NOTHING WAS GOING TO STOP ME from getting to the restaurant, which I had first heard about from a movie. I was on vacation, traveling to a state I had never been to before. Since I was staying close to the border, I looked up to see how far the restaurant was from where I was staying. It was a two-to-two-and-a-half-hour drive. I mapped it out and discovered the trip would be part highway driving and part country roads. All I hoped for was pretty scenery. I had tickets for a couple of tours and events for my stay, so I had to figure out which day I could carve out enough time to drive to and back from the restaurant. The only day that would work was the day I had tickets for a play at night. I was confident I could leave early enough to get there for lunch then drive back and have enough time to freshen up, grab a light dinner, and attend the play. Thursday was going to be the day and I could not wait to try the restaurant’s famous pizza, or at least famous in the movie. Just the idea of being at the place and walking around the area where the movie was filmed gave me a thrill.      THURSDAY MORNING, I AWOKE TO DARK cloudy skies. I was not happy about it, but I did not care what the weather was going to be, I was determined to cross state lines and have myself a couple of slices of pizza. With a full tank of gas, my camera, phone charger and a couple of bottles of water, I headed out onto the highway. No sooner had I passed the next entrance ramp to the highway, than there was a sudden flash of lightning followed by a low, rumbling roll of thunder, sounding like it had been drawn out from a subwoofer. The sky ahead was darker than the one I was seeing out of my rearview mirror. It was none to long before I drove right into a wall of beating rain. I could barely see, and my wipers were at the highest speed. Up ahead, I could make out an overpass; so, I made my way to it and pulled over to the side and put on my hazard lights. I could not believe my luck; could not it have waited to rain until I was at least at the restaurant. It was twenty minutes before the rain lightened up slightly, so that I could head back out onto the highway. I had to reduce my speed, but I was determined to make it to the restaurant. A little over an hour later, with the rain reduced to drizzle, I saw up ahead a group of brake lights glowering at me. Now what? As I got closer, I saw an emergency vehicle and realized there was an accident. From a three-lane highway, the emergency personnel had closed all the lanes and were directing cars in single file to drive onto the shoulder around the accident. I stopped looking at the time on the dashboard; though, once I made it through, I started hearing the minutes ticking off in my brain as I tried to surpass the speed limit to make up time. The remainder of the trip was stressful as I knew I would have to rush my plans. But do you know what, it was worth it when I was seated at a booth enjoying my steaming hot pizza. You will understand this feeling if you choose to watch this captivating movie.      FINDING HERSELF IN NEW YORK CITY, a terminally ill woman is determined to have pizza from her favorite restaurant. It does not matter if the city is under attack, she wants to get her pizza. With Lupita Nyong’o (The 355, Black Panther franchise) as Samira, Joseph Quinn (Overlord, Make Up) as Eric, Alex Wolff (Pig, The Line) as Reuben, Djimon Hounsou (Grand Turismo, In America) as Henri and Eliane Umuhire (Omen, Trees of Peace) as Zena; this prequel to the science fiction horror franchise has absolutely nothing to apologize for. It was terrific and could easily stand on its own. What I enjoyed about this film was that the focus was on the characters. And having Lupita and Joseph chosen for their roles, they brilliantly brought their characters to life. The other character I must mention is the cat; I could not get over how perfect the cat was in its scenes. I sat on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, during multiple scenes throughout the picture. The script was well done as was the directing. I do not believe one needs to see the previous films to understand what was taking place in this film and for those who have, I suggest not spending the time comparing them to this newest one. This film was more drama driven and for a science fiction horror flick, I appreciated the differences.

3 ½ stars