Eric Mills

Earlier today or yesterday, depending on where you are in the world, Esquire magazine listed their top 6 movies for “foodies.” [link] A foodie is, among other things, an epicure, a person sensitive to the enjoyment of food and drink. Now, not only does the list almost totally neglect drink, it doesn’t even list one of the BEST movies of all time for foodies: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Esquire’s #6, “Tortilla Soup” is not only a second rate knock off of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, it lacks the dramatic undertones of Hong Kong women and their progressive struggle for greater independence, how this struggle is an allusion to Hong Kong’s relationship to mainland China, and then China’s relationship to the world. My god, who came up with this list, and how did they leave this movie out?

I’ve been using DVD Decrypter for months and months now and I haven’t created a coaster yet. Many people are familiar, perhaps, with DVD Decrypter’s role in RipIt4Me, or as a stand alone ripper, but little known is the program’s ability to burn an image file (.iso). That’s it. Rip your DVDs and compress them however you want (try DVD Shrink — and sometimes DVD43 allows DVD Shrink to overcome a shortcoming) and rip / compress your DVD to an .iso file, then burn with DVD Decrypter. Oh yeah, and they’re all free (as in beer) programs.

Sidewalks of New York garners only 6+ ratings from IMDB. I thought it was a great movie, and if I were to rate it on that site, I’d add 8 or 9 stars. It’s in that ineffable class of film weaving relationships, adultery (which does seem to make some of the best dramatic dialogs), metafilmatic post-scene interviews, and some raunchy humor. The best thing to do with a movie like this, that many critics disown, is to compare it to other movies that I liked enough to remember. Here you go:

• Me You and Everyone We Know
• Raising Victor Vargas
• 2046
• Marie Antoinette
• Wit

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why Nine Lives isn’t on that list, it’s because Sidewalks is better.