Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-19 (Friday)

On 4/20/24 10:55 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

On 4/20/2024 9:20 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 4/20/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
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What did you watch?

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Yesterday, I just wanted to get home to watch TV and movies, so that's exactly what I did!:
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Fallout (Prime) - First two episodes.
    I finally decided to pull the trigger on this. I dunno if I will be able to watch it straight through - I'm hoping I will have enough time to be able to finish it over this coming week.
    So far I like it, though I am not sure I am going to like the show's structure - e.g. how it seems to rely heavily on "guest stars" who show up for one, and only one, episode. It's just a good thing that Walton Goggins is main cast on this, or I fear we'd never see him! (e.g. Kyle McLaughlin).

 Goggins chewing the scenery is probably the best thing about the show.
 

I then watched two movies... strangely, these were both in 4k - I guess everything is in 4k now!:
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Lisa Frankenstein (Peacock) - Well, this was... "quirky" (written by Diablo Cody!).
    For no reason at all, this is set in the (late) 1980s.
    Because of the film's premise, it kind of doesn't work - Kathryn Newton plays Lisa, a teen who is emotionally disturbed in the wake of witnessing her mother's axe-murder. (Who thought this was a good idea for establishing the character?!) Her father has since remarried (to Carla Gugino), and Lisa now has a well-meaning and supportive, but ditzy, stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano, who is apparently famous in the Philippines).
    Anyway, Lisa is the school weirdo in her new school, and she likes to hang out in cemeteries, and is attracted to the headstone monument of one particular young man who died in 1837.
    [snip]
    Murderous wackiness ensues.
    I never thought this got the tone right. While Lisa's tragic background should make her sympathetic, the murdering quickly renders her (and the monster) very *un*sympathetic - why are we rooting for two killers to get together?! And they're going for "comedy-horror", which this doesn't get right tonally either.
    Thus, the ending is unearned, and the movie kind of never works as a result.

 Agreed.
 

I almost pulled the trigger on "Night Swim" (off Peacock) but didn't feel in the mood for it.
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Bottoms (Prime) -

 This is on my watch list.  I'll get to it eventually.
 I watched:
  Abigail (theatrical) New horror movie about a group of kidnappers (including Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, and Katheryn Newton) who are hired by Giancarlo Esposito to kidnap a little girl for ransom.  But the little girl (Alisha Weir) turns out to be a blood thirsty vampire who enjoys playing with her food before slaughtering them.  This was surprisingly good.  I think mostly because I went in expecting a paint by numbers PG-13 jump scare flick, and this turned out to be a hard "R" gore fest.  And the characters were generally smart and didn't do obviously dumb things.  It also borrowed heavily from "Fright Night" but that is meant as a compliment.  This was probably a better "Fright Night" remake than the actual "Fright Night" remake!  Although it obvious has a different plot with the whole kidnapping thing, there are some definitely and welcome similarities.

Yep, this is on my list (despite Barrera's involvement). I'll wait for it to come to come to (likely Peacock, like "Night Swim").