Movie Review: The Goonies (1985)

The Goonies (1985) directed by Richard Donner

A group of boys want to have one last day of adventure before local developers foreclose on all their homes and turn the area into a golf course. They explore Mikey's (Sean Astin) attic and discover an old map from One-Eyed Willie, a pirate from the 1600s who left a treasure (and his whole ship) buried in a cave nearby. Most people don't believe the legends, mostly because no one ever found the cave. Mikey and his friends race off to find the pirate treasure. The map leads them to an abandoned restaurant where they run into the Fratellis, a mother (Anne Ramsey) and her two bumbling sons who break out of the local jail and are conducting their "business," including disposing of some dead bodies. The boys discover a passageway underneath the basement fireplace. The tunnels are full of booby traps left by One-Eyed Willie to protect his treasure. The kids go first, but the Fratellis are not far behind.

The movie is a kid's adventure flick with a lot of the typical stuff from the 1980s. The story was from Steven Spielberg so there's plenty of adventure and Indiana Jones-style action toned down for the almost teenaged characters. The script was written by Chris Columbus and has a lot of slapstick violence and rude behavior that he would perfect in Home Alone years later. The score has a John Williams feel to it. The film has a pop video tie-in with Cyndi Lauper's The Goonies Are Good Enough. The evil country-club developers have no real character and just provide motivation for the financially-poor heroes to go on an adventure, starting with riding their bikes to the restaurant. The movie checks all the boxes for 1980s crowd-pleasing cinema.

Watching the film almost forty years after its release, I find it hasn't aged well. It definitely looks and sounds like a 1980s film. It doesn't have that timeless quality that the darker Gremlins or the lighter Home Alone has. The cast does a good job but there's nothing really outstanding here and it is definitely aimed at kids (though my children were completely uninterested after watching the trailer).

Mildly recommended.

Random Bits of Virginia

On our trip to Lake Phoenix, we did some other things. I went looking for geocaches, which was harder than I thought it would be. The town of Blackstone is about half an hour away and promised to have almost a dozen geocaches. Unfortunately, some of them were no longer active (why don't people take them off the web site?). I did visit Schwartz Tavern which dates back to 1798. It's a museum now but the museum was not open when I visited. The geocache under the porch wasn't there either!

Schwartz Tavern

Across the street from the tavern is the Harris Memorial Armory, which also was not open. It does look like a cool building.

Looks older than the tavern, huh?

After the first evening of diving, we went to a Japanese restaurant called Narita. I had a box dinner, which included California rolls, tempura, and beef teriyaki. Yummy!

A satisfying dinner

On our way home, we stopped in Richmond for lunch at Capital Ale House. I had a lovely bourbon cask-aged porter along with the frittata off the brunch menu.

 

Darkest beer ever?

Hash browns and frittata

We walked over to capital hill where the state government is located.

A small tower on the way to the capital

The main building is getting a face lift so the area had construction equipment and fences galore.

Capital building

The Virginia Women's Monument is a tribute to famous (First Lady Martha Washington) and not-so-famous (seamstress and author Elizabeth Keckly) women who have had an impact on the state and the country at large. 

The Virginia Women's Monument

Ready to join the ranks

Printer Clementia Rind and Martha Washington (seated)

Nearby is the Virginia Washington Monument, with George Washington on horseback and several Virginia founding fathers (like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson) around the base.

Washington monument

Across the street is the Old City Hall which looks very fancy.

Old City Hall

Another monument on the north side of the Capitol is dedicated to Doctor Hunter Henry McGuire. He was an American Civil War-era doctor who was physician to General Stonewall Jackson. After the war, he founded a medical school in Richmond and provided medical service to the indigent and to the freed Blacks. 

Hunter Holmes McGuire

The next monument is the Virginia Civil Rights Monument. It is a four-sided granite block with statues on every side representing the struggle for school desegregation in Virginia.

Barbara Johns led one of the protests as a teenager in 1951

The civil rights lawyers who took the case through the Virginia legal system

A great quote from Thurgood Marshall

The final side of the monument

Nearby is the Virginia Executive Mansion where the governor lives and works.

