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Movie Review: Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)

December 18, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

Talk about an unexpected early Christmas present.  I have always liked the Mission: Impossible series but never considered myself a huge fan, but I must admit I enjoyed the fourth film (does that mean it’s a ‘saga’ now?), Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (let’s called it MI4), immensely.  In fact, I think it is the best film of the entire series, and by a not inconsiderable margin.  How rare is it that the fourth film of a franchise is the best of the lot?

MI4 is crazy.  No, not jumping on Oprah’s couch crazy, but crazy good.  Given that no one wants to produce Tom Cruise films any more, Mr Scientology decided to produce it himself (he has the money, so why not?), along with JJ Abrams (director of the third film) and Bryan Burk.  The director?  Brad Bird, a strange choice considering he directed only animations, such as The Incredibles, Ratatouille and the Do the Bart Man music video, but it turned out to be the right choice because he made the impossible somewhat believable  (at least while you’re in the moment anyway).  The partial use of IMAX cameras also allowed some spectacular shots in a film packed with riveting action and intrigue from start to finish.

There’s nothing particularly clever about the plot — secret missions, double crosses, an evil genius determined to destroy the world, and only Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his desperate, isolated, back-against-the-wall team can save us.  We’ve seen it all before, but as they say, it’s all in the execution.

And that’s where MI4 delivers big time.  High tension, white-knuckle action, explosive chase sequences, insane stunts, cool machines and gadgets, scaling buildings and the film’s trademark: flat-dropping down deep vents.  Yes, even within the context of the MI franchise we’ve seen a lot of these things already, but there’s always a twist that makes it fresh, and frankly, it’s simply done better than before.  You may have already seen a few of the more iconic scenes in the trailers, but if you haven’t, even better.

The cast that plays the newly assembled team is awesome.  Tom Cruise is older, wrinklier and eye-baggier, but still fit and charming enough to pull off the role of super agent Ethan Hunt.  Alan Thicke’s (the dad from Growing Pains, remember him?) daughter-in-law, Paula Patton (she married his son, musician Robin Thicke) is a sexy yet kick-ass agent, and Simon Pegg returns as the bumbling computer hacker to provide the laughs.  I was very impressed with the latest recruit, a mysterious analyst played by Jeremy Renner.  I knew he could do reckless loner (The Hurt Locker) and intense badass (The Town), but I didn’t expect him to play the role of super agent this well. No wonder Renner was selected to take over the Bourne franchise after Matt Damon’s departure.

Michael Nyqvist (the original Mikael Blomkvist from The Millennium Trilogy) is somewhat underused as the crazy baddie (though noticeably better than his performance in Abduction, also as a crazy baddie), but on the whole the cast is super.

As far as action blockbusters go, MI4 is one of the best of the year.

4.5 stars out of 5

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Toasteria Cafe (Taipei)

December 17, 2011 in Best Of, Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

I love a good toasted sandwich or panini, and Toasteria Cafe reportedly has the best there is to offer in Taipei.

Owned by an Israeli dude who lived in New York then married a Malaysian woman then moved to Taiwan, Toasteria is a mix of all those cultures — Middle-Eastern (Mediterranean), American, Malaysian and Taiwanese.  It’s quite an unusual blend of flavours but undoubtedly a spectacular one.  They offer a range of more than 40 sandwiches and paninis and many other delights, including grilled cheese toasted sandwiches, teppanyaki grills, fish and chips (!) and salads, as well as an all-day breakfast selection.

Here’s a grab of their more unique samples from their Facebook page: Grilled Salmon Filet in Miso Sake Sauce, Mediterranean Style Grilled Salmon Fillet, Grilled Sirloin Steak Teriyaki, new decadent Red Wine Butter sauce with grilled Sirloin Steak, Philly Steak Toast, Sichuan Style Sesame Chicken Toast, two kinds of Lamb Burger Toasts, Mediterranean Eggplant Toast, and Apple Brie Cheese Toast.

Don’t expect the meals to be particularly healthy at Toasteria, but expect them to be good.  Their proud motto is: No Diet coke, no skim milk, no low fat cheese, no credit cards..ONLY THE GOOD STUFF!

And it is indeed good stuff.  Great stuff.  Some of the  best toasted sandwiches and paninis I’ve ever had.  It was extraordinarily difficult to choose (as is usually the case with a new restaurant), but in the end we went with the Cubano on toasted ciabatta bread (slow roasted pork, ham, caramelized onion, house pickles and good mustard, with grilled Swiss cheese) for NT$210 and the Kalifornia Chicken on toast (chicken, lettuce, onion, tomato and honey mustard).

The Cubano

They also have a lot of drinks and sides, and we naturally went with the fries (how can you not?) at NT$60 a pop.

