My Final Review From My Last Big NYC Trip: The American Museum Of Natural History!

The Good: Affordable, Amazing displays, Educational
The Bad: Parking options can be annoying
The Basics: Affordable, educational and overwhelming, the American Museum Of Natural History is a cultural treasure for anyone in the United States.


For those who have ever wondered about the value of traveling to New York City, consider how many travel guides have been written about that city; they might well outstrip London, Cairo and Paris in the travel guide section of your local bookseller. And considering that my last trip to New York City was at the end of February/the beginning of March of this year and I am just now completing my reviews of places my wife and I went while there, this is certainly a testament to the sheer volume of activities New York City represents for the average tourist. Our final stop before departing New York City for Grand Rapids, Michigan was the American Museum Of Natural History.

The American Museum Of Natural History is a full day's worth of education and enlightenment in New York City and a real treat to experience over and over again at different times of life. In fact, outside the annoyances of getting around New York City and finding parking, the American Museum Of Natural History is a perfect museum! It is also worth noting from the outset that housed in a wing of the same building is the Hayden Planetarium. This can enhance anyone's trip to the Museum, for those who might be more interested in geology and astronomy, as opposed to the biology of Earth's many lifeforms.

Location

The American Museum Of Natural History is a mammoth museum in New York City which is over four stories of fossils, animal recreations and displays of humans of various timeperiods and cultures. These occupy a building at Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. This is midtown Manhattan essentially in the middle of the island. Given all of the one-way streets in this section of Manhattan, I highly recommend getting directions off something like MapQuest to insure you get from where you are to the American Museum Of Natural History.

Ease Of Local Transport/Parking

As the name of the street suggests, the American Museum Of Natural History is adjacent to Central Park and while Central Park West is a long street, one might have to circle the block several times in order to find a place to park. We visited the American Museum Of Natural History in the middle of winter and at two in the afternoon, we were actually able to find on-street parking within a block of the Museum. Feeding the meter gave us only two hours within the Museum, but we were able to move the car up a few positions after our first two hours expired.

Actually, when we first arrived at the Museum, we had figured there would be no parking nearby, so we parked about three blocks away. Again, given that it was midwinter, we found metered parking for over an hour. We lucked out and I suspect most people will feel compelled to either get to the museum ridiculously early, travel and park in packs or shell out for the Museum parking which is never going to be cheap. The one advantage of parking in the Museum parking garage is not having to worry about one's vehicle and the meter expiring. There is something of a buzzkill over having to break up one's experience at the American Museum Of Natural History to go out and feed the meters.

Activity/Purpose

Here, too, books have been written by others on all that there is to do at the American Museum Of Natural History, but this is a very traditional museum experience focused on the development of life on Earth as well as the rise of human civilizations. Dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, the American Museum Of Natural History experience begins on the ground level with a lobby that features the reconstructed skeleton of a giant dinosaur, flanked by two smaller ones. This immediately excited my partner, who was quite dismayed to realize that there were no velociraptors on display. Still, the presence of fossilized remains that are hundreds of thousands of years old standing strong in the lobby is incredible in and of itself. To see that, one need only walk into the museum, so even those just passing by ought to stop in for that!

The American Museum Of Natural History is a public resource and as a result, entrance into the museum is based upon a donation. While there are minimum recommended donations, this is a museum that was built in the populist tradition and anyone, regardless of economic status ought to come learn here and experience the Museum. This is a very traditional museum experience, though, in that visitors walk through the Museum reading, observing and coming to understand the principles being displayed. Most of the displays do not talk to the visitors and this museum is low on infotainment; principles on display are based on science and reason, not flash or ideology. While there are guides and walking tours, most visitors will find it valuable to walk through the museum at their own pace.

The first floor is dominated by models of various forms of life. Adjacent to the lobby, one walks through a mock-up of a rainforest, filled with replicas of birds and small jungle mammals. Near that is the room that drew our attention the longest; the Milstein Hall Of Ocean Life. The Hall Of Ocean Life is a massive chamber that actually goes down a floor that is packed with displays of every type of undersea life found in the ocean. In addition to a simple wall display with various fish and crustaceans displayed to give visitors an idea of size, scale and diversity, there are "tanks" on the main floor. There are no real, live fish or undersea creatures here, but each display is organized like a fish tank filled with display pieces of various creatures or segments of reefs, designed to give visitors an idea of just how diverse and impressive the undersea world actually is. One can see scale replicas of octopi, sailfish, sharks and whales. This is truly an incredible hall and there are movies played at regular intervals about undersea life. The Hall Of Ocean Life is a place one may spend hours just experiencing a very different world than ours on this same planet! We spent most of our visit here and on the top floor.

The second floor had limited appeal for us, as we were there mostly for the animal life displays and the fossils. However, anyone interested in the evolution of humanity and the various advances in culture and technology by different peoples throughout history will find this floor fascinating. It is dominated by environmental displays of New York State (which, given that we live near the Adirondacks was easy for us to pass by!), cases of Native American Indian cultures and artifacts and a few rock displays. This floor is dominated by wax and plastic replicas of different lifeforms and people. In the Northwest Coast Indians hall, there are wax mannequins of various tribes of Indians alongside actual artifacts taken from those natives. The mannequins are incredibly well made and detailed with lifelike details.

This floor also has the bottom level of the mammal room. The North American Mammal room features glass-protected displays - dioramas, if you will - of various animals unique to North America and the detailing on these is incredible. Each display describes the animals perfectly as well as their habitats. Each display has a map defining all of the creatures and plants within each diorama! This is a great way for visual learners to get all sorts of information on animals.

The third floor has the upper level of the Hall Of African Mammals, which is essentially a continuation of what was on the lower level of the same room. There is a similar room on this level with reptiles and amphibians and that is pretty incredible - and creepy for those not into reptiles! There is also a hall of birds and more primitive peoples on display in wax. We had little interest in the artifacts and maquettes from the pacific people, so we skipped much of this floor.

The top floor - that the public has access to - is of great interest to those who are interested in dinosaurs. The American Museum Of Natural History has one of the world's most extensive collection of dinosaur fossils in the world. The fourth floor is organized in a loop wherein one walks through halls of dinosaurs and extinct mammals in their remnant forms (these are not maquettes or models, only reconstructed skeletons. There are dinosaurs from various eras and species groups - Saurischian, Ornithischian - as well as skeletons of extinct mammals and the first vertebrates on the planet. Here, evolution is illustrated through fossilized records and the changes in the animal life are fascinating to see.

Dining

The American Museum Of Natural History has several places to eat, most of which were drastically overpriced cafes.

Shopping

The American Museum Of Natural History contains several a gift shops which sells educational souvenirs as well as the usual tourist swag, like t-shirts, stickers, magnets and the like. The gift shops also have books and biology and cultural resources as well. So, for example, on the fourth floor there is the Dinostore with resources specifically for dinosaur enthusiasts. The American Museum Of Natural History is not exactly a shopping destination within New York City, but it does have plenty of souvenirs and educational materials available for sale.

Overall

Given how much there is to do at the American Museum Of Natural History, it is a perfect museum and a must-visit location within New York City.

