Dinner at The Thomas Lord

Review

Been eyeing up this place for a couple of months now and finally got around to going to eat there, its a quiet little pub set nearly the middle of nowhere (its by Petersfield).

Went here with my mother and better half, tried to book for 730 as thats generally a good time to eat i find. Sat at a nice table with a good view of the pub bar and interesting restaurant decor all round.

So down to the food as it was a 2 AA awarded restaurant the menu was as expected a 5 by 5 by 5 menu so then you get a better quality of food instead of quantity.

I decided to opted for a crab starter portland crab with brown crab custard, treacle bread and kohlrabi remoulade, which was nice just not enough of the brown crab custard but the treacle bread was great nice moist and not too sweet for the dish. mother had a fried smoked duck egg which looked just fried and not smoked at all the oxtail and black pudding hash looked nice and was said to be too. Gael had the risotto. but no one can remember anything about it.

 As for the main courses me and my mother had the guinea fowl dish, which consisted of breast, bread mousse, swede and bacon puree, crispy dumplings, marmite carrot, wild garlic and peanut brittle. the marmite carrot was nice something i've not had before but will be trying for sure the breast was cooked lovely and nice and moist. I wasn't a fan of the dumplings that more to my taste as i'm not a fan of them.

My only gripe with this dish was the bread mousse i spent about 2 minutes trying to find it, it turns out that it was inside the guinea fowl leg which was breaded and infact more leg meat then the mousse. I was taught that every element of the dish has to stand on its on and that one didn't, if it was worded on the menu as a crispy leg then there would be no issue but i only had probably 1 mouthful of mousse and the rest leg which was lovely.
Gael had a lamb burger with goats cheese broccoli pesto and served with coleslaw and truffle and parmesan chips. Before i ordered our mains i did ask if the goats cheese was a creamy type or firm and the waitress didn't know but said they were all local cheeses, so when gaels burger comes out and i see a bit of french Chevre log on it i was quite surprised cause that's not local made. Broccoli pesto was nice as was the burger bun nice and soft, chips were just normal handcut could see a few gratings of truffle but no sign of the parmesan.

Right on to the puddings and the let down of the meal, which is disappointing as 2 out f 3 of us have a sweet tooth.
I ordered a treacle sponge ale ice cream oat and raisin cookie and butterscotch sauce, this was the nicest dessert but with a real simple style of presentation, my mother ordered the coconut and pistachio macaroon with terrine of fruit and candied zest. This was presented nicely and tasted good, mum didn't like it my main problem with this was the fruit was suppose to be a terrine and that normally pressed down in to a mould, however the fruit looked like it was just poached.

So onto the final pudding of warm chocolate mousse, chocolate tuille, aerated chocolate, brownie and salted caramel and buttermilk  ice cream. this dish looked nice lots of chocolate for a fan of chocolate, how ever the one element that let it down was the warm chocolate mousse it tasted sour and not in the way of its a high chocolate content but more the type that the cream was of but the waitress said that wasn't the case and was the chocolate.
The puddings really did put a downer on the meal.

I would give this place a 3 out of 5 due to the puddings and my issue with the main course, i will not be hurrying back any time soon but the pub was lovely and loved the fact they grow some of their own veg and fruit and herbs in the garden.

Godzilla 2014 review

Monster film!

Plot

The film focuses on a family and the events leading from a 1999 reactor accident or so we are lead to believe. 14 years into the future and we get to find out what actually caused the reactor accident, we experience the birth of Muto and what follows is its destruction on it hunt for hunger and to mate. However nature has a balance and its answer to this is Godzilla, it seems that godzilla is already known by a human organization called Monarch who has been researching and looking for him. The family is split up and we follow mainly the father who is a explosion expert in the army and he seems to be a magnet for these beasts always at the heart of action. Fast forward couple of hours and the army wants to kill them in order to save the lives of a few million lives.

There is more to it but i don't wanna spoil to much as its such a great film.

My thoughts  

So where to start, since the trailer was aired i have been looking forward to this film and what took me by surprise was the fact that this was a versus film monster vs monster and a nice back to the original style of Godzilla films where he is a savior and protector of nature. Unlike the very unpopular 1998 style of film where in fact its him/her as a destroyer of mankind.

I've seen a few people mention the fact that you don't see that much of Godzilla in the movie but the way its shot with Godzilla fighting in the background whilst we focus on Brody was good. my only concern would be the fact that the fights were short or always cut away after a min or so. If you want a monster fight watch Pacific Rim!

The design of godzilla was amazing his detail was the shit. So big and chunky looking just like the old version of him and not the lizard looking on of 98 which was practically a Jurassic park rip off.

There is some amazing camera shoot in this film, one where paratroopers are descending on San Francisco and another where its just Brody and Godzilla on the screen making eye contact.

