I don't think this movie could have been done any better. It is a must-see, but be prepared for a very tense and often very brutal two hours. As you can imagine, things build to a climax at the very end, and the movie ends the only way you could really end it. No Hollywood ending here.

Unlike World Trade Center, which came off like a TV movie of the week, this movie came off as being incredibly authentic. The irony of course, is that WTC should have been very accurate, as almost all of the primary characters in the story survived. Instead, the movie has been widely criticized for the inaccuracies in its representation of the events. United 93, on the other hand, was largely fictionalized out of obvious necessity. It's hard to imagine, though, that the events that actually took place on the plane could have unfolded much differently than they were depicted.

The fact that the flight didn't make it to its target is testimony enough to the fact that the passengers on board were heroes, but this movie does an incredible job of showing us what the experience must have been like.

There are no star actors in the movie, and that was a very good call. Name actors would have distracted from the story.

Man, was this place a disappointment. Despite getting good reviews on CitySearch, our dining experience here pretty much sucked.

It all started bad when we didn't get seated for almost an hour, despite having reservations. We ended up taking a table in the bar area near the front of the restaurant where it was so cold that Tracy had to wear her coat during dinner.

The ambiance was OK. Nothing too special. The nail in the coffin though was the fact that the food just wasn't good at all. Tracy had the Halibut and said it was OK, but my rack of lamb was really bad. Tasted like a piece of chicken fried steak that you'd get at a rest stop on the turnpike.

Stay away from this place. Best upscale Mexican (i.e., not a burrito joint) we've had in the city is Miracle Grill (locations in both the west and east village).

In a nutshell, I think this movie is definitely worth seeing, but despite that I can't help but feel that there was something too TV-movie-of-the-week about it.

This movie is about two Port Authority cops who were trapped in the rubble of the twin towers. On the positive side, the movie definitely gives you a first-hand look at the chaos of that morning. As an example, the PA cops, having arrived at the site after both towers had been hit, still didn't believe that there was a second plane involved. Clearly there was a tremendous lack of information/communication.

The movie also does a great job of showing you what an unbelievable ordeal these guys went through and how lucky they are to be alive. Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena did fine jobs in the two leads.

Something about the movie, though, felt a little flat. Maybe some of this feeling comes from the fact that we're still too close to the real events of 9/11. Maybe no dramatization of the event is ready to hold up yet. Or, maybe the movie is really only so-so. Probably a combination of both.

When it comes to shaving, I've discovered that more is better. That is, more blades are a good thing!

In my constant quest to find a better (i.e., less painful) shaving experience, I've been trying out a couple of different 3-blade razors; the Gillette Sensor 3 and the Schick Xtreme 3. I go back and forth as to which of those two are better. I'd probably go with the Sensor 3 largely because the Schick is only a disposable. In either case though, the three blades definitely gave me a better shave.

After listening to my Dad rave about the new Gillette Fusion 5-blade razor, I finally broke down and tried it. It definitely sounded like a cool razor, especially with the single blade on the back of it for getting a clean line on the sideburns. But, the Mach 3 is essentially a 3-blade version of the same razor and that one didn't work out very well for me. The big issue was that the handle connects at the base of the blade rather than directly behind the blade. This prevents you from applying pressure while shaving, and with a very coarse beard like mine I really needed to be able to do that to get a close shave.

Apparently, with the Fusion, the extra two blades make enough of a difference that I don't need to apply as much pressure. The real benefit of this is that I get absolutely no skin irritation when shaving. With my trusty old 2-blade Sensor, I tried to avoid shaving two days in a row because the second day would often result in a lot of irritation. The move to 3-blade razors made shaving on sequential days less of a concern. With the Fusion I can easily shave everyday with no problems. In fact, I almost look forward to shaving now!

The other thing to note is that I've been using the cheap foam shaving cream that came with the razor. Normally I use more expensive creams to try to find a better shave, but its clear now that its all about the razor.

Back in 2000, before she became a big star, Nora Jones recorded some vocals for an album entitled New York City by The Peter Malick Group. That album was release in 2003, but just the other day I came across this remix album while checking out Virgin's new digital music service.

The CD consists of eight tracks, with four songs being remixed twice each. I have a slight preference for the second set of remixes, but overall this is an excellent CD. I normally don't like remixes because I'm usually too attached to the original versions of songs. In this case, though, I wasn't at all familiar with the originals. I've since gone back and listened to them and they really aren't my style of music.

These tracks, however, are right up my alley. I'm a big fan of chill-out/downtempo music, and this set of tunes is more soulful than a lot of what you might expect from that genre. Nora Jones has just an incredible voice and the DJs here transform the tracks into some great chill out music. I would definitely recommend giving this a listen, even if this isn't a genre you don't normally follow.