For other places in New York City to visit, please check out my reviews of:
Castle Clinton
Times Square
Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts

9/10

For other travel reviews, please be sure to visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the travel reviews I have written!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Huge Disappointment, The Longer The Informant! Drags On, The Worse It Becomes.

The Good: Moments of humor, Moments of concept
The Bad: Plot gets murky, Characters are universally unlikable, Acting is frequently bad, Pacing!
The Basics: Despite a good and entertaining start, The Informant! drags and becomes less funny and less interesting as it goes on.


[This was originally written in 2009, explaining the opening! Enjoy!]

Usually when I participate in a film screening, I come right home and eagerly write my review of the film I've just seen. I love being in-the-know early and sharing the scoop so that others may plan their weekends and the like. So it ought to say something that it has taken me until now to get up the enthusiasm to pen my review of The Informant! when I went to a screening on Tuesday night. Wow am I wishing I had not wasted the gas and time on that trip! The only thing worse than a bad film sometimes is having to drive a hundred miles to see it.

For those who have seen the previews for The Informant! they do exactly what preview trailers are intended to do; they sell the film and try to get people in to see the movie. Unfortunately, in the case of The Informant! one is likely to be left feeling like they have been swindled as it is made to look funnier by the trailer than the movie actually is. In fact, The Informant! is initially engaging, but it quickly belabors itself and falls into a long, humorless rut that becomes slower and much more difficult to watch. While the film is actually fairly short, my partner and I thought it dragged so much that she thought it was a three hour film, while I said it felt like a five hour endeavor.

In 1992 at the Decatur, Illinois Archer Daniels Midland corporate headquarters, Mark Whitacre is trying to solve a problem with a parasite inhibiting lysine production. The agriculture giant ADM is losing seven million dollars a month as the lysine problem stretches on and Whitacre gets a call from a Japanese scientist implying he has a way to solve the problem . . . for the right price. This act of extortion against ADM puts Whitacre in touch with the FBI and opens an investigation into the corporate practices at ADM. Whitacre reveals to the FBI that ADM is involved in a worldwide price-fixing conspiracy on corn production and the FBI begins to build a case against ADM based upon tapes that Whitacre makes for them.

But as the investigation reaches the level where litigation begins, the FBI and the Justice Department begin to have serious issues with Whitacre's credibility. Before a raid on ADM, Whitacre lets some key people in the company know the raid is coming and he even harbors the belief that if the executives of ADM are taken down, he will be made new CEO. Amid his delusions, Whitacre struggles to provide the FBI with facts and keep his family together.

The problem is that The Informant! is both slow and devolves from a caper on exposing corporate crime into a character study in delusion much the way A Beautiful Mind (reviewed here!) changes from a spy story into a mental illness tale. The analogy is not inapt and while Matt Damon is instantly engaging and funny as Mark Whitacre, the character becomes subsequently less interesting as the film progresses and the viewer witnesses his compulsion toward lying. Whitacre becomes difficult to empathize with and what is charming at the beginning becomes more annoying as the film goes on.

From the outset of The Informant! the viewer is treated to life inside the head of Mark Whitacre via voice-over. As various characters talk to Whitacre, he loses interest and begins thinking about indoor pools and travel and other things that are very much not in the moment. He blanks out at key moments when FBI Special Agent Brian Shepard is speaking to him and when his lawyer is asking him questions. And while they initially bring a smile to the viewer because of the non sequitors, the longer the film goes on, the more they distract from the flow of the movie. As well, they seem more out of place when the movie shifts from trying to amuse as a somewhat quirky corporate story to the character study of a man bogged down in a legal battle because of his actions. In other words, once the movie is not trying to be funny any longer, the voice-overs become an annoyance that tries to get back the attention of the viewer.

Outside Mark Whitacre, The Informant! is populated by characters that are entirely zeroes. All of the government agents are monolithic and lack any sense of quirk or character to make them interesting. In fact, there are few scenes with only the FBI agents or members of the ADM legal team and those scenes mainly fill in important plot points. Annoyingly, scenes that use some of the best potential talents are few and far between. So, for example, almost every scene that includes actor Tony Hale is in the preview trailer. In fact, it takes so long for Hale to enter the film, I had almost stopped expecting him to.

Particularly problematic is the use of Scott Bakula as Shepard. Bakula, who has proven he can act with charisma in films like American Beauty (reviewed here!) is particularly stiff as Shepard. Virtually all of his lines are performed with a dry delivery that make it difficult to watch him when he is onscreen opposite Damon's Whitacre he acts as a black hole into which all interest in the movie is sucked and destroyed. I understand that playing an FBI agent might not be the most exciting roll, but Bakula plays it as if it is the death sentence to his illustrious career.

Matt Damon does fine as Mark Whitacre, but he is saddled with playing a character whose journey takes him from fascinating to disappointingly droll in almost record time. Damon milks the role for all it is worth, but at times he reverts to familiar deliveries as he tries to make Whitacre funny. In fact, at one point in the film - despite the presence of the big bushy mustache - Damon channels his character from Dogma (reviewed here!) and delivers the line as Loki. Damon's performance stops being a decent foil for Bakula's lethargic impersonations of an FBI agent and director Stephen Soderbergh fails to get the best out of him.

As the peripheral characters fail to pan out and the movie treads into territory where the corporate crime investigations become peripheral to the character issues surrounding the unlikable Mark Whitacre, the film becomes progressively more boring. Sometimes, that's all there is to call it. The Informant! has a good start, but it gets boring and fast.

For other works with Patton Oswalt, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Blade: Trinity
Zoolander
Magnolia

4/10

For other films reviews, please be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all of my movie reviews!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food Is An Average Staple Food For Pet Rabbits.

The Good: Nutritious for rabbits, Relatively inexpensive, My rabbit eats it, Packaging keeps it fresh
The Bad: Not at all the most exciting food/never Daisy’s first choice.
The Basics: LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food is a decent staple food for rabbits, but not a food that is going to excite your beloved bunny!


It takes a lot to love Daisy. Daisy, for those who are not regular readers, is the black dwarf rabbit my wife and I bought two Octobers ago to replace our beloved rabbit Rowe, who was with us for way too short a time. Unfortunately, Daisy was pregnant when we bought her (unbeknownst to her or the pet shop from which we bought her). Following giving birth to a stillborn two Christmases ago, Daisy became irritable, handshy and an all-around pain in the ass. Still, I try to get her treats and good rabbit food. When I am feeling cheap or unloved by Daisy, I get her LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food.

There is nothing wrong with LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food; it’s just comparatively inexpensive and wholly bland. LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food is just a dry pellet food and Daisy eats it, but it is never her first choice.

LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food are a very simple pet food, devoid of any flash or flavors. The five pound bag runs us about five dollars locally and the food itself are gray pellets that look like compressed meal. The pellets are roughly cylindrical and are 1/8” in diameter. They are, at longest, half an inch long and many of them are broken to be quite a bit smaller. LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food easily passes the muster of our rabbit's taste test. By that, I mean that our finicky Daisy eats them. She also eats the Purina Rabbit Chow we purchased in bulk when we have that, but she is never enthusiastic about either.