I must admit i'm a sucker dystopian settings well in the first 15 minutes you get a fantastic shoot of a building covered in growth, reminded me of the video game Enslaved.  

The film was great not bored at all and my other half was cheering for Godzilla in the fights and even was cheering in her seat. I'm very excited to see the next film which was recently rumoured as it took so much money other the weekend 30 million.

Considering this is the 2nd film that the director has directed then its awesome i just hope he doesn't get type cast because his first director role was also a monster film.

score

Out of 5 star last night i would have gave it 5 but now id probably give it 4.5 stars just because the fights were short and not enough on screen fighting.

Must see in cinema though!

trailer

Escape Plan

Escape Plan

Due out today on what ever format you chose to own and use.

This film is about an escape artist who is hired to professionally break out of prisons and show where the flaws are but no guards or wardens know he is in there. But his recent job is not as its suppose to be, he is set up and enters a prison that he pratically designed as inescapeable.


Without going any into spoiler territory, its a clever little film and not your average Stallone film.
This is a film i had been looking forward to see as it has both Stallone and Arnie in and boy did it pay off the chemistry was great the humour from arnie is probably some of his best in recent year.

If they were to build this time of prison it would be great the idea of keeping people in clear cells is fantastic watching their every moves so you know what they are always up to. In the film the prison itself is a character because its such a bad ass structural building.

Stallone and arnie are both in their 60s now and they look great and put on a great show, some of the other actors i didn't expect to see in this was Vinnie Jones and Sam Neill which are always a pleasant surprise to me, Jim Caviezel plays a great antagonist in this film and could possibly steal the film..... naaaaaaa it was arnie who did that.

I for one want to see more Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone do a few more together before they retire.

I highly recommend this film

Tele Ramblings

Tele talk

Black Sails

By now i'm sure you have all played Assassin's creed IV: black flag and if you haven't you should. Here is a tv show that is pretty much the game not with assassins but with pirates in the Caribbean area within the first episode we appear in Nassau and was pretty happy with how the game portrayed the town as it the same to be fair. Obviously the story of the has nothing to do with Assassin's plot line but to do Treasure Island, its a prequel before the events of the film.Should probably mention that a few episodes are produced by Michael bay and Jonathan Brytus of Game of Thrones fame

If like me you into your violence, plunder and sexual content then i recommend this show to you, that in mind i have only seen the first episode but that was enough to get my claws into it, and it fills the pirate void which Assassin's Creed made.

Helix

Set in Arctic a team from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have to investigate a disease out break in a high tech research lab. However not everything is as it seems and what will the investigators uncover. 

This seems to be promising, it has the thrill and suspense of a good tele show, with plenty of character to support and uncover their  back stories. Not every thing is as it seems what are they up to at this research lab. I'm hoping this is a good series hoping this thing is not human to make it more interesting but the likely hood is probably not.

With Sons Of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire and Californication all set to end this year im open to suggestions as what i should be watching, im currently catching up on Castle and Justified which is Fucking great!

riddick

riddick

synopsis

Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick's past.


Where to begin this film is a bore!
Starting off with a little summary of what happened from the end of the last film till why he has yet again been marooned on a planet alone. Except he finds a dog mans best friend i don't think that the character of Riddick needs a pet as he is suppose to be a lone man. So he has got rusty and has to go back to basics training yawn who cares, then a dangers coming and needs to get off the planet so it has shades of the first film which people enjoyed (i did too) but tries mixing it up alittle by Ridick not working with these people unlike the 1st but taking them out. They eventually get along and get off the planet with a few hiccups.

This was one of those films where it didn't have my attention and done other things too predictable and seen it done before by the previous films.

Dont watch.

banshee

Banshee 

Yes its back for its second season, feels like forever since the last season, for me its come back at the right time as Sons Of Anarchy and Boardwalk Empire has finished for their current seasons. So this fills my void of Violence strong language and nudity.  

The first episode kicks off straight away from where it left off pretty much with the repercussions of the carnage and showdown. Yet it doesn't really tell us what to expect from this season but if you loved the first season then you know its gonna be full of twist and turns.

Heres the trailer for first season

carrie remake 2013

Carrie

Synopsis

A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

Okay i am late to the table with this as its been out a while but still wanted to watch it.

Having seen the original a few years back thought i would give this a punt, the original was ok for a piece in its time however it doesn't hold up to much today. You would think could be better, however its just updated and has the same feel but modern the only touch i did like which was different was at the end instead of her reaching through the grave she reaches through sue's stomach. Nice

The casting was pretty good with Julianne Moore playing the mother and Chloe Grace Moretz as the daughter carrie, all other castings for bitchie girls and jocks are nobodies to be fair but played there parts well. What was weird was seeing Chloe as a vulnerable character as opposed to her Hit-girl character who is so badass and doesn't have soft side, hopefully this has opened her up  more roles in films in future.

So overall the remake was good but the film just ain't that great.