In many ways, this is my ideal restaurant. It has the three key qualities that I look for....good food, good drinks and good atmosphere. The restaurant is located in an unmarked townhouse in the meatpacking district. The main level has a cool bar area, and the upper two floors are the dining area. Being in a townhouse, the place has a very homey feel. It has a cool look about it, but not so cool that it comes off as impersonal.

The food is Asian fusion, and this is actually one of the better examples of fusion I've seen. It actually gives more than just token representation to the Asian side of the equation. You can see the menu on their web site. I won't go so far as to say the food was excellent, but it was definitely very good. The whole package definitely makes it a worthwhile experience.

In NYC a restaurant really has to impress in order for you to want to make a return visit. There are just too many other places to try. The fact that we went twice in a three-week period says a lot.

For my money, the best pizza in the city. While I haven't tried Totonno's, I would rate John's above the other famed NYC pizzerias....Lombardi's, Patsy's and Grimaldi's. All of those serve some fine pizza, and are definitely far better than your average slice joint, but John's is just a notch better. Plus, its got a great Bleecker St. location in the heart of the Village.

There's probably a better version of this somewhere, but here's a decent little summary of the history of pizza in NY that includes pizza family tree that connects Lombardi's, Patsy's and Grimaldi's. It even gives you the scoop behind all of the Ray's Pizza joints in the city.

New York Pizza, Part I

New York Pizza, Part II

OK, maybe I've watched a few too many episodes of The O.C., but I really love this album. I think this indie band has had a long-time following, but I did in fact first hear them on said TV show. Their die-hard fans probably think they've sold out, but this is just an immensely listenable album. Its great from start to finish, with no filler. Half of the tracks are damn near perfect little pop songs.

Definitely can't go wrong with this one.

Although Chinatown is a site to behold, it can be a little overwhelming on the eyes, ears and nose. The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is located in the southern part of Chinatown. If you were to walk by it on the street, there is absolutely nothing about its appearance that would cause you to give it a second look, let alone think about going in for a scoop. The Haagen-Dazs down the street looks infinitely more appealing.

I'm not sure who the first person was to venture inside, but apparently many people have. It gets one of the highest ratings (a 9.9) on New York Cityserach for anything...ice cream store, restaurant, whatever. We walked over last Sunday afternoon through the funky smells of Chinatown. The ice cream was amazing! Right on par with the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, although not even in the same ballpark in terms of ambiance and setting.

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is known for its wide array of unique flavors. I had a scoop of Black Sesame and a scoop of pistachio. I'm not really sure what the source of the flavor was in the Black Sesame, but it was awesome, as was the pistachio. Other flavors they are known for are almond cookie, green tea, lychee, and red bean. The also have an assortment of more standard flavors.

If you happen to be down in the vicinity of Chinatown, it’s definitely worth a stop.

This movie was just a ton of FUN. While the original was a kitschy classic, the remake is beautiful, demented and fantastic....exactly what you'd expect from Tim Burton. It was also really funny, which I didn't expect. The theater was laughing almost non-stop.

I knew that Tim Burton would do something special with this movie, but I had reservations because my absolute favorite part of the original was the Oopmpa Loompa song and I knew that it wasn't going to be in the remake. Burton managed to re-invent the Oompa Loompas in a way that makes the movie a must-see. They (or, rather he...as Deep Roy plays ALL of the Oompas) really are the stars of the movie.

Definitely go see this. Its a couple of hours of pure fun.

After reading Into Thin Air, I wanted to see some of the movies about Everest. The first one I saw was the IMAX Everest movie (see Balazs' review), but I actually thought this one was much better.

It focuses on an ascent by the sons of Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary 50 years after their fathers were the first climbers to summit Everest. The son of the first American to summit is along as well. The stories of the sons and the fathers are told somewhat in parallel, so you get a good idea of the history of the first attempts on the mountain and just how much more difficult it was back then compared to today.

This movie also just had a lot more footage. Not only was it spectacular to see, but it also made it much more clear just how inhuman conditions can be on the mountain and how brutally hard (even with today's technologies) the climb can be. The scenes from the summit are amazing, but the footage of the climbers standing for hours in their tents at Camp IV to keep them from collapsing in 60mph winds makes you wonder why anyone would want to do this.

Another thing about this movie is that it dedicates a lot more time to the stories of the sherpas. The bottom line is that no foreigners would ever be able to climb Everest without the considerable help of the sherpas. Their story has been overlooked in previous films and books.

Definitely worth renting. Gives you a really good idea of what its really like to climb the mountain.