Nutritionally, the LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food gives Daisy very basic nutrients. The pellet food is made primarily of wheat middlings, soybean hulls, and dehydrated alfalfa meal. The food has a guaranteed analysis which includes at least 13% crude protein and 3% crude fat, but no more than 22% crude fiber and 12% moisture. Daisy's size and shape have not changed significantly since we started feeding her this food.

It is exceptionally important that rabbits who are fed LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food Pet Rabbit food have constant access to clean, clear water as this is a dry food. It is also worth noting that LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food is noted to possibly contain peanut dust, so those humans with a peanut allergy may have to consider their own health when feeding this food to their rabbit.

Rather nicely, LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food Pet Rabbit food does not require any special care or handling. This rabbit food is dispensed from the five pound bag into a dish for the rabbit with no preparation steps necessary. The bag is resealable, but I am at a loss as to how one would know when this is not fresh!

LM Animal Farms Classic Pet Rabbit Food may be boring, but it keeps Daisy alive and that’s an essential element of any pet food. This is an excellent staple, but nothing more.

For other rabbit foods and treats, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
KT Bermuda Grass
Vita-Vittles Rabbit Food
Kaytee Fiesta Gourmet Food For Rabbits

5/10

For other pet supply reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"A Time To Stand" Finds The Federation In An Uncomfortable Position!

The Good: Character, Acting, Special effects, Plot
The Bad: Minutiae, A few niggling character aspects
The Basics: Three months into the Dominion War, the Federation is losing badly and “A Time To Stand” marks their most significant attempt to turn the tide!


If you have been reading my many reviews of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine right along – or my reviews in general, I suppose – it ought to be quite clear that I am a huge fan of serialized television. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine remains a real thrill for me because as the show developed, the story became more focused, more intense and designed to serve the characters than a plot-of-the-week. So, at the point that “A Time To Stand” comes up, the story is in its later chapters and characters have complicated relationships and secrets. It is impossible to discuss some aspects of episodes like “A Time To Stand” without revealing some of those secrets – most notably the secret I refused to make explicit in my review of “Doctor Bashir, I Presume” – because they are deeply integrated with this episode.

It also pleases me to mention that starting with this review of “A Time To Stand,” you are reading fresh, new Star Trek reviews! Through the end of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode reviews, the episode reviews are new and represent (I hope) a higher caliber of writing and analysis than many of my earlier ones. The reason for this is simple. I used to write for a website that I have since left. That site only had the episodes up through “A Call To Arms” (reviewed here!) available to review. Now on my own and unrestricted by their sales-based model, I can gladly write about the rest of the series! I hope you enjoy the analysis.

With the idea of higher, more regulated standards in mind, it is worth noting that ”A Time To Stand” is one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but it is not a perfect one. The tricky thing about “A Time To Stand’s” lack of perfection is this, as I sit contemplating it, I know it is not a perfect episode, but I find it ridiculously difficult to explain why. I know when I first saw the episode in college, the source of my disappointment was obvious. I read a review before seeing the episode where the reviewer mentioned how part of the reason the episode is so unsettling is that Dr. Bashir, who is usually ebullient and enthusiastic, appears so run-down that he does not smile the entire episode. I remember being pissed when I saw the episode and Bashir smiles several times. So, to get to it, “A Time To Stand” is a wonderful season premiere, but it is not a perfect episode.

The Defiant is part of a small fleet of damaged ships limping through space. Three months into the Dominion War and the Federation and Klingon forces are decimated, in a state of constant retreat according to O’Brien. While Bashir patches up Garak, he calculates their odds of defeating the Dominion, much to Garak’s annoyance. When word comes in that another Federation squadron has been pretty much wiped out, things look even more grim and the Defiant heads to a nearby Starbase for repairs and reassignment.

Where things do not appear nearly as difficult is on Terok Nor. While Weyoun harasses Dukat to get the Wormhole reopened, Dukat is clearly enjoying being in command of the station again. While Kira serves the Dominion forces as Bajoran liaison, she is upset by the situation and wants to act. She sees her opportunity when Weyoun expresses curiosity about how Odo is doing. Kira uses Odo to try to get the Bajoran security forces reinstated aboard the station. And at Admiral Ross’s starbase, Sisko and the Defiant crew are given a new assignment. Using a stolen Jem’Hadar attack ship, the Defiant crew will enter Dominion space to destroy a Ketracel white facility!

One of the real hallmarks of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has to be how well the show fits together. At the outset of the fifth season, there was an intense episode called “The Ship” (reviewed here!) where Sisko and his team hold the line the wreckage of a crashed Jem’Hadar ship. As my wife and I are finishing watching Star Trek: The Next Generation together, we have gotten into a somewhat amusing refrain which is, “And they never mentioned it again!” So many great ideas are brought up in Star Trek: The Next Generation that are never revisited. By the time “A Time To Stand” comes up in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine callbacks to prior episodes are to be expected. So, when the Jem’Hadar attack ship is revealed to Sisko, seasoned viewers of the show will appreciate where the vessel came from. “A Time To Stand” references “The Ship” in a single line without truly revealing the weight of that episode. Thus, the writers reward fans for sticking with the series as opposed to slowing down so everyone can catch up.

As well, “A Time To Stand” succeeds because there is a realistic amount of time granted to the premise and all of the characters are given something to do. So, for example, the StarFleet team trains aboard the Jem’Hadar ship for over a week trying to figure out all of the systems and get comfortable with them. This affords the opportunity for some wonderful comedy for Nog and Aron Eisenberg’s deliveries are wonderful. Similarly, when Sisko has a conversation with his father about Jake remaining on Deep Space Nine, the potentially oppressive episode garners a real smile from viewers. Despite a wonderful opening sequence where Garak delivers some amusing dialogue with Bashir, the fact that Garak assumes some responsibility on the undercover mission is a sign of development – and desperation for the StarFleet heroes!

On the character front, “A Time To Stand” certainly delivers. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has often presented characters who are edgier, troubled or conflicted. They are complex individuals and they do not always do the right thing, but they usually have a damn good reason for going against what is expected of them. In “A Time To Stand,” they are universally demoralized. Sisko looks exhausted, Bashir looks like he has not bathed in months and Dax and Worf are so on edge that when the Defiant and Rotarrn meet, their reunion is preoccupied with staving off an argument as opposed to genuinely embracing one another. On the station, Kira’s fearful declaration that it appears the Federation may be losing the war reverberates through the episode.

The least-affected character is Quark and his perspective allows writers Ira Steven Behr and Han Beimler to make an uncommon observation. The new occupation is comparatively not that bad and while Quark’s opinion may not be popular, it is hard to disprove and it is very much in Quark’s character to say! Armin Shimerman delivers the lines with a no-nonsense delivery that is amusing and perfectly in character. “A Time To Stand” has great supporting performances and it is an episode where Jeffrey Combs is allowed to establish a real rapport with Rene Auberjonois as Weyoun essentially prioritizes his allegiance to Odo over his relationship with Dukat. Marc Alaimo is wonderful, as always, as Dukat and Dukat’s smarmy attraction to Kira builds in a way that will (fortunately) lead to (unfortunately very creepy and) very real consequences later in the season.

“A Time To Stand” is a true ensemble piece and it paints the Deep Space Nine corner of the Star Trek universe as a complex and dangerous place. It is, therefore, no surprise at all that the episode is merely the first part in a longer arc. And with the way “A Time To Stand” goes out with a bang, there is a lot to encourage viewers to come back for the next episode!

