Test Track, Clermont Brewing Company, Webber International University Football, & Deathstalker

Finally, I am caught up on the activities I have done since the beginning of August. The main highlight to mention this time: one day I went to the Animal Kingdom, the other EPCOT. It’s always nice seeing the critters at the Animal Kingdom but the day at EPCOT was the more interesting of the two to discuss here. Besides it being nice to walk around during their annual Food & Wine Festival, the Test Track ride was refurbished. It looks different and there is an increased focus on electric vehicles; otherwise, it’s still a fun attraction once the ride vehicles go over 60 MPH outside.

I went to a pair of lower-level college football games. The first was last month; the Southeastern Fire football team in Lakeland defeated Reinhardt 41-20. Last year, I saw Southeastern play against… Reinhardt. That game last year was called in the third quarter due to lightning-the Fire won that one 28-10. I was glad to see them play a full game this time. That was a fun time.

The second game was just yesterday; it was Southeastern again, this time at Webber International University, in a town (Babson Park) that is sort of in the middle of nowhere. I shouldn’t carp-I saw a game at their campus a few years ago and not only are they situated right by a lake, they have an outdoor swimming pool for their students. Unlike last time, they actually had bleachers for the crowd-no lie. While I wish there wouldn’t have been so whiny sports fans around-an epidemic, I say-otherwise it was another fine game. Southeastern won 24-7; the result wasn’t too surprising although perhaps I expected something a little closer. They had two food trucks there for concessions so that was a nice change from the norm.

Still, I visited various restaurants for the first time in awhile. This includes a Potbelly Sandwich Works (although that was in Davenport and not Orlando) and my returning to downtown Clermont to eat at Clermont Brewing Company for the first time in awhile. The last thing I’ll mention is a wacky movie I just saw theatrically. In the 80’s were a cheesy set of sword-and-sandal movies called Deathstalker, one of many that were “inspired” by Conan the Barbarian. Only the first was seen by me-last year after hearing that it’d be remade and star Daniel Bernhardt, a martial artist who’s been in the likes of John Wick, Nobody (and its sequel, playing different characters in each) & Ballerina. Only afterwards did I hear this new movie was more in tone to Deathstalker 2, but alas…

This new Deathstalker was styled after 80’s movies in general; most importantly, most of the effects were practical. That includes graphic gory moments, numerous creative creatures, and general carnage. The tone is silly on purpose yet it’s also a lot of fun as they aren’t insufferable or winking at the camera. The only other name of note is Patton Oswalt; he voiced an elf-like wizard. The only thing in common w/ the first film is the hero’s name and how he meets various people he teams up with on his quest. I recommend it for those that have viewed those cheesy 80’s ripoffs of Conan the Barbarian. Note that Slash (yes, THAT Slash) is one of the many executive producers.

I’ll return sometime in November, promise.

TRON: Ares, Deer, Nine Inch Nails & Ace Frehley

It wasn’t the plan to do a FOURTH one of these (to be posted either Sunday or Monday) so I can finally be caught up. Truth be told, I’m exhausted right now, don’t feel 100% and as I promised to post something tonight… At least this afternoon I was able to visit the rural James A. Van Fleet State Trail for the first time in years. In the past such wild animals as gators, tortoises, turtles, and snakes were seen on the trail. Today, it was… a pair of deer. They were too far away to take photographic evidence of but they were pleasant surprises nonetheless.

I finally saw TRON: Ares. In what’s not a popular opinion, the original movie from 1982 was a weird, quirky thing I dig because it uses legit computer terms & the aesthetics are still awesome. TRON: Legacy looked & sounded great yet the story and characters were lame. Unfortunately, while Ares looked and sounded even better (especially at a Dolby Cinema in 3D like how I saw it), the story and characters were even worse!

The plot was nonsense-it’s a basic story not told that well and they only paid lip service to such topics as AI-the villain, pathetic, the other characters, forgettable… and oh boy is there an awful odious “comic” relief character that didn’t make me crack a smile even once. I’m glad the visuals at least looked nice and the Nine Inch Nails score was awesome. Jared Leto I don’t love as a human being—his presence isn’t why my opinion of Ares (character & film) isn’t high.

Just a little earlier I heard of Ace Frehley passing away. Now, I did once see KISS perform live in Orlando for the grand sum of… $4.80! Someone I knew mentioned on Twitter that August afternoon in 2013 that there were “free” tickets on Ticketmaster for a KISS concert—that was the night before the Arena Football League championship game in the same arena. The band would sponsor a team in the league the next season, as Gene Simmons will never turn down ANY opportunity to market his band’s likeness. While that version of the band did NOT have Ace nor Peter Criss in it, that was a lot of fun as someone who almost never attends any concerts.

For a long time now I’ve enjoyed the band and their music-Frehley played a key role in that as lead guitar. There have been other unfortunate deaths these past few months (such as Diane Keaton) but as Ace dying was just announced… hopefully when I return in a few days there won’t be any further deaths to mention.

