Dinner
and a Movie
By
Steve Herte
On opening night, I
was glad to have an assigned seat in the movie theater, though it was
nowhere near full. It was the same theater I where saw The
Maze Runner featuring the Regal RPX sound system. A good feature
providing there are no explosions on screen. The fun was spotty in
the theater but started seriously at dinner. Enjoy!
The
Huntsman: Winter’s War (Universal,
2016) – Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. Writers: Evan
Spiliotopoulos & Craig Mazin (s/p),
Evan Daugherty (characters). Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron,
Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan
Smith, Alexandra Roach, Sope Dirisu, Sam Hazeldine, Sam Claflin,
Robert Portal, Nana Agyeman-Bediako, Sophie Cookson, Conrad Khan,
Niamh Walter, & Fred Tatasciore. Color, Rated PG-13, 124 minutes.
Until my waiter at
dinner after the theater told me this movie is a sequel, I was
confused by all the unexplained asides and non-sequiturs in the
script. Now that I know that Snow White and the
Huntsman (2012) is its predecessor, I’m even more
confused. The knowledge explained some things but put others in
question. Following so close on the heels of Disney’s Frozen
(2013), I’m forced to separate the concepts of Snow Queen Elsa
from the Ice Queen. Add to that the scene where Queen Freya (Blunt)
leads her army astride a polar bear-like creature and I need to
separate her from the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and
The Wardrobe (2005) whose chariot was pulled by three polar
bears. All three are wintery characters.
The narrator at the
beginning of the film tells us there are stories we have heard over
and over, but there are some we’ve never heard. And this story
begins with the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) killing her king (Portal)
by remote control using a chess game. When she says, “Queen takes
King…” she means it and the chess piece begins to bleed as the
human king collapses.
Ravenna is still
obsessed with her brass serving plate “mirror” and her vain good
looks, but she’s turned to mind games rather than special effects
to get her way. When the mirror tells her that her sister Freya will
give birth to a child that will be more beautiful than she, she
forces the father to destroy the baby (thank goodness we don’t see
that). However, the trauma releases the magic powers in Freya, which
up until now she has denied having, and she becomes the Ice Queen.
She moves out, heads north (why not?), and establishes her own
kingdom in a frozen wasteland. (Sound familiar, Disney fans?)
But Freya is not
like Elsa. She’s ruthless and wants an army. She conquers the
kingdoms around hers (with what?) and steals all the children, who
will then be trained as her huntsmen. When one terrified child
exhibits love for his parents, Freya scars his cheeks with her
freezing fingers while lecturing him about love being an illusion and
a weakness.
Eric (Khan) and Sara
(Walter) excel in their training beyond the other children and gain
her favor. They grow up to be Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain.
Tull also grows up to become Sope Dirisu and their best friend. But
when Eric and Sara fall in love and marry each other neck deep in a
pool of water they incur Freya’s wrath. Freya has a white feathered
Mardi Gras mask she wears when she spies on her “children,” and a
ceramic snowy owl was perched above the marriage pool. Freya sets the
rest of her huntsmen against Eric and Sara and, when it looks like
they would successfully fight them all off, builds an ice wall
between them, using deceit to drive them away from each other. Eric
sees Tull kill Sara (something he knows in his heart Tull wouldn’t
do), and Sara sees Eric abandon her and run away like a coward (also
something she knows better than to believe). But they both believe
what they saw. Sara is locked up in the queen’s castle and Eric is
knocked unconscious, taken for dead, and hurled into the river. How
in the world is he going to help Snow White regain her kingdom as he
did in the first movie? Oh wait, from previous dialogue we learn that
Snow White already has her kingdom. Maybe there’s a time warp here
somewhere.
But it gets worse.
Somehow, Freya has learned that her sister Ravenna is dead and she
wants the magic mirror so she can be unstoppable. (Remember, she’s
doing all this for the children.) For some strange reason, Ravenna’s
brother Finn is neither mentioned in this film, nor does he inherit
the mirror. It turns out to have been stolen by goblins.
Eric is not dead. He
meets Snow White’s brother, William (Claflin), and is joined by two
dwarves, Nion (Frost), one of the original seven from the first movie
(eight, if you count the murdered Gus), and Gryff (Brydon). After a
pub brawl that looks pretty dire, Eric and his dwarf companions are
saved by a hooded figure that turns out to be none other than Sara!