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Sixth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the penultimate season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please be sure to visit my Star Trek Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Fleshing Out The Villains Of The DC Universe With A Lot Of Flesh, The Justice Poison Ivy Figure Is Very Fleshy!

The Good: Great sculpt, Amazing coloring detail.
The Bad: Poor balance when off stand
The Basics: The Justice Poison Ivy action figure leaves few places to hide joints, so is mainly brought down by poor balance.


As someone who has just started to collect some of the action figures from the DC comic book universe, it is worth being up front and admitting that I have a very clear preference for the figures made from DC Direct. Usually, the coloring and sculpts are superior to those from Mattel’s DC Universe toy line, which definitely has an advantage when it comes to figure articulation. But because DC action figures are for display and décor purposes, I am not so finicky on the articulation on them. It is, however, why balance is so important to me. I’ve been discovering that the DC Direct figure lines have a lot of recasts of the main heroes, but few of the villains. So, despite the fact that I was less impressed with the Justice Cheetah figure (reviewed here!) that I picked up late last year, when a complete set of the Series 3 Justice action figures came up at auction for a comparative steal of a price, I could not resist encouraging my wife to pick it up so she’d have many great gifts for the future. The first one she gifted to me, for Valentine’s Day (what a sweetie!) is Poison Ivy.

For those unfamiliar with Poison Ivy, in Justice (reviewed here!), she is characterized as an ecological extremist who wants to let plants run wild and overtake the world of Man. Teamed with Lex Luthor, Black Manta and Priscilla Rich (Cheetah), she is part of the public face of “villains” who reform to try to save humanity.

It is Poison Ivy naked save the ivy growing around her body, that is the subject of the Justice Poison Ivy action figure.

Basics

The Poison Ivy figure is exceptionally well-detailed and is a very cool sculpt. The artwork of Alex Ross translates nicely into the Poison Ivy figure as this Poison Ivy has depth and sculpted detailing for every little leaf and vine! The enchanting environmentalist stands 7" tall to the top of the figure's head. Her skin is very visible with vines of green ivy wrapping around her strategically. Poison Ivy is from DC Direct.

This toy is a truly great sculpt; for a character that has only had two-dimensional references, Poison Ivy looks good in all three dimensions. DC Direct did not make the character insanely busty; in fact she is one of the less endowed superhero figures I have ever seen, which makes some sense given how thin she is. DC Direct cast Poison Ivy in hard plastic, but then added soft plastic accents to the vines. As a result, there are four vines – two on her right leg, one on her right shoulder and one descending from her hair – that are made of soft plastic and are more flexible than the others! This helps her appear more three-dimensional and is a good touch. The figure is so detailed in the sculpt that the figure has fingernails and toenails that are visible!

This Poison Ivy figure has great coloring details as well. Poison Ivy's eyes are a haunting green that matches well the leaves and ivy around her body. As for that, Poison Ivy’s costume is not monotonal; each leaf has a vein, depth and shading! DC Direct offset the green of Poison Ivy’s vines with shocking red hair that looks awesome. DC Direct also got the coloring right on Poison Ivy’s skin tones, which is saying something because Poison Ivy is very pale and looks almost undead, but she is not just the precisely same shade of pink all over!

Accessories

Poison Ivy, dangerous ecoterrorist who only uses her feminine wiles that she is, comes with only her stand. The stand is a black and silver square that looks like a piece of flooring. It is 6" by 4.5” and 1/2” tall and it has a pair of peg holes spaced 2” apart. The pegs come with the figure and plug into the base and then into the hole in Poison Ivy’s right heel. Why there are two holes/pegs for a figure with only one foot hole I do not know. She is perfectly stable on her base.

Playability

The DC Direct figures were designed more for display than play. Unfortunately, Poison Ivy is a bit of a wash on the play front and the display front for anywhere but her stand. She has less articulation than most figures, but I like it in this case; she looks better than a near-naked woman who looks segmented from the various joints. What is worse is that her balance is absolutely terrible off her stand! Because of her sculpt with the legs close together, but with one foot raised as if taking a step, there is only one way to get Poison Ivy to stand flatfooted. Standing that way, on her own, Poison Ivy is almost impossible to keep standing. On her stand with her foot plugged into the base, she is perfectly stable.

Poison Ivy comes with only nine points of articulation, most of which are simple swivel joints. Poison Ivy has joints at the knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows and head. The elbows and knees are both hinge joints, but the rest are swivel joints, save the head joint. The head is on a ball and socket joint, but because the hair is so spread out behind her, there is almost no movement from the head joint allowed. She can nod about twenty degrees and turn her head side to side about ten. This is not the most robustly articulated figure DC Direct has ever made, but on its stand, she still looks pretty incredible!

Collectibility

Poison Ivy is part of the DC Direct Justice Series 3 line which was fairly uncommon, largely because it was mostly distributed through comic book shops. Poison Ivy was one of only two villains in the series and she might have been bought up at the time, but has not retained her value at all. Originally available in the $15 - $20 range, she is easily found in the $13 range now. This surprised me because in a toy line that contained yet another Green Lantern figure and a figure of Plastic Man, the fact that Poison Ivy (near naked woman!) would be the pegwarmer is absolutely astonishing to me. I’d hold my breath on this becoming a good investment figure, despite the fact that Wonder Woman and the Joker are the two figures in this set that seemingly everyone wants.

Overview

Poison Ivy looks great, though she has limited poseability and balance options. Still, the Justice Poison Ivy remains the best Poison Ivy to hit the market yet, which should thrill Batman, Justice and Alex Ross fans enough to be worth the buy!

For other DC Universe action figures, please check out my reviews of:
Blackest Night Blue Lantern The Flash
Justice League Classic Icons Wonder Woman
Kingdom Come The Spectre and Norm McCay

8.5/10

For other toy reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Intimate Ella Is Largely “The Indistinct Ella” On This Disappointing C.D.

The Good: Voice, A few lyrics
The Bad: SHORT, Musically and vocally monotonous
The Basics: While Ella Fitzgerald might be a master of tone and note control, The Intimate Ella presents only that, making for an unfortunate, monolithic listening experience.


As February races toward a close and I consider my Artist Of The Month, Ella Fitzgerald, I find myself overcome with mixed feelings. I know that whenever I hear Fitzgerald on PBS, I will actually have some appreciation for her talents. Moreover, I know I made some good recommendations on her recordings because I have listened to so many of her performances the past few weeks I have a pretty strong concept of which recordings were some of her best and which were just cheap compilations.

Unfortunately, The Intimate Ella is such a slow, dull musical outing that it falls closer to the latter than the former. However, this is not a compilation album; this is the c.d. version of the near-impossible to find soundtrack "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" (according to the liner notes). But given the preponderance of great collections out on the market and the diversity of Fitzgerald albums that exists, The Intimate Ella is just too monotonous and boring to recommend. Yes, this is the narcoleptic Ella and between being track after track the same, soft piano tracks without any variety, the album is much more likely to put the listener to sleep than engage them (it nearly killed my mother and I on a recent trip when I was driving at night!). And while this has some predictably amazing vocals by Ella Fitzgerald, the album is dull and sleepy and there are actually moments Fitzgerald sounds bored with it herself.

