberry Cheesecake blend was, the Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Edition is surprisingly good. Bones Coffee has stated that it's only available for a limited time, which is  shame. This should be the standard blend, and the original should be relegated to the graveyard of failed coffee flavors. It's not perfect, but it is a vast improvement.

Happy birthday, Liv Tyler!

Today--July 1, 2022--Liv Tyler turns 45 years old.

Liv Tyler began her show business career at the age of 14, starting out as a model but turning to acting by the mid-1990s. She was catapulted to international and permanent fame in fantasy circles as Arwyn in the "Lord of the Rings" films in the early 2000s. Although she has had many prominent roles both in films and television series in the two decades since that is still the role for which is best known. Most recently, she has been starring on the police drama "911: Lone Star".

Here are some photos of her in celebration of the Big Day... and her first steps into Middle Age!