If you own an SUV, you know just how expensive tires can be. That’s why you don’t want to replace them prematurely or wait until you experience a blowout. Here’s what you need to know about replacing your tires and how to choose the best ones for your vehicle.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci

Tom McCarthy

Writer/director Tom McCarthy’s reputation took a pretty hard hit following the release of his abysmal fantasy-comedy “The Cobbler,” but he’s quickly redeemed himself with “Spotlight,” an excellent, no-nonsense newspaper drama that falls closer in line with his previous work. It also happens to be one of the finest movies of the year and a safe bet for a Best Picture nomination. Though the film is fairly low-key for a potential awards contender, “Spotlight” relies on some top-notch acting and writing to recount the fascinating true story about a group of journalists who lifted the lid on a massive child molestation scandal within the Boston archdiocese that changed the way we looked at the Catholic Church forever.

Set in 2001, the movie begins with the arrival of the Boston Globe’s new Editor-in-Chief, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), an outsider from Miami who was brought in by the newspaper’s parent company to help shake up the newsroom and stop the leak in the dwindling subscriber base. When Marty takes an interest in a recent column about a local priest who was accused of sexually abusing children in his parish, he convinces editor Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton) – who leads the four-person investigative team (played by Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James) known as Spotlight – to drop what they’re doing and discreetly poke around to see if there’s more to the story. Robinson reluctantly agrees, but is skeptical that they’ll find anything of substance. As the team begins to dig further into the list of allegations, however, they expose a decades-long cover-up that’s bigger and more far-reaching than any of them could have possibly imagined.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s still several days away but, before you know it, Thanksgiving will be here and you’ll want something to drink. You could do worse than the Hornitos Harvest. It’s fortifying enough that it won’t get you comatose before the turkey and mashed potatoes do their number on you, but also strong enough that you should be able to properly adjust your attitude and be a little more forgiving of your family’s refusal to be anything other than your family. It also tastes good.

The star of our little show is Hornitos Black Barrel Tequila, which has magically found it’s way to my mailbox gratis and been featured here previously. With a richly bitter, woody edge that might please bourbon and Scotch drinkers, it’s definitely one of the more complex tequilas you’re going to find for around $30.00 for a fifth. Still, the question posed by the Hornitos Harvest is when we can cheat just a little bit on the cocktail truism that fresh juices are an absolute must. We’ll get a bit more into that after the recipe.

The Hornitos Harvest

2 ounces Hornitos Black Barrel Tequila
1 ounce pomegranate juice
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup or 2 1/2 teaspoons superfine sugar
1 lime slice (garnish)

Combine all of the ingredients, save for the lime slice, in a cocktail shaker. Shake for a good ten seconds or so, and strain into a rocks/old fashioned glass with fresh ice in it, and maybe also a nice lime slice. Give thanks that you’re lucky enough to enjoy tasty pinkish-reddish drinks!

******
The big question here is whether to try and juice your own pomegranates or go with the prepackaged stuff. I used bottled juice my first time out and, for whatever reason was slightly put off by my first try at the Hornitos Harvest. Somewhat harsher, more bitter flavors seemed to predominate in an otherwise very promising drink.

Blaming the non-fresh juice I was using, despite the fact that it really doesn’t taste at all bad on its own, I decided to give juicing a pomegranate a try. Mind you, one of my guiding principles in these posts is that no recipe should require readers to spend more than a few minutes to make a drink.”(Almost) no home made syrup, no DIY bitters, infusions, or liqueurs, and definitely no blenders!” is pretty much my watchword.

Fortunately, I found all it took was just a little bit of elbow grease and a tolerance for mess to juice a pomegranate using a manual citrus juicer. My next attempt at the Hornitos Harvest turned out to be a lovely balance between sweet, tart, and bitter/woody flavors that only got better on each subsequent try. Also, the color with fresh juice was brighter and a bit more colorful in the glass.

Then, I decided to try the unthinkable and killed my Black Barrel bottle for one more try with the exact same bottled juice I’d used on my first attempt. Turns out, this time I liked the results almost as much as the fresh pomegranate juice version. Go figure.

