Left Hand Brewing Co’s NITRO Milk Stout

This beer is amazing!
Now that I got that bias out there we can begin.
This Milk Stout on Nitro by Left Hand Brewing Co smells of a subtle roastiness, but also has notes of coffee. When you taste it, it flows smoothly down your throat. The flavors are mocha chocolate and coffee almost like a smooth mocha latte but ice blended from Starbucks but better! The finish is smooth and there is little astringency, if any, it is sweet in a subtle way like the perfection of a milk stout. I give this beer a 5 out of 5

Bayhawk Ales’ Chocolate Porter

This brewery based out of Irvine, California has produced this Chocolate Porter which comes in at 7.9% ABV. To begin this beer is smooth which is a big plus, for a beer above 5% you cannot tell it is almost 8%ABV. As for taste, lets just say it smells better than it tastes. The chocolate is lost somewhere in between the sniffing phase and the tasting phase. This beer is good, don’t let the previous description deter you from trying it. The other positive is thaf it is that the price point is low for a good quality craft beer. If you are new to drinking chocolate flavored porters/stouts, this is a great introduction. The rating for this beer would be a 2.5 out of 5.

Cheers!

“Historic Event” bt Sanctum Brewing Beer Review

This beer by Sanctum Brewing out of Pomona is Belgian Strong ale coming in at 12% ABV. To begin I received this bottle as a gift from my good friend for as a graduation gift. When I poured it the color was golden, but pale and the head it formed was so sudsy. It looked like a desert formed in top of the beer and it smelled of cinnamon almosf reminiscent of Cinammon Toast crunch. It is a strong ale and as such is best paired with food as to not get too buzzed. The Historic Event is so good and if you are in Pomona Sanctum is worth a visit. Highly recommend this beer!

“All is by My Side” Film Review

This film, “All is by My Side” is a biographic film about the a year in the life of Jimi Hendrix. The particular year was the year in England before he became the Jimi Hendrix that was immortalized by his magnetic performances and his career exploded. As I was watching this film I felt a bit confused by the editing style that was all over the place, and very much gave it this movie an art-house film that was purposively done by the director John Ridley.

Andre Benjamin, better known as Andre 3000 from Outkast, plays the lead role of Jimi Hendrix and I don’t thin anyone else could have played him better. He in essence becomes Jimi Hendrix and Benjamin also contributes his own Southern-swagger into the performance. The supporting cast, in particular the actresses: Hayley Atwell, Imogen Poots, and Ruth Negga were all great in the film and played strong female characters. You could feel the struggle that Hendrix felt in this period of his life, he wanted to be great but, he was naturally shy, had demons following him, deep-seeded issues that manifested themselves in his music and also in more destructive ways such as violence and drug use, one of which ultimately ended his young life.

The only negatives about this movie is the editing, the beginning of the movie felt as though it was the story of how Linda Keith discovered Jimi but it then becomes apparent this is the story of how Jimi Hendrix was struggling to make it in England and then ends right before he blows up in the U.S. This approach works two-fold; it works because it allows the character to develop in a finite period of time, it is not rushed, but at the same time you are waiting for those famous performances and to hear his songs. This was not the film’s fault because it was known that the Jimi Hendrix estate did not let the producers use his music and the film greatly suffers from it. You really can’t make an honest and true movie about Jimi Hendrix without his music but the film marched on and in the end was an okay movie, it wasn’t great but a good attempt to tell this famous rocker’s story.

I recommend you watch it, its now streaming on Netflix.

“Clown (2014)” Film Review

The movie Clown is about a father that find an old clown costume that he puts on for his son’s birthday party and then he finds out that this clown suit isn’t really a costume. Things go crazy from there and gore and violence ensue. People who are scared of clowns, beware!

So this movie is a film PRODUCED BY ELI ROTH, not directed as the marketing has led people to believe. It is directed by Jon Watts and written by Jon Watts. This movie is easy to enjoy, it is gory, graphic, and uses some great practical effects. Horror fans enjoy!

The performances were good, I can’t say great but the things that really stand out are the practical effects. The transformation of the father into this killer, demonic clown is great and they made it look so cool. The story is pretty simple but, they actually built a mythology around this concept which was actually interesting. The movie’s pacing is off, in the first 30 minutes if feels like one whole movie and by the time you look there is still another hour left and it keeps going. This movie is too long, but not long because of character development instead it trades that in for the killing of kids, and to tell the audience about the mythology of the clown and it becomes the wife’s movie essentially as she is the heroine of this movie.

There are some good effects, cool mythology, good mythology, great idea, and this movie is a lot of fun, it goes full blast with the gore and has minimal jump scares instead choosing to scare the audience with the transformation build up. Overall this is an enjoyable horror film that seemed like a better idea that the movie led me to believe. Still its worth a watch if you’re in a horror movie mood.

“A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” Film Review

Let me begin by saying, “Holy Shit!”. There I got that out of the way. This movie called “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” is an Iranian movie, it is subtitled, and it is NOW streaming on Netflix. It is directed by Ana Lily Armipour and is a refreshing take on the Vampire genre. This is a Vampire-Horror-Western-Romance-genre bender of a film and it is brilliant.