They’re both gobsmacked. He delighted she’s alive and she hates
him for leaving her. Now they have to join forces to get the mirror
before Freya does. On the way, they encounter two female dwarves,
Mrs. Bromwyn (Smith) and Doreena (Roach), who know the way to the
goblins’ lair. They want the gold and gems already there in payment
for their tour guide service.
Hence my
confusion? Some say it’s a fantasy and shouldn’t be taken so
seriously. I say that it’s a story and the storyline should be
consistent and whole; not broken up into whatever the writers want to
throw in. The first movie has Eric’s wife as dead and Ravenna
promising him to bring her back if he’ll kill Snow White (who
doesn’t even appear in this movie). Ravenna doesn’t even consider
Snow White when she conspires to kill Freya’s baby. And what would
Sara say if she saw Eric give Snow White “true love’s kiss” in
the first movie?
Eventually, I
started ignoring the main characters except for the dwarves, who were
much more real to me (and funnier), and paying more attention to the
CGI background effects, which were marvelous – especially in the
dark forest. If you decide to see this film, look for the python made
of grass and white flowers, the large tortoise and the flitting
pixies artfully woven into the scenes. On the good side, this film
was 12 minutes shorter than the first one, but one still had to dig
through Chris Hemsworth’s thick Australian-verging-on-Scottish
accent to decipher what he was saying. Jessica Chastain also sounded
like she was channeling his accent. Thank goodness Ravenna and Freya
spoke clearly.
My applause goes to
the costume designers and make-up artists once again for superlative
work on Ravenna and Freya’s gowns and accoutrements. The CGI
effects were top notch to the point that I wish this movie was in 3D.
Parents warning: there is a good share of violence in this movie as
well as bloodshed (did you know that goblin blood is like tar?), and
then there’s the hokey love scenes. But the best part of all –
there is no hint of another sequel.
Rating:
2 ½
out
of 5 Martini glasses.
New
York Yankees Steakhouse
7
West 51st St., New
York
In the Sixties, I
became a Yankee baseball fan and followed the careers of both Mickey
Mantle and Roger Maris. My uncle took me to ball games and I enjoyed
being there. In the Seventies, I was still a fan when I joined the
Westchester Golden Chordsmen Barbershop Chorus and found out that
most of them were Yankees fans as well. My Dad was a Brooklyn Dodgers
fan until they moved to California and disappointed him. He latched
onto the New York Mets when they surfaced in 1962, but that’s
another story.
When I started
dining out and trying new restaurants, eventually, you know that
Mickey Mantle’s restaurant on Central Park South near 6th Avenue
(opened 1988) would be one of them. Unfortunately, it was geared to
children who consider a hot dog with sauerkraut to be haute cuisine.
I was not impressed. Though the food was solid and good, it wasn’t
my kind of dining. Later, I gave the Mets equal time when Rusty Staub
opened his restaurant on 39th Street and Fifth Avenue
in 1989 and a sister restaurant on Third Avenue at 73rd Street.
Pretty much the same thing. Mantle’s closed in 2012, Staub’s
uptown place closed in 1991 and the Fifth Avenue one went out of
business in 2011.
So one might guess I
was leery about something called the New York Yankees Steakhouse,
which is only entering its third year of existence. It’s said first
impressions are the most important, and the flashy entrance to this
restaurant made it look very important. Set back from the sidewalk
and recessed within the building line, the 12-foot front windows
flanked a snazzy steel awning stretching to the curb with the
restaurant name in black raised lettering on both sides. OK, it has
my attention.
Inside, the maple
wood paneling and tastefully displayed Yankee memorabilia offset the
dramatic stairway leading to the second floor. The bar on the far
left had a canopy of silver, gold and copper chains swaying like
fringes on a flapper’s skirt. Shirts with the number 6 (Joe Torre),
23 (Don Mattingly), and 44 (Reggie Jackson) were interspersed with
two World’s Series Trophies in glass cases. There were flat-screen
television monitors at several places showing baseball games, but
they were not oppressive, just a part of the décor. The tables had
white cloths and navy blue napkins (team colors), stemmed glassware,
and unusual rock-like table lights (though it was bright enough to
see without them). The atmosphere spoke “class” to me. This is
not a run-of-the-mill sports bar.
Two young ladies at
the Captain’s Station took my reservation and one led me up a
second set of stairs to the right onto a level overlooking
51st Street. I sat on the navy blue banquette and
settled in. I knew I wore my white shirt with the blue pinstripes for
a reason.
