Daniel Ovalle

Staff Writer

Hello B-Movie fans. This past week I preformed a service for you all. I watched the entirety of the movie Stupid Teenagers Must Die (). Now let me begin by saying that no one, apart from the friends and family of the production team, should ever watch this movie. The horrible acting, dialogue, story, shots, and special effects continuously echo the fact that is movie is an amateur effort. If you have been reading the past B-Movie Breakdowns then you would notice how I try to work as a champion for the bad or independent movies out there. They are often funny with hidden wit, social commentary, or silliness that is not available in the more serious and higher budget movie efforts. I love independent and low budget efforts and would always rather see a passion filled project. That said it in no way pains me giving this movie the score of 0/5, it is simply that lackluster.

If you have the misfortune of stumbling across this stinker do not be fooled by the description. You may expect a Scream () like self referential slasher film or even a Scary Movie () or Screech, I Know What You Did Last Friday the 13th () style parody. If this is the case, you sir (or madam) would be disappointed and should just re-watch one of those movies. Generally Stupid Teenagers Must Die will disappoint on all fronts. There are no redeeming values to this, but for the sake of entertainment (and as a means for me to wash the bad movie taste out of my mouth) I will Breakdown (get it, that’s the column’s name) exactly why this movie is this bad.

Let’s start with opening credits. The music is the first atrocity to offend your senses. The soundtrack’s early 90’s synthesized beats are already dated. It is repetitive and simply does not fit the mood that seems to be intended. As this bore is accosting your ear holes your eyes will be offended by the pompous crediting of the actors involved. After each actors name is credited a screenshot from the actor in the upcoming movie is flashed on the screen. This only serves masturbatory purposes. No one other than the players involved would want to see the name and face connection. It seems that they were attempting to emulate the style of the opening from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show.

Speaking of television, these actors could not cut it in the lowest rent, most local, crap, UHF (very good movie), TV program. I have seen better acting on Spanish Tele-Novellas. Each character was crafted as a slasher film parody, but they played their parodies poorly. I could see what they were trying to accomplish and their failures were not funny, only sad. Lines are constantly telegraphed, but never enough to be defined as campy. I can only define it as butts. The acting was butts.

Let’s get to the story. It is common fair for the Slasher genre. Here is what happens: stupid teenagers doing stupid things in a haunted house which attracts a ghost who reanimates dead bodies to cut up these teenagers. Not too original, but this type of horror is supposed to be somewhat predictable. What advances these slasher movies is supposed to be the gore and special effects. The effects depicted though are of a middle school student’s weekend movie project quality. Usually when a film does not have the effects chops to display real gore they choose to tone it down and be more subtle. This was not the case with this movie but it is not surprise. They failed to make a good choice throughout.

This movie is surprisingly available for purchase and rent on DVD. The quality is generally very poor (obviously intended for VHS). Please do not watch this movie.

Daniel Ovalle is a Science, Technology and Society senior and can be reached dovalle@njitvector.com

Lori-Ann Sciachitano

Distribution Manager

Food: ****

Atmosphere: N/A

Service: !!!

Price: $

Distance from Campus: .5 miles

Address: 677 Broad Street

Website: http://www.planetwings.com

Sometimes there is a rainy day, and sometimes on those rainy days we here at the newb don’t want to leave The Vector office. So we decided to review a delivery place and let you our loyal readers know that while we like to promote students going out and exploring Newark, sometimes it’s okay to support local restaurants from the comfort of home. With about six of us wanting to eat we decided we wanted to try something that would give us a variety of flavors for a reasonable price and Planet Wings was a great choice in that sense with over 24 different types of sauce to put on you wings.

The delivery was okay. When we called to place the order they said the order would be to us by 4:30. At 4:30 there were no wings. We called and asked when our food was going to be delivered we were told that the food was leaving the restaurant. The food finally arrived in about 20 minutes though all the food was still hot enough temperature wise. Though to be fair we did order about 60 wings.

