Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-11-23 (Saturday)

On 11/24/2024 9:07 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 11/24/24 9:04 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
 

I didn't do much of anything yesterday, except take it easy. Just did a chore or two.
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I watched:
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Christmas in the Spotlight (Lifetime) - This really was 100% just straight up lifted from Taylor Swift's and Travis Kelce's romance.
    This was OK, I guess.
    Jessica Lord is somehow unrecognizable from her "The Next Step" days - I think it's the combination of weary (too much!!) makeup her,

 We'll try this again: "I think it's the combination of her wearing (too much!!) makeup here, and..."
 

and her hair.
    Laith Wallschleger seems to less be playing Travis Kelce here, and more playing Gronk. But, whatever.
    Also, have quarterback and wide receiver brothers ever played on the same NFL team in the history of the NFL?! I can't recall an example of this...
    Anyway, this was OK - "Taylor Swift" meets-cute "Gronk" at her concert, through "Gronk's" niece, and they start up a romance. But of course "Taylor" wants to keep it "casual" and secret. There are obstacles along the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah...
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What did you watch?

 

I watched:
Sister Act (blu-ray) 1992 musical starring Whoopi Goldberg as a singer dating a gangster (hey that's Harvey Keitel) who she accidentally witnesses murdering someone (hey that's Rom from Star Trek: DS9).  She runs to the police and the police hide her with a group of nuns in San Francisco headed by Maggie Smith. At first she doesn't fit in, but when she discovered they have a choir she quickly takes over and brings them success.  I don't think I've watched this since the early 90s.  It holds up very well.
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (blu-ray) 1993 sequel which finds the nuns now running an inner city school in San Francisco.  The kids won't listen so they call Whoopi to teach the choir class.  Lauryn Hill also stars as a young girl who when she's not giving attitude can sing, but her mother (Sheryl Lee Ralph) thinks singing is a pipe dream.  Jennifer Love Hewitt also pops up as one of the choir kids.  I don't think I've watched this since seeing it at the dollar theater when it first came out. It's formulaic, but OK.
Ghost (4K disc) - I decided to squeeze this in.  This is the 1990 classic starring Patrick Swayze as a man who is murdered but hangs around as a ghost so he can haunt his girlfriend (Demi Moore).  Whoopi Goldberg steals the movie as a fake psychic who turns out to be not so fake when she discovered she really can talk to ghosts.
The Others (4K disc) - Another squeeze in.  This is a 2001 movie starring Nicole Kidman as the mother of two young children with a condition that prevents them from being in sunlight.  She and her newly hired caretakers try their best to protect the children from the sun, but they soon discover there are "others" also living in the home who don't like keeping the curtains closed.  A pre Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston also pops up as the children's father.  If you've never seen this movie before it's worth watching, but best to go in knowing as little about it as possible.
Wicked (theatrical) New musical based on the hit Broadway show.  Cynthia Eribo stars as Elphaba and Ariana Grande stars as Galinda, with a "Ga." Elphaba is unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe.  While Galinda is blonde.  The two of them meet at Shiz University and at first hate each other, experiencing the feeling of unadulterated loathing.  But eventually Galinda decides to help Elphaba become popular.  Unfortunately, something sinister starts to take shape in Oz as the animals have their rights and even voices striped from them.  Elphaba and Galinda make their way to the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) for help.  But once they arrive Elphaba realizes something has changed within her.  Something is not the same.  She is through with playing by the rules of someone else's game.  She decides it's time to try defying gravity.
This was a lot better than the stage version.  It's the same songs, and although the movie 160 minutes long, and only tells the first act of the stage musical, I didn't detect much new that wasn't in the stage version.  But what the theatrical version does is the movie really opens up the scenery to expand the world in a way that can't be done on a stage.  Also I saw this in 3D, and the staging of the musical numbers definitely had 3D in mind.  Fans of the stage version should be very happy with this movie version.
All of the popular songs are in Act one of the show.  Off the top of my head, there's not much to look forward to in part 2, but I've heard there's a lot from the book not in the stage show.  I suspect all that missing material is what's going to make up the second half of the movie.  Also the second half of the stage show is darker with the Wicked Witch actually being the Wicked Witch in the second half of the stage version.  So from that perspective I can see them using part 2 of the movie to go full on Wizard of Oz just from the witch's perspective.
The studio released a number from the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amgPXKrFZVg