I will start
this off on a positive note by telling of my adventures one night. I
went on a bit of a journey to see a random Chinese movie that was
playing on the big screen; it was The Bravest, about firefighters
dealing with a blaze at an oil refinery plant. It was about as silly
and melodramatic as I expected, but I can say that China can make
goofy blockbusters almost as well as Hollywood can these days. At
least there were plenty of explosions/stuff blowing up, heroic
sacrifices, and all the rest. Before that I went to two nearby places
that are new to me. Dinner was at a joint known as Walk-On's
Bistreaux & Bar. The name is accurate: it's a sports bar
originally founded in Louisiana. Only some of the food is
Cajun-flavored and I had the chicken tenders; a wise decision on my
part as they were great. Pretty soon a location will open on I-Drive
and that is a place I plan on frequenting. After that it was Earth
Fare, a store that can be compared to a Whole Foods or Lucky's
Market. Several items were purchased.
On another
evening I went to a Bob Evans with someone; that was not out of the
ordinary. Onto the big events of the preceding week. Thursday night I
went to the Cinemark in Orlando (not at Universal Studios but the one
by Bass Pro Shops) to see an old movie on the big screen. It was
1970's Woodstock, a documentary about the seminal event where many
performances are seen and various people at the festival are
interviewed. It was the Director's Cut, meaning it was 224 minutes
long! It was something I've seen before and it is great as I love the
music and it was tremendous seeing it in a big way. To be honest, a
big reason why I chose that place to see it-it was on in a few other
locations-was that this Cinemark had reclining leather seats and
those are great for something so lengthy. Thank goodness for that and
there being an intermission, which some modern movies should bring
back.
Sunday was
the last day of excitement, and it was another lengthy motion
picture. This time it was Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. In my life I've
seen the original version of that and the very long Apocalypse Now:
Redux (202 minutes); this Final Cut was basically done to advertise
that the films will later this month be released on 4K UHD, which
also explains why it's being shown two days only on select IMAX
screens. I thus was at the IMAX at Pointe Orlando, notable as a
“real” old-school giant IMAX screen that is far bigger than what
IMAX has meant in the past decade with the giant cash grab they
made... not that I can really fault them for taking the money. I
hadn't seen anything on that screen in a long while so seeing that it
now has leather seats was a relief as The Final Cut was 183 minutes
long.
Apocalypse
Now is great, and that version is great. What a surreal nightmare of
a journey the characters experience. Of course not everyone in the
audience appreciated this opportunity... two young men I'll call
“cinebros” left early to get drinks at a bar in the lobby (that
was also new to me) and they did return... only to leave shortly
thereafter, never to return. Not only was that dumb because I am sure
those drinks were cheap and I know the tickets to the screening were
at a typical not cheap IMAX pricing, but of course they left all
their trash there for the poor staff to pick up afterwards. Figures.
When I return
a week from today, I should have another interesting week while doing
entirely different things.
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