We tried 6 of the 24 different sauces. Our favorite was definitely Parmesan Pepper.  The name is exactly describes. It was a really unique non-spicy flavor. It was the first one to go out of all the flavors we tried. Another good non-spicy flavor was the BBQ Teriyaki. It was sweet and tangy; it had a more teriyaki flavor than a BBQ flavor. There was one non-spicy one that was good but had some room for improvement. The Gourmet Garlic wasn’t too garlicy. We were really expecting to have garlic breath for the rest of the night, but didn’t get that here. On the spicy side our favorite was the Hot. It had a very slight sweet flavor but a really good kick of heat, but not to hot to bring tears to your eyes. Like with the non-spicy ones, there were a few spicy ones that disappointed slightly. The Medium was way to mild; it definitely could have used a little more heat. The biggest disappointment was the Cajun. There were two members of our group who had both spent time in Louisiana. The flavor could have been spicier; it didn’t have enough of a Cajun flavor. Some of the members liked the flavor though felt that the name didn’t fit the flavor.

We had some side items and a dessert along with it. The sides we had were curly fries, biscuits and onion rings. The fries were your generic curly fries but were able to keep crispy while being packaged up. The biscuits were a good texture and had a slight garlic flavor to them. Though the garlic flavor was lost with the other flavors in the wings. A little more garlic would have went along way. As well, they didn’t include butter, which was a bit of a disappointment. The onion rings were great. They were big and thick. The onions on the inside were cooked really well, which was impressive due to the size of the onions.

With the dessert we had a similar issue with the name of the item. We ordered what on the menu was billed as Peach cobbler. While the crust that was part of the cobbler had a really good texture, it was not in the traditional way that cobbler is made. Cobbler is generally made with fruit on the bottom toped with a crust and baked. This was more like a pie with crust both on the top and bottom and cut like a piece of pie.

All in all for a take out experience it was pretty good. We ordered over 60 wings with 3 sides and the dessert all for about $10 a person. It was definitely a tasty experience, and the only thing that could have made it better was a couple of ice-cold beers.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano is a junior Science Technology and Society major and can be reached at distribution-manager@njitvector.com.

Monica Pajdak

Staff Writer

This past week, the Rutgers-NJIT theatre program held its production of Autobahn, by author Neil LaBute. Directed by Louis Wells, the play featured a series of seven scenes taking place between pairs of actors.

Each scene begins in the middle of a conflict and then progresses to slowly reveal the exact nature of that conflict and the history of the characters affected by it. This structure is not entirely unfamiliar. I can’t say how many times I’ve sat in the front seat of a car with someone I was in the middle of an argument with only to be subject to a kind of forced development to the situation that, no matter what, fell short of resolution.

Such development without resolution is exactly what we see in Autobahn, and even though the conflicts in the play are much darker and squirm-inducing that your everyday squabble, the arrangement does make the wild circumstances presented in each skit relatable.

Neil LaBute once said, “Hidden in the back seat of a sedan, I quickly realized how deep the chasm or intense the claustrophobia could be inside your average family car.” Deep chasm and intense claustrophobia are exactly the feelings clearly portrayed by the cast in each of the situations presented.

In the scene “Funny” viewers see the development of a relationship between a mother (Janelle Zapata) and her drug-addict daughter (Sam Glovin), who sharpens the divide between them by openly admitting that she would do everything in her power to relapse while nobody listens to the mother cry wolf.

In “Bench Seat” claustrophobia kicks in as a young man (Scott Kesselman) finds out about the psycho-stalker activities that his girlfriend (Jessica Santos) engages in with the last guy who dumped her.

In “road trip” we see a Driver’s Ed. Instructor (Jonathan Noto) taking his teenaged student (Marjani Smith) off to a cabin halfway across the country, who in her helplessness can do nothing more than sleep it off in the front seat until the car ride is over and she has no choice but to face the circumstances.

The striking scenarios in this play are nothing less than of the highest impact, and the actors’ abilities to fully and effectively convey their stories with little more than dialogue, silence, and a limited amount of time really attests to their skills as artists.

Considering other aspects of the play’s execution, mostly everything was done very well. The stage was set up with a movable, makeshift car behind which was a projection of footage of the road traveled. I can’t say I always followed the decision made with the footage.

For the most part, the settings established in the film were fitting to the scenarios, but one of the playlettes has a sort of split screen film behind it that sometimes matched up between sides and sometimes didn’t. I didn’t exactly understand the stylistic choice there, and it was a bit distracting, but otherwise all was well with the lighting and effects.

As usual, the set design was very immersive, with some props spilling over into the house, drawing the viewer s in all the more into the scene. I also really enjoyed the music and sound choices.

All in all, the production was very well executed and had a lot of impact. As any good production should, the show left me thinking about the plots and theme long after the play was over.