With only thirteen songs utilizing 42:32 minutes of space, The Intimate Ella is hardly a powerhouse using the capacity of the compact disc medium. Instead, this is a collection of songs that lack scope and the c.d. lacks it as well, making it even more tiresome upon replaying. As always, Ella Fitzgerald appears as the vocalist on the album, performing songs that were written by others. She is accompanied on this album by a lone pianist and she did not play her own piano, despite the way the piano and her voice play off one another perfectly. Her long-time producer, Norman Granz, produced the album, so Fitzgerald has very little creative control over what appears on this recording.

What the album does have more than many of Fitzgerald's albums is a wide array of writers. As a soundtrack, this album was packed with songs by talented writers and very few appear as writers for more than one track. The problem, though, is that they are all writing for the same gestalt and the result is that Fitzgerald is not given a great deal to work with to show off her talents. Moreover, the whole "one woman in the spotlight before a lone piano" sound wears out quickly and this becomes a collection of songs that sound more tired than audacious, presented in a tiring form.

For The Intimate Ella the uniformity of the tracks is a severe liability. This is a melancholy album and while one might consider something like this for accompanying a candlelit dinner, this music is more likely to put the diners in a haze and put them to sleep rather than get them feeling sensual.

This I blame those constructing the album for. Ella Fitzgerald has an amazing voice and on The Intimate Ella, she is presented as a professional, consistent soprano. In fact, it is only on the final track, "Reach For Tomorrow" that Fitzgerald exhibits real range. She goes low, she ends high, but she goes through her entire three-octave range on the song, making it instantly worthwhile. While the album begins with her singing lower on "Black Coffee," she stays low and sultry through most of it. The other songs, she is simply high and perfect-pitched. But because all of the songs are slow and melodic, this becomes quite boring to listen to, even for lovers of vocal jazz.

One aspect of Fitzgerald's vocals I have not addressed before that is worth noting - because it is displayed in a superlative fashion on The Intimate Ella - is Fitzgerald's vocal control. She is amazing at holding notes and on every song on this album, he holds notes with perfect pitch that most performers cannot hold even for a moment. The thing is, Fitzgerald is melodic and can string together long phrases where she is drawing out notes in a harmonic and hypnotic way and this album displays that incredible talent on every track.

This, unfortunately, is one of the drawbacks of the album as well. While the sound of songs like "Angel Eyes" is instantly impressive where Fitzgerald presents long, held notes, when the album quickly becomes an album where every song on it is doing only that, the listener tunes out; it becomes an unfortunate white noise. There are no quick bits on the album, not even one journey up or down the scales and the contemplative, slow quality to it makes it sound more mundane - especially upon repetition of the album - than extraordinary.

As well, because all of the notes are high and slow, some of the lyrics are rendered less articulate or clear than the ought to be. It took three listens before I actually heard the title line "I Cried For You" in that song because of how the song was presented! There are few songs on this album where the the lines are clear and Fitzgerald actually enunciates. Instead, most of the album flows together as an indistinct auditory sludge that sounds wonderful, but means little.

This is unfortunate, because some of the poetry is actually quite worthwhile, if not extraordinary! Having heard a few renditions of many of the songs, I have certainly heard more articulate versions of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby," but I've not heard any that have such raw soul as on The Intimate Ella. I can only imagine how much more powerful the song would actually be if one could understand her when she sang "I can't give you anything but love, baby. / That's the only thing I've plenty of, baby. / Dream a while. Scheme a while. / We're sure to find, / Happiness, and I guess / All those things you've always pined for" ("I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby"). I fail to understand why anyone would want such articulate lines obscured.

Of course, on this album that vocalization sometimes works perfectly to create the intended mood. The lines "When you're sad / It makes me feel the same as you... / Come to me my melancholy baby / Cuddle up and don't be blue / All your fears are foolish fancy, maybe / You know, dear, that I'm in love with you . . ." ("My Melancholy Baby") truly reach their full expressiveness with her slow, sad presentation of them. Fitzgerald might be presenting the words of artists who write for her, but she does it quite well for most of the album. Again, one wonders why those making the soundtrack wanted her to drag the lines out in such a way that they are often almost indecipherable.

And some of the lyrics are not particularly extraordinary. "September Song" is fairly repetitive and its uncomplicated rhymes of "Oh, it's a long, long time from May to December /
But the days grow short when you reach September / When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame / One hasn't got time for the waiting game / Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few / September, November / And these few precious days I'll spend with you / These precious days I'll spend with you" make the listener tire from it fairly quickly.

As a result, The Intimate Ella comes across as one of her less sophisticated albums, despite possessing the trademark voice and the clear ability that makes her a master at her craft.

The best track is "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby," the rest of the album pretty much flows indistinctly together.

For other works by Ella Fitzgerald, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Ella And Louis
Ella At Duke's Place
Ella Fitzgerald With The Tommy Flanagan Trio
Shine
Ella And Louis Again
That Old Black Magic
Starlit Hour
Love And Kisses
Day Dream: Best Of The Duke Ellington Songbook
Oh, Lady, Be Good! The Best Of The Gershwin Songbook
Pure Ella
Flying Home

3.5/10

For other music reviews, please be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing of all of my music reviews!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Of The Best Dried Fruit Experiences Ever! Peeled Organic’s Banan-A-Peel Impresses!

The Good: Very nutritious, Decent shelf life for an organic product, Very flavorful
The Bad: They cost more than other dehydrated bananas
The Basics: The Peeled Organics Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks make up for their expense by providing a flavor that is incredible.


As I work to improve my health, I have discovered that fruits and vegetables are important to my heart health. I know, that probably sounds stupid, but with my current diet, I am rewarded for actually having dietary fiber and one of the few things that helps me get up to my daily allowance of it is fruit. Lately, that has been taking the form of Peeled Organic dried fruit, like Banan-A-Peel, which might well be one of the best dehydrated fruits in the Peeled Organic line!

Tasting amazingly like banana and allowing one to ever forget about the existence of crunchy, disturbing banana chips, Banan-A-Peel is a delicious organic fruit worth stocking up on!

Basics

Peeled Organic is a relatively new fruit snack company that is doing good work for both the environment and personal health. Using no preservatives, Peeled Organic strives to present the healthiest possible dried fruit to customers and, as the name suggests, does so using organic farming methods.

Banan-A-Peel is almost just what the name suggests; a bag of dehydrated organic banana slices! The dehydrated fruit chunks are supple, not hard. These will immediately make one forget about dried banana chips. They are not covered in a coating of sugar, not hard and actually taste like real bananas! The Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks comes in a 1.40 oz. stiff plastic bag that is not resealable.

Ease Of Preparation

Banan-A-Peel fruit packs are simple to use. Simply open the bag and remove the fruit from it! There is no trick to eating Banan-A-Peel; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Opening the bag of Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks, is a delightful olfactory experience. With the bago opened, the banana aroma wafts out and captivates the nose. I began salivating when I smelled these and I was surprised because I am not the world’s biggest banana fan or anything!

