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.

4th of July, Gatorland, 4 Rivers Smokehouse, & Luminous: The Symphony of Us

My apologies for doing one of these later than expected. Once again, in less than a week I'll do a separate one of these to talk about the films I've seen theatrically. For now, there aren't any new restaurant experiences to mention, although at least new experiences were had. Honestly, there's only one major detail to note: for 6 days, a sister (the one who lives in Illinois) was down here w/ her beau, a young boy, and an even younger girl. It was a treat having them as guests; hopefully they realized how swell a time I had with them.

I picked them up from the airport in Sanford; before doing so, I stopped at the nearby Daytona Beach to visit their Buc-ee's for the first time in about a year. One drizzle-filled afternoon was spent at Gatorland, the local attraction in Kissimmee which somehow had never been visited by me. I'm glad that was changed; while some of their attractions featured an upcharge, there was still plenty to do without that. Hundreds of gators were present, along with other animals like snakes, tortoises, birds, and even a few capybara. Afterwards, dinner was had at a 4 Rivers Smokehouse, a nice Florida chain that was only visited by me once before.

The longest day was when we went to Epcot-what a LONG day that was where the heat and humidity took a toll on me at one point—after a bit I was fine, don't worry. Everyone had a blast there visiting all those attractions. Is it a surprise that the little girl loved the Frozen ride located in the Norway pavilion? The 9PM lights/fireworks show Luminous: The Symphony of Us was viewed before leaving the park. The children were a big fan of that; it was nice, and I was amused that it constantly lit up my MagicBand+.

Otherwise, not too much else to mention. A few different restaurants were visited for the first time in a while or a long while, a trend that probably will continue this month. As nothing was done on the 4^th of July aside from the yearly tradition of viewing fireworks on TV and people probably don't want to hear about my purchasing of new Nike shoes at an outlet mall in Orlando...

Muppet*Vision 3D, Steamed Shrimp, Samsung Galaxy & Mission: Impossible-Final Reckoning

My apologies for doing one of these later than expected. Truthfully, there wouldn’t have been too much to say otherwise. Last week I went to get a haircut—in fact, it was much-needed. One night I went to Hooters, which may not look great to some even if I say that it was to have their steamed shrimp and there isn’t enough places in the area which offer that or peel and eat shrimp, especially after a local establishment closed more than a year ago.

Last week, a phone upgrade was made; while in the Samsung Galaxy universe, it was NOT a S25 Edge or something similar that costs somewhere around $1,000. What I have is more practical which is still an upgrade over the previous phone. Yesterday I went to Walt Disney World, Hollywood Studios in particular. As announced last year, a Monsters, Inc. land is replacing the Muppets area, including the 3D show Muppet*Vision. As it debuted in 1990 and was the last project Jim Henson worked on before passing away—those are but a few reasons why many aren’t happy it is going away, and they didn’t spend money to try and move it… especially considering the Aerosmith roller coaster will be changed into a Muppets coaster.

General (and deserved) nitpicking of Disney aside-they deserve both scrutiny & scorn for a number of reasons-it was nice to take some photos of the attraction, along with other pictures at Hollywood Studios. It will be closed this upcoming weekend.

It’s more than a week ago but I am still salty-not to mention astonished-how much Mission: Impossible-Final Reckoning let me down. The first is pretty cool, the second and third less so. However, the 4^th through 7^th ranged from very good to great and they became movies I always looked forward to. Aside from that and the recent Planet of the Apes films, there was hardly any blockbuster movies in modern times I could even muster a care about. That’s why I rarely even give them a chance.

Despite mixed reviews, I still had high hopes for Final Reckoning, as I loved the last movie more than most. Well-what I got was the biggest letdown in literal years. It was a movie both bloated and overlong, yet somehow feeling like entire scenes were missing, the editing was so jarring. The story was just bad and underwhelming; aside from two nice sequences, Final Reckoning was a waste of time. I couldn’t believe how badly it missed the mark for me. Without diving into spoilers, there were characters where I had to ask others online who they even were or what their purpose was… others were perplexed as well. So was one character suddenly fallen ill & what happened was literally said in a throwaway line. I won't drone on-even though I could-about one of the dumbest and most pointless character reveals in history, among many other quibbles.

All that said, it wasn’t a movie that was hated, as there were some moments. However, it was far worse than the preceding four pictures. Alas… I’ll return sometime later in June.

Tales of Sith Revenging, Quiet Mays & Rainy Sunday Afternoons

A reason why I haven't done one of these in a month: there hasn't been too much to write about. Sure, time has been spent w/ family-which was nice-I went to Epcot one hot afternoon, and another afternoon was spent at the dentist. However, there's no new restaurant visited or any wacky anecdotes to share. Thus, I'll mention that I'll be back in a few days to talk about more than one theatrical movie (Expectations are still high for the final Mission: Impossible, despite it receiving a mixed reception so far) and perhaps something else interesting to say. Right now it is pouring rain where I am so might as well give a short update.

I did revisit Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith early in May when it was brought back to cinemas. 20 years ago, it was the best of the prequels but that wasn't the highest bar to leap over. The same is true in 2025, although compared to Star Wars in the Disney era, it doesn't look so bad. I have heard that the two seasons of Andor are actually worth seeing but who knows if that'll happen for me. There was still some nostalgia in viewing those characters again, and hearing a great John Williams score in such a setting.

June-at least the final part of the month-should give me plenty to discuss.