Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-19 (Friday)

On Sat, 20 Apr 2024 10:55:53 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

On 4/20/2024 9:20 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 4/20/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 
Yesterday, I just wanted to get home to watch TV and movies, so that's
exactly what I did!:
 
Fallout (Prime) - First two episodes.
    I finally decided to pull the trigger on this. I dunno if I will be
able to watch it straight through - I'm hoping I will have enough time
to be able to finish it over this coming week.
    So far I like it, though I am not sure I am going to like the show's
structure - e.g. how it seems to rely heavily on "guest stars" who show
up for one, and only one, episode. It's just a good thing that Walton
Goggins is main cast on this, or I fear we'd never see him! (e.g. Kyle
McLaughlin).

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Goggins chewing the scenery is probably the best thing about the show.
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    I do like Moises Arias as the brother, though it may be the worst
casting ever, as Arias and Lucy Purcell couldn't look less biologically
related if they tried! (Maybe Arias' brother character was "adopted"?!)

Doesn't seem likely given the limited supply of parents.

    Curious to see where they go with this - I have never played the
video game, though I've heard about it over the years...

I've played all but the original RPG games for many hours. Good stuff.
This has all the elements of the games though it isn't sticking
strictly to the events of the game.

I then watched two movies... strangely, these were both in 4k - I guess
everything is in 4k now!:
 
Lisa Frankenstein (Peacock) - Well, this was... "quirky" (written by
Diablo Cody!).
    For no reason at all, this is set in the (late) 1980s.
    Because of the film's premise, it kind of doesn't work - Kathryn
Newton plays Lisa, a teen who is emotionally disturbed in the wake of
witnessing her mother's axe-murder. (Who thought this was a good idea
for establishing the character?!) Her father has since remarried (to
Carla Gugino), and Lisa now has a well-meaning and supportive, but
ditzy, stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano, who is apparently famous in the
Philippines).

Her Wikipedia is strange. It suggests that at 12 years old she (with
her family) moved to the Philippines from California to pursue an
acting career. Even though she didn't speak Filipino. Though she has
made an apparently successful career there so I guess it worked out.
Easier to be a success in a smaller pond. Now that she's moved to the
USA it may prove quite difficult to match her success in the
Philippines. Though I'm sure she will get work as she's still young
and good looking.

    Anyway, Lisa is the school weirdo in her new school, and she likes
to hang out in cemeteries, and is attracted to the headstone monument of
one particular young man who died in 1837.
    Taffy drags Lisa to a party where Lisa is dosed (with a
hallucinogen?), and then almost sexually assaulted. (Who thought this
was a good idea?!) This happens during some sort of freak lightning
storm (you can see where this is going).
    After, Lisa comes across the lad from the 1837 grave, now reanimated
by the lightning. At first, Lisa is terrified by him, but then decides
to clean him up. In return, the monster helps Lisa unleash her inner
hott Goth chyck!
    Meanwhile, Lisa's stepmom (Gugino), who is a villain straight out of
"Snow White", has had enough of Lisa, and intends to have her committed.
    Murderous wackiness ensues.
    I never thought this got the tone right. While Lisa's tragic
background should make her sympathetic, the murdering quickly renders
her (and the monster) very *un*sympathetic - why are we rooting for two
killers to get together?! And they're going for "comedy-horror", which
this doesn't get right tonally either.
    Thus, the ending is unearned, and the movie kind of never works as a
result.
 

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Agreed.
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I almost pulled the trigger on "Night Swin" (off Peacock) but didn't
feel in the mood for it.
 
Bottoms (Prime) -

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This is on my watch list.  I'll get to it eventually.
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Now, this was absurd, but several of the comedy bits

actually pay off. So I thought this was much better than "Lisa
Frankenstein" (it's also 10 minutes shorter!).
    The gist? Two bottom-of-the-high-school-pecking-order lesbians
(Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote it, and Ayo Edebiri from "The Bear")
decide to put together a "fight club, for girls!" at the HS, with the
help of their also weird and pathetic friend (Ruby Cruz). They bill it
to the other girls as a "self-defense (and empowerment!)" club, but the
real point is that Sennott's character wants to use the club to seduce
their two cheerleader crushes (Kaia Gerber and Havana Rose Liu).
    Of course, the club takes off beyond their wildest expectations.
    Anyway, this was amusing. The only thing I didn't like was that the
asshole male football players never suffered any consequences for their
horrible behavior.
 
 
What did you watch?
 

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I watched:
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Law & Order: SVU - "Combat Fatigue" - In a bit of a change for SVU this
episode focuses on the trial of the kidnapper they've been following all
season.  The opening scene with in the jury room I could swear was
ripped off line for line from another show, but I don't remember which
(LA Law maybe?).
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Abigail (theatrical) New horror movie about a group of kidnappers
(including Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, and Katheryn
Newton) who are hired by Giancarlo Esposito to kidnap a little girl for
ransom.  But the little girl (Alisha Weir) turns out to be a blood
thirsty vampire who enjoys playing with her food before slaughtering
them.  This was surprisingly good.  I think mostly because I went in
expecting a paint by numbers PG-13 jump scare flick, and this turned out
to be a hard "R" gore fest.  And the characters were generally smart and
didn't do obviously dumb things.  It also borrowed heavily from "Fright
Night" but that is meant as a compliment.  This was probably a better
"Fright Night" remake than the actual "Fright Night" remake!  Although
it obvious has a different plot with the whole kidnapping thing, there
are some definitely and welcome similarities.
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I still haven't gotten around to seeing the FRIGHT NIGHT remake.
Mostly because remakes never hold up to the original.