First time back in a movie theatre since the pandemic began is super easy when said theatre is within walking distance. Proximity to a mall is one of the things I really like about this place I am renting. Groceries and everyday items can be easily taken care of by a Target, Trader Joe’s, and soon, a Whole Foods. There’s an Apple store should any of my computing electronics conk out. Of course, there’s plenty of food choices available if I don’t want to cook.
And now there’s a Regal cinema where an old Macy’s used to be (going to have to find another place to buy fragrance). I’ll have to start convincing my friends to come to this theatre, instead of our usual haunts further south. They can even pick me up en route to the mall, saving me even the short walk. But that would be just a bit too absurd.
So what’s it like to be back in a theatre? Other than wearing a mask (which isn’t mandatory, as of this writing at least), everything is as it were back before the COVID outbreak. Ticket purchasing at this Regal is mostly done via kiosks, though we found the interface to be laggy. A brand-new system shouldn’t act this, and also ought to accept payments via NFC. I only bought along an iPhone and could not use Apple Pay. Rather disappointing.
We watched the ninth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. As expected, F9 is mindlessly entertaining, a really fun movie if you don’t scrutinize the details. The film is even self-aware to its own ridiculousness. There’s a scene when Roman (Tyrese Gibson’s character) went on a diatribe about how utterly unlikely it is that he keeps surviving the crazy missions the team has done. And he’s right: there’s at least a dozen times someone on the team should have die in this movie.
Enemy bullets aren’t nearly as effective as those of the protagonists!
Much like eating indoors, it was lovely to be back inside a theatre, briefly escaping reality with a film. Now that there’s one so close to me, I reckon I’ll go to the movies more often than I did before the pandemic.
A moment of zen.