It’s a good thing I started salivating! The soft, slightly brown fruit chips came alive on the tongue, but they started very dry with their initial flavor. The Banan-A-Peel slices are banana without the excessive water, so the mostly-dehydrated pieces of fruit are sweet and rich in flavor, as opposed to dry and somewhat tasteless. With the dryness of the dehydrated fruit fast fading, the Banan-A-Peel fruit snacks take on one of the sweetest tastes I have ever enjoyed and it actually made me wonder how I had never really contemplated the flavor of bananas before!

These fruit snacks are sweet and delightful and leave no aftertaste in the mouth.

Nutrition

Banan-A-Peel organic dried fruits are an all-natural snack, with no preservatives or added sugar. Given that the ingredient is organic bananas, there is nothing hiding in them that will surprise consumers. These have a shelf life of about nine months, so they are not bad for stocking up on if you eat a lot of fruit. The package we got on the last day of January (2012) expires on October 5, 2012 (or it would have had I not devoured the contents of the bag in a single sitting!).

Each 40 gram serving of Banan-A-Peel has 150 calories, none of which come from fat. There are two grams of dietary fiber and 25% of your RDA of Vitamin C. Outside that, there are no significant nutrients in a serving, though there is 2% of one’s RDA of Vitamin A and Iron. They are gluten free and were packaged in a facility that processes nuts, dairy, wheat and soy, so those with applicable allergies ought to keep that in mind.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Banan-A-Peel will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is sealed, one suspects they will last that long anyway. Because I only got enough to review, I am not worried about keeping these fresh! They come in, they go right back out!

Cleanup is simple as well. Banan-A-Peel dried fruits are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Simply toss out the plastic bag and cleanup is done! I would, naturally, be happier if there was a way to recycle these plastic bags.

Overall

Banan-A-Peel is a fruit snack that is easily one of the very best fruit snacks I have ever had. It is likely to thrill anyone who loves bananas, but loathes the sticky, messy peels!

For other Peeled Organic fruit snack reviews, check out my reviews of:
Cherry-Go-Round
Apple-2-The-Core
Pine-4-Pineapple

8.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Scarlett Johansson Wows Me (For Only The Second Time) With The Perfect Score!

The Good: Interesting plot, Funny, Well-acted, DVD bonus features
The Bad: Light on character
The Basics: Funny and surprisingly not entirely predictable, The Perfect Score uses a young(er) Scarlett Johansson well as a disaffected girl who helps steal the S.A.T. answers!


Say what you will, but sometimes surprisingly good movies come out of unlikely sources. Every now and then, I find myself surprised by the quality of a movie that seems like it would underwhelm me. MTV, for example, does not have a great track record of making films that are anything more than fluffy entertainment for teens. While they might have a niche market with stoners and Gen X and Y folks who have short attention spans, MTV Films has yet to create an enduring piece that will survive in the annals of great films.

Still, they have made a surprisingly solid film with The Perfect Score. Despite the obvious double-entendre in the title, The Perfect Score - a film about high school Seniors stealing the S.A.T. answers from the manufacturer - is wonderfully unpredictable in many ways. Sure, there are some obvious reversals and romantic subplots, but the real surprise is that a film starring Chris Evans - arguably the low point of The Fantastic Four movies on the acting front - could be as good as this ends up being. As well, for those who know of my general boredom and loathing of the works of Scarlett Johansson, The Perfect Score garnered a groan from me the moment I realized the hot chick in it was being played by Johansson, but this ends up as the second work she stars in that I would actually enthusiastically recommend.

Kyle has a dream of being an architect and as he nears graduation from high school, he realizes that despite his talents in all of the right areas, he might not make it to Cornell's architect school because of his poor performance on the pre-S.A.T.s. Kyle and his love-struck sidekick, Matty, (who is dating a woman attending the University of Maryland and needs to get in there to continue his relationship) become convinced that the only way they'll get into their respective colleges is by stealing the answers to the S.A.T.s and acing the exam. As luck would have it, they live near the center where the tests are made and the daughter of a high-level executive at the company is a discontent classmate of theirs. Kyle and Matty enlist Francesca, who is skeptical about the plan but seems content to go along with it anyway. The group is joined by the class stoner, Roy, who overhears Kyle and Matty talking about the job while getting high in the bathroom.

After a dry run that finds Kyle accidentally shredding the answer key, the class salutatorian and the high school's most promising jock join the team and a better plan for stealing the plans is devised. The sextet breaks into the company after hours and the caper puts them all in jeopardy of losing everything . . . or acing the exam that will determine their futures!

The Perfect Score is fun and it succeeds best when it is not talking down to its audience. Unfortunately, the target audience does appear to be the stoner crowd and young people in general. This compels the writers to have the class salutatorian, Anna, define herself as "the second one" as opposed to "salutatorian" when Francesca berates her for being valedictorian. We can handle a higher level of diction and it undermines Anna's character - who is an overachiever under a lot of pressure from her parents to perform - that she does not speak with a better vocabulary.

Conversely, no one is quite as convincing in their character as Darius Miles as Desmond Rhodes. Miles plays the basketball player looking to get into college on an athletic scholarship, but has coasted for years and is looking at the S.A.T.s as a potentially devastating blow to his potential career. Miles wanders through the film like a zombie and when he speaks, his lines are seldom intelligible, perfectly portraying a jock who has coasted as Desmond.

Impressive, though, are the talents of the rest of the cast, though one has to feel bad for Erika Christensen, who plays Anna Ross. Just as in Traffic, Christensen is used as a poor man's Julia Stiles, so much so that I was shocked when the closing credits rolled and the actress was Christensen instead of Stiles. Director Brian Robbins uses her exactly as any other director would use Stiles and to her credit, she fills the niche perfectly. Anna is, in many ways, an archetype as opposed to an actual character - the highly-pressured girl whose family has her future charted out for her - but she adds nervous ticks like lip bites and blank stares that work for her and her character.

The humor in The Perfect Score is almost entirely delivered by Leonardo Nam as Roy, who narrates the film. This is not exactly the type of movie that demands a narrator, but Roy sets the plot up well. In addition, he is a pretty skeezy stoner and as a result, he is able to deliver the most absurd moments - like attempting to seduce an executive with the lamest moves possible - quite well. Most of the comedy is made up of uncomfortable awkward moments and blank stares being interrupted by the delivery of absurd lines. There is a little physical humor in the movie, most of which is presented by Nam. He manages it well and he's funny as he runs along trying to keep his baggy pants on.

Equally convincing are Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as Kyle and Francesca. Evans adeptly plays along the cliches of teenagers feeling like their entire future is about to be decided out of their control and he plays Kyle with a wonderful self-absorbed quality that makes his character seem very much like the teenager he is supposed to be. But it is Scarlett Johansson who performs above and beyond. Having watched a lot of Johansson's works, The Perfect Score offers her the chance to present one of her most expressive performances of her career. Ironically, given the chance to play more open roles, Johansson seems to shine when she is playing repressed outsiders. Here, though, she has a muted performance that is filled with a dry with that perfectly compliments her character's outrageous outfits.

What makes The Perfect Score worth going back for are the bonus features on the DVD as well as the fact that the movie is far less predictable than one might have initially guessed. On DVD, the movie has deleted scenes, a commentary track and featurettes that explore the development of the film. The movie is fun and funny and it has a surprising amount of depth for a movie built on cliches.