Both orders were phenomenal.  I loved the ciabatta that came with the Cubano, and the roasted pork was so juicy and tender, and when you mix it with the caramelized onions, pickles and mustard, it’s like a salty explosion in your mouth, balanced by the silky textures of the melted Swiss cheese.

The Kalifornia Chicken

The Kalifornia Chicken was also very good, more traditional but you just can’t go wrong with honey mustard sauce.  It was more sweet and sour, a nice complement to the saltiness of the Cubano.  And the fries was unexpectedly awesome, extremely crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside.  Simply amazing.

Sadly, I forgot my camera and the photos were taken with a phone.  They look enticing enough.  I feel like going back already.

9 out of 10!

Details

Toasteria Cafe

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58670231236

Opening Hours:  Daily, 11am-11pm (midnight on weekends)

Price: approx NT$200-$350 a head

Contact:

Shida Store — No. 1, Lane 72, Yun-He Street, Taipei; Nearest MRT: Taipower Building; (02) 2365 3051

Zhongxiao Store — No. 2, Lane 248, Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, Taipei; Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Dunhua (02) 2731 8004

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San Kwai Tang Cafe (Taipei)

December 15, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

One afternoon we went to this tiny little cafe near the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall MRT station called ‘San Kwai Tang’ (三槐堂).  It’s tucked away in an alley on Roosevelt Road, so inconspicuous that you’d never notice it unless you knew it was one of the most popular places for coffee and cheese cake in all of Taipei.

San Kwai Tang is in this little alley

The cafe itself is neatly decorated with only a few tables for guests.  There is a cool bar with jars and jars of cookies, walls adorned with clippings and chic decorations and artworks.

San Kwai Tang boasts a very comfortable interior

I love their bar

For afternoon tea we ordered their famous cheesecake (NT$70), an assortment of cookies (NT$50) and a tea or two (their coffees are very popular but we’ll have to try them another time).

The cheesecakes are freshly made on premises and very eater-friendly — creamy but not too creamy, a little sweet, a little sour, and the base is a perfect biscuit.  The blueberry jam on top is a wonderful complement.

The four cookies we got (in a set) were also excellent — crispy and flavoursome without being too sweet.  No wonder people often come in to order them by the dozens.

In all, a very satisfying and enjoyable afternoon tea.  I’d definitely recommend it to those in search of a good cheese cake or gourmet coffee.  Check it out if you are in the area or need to rest your legs after a long walk around Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.

Details:

San Kwai Tang (三槐堂)

Phone:   (02) 2321 3429

Address: No. 2, Lane 72, Section 1, Roosevelt Road, Taipei

Nearest MRT Station: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (Exit 2 — just walk straight along Roosevelt Road and it’s one of the small lanes on the right about 5 minutes away)

Opening Hours: 12pm-10pm

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Mo-Mo Paradise (Taipei)

December 11, 2011 in Best Of, Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

Inside the Mo-Mo Paradise at Bistro 98

Hot pots have started to grow on me recently, and after my latest experience at Mo-Mo Paradise, a popular Japanese shabu shabu chain, I must say I’m falling in love.

There are a couple of things that make Mo-Mo Paradise special.

First of all, they offer what is referred to in Japanese as “tabeihodai” (食べ放題), which means “all you can eat.”  Here, you can order as much meat and vegetables as you want within the 90 minute time limit they set you.  There’s a large variety of meats (beef and pork) and an even larger variety of vegetables and mushrooms, which mitigates the fact that they offer no chicken or seafood.

Secondly, Mo-Mo Paradise offers four types of hot pots.  There is the original shabu shabu soup (clear), which comes with two different condiments — a sweet sesame sauce and a sour vinegary sauce.  There is the sukiyaki type, which is a thicker, sweet soy soup that works almost like a marinade.  There’s also the tonkotsu (pork bone) type, a flavoursome soup which some fans of ramen might be familiar with (and comes with an chilli olive oil dipping sauce).  And finally there is the spicy miso type, for those who like a bit of spice (and comes with a special sauce).

A placemat detailing the types of soups on offer and how to enjoy them

[For winter there is also apparently a curry soup!]

The best part is that you can choose up to three of the four soup bases to cook your unlimited meats and vegetables (of course, the more soup bases you choose, the more expensive it will be, but I’ll get to prices later).  The catch is that every person in the same party has to pay the same amount (which is fair, considering people share).  They have split pots, which allows you to put two types of soups in one pot, making choosing multiple soups very easy.

You can split the pot in two!

Most people are happy with one, but on this occasion we chose two, the original shabu shabu and the sukiyaki.

