Sunday, June 23, 2024

Mountain Dew Summer Flavors, Run Lola Run, In a Violent Nature & Pinocchio Village Haus

Now I should finally be caught up. One thing I've enjoyed so far this summer is the THREE new Mountain Dew flavors that for me unexpectedly appear at the grocery store; of course I enjoy Liberty Chill (formerly Liberty Brew, which combines FIFTY flavors), the raspberry/strawberry Star Spangled Splash and the peach lemonade Freedom Fusion. Also good are both Pepsi Peach and Pepsi Lime along with the coconut-flavored Dr. Pepper, most of which I mentioned previously. By the way, I just learned that there is yet another new flavor, this one only at Speedway & 7-11 stores: Infinite Swirl, which sounds awfully similar to the old Typhoon flavor as it's also strawberry-pineapple. That will have to be discussed next time.

One activity I did a few days ago: return to Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom in particular. Thankfully it wasn't too unbearably hot or too unbearably busy. Tiana's Bayou Adventure-the replacement for Splash Mountain-will open in a few days; looking at the exterior, I noticed that a tree now partially blocked the popular view of people going down the hill... even more peculiar is that as of now, there are only small signs noting this new attraction. Why isn't there a giant sign at the entrance like there was w/ Splash Mountain? Disney has baffled me along with many others in recent years; maybe a sign will go up by the time it opens on Friday. At least for dinner I ate at Pinocchio Village Haus, a restaurant in Fantasyland which has decent food.

Regardless, I'll close this out by mentioning the two films I've watched on the big screen. First was Run Lola Run; yes, the German film from the late 90's that was 4K restored and released mainly at AMC Cinemas due to a lack of new movies. I had never seen it before. In 2024, the late 90's electronic music throughout most of the runtime tickled me pink but its unique plot/format still felt fresh now-I was glad to have finally given it a shot.

My opinion of the horror movie In a Violent Nature is far less glowing. It's a Canadian independent production which is designed to be like an 80's slasher out in the woods where the perspective is from the killer that's a blatant ripoff of undead Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. Unfortunately, this means plenty of walking around doing nothing, a switch in perspective at times that belies the gimmick, insufferable characters all over the place, it was shot in a modern style, and gore so absurdly over the top it's just stupid. I HATED the movie and how the conclusion included a random 5 minute soliloquy from a new character which meant absolutely nothing. Yes, this was pretentious also & tried to “subvert expectations”, which usually really upsets me after experiencing how The Last Jedi followed that exact same formula. Naturally, many “film fans” dig it but Lord did I not.

When I return sometime in July, I should be discussing better films than that.

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