That, of course, makes it original and originality deserves praise. And attention.

For other works with Chris Evans, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Captain America: The First Avenger
Push
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four
Not Another Teen Movie

8/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized list of all the movies I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Arguably The Worst Casino In Las Vegas, The Eureka Is A Dismal Spot For Locals!

The Good: Well, we won money there. . .
The Bad: Atmosphere, “Atmosphere,” Staff, Game selection, Everything!
The Basics: Hands down the worst casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and the worst casino I have ever been in.


Last year when I went to Las Vegas, I had what I thought would be the most unpleasant experience I could have at a casino at the Hard Rock Café Casino. That was the only place I went where the patrons were drinking themselves to the point of throwing up on the floors (literally, very gross) and there was nothing I could find redeeming about it. However, this year, when my partner and I went to Las Vegas, we discovered a new bottom of the barrel in the Eureka Casino. The Eureka Casino, despite what its name might imply, is not a thrilling place to gamble. Instead, it is unclean, the workers are unhelpful and my partner and I got ahead quickly and got out.

Despite winning at the casino, we both swore to one another we would never return and we look forward to making good on that promise the rest of our lives. If you've never been, fortunately you may avoid the Eureka without feeling like you are missing out on any essential Las Vegas experience!

Eureka Casino: came in with $5.00, left with $20.00. Fast.

Location

The Eureka is a tiny casino located at 595 Sahara Ave in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the section of Las Vegas off the Strip. In fact, Sahara Avenue is perpendicular to the top of the Strip near the Stratosphere and Sahara casinos. Unfortunately, this is in a more urban part of the city where urban decay is very much the state of things. The Eureka Casino is situated between abandoned storefronts and brick buildings covered in graffiti. My partner and I arrived on a Saturday night and felt queasy about leaving our car in the parking lot out back.

The Eureka Casino is right off Sahara Avenue and looks like a little restaurant with about seventy-five parking spots in the back.

Size/Atmosphere/"Atmosphere"

The Eureka Casino is a tiny casino in Las Vegas, guarded at the front and back by a single security guard each who looks bored. My partner is fairly young-looking and while she was checked out, she was not carded getting into the Eureka. The Eureka is decorated like a hotel lobby and feels like an abandoned bus station. There are only about five hundred video slot machines in the building on a single level. The place looks like a family restaurant from the outside and the backside of Jabba's Palace on the inside. The entire gaming floor is in one room and it feels cramped.

The ceilings are low and this was the smokiest casino I have ever been in. We stayed for less than half an hour and by the time we walked out, not only were my clothes saturated with a noxious tobacco smell (and my shorts were sticky in back . . . gross!) but my throat was dry and raw from the concentration of cigarette smoke. My partner is an ex-smoker and when we left, she made the comment that it is places like the Eureka that are likely to keep her from ever going back.

As for the "atmosphere" of the Eureka, there is none. I don't recall seeing any servers (there was a bar within the casino). The cage workers were wearing sweatshirts and smoking, the casino had no hook, no gimmick. In fact, more than any other place we went, the people playing the slot machines looked zombified and miserable. No one appeared to be having a good time. Instead, this seemed like a gambler's graveyard and a home of lost souls and a place oxygen goes to die.

Gaming Options/Player's Club

I have a very simple gambling philosophy: I sit down at a slot machine with $5.00. I work it up to $10 or down to zero. I know my limits: I can afford to lose $5.00. So, when I am above that, I'll usually work it up or whittle it down to the next even $5.00. I had a tough time even bothering with my philosophy at the Eureka, because I wanted to get out of it so quickly. I gave my $5.00 to my partner and she sat down at "I Dream Of Jeannie" and turned it into $20 and we left as soon as we could.

The Eureka is plagued by old machines. While the bulk of them were penny slots, few were distinctive and none were new. This casino had the older model of "I Dream Of Jeannie," "Wheel Of Fortune" and games like Stinkin' Rich, Crystal Enchantment (a personal favorite that was not paying out for me that night!) and Texas Tea. There were only two or three of each machine and the room was organized in a buckshot approach with the outer walls lined with video slot machines and then islands of machines haphazardly strewn throughout the casino.

For those who might be into games of chance and card games instead of the fun and controlled reinforcement of video slot machines, you're out of luck at the Eureka. The Eureka Casino is video slot machines only.

There is a player's club at the Eureka, but we were not able to join it. Seriously. My partner and I went to the cage to sign up and were told that unless we were a local and would be back within a month, there was no reason to sign up. They wouldn't even let us sign up for the novelty of it. The Eureka, apparently, offers incentives only to locals or those who will return to this dive within a month.

Entertainment Options

The Eureka Casino has no room for any entertainment, though there are televisions above the bar.

Dining Options

We went to the Eureka Casino after eating our nightly buffet, but considering how everything in the casino seemed to be coated with a sticky film (I used hand sanitizer for several minutes after returning to the car!) we weren't about to eat or drink anything here. There was a bar island in the casino and we were told there were dining options, but we did not see anyone eating. Several people were drinking, though we did not.

Shopping Options

The Eureka has no shopping options.

Overall

Small, dismal, smoky and sticky, the Eureka Casino was the most unpleasant place I went in Las Vegas and one of the few places on Earth I would never want to return to again. Avoid it as if your health depends upon it!

For other casino reviews, please check out my takes on:
Mystic Lake Casino
Mount Airy Casino
Palace Station Casino

1/10

For other destinations to visit, be sure to check out my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the places I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Second Season Of A Great Show Maintains Perfection With NYPD Blue Season Two!

The Good: Excellent acting, Great character development, Decent extras, Generally good plots
The Bad: Plots begin to take on formulaic spin in this season
The Basics: With excellent acting and great characters, the second season of NYPD Blue continues a tradition of outstanding achievement and lasting greatness.


Sophomore seasons for a television show are difficult, especially if the first season of the show was fabulous, groundbreaking, and/or started something of a phenomenon. Thus, the pressure on NYPD Blue (outside whatever behind the scenes difficulties leaked into the media) was pretty tremendous going into its second year. The boxed set DVD collection of NYPD Blue for the second season is a real treat as it illustrates the rare achievement of a show that started out with a bang continuing to fly high.

The second season of NYPD Blue finds the 15th Precinct immediately under siege. With the trial of Janice Licalsi in full swing, Detective John Kelly finds himself under investigation by Internal Affairs. Pressured about his role in concealing evidence, Kelly is forced to resign, despite the efforts of Sipowicz and Fancy. Sipowicz is paired up with a new detective, Bobby Simone, who works to become Andy's friend. As they adjust to being around one another through several cases, Medavoy and Martinez pair up (professionally) while Medavoy and Donna Abandando continue their on-again, off-again relationship.