Executive Mansion

Just down the hill is an office building for various government departments along with the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

Offices

Another view of the Capitol

Fenced-off front!

A comprehensive list (slingshots?)

On the way back to the car, we spotted a small plaque commemorating the location of a building where Edgar Allen Poe once lived. The original building is gone.

Sinister angle courtesy my daughter

Hopefully we'll get to visit the local Poe Museum on another visit to Richmond!

Lake Phoenix, Virginia

Lake Phoenix, Virginia, is a former quarry that has been turned into a scuba-diving lake. It's located just off I-85 in the middle of the state.

One of the signs

Divers-only sign added later!

My eldest was completing his PADI certification with four open dives. His group had seven students and two instructors, so a very nice ratio.

Off to the lake

In the lake

The area includes campgrounds (even with RV hook-ups!) and some other entertainment options.

Playground, volleyball, and basketball

Arcade and other support buildings

Obviously, the main focus is on diving, with an entrance building that rents equipment and sells snacks and other items to the divers. 

Back of the main building

I mostly hung out reading a book at a covered picnic table while my son was diving. I did find some local geocaches outside the park.

At the top of a hill

View of the lake from the hill (it's out there somewhere)

I did see some wildlife while I was there. 

Lizard!

The lake is beautiful and has some underwater features to explore.

The quarry

View from the banks

That boat don't float!

The dive dock

The little buoys in the lake mark where the submerged features are located.

Early morning view

Later in the day

My son passed with flying colors (maybe that should be submerged colors?). 

A happy diver

Ringing the bell after being certified

Book Review: Death Note Vols. 1 and 2 by T. Ohba and T. Obata

Death Note Volume 1: Boredom story by Tsugumi Ohba and art by Takeshi Obata

Brilliant student Light Yagami runs across an odd notebook. The book has instructions in it (written in English, how annoying!) that describe what the notebook does. If the owner writes a person's name and pictures that person's face, that person will die. The owner can add in details, like time of death and cause of death. If not, the person dies of a heart attack. The book is from a Shinigami death god named Ryuk who is bored with the Shinigami kingdom and wants to see something interesting in the human world. Whoever touches the Death Note (the name of the notebook) can see and hear Ryuk, who is scary-looking. 

Light decides to use the book to eliminate evil from the world and starts knocking off convicted criminals. Ryuk thinks it's an interesting plan. The authorities figure out pretty quickly that someone is committing mass murder and start to hunt for him, bringing in the legendary and unseen L, an investigator who solves difficult cases. A game of cat and mouse ensues.

Ryuk is right, the premise is very interesting though why this kid thinks he has the authority to execute people is mysterious to me. Of course he has the ability and he seems to have a limit on who he will kill. But he does talk about taking out the cops who are after him, which is even less okay. I will definitely read more.

Recommended.

Death Note Volume 2: Confluence story by Tsugumi Ohba and art by Takeshi Obata

L has figured out the killer is in Japan and probably part of the police since the killer has access to more information than he should. L convinces the FBI to investigate in secret. Light figures out he's being followed (he predicted there would be some investigation) and is able to eliminate the FBI by making contact with the agent tailing him and using the Death Note to force that agent to eliminate the other twelve FBI agents. Unforeseen complications force Light to improvise another death. L's team of investigators rapidly dwindles as the police realize they could easily be targets of the killer. L demands some very intrusive surveillance measures, compromising his moral superiority for the sake of catching Light.

I am surprised by the lack of restraint by Light and by L in trying to achieve their goals. They are perfectly willing to do whatever it takes without considering any legal limits. Are they both villains? It's an intriguing problem that I will read on to find out about.

Recommended.

Ice Cream Summer Part VI

Part of an on-going series as we make home-made ice cream all summer long!

Pina Colada ice cream was our next attempt. To get the flavor, we used canned pineapple, coconut shreds, and butter rum extract with the standard vanilla ingredients (though we wound up not using the vanilla).