Andrew, my waiter,
appeared and handing me the wine and drink list and food menu. He
recommended a cocktail that sounded interesting, but I saw one that
was more appropriate. As this was my first time at the New York
Yankees Steakhouse, I ordered the Yankeetini – Veev vodka, blue
curacao, and white cranberry juice with a twist of lemon. Too bad
there were so few patrons on my level, just three other tables of the
possible 15. No one to notice that this drink was a vivid
greenish-blue that even my camera couldn’t catch, but it was sweet
and delicious, with blue sugar rimming the glass.
The menu read like a
first class steakhouse menu (several of which are in the same part of
town) featuring Raw Bar, Salads, Appetizers, Pasta, U.S.D.A. Prime
Steaks, Butch Cuts, Fresh Seafood, and Sides. Andrew told me that
Chef Braden Reardon is obsessive with freshness and can guarantee
that everything I order will be as fresh as can be.
He described many
items and the myriad combinations and sauces, not once saying, “we’re
all out of” anything. I liked that. After explaining that my table
lighting was an actual block of salt used in curing the steaks, he
left me to consider.
Meanwhile, another
server brought something to the two gentlemen sitting window side
that caught my eye. It appeared to be a stack of seven or eight fresh
doughnuts held in place by a thin black rod. I learned from the
server that they were indeed onion rings! I think I decided to come
back then and there. After a short discussion with Andrew, I had my
three-course meal ordered and he knew which would come out when. He
recommended the house wine and I told him I’d let him know.
By now you might
know that I am pretty predictable in a steakhouse and two of my
dishes were just that. The appetizer, oysters on the half-shell,
arrived first on a large stemmed stainless steel platter. There were
three from the west coast and three from the east coast. On a
separate oblong white dish were ramekins of cocktail sauce,
horseradish, and herb oil. Talk about freshness, the east coast
oysters were not in the least bit briny. They were all wonderful, and
frankly, I couldn’t tell one coast from the other. They were almost
the same size. And with the tangy sauces, they were perfect.
Deciding to go
Yankees all the way, I agreed to Andrew’s wine recommendation and
ordered the 2013 Paso Robles New York Yankees ‘Reserve’ cabernet
sauvignon. It was surprising in many ways. There was a cork, it was a
deep red, had a great nose, and was full-bodied enough to take on the
rest of my meal. Another home run.
The crab bisque, an
almost corn chowder/puree kind of soup of the day, arrived in classic
style with blue crab bits in the middle of the bowl. The server
poured the bisque around it from a stainless steel pitcher. It was a
beautiful pumpkin-colored, savory delight that was not fishy at all
and gave a nice spicy aftertaste. Did I mention they served
pretzel-rolls? When Andrew asked if there was anything else he could
get me, I told him to keep the pretzel rolls coming. (By the way, the
bread dish was in the shape of a baseball diamond.)
Next, but not least,
in presentation was the 12-ounce filet mignon, seared black and
crispy on the outside, rare on the inside (termed Black and Blue –
just the way I love it), accompanied by a dish of bleu cheese
topping. Sheer heaven. This steak was comparable to the one I had at
Uncle Jack’s (Look out Jack!). The Yankees hit another home run. To
make it a triple header, there was the side dish, decadent truffled
Parmesan fries with barbecue dipping sauce. Perched in a paper cone
inserted into a stainless steel server, they were crisp, earthy,
cheesy and tangy with the sauce.
By now I was
becoming full. The colossal chocolate cake sounded beyond my
capacity, so I chose the strawberry and chocolate-marshmallow gelato
and mango sorbet trio. Again, another home run. It was bigger scoops
than I expected but the mango was excellent and the two gelatos were
creamy and just as good as ones I tasted in Rome. Once again, the
predictable double espresso was mine and Andrew recommended the
Taylor Fladgate 20-year-old port wine, the pinnacle of meal-toppers.
New York Yankees
Steakhouse is a class act from beginning to end without being stuffy
or pretentious. I mentioned the time when George Steinbrenner loaned
real Yankee uniforms to my chorus for our competition package and
another server was happy to tell me about George and his friendship
with him. I wore Dave Righetti’s shirt and Dale Berra’s pants.
(Remember them?) I had a great time, ate a grand meal and will be
returning for those onion rings (among other dishes).
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