As this was my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian, I tried a Tofurky. By now I’ve had many of the vegetarian “meat substitutes” on the market, my favorite being the Quorn line of products (their hotdogs are actually great, I think I would prefer them to standard hot dogs) and the Amy’s Kitchen line (their All American burgers are great!).

Ok, so going into this I wasn’t optimistic. I mean come on, a Tofurky? How the hell could that be good? A Tofu based Turkey breast that is stuffed? That doesn’t really sound that good to me either. Well I was VERY pleasantly surprised. It was actually great. The texture was ok, the taste was really good (although I used their “baste” recipe which is orange juice and soy sauce – next time I’ll just use vegetable broth). I even went all out and got the Tofurky Gravy, which was also really good (if you get this don’t be turned off by the VERY strange texture while you’re warming it up, just cook it a bit more).

So my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian was a total success. We also had my other favorites. Mashed Potatoes – my wife Melanie makes the best. Creamed Style corn, stuffing (vegetarian), lima beans, rolls. Yeah, it was pretty much a pig out fest. If you’re a vegetarian and haven’t ever tried a Tofurky give it a try!

We just watched Before Sunset. It was terrible. It was basically Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy spewing on and on the rambling thoughts of Richard Linklater. The entire movie is basically one big, long, boring conversation between two old lovers that goes no where. It’s just a die-a-tribe about life, religion, relationships, etc, etc, etc. It’s total crap. Ok, I’m no writer, but I just can’t stand listening to someone spew out self-righteous bull shit. Oh, if you see me ask me what I really think. AVOID. That is unless you just really love Linklater (who amazingly directed School of Rock – which I didn’t really care for either). Now to be clear Linklater directed and wrote one of my all time favorites, Dazed and Confused. That is a great movie that talks about tons of issues but has amazing characters and a great story line. Linklater just missed it here.

Last night we watched The Company. Basically it’s a story about a dancer (played by Neve Campbell – who is actually a trained and amazing dancer) who dances with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Other than that I have no idea what the plot was about, because it really wasn’t about anything. There was scene after scene about nothing. Nothing. Nothing. More nothing. Oh, then there was some, oh, wait, nothing.

So what was in the movie? Dancing. Amazing Dancing. Even if you don’t like ballet you’d have to like this ballet. It’s really amazing, and Campbell does a great job holding her own with the other dancers. I should have known this when I saw that the 3rd credit was given the the Joffrey Ballet.

It was really hard to rate this movie, because it’s not much of a movie, it’s ballet with a little, tiny bit of story in it. If I rated the movie it would get a 1, but since the dancing is SO cool I gave it a 7. Should you see it? You figure it out, but if you don’t expect a story or plot you’ll be happy.

Somehow I’d never seen Schindler’s List and I finally got around to it yesterday. WOW. I mean WOW. Recently I said that I though that Close Encounters of the Third Kind was Steven Spielberg’s best film, I may have been wrong. While I think Encounters is the better movie (in my opinion – remember I’m a dork), Schindler’s List is an amazing piece of film making.

Ok, I’m sure you’ve seen it, and as it’s such a deep movie I won’t try to dissect it again (I’m sure I’d do a terrible job). The thing that struck me the most was the end, where you see all the “Schindler Jews” at his grave (with the cast member that played them). This really brings the film home and puts a real face on it. While you’re watching it you know it’s a true story, but this is Hollywood, is anything ever really true? Well, yeah, this is. It won a laundry list of awards, including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music – Original Score, Best Picture, and Best Writing. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were both nominated (best Actor and supporting). If you’re like me and have been under a rock and haven’t seen this movie, SEE IT. It’s AMAZING!

Recently we also watched The Terrorist. It’s a chilling tale of a young woman who is chosen to be a suicide boomer. Given the state of the world it really is amazing to see, from her point of view, what goes through the head of these people.

In the film you learn about Malli (played wonderfully by Ayesha Dharker) and her life as a freedom fighter. The film doesn’t get into the specifics of the politics or why she is fighting, only that she believes she is fighting on the good side. You live through her experiences and see the horrors she’s seen. You see lots of rain. Lots of it. Director Santosh Sivan (who also wrote and produced it) loves the rain, and uses it and water many times in the film. The way he uses it to express the different emotions is really astounding.

If you can deal with sub-titles and are in the mood for a wonderful movie I’d highly recommend this one. If you can’t deal with sub-titles I’d still recommend it, you forget about the very quickly.

This weekend we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was great. It was far better than the first two (Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets). It was a much darker film that the first two, and it’s nice that the characters are coming into their own.

This one was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, a departure from Chris Columbus who directed the first two. While Columbus did a great job with the first two, the third is a much more engaging film. The characters really start to come alive in Azkaban, with wonderful performances from Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint as Ron, and Emma Watson as Hermione (why can’t George Lucas cast child actors like these). The plot is pretty straight forward, Harry is in trouble again and the guys have to do their best to help him out of it. The only real complaint I had with Cuaron’s interpretation was the character of Malfoy (played by Tom Felton). In this version Malfoy isn’t really the bully from before, it’s more of the mean kid that is really just a big baby (which didn’t feel right to me). Other than that the story is solid, the characters great (oh, I forgot to mention Gary Oldman as Serious Black – he is great in this role!), and the special effects are great (where I thought the other 2 films really lacked – the effects were very cheesy). Highly recommended, especially if you’ve seen the first two.