Friday the 13th Part 3D, Nobody 2, The Conjuring: Last Rites, One Battle After Another, and Several Other Films

It’s time to catch up on the theatrical experiences I’ve had since early August. I’ll post again on Thursday to mention some random events during that time not mentioned yet.

First was Strange Harvest, a horror mockumentary which was an interesting yarn that was spun. It’s a convoluted tale concerning a serial killer which has some wacky details. Several people walked out-it could be because corpses were shown and that was graphically gruesome. Me, the movie was fine, even with some nitpicks.

Shin Godzilla: Randomly, this 2016 film from Japan (which I saw theatrically that year) was brought back to cinemas to plug an upcoming 4K disc release. I love the movie as much now as back then—while totally different from Godzilla Minus One, both are awesome.

Nobody 2: It wasn’t awesome-and not as good as the first film-but was still fine. There was enough entertaining action and boomer needle drops for me. Sharon Stone’s bizarre character, though…

War 2: This is a sequel to a typically wacky Indian film; the first one was released in ’19 and was a lot of fun. The sequel… I wasn’t a fan. The story was total nonsense and was so out there, it played like a parody of modern Indian cinema.

Relay: This was a modestly-budgeted thriller starring Riz Ahmed and Lily James concerning a fixer who protects whistleblowers from retaliation. It was a lot of fun and the sort of R-rated film I wish was on the big screen more often.

The Conjuring: Last Rites: Not as good as the first two, although better than the third one. Most of the movies in The Conjuring Universe are at least “fine,” this included. Of course, I know that Ed & Lorraine Warren in real life were frauds, total charlatans—but the movie versions are a nice couple.

All the President’s Men: Yes, the classic 1976 movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. I’d seen it before, but this was at some AMC Theatres for a week to pay tribute to the late Redford. It’s still a great motion picture.

Friday the 13^th: Part 3D. I use the 3D moniker as Regal Cinemas played the movie for one night in 3D. Of course, I’ve watched the movie in 2D and 3D at home (the latter w/ those plastic 3D glasses) and always liked the silly thing but never thought there’d be the chance to see it in true 3D. It was a blast and everyone laughed at the most gratuitous usage of the third dimension, especially one of the characters randomly using a yo-yo. Thankfully, when the film became serious, the laughter stopped and the crowd wasn’t mocking it although they could have.

One Battle After Another: It’s contrarian time for me-something I never wish for. I love some of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood) but this was just bad. I hated every character, its apparent message of “both the far-right and the far-left are imbecilic idiots” is delivered in a heavy-handed fashion, and I hate to say that I loathed the lead Black woman (Leo’s gal) but when she’s portrayed as the worst Black woman stereotypes (constantly vulgar, constantly sexual), that’s on the movie for being prejudiced, not me! As Leo’s character was a drunk druggie loser… this was just bad-and a bad satire to boot. Sean Penn’s Colonel character is named STEVEN J. LOCKJAW! That sounds like a Colonel character he would play in an MCU film.

Like I said, the next one of these will be posted sometime on Thursday.

Lotte Plaza Market, Superfresh Market, A&W Ice Cream Sundae Root Beer & Places I'll Never Visit Again

My sincere apologies for not doing one of these in two months. Late this week I'll post two more of these (one solely devoted to the theatrical experiences I've had) but I'm fired up now. Today was full of dealing with dumb, ignorant people. I'll spare most of those details... a journey was made into Orlando to look at H Mart, a just-opened Asian grocery store part of a chain.

I knew it's constantly been busy since opening; what wasn't expecting: my walking in the building and discovering a giant confusing clusterfrick where I had no idea what was going on, there was a long line for something, and I couldn't just grab a cart and walk inside. An employee was also a giant A-hole; that's why I left, never to return to a baffling place that's so unfriendly to the customer... where apparently you're just supposed to know what's going on. The heck with them. The fact that recently I went to the similar Lotte Plaza Market for the first time & experienced no issues... even if it's in not the best part of Orlando, I'll just go to Lotte or try one of the other Asian grocery stores around.

After leaving Hell Mart, I went to a new place that was passed by: Superfresh Market. It's a small grocery store & like I suspected, it's serving a Hispanic crowd. Several items were picked up (including a 40 pack of water that's hilariously from Member's Mark, i.e. a Sam's Club label) then I walked to the nearby Ollie's Bargain Outlet where several more items were purchased.

As I'll mention sometime within the upcoming week, it's not all been doom & gloom since early August. Some restaurants were revisited for the first time in awhile... everything from a Bahama Breeze to a White Castle, this one located in my city of Clermont. The food there is still “eh” so it won't be a regular stop by any means. In terms of drink, I purchased a 12-pack of A&W Ice Cream Sundae Root Beer. While not something I'd like to consume for the rest of time, as a novelty it was fine.

