Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-15 (Saturday)

On 2/16/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

What did you watch?

Yesterday, I finished off "Longlegs", and got through two more (minor) flicks (which I won't be getting a chance to today!), along with soaps, and some golf:
Longlegs (Hulu) - This 2024 film feels like one of those movies that looked better on paper than it does actually filmed.
    Clearly inspired by the film "Silence of the Lambs" (but with a twist!! [roll] ), right down to being set in the 1990s, "Longlegs" stars Maika Monroe as <s>Clarice Sterling</s> Agent Lee Harker - and Lee isn't just an FBI Special agent, she's a very, very special agent! as she seems to be unable to interact normally with people (or kids!). Maika Monroe is a good actress, and does fine here, but this character is rather one-note, as Lee looks permanently discombobulated and afraid that the next shoe is going to drop (on her head!), which doesn't give Monroe a huge amount to work with.
    Beyond that, the film has a good cast, with Blair Underwood as Lee's boss, Alicia Witt (who shows up later, and is almost unrecognizably old to me now) as Lee's mother, Kiernan Shipka in a supporting part, and Nicholas Cage in over-the-top makeup and going completely over-the-top in the role! - more over-the-top! than Nick has ever gone before!! - as the apparent ring-leader of a series of family murders.
    But as the film's open implies, this isn't "crime horror" a la "Silence of the Lambs" - it's "horror horror", which probably means there's some supernatural element here.
    And that's where the film goes awry, especially with the film's ending.
    So, while I liked well enough (but didn't love) the film's first two-thirds, it mostly lost me in the last-third, especially will the ending.
    In retrospect, it definitely feels like this film is substantially more "style than substance".
    The ending does imply that they could easily do a sequel (there's even someone listed in the end-credits cast listing implying as much, esp. thoigh they end up not appearing in this film), but I'm not hearing anything about a sequel to this in the works.
soaps: GH - Fri's ep. After Molly admits she was inappropriately going through Sam's medical records to try to track down her killer, Cody figures out a way to let people know they are locked out on the hospital's roof, and they are rescued by Isaiah and Lucas. Isaiah warns Lucas about Jenz Sidwell. Lucy bring Sidwell to a Deception meeting, and Lulu flips out as Sidwell tried to kill Lucky! - amazingly, Brook Lynn seems to blame Lulu for this and not Sidwell! It's revealed that Natalia was previously married to Sidwell. [roll]  Alexis talks to Jason in the cop shop and gets him to agree not to kill Cyrus Renault for Danny's sake. To Ric's consternation, Ava accepts when Sonny shows up with an offer to restore their joint custody arrangement; stupid Kristina is outraged when Sonny tells her.
    Y&R - Thur's ep. OK, this is ridic - it's revealed that Damian's lieutenant dude (I guess his name is Holden?) somehow knows and was previously involved with Audra - of course, she wants to keep this a secret. Phyllis interrupts Billy's and Sally's romantic Paris getaway with a phone call, which annoys both of them. Later - surprise! - it's revealed that Billy is actually still going after Victor and the Newmans, and has a secret partner working with him (I'm hoping it's Lily, but it's more likely someone like Diane...).
golf - Day 3 of the Infinity Open, this year played at Torrey Pines. Unclear who is going to win this thing, though Rory McIlroy didn't do himself any favors, dropping several strokes on Day 3, putting him 5 back from the leaders.
Warning (Hulu) - Well this 2021 sci-fi flick ended up being disappointing.
    The movie's poster shows Thomas Jane in a space suit, so you think "Ok, great! It's a movie with Thomas Jane in space!"
    Unfortunately, instead the film is a series of vignettes set in a dystopian not-so-distant future, and Jane's spaceman is just one of the vignettes (though Jane's is actually the "framing device" for the film). Anyway, this gets frustrating on several levels, as some of the vignettes are worse than others, and several of them (esp. Alice Eve's and Annabelle Wallis') don't seem to come to any satisfying conclusion.
    The ending is also over-the-top and frankly doesn't really match the rest of the film - it's like the writers thought, "Well, we need a way to wrap this up. Why don't we just go with [spoiler]?!!" Not good.
    The acting is fine. Alice Eve seems to be having the most fun here, playing a simpleton.
    But this film is definitely skippable.
Deadbolt (Tubi) - A 2024 Tubi Original film! Starring Rebecca Liddiard!!
    I can see why Lifetime (likely) skipped on this one - while the ending was pure lifetime, the rest of the film felt like it was lacking in urgency in getting there - IOW, it wasn't action-packed enough for Lifetime. Also, in places this seemed to be a little too "raw" for Lifetime.
    And this was definitely "the perp is solved by the cast list" kind of film - Jamie Spilchuk generally plays villains on Lifetime, so as soon as he showed up, I knew exactly where this was going, if not how it was going to get there.
    Liddiard plays a psychologically fragile women, with a stalker ex-boyfriend and an unsupportive mother (who only appears in a voice role), who applies to be a roommate to a flighty artist type living in a somewhat sketchy part of town (what town?!) - maybe the best part about this flick was that the flighty artist was played by Camille Stopps: Stopps usually plays no-nonsense squares on Lifetime, but here she's playing pretty much the opposite of this. I'm not sure that this is Stopps' forte, but I enjoyed seeing her doing something different.
    Anyway, soon, Liddiard's character becomes convinced either that the place is haunted or that something (sinister?) is going on. Is the stalker-ex behind this? Or is it the weird old dementia-stricken neighbor?... Well, I went with my gut here, and I wasn't wrong!
    As a Lifetime flick, this would be mediocre. As a Tubi flick... well, I was just glad that it didn't sport a dumb twist ending (though the denouement was a little too on-the-nose), so I guess that makes it better than average for a Tubi Original.
What did you watch?