I’ll get straight to it.  Both were sublime.  The meats were sliced incredibly thin so you didn’t feel like you were eating too much with each bite.  The vegetables were fresh and there were so many — my favourites were the cabbage, the abalone mushrooms and the broccoli, and I also enjoyed adding rice cakes.

The shabu shabu soup is lighter so the cooked meat and vegetables don’t have a lot of taste, but that’s why they have the two dipping sauces which you can mix yourself with additional spring onions, garlic, radish and chilli oil.  The sukiyaki soup acts like a sweet soy marinade which makes the meat and vegetables nice and flavoursome, and if the taste gets too strong you can always add more water to dilute it.

Everyone starts with this plate, but you can top it up with whatever you want as often as you want

With a split pot, we were able to eat from one side while allowing the other side to cook, and then switch back and forth, enjoying one soup type at a time.

The waiters would keep coming around to ask if you wanted more meat, which they would promptly top up, and they also pushed these trolleys around with stacks of vegetables which they can stack onto a plate on demand.  Other luxuries included white or brown Japanese rice and tea and coffee, all of which are unlimited refill.  It was indeed paradise.

The vegetable carts!

Mmm...brown rice...

I can’t wait to try the other two soup bases next time!

9 out of 10!

Details:

Mo-Mo Paradise

Website: http://www.humaxasia.com.tw/momo/index.html

Price/Hours:

Lunch Monday to Friday — 90 minutes all you can eat — enter between 11:30am and 4pm — per person: NT$329 (one soup type), NT$379 (two soup types), NT$429 (three soup times)

Dinner and Weekends/Holidays — 90 minutes all you can eat — per person: NT$399 (one soup type), NT$449 (two soup types), NT$499 (three soup types)

(Special late night rates apply at certain stores)

Locations (Taipei only):

Fuxing Store: No. 42, Section 1, Fùxīng South Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei (across from Breeze Center)
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing
(02)2772-1577

Bistro 98 Store: Level 5, No. 98, Section 4, Zhōngxiào East Rd, Daan District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing
(02)2752-6609

KMall Store: Level 5, No. 50, Section 1, Zhōngxiào West Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei Main Station
(02)2382-2668

National Taiwan University Store: Level 3, No. 68, Section 4, Roosevelt Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Gongguan
(02)2363-8998

Neo 19 Store: Level 2, No. 22, Sōngshòu Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei City Hall
(02)8786-1128

Zhongshan Store: No. 6, Nánjīng West Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Zhongshan
(02)2562-2328

Q Square Store: Level 4, No. 1, Section 1, Chéngdé Rd, Datong District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei Main Station
(02)2550-0889

Global Mall Store: Level 4, No. 122, Section 3, Zhōngshān Rd, Zhonghe District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Fuzhong
(02) 8228-7191

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Movie Review: Seeking Justice (2011)

December 9, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

Nicholas Cage is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.  Whenever he makes a movie, it (and he) could be fantastic, or it (and he) could be complete garbage.

Considering his recent history and his well-publicised financial troubles, I would have bet that his latest film, Seeking Justice, falls in the latter category.  The film had little promotion and had generated less buzz, but on the other hand it did have an A-list cast featuring Cage, January Jones and Australia’s most underappreciated Hollywood star (now that Joel Edgerton seems to have finally broken through), Guy Pearce.  It also has a couple of TV stars, Harold Perrineau (from Lost) and Jennifer Carpenter (from Dexter), is co-produced by Tobey Maguire, and is directed Roger Donaldson (not exactly a slouch with films such as The Bank Job, Thirteen Days, Dante’s Peak, Species, The Getaway, Cadillac Mac, Cocktail, No Way Out and Bounty under his belt).  I was intrigued.

As it turned out, Seeking Justice is somewhere in the middle — neither great nor trash.  It tells the story of Will Gerard (Cage), who, after a violent crime, becomes unwittingly involved with a sinister underground organisation that is into dishing out vigilante justice — with a hefty personal price.  Jones plays his wife and Pearce is one of the leaders of the association.

It’s the type of film that probably would have gone straight to DVD had the big names not been attached to it (perhaps some might still think it probably should have gone straight to DVD).  It is aptly handled, with decent performances (with the exception of Jones, whom for some reason keeps getting these ‘young wife to middle aged dudes’ roles — she can’t act) and some genuine tension stemming from a cleverly crafted illusion that there is more of a mystery than there actually is.  It also avoids (and I think this was the right decision) any real intellectual debate on the merits of vigilante justice, which helps prevent viewers from being misled into thinking that Seeking Justice is anything more than light entertainment.

And ultimately, that’s exactly what Seeking Justice is — a passable action-thriller that is occasionally entertaining but nothing special and, when it’s all said and done, extremely forgettable.  Sad that’s considered pretty good for Nicholas Cage these days.

3 out of 5

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