Our restaurant of choice this week was the Tribeca Grill, one of Robert DeNiro's restaurants. The food was excellent, the service good and the atmosphere pleasant, but yet I only gave it three stars. The problem is that really great upscale restaurants are a dime a dozen in NYC. There just wasn't anything special enough about this place to warrant another visit. While the meal was very good (except for the dessert), there was nothing overly exciting about the menu or the atmosphere. The Harrison, just a few blocks down Greenwich St. from Tribeca Grill, would probably get the nod if I was looking for an american brasserie. Less expensive and a more intimate atmosphere.

Although this may sound strange, the Tribeca Grill is an excellent, but somewhat generic restaurant.

All I can say is...

WTF???

I really don't know what to say about this movie. Actually, I have three things to say:

1. Naomi Watts is hot.
2. Mark Wahlberg was the best thing about the movie. (Bet you thought you'd never hear that!)
3. Jude Law (as a woman) breast feeding Jason Schwartzman is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen.

Didn't get it. Didn't like it. Don't rent it.

Read more at IMDB.

You ever have one of those purchases that you're utterly and completely satisfied with? I signed up for the Rhpasody streaming music service last weekend and so far this definitely falls into that category. I've been addicted to it right from the moment I signed up!

Unlike other pay-per-download services, Rhapsody is primarily a subscription service where you can play any song they have for either $9.95/month or $24.95/quarter. I say primarily because they also have radio stations and you can burn songs to a CD for $.79/track. I might try the radio stations at some point, but have no interest in buying tracks. Mostly because it seems like the quality isn't too good if you burn to CD and then rip back to MP3.

The big selling point here is that notionally you can listen to any song any time you want. Reality is that they don't have every song, but they do have over 800,000. I've definitely run into some things they don't have, but not enough to diminish my enjoyment of the service.

I'm a big music fan, but my annual purchases of CDs have dropped way off in recent years. I just don't feel like buying CDs unless I really know I'm going to like it. Except for the rare occasion that I get to park myself in front of a listening station at Virgin records, my evaluation of a new disc is pretty much limited to 30-second clips on Amazon. You just can't get a feel for a CD that way.

I absolutely love being able to really listen to new music now. I can try out anything I want, whenever I want. It's really like being a kid in a candy store! For a music lover, it's really an amazing feeling. Plus, there's all of those albums (album?! what's that?) that you'd like to listen to once in a blue moon, but would never consider buying. Now you can listen to them whenever you want. They even have children's music for Lyla.

Obviously, the downside to this is that you can't take the music with you. In other words, you can't download songs onto an MP3 player. I'm not concerned about that, as my iPod is filled with 3,000+ tracks from my CD collection. I am curious, though, as to how this will affect my buying of CDs. I suspect that it will cause it to drop even further (or even eliminate all purchases) because I don't commute to work and only need music on the go for when I go down to the gym. My current collection should suffice there. I suspect that the only way I would actually buy a CD now is if I really, really loved it and wanted to have it on my iPod and accessible wherever I go.

The application itself is well designed. You can use keyword searches to find music, or you can browse by genre. For each artist they have a short overview, most popular tracks, a sampler of songs, similar artists, in addition to the artist's albums, singles and compilations that contain the artist. You can add albums and individual songs to your library for easy access in the future. The library could probably be a little more robust, along the lines of what you'd find in iTunes or MusicMatch, but it does the trick. You can also create and save playlists.

I'm listening to the music on a PC with a wireless connection and the quality is great. I've only had the connection dropout once.

There's a 7-day free trial and I would really recommend that any music lovers out there give it a shot. Props to Gersh for turning me on to this!

If you liked Office Space, you'll definitely like this flick. Walter, you should go buy this movie immediately!

This is definitely not high-brow fare. It's a fun little comedy that actually makes you laugh, unlike a lot of the crap released these days. Two guys get stoned and go in search of White Castle. Hilarity ensues. What more do you need to know? :-)

From IMDB:
Two twenty-something stoner roommates -- one a Korean American investment banker; the other an Indian American medical school candidate -- go through a life changing journey, as they spend a night roaming the state of New Jersey in search of White Castle hamburgers.

My father and I saw Million Dollar Baby at the Angelika earlier today and this is definitely a must-see movie. There are very few movies that get everything right, and this is one of them. It's basically an emotional drama disguised as a boxing movie, with a fair amount of comedy thrown in with the great chemistry between Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. Hillary Swank is also awesome. Apparently the tomboy role is really her thing.

The movie hits a wide range of emotions, and hits them all well. The movie veers close to cliche at times, but never goes too far, or at least does it so well that you don't mind.

Just a beautiful movie that you'll definitely enjoy.

This is my second book by Nelson DeMille, the first being The Gold Coast. If his other books are as good as these two, I'm sure I'll be reading them all. This book was AWESOME!