The film is a slow burn and does a great job of world building and the black and white throwback look adds great dimension to it and gives it a timeless feel. When I was watching this movie I felt as if I was watching a vampire movie that had elements of a western movie, a greaser-throwback film all thrown together to produce a smart horror movie and we need more of these! This is how you do a vampire movie right and just proves that foreign films are churning out superior quality horror films, a thing that the U.S. just doesn’t understand how to do right. The cast is small and this lets you delve deep into their lives and all the characters have dimensions to them, they are flushed out and you can really feel for them when things happen.

There is a villain in the movie, that the movie does a good job on convincing the audience to hate and this is all due to the script and also the acting. The vampire in this film is portrayed with such an innocence, it is a new take because she is displayed as almost a biblical plague in this Sodom-and-Gomorrah of a city. They hit it a little on the nose by the characters calling the city called Bad City.

The stories that are developed are between the villain and the protagonist named Arash, and the Vampire who is this young mysterious girl. The other dynamic is between Arash and his father, who is a junkie, so it is a coming of age film in that sense, and all the characters still keep some mystery in it.

I highly recommend this film for all film lovers, horror fans and those looking to expand their foreign film exposure.

Green Flash’s Symposium IPA Beer Review

Green Flash’s Symposium IPA is delicious. I’ll start by saying that, now to the review. This beer comes in at 7% ABV and 75 IBU’s. The appearance of this beer is claimed to be a copper hued IPA and that it is. It has a golden tint to it as well so it looks like so inviting to drink. The head is an off-white, egg-white color but, pillowy as hell! It looks like the head of a stout more than an IPA and has great lacing so this is a quality beer. This beer’s aroma has a hint of citrusy-sweetness to it but it is very subtle and you definitely get the hops in loads when you take the first whiff of this IPA. The taste is something different altogether because it is a light-bodied beer, has a dry finish and a lingering after taste that isn’t unpleasant and the bitterness is not overpowering. Overall the Symposium IPA is a very well brewed beer that is great for those that do not like to push the limits of IBU’s and do not like a heavy beer. I highly recommend this beer and am happy to say that Green Flash has not yet disappointed me and that is a great thing.

Cheers!

“Erdinger’s Hefe-Weizen Dunkel” Beer Review

   

Today I opened up a bottle of Erdinger’s Hefe-Weizen Dunkel which comes in at a 5.3% ABV. This is what I would consider to be a session beer, and from the taste I can drink about 5 of them in a day if possible. This Dunkel looks like dark wood, the tint is of mahogany with a bread-like, creamy head that has limited retention. The aromas to Erdinger’s Dunkel is reminiscent of toasted bread, with the wheat taking center stage. The flavor pairs well with it but, with a surprisingly added subtle astringency to it when it washes down your throat. It still is smooth and enjoyable. This is certainly a classic style of beer and one of my new favorite German beers.

Avery Brewing Beer Reviews 1 & 2

I had the Out of Bounds Stout and the India Pale Ale by Avery Brewing today.

The Out Bounds Stout is brewed with roasted barley and some hops. This beer’s aroma is reflective of that because the aroma exudes the roastyness of the barley and has some chocolate notes. The appearance is a dark brown but, not black. I It is like a mix of dark chocolate and milk chocolate and this beer is just as smooth. The taste is of roasty barley, subtle hops and silky smooth chocolate. It is so enjoyable to drink.

The India Pale Ale, this is brewed with a citrus and floral bouquet of hops. Yet, in aroma I didn’t much of either, the aroma was very subtle. Maybe it was just me. The appearance is a golden color with a copper tint and a nice off-white head. It did have some head retention as well. The taste was so great! It had the right amount of hops and the citrus popped and zinged in the flavor of this classic IPA. I would definitely recommend this beer.

Starred Up (2013) Movie Review

This movie, “Starred Up” is a British film starring Jack O’Connell and Ben Mendelson as a pair of criminals locked up in prison.

To begin this review, I must say that this is not your typical prison movie, there are themes throughout this movie such as what it means to be a father, forgiving those who have wronged you, letting go of your anger, as well as showing you the grittiness that is prison life.

In that aspect of prison life, this movie doesn’t hold back, and I loved it for that. It showed the ugly truth, that there are politics within prison according to race, with the interpersonal relationships between the the inmates and the guards.

Starred Up–tells the story of Eric Love, a teenager that gets moved up to adult prison because he is so violent. It is when he moves to the adult prison that he is reunited with his absent father, Neville Love. The two have a struggle to reconcile a bad relationship from the past as well as Neville trying to mentor the young Eric. He has many confrontations with other inmates as well as entering a therapy group where he meets Ol’ who is a counselor that believes that he can change the inmates. It is this group that the softer, more vulnerable side of Eric. Other confrontations transpire but, in the end…Neville and Eric have a reconciliation of sorts.

Overall this movie is filed with great performances, especially by O’Connell and Mendelson, filled with a bottled up setting in the prison that acts like a pressure-cooker and the violence is on parr with Bronson. This is a violent, gritty, realistic take on a prison movie with the father-son story at the heart of it.