Place: Taco Casa
Lunch: Taco Lite (no tomato), Chilada, Coke
It's Independence Day weekend. Well...Independence Day is Tuesday, but you probably took Monday off and headed to some exotic locale like Oklahoma like I did. Or maybe you're grilling in your own backyard. Nothing wrong with that, so long as your grilling includes hot dogs. Everyone should have a hot dog on the fourth of July. In a rare instance of the government doing something nice for the people, they legalized real fireworks again back home, so I fully expect to come home Tuesday to find the Townhouse of Solitude burned to the ground.
I saw a pretty decent Independence Day weekend movie today. It wasn't a massive blockbuster. It was "Baby Driver", a modern-day take on old car crime spree drive-in movies. The big weekend release was "Despicable Me 3" I'll skip that But I got to thinking...don't we usually have a big budget action blockbuster taking advantage of the Independence Day holiday? I guess the closest to that right now is the fifth "Transformers" movie, but nobody cares. Heck, I didn't bother with any of them past the first. But I got to thinking about Independence Weekend releases of days gone by, and how many of them were truly awful.
Let's have a look.
Independence Day (1996) - We can't not start with this one, right? This movie had so much positive word-of-mouth and so many people gushing over it and I just sat there in my car at the North Star Drive-In in North Ogden, Utah aghast at how awful it was. But it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen over an Independence Day weekend. That honor goes to...
Armageddon (1998) - If you thought it impossible to make a sexy scene with Liv Tyler in it really really unsexy and gross, you haven't seen "Armageddon". The whole thing was just painful to watch.
War of the Worlds (2005) - Remember when Tom Cruise starred in this opus where the Earth was attacked by camera tri-pods? "Scary Movie 4" largely parodied this, and is the far superior movie.
Wild Wild West (1999) - Will Smith owned the Independence Day weekend in 1997 with "Men in Black". Not so much two years later. Or in 2002 when "Men in Black II" came out. Come to think of it, he was also in "Independence Day", wasn't he.
Men in Black II - The first MiB movie may be my favorite all-time Independence Day weekend rblockbuster. As for the sequel, the flushing scene was a metaphor for the turd that this movie was.
The Lone Ranger (2013) - The third act was outstanding, but who wanted to wade through the rest of the movie to get to it? Not many. Major box office disaster.
Superman Returns - Okay, I actually liked Superman Returns. Nobody else did, but I liked it.
Back home tomorrow, then back to work Wednesday.
At least it's a short work week.
