I had expected to do a lot of different things this weekend. Instead, I spent the almost the entire weekend at work. As a result, I am monstrously tired.

I *did* get to go see "Inside Out 2" with Julie this afternoon. We both enjoyed the film, which was good.

And, yes, there *are* post-credits scenes. Hang around... :)

Julie really wanted to see the new film, "Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse", so we headed out to the theater tonight to see it. This was a bit of an experience.

We liked the film quite a bit. It was a bit distressing to discover that it was Part 1 of 2, but we'll get to see the rest of the story (presumably) in about nine months. So that's the good part -- it was an entertaining film.

Here's the bad part: for an industry that is suffering greatly, the movie theaters are finding lots of new ways of being annoying. For the price of one ticket, we could buy a month of everything on almost every streaming service. That's before buying popcorn. And I downloaded a $5 reward onto my card before going to the theater, *presented* the card when buying the popcorn, and somehow managed not to get the reward deducted from my bill. Ok, it was busy.

Also, they have now decided to nickle and dime the people who are actually willing to get up and come to the theater instead of watching something on streaming at home, because they are charging an additional $1 per ticket for "premium" seats, which roughly translates to "anything with the sight lines I usually like". Now, because Julie really likes the seats on the side with the tables which they aren't surcharging for (yet), I didn't end up paying this. And to be honest, I'll sit a bit off center just to save the buck, because I'm rather tired of this sort of nonsense.

So, AMC, are you making so much money off that extra $1 that it's worth annoying your customers? Or are you just giving us one more reason to stay home?

Well, you'll figure it out eventually. But you're making a month of Netflix -- or maybe Paramount Plus or whatever they're calling it now -- look better and better.

We watched the next-to-last episode for the season for Will Trent last night. This has turned out to be a truly fine detective drama and I am hoping for (and expecting) a renewal.

In the previous few episodes, French Stewart did a tremendous turn as a monster. Playing a monster is hard. The actor (and the writers!) have to keep in mind that even a monster is the hero of his own story.

And he was.

And a true monster.

Gretchen and I watched the first two episodes of the new sitcom, "Not Dead Yet", today.

It has some promise. The big question is whether or not it'll be able to fix up a few of the characters who are over the top, because right now, they're just distracting.

These characters aren't quite as bad as the Weather Nun from "Good Morning, Miami", but they're trying hard...

Last night, Gretchen and I watched "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" on Amazon Prime. We liked it a lot. It owes (and acknowledges) a substantial debt to "Groundhog Day", but is a very different film.

If you like SF and teen romantic comedies at all, you'll likely enjoy this one.

I watched Knives Out on Amazon Prime tonight with Gretchen. We concluded that we were happy that we hadn't paid extra for it. :)

I've also concluded (based on a sample of two) that I don't care that much for his work.

(If you do, that's fine. To each their own...)

Gretchen had suggested some time ago (based on my comments and online reviews) that it would be fun to rent "Shazam" and watch it. We've pretty much run out of recorded TV and it's not like we were going anywhere tonight, so we've now seen it.

It was fun. As DCU movies go, this is a good thing. We're looking forward to the next film.

I miss T-Bob's BBQ a lot. (I miss the owner, Ted, too.)

We subsequently ate a lot of BBQ up at Smokey Bones at Randhurst Mall. Then they closed too.

This has greatly cut down on my BBQ consumption. We've been to Blackwood BBQ out at Woodfield Mall a few times and -- since the weather was nice today -- I decided to head there for a late lunch.

The problem with this place is that the meat is good, but the sauces are not exciting. I had the pulled pork today, which was a substantially larger serving of meat than the beef brisket. This is not unusual.

They have six different BBQ sauces on the table, which is good. I figured I'd give the mustard sauce a try, since I was having pulled pork, but the mustard sauce is way too much mustard and not nearly enough of anything else. It's too close to eating French's mustard for my taste.

The vinegar sauce wasn't what I was looking for, nor was the Alabama white BBQ sauce.

This cut it down to three: KC (spicy), Chicago (sweet and spicy), and Memphis (sweet).

The KC sauce quickly failed the cut, as there is *way* too much paprika in there. I kept trying to convince myself to like the Chicago sauce and failed, as it *still* has too much paprika. (I mean, paprika at the level where the mouth feel is slightly gritty.) So the Memphis sauce it was. And it wasn't *bad*, but it's not ever going to be one of my favorite BBQ sauces.

But the meat was good, as were the coleslaw and waffle fries.

I still miss T-Bob's.

Tonight was the last episode of Elementary.

I approve of the ending.

On the spur of the moment, I decided that the least disruptive way that I was going to get to see The Last Jedi was to get up and catch the 10 AM matinee today. I went on-line, snagged one of the last seats in the theater, and headed up that way.

This is film two of the current trilogy and -- as such -- it's reminiscent in many ways of The Empire Strikes Back, because the middle of a classic trilogy requires that our heroes arrive at the "It's always darkest before the dawn" moment. I didn't love the film, but I certainly liked it. And it's clear to me that the new hands in charge of Star Wars understand better how to make a Star Wars film than George Lucas did when he was making parts 1 through 3. The check boxes that need to be checked are all checked, the feel is all right. It's a good film and it's good Star Wars.

It seems clear to me, though -- and I don't think that I'm giving anything away by saying this -- that the outline for the trilogy took serious damage from Carrie Fisher's untimely death. The Force Awakens was Han's film, while The Last Jedi was Luke's film. The next film would have been Leia's film.

And now it won't, except in spirit.

Tomorrow, Gretchen gets to go see the film and then I can talk to her about it. :)