Mike Nusspickel

Web Editor

The NJIT-Rutgers theater group hosted a short play cycle by the name of Autobahn by Neil Labute over the weekend, an interesting and deep play that isn’t for everyone. Those who would enjoy it, however, will find it deep and extremely meaningful, and I applaud the theater group for yet another masterfully put on production.

You walked into the theater not quite knowing what to expect, finding yourself looking at a rather plain set with unusual pieces, with random car parts strewn about, and a mock front seat in the center, and this is where the entire play cycle takes place. Autobahn is not a play in the typical sense of things, in that its more a series of short stories, all taking place during a car drive, as the notes put it, ‘halfway from where they’re going from.’

What this setting allows is a highly realistic look into a situation we’re all familiar with: conversations in a car. There is something about this setting that we can all relate to, the idea of being trapped in a conversation you can’t get out of. What Autobahn does is drop you into these conversations with no context, the context of which you discover as you watch, learn, and listen to the characters, watching intently.

The show alternates between monologues and dialogues, although the monologues are not true monologues in that they’re talking to someone, who is simply either silent or whose response is unheard, and given only through expression. Our first glimpse, for example, is of a young woman speaking with a driver, whose relation is unknown to us at first. Is it her sister? Her mother?

As the speaking woman continues, we learn our first bit of context, in that she is being picked up from somewhere by her mother. Where, again, is unclear, vague just enough for the imagination to start up, and put in some of our own context, until we are given that last bit of information that it is some sort of rehabilitation center.

This sort of subtle introduction of the context of the situation we’re dropped into repeats itself each time, working in different fashions, such as the dialogues, which give us the information at the pace of two people interacting in the way we’re used to.

For example, the second dialogue gives us a scenario where a rather nonchalant woman appears to have been raped and is discussing with her husband, but we learn more and more through the drive that she not only consented, but that it was, in fact, not the first time such an event had occurred.

Although, even during the dialogues, each character has some quirks that we’re not used to, and facts are revealed more and more as the play goes on in a masterful portrayal of the darker side of the human condition. What you watch isn’t a play with much of a story, but people, with problems of the everyday, and issues that range from the simple to the deep, complicated, and sometimes utterly disturbing.

The play simply needs to be seen to truly understand, as it is not something with a simple plot, or a simple way of telling its stories. It uses language and body language as its defining features, something not usually found in plays where you have multiple characters, an arcing story, and a simple formula to follow.

The NJIT-Rutgers players once again wowed me with their ability to do a range of emotions and in this case a play that was so unconventional it impressed completely. I highly recommend the play as a read, and if you can ever find the play performed, to see it, if only for a change of pace.

Monica Pajdak is a Biology sophomore and can be reached at mpajdak@njitvector.com

Mike Nusspickel is a Computer Science sophomore and can be reached at mnusspickel@njitvector.com

Matan Shavit

Entertainment Editor

Kick Ass is a fantastic example of an action movie. It’s jam-packed with awesome fight scenes, and not lacking in the plot department. The acting supports the script well enough, but the real hook is the action.

Kick Ass tells the story of the comic book nerd Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) who wonders why people do not attempt to be super heroes. We soon find out why, as he attempts to be a vigilante justice fighter in a wetsuit, getting stabbed and run over in the process. What’s special about him is that when he gets out of the hospital, he keeps trying to do it.

This is both endearing and inspiring. The message immediately becomes that true heroism comes from dedication to a cause, not necessarily some tragedy or lab accident. The fact that Kick Ass doesn’t need some precipitating factor in order to take to the streets and start kicking some ass makes the audience feel like they could do it too, if they are only willing to take a mere sever beating.

Lizewski turns out not being the only costumed crusader. Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) is a mysterious and tragic vigilante reminiscent of Batman. His Daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) is fascinating and unprecedented. There is something strangely compelling about an eleven-year-old wielding dual butterfly knives and taking headshots at a room full of mobsters.

The main villain is a Mafioso (Mark Strong) who all the masked vigilantes end up crusading against. He has a stereotypical “mob boss” personality, and is almost likeable n until the ending scenes of the movie. In these, he reveals himself to be truly loathsome, someone you can root for the good guys to beat up.

Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is a rich kid and a comic relief character. He is silly and has no strength of personality, but he provides a human look at the difference between good and bad. The other characters stand out as paragons representing either good or evil, while Red mist shows he is capable of both. In other words, he is the relatable one in at  least that sense.

