The original pirates were fast action paced movies with nothing but fun and bravado at heart. After jettisoning Keira Knightley and the wimpy Orlando Bloom, On stranger tides, the fourth installment in the pirates series starts with everyone looking for the fountain of youth. Most of all, a notorious pirate Blackbeard(the dependable Ian McShane once again) , who practices black magic and recruits/captures Jack(Depp) to guide him to the treasure. Following them is the king's navy privateer Hector Barbossa(Geoffrey Rush) and a Spanish expedition. There is also a love interest for Jack, a girl named Angelica(Penelope Cruz) , a scorned lover we are informed. Her intentions keep changing from scene to scene and all she does is look good. 

But as the movie progresses, you realize  that you might as well stick to her unpredictability because scene after scene just seems to be a pile up of desultory set-pieces, with the film going nowhere in the first half. Every scene or action sequence lasts a generation too long with no apparent end or goal in sight. As the movie lurches, we too feel disjointed from it. The only entertaining part was the mermaids whose beautiful faces belie the sinister motives they carry within.

Depp , you would say has outlasted this role and stripped it of any new trinket whatsoever. Rush and Cruz are adequate and just look happy to collect their paycheck. Ian McShane the psychopath for his acting along with the beautiful mermaid for her ...well beauty are the only redeeming features of this boring film. 

And oh yes the 3D, which is not required is just like the movie......nothing special. 

Rating : 2/5

Po(voiced by Jack Black) and his friends have to face a new enemy Shen, a peacock (voiced by the brilliant Gary Oldman) who is threatening to take over China. The movie has the usual tomfoolery, some nuggets of wisdom and some brilliant action. A little predictable yes because it misses the novelty of the first episode. Just like the first movie, the most interesting character here is the villain in this case the vain peacock. Other than that its all slapstick. Fun movie for all ages. 3D is awesome too or was that awesomeness. Aargh...I had to use that word.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

A boyfriend threw 6 cricket balls his girlfriend. She yelled "what was that for". He said "its over" LOL.

Lord of the (Vi)Kings

The most unrelatable of all Marvel comics characters, the God of Thunder is finally brought to the big screen but the most surprising part is its director Kenneth Branagh who usually has his fingers in Shakespearean pies, coming out to direct a pretty entertaining if not an overly fantastic big budget flick.

Thor, played by newcomer Aussie Chris Hemsworth is an arrogant warrior son of Odin((Hopkins), king of Asgard, a Norse mythological kingdom in a divine realm. All Thor wants to do is to fight(who would blame him with that physique and mighty hammer) with their arch enemies the Frost Giants but his righteous father who is so nettled with him, that he decides to teach him some humility by banishing him to earth. stripping him of all his powers. While our man is on Earth, Thor's complex brother Loki(Tom Hiddleston) makes grander plans so that his brother remains in exile.

As with all comics brought to life in Hollywood, once you get past the silliness, there is a lot to enjoy.   The fish out of water sequences, the bittersweet moments with love interest(Natalie Portman) and some amazing action in general are worth the admission ticket. Entertain yourself with this mega decibel thunder movie.

Our last stop on the trip was the Museum of Sex. With such a name, obviously we were intrigued. We thought  that the act of making love wold be analyzed from different viewpoints like spiritual, scientific, cultural and perhaps a bit of trivia and history. But all it showed was how has sex been depicted in American media through the years. There were 4 floors of the museum and none was interesting other than this depiction on the right, where popular cartoon characters were incorporated into adult themes.

Our favorite museum of NYC is the Madame Tussuad Wax Museum. The Nu did turn into a cactus green but we weren't going to let this chance go. See for yourself. 

As the name suggests , the restaurant is Ethiopian and was yet another stopover in our NYC gastronomic adventure.Foodwise you have got to remember three things

          The product has texture of a dosa.

For the starter we ordered a Kalegna(pronounced Kali-niya), an injera toasted with a coating of Kibeh and Berbere paste. Pretty neat and spicy, although your hands could be messy by the time you are done.

For the main dish my friend ordered Awaze Tibs (lamb legs cooked with jalapenos) while I got myself Shiro, a split peas based curry cooked in berbere sauce. All of this is served on top of an injera with a pile of injera(s) kept on a plate beside you.Hence an injera basically becomes your roti and every dish you take is always rolled into this famous Ethiopian flatbread. We also ordered a South African red wine.

We personally enjoyed the meal as it had a lot of spice and tanginess to it. We are no wine experts so whatever wine we chose seemed to go well with it. However there is a bit of sameness to the food as they seems to have only one paste to make everything. Now I am not sure whether this is the restaurant's problem or the cuisine in general.

The location of the place is taxing as it is situated on 10th Avenue and regular visitors are well aware that there are no trains or regular buses through the upper west side of the town. You have to get down at the times square station and walk 3 avenues to get to this place.  Also you have come to expect, that due to space and astronomical rents, restaurants in Manhattan can be pretty small. Queen of Sheba was exactly that. A highly cramped place, where the majority of space is taken up by a bar where there could have been more nicely spaced tables.

The service is kind of shabby, not that we had some terrible experience but it is general inattentiveness and there is really no ambience to speak of. Rates as always are standard New York city fare - pretty high as compared to the service. Ethiopian cuisine is extremely good , but the restaurant needs an upgrade. Would like to try Meskerem in Greenwich, the next time I am craving Ethiopian since Queen of Sheba is quite a pauper when it comes to good customer care.