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Claflin

Francis Lawrence

Amid the glut of YA book-to-film adaptations, “The Hunger Games” has always stood head and toe above the competition – a movie franchise that actually improved upon its source material by treating the audience with respect. That’s what makes “Mockingjay: Part 2” such a hard pill to swallow, because while it seemed like the stage was set for an exciting finale after the tedious third installment, it’s yet another incredibly slow burn that only highlights just how boring the final book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy is. If anything good comes out of “Mockingjay: Part 2,” it’s that it will finally convince studios to stop dragging out these stories for the sake of their own greed.

The film picks up almost immediately after the events of the last movie. As Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) recovers from the brutal attack by Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), rebel leader President Coin (Julianne Moore) plots her assault on the Capitol now that all 12 districts have been united under one cause. Katniss wants to go fight on the frontlines, but when Coin refuses because she’s too valuable to the rebellion, she sneaks into the Capitol on her own to assassinate President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Coin and her right-hand man, Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), decide to use Katniss’ defiance to their advantage by assigning her to a specialized military unit – which also includes Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and a mentally unstable Peeta – to shoot more propaganda videos on the war-town streets of the city. With Capitol soldiers and deadly booby traps awaiting them at every turn, Katniss and company slowly make their way to Snow’s mansion. But as is usually the case with war, casualties are inevitable, and that’s something Katniss has difficulty accepting.

For a franchise that’s always relied on deliberately paced storytelling that gradually builds towards each film’s climax, “Mockingjay: Part 2” never really gets going. It hits all the major moments (including the countless deaths) within Collins’ grim novel, but there’s very little emotion to it, as if director Francis Lawrence is just ticking off boxes as he goes along. There are a couple of good action sequences once Katniss arrives in the Capitol, but while the story tries to replicate the feeling of being inside the arena with the addition of booby traps (called “pods”), it doesn’t provide the same thrill. In fact, it’s actually quite repetitive, as the second act is largely comprised of Katniss’ unit scanning for pods, safely activating said pods and resting for the night. Wash, rinse, repeat. Further compounding the lack of action is the monotony of the dialogue scenes, which dwell on the same issues (the love triangle, Peeta’s condition, Coin’s true intentions) over and over again.

“Part 1” may technically be the worst installment in the series, but at least that movie felt like a necessary evil in order to deliver a satisfying payoff in “Part 2,” which is why the latter is a much bigger disappointment. It doesn’t even have the strong performances to fall back on this time around, because with the exception of its main trio, no one else has very much to do. Julianne Moore fades into the background for most of the second half (likely due to some adjustments made as a result of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s untimely death), while Hoffman himself is in maybe two scenes total, his big speech at the end now awkwardly delivered by Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch via a letter that Plutarch penned. Even Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t appear particularly enthused about having to slog through this downer of a finale, and it’s hard to blame her, because instead of going out on the high note that the franchise and its loyal fans deserved, my first thought when the film ended was, “Thank God it’s finally over.”

Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony Mackie, Jillian Bell, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Shannon

Jonathan Levine

Every year, a new crop of Christmas-themed films arrives in theaters to help kick off the season, but apart from 2003’s awesome trio of “Elf,” “Love Actually” and “Bad Santa,” Hollywood hasn’t had much luck producing movies worthy of shaking up the usual rotation of holiday classics. Nobody really expected Jonathan Levine’s “The Night Before” to join that illustrious club, but it seemed like it would at least be a fun diversion from the barrage of serious Oscar fare by adding a bit of frat-humor debauchery to the Christmas movie festivities. Unfortunately, it’s not very successful, because “The Night Before” is at best a fleetingly funny comedy that ranks as Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s weakest collaboration to date.

For the past 14 years, best friends Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) have spent every Christmas Eve together, a tradition that started as a way to console Ethan after he lost his parents in a car accident. Now in their early 30s, the guys have mutually agreed to end the annual tradition for various reasons: Isaac and his wife (Jillian Bell) are expecting a baby, and Chris, a pro football player who’s found fame late in his career, is simply too busy. Ethan, meanwhile, is still reeling from his breakup with longtime girlfriend Diana (Lizzy Caplan) and is worried that he’s about to lose his friends as well, but when he fortuitously comes into possession of three tickets to the Nutcracker Ball – an ultra-exclusive party that the guys have been trying to get into since their first Christmas Eve – Ethan figures that they can at least go out with a bang.

Read the rest of this entry »