NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast...with @CatBusRuss

Episode 116: John Wick 3.5: Nobody & John Wick Chapter 4

John Wick 3.5: Nobody & John Wick Chapter 4

This is essentially a follow up to last week's episode "Gold Diggers of 1933 and Nintendo 2023". CatBusRuss took time to defend "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", so there was a temptation to see the film that he was attempting to stand up for. But one movie and no guest did not feel right. Also in that episode, our host explained to ThePoeticCritic why the "John Wick" franchise qualifies for NinetyForChill: The #Podcast. If you make a perfect movie that is under 100 minutes, you need to expand that universe, thus earning more time with your sequel.

The decision on what feature to see at the cinema came down to this: What other movie could the CatBus watch at home that would be an appropriate double feature? Sadly, there are not a lot of video games that are either adapted as family movies or animated ones. Russ never played "Rachet & Clank" and he might need to save "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" for another Jim Carrey conversation with his big sister. His iTunes collection does have the Bob Odenkirk comedy "Nobody" which was written by Derek Kolstad, the writer of the "John Wick Trilogy". It seems the better double feature is "Nobody" and "John Wick: Chapter 4".

Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CatBusRuss) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective.

And time is something that I have lost track off once again. I have actually already uploaded the episode for April 25 before I got around to starting this blog for April 18. There was a lot of tasks to be taken care off on top of my 50-hour work week.

My car is back in working order despite my best efforts. The liquor store I work for has the darkest parking lot, so I nearly ruined my bumper six hours after getting it back. Dad got his vehicle back, and I think I paid the rental off with teaching my mom how to use her own printer and supplying my sister with the over-the-air equipment to watch "Svengoolie".

I am still determined to keep up the podcast, but the past week was tough. Unless guests want to stay up late, Sundays are the only day that I am certain can be made for podcasting. With that said, if you have a movie or topic that you want to chat about, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

Of course, the big challenge was none of my trips to Morton, but trying to actually watch "John Wick: Chapter 4". I tried to see the feature at 4:15 pm on Sunday (4/16), but was running five minutes behind schedule after being stuck behind an octogenarian driving 25 miles per hour after leaving the Urbana residential areas.

You are over 80. You need not drive a Prius. You earned the right to polute. It is the boomers who need to change.

When I arrived at the Savoy cinema, it was apparent that it would take 10 minutes to get seated. This kind of makes me wish that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" was a bomb to keep the kids at home.

I guess it was nice Dad was laying in on the pressure to fix all the Stevens's technology issues. This gave me something to do as I traveled across town to see a 6:30 showing in Champaign. This was spent using Facetime for the first time to show printers to Mom and determining how much Jerry-rigging was going to be needed to get an antenna to work in a basement. This was all being done at my electronic retail store. Aside from molesting Vizio televisions to ensure Dad that my sister's TV had a tuner in it, all needs were met. Until the prices changed.

Thankfully, I was able to work out all of this with my longest tenured coworker. It ended up with me returning all of the items to adjust for the best prices and fewer charges to myself. These were just headaches for headaches sake. These were just like getting my sister's TV to work like Dad wanted. It was all resolved last Sunday. If the Rivermen were not robbed by the Southern Professional Hockey League's officials to ensure the President's Cup will not return to any of the Free States, a greater sense of accomplishment would have been felt.

Do I complain too much? I know the answer. Since I am a blogger, the answer is obviously not. Where would the content come from?

Despite the time management issues, this was a pleasant binge. Double feature might be the better way of putting it. If only the AMC in Champaign knew how to run a cinema. At least I know that despite my fault with using my time well, my handle on the fourth dimension is better than any local cinema operator.

I got to the theater with 10 minutes before showtime. This is week three for "John Wick" in the theaters, so surely there would not be 15 minutes of trailers. There were 20. AMC must know that most people run late, probably to skip the trailers, so people were filing in the whole length of the trailer package. The demographics were so wild, I was expecting a frustrating feature experience. Fortunately, the audio and sound editing was excellent for the main attraction.

It still took me a while to mentally calm down. The lights were not dimmed for the trailers. There were two horror movies and a Russian underworld-themed comedy as part of the package, I could not see them. AMC might be pissed that the studios made a lot of money during the pandemic due to streaming, so they might be trying to sabotage the studios by poorly promoting their latest features.

AMC (and Phoenix) are presuming that the theater experience is enough to bring people in. The movies might be good, but everything else sucks. So fuck Christopher Nolan for being too pretentious and insisting we need to be in the theater. Fuck maximalist cinema, unless you earn it with a perfect 90-minute movie like "John Wick".

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.