Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-07 (Friday)

On 6/8/24 8:16 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>

What did you watch?

 Hey, thanks for asking!

I don't see Ubi's original post - Is there one? Or did you just take an old WDYW? post, and make it into "2024-06-07 (Friday)"?
Yesterday, I focused heavily on finishing "Shogun" and movie watching:
Shogun (Disney+ (from Hulu)) - Ep's #1.8-1.10, so I finished out "season #1".
    I actually thought ep. #1.8 was a bit of a dud. For example, I really didn't like that Blackthorne turned his back on his fellow sailors, and there were totally needless deaths in this episode.
    Ep's #1.9 and #1.10 were better. Stuff actually happens. But, still, by the end of the season, we *still* haven't gotten to the big battles or anything.
    I still think more seasons of this show is a bad idea - by the end of season #1, probably three of the show's best characters are dead, and another is apparently leaving for a monastery, and I don't think the show can recover from the loss of that many key characters, despite there still being history left over to tell after the end of James Clavell's novel. So I remain skeptical here.
soaps: DOOL - It's Maggie's and Constantine's wedding! Constantine orders "The Pawn" to eliminate Maggie as soon as the wedding ceremony is complete. But they never get that far! Maggie implements her plan to frame Constantine for embezzlement before the end of the ceremony! Constantine lashes out, and blames everyone for his fate (but, oddly, never throws NuTheresa under the bus!). Honestly, I was kind of hoping they'd keep John Kapelos as Constantine around for a while, but after this episode I don't see how they can... Meanwhile, NuTheresa uses Brady to get Alex back, so I think Brady is finally and completely done with her.
    GH - Finn has become a dirty drunk, and picks up a bar fly, which one of Lizzie's sons witnesses, so he tells Lizzie who catches Finn in the act. Chase and Brook Lynn try to figure out what to do about Violet and Finn...  Nina comes across Willow and Wiley and Drew at the pool (weirdly, unlike Eden McCoy, Katelyn MacMullen seems "swimwear modest", and is unwilling to show her body off much...). New guy Gio triggers Trina's grief about Spencer. Dex and Josslyn continue to reconcile.
Then the two movies:
Roadkill (Tubi) - I think this 2024 flick is better than the 3.5 IMDb score indicates (though with only ~500 votes) - I would definitely put in the 4's out of 10.
    Deliberately filmed like a 1970s or early 1980s 'B' picture (after a flashback opening, the film is set in the summer of 1983, somewhere in the "southeast" of the U.S.). The film is a slow burn, and leisurely-paced, like those 70s and 80s films it's an homage to.
    Former child actress Caitlin Carmichael has graduated to adult roles, here playing a pretty literal "babe in the woods", credited as only "The Driver" - it is never really explained how she has money or how she obtained the Chevy Nova SS she drives (though one can guess). But she wears perfectly tight jeans (later converted to cutoff-shorts!!), and a flattering T-shirt... so, perhaps she's up to no good?!
    Anyway, she picks up a drifter (Ryan Knudson, credited as only "The Hitchhiker"), whom we know from the film's opening is a disturbed individual. So you're supposed to be thinking - "Oh, no! What is she doing?! This guy's a killer!!"
    Indeed, in the subplot, the local sheriff and deputy keep coming across murdered bodies on the road.
    Anyway, this film managed to keep me partly guessing. I figured out the main twist, but there are some other twists along the way.
    Could it have been better? Sure - there are some things I still am not sure of (e.g. questions about The Hitchhiker, specifically.) But, overall, this kept me entertained. Though, as usual, I didn't care for the ending.
    Warren Fast, who plays the sheriff, directed and wrote this.
    P.S. Danielle Harris turns up in this playing a waitress, and I was depressed at how old she looks now.  :(
The Stranger (Hulu) - So, this was apparently a 2020 Roku webseries that they converted into a movie.
    One thing I can say about this - this one *really* kept me guessing, pretty much up until near the ending.
    Maika Monroe plays a rideshare driver, newly relocated from Kansas - the "joke" here is that she is supposed to be from the same town in Kansas that Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" is from, and she even has a "Toto-like" dog of her own.
    Anyway, she picks up a passenger (Dane DeHaan) who pretty quickly turns psycho and threatening. She manages to get away from him by crashing her car. But the cops turn out to be useless, assuming she's a liar, leaving her to mercy of this psycho who starts stalking her.
    Eventually, she ropes in a convenience store clerk (Avan Jogia) to help her.
    The one weak element here is that DeHaan's villain is pretty much a nearly all-powerful supervillain (hacker, 'natch!). But if you are able to put that aside, this is a pretty decent thriller "ride" movie with a lead heroine who is possibly an unreliable narrator.
What did you watch?