To reiterate, I'll be back sometime in the upcoming week.

M3GAN 2.0, Elio, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Dangerous Animals, & War of the Worlds

Finally, I discuss the last theatrical movies I’ve seen in the past two months; however, first I’ll discuss an already infamous film that debuted on Prime a few days ago. It’s a “new” movie although was filmed in late 2020 (!) and shelved until dumped on streaming. It’s a movie entirely viewed on a computer screen a la Unfriended or Searching; Ice Cube (!!) plays a member of DHS (!!!) who reacts to an alien invasion; while not the worst movie I’ve ever seen (even worst ever released by a major studio) the plot made zero sense, the effects were atrocious, there’s rampant Amazon product placement… while hysterical at times, most of it was painful so that’s one only for the veteran bad movie lovers.

Thankfully, the films I saw theatrically were all better than War; this includes a revival of the original Friday the 13th on Friday, June 13th; that was a blast. Elio was chosen at the last minute one night due to a change in my schedule… long story. The movie flopped at the box office but that was due to marketing and a (deserved) lack of trust in Disney. I thought it was a pretty good tale that looked nice; the obvious references to certain 80’s sci-fi movies also helped. Yes, I do know that there were "production problems" and that hampered the film.

M3GAN 2.0 also flopped; while flawed, I was still amused by the goofy spectacle that was an action thriller sequel to an original horror movie. I do appreciate the sequel wasn’t a rehash of the first as happens far too often. Meanwhile, Dangerous Animals was an obscure Australian movie (which will be available soon for streaming on Shudder) which was also flawed yet the premise of a serial killer using sharks to kill was at least original, and Jai Courtney was better as an OOT personality rather than that milksop character he played in that horrible 5^th Die Hard movie which I don’t consider canon in my Die Hard universe.

Finally, there’s the “legacy sequel” to I Know What You Did Last Summer, which follows the model that the 2021 Scream legacy sequel created. Those two Summer movies from the late 90’s I always thought were goofy and only OK; thus, when this new version was also goofy and only OK, I couldn’t be disappointed. Whether or not it was the intent to make fun of Generation Z and its insufferable lingo, that’s how I took it & that aspect was enjoyed. It was also nice seeing those old faces from the 90’s again.

I’ll be back late in the month; there’s a few ideas for activities I could be a part of.

Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne, Orlando City SC, A&W, and Noodles & Company

My apologies for not doing one of these sooner when I’ve been thinking to for awhile now. The preceding month hasn’t been full of incident… or at least moments worthy of discussion here. I did visit a Noodles & Company restaurant; there was one prior experience, albeit many years ago. There’s no good reason for not returning—the macaroni and cheese I had was as fine as I remembered it being back then. Besides eating at a Bojangles that’s been open in Clermont since last year, an A&W restaurant one day (there’s only 3 in Florida now), and a Potbelly Sandwich Works just opened in Davenport-last year I ate at the location in Orlando; in a past life I ate at one of their locations in Illinois-there isn’t much for me to discuss.

Then again, do you blame me when it’s been HOT in Florida? It’s hot even by Florida in Summer standards. In addition, late July was the 5^th (!) anniversary of Mom passing away; I made it through that day alright. Tomorrow I’ll finally discuss all the movies seen theatrically since June but for now, two big deaths then the one interesting night I had… attending an Orlando City SC soccer match for the first time in ages.

I never viewed Ozzy Osbourne’s “reality” show as it was never of interest to me; however, in terms of his music (whether with Black Sabbath or solo) there was no shortage of great music from him. While struggling w/ sobriety for years, I’m glad that despite some (alleged) bad moments from him, he lived to the age of 76; that is amazing considering the amount of drugs and alcohol he consumed for years. As for Hulk Hogan… what a complicated legacy.

Terry Bollea the man did and said various controversial things that won’t be repeated here. Hogan the wrestler, though… what a performer. The OOT personality, his charisma, the way he got fans into the match as the villain beat him up… there are fond memories of him in the ring throughout my childhood. I also won’t forget my buddies back in Illinois cheering him on back in the day, or the random sports bar I went to in Bloomington during my college days viewing WrestleMania 18 where he fought against The Rock and the crowd there went wild for him as well. I never saw him in person although I did visit his restaurants in the Tampa area & his beach shops. I saw him wrestle live twice: against Ric Flair and against Sid Vicious. I even saw Suburban Commando on the big screen as a kid. Thus, Hulk Hogan the character at the very least will be missed.

Finally: last month I went to see the Orlando City SC soccer club play live for the first time since 2018; I hadn’t been in their Inter & Co stadium since late 2019 when a college football game was played there. They tied w/ an inferior team (CF Montreal) 1-1 yet the stadium is still nice & so was the atmosphere; like in European matches, there’s a supporter section bangin’ the drum all day, waving banners, & chanting. It won’t be that many years before viewing any one of their matches live.