Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-10 (Monday)

On 6/11/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

I watched:
 Doomsday Machine - Nostalgia Critic:
Nostalgia Critic takes a look at the Sci-Fi public domain classic Doomsday
Machine.
https://youtu.be/TBgUk2ZGsx8?si=XkAcV5vHunwq-9fu

Wow, a movie from 1976 is already in the public domain?! - Somebody really f**ked up to make that happen!!
And this one actually has an UMDb cast list mostly full of actor portrait pics!!
But 2.6/10 (>1000 votes) on IMDb is pretty bad.

What did you watch?

Ran morning errands, watched soaps, caught a movie on Tubi, and finally started in on a streaming series I've been meaning to get to for a while...:
soaps: DOOL - Well, that sucks. They (specifically Xander) killed off Constantine. This also means that NuTheresa gets off scot free, and because Constantine only hinted at Alex really not being Victor's son, everyone is still in the dark about that too. All in all, disappointing. And, to cap it all off John is being "Pawnified" on the spot, and may kill an already shot Steve!... Bah!
    GH - All "couple" stuff. Lil' Lizzie kicks the bar fly out of Finn's place, and then dumps his ass, and needs Jason's assistance to leave drunk Finn's; later, Lizzie seems to bury the hatchet with Jason. Willow and Michael (boring!!), and Josslyn and Dex, have dates - in the former, Willow tries to explain to Michael why she's moderating on Nina. Meanwhile, Nina and Drew, fight, and then f**k again!!
The Moderator (Tubi) - Another example of pretty decent concept, but generally lousy execution.
    The one thing that was "fun" about this one is that much of it was filmed in Morocco (looks quite a bit like California!!), so at least that was somewhat novel.
    This stars former Russian model Irma Lake as I think a former model(?) - a couple of Scandinavian friends of her are murdered by jihadis in Morocco, and so she take a job with... someone (the ID of her boss isn't revealed until the end, and it's an amusing twist!) to hunt these guys down and exterminate them (with prejudice!!). Somehow, she "broadens" her job to hunt down internet misogynists (e.g. posting rape/murder vids) *everywhere* as... "the moderator"! (See - she goes into online incel forums, and hacks into them in order to kick the dirtbag misogynists off the forums! While killing the forum operators posting the videos, 'natch!)
    The whole while, she's chased by various Interpol! (ha!!) and other (e.g. Moroccan) agents, including Gary Dourdan (who actually looks decent here - is he clean?! did he kick the habit?!) and Robert Knepper (playing a good guy - sort of! - for once?!?!!).
    Anyway, this sounds better than it is. Unfortunately, the flick gets too bogged down in particulars, and isn't "action-y" enough (I don't think Irma Lake has been fully trained to be an "action star"...).
    IMDb gives this a 3.5/10 - this seems roughly right. I really think that only Moroccan setting sets this one apart.
Station Eleven (Max) - First two episodes of the Max Original Series.
    This is a very odd show.
    I thought episode #1 was much stronger than episode #2, and it looks likely to me that episode #1 will be the strongest of the bunch, unfortunately.
    This is a "apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic" series, but not in the usual "Mad Max"/"The Walking Dead" kind of way.
    Episode #1 deals with a sudden plague that wipes most of humanity out in less than a few months, mostly focusing on "Day One" - Jeevan a failing(?) internet "journalist" is at a staging of King Lear(?) when the play's lead star drops dead. He ends up having to chaperone one of the child actresses in the play, Kirsten (Matilda Lawler as a child; Mackenzie Davis as an adult in the flashforward), in the chaos. He soon gets a call from his doctor sister who tells him to immediately get to their loner brother's apartment and hunker down until this "flu/plague" passes. So, he takes the child actress with him to the brother's place.
    This is pretty much what happens in episode #1, and at least it was compelling.
    Episode #2 is mostly 20 years in the future (in "2040"), after the plague wiped most people out, and now the survivors are wandering around. Kirsten has gotten herself in with a roaming "theater troupe", headed by Lori Petty which travels the country putting on Shakespearean plays. But, of course, some creepy types start showing up.
    I found this stuff *much less interesting* than episode #1. If the remaining 8 episodes spend most of the time in 2040, this show is going to be a slog...
What did you watch?