Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-11-21 (Thursday)

On 11/22/2024 5:07 AM, jojo wrote:

Ubiquitous wrote:

After ana rduous workout, I watched:
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Nothing.
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What did you watch?
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-- Don't jump!
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 anime mostly,

What anime?
There was a time a long, long time ago that if someone said they watched anime, there was a chance that I watched or at least maybe heard of what they were talking about.  But anime left me behind a *long* time ago. And when I think of anime, I'm still thinking of stuff from the 80s and 90s.
my time is divided between anime, work and screwing around

online.
 

I watched:
Cruel Intentions (Amazon Prime) -  "Alpha" - New TV series based on the movie (yes, I know there was a book).  This new series moves the action from high school to college.  The episode starts with a brief flashback.   Caroline Merteuil is the president of a sorority and in a relationship.  Her sidekick CeCe (Selma Blair's character from the first movie) tells Caroline her boyfriend is out with another girl at a frat party.  Caroline grabs her stepbrother Lucien (why did they change the name?!?) and heads over to confront the boyfriend.  They arrive in time to see him openly with another girl while everyone watches a frat pledge getting hazed.  Something goes wrong and the pledge is seriously injured.
Fast forward to the present day and the college is investigating because the injured student is the son of a congressman.  The kid has no memory of the incident, but the congressman is demanding action which prompted the college to put all fraternities and sororities on probation. However, the incoming class of students includes the U.S. Vice President's daughter.  Caroline gets the idea if the daughter joins her sorority that will put her back on the top and prevent her sorority from getting kicked off campus.  So, Caroline sends Lucien out to seduce the VP's daughter with the promise of if he's successful Caroline will sleep with him.  John Harlan Kim (The Librarians) also pops up as a way too old college student.  As best I can tell John Harlan Kim's character is basically Joshua Jackson's character from the first movie.  He's a loyal ally who helps them carry out their evil schemes.  Sean Patrick Thomas, who was in the original movie also has a role in this series as a college professor, and my guess is that this character is a version of the same character he played in the original movie.
Overall, the show is OK.  It looks like each episode might have one or both siblings ruining someone's life with the overall story arc of seducing the VP's daughter into joining the sorority by the end of the season.  But that's just my guess based on the first episode.
"Beta" - Episode 2.  I didn't give this one my full attention and it seemed like a lot less happened.  I went expecting them to ruin some random person's life, just because they could, but instead this episode focused more on Caroline's behind the scenes scheming and an anti "Greek" movement that the VP's daughter is torn between joining or following in her mother's footsteps and joining a sorority.
Silo (AppleTV+) - "Order" - Season 2, episode 2.  In a major step up from the pilot the focus shifts back to the present day silo with all the regular cast returning to deal with seeing Juliette walk over the hill.  This has never happened before and now upper level folk must prepare for a potential revolution.  Juliette is missing from the episode so no new information about life outside the silo.
Gladiator II (theatrical) Ridley Scott's sequel to his 2000 historical epic which picks up 16 years later with a pair of co-emperors (Jospeh Quinn and Fred Hechinger) now ruling Rome.  It's not at all clear to me how they came to power, but in their thirst for power they send their general (Pedro Pascal) out to conquer new territory.  The movie opens with a pretty good naval battle as Pascal captures the last free city in Africa and takes prisoner Paul Mescal, who thinks he's going to be the star of this movie and the next Gladiator.  What Mescal doesn't realize is Denzel Washington is also in this movie and he intends to be *the* star of Gladiator II!  Connie Nielsen also returns reprising her role as Lucilla from the first movie and now wife to Pedro Pascal's character.
Overall, this was a pretty solid sequel.  I'll admit it's about 75% rehash of the first movie.  The plot similarities are the same old story of a soldier who becomes a slave, a slave who becomes a gladiator, a gladiator who defies an empire.  But what makes this movie different from the first one is Denzel Washington's star power.  He basically comes on screen and goes, I see what you're doing retelling the story of the first movie, but this is *my* movie now!  And the movie is all the more enjoyable for it.  Did they even give him a script or just say show up on set and say and do whatever you want to say and do?  There are some really good fight scenes in this movie to rival the first one, but all the repeat viewers will be going back to watch Denzel do his thing.