Headed out after that. It was so late, I started off with lunch at Capitol Pizza. Had two slices of broccoli-mushroom that I didn't end up finishing and a Diet Pepsi. They weren't busy, even at 12:30. I saw one other guy come in to pick up a delivery while I ate and watched the NBC local news.
After that, I ran to Family Dollar on the next block to get a drink for the movies. It took me two tries, but I finally found a strawberry-kiwi Propel. I had less luck getting an Uber. Took them ten minutes to arrive, and then they thought I was across the street at Dunkin' Donuts for some reason. Thankfully, I finally saw them, and after I got in, we made it to the Cinemark in Somerdale without incident. I slid into Argylle just as the previews were beginning.
I won't go heavily into the plot because of spoilers, but I did like it...to a degree. I don't think it's the worst thing ever like many critics are claiming. Far from it. The first half and the last twenty minutes or so are a lot of fun. I just wish they hadn't felt the need for that ridiculous, wild twist in the middle. I would have preferred to see the writer (Bryce Dallas Howard) actually be whom she claimed she was, a normal neurotic writer who got caught up in wild circumstances. The one thing I do agree with critics about is that it's way too long. It did not need to be two and a half hours. A lot of that sagging middle could have been trimmed with no one the wiser, and the big action finale just keeps going on and on.
I'm surprised this isn't going over better. That 1:20 showing was actually fairly full for Tuesday afternoon. Tickets are half-price on Tuesdays, which may account for part of it, but as far as I could tell, the audience did seem to enjoy it. The length and the convoluted plot may be a big part of the problem. If you love action thrillers or have fond memories of 80's action comedies like Romancing the Stone, this is recommended...but be prepared for some head-scratching near the middle.
(Nothing new in the commercials. I still haven't seen Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I'll get to Frozen Empire after I do that. Kung Fu Panda 4 is a lot more interesting. I don't think it's the most necessary thing in the universe, but I loved the other three movies, so I'm still all-in.)
Made a brief stop at WalMart after that. I did pick up granola bars and peanut butter, but I mainly needed to make change for the bus. There's a combination Subway/Aunt Annie's right behind the self-checkout lines that provided the change and a tasty pretzel snack.
I misread the times on the bus schedule and thought it was coming earlier than it did. At least it wasn't terribly late when it did finally appear. Despite it being the height of rush hour, there were no problems getting home, other than people wanting to get off at every other block. The sun was just going down when I finally got off at the White Horse Pike in Oaklyn and walked the two blocks home.
Went straight into job hunting and Beat Street when I got home. I go further into this look at New York's rap culture in the early 80's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Switched to Match Game '79 while I ate dinner. Nipsey Russell's nervous about helping the contestant with "Get Off My __" in the Head-to-Head. Joyce Bulifant has a lot more fun at the end of the episode when she and a contestant show off their jitterbugging moves! Everyone claps along, and even the music department kicks in with an appropriate swing tune.
Moved to WKRP after Match Game ended. Johnny Fever is initially eager to host a local TV dance show, until he realizes it's a disco show. He's not a disco fan. When a network employee who has the hots for him holds him to his contract, he creates the more flamboyant "Rip Tide" as the host. Suddenly, "Rip Tide" is the talk of Cincinnati, and Johnny's having a hard time keeping him and his radio persona separate. It takes a meltdown on TV for "Dr. Fever and Mr. Tide" to realize what he really loves doing.
Jennifer finds herself playing Dear Abby when the psychiatrist they were originally going to feature on the air passed out just before the show begins. She initially enjoys the attention her "Ask Jennifer" advice show is a big hit, until some of the advice she gives goes wrong and a woman gets hurt.
Finished the night with the more comic Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers. An Elmer Fudd-like Cupid spreads love among the Looney Tunes, despite Bugs' insistence that he's meddling. He tries to fit Bugs with a romance of his own, but as usual, the nimble rabbit ducks out of it. Another series of clips from various shorts with a tenuous romance theme. At least there's some cute clips, including Bugs calling a lady Tasmanian Devil as a mate for Taz and detective Daffy dodging a dame who says she's guilty of nothing but falling for him.
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