Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

#StokerScore 10/10

I hope that you'll humour me and not think I've gone completely barking mad if I start this review with a recipe for vanilla ice cream?

First, stir sugar, cream, and milk into a saucepan over low heat until sugar has dissolved. Heat just until mix is hot and a small ring of foam appears around the edge. Next, transfer cream mixture to a pourable container such as a large measuring cup. Stir in vanilla extract and chill mix thoroughly, at least 2 hours. (Overnight is best.) Then, pour cold ice cream mix into an ice cream maker, turn on the machine, and churn according to manufacturer's directions, 20 to 25 minutes. Finally, when ice cream is softly frozen, serve immediately or place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the ice cream and place in freezer to ripen, 2 to 3 hours.

Thank you to Chef John at Food Wishes for the really great recipe....which might not be everyone's idea of how to make vanilla ice cream...or the exact ingredients either.

The second problem is that not everyone likes vanilla ice cream, as unlikely as that may sound to some of us. Some people even actually hate it on a personal level that, assuming they are not allergic, seems unfair to the point that if they would only just try it, they might like it. But no, stubbornness ensures this doesn't happen.

Going further, even those that like vanilla ice cream have specific favourites, be that the brand, the flavour, or even how it's served. 

For the rest of us, we're usually pretty happy to go with the flow and see which vanilla ice cream turns up after we've ordered it and make our decisions afterwards.

This extremely heavy-handed analogy is my way of explaining my reaction to GotG2 and my disbelief at some other reviews I've read.

Is GotG2 better than the first? In my opinion this isn't a fair question. Much better would be to ask if it's an enjoyable movie in its own right. This is because the difference in tone of the movie, the fact that the characters are no longer new to us, that the threat is more immediately galactic than the one posed by Ronan the Accuser, make the movie neither better or worse, just different. It's just the flavour the director chose to make this time.

I loved the first movie, I love this one equally. I found myself laughing more, I found myself considering some of the movie's themes more too. I think that where Groot and Rocket stole the first, no matter how arguably cute Baby Groot is, the star of this show is Drax and Dave Bautista was just born to play this part.

The movie has all of the Marvel points we've come to expect with the exception of any obvious tie-in to how they're going to meet up with the Avengers for Infinity War. We still have Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther's movie to come, but I just thought there may have been a nod to something. I need to watch it again to see if I missed it, hell, I want to see it again!

 I loved meeting new characters, I loved the music, I loved the whole damn thing from start to finish and I think most people who are able to put their expectations aside and just revel in revisiting these characters will do too. 

So remember, there are different flavours of ice cream. Enjoy them for their differences, try not to complain about why they're not exactly the same as the last one you ate.

The Discovery

#StokerScore 7/10

They say that one of the most alluring aspects of vampire movies is the immortality of the creatures, how they walk the earth for eternity in a party-loving way (The Lost Boys), in a tortured way (Interview with the Vampire), or a mix of the two (Byzantium). The same can also be said for time travel or searches for the Fountain of Youth movies as well as any number of adverts for anti-wrinkle skin cream that appear before the movie. Death both fascinates us and terrifies us, partly I suppose because of its inevitability and the screenwriters and directors know it too.

There are lots of films about death. Not Death as a character in movies like The Seventh Seal, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure or Meet Joe Black. I'm not even talking about the religious movies that show the linear or circular points of view that each religion follows. no, I mean death as a concept and what potentially follows. Movies like What Dreams May Come (1998), Flatliners (1990), or one of my favourites, 1946's A Matter of Life and Death starring David Niven. Some are well handled where others become lost in trying to explain the finality (or not) of our removal from this world.

Netflix, whose movies I have found to be a bit hit-and-miss, made The Discovery available yesterday and I have been looking forward to watching it. A great cast seem well placed in their respective roles, especially the age-less Robert Redford here playing a scientist who has found empirical proof of an afterlife. Rooney Mara is as enigmatic as ever, and even Jason Segel dials it down to play Redford's skeptical son. 

I generally found the movie to be quite slow in the first two thirds, only really coming alive, so to speak, in the final section. But with reflection I find myself thinking a lot about the movie, so that can't be a bad thing and it doesn't focus on religion, an area in which it could have become bogged down. Sure, it has its faults such as how some characters don't behave realistically and the science parts can seem a bit contentious, but as a thought-provoking movie that leaves you to make your own mind up about its philosophy, I enjoyed it.