The best reason to see Kick Ass is for the fight scenes. If you don’t like massive violence, get a ticket to something else. The draw of Lizewski being a typical teenager sows through in his inexpert fighting style. The clumsy yet passionate flailing is both hilarious and surprisingly realistic.

These spastic street fights contrast a much cleaner style found in the pro vigilantes. Big Daddy may just be another expert fighter with a black costume, but Hit Girl steals the screen in her scene. She uses techniques that are honed and masterful, yet still has the precarious movement of a pre-teen. If for nothing else, go to see a significant number of scenes in which a little girl kills a room full of armed gangsters.

What starts out as a very original concept unfortunately delves into a typical super hero movie toward the end, with unreasonable fight scenes and all too well timed combat choreography. Even though suspension of disbelief is somewhat broken as the movie enters the final fight scenes, they are visually stunning.

The visuals in this movie are fantastic, in that they are sufficient to wow, but not overdone or gaudy. Too often, a movie leans on its CGI effects and lacks any substance. In Kick Ass, the graphic effects are used to compliment the story and the action, not to overshadow it. In this, they succeed in greatly improving the movie without drawing attention from the story or the characters. Mostly reliant on clever fighting, the movie more heavily features character strength and agility, with the effects acting as backup.

As far as humor goes, there are just enough jokes to frame the story light heartedly and cartoonishly. Don’t expect to be belly laughing every scene, but it’s not too much to ask for the occasional and consistent chuckle. Visual jokes and little puns add to the excitement and keep the mood up.

Overall, Kick Ass is great action film with excellent fight scenes. The acting and writing are both solid, and is trickled around the fighting just enough to make the whole thing captivating and thrilling throughout. It’s definitely worth seeing theaters, maybe even multiple times.

Kick Ass is in theaters now.

Matan Shavit is a Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Junior and can be reaced at entertainment@njitvector.com

Lori-Ann Sciachitano

Distribution Manager

Food: ***

Atmosphere: ! ! ! !

Service: @@@@@

Price: $ $ $

Distance From Campus: 1.5 miles

Address: 99 Monroe St

Website: http://brasiliagrill.com/

When trying to figure out where to go for a Newark Newb sometimes it takes thought. Sometimes it may take awhile to describe where you want to go or what kind of food it is. This week when I invited a friend to come along with me the only words I had to say were “Wanna get some meat?” and immediately he knew what I was talking about. Rodizio is a traditional Portuguese where the waiter comes around with different types of grilled meats. Brasilia Grill in the Ironbound is a bright yellow building right off of Ferry Street. When you enter there is a rustic feel to the restaurant that makes it feel that you have left the city and landed in a large country estate. The walls are painted with country landscapes and exposed dark brown rafters.

The drink options are expansive from house made Sangria, gurana soda to fresh squeezed juices the choices are endless. We tried two juices passion fruit and guava. The passion fruit was very thick and had a great mix of sweet and sour. The guava juice was a bit thinner but still had a great flavor to it. They have full bar as well serving draft beers and traditional mixed drinks. The bar also has a seating area for meals as well.

While rodizio is an expensive meal it is well worth the price. With an open salad bar having both hot and cold items from traditional salad, fresh fruit, rice, beans and collard greens this alone makes the $18 completely worth it. There was one let down, there was fried whiting which was very tender but there were lots of bones spread throughout which made it difficult to eat. After we picked a few side items out the meat began coming. The way rodizio works is different types of grilled meats are brought out on skewers and sliced fresh for you enjoyment. From skirt steaks, rump roasts, and prime rib, to delicious spicy sausage, chicken pieces and chicken hearts. The meats were perfectly seasoned and for a lot of them there was a choice between rare and medium rare.  The two favorite items we had was the sausage and the chicken hearts. The sausage was definitely made with natural skin that was crisp and enhanced the flavor of the sausage itself.  Chicken hearts were something we’ve never tried before. They were tiny pieces of meat that had an interesting chewy texture and had a slight irony after taste. Which was really enjoyable. The thing that made this all worth it is you can eat as much meat as you stomach can handle.

All in all the Brasilia Grill is a great place; it’s easy for a large group or a small intimate date. The price is slightly high for a college budget but again it is all you can at including salad bar and the meat. I would recommend visiting the salad bar minimally and concentrating on the variety of meats available.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano is a junior Science Technology and Society major and can be reached at distribution-manager@njitvector.com.

