Recently we ate at Emma’s in Downtown Denver. It was awesome. To quote Citysearch (since I’m not really a writer) “sophisticated preparations infused with the care of an expert chef”. As a good friend of mine pointed out recently a great way to tell how good a restaurant is is to see how they handle a strange request or problem. Being a vegetarian it can be hard to eat out, especially at a restaurant with a limited menu (like most great restaurants).

I did call ahead to make sure they would be vegetarian friendly and they told me they would do whatever I wanted to make me happy. When we looked at the menu I realized they had 1 vegetarian choice, a ravioli with a Cabernet wine sauce. Since I don’t really like Cabernet that didn’t sound very good to me. Well, it wasn’t. I got it for the appetizer just to see and I didn’t like it at all. Now, fortunately when I told our waitress that didn’t sound good she was very accommodating. I basically told her I’d eat pretty much anything else, and, if willing, to have the chef make me anything else that was vegetarian. So I would up with a wonderful vegetable place, all grilled or roasted. Peppers, onions, egg plant, rice, potatoes, etc, etc, etc, all in a really nice, great sauce. I was thrilled. And the simple fact that he was willing to do something special for me was the topper for me!

Oh, and the deserts were just great. If you like Crème Brule then you MUST get it there. Honestly it’s one of the best we’ve ever had. Oh, and if you’re not a freak like me there are plenty of choices on the menu that are just great. Highly recommended!!!

Recently we also watched one of my all time favorite movies, Shakespeare in Love. I really think this is probably the all time greatest romance comedy. While its not really a comedy (it’s probably a drama), it’s really quite hysterical.

Director John Madden (who from what I have seen pretty much got it right this time only) does a spectacular job bringing the story of how Shakespeare brough Romeo and Juliet to life (well not for real, but it’s a great idea). Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow are simply amazing in what I think are easily their greatest roles to date (Paltrow won Best Actress for her role). I’m sure you’ve seen it so I won’t bore you with all the details, and if you haven’t SEE IT. Even if you’re a typical guy and hate romance comedies, you’ll love this film. If you don’t your a heartless, soul-less, wretch and shouldn’t ever bother reading my blog again…

Recently we watched Breakin’ All The Rules starring Jamie Foxx. It’s a pretty light comedy about a guy who writes a book about how to break up with someone the right way. It’s by writer/director Daniel Taplitz who really hasn’t ever done anything else big.

It does have a pretty good cast, featuring Gabrielle Union (from Bring it On, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Love & Basketball – a really GREAT movie). Its a really light, cute, funny romance comedy, so if you’re in the mood for that you’ll probably like this one. Not great, not terrible. Hard to strongly recommend it, but it’s not bad…

Yesterday we also watched X2: XMen United (ok, so we watch a lot of movies, that’s why you’re reading this stuff remember?). This is one of my all-time favorite action movies. While I actually like the original X-Men a bit better (it was just much funnier – something that really set it apart – every one liner in it was actually great!) this one is still very good (and a great sequel). This one is much more of a straight ahead action film compared to the first, and while it’s funny, that’s not really the focus of it.

Once again the X-Men (lead by an all-star cast of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, and Famke Janssen) must battle to save humanity from a rouge section of the military (lead by Biran Cox – Daphne’s dad on Frasier). Basically his goal is to destroy all mutants to save humanity from them.

If you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend it. It’s really a jem in a sea of bad action/sci-fi movies. I guess it’s just really hard to do this genre right, and boy does Bryan Singer get right (boy do I hope he signs on to do X-Men 3 which is still in pre-production and looks like it will be written by Simon Kinberg). VERY highly recommended!

Yesterday we also watched 50 First Dates starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. We’d seen it before but since we were taking the day off we decided to watch it again.

I actually really like this movie a lot. By far it’s the best Adam Sandler movie yet, as he’s the least over-the-top compared to his other movies. Of course Sandler’s good friend Rob Schneider is in his full extreme form, but not too much so he’s very funny as the extreme foil for Sandler. Basically the story is that Barrymore’s character was in a sever car accident and doesn’t have the ability to convert short term memory into long term ones. So each morning when she wakes up she doesn’t remember anything before her accident – everything is wiped clean.

I think what makes this movie so much better than you typical stupid romance comedy is that you actually feel for Barrymore’s character. You think “Oh my God, what if I had to live like that”. It’s an outlandish story that’s done very believably. Can you imagine if you had to make your spouse fall in love with you every single day of your life? Sounds pretty damned hard to me! If you haven’t seen this and you like Sandler I’d say get it, I think you’ll really enjoy it.

Yesterday we watch the classic Sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Honestly this is one of my all time favorite films and I think is easily one of the greatest Sci-fi movies, hell not only sci-fi but any genre, of all time.

I think that easily this is the best film that Steven Spielberg has done, and he’s done a few. While the acting is as great as many modern movies, it’s really very good. The thing that sets Close Encounters apart is that it’s so much more than a sci-fi film. It’s really a story about how ordinary people (played by Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon) handle extraordinary events. The music is amazing, once again John Williams delivers on his genius with one of the greatest film scores of all time (clearly the title theme is one of the most memorable 5 notes in history).

There really isn’t much I can add to the many discussions of this picture, so I’ll just say if you haven’t seen it in a while rent it. We watched the new 2 disc collector’s edition (which most importantly is in DTS sound).