Cadfael: Medieval Roasted Partridge Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁
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Think Father Brown time warped back about 8 centuries. Cadfael’s not a priest but a 12th century monk who solves medieval mysteries.
Read MoreOften 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, too.
Made in Italy: Risotto and Ragu Recipes 🥁 🥁 🥁 1/2
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It starts out crass and cliched, but it ends subtle and sweet. Nothing like financial ruin to mend fences between an estranged father and son – not to mention a crumbling estate in sunny Italy that just might save them both.
Read MoreRules of Engagement : Sitting Buddha Cocktail Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁
/This film hits so many of the right notes about the Middle East, Marine courage, bureaucratic bungling, and diplomatic spinelessness that it is hard to believe it was produced prior to 9-11, the 2001 version as well as the 2012 one.
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Gran Torino: Hmong Stir-Fry Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁
/Dirty Harry in retirement. Or coming out of it to finish off a few gangbanger thugs. At least, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. But this 2008 Clint Eastwood venture has a lot more depth and philosophical heft than you might expect.
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Quigley Down Under: Aussie Meat Pie Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁
/Tom Selleck, all 6’4” of his manly magnificence, is at his prime in this often-overlooked iconic Western. Remember when masculinity was not considered “toxic?” A man was as good as his word, he defended the helpless with firearms and his fists, and he didn’t back down from a fight.
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Hold the Dark: Kodiak Casserole, Smoked Salmon Quiche Recipes and More 🥁🥁
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If you loved Wind River, you might like this other frigid thriller from Netflix. Or maybe not.
Read MoreJack Ryan Season 1: Lentil Soup with Kibbeh Recipe
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Ok, Hunt for Red October it is not. And you might want to forego episode 3 altogether if you have children under 16 in the house, (or maybe even if you do not, since that episode is so poorly done.) But as a made for streaming Amazon Prime feature, John Krasinki’s Jack Ryan is pretty decent.
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Aquaman: Moxie Cocktail Recipes
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Aquaman is like a trip back to the 80s, when we cut up mythology into a crazy quilt of colorful distortions and created new epics out of old cloth.
Read MoreDog Days: Barista Coffee Recipe
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What it lack is pizazz and polish, it makes up for in sweetness and sincerity. And that’s pretty good compared to the usual late summer comedies usually peppered with ridiculous plots and overreaching vulgarity.
Read MoreRules of Engagement : Sleeping Buddha Cocktail
/This film hits so many of the right notes about the Middle East, Marine courage, bureaucratic bungling, and diplomatic spinelessness that it is hard to believe it was produced prior to 9-11, the 2001 version as well as the 2012 one.
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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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Philomena: Authentic Irish Coffee Recipe
/For 50 years Philomena has kept the secret. Now she wonders what has happened to the son she was forced to give up for adoption. It’s a heart-wrenching true story, one that could easily turn sentimental, maudlin, or preachy. But Judi Dench does not allow that to happen.
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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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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: No Manners Needed Chocolate Cake
/No wonder everyone is fired up over this latest “page to production” release. What burned off the pages in the second of The Hunger Games trilogy ignites on screen with futuristic/gladiator age battle scenes and slow burning rage against the totalitarian machine.
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Moonrise Kingdom:Campfire Fish
/Do your kids savoring those last golden moments of the summer before school starts? Here is a film that captures that feeling. Deadpan, quirky, and almost a little too stylized for its own good, this tale of love and loneliness breaks through all those trappings because it really does penetrate the human heart.
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Mini-Mini Reviews from a Wisconsin Cabin 2013
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DVDS from the summer rental cabin that I somehow missed the first time around – the good, the bad, and the ugly. First Different Drummer has her say, then other critics – who may or may not agree.
2009 – An Education: Champagne Punch
An education… in the school of hard knocks, if you will forgive a somewhat salacious pun. Yes, for years older men have seduced teen-aged girls, but usually without the willing cooperation of their clueless parents.
“... attempts to impress audiences with its worldliness, but it comes off instead as an awkward, unformed teen fantasy run amok.” Jeremy Hellman
2008 - Flashbacks of a Fool: English Apple Traybake
Maybe the real fool is Daniel Craig, who cashes in his 2007 James Bond bona fides for this insipid vehicle produced by his best bud.
“An ambitious but disappointing, regret-filled psycho-drama.” Jeannette Catsoulis
2008 27 Dresses: Mexican Wedding Cakes
This sweet comedy makes you want to believe in love all over again. And 27 of the most bizarre wedding themes in all their over-the-top splendor provide the icing on the cake.
“27 Dresses is so flimsy it gives froth a bad name.” Peter Ravers Rolling Stone
2007 – P.S. I love You: Lamb Shanks Braised in Guinness Stout
Gifted veterans like Kathy Bates and Hillary Swank can’t bring this script back from the dead even with the assistance of Gerard Butler's ghost. The Irish clichés are as flat as day old Guinness.
“I hated every calculated second of it with a passion.” David Keyes.
2006 The Holiday: English Fairy Cakes
The ham-fisted Hollywood/British clichés fade with Jude Law’s textured sweetness, but it is 91-year-old Eli Wallach who steals the show.
“No amount of ironic gift wrapping can conceal the triteness within in this double-plotted festive chick flick that is too long by half, and too cloyingly sweet to be healthy.” Anton Bitel 
2006 The Devil Wears Prada: New York Appetizers
Merly Streep as the chic dominatrix of the fashion police relishes every stinging slap of her leather-barbed insults.
“An agreeably shallow comedy.” C.R. Jones
“The whole thing is humbug, a giant ad for the industry it affects to critique.” Ben Walters
1987 - 84 Charing Cross Road: Apple Brown Betty
As a love story it’s a near miss, but with legends like Anne Bancroft and Antony Hopkins as well as a nearly unrecognizable Judi Dench lending her hand, how can you resist?
“…such unrelieved genteelness that it makes one long to head for Schrafft'sfor a double-gin martini, straight up, and a stack of cinnamon toast from which the crusts have been removed.” Vincent Canby
Epic: Pistachio Ice Cream Sundae
/Though it never really lives up to its title, this sweet and safe fantasy will keep your little ones in their seats, but that’s about it. It touches on all the themes in the animation hall of fame, and therein lies the problem. It touches upon the themes instead of exploring them.
Read More John Carter: Watercress Fennel Salad with Tarragon Rosemary Vinaigrette
/If you missed this epic adventure from the writer who created Tarzan when it debued last spring, you owe it to yourself to see it on your home screen. It's a heady mix of Gothic Noir and the space opera fun that got us all hooked on Star Wars.
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