Tuesday, June 7, 2016

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 52 min )

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I went to see this on Thursday, June 2nd, 2016, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the 7:45 p.m. 3-D Advanced Screening in auditorium 1, 4th row from the front, 8ht column from the right. The price of admission was $15.00. And I bought a $4.35 Hot Dog, a $6.05 small Buttered Popcorn and a $0.00 small Powerade Mountain Berry Blast at the concessions counter.

Quickie Review:  An alien warlord joins Shredder in his fight against the ninja turtles and in his quest for world domination.

The audience of about half-a-dozen liked this movie. I thought that it was just okay. This is a movie for fans of the franchise

The two scenes that got the most laughs were the "Giant Rat" and the "Tortoise" scenes.

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After I got out of work at 6:00 p.m., I went to my parked car and discovered that my front left tire was completely flat! I noticed tiny radial cracks on the tire's sidewall in the flattened area upon closer examination. The tires obviously were old and needed replacement. I bought the set of tires back in 2012.

I had wanted to go to the nearby Benicia, CA, MacDonald's Restaurant on 1st Street to have a light dinner before heading-off to the theatre to see this movie. That was not meant to be.

I opened up my car's trunk and unloaded some junk and personal items to get to the spare tire. Dang, my trunk was really loaded up with junk. Well, at least I got to do some cleaning up. It took me a while to locate the tire jack crank handle because it was attached to the underside of the floor carpet and I thought that it was just a support brace for the carpet!

Here's an image of the 2001 tire jack set. I found this image on the Internet.
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Whoever was the idiot who designed the tire jack's crank handle needs to get a good slap upside the head! This crank handle is small, flimsy and very hard to crank. And it was an unseasonably warm weather and I wasn't dressed appropriately for the task at hand---And I forgot to loosen the nuts before jacking-up the tire! Oh, boy .... Some driver offered to let me use his portable air compressor. I politely declined the offer because I was just about a hundred yards/meters from the nearby Chevron Gas Station where they have a free self-service automotive air/water station.

The spare tire was under-inflated---Why are car spare tires designed to be undersized and with a very limited speed recommendation? My Hyundai Accent's spare tire is designed only for a maximum freeway speed of 50 mph. My 1978 Honda Civic CVCC had a full-size spare tire which was a more practical consideration on the automaker's part. Of course, that was then and this is now. The car makers of today should really go back to installing full-size spare tires in all of their cars.

It took me more than 30 minutes to replace the flat tire with the spare tire because of that damn crank handle!

I informed my assistant manager that I would be coming in late the next day because I had to have the flat tire repaired first thing in the morning or I would be stuck driving with a spare tire 'til Tuesday, my next day-off.

I went to the Chevron Gas Station to inflate the spare tire to its maximum 60 psi recommendation.

I got on the freeway where cars were travelling at 65 mph to 75 mph. Driving at 50 mph only served to irritate the drivers behind me. To avoid being a road-rage victim, I upped my speed to between 60 mph and 65 mph; and cars were still passing me by! Obviously, someone needs to have a long, serious talk with car makers about their teeny-weeny spare tire policy.

I had to see this movie after all of that stress!

I took my car to Wheel Works on Sonoma Boulevard the next day, Friday, June 3rd. They recommended that I need to get a new set of tires. I expected that, judging from the condition of the flattened tire.

Saturday, June 4th, after work at 10 p.m., I swung by the Chevron Gas Station to clean my front tires, wheels and wheel covers in advance of the tire replacement.

Sunday, June 5th, I noticed that the rear tires, wheels and wheel covers needed to be washed and cleaned.

Monday, June 6th, after work at 8:30 p.m., I went back to the Chevron Gas Station to wash and clean the rear tires, wheels and wheel covers.

Then, I decided to go see the movie, POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING, at the same theatre for the 10:30 p.m. show. I liked this pseudo music documentary. Go see it. Be forewarned, it has drugs, foul language and male nudity.

The "Stage Magic" and the "Limousine" scenes really stood out, in a "male nudity" sort of way.

R  ( 1 hr & 26 min )
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Tuesday, June 7th, I took my car back to Wheel Works on Sonoma Boulevard here in Vallejo for its 7:00 a.m. tire replacement appointment. All four tires cost me a total of $501.00 for a full 40K tire lifetime warranty coverage and for a car lifetime wheel alignment. The work was finished at around 9:15 a.m.

I then drove on over to the O'Reilly Auto Parts Store, two doors up the street from Wheel Works to buy a $4.99 can of Simoniz Nitro Xtreme Gloss Tire Dressing ( 13.75 oz [ 390 g ] ) to shine-up my brand new tires.

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