Just ignore that bottle of vanilla

We added half a cup of pineapple juice (from the can) to the milk and sugar mixture along with a teaspoon of butter rum replacing the teaspoon of vanilla. The full mixture went into the machine for the twenty to twenty-five minutes. At that point, we added 6.5 ounces of pineapple chunks (which was about 1 cup of chunks) and 1.5 ounces of the sweetened coconut shreds (which was about half a cup) that we had ground up in the food processor. 

Finished product

The result was fairly liquidy at the end of the process. It was easy to scoop out of the ice cream maker. After "ripening" in the freezer, the consistency is closer to a frozen daiquiri than ice cream, i.e. more ice than cream. We think the juice might have been too much fluid. Maybe we could boil it down a bit or maybe there is such a thing as pineapple extract. The flavor of the ice cream was not that great either. The coconut was stronger than the pineapple and we tasted a bit of metal flavor. We might try again with fresh pineapple rather than canned.

Hoping for a success, next we tried making a more primitive version of Rocky Road, using Trail Mix! 

Add-ons to chocolate recipe!

I made the usual chocolate ice cream, adding a quarter cup of malted milk in with the chocolate and sugar when we processed them into powder. 

Adding malted milk powder

After adding hot milk and processing a little more, we set aside the mixture in a bowl to cool off. We stirred in heavy cream and vanilla once the chocolate mixture was room temperature. The cream went into the refrigerator to cool down. We had some errands to run, so it spent almost two hours chilling. Then it went into the ice cream maker for the standard twenty-five minutes of processing, followed by another five minutes with the half cup of trail mix poured in. We added in what was left of our marshmallow fluff from the s'mores ice cream, which was maybe two tablespoons' worth, so not very much. Last time, we tried to layer the marshmallow in the container and that was really hard to do. The marshmallow fluff does not spread on ice cream! 

Typical overflow

The final product was great right out of the mixer. The machine did a good job spreading the trail mix through the ice cream. We didn't really catch the marshmallow, it might be in chunks in the rest of the ice cream. After ripening in the freezer for a few hours, it was still creamy and delicious. Some of the raisins were frozen solid, requiring a bit of a defrost in your mouth before they were chewable! Maybe we should try out some home-crafted trail mix for a different batch.

Movie Review: The Quick and The Dead (1995)

The Quick and The Dead (1995) directed by Sam Raimi

Ellen (Sharon Stone) is a gunslinger with a past who rides into the Old West town of Redemption. Redemption is under the heal of mayor Herod (Gene Hackman), who collects a ridiculously high tax from the locals. The town also hosts a shoot-out duel. A lot of low-lifes drift into town in hopes of winning the title of fastest draw and the $123,000 that goes to the winner. Of note are Cort (Russell Crowe), a former associate of Herod who has foresworn violence and passes himself off as a preacher (though he doesn't do any sermonizing), and the Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio), who loves showing off and runs the local gun shop. Rumor has it the Kid is also the son of Herod. Ellen joins the contest and each day, pairs of gunslingers face off each hour. As the number of contestants drop, some background is given for Ellen, revealing her motivation.

The movie is mostly focused on Ellen (Stone was a producer). Her back story is a bit predictable, providing a typical motivation for wanting to take down Herod. Hackman gives the best performance in the movie. His scenery chewing fits in with the hyperbolic visuals typical of Sam Raimi (who directed The Evil Dead and the original Spider-man trilogies). The rest of the cast is fine though Stone and DiCaprio are not very convincing as characters from the Old West. They don't have that hardness of appearance or demeanor that their characters should have; other characters are exaggeratedly ugly, making an even bigger contrast to Stone and DiCaprio. The tone is a little confusing too: The score is a pastiche of other Western scores, maybe for comic effect, and a lot of the visuals (like the zooming-in to someone's eyes during the shoot-outs) could be either a homage or a parody spaghetti westerns. The actors play it like a drama but some moments are too absurd to be taken seriously. The movie leaves the viewer guessing about the filmmakers' intent even after the end credits roll, making this an unsatisfying western.

Not recommended.