MONICA PAJDAK
STAFF WRITER

I went in to see Clash of the Titans expecting it to be something along the lines of Kingdom of Heaven trying way too hard to be Lord of the Rings – Lord-of-the-Rings-like just for the epic-ness of it, and Kingdom-of-Heaven-ish for the quasi-historical “plot”.

What I got, though, was a little bit different. Watching the first twenty minutes of it, something just didn’t seem right. At first I blamed it on bad acting, but then I realized that the acting for the most part wasn’t terrible. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the minor characters seemed more like they belonged in Monty Python than in a more serious action film, but I would say that the major players – Perseus, Io, the company – they weren’t terrible. Not great, but not bad enough to ruin a movie.

No, the problem here was the scripting. It was clearly written with a modern tongue. Today’s curse words, colloquialisms, and constructions wormed their way into Ancient Greece, and that just threw things off a bit. There were instances when it was effective, making superpowers and demigods seem like every-day phenomena, but for the most part it was distracting and kind of annoying.

That little detail aside, I’d say the movie overall was pretty good. The plot was a little slow toward the end of the movie, but it started out well, balancing suspense with quick pace very well. It slowed down considerably about an hour into the movie, though, and the ending – when it finally came – was entirely predictable, but such is pretty much always the case when you deal with Greek mythology, so it’s forgivable.

And even so, everyone knows that you don’t go watch Clash of the Titans to see a beautifully crafted plot complete with conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution. You go to see fights, explosions, and epic feats complete with high quality graphics and fantastical images. And the movie delivers in that respect.

Yes, the ending was a bit lame. Yes, there wasn’t too much dialogue. Yes, I figured out the ending as soon as we got through the beginning. But when I saw Sam Worthington slash his way out from the inside of a giant scorpion, that didn’t even matter.

In all, I would say that this movie is worth going to see. I don’t feel like it was a waste of my time because even without the things mentioned, it was still very entertaining. You just need to go into it knowing that it’s a little plot deficient, and that some things were a little awkward in execution.

Don’t expect it to be Avatar or Lord of the Rings. Make peace with the fact that the storyline isn’t what the movie is all about. Once you’ve done that, you can definitely expect to be blown away by some great graphics and incredible creatures. The three witches, Medusa, the Kraken – they’re all in this, and they’re all some pretty amazing works of digital design. That and the action alone make it good enough to work without all those other elements.

Monica Pajdak can be reached at mpajdak@njitvector.com

Daniel Ovalle

Staff Writer

Shock (1946) directed by Alfred L. Werker grabbed my attention for featuring Vincent Price. For anyone who doesn’t immediately recognize the name, (shame, shame) Mr. Price was a Superstar of the B-Movie genre. He was featured in over 100 movies and television shows between the 1940’s and 1990’s and he has one of the most recognizable voices in all of cinema. Younger movie/pop culture fans might recognize him from Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) where he played the inventor (aka. Edward’s Dad).

I would watch anything with Vincent Price (or Vincent Price’s voice) in it. His presence screams old school horror/thriller.  Shock is in no way Price’s best film. It simply cannot compare to The Fly or The Masque of Red Death, but it would not disappoint any thriller fan. To sum it up to a rating Shock earns 3.5 out of 5 Wicked or Wacked out Women .

Why a Wacked out Woman? Well, this 1946 B-Movies plot follows a young woman who, after witnessing an act of domestic violence which ends in an accidental murder, falls into a state of shock (get it). Her only hope is a skilled doctor (Price) who was luckily staying in her hotel. Unfortunately this doctor happens to be the man she witnessed killing his wife. What will he do to make sure she cannot tell what he has done?

Why a Wicked Woman? In classic old horror fashion this movie addresses a major theme. Most of the Sci-fi, Horror, or Thriller movies of the forties commented on Man’s fears on new technologies, nuclear war, or their own internal demons.

Shock though focuses on mans greatest danger of all, the influence of an evil and sexy woman. All the blame for the good doctors evil actions are attributed to his mistress, a nurse who works at his clinic. She is portrayed as the seductress who pulled him away from his wife. Then after the fight and accidental murder she is the one who convinces Price to cover up his actions. Throughout the film the doctor grows to doubt and finally fight against the will of this evil seductress. Will he overcome the hold and come clean or will he kill again for his mistress? You may be shocked to see what happens!