I picked it up while I was on jury duty recently, figuring that its 600+ pages should more than last me through the trial. Well, between the speed of our justice system and the riveting nature of this book, that almost wasn't the case.

I've read some good page-turners, like the DaVinci Code, but this book actually had me trying to read faster at the end because I couldn't stand not knowing what was going to happen next. Also, I think DeMille tops Dan Brown by getting you engrossed in the story with more than just the twists in the basic plot line. He does a great job of building the characters and the settings. In both of his books that I've read so far the leading male character has had fantastic sarcasm and wit that really makes for a good read.

The book takes place in Russia in the late 80's, just as the cold war is thawing. It's basically a spy thriller. While that may not be your normal genre of choice, I'd really suggest giving this book a try. The fact that the topic is somewhat dated, with Russia now being an ally, didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book at all.

Anyone have any suggestions on which of his books I should try next?

This documentary follows Morgan Spurlock (the film maker) as he eats McDonald's, and only McDonald's, for an entire month to make a point about obesity in America and the role fast food plays in the problem.

I was a little wary of this movie for a couple of reasons. First, I wasn't sure how interesting it would be. Second, I feared it would simply be a heavy-handed indictment of McDonald's.

I was very pleasantly surprised though. The movie is very entertaining. Spurlock has a good sense of humor and there is plenty of great candid footage throughout his ordeal. He also doesn't place all of the blame on McDonald's. He spreads it around, and doesn't overlook the role of personal responsibility in our nation's weight problem. That's not to say that he lets the fast food chains off easy though.

My favorite part, in terms of him putting someone in his sights, was actually when he shot footage at some high school cafeterias and interviewed some of the food service people. You'll be astounded by the crap these kids eat at school.

From a scientific standpoint, there are plenty of flaws with his little experiment. Sure, nobody would really eat the way he did during that month. I think it misses the point though to look at the movie with that critical of an eye. The bottom line is that Americans are very comfortable scarfing down lots of food that is really bad for them in ways that they are often unaware of.

In the end, though, the reason that I recommend that you rent this movie is that its just really entertaining to watch. It's not too long, and it's a lot of fun.

After reading recent reviews of razors by Peter and Neal, I thought I'd throw my own 2 cents into the mix.

I need to preface this review by saying that I've got one bitch of a beard. No need for sandpaper in this household. Just apply some chin! I have to shave in the shower, so that the steam softens the beard, and I make two passes. The first goes down with the grain, and the second goes up against the grain. Even with all the machinations, I've still got a 5 o'clock shadow by lunchtime.

The day that Gilette introduced the Sensor was a glorious one for me, as shaving was suddenly not a daily blood letting. When they introduced the Mach 3, I figured things would only get better. For me, that wasn't the case though. The fact that the handle connects to the bottom edge of the blade makes it impossible to really apply any pressure while shaving. To a large degree, you're just dragging the blade across your face. That may be fine for some, but I need to apply some pressure or I might as well not even bother shaving at all.

In the drugstore recently I saw that Gilette had recently come out with the Sensor3, a triple blade that fits a regular Sensor handle. I figured, what the hell, maybe three blades will be better than two when mounted properly on the handle.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed again. I didn't really notice any appreciable difference in the closeness of my shave. Also, the fact that the three blades are closer together than the two on the regular Sensor sometimes made it feel like the hair was being caught in between them and tugged out. Mostly on days where I hadn't shaved the previous day and the hair was longer (which is most of the time these days. :-)

So, me and my brillo pad for a face will be sticking with the Sensor Excel for now. Maybe they'll come out with a Power version of that some day.

City of God is about two kids growing up in a violent, gang-ridden slum of Rio de Janeiro. One of them becomes a drug dealer, and the other a photographer. The movie, based on actual people and events, follows them from childhood in the 60s to early adulthood in the 80s.

I thought the movie was brilliant. Right off the bat though, you should know that it is very violent. While the violence isn't necessarily graphic (although it is at times), it's very real and very emotional. This isn't the over-the-top violence of an Arnold movie that you can detach yourself from. This is real violence, mostly being perpetrated by young kids upon other young kids. There are touching moments, humorous moments, but the story is gritty and raw.

You see the film mostly through the eyes of the budding photographer, Rocket. Having just watched Goodfellas (for the 872nd time) the night before, I noticed a similarity to the way the story was told and shot. Despite that comparison, though, watching City of God often feels more like watching a documentary than a glamorized mafia movie. While not completely devoid of inspirational/uplifting moments, the movie is mostly about the hopelessness of the situation.

Unless you really don't have a tolerance for violence (no, Tracy did not like this movie), I would highly recommend this movie.