NYPD Blue prides itself on being a character-driven show and the second season continues the trend of putting the characters up front as the most important aspect. More important than the cases these detectives solve is who the detectives are and how they go about solving the crimes. In the second season, this is how the characters evolve:

Licalsi - Her trial is resolved quickly and Licalsi goes on her merry way, without the merry,

Lesniak - A new, young female detective who catches Martinez's eye arrives as a real professional who is attempting to keep her work and personal lives very much separate,

Diane Russell - Arriving near the end of the season, she is introduced as a smart detective who also has a serious drinking problem,

John Kelly - Suffers the consequences of standing by the woman he loves,

Donna Abandando - Finds that her love for Medavoy is not enough to change the nervous man and she initiates a painful breakup with him,

Martinez - Grows as a detective, now without Kelly. Paired with Medavoy, he starts to become his own man and tries to show that to Lesniak,

Medavoy - His paranoia over having such a good thing as a relationship with Donna surfaces, causing him to spy and lose everything. Outside that, he finds himself going a great deal of good in the City and growing even more as a detective,

Sylvia Costas - Still an ADA, she gets even closer to Andy to the point that when he proposes to her, she finds herself headed toward the aisle, even as she is forced to deal with difficult incidences from her own past,

Fancy - Gets the son he's always wanted and finds himself having to defend both his squad and his brother as he illustrates how competent he is at being the boos of the 15th Squad,

Bobby Simone - Arrives as a widower who has ties to the media which force him to re-evaluate his life. Partnering with Sipowicz compels him to be levelheaded and methodical, but he has his own issues and when Diane arrives, he finds his life even more complicated,

Andy Sipowicz - Still arguably in the shadows of another cop (now Simone), Sipowicz keeps sober with the help of a sponsor, deals with another big loss in his life, and gets both a new partner and a solid love interest when he and Sylvia move in together and decide to take the big plunge.

As with the first season, NYPD Blue finds the second season immersed in murky territory with an impressive number of moral questions being asked and a rather practical approach to the world as it works. NYPD Blue is possibly the show wherein the good guys win the least amount of times. That is to say that while often the 15th Squad finds the correct perpetrator, justice is not always served. For example, after two episodes wherein Simone attempts to catch a serial killer, his suspect is murdered while going to trial. Similarly, as Andy gets entrenched on the road to sobriety, his sponsor's mentally ill son comes back into his sponsor's life.

NYPD Blue continues its tradition of being daring television. Even beyond the language and nudity, the second season of the show pushes the boundaries of what may be talked about and shown on television. For example, in "Double Abandando," one of the most disgusting killers of the entire series is revealed to be a man who knowingly infects women with H.I.V. The episode raises the social conscious about a serious problem and reflects on the lack of consequences in such a case. It's a real eye opener.

And then, of course, there is the nudity and language. The nudity does not seem so gratuitous as it may have in the first season, save in Bobby Simone's first episode, "Simone Says," where writer David Milch admits he lobbied for nudity (in the form of the police investigating a photographer's studio while many people are posing naked) because he knew that the show would be drawing a lot of viewers anyway. The nudity and language do not seem so extreme now, either because of how this show changed television so a lot of this is not shocking today or because I have grown up. Still, it is definitely not kid's fare.

In addition to very realistic, complicated characters, the second season of NYPD Blue captivates using intriguing storylines that are not usually predictable. Some of the interesting cases the 15th Squad must investigate include a homicidal, lecherous chiropractor, a gypsy scam artist, a young man whose approach to meeting women is to send them death threats, a case that depends on the testimony of a woman who wants Simone to love her, and many, many murders. Add to that a side adventure where Sipowicz conceals that a detective died in a prostitute's bed and you have an interesting season!

Part of the reason this series is so engaging and has endured as long as it has it in the quality of the acting. NYPD Blue has a phenomenal cast and many argue that the ensemble that begins with this second season is the strongest (I tend to argue third season and the current one, which is season eleven). These are all professionals and they truly hone their craft here in the second season.

Among the supporting cast of people like Gail O'Grady (Donna) and Nicholas Turturro (Martinez), two actors stand above the rest. Gordon Clapp continues to progress Medavoy into a likable, decent man with a very human range of flaws. Clapp humanizes much of the show making it easy to connect to the bigger, sometimes frightening world that NYPD Blue portrays by playing Medavoy as an emotive man who is competent, but fearful. Clapp's ability to stutter and his use of body language sell the audience on one of the most intriguing characters in the series.

The other standout of the secondary cast is Sharon Lawrence as Sylvia Costas. Lawrence does a phenomenal job of selling the audience on the unlikely pairing of Costas and Sipowicz. Lawrence uses her ability to have her eyes emote a loving expression, her body language to play cool and confident and her voice to be almost parental to add depth to a character who began the series as someone Sipowicz could yell profanities at. Lawrence infuses the relationship with real chemistry and is utterly convincing as the Assistant District Attorney.

Dennis Franz continues to impress as Sipowicz. Perhaps Franz is the luckiest; the expectations on him are not to simply show up and look good, so the show tends to emphasize his character and as a result, he gets a lot of great material. In this season of the show, Franz continues to expand his ability to act by presenting Sipowicz as both a curmudgeon and a guy who has a heart. What Franz does so well is to present dialog that most actors would find reprehensible or complicated with an ease that convinces us it is all his character. That is quality acting.

And in the second season, Jimmy Smits exploded into the series as an acting force to be reckoned with. More than simply the good looking man that many might assume he was cast for, Smits backs up the looks with soothing tones that easily connote a caring man. Smits plays Simone as an intriguing combination of clever and forceful, striking a balance that Sipowicz does not have. Smits seems to take great joy in opening up a place for wry humor in the series, using his eyes to laugh when it might not otherwise be appropriate. As well, Smits can turn on the best of intensity when he plays Simone in interrogation scenes, making his performances possibly the most rounded of the characters this season.

Essential for anyone who loves great drama, those who are not fond of police shows should not be intimidated by NYPD Blue. The second season continues the trend of using a cop show to push the borders of what a family drama can be by mixing crime solving with family-style drama (with the squad essentially dealing with similar problems that a family has behind the scenes and separate from the crime solving).

Fans of NYPD Blue will enjoy the extras this boxed set has. Several episodes have commentary and though David Milch is somewhat of a washout giving commentary (he sits and repeats Sipowicz's lines and adds little else), the rest of the people are pretty interesting. The behind the scenes interviews are both confusing and interesting. On the subject of David Caruso's departure, the information seems to contradict what was said in the first season bonuses (i.e. that Steven Bochco pre-emptively fired Caruso in anticipation of him not wanting to come back due to movie roles, which changes now with Caruso being difficult and wanting to leave on these discs). But the endearing moments are seeing people like Sharon Lawrence and Gail O'Grady talk about the show. Though both actresses eventually left the show, they talk about NYPD Blue as a great experience and in glowing terms. Lawrence, especially, has a particular love of the show that she illustrates by speaking in quite an educated fashion on all sorts of episodes, including scenes she was not even in. It's refreshing to see celebrities excited by the show that made them stars as opposed to trying to distance themselves from it.

This DVD set does not have deleted scenes and it is doubtful that any exist; perhaps one of the most intriguing things about watching these episodes is seeing how much longer the running time of the episodes was then than it is now. Maybe one of the signs of the greatness of this show should come from the Nielsen's; season two was so good that they had to start cutting out programming time to make way for more advertising. A real classic and an essential addition to anyone's DVD collection.

For other works with Jimmy Smits, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The West Wing - Season Seven
The West Wing - Season Six
Revenge Of The Sith
Attack Of The Clones

10/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing of all of my television reviews!

© 2012, 2007, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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