Throughout the movie Price adds his usual flair to his exterior monologue. The “State what you are thinking aloud” tactic is a mainstay of this period’s B-Movies and as always Price’s performances make this movie worth watching. If you can find this movie it is a must see for Price fans (but really we should try to watch all his movies). All others can pass on it until you try one of his better films. May I suggest next week’s B-Movie Breakdown… The Fly (1958) which will be accompanied by a review of the David Cronenberg remake.

Interested Parties can find Shock as a bargain bid DVD coupled with another Vincent Price vehicle, The Bat (1959). It is also for rent from Blockbuster and Netflix.

Daniel Ovalle is a Science, Technology and Society senior and can be reached dovalle@njitvector.com

Frank Minichini

Staff Writer

I stumbled upon a link on YouTube, a video about showing the game play of a Sonic hack called Sonic Megamix. This trend in classic gaming of hacking into games making them more challenging and fun is pretty interesting. Many hacks of games have been released in the past as well, such as the extreme hard version of Super Mario World for the SNES.

Not only these games have added difficulty, some hacks include brand new graphics, sound, and music.  Most hacks are pretty much brand new games with the old engines revamped. In this case, Sonic the Hedgehog Megamix is probably the best Sonic hack I’ve ever played. One reason being, Team Megamix (the group behind the project) ported this Sega Genesis hack to Sega CD (aka Mega CD/Megadrive for international readers).

The hack is distributed in an ISO format which can be burned to a CD and booted with the actual console. I’ve played both versions on the console and using an emulator. The console version pretty much makes you feel like you are playing Sonic the Hedgehog on some s ort of crack drug in a very good way.

The hack is split into three modes, Normal, Original, and Extra mode (which is unlocked by completing Normal mode through the continue option). In Normal mode, you get six brand new zones revamped from the original game along with 6 brand new special stages.

Extra mode is a special mode that isn’t really as complete as stated by the authors of the game; it is a mode that allows you to play the 4th act of each zone from Normal mode. It is incomplete because Misty Maze zone Act 4 is completely impossible to finish properly.

Original mode contains the original levels from Sonic the Hedgehog slightly altered so the new characters are playable.

New characters? Yes, you not only can play as Sonic, but you also can play as Tails, Knuckles, Mighty the Armadillo (from Knuckles Chaotix for the 32x), and Shadow. Yes, Shadow the Hedgehog from SA2 in a Sega Genesis game. How freaking awesome is that? Not only you can play as these characters, but they all have special moves, which can be used with the ‘A’ button on the Sega Genesis controller.

I won’t spoil all, but Sonic’s light speed dash is in the game. They also all have the ability to become super after collecting all the chaos emeralds and by getting 50 or more rings.

Another special thing about this game is that you can have these characters play in the original Sonic the Hedgehog game, which means one thing: Knuckles can finally be a playable character in Sonic 1.

Some new music has been added to the game, most of the tracks however are taken from other Sega Genesis games, and older versions of the hack contain a special track called Radix Run by one of the authors of the hack. One interesting thing is some zone music’s are by Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker for the Sega Genesis. I’m just speechless, in a good way. I love MJ.

Overall, the game hack is very fun to play and I think everyone should get a chance to try it out. Legally to play the game, you should have a legit copy of Sonic the Hedgehog in your possession, due to the fact the game was built originally off of Sonic 1.

Frank Minihini can be reached at fminichini@njitvector.com

Lori-Ann Sciachitano

Distribution Manager

Food: ****

Atmosphere: ! ! ! ! !

Service: ****

Price: $ $ $

Distance: .7 miles

Address: 37 Commerce Ave

Website: http://www.foodforlifesupreme.com/index.html

Before ever entering Food For Life I had seen the exterior during closed hours and thought that it was a very interesting looking place. There is a large sign on the exterior exclaiming Food for Life, giving the passerby the ability to know that there is an interesting eatery inside.  The outside is painted with a creamy orange with a darker orange flower pattern. The inside of the restaurant has as much appeal as the outside. The floor is tiled with different types of tiles. Ranging from traditional creams and browns, to a mosaic of rocks.

The walls are decorated with large murals of tropical flowers. The individual paintings on the walls were created by students in Newark schools from ages 6-18 about what their concept of food is.  The staff is very friendly and very knowledgeable about the food they are serving. Any question that I had the server was ready with an answer. Even the cook staff was really pleasant and asked how the experience was.

