From Del Taco:
Aside from Philadelphia, Santa Fe might just be the most name-checked city by fast food establishments. It theoretically gave us the best chicken sandwich Carls Jr. ever attempted (wholewheat bun, large green chile, chipotle sauce, cheese…yeppers) and now it presents, in name only, the Del Taco Santa Fe chicken soft taco. They could have been generic and labeled it “southwest,” since anyone who regularly eats this stuff knows that corn + black beans = “southwest,” but no, the Del singled out a city. But that’s okay. As a city, this isn’t a bad connection, more akin to Philly with the cheesesteak than Bangkok to underage male sex slavery.
From Wendy’s:
To the non-faithful: did you ever wonder why the promotion of fish sandwiches always kicks into high gear around February? I know I did. Until a Catholic friend explained that it’s because of Lent, 40 days during which the Commies…uh, I mean Catholics, tend to stop eating red meat. I would swear that such a thing is un-American, except that I assume JFK observed the tradition to some degree, and that’s one guy whose patriotism you can’t impugn.
And so, as you may have noticed, Del Taco is bringing back the shrimp taco, lazy-ass Taco Bell is adding nothing new except a big sign that points out which of its regular menu items have no meat, and the burger joints are busting out the fried fish sandwiches. Of all these latter places, Wendy’s seems to be the most desperate to impress – theirs is not just a fish fillet, but a PREMIUM Fish Fillet.
Art-house movie release NORTH FACE:
NORTH FACE takes place in 1936, as Nazi Germany prepares to host the Olympic games that Leni Riefenstahl will become famous for filming, and Jesse Owens will own Aryan ass at. Needless to say, puffing up national pride is a huge priority, and one aspect of this involves the Eiger, a sheer face of rock in the Alps that has yet to be climbed successfully. “Eiger,” we learn about halfway through, is a name derived from “Ogre,” and so many have died in the attempt that Swiss authorities have posted signs insisting that it no longer be tried.
Back in Berlin, fat-cat newspaper editor Arau (Ulrich Tukur, who you’ll recognize if you’ve ever seen any German films: THE LIVES OF OTHERS, THE WHITE RIBBON, AMEN…stateside, he was in the remake of SOLARIS) is desperate for a triumphant mountain climbing story, lamenting the fact that “Die-hard climbers die easier than you think!” But it turns out his intern/secretary/something Luise (Johanna Wokalek) happens to know two insanely determined climbers from the small town where she grew up, a pair by the name of Toni (Benno Furmann) and Andi (Florian Lukas). Both are a part of the German army, but keep skipping out to go rock-climbing. Since Hitler hasn’t gone on his major invasion-spree just yet, it seems their conscription is not ironclad, and when a frustrated officer basically tells them it’s his way or the highway, they quit.
And woof woof: it’s THE WOLFMAN:
Casting Del Toro in the lead role brings a different dynamic than the original; however, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, he seems potentially sick and psychotic from the get-go, which is explained by a new backstory about how Talbot did time in a mental institution. It’s a forgivable addition, although director Joe Johnston falters slightly when depicting Talbot’s hallucination sequences, using cheap dissolves and superimpositions that seem creaky compared to the rest of the movie. Casting Hopkins and failing to rein him in at all is a similarly dubious call.
