Time's Top 10 Worst Movies of 2012

Time Magazine has sacrificed itself and apparently watched at least 10 really bad movies this year. All of them had their premieres in our part of Europe, but almost all are doomed to be rather DVD or P-P-V hits. What is kind of interesting, is that those movies star some of really good actors who have lost their way at some point, or just have bad advisors. It's hard for me to judge, since I haven't seen most of these features, and now I probably never will. Nevertheless, if a friend wants you go go to the movies, consult the list beforehand, for your own good. Full list here.

10. "One for the Money"
Who's in there: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara.
Why? Well it seems that the producers in all their wisdom thought that if a book is pretty successful, there can also be a decent film made out of it. One mistake: Janet Evanovich's book wasn't that good either.

Bakery: Vanilla Cheesecake

This delicious cheesecake is also one of the easiest ones. Most of the ingredients only require mechanical activities, like blending or mixing. You don't need to separate egg whites from yolk, or beat the whites to make the cheese puffy. The cheese layer is rather liquid, due to the addition of double cream. But even if it is really liquid, after the baking process, it is as solid as any other cheesecake. One more remark, in the original recipe from Moje Wypieki there is just 450 g of curd cheese. That is far too little for my taste, and so I doubled the amount of all ingredients (remembering to double the baking time as well, it was about 1 hour 20 minutes). Also, because I don't have the required vanilla extract, I used sugar with real vanilla in it instead. It was perfect. English version of the recipe here by Jennie Shapter, who took it from Gordon Ramsay apparently - yay! Gordon's here!

"Warsaw under Construction" Exhibition

"Warsaw under Construction: City for Sale" is an exhibition entirely devoted to advertising in Warsaw. Outdoor advertising, to be precise. People from other countries might not be aware of that, but outdoor advertising is actually a huge problem in the city. It deprives us from nice views, it disfigures and deforms the buildings, is responsible for utter lack of atmosphere to the otherwise beautiful capital city. Personally, I can understand movie or theatre posters around, but huge billboards with clothes, cars, banks make me really nervous, to say the least. Several movements have acted against it, and the exhibition is a part of the social response to the politics of aesthetics of the city. An important voice of the urban-dwellers. Too bad "Warsaw under Construction" ends on December 9th 2012 already...
SAY NO TO OUTDOOR!!!
Official link.

"Easy Money" by Jens Lapidus

Jens Lapidus, the author of "Easy Money" ("Snabba Cash") is a Swedish criminal defense lawyer. By this sole fact he already caught my attention. Then there came the Swedish blockbuster movie "Snabba Cash" with Joel Kinnaman as JW, directed by Daniel Espinosa in 2010. By this time I knew the book may be an interesting one. And I wasn't wrong.
"Easy Money" is basically about the Stockholm underworld. Drug trade, prostitution, pimps, guns, mobsters and the "big world" of business, golden boys and girls, fancy clubs. The language of the novel is usually rather literal, a lot of cursing and swearing, but it only makes the story more realistic. I couldn't help but wonder whether Lapidus himself wasn't involved in any way with some of the plots he writes about. His JW comes from poorer parts of the Swedish society, but with his wits, entrepreneurship skills, looks and charm, he manages to trick everyone into believing he is someone better. Well written first novel. Fast, gripping, a good thriller. No wonder it has been translated into the movie language and a successful film. Just wait and see the Americans show up, make their own version. Oh wait, no - actually, Warner Bros. already holds rights to the story and is set to film soon, starring Zac Efron as JW, I presume. What a waste.

Jens Lapidus

Bakery: Bounty Cake

This was a very special birthday cake for a dear friend. It was supposed to be just like in the recipe, but I thought it might be too sweet for the occassion, so I modified it a little. The recipe in Polish you have here and the same, in English, here (it's Nigella's!). The modification is this: I just used whipped cream. Simply, to me, the cream proposed in the recipe was a little too difficult to make, it required raw egg whites which I didn't necessarily find particularly tasty. I guess I was right there. But, without the pineapple-coconut cream on top it isn't really a "bounty" cake. Of the pineapple-coconut cream proposed I only made like 1/3, and put it on top of the first layer so that the whole cake wasn't too dry. The result was nevertheless gorgeous.

New York Film Critics Circle Award

New York Film Critics Circle Award is one of the most prominent awards given by one of the most prominent professional society there is. The Circle was established in 1936 and started giving out its Awards, which is just 7 years after the first Oscars were awarded. That is one of the reasons why is it of such importance to have a look at this year's winners. Obviously, since the Oscars is a commercial party for masses, the Circle Award should celebrate the art of making films, and so it does. In my opinion, most of the motion pictures recognised by the NYCC might not stand a chance of winning an Oscar, which, according to  the popular belief is still (and unjustly) the crown jewel of all awards.
Even for that purpose it is important to list the winners.

New York Film Critics Circle Award 2012:

Best Picture: ZERO DARK THIRTY
"For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal unite for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man." (distributor's material)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, Mark Duplass
Review.

European Film Awards 2012

Although Michael Haneke's "Love" has caused relative stir among audiences around the world, noone would have guessed, that it might get so many awards in Europe this year during European Film Awards 2012. Especially not when so many other wonderful movies have stood against it for the main prizes. To me, a fanatic of Mads Mikkelsen and Thomas Vinterberg dream duo ("Jagten") or Michael Fassbender - Steve McQueen's "Shame" it came as a surprise that none of these films actually got the most important nods. Hopefully this march for awards does not end here for them, it might only be a beginning of a wonderful journey for recognition. If you wish to have a look at the whole list of nominees, it's already in the blog here. Variety writes about it as well, The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian follow.

European Film 2012: "AMOUR" dir. Michael Haneke
Director: Michael HANEKE for "AMOUR"
Actress: Emmanuelle RIVA for "AMOUR"
Actor: Jean-Louis TRINTIGNANT for "AMOUR"