Tales of Elvis, Fort Myers & Many Restaurant Reviews

 To mention the elephant in the room right away, July 25^th is the day that Mom passed away, two years ago already. I will be doing things today (which I’ll talk about next time, which will be sometime in the first half of August) which will at least distract me and I won’t be feeling mopey all day.

Since the last time, I’ve gone to a variety of restaurants. Some were places I visited for the first time in many months or even years (the Lava Lounge connected to the Rainforest Café at Disney Springs, the local establishment Oakwood Smokehouse & Grill, and even Subway… which is still as average as I remembered it) and others were new. I’ll mention those now:

One night was spent at Boston Lobster Feast, a buffet that has several locations but we were at the ones in Kissimmee. I have no idea if 65 dollars is a fair price for all you can eat seafood or not; they also had a limited regular menu which is what we ordered off of. At least for me, it was fine… I guess…

The next day was 4 Rivers Smokehouse, which I know for certain was a decent quick service BBQ place.

Another night was a return to Celebration Town Tavern, a fine seafood establishment. One night I’ll be there on my own as it’s always neat to walk around Celebration.

Several restaurants have been located on a corner in downtown Clermont yet until recently I had never been to any of them. Now, it is a southern cuisine place known as The Southern on 8^th. Even with my “particular” tastes there was still something for me to eat.

Earlier in the month, I spent the weekend in Fort Myers. I’ll just say it was to help someone out, which I was able to do and I was happy to do so. Saturday night me and some others ate at Mel’s Diner… no, not the restaurant from the old TV show Alice but rather it’s a small chain in that part of the world. The food was tasty. The next day some time was spent at Sanibel Island, a very lovely place full of charm. Dinner was at George & Wendy’s Seafood Grille; for a place that was the first one found which wasn’t busy, it was a pleasant surprise.

There wasn’t much else I did in July, at least as of now or is important enough to mention. The next few weeks I do hope to do more despite how oppressively hot it is now; I can’t complain as everyone is experiencing sweltering heat right now. There will be at least one theatrical experience, a few new restaurants, and a return to Walt Disney World.

I’ll close this out by talking about the one theatrical experience I had: Elvis. It’s a movie I heard mixed reviews on but Elvis the person was definitely fascinating and I dug his music so it was worth a shot. Believe it or not it was my first Baz Luhrmann movie in full; I know people around my age would be horrified but in the late 90’s I saw parts of his Romeo & Juliet and that was enough for me. He definitely is still flashy and over the top; overall I’ll say the movie was good. At times the editing was exhausting yet Austin Butler was great as the lead. Tom Hanks, though… I don’t know what was going on there; I’m not even certain if the real Col. Tom Parker spoke with an exaggerated Dutch accent or not. It was a bizarre performance, I know that for certain.

Like I said, my return will be in the front half of August sometime.

Top Gun: Maverick, Lightyear, The Northman, Jurassic World Dominion and RRR

 As promised the last time, here are the movies I’ve seen on the big screen since the middle of February, when I saw Blacklight… which was worse than the typical random Liam Neeson doing action as an old man film.

I saw the 50^th anniversary screening of The Godfather and while that’s been watched a decent amount of times by me before-including theatrically-it is always a joy to check it out on the big screen.

The Outfit: It’s a 1950’s tale involving gangsters and a tailor I wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for the trailer I saw theatrically. It was a pretty good time-despite its flaws and how it should have really left out the final plot twist-as Mark Rylance was great as the lead.

RRR: It’s an Indian movie and while I’ve watched a few of those before-all of which were bonkers-this went to another level. It was a THREE hour extravaganza which probably got a wide release because it has some names familiar to “The West” (Ray Stevenson & Alison Doody) and thus that’s how it managed to break out into a cult hit (now on Netflix) when others before it hadn’t. Also, it DID present perhaps the most bombastic motion picture I’ve ever experienced as everything was over the top, including the plot and the numerous action scenes.

The Northman: I get why many were nonplussed by it and even I thought it was pretentious a little too often… even then it was an interesting Viking saga I enjoyed watching.

Top Gun: Maverick: Even if more than once I wish it wasn’t such a “modern Hollywood movie” that felt like it needed moments of misplaced/unfunny humor, at least this wasn’t pretentious and it was a lot of fun. Speaking of pretentious:

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Many people apparently love this and its apparent popularity among the mainstream is absolutely baffling to me. As unpopular as it is to say online, I hated this movie, all its pretentions, vulgar 13 year old boy humor (if you love buttplugs and other sex toys…), nonsense plot and trite comments about getting along with your family… honestly, I’ve heard multiple people say they think this is among the greatest movies of all time! It was a movie I waited a few months to see theatrically as there was a chance I would not like its absurdist Adult Swim humor… but how angry it made me was a genuine surprise. Perhaps more than any other film ever, I’ll never understand its popularity or how I am such an outlier compared to “the popular opinion” of it.

Jurassic World Dominion: On a lighter note, this movie was a dumb mess like the other two Jurassic World movies yet I did note loathe it like I did those so “lousy” is at least better than “aggravated.”

Lightyear: It pales in comparison to the first three Toy Story movies but at least is better than 4. Lightyear was a fine generic animated action film and that’s about it.

I’m not really sure what I’ll see theatrically the rest of the year but hopefully there will be some gems. I should be back in a week or so.