Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-01 (Saturday)

On 2/2/2025 8:41 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

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

What did you watch?

 Yesterday, I did household chores, and watched soaps, golf and a theatrically-released movie!:
 soaps: Y&R - I believe Tue's and Wed's ep's. Mostly this concerned Victor summoning Ian Ward to the ranch house, but the situation quickly going south as Ian Ward turns the tables and holds a gun on Victor and Nick, and then increasing numbers of the Newman family who show up (most of the principals, except for Abby). In the end, both Victor and Ian get shot, but Ian is almost certainly on the way out... There was Billy/ Sally stuff on the side, but it wasn't important.
    DOOL - Fri's ep. Very disappointing - as expected, the writers don't let Rafe escape, and it looks like EJ is going to successfully implement his plan to ruin the wedding and Jada's career.  >:/  But more and more people are suspicious of FauxRafe.
 golf - Day 3 at Pebble Beach was a mostly miserable affair of wind and rain (it was so rainy in parts that CBS's cameras were all wet, and you could only barely see the action on TV!!). The weather did improve for about the last 6 holes though. Right now, it's a shootout, with Sepp Straka barely in front by 1. It should be anyone's tournament today.
 Gladiator II (Pee+) - Such an uninspired title! They could have at least called it "The Gladiator Returns" (or "The Gladiator Rises"?!) or "The New Gladiator", or even better "Gladiator II: The Spawning" or "Gladiator II: Electric Boogaloo"!!
    It took me a while to realize how this sequel directly tied into the original, but I figured it out about 15 minutes before the movie got there.
    To say that this movie is not historically accurate is an understatement!! Yes, the twin emperor bros existed (though their father, and especially their mother, were important figures, who don't even get a mention here!), and yes Macrinus (Denzel Washington) was a real person whose background loosely matches with what's in the film. But that's about the only parts of this that come close to being right!
    This is full of spectacle and is generally entertaining (and looks pretty awesome in 4k), doing a decent (though in some places maybe an over-enthusiastic!) job of tying things to the original film.
    I mean, they bring Derek Jacabi back! though he's actually barely in the film, only showing up in about three scenes. (He's in his 80s so it's understandable!)
    Hey, they cheat! That's not Spencer Treat Clark as Lucilla's (Connie Nielsen) son in the flashback sequence! Couldn't they have used CGI trickery to make Clark appear for this!?!
    While I was mostly entertained through this film's 2-and-a-half hours, I did not care for the ending which is both massively ahistorical, and lacking in an actual resolution to the overall story.
    But this is mostly a fun ride if you're up for this sort of thing.
 

I think what the movie mostly has going for it is Denzel's performance, and playing it as the hero (in his own mind at least) of the story.

 What did you watch?
 

On Lennier's birthday I watched:
Babylon 5 (blu-ray) "Matters of Honor"  Season 3, episode 1. Season 3 picks up with Earth sending someone to investigate the Shadow ship, or at least that's the cover story.  Meanwhile, Sheridan gets a shiny new White Star.
Season  3 has the best opening credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9EbGd1AlMg
"A Day in the Strife" - A representative from the new occupation government on Narn goes to B5 to convince G'Kar to return home.  And with him is the Narn Sheraden met last season.  There's also a developing subplot where the doctor is addicted to stims.  I almost skipped this one because the episode recap said it was about an alien probe.  And technically, I guess that probably is the A-plot, which I would have happily skipped, but all the G'Kar scenes were excellent and worth watching. "You are needed here." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WROHQ2TuVPM
"Passing Through Gethsemane" - This one I was going to skip, but as a compromise to myself I watched the Lyta scenes and fast forwarded the main plot where Brad Dourif reprises his role as a mindwiped priest.
"Voices of Authority" Season 3, episode 5.  Team B5 goes searching for the First Ones.  I must have missed why Drall needed Ivana to hook herself up into the great machine.  Other than it did allow for Ivana to conveniently learn the truth about President Clark and make a recording.   Sheridan gets a new political officer which gives him the opportunity to go where everyone has gone before.  If you know, you know.  ;-)
"Dust to Dust Season" 3, episode 6. G'Kar gains telepathic abilities and learns the truth about Londo.  And the truth (more or less, OK mostly less) about Kosh.
"Exogenesis" - Season 3, episode 7.  Alien parasites in the plot description tricked me into watching this skippable episode.
"Messages from Earth" - Season 3, episode 8.  Team B5 learn the Shadows are already on Earth.
"Point of No Return" - Season 3, episode 9.  Martial Law is declared on Earth causing a shooting war at home and people are forced to pick sides on B5.
"Severed Dreams" - Season 3, episode 10. After President Clark starts dropping bombs on Mars Babylon 5 and a number of colonies declare their independence prompting a fire fight between B5 and Clark's forces.  "If you value your lives, be somewhere else!"
Arcadian (Hulu) Covered by Ian yesterday.  Nicholas Cage raises two boys in a nonspecific post apocalyptic world.  This is one of those movie where the monsters are always in the dark so save money on effects. Some of the monster designs looked like they may have been interesting, that is had then been enough light to actually get a good look.