Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-16 (Sunday)

On 6/17/2024 7:59 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On my last day before my Summer job starts up, I did some more house chores (but did not finish all of them) and watched:
 Wild Cards (CW app) - "Romancing the Egg" (ep. #1.10, the season finale).

I have no memory of you summarizing the first 9 episodes.

    This was OK - Max's husband (Deshawne Williams), who abandoned her 2 years earlier, returns, which puts off Det. Cole after he and Max almost kissed. The husband, of course, has a heist in mind. Max, claiming she wants revenge! REVENGE!! on the guy, throws the husband under the bus to Commissioner Russo (Karin Konoval) and Chief Li (Terry Chen), promising to sting him on the heist for an arrest, in exchange for Cole finally getting his desk back, and Max getting time knocked off her father's (Jason Priestley) sentence. (Of course, the husband was involved in getting Jason Priestley "falsely" arrested!)
    Anyway, this goes right where you expect it to, with Max coming through on stinging the husband (though not before their heist hits some bumps along the way!), but then Cole figuring out that Max actually tricked/double-crossed them, and stole the fabulous (Fabergé?) egg for herself.
    This finale basically wrapped up season #1's storylines, but there's a final scene at the end that seemingly sets up a season #2. But I have no idea how that will even work, as Max's probation is over, and she no longer has a job at the cop shop, and is about to leave town...
 I should also mention that several days ago, I also finally got around to watching the final episode of (the Hallmark channel series) "Ride".
    Despite the fact that The CW reaired it, the series was no longer available on The CW app - interestingly, it was available on Peacock(!) and also another streamer (it might have been Prime...).
    The final episode of "Ride" actually does wrap up the main season #1 storylines, so it acts as an acceptable "series finale" (even sending Missy (Tiera Skovbye) out of town), though it did sport one new reveal at the end, which disappointingly looked like it was going to potentially make Holly Deveaux part of the main cast in a prospective season #2 that will now never happen.
 golf - Rory McIlroy managed to surge into the lead, passing Bryson DeChambeau, on the final day of the U.S. Open, but then choked *hard* down the stretch, letting DeChambeau back into the lead, which he held on to with a clutch par putt on the 18th hole, to win it (in generally obnoxious fashion...). yay...  [roll]
 By Light of Desert Night (Tubi) - This low-budget 2019 thriller flick actually wasn't bad! - better than I was expecting.
    It promises young women chased through desert by local rube scum. But that storyline is actually more of a distractor, because then something happens that spins this flick off in a totally different direction.
    Basic plot: Three young women (Lara Pictet, Lifetime's (and The Asylum's!) Meghan Carrasquillo, and Alexandra Bokova) head off into the (Nevada) dessert for a kind of final "bachelorette" party for the one (Pictet) about to get married. Along the way, they are menaced by a couple of local rubes (who seem very "rape-y"), but they manage to get away from them. And then they come across a local native American who warns that one of them (Carrasquillo) may be "the raven" which will change their lives forever... Once at their camping site, they do seem to be menaced by someone.
    Then something happens that changes the direction of the film.
    This wasn't "awesome" or anything, and I don't think it even rises to the level of "surprise Tubi gem". But it was better than I was expecting.
 Danger in the Dorm (Lifetime) - Another Lifetime flick adapted from one of Ann Rule's (short?) true-crime stories.
    The actual crime profiled by Rule was a murder of a co-ed in 1972 at Oregon State University. Like the earlier Rule-inspired Lifetime flick "12 Desperate Hours" (with Samantha Mathis), "Danger in the Dorm" is also time-shifted from its original time-period to, apparently, the 1990s (the film itself never says when it takes place, but a Today article on the film said "1990s"). And the college here is fictitious (and they never say what state this takes place in).
    Anyway, it stars the attractive gravely-voiced Russian-Canadian actress Clara Alexandrova, whose best (though at the time estranged) friend is murdered in the dorm. Then some other students are attacked on campus.
    Obnoxiously, reality TV "star" Bethenny Frankel plays her way over-protective mother (this seems very "on brand").
    This was OK. The movie takes pretty heavy liberties with details of the actual real-life case that Rule wrote about, though does follow the generalities of the case.
  What did you watch?
 

I watched:
Harlem Nights (blu-ray) 1989 comedy written and directed by Eddie Murphy and starring along with Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Michael Lerner, and Danny Aiello.  Pryor runs an illegal nightclub in 1930s Harlem who is getting muscled out by a gangster played by Lerner and his cop enforcer played by Aiello.  I haven't watched this in forever.  It held up well enough.
Boomerang (blu-ray) 1992 romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy as a womanizing ad exec who meats his match when Robin Givens shows up as his new boss, while he is simultaneously falling in love with an impossibly young Halley Berry.  The movie holds up well.
Coming to America (4K disc) 1988 comedy starring Eddie Murphy as a young prince from Africa who travels to America to avoid an arranged marriage and find a wife of his own choosing.  The movie holds up great.
Coming to America 2 (Amazon streaming) 2021 sequel which reunites almost everyone from the first movie, even characters with bit parts and cameos, for a bowl of member berries.  Remember the woman from the first movie who was going to marry Murphy and become Queen until Murphy told her to hop on one foot and bark like a dog?  Well she's still hopping and barking and her brother, Wesley Snipes, is not too happy about it. He is the ruler of a neighboring country and makes it clear he wants satisfaction or Murphy is a dead man.  Turns out Murphy has an illegitimate son that he never knew about and if that son will marry the general's daughter war or at least Murphy's death, can be avoided. Queue the callbacks and cameos!  The movie was occasionally funny, but nowhere near as good as the original.  I get the feeling someone said just get everyone back from the first movie and the script will write itself.
The Lazarus Project - Season 2, episode 2.  A lot happened, but I have no idea how to summarize it.  Actually, I'm going to need to track down a recap video so someone can explain to me what I just watched, because I really didn't follow it.