Inconceivable feat. Nicolas Cage

Here we have a thriller about a best friend who is a psycho and killer (but maybe for good reason). This came out 20 years after The Cable Guy made the stereotype into a comedy. Cage isn't the star of this film. He plays the very boring doctor husband of doctor Angela, played by Gina Gershon and her very distracting teeth. I don't know what's up with them. Maybe I'm the one with a problem.

The cast is good though. Everyone is good except for the scenes in which everyone is bad, reading their lines like good workers. It's as if the directors were aiming for mediocrity at best. But I had to keep watching because there's always a chance that the villain will in, or the villain will win and the hero will die, or the hero will die and the villain will lose. I'm not going to tell you what happens, my friend. You're going to have to watch and find out for yourself, unless you can find me one of these family sized papasans. Then I'll give you any spoiler you want.

1. Raising Arizona
2. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
3. Leaving Las Vegas
4. Red Rock West
5. Adaptation
6. Pig
7. Birdy
8. Wild at Heart
9. Renfield
10. Joe
11. National Treasure
12. Guarding Tess
13. Snake Eyes
14. Mandy
15. Dog Eat Dog
16. Color Out of Space
17. Mom and Dad
18. World Trade Center
19. Peggy Sue Got Married
20. The Rock
21. Zandalee
22. Prisoners of the Ghostland
23. City of Angels
24. Willy's Wonderland
25. Jiu Jitsu
26. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
27. Bangkok Dangerous
28. Drive Angry
29. Army of One
30. Lord of War
31. Gone in 60 Seconds
32. Matchstick Men
33. Vampire's Kiss
34. Con Air
35. Face/Off
36. Trapped in Paradise
37. The Boy in Blue
38. Honeymoon in Vegas
39. Deadfall
40. Amos and Andrew
41. Moonstruck
42. Tokarev
43. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
44. Knowing
45. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
46. Bringing Out the Dead
47. The Family Man
48. Stolen
49. Season of the Witch
50. It Could Happen to You
51. The Wicker Man

52. Inconceivable

53. 8mm
54. The Frozen Ground
55. Left Behind
56. A Score to Settle
57. Pay the Ghost
58. Primal
59. Dying of the Light
60. Grand Isle
61. Looking Glass
62. Arsenal
63. Between Worlds
64. Ghost Rider
65. Trespass
66. The Humanity Bureau
67. Next
68. The Weather Man
69. 211
70. Fire Birds
71. The Croods

The Shining by Stephen King

I have a strong feeling you've seen the film, The Shining. You probably even know it's based off a book. You might even be like me and find yourself watching the Kubrick masterpiece every single halloween season. Let me tell you something. There's more to the story than is in the movie. You might be a fan, but you probably feel like a poseur in the face of one who has Read the Book. And it's a good one, a very early work by Stephen King but exhibits his style perfectly. Sometimes it's more fun and more scary to get into the heads of our demons. 

Gino's Pizza & Spaghetti House of Cross Lanes, WV

For my current trip, I thought I had all of my pizza stops planned but I kept seeing signs for this Gino's. I feel like maybe I've heard of it or maybe I've had a frozen pizza from a brand of the same name. It's not a unique name for a pizza monger. Then I saw Gino's and Tudor's Biscuit World in the same building, which greatly amplified my curiosity. In a world of biscuits, can there be a pizza that is the most West Virginia of All pizzas?

My $9.99 Large Cheese Pizza had a Ratio of 3cr/2ce/2ch. I give the dough a 4 out of 5. Texturally it was perfect, with some goo in each bite and a little skin of crispy chewiness on the bottom. However, it was much thinner in the middle 1/3 than the rest, so there were some parts that edged on being too doughy. For that reason, I give Gino's a 4 out of 5 for Overall Quality. 

Gino's sauce gets a 4 out of 5. It's really good, with a consistency I wish Pizza Hut still provided. However, there's nothing remarkable about it. Which leads me to style. I was able to order my pie at a counter, like a fast food joint. There was a counter on the other side of the place for Tudor's biscuit world. The decoration was definitely more like a world of biscuits, which is fine. It's unique. I detected a bit of Cheddar on my pie, which enhanced its savory. Every bite was delightful. 

I see how Gino's is a local favorite and successful chain in the region, but it doesn't stand out. I give them a 4 out of 5 for style. With a final score of 80%, I will definitely go to Gino's again. You should go there too. 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

I read this one because a couple of my friends said they had started it, or were going to read it. I love when this happens because I yearn for friends to talk about books with. As it turns out, my friends didn't read this book. Maybe they have by now. I should ask. Anyway, My Year of Rest and Relaxation is about a depressed young woman who lives alone in New York City. As she was already enabled to support herself as a part time receptionist at a gallery, she lost her parents who left her a house and enough money to live on for a while. So our heroine decides to get herself prescribed to as many downers as possible, so she can sleep almost all the time, until she feels better. Eventually she finds a drug to make this happen, and an artist who's willing to take care of things for her, so she only has to be awake or cognizant for one day out of every week or so. As it turns out, she takes for granted the ones she truly cares about those who truly care for her in turn. 

Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood

You guessed it, this is the conclusion to my beloved Maddaddam trilogy in which our heroes work together to go on a quest and plan to rebuild civilization, with many of the same problems that existed before the Flood. It's a great one, showing you can still have moving scenes and true heroism in a satirical speculative fiction. 

Renfield (feat. Nicolas Cage)

First off, wow. You're in for a ride. I guess you'd call this film a meta horror comedy. With more comedy than horror, Renfield ties itself immediately to the classic universal Dracula films, starring Nicolas Cage as (Lugosi's) Dracula. Of course this story is mostly about the eponymous Renfield and how he keeps his Dracula up and running to do his thing, while struggling to find his own bit of happiness in this monstrous modern world.

The screwball comedy is strong with this one, which is a plus for me. Nothing compliments violent action better than a punch line, am I right? Even in the romcom-leaning segments the cheap gags don't stop.

While Cage isn't the Star of this film, I don't believe anyone could have played his part better. This time Dracula has a better plan, a bigger plan. World domination. It's a terrifying time indeed to be the servant of such an evil god. Good thing for Renfield, he's got a support group for codependents. It's not like anything else could go wrong to fill this wildly entertaining hour and a half.

1. Raising Arizona
2. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
3. Leaving Las Vegas
4. Red Rock West
5. Adaptation
6. Pig
7. Birdy
8. Wild at Heart

9. Renfield

10. Joe
11. National Treasure
12. Guarding Tess
13. Snake Eyes
14. Mandy
15. Dog Eat Dog
16. Color Out of Space
17. Mom and Dad
18. World Trade Center
19. Peggy Sue Got Married
20. The Rock
21. Zandalee
22. Prisoners of the Ghostland
23. City of Angels
24. Willy's Wonderland
25. Jiu Jitsu
26. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
27. Bangkok Dangerous
28. Drive Angry
29. Army of One
30. Lord of War
31. Gone in 60 Seconds
32. Matchstick Men
33. Vampire's Kiss
34. Con Air
35. Face/Off
36. Trapped in Paradise
37. The Boy in Blue
38. Honeymoon in Vegas
39. Deadfall
40. Amos and Andrew
41. Moonstruck
42. Tokarev
43. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
44. Knowing
45. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
46. Bringing Out the Dead
47. The Family Man
48. Stolen
49. Season of the Witch
50. It Could Happen to You
51. The Wicker Man
52. 8mm
53. The Frozen Ground
54. Left Behind
55. A Score to Settle
56. Pay the Ghost
57. Primal
58. Dying of the Light
59. Grand Isle
60. Looking Glass
61. Arsenal
62. Between Worlds
63. Ghost Rider
64. Trespass
65. The Humanity Bureau
66. Next
67. The Weather Man
68. 211
69. Fire Birds
70. The Croods

The Last Closet by Moira Greyland

This is a sort of memoir by the daughter of famous author Marion Zimmer Bradley, and it's a tough read. Like most fantasy fans, I Loved the Mists of Avalon when I read it, recommending it to everyone with an interest in getting inxto reading more (which is most people). But imagine if your famous, successful parents sexually abused you as a child and believed strongly in the _virtues_ of pedophilia? What if you had to find your own way in such a heavy shadow? That's what this story is about. 

Pizza Plus of Glade Spring, VA

In my feeble-hearted search for regional pizza chains I can't believe I hadn't heard of Pizza Plus until this outing, and boy was I missing out. My cheese pizza had a Ratio of 3cr/2ce/2ch. Their dough gets a 5 out of 5 from me. Its texture was perfect with a buttery bottom. While a few sections of the bottom looked like they were undercooked, every bite tasted perfect. 

For overall quality, Pizza Plus gets a 4 out of 5. I think the sauce could have been spread a more evenly, and a bit more of it would have been appreciated. While the crust was delicious, we didn't need so much of it in that outer circle. I know I'm being hard on my dear new friends, but even 1 out of 5 is Still a pizza and I'd eat it gladly if the other components can stand on their own. 

Speaking of standing on their own, I give Pizza Plus's sauce a 3 out of 5. It's good, yes. But it's completely average. It could have come from a pizza sauce can with no alterations made to qualify a 'recipe'. For style, I give Pizza Plus a 4 out of 5. Their salad bar was beautiful and I loved the worn down leather booths, with a mini booth for me. There was kind of an old movie theme with the decor. I sat under a poster with the 100 best movie quotes. Six of them were from Casablanca and one of them was "My Precious" from The Two Towers... what a great quote. They had fun gumball machines, priced at a legendary 25 cents, and a claw machine. But there were no arcade games, which aren't mandatory. I guess the character of the place is there and it's great, but the pizza isn't much different from what you'd get anywhere else, and the vibe doesn't lean to my sensibilities. 

With a Final score of 80%, I'd love to visit Pizza Plus again ASAP and invite everyone I know to join me.