As for drinks, Food for Life has a selection of bottled beverages, their own blend of teas and coffee. One of the highlights is that they have their own fresh made blended smoothies. The fruits used in the smoothies are all grown on Food for Lifes’ own farm. The two flavors they had were mango and strawberry; the fruits were blended to perfection with slices of the frozen fruit garnishing the top.

The cuisine at Food for Life is a fusion of classic American, Asian, and Tex-mex favorites with a twist. When you order a Cuban sandwich instead of the traditional roasted pork and ham, the Food for Life version is a fillet of salmon with banana peppers, pickles and Swiss cheese. The BLT instead of the magical meat made of pork is made but what is known as Nautical Bacon. The meal that I had was the fried whiting with 2 sides. The coating was crispy with just the right amount of spice, and the whiting was tender and flaky. The serving sauce was a spicy creamy mix that went really well with the spice combination of the coating.  As for sides there was a great mix of sides from carrot fries, green beans and mac and cheese. For my sides I had the smothered potatoes that were long thick slices of potato sautéed with onions and green peppers; and candied carrots that were thick coins of carrots coated with a buttery mix of brown sugar and cinnamon.

As I finished the meal the server came up and informed me that they were having a customer appreciation and giving free vanilla ice cream cones. Even though the ice cream was the only thing not made by the company it still tasted good.

One of the best things about Food for Life is not only that 99% of their meals being made with fish, and ½ of the meals either already vegetarian or with the ability to have a vegetarian or vegan, but also they promote education for people around the country to learn about operating a business. In walking distance from the Prudential Center Food for Life is a great healthy option for a delicious dinner, or pre-game snack.

Lori-Ann Sciachitano is a junior Science Technology and Society major and can be reached at distribution-manager@njitvector.com.

Daniel Ovalle

Staff Writer

Last weekend I did what any good B-Movie fan would do. I found a ridiculous B-movie franchise and watched every movie from that franchise until I wanted to throw up (and I really did feel like throwing up).  It started out very well with The Toxic Avenger (1984) which like all the Toxie movies is the brain child of Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman and is produced by Troma Entertainment. Troma is known for independently releasing bad though often self aware B-Movies. The Toxic Avenger as self aware as they get. After a while though the parody gets old and all you are left with is a vehicle for repeated slasher gags. Overall let’s call them a 2/5, but just the first could be a solid 3/5 mutated heroes if you are in the right state of mind.

The first movie starts off great, building up for the following hard letdown. Imagine a gang of 80’s caricatures who also happen to be possibly the most evil characters ever in a movie. They are body image obsessed mass murderers whose favorite pastime is a hit and run game that awards points based on how helpless the victims are. The “bad guys” are the saving grace throughout the franchise.  They are always funny and fresh ranging from bad transvestites to groups of what must be low grade professional wrestlers. If it wasn’t these baddies then these movies would be unbearable, but luckily for the audience they are diverse enough to keep your interest throughout all the films, except for the horrible forth installment where the badguy is just the Anti-Toxic Avenger, the Noxious Offender.

At this point you may be saying: “Hey reviewer it sounds like you don’t like the Toxic Avenger as a character.” You’re right. He is a horrible hero. He is invulnerable, stupid, and void of any endearing qualities. He effortlessly picks his enemies apart. His lack of weaknesses causes the movies to have no sense of suspense. In an attempt to give the monster some personality Toxie is given some one liners throughout his fight scenes, but these clips feel painfully out of place and consist of some of the worst puns I have ever heard (and I like bad puns).

In the sequels the filmmakers chose to give Toxie a voice-over to advance the story. This was a horrible cop out to having relevant dialogue. The scenes that accompany these voice-overs are too long and contribute nothing towards the advancement of the story. The only serve to pad on time and are never funny (though I think they are supposed to be… Is watching a monster dance with Japanese people funny? It should be right… But it is not… Not in this case at least).

One redeeming value of this B-movie is the special effects. All the Toxie movies have funny and gory murder gags (a gag is the special effects term that refers to a specific shot, often a sharp object through flesh).  These kills would look realistic if they were not depicting ridiculous, cartoon like, murders. When watching all these movies (not recommended) one is better off fast forwarding through any scene that seems slow and watching during a fight scene or when an interesting character appears.

These four B-Movies are available to stream on Netflix and the fourth installment Citizen Toxie (2000) is available streaming on Hulu. Also the DvD’s are available wherever bad movies are sold.

Daniel Ovalle is a Science, Technology and Society senior and can be reached dovalle@njitvector.com