Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-12-08 (Sunday)

On 12/9/2024 6:52 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 12/9/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 Yesterday, I pretty much graded all day (after not grading at all on Saturday), so I just got through more "Lioness" S2 (before grading) and then football:
 Lioness (Pee+) - Ep's #2.3 and 2.4.
    In #2.3, Carrillo shows up at the Texas base, and pretty much gets the cold shoulder from everyone. They then "train" her, though I'm not really sure what the point is (she's not supposed to be the assassin, yeah?) (In other news, Genesis Rodriguez is much more game than Laysla de Oliveira was, as Rodriguez does some actual (brief) naked nudity here!) Joe shows up on Cruz's doorstep and basically drafts Cruz back on the team as a "backstop" (she is to eliminate Carrillo if Carrillo flips to her Cartel family's side).
    Apparently Taylor Sheridan hates NCIS for firing poor Robyn Lively as much as I do! as Lively appears in ep. #2.3 as a Senator that Nicole Kidman (and her husband) are lobbying.
    In ep. #2.4, Joe is being tailed by a DEA agent (Kirk Acevedo) whom she and Kyle confront, and the DEA guy gets himself talked onto a mission to hit a Cartel warehouse. Everyone is involved in this mission, including Cruz, and Carrillo who flies the chopper (and takes out a bunch of local cops, on Joe's orders!!). What they find is a bunch of human trafficked.
 football - This was mostly background noise while I graded.
    For the morning game, I put Atlanta vs. Minnesota on, and the Vikings crushed the Falcons 2-to-1! (42 to 21).
    I was denied the 49ers game in the afternoon, so I watched the Buffalo Bills vs. the LA Rams. Somehow, and I don't understand how, the Rams actually won this game!
    The evening game was incredibly frustrating - the Chargers were stymied by the Chiefs defense in the first half. But in the second half, the offense started to get things going, and the Chargers actually took the lead. But the Chiefs offense ran out the game clock, and then kicked a last-second go-ahead field goal which hit the upright... and bounced *in*.  >:E
 I then put "Leah's Perfect Gift" with Emily Arlook on Hallmark on as (muted!) background noise. I think this flick would have irritated me, so I'm glad I didn't watch it with full attention.
  What did you watch?
 

I watched:
The Killer (blu-ray) 1989 Hong Kong action movie written and directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat.  Yun-fat plays a hit man with a heart of gold who is sent on one final job, but during the job he accidentally blinds a singer during a shootout.  He stalks, I means falls in love with the singer and after saving her life the two decide they want to make a go of it.  She of course does not know he's a hit man or responsible for blinding her.  Yun-fat agrees to one final job to get money for an operation to restore her eyesight, but at the same time he has to keep dodging a cop who is hot on his trail.
Hard Boiled (blu-ray) 1992 Hong Kong action movie written and directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat.  Yun-fat plays a tough cop (the type of cop who kills the crooks instead of arresting them) who is after some gangsters.  He reluctantly teams up with an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who has already infiltrated the organization.  I watched this with a pretty good commentary that was loaded with information. They said John Woo was supposed to make this a less over the top violent movie, but John Woo is going to John Woo and just couldn't help himself.   He kept demanding bigger and bigger explosions.  For the famous scene at the end of the movie where there's a huge gun battle at a hospital maternity ward, Woo insisted on having real babies on set.  But you have to admit the scene with Yun-Fat with a gun in one hand, a baby splattered in blood in the other, while saying coochie coo, to the baby is one the movie's highlights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebEc7nzVn3M
The commentary mentioned Woo was actually more popular in America than in Hong Kong which is why he left Hong Kong after Hard Boiled to start making movies in America.  They also alluded to some sort of falling out Woo had with Yun-fat when Yun-fat dropped out of "Red Cliff" which is why they aren't making movies together anymore.  They also talked a lot about "Infernal Affairs" which also starred Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a very similar role.  I hadn't realized that, but coincidentally, I already have "Infernal Affairs" on my watch list for next week.
The Replacement Killers (blu-ray) 1998 action movie directed by Antoine Fuqua (produced by John Woo) and starring Chow Yun-Fat as a hitman with a heart of gold. Michael Rooker plays a cop who kills a gangster's criminal son, then shows up at the funeral to taunt the gangster.  The gangster then sends Yun-fat on one final job, to murder the cop's young son in front of him, but Yun-fat's heart of gold gets in the way and he can't do the job.  He then hurries to get out of town by getting fake documents from Mira Sorvino, but the gangster is too fast and a hit team shows up at Sorvino's office.  The two barely escape but now have to work together because this is an American movie and needs a female romantic lead.  The gangster then brings in "replacement killers" (hey, Danny Trejo is one of the replacement killers) to get the job done and kill everyone.  Only Yun-fat and his heart of stands in their way.  This movie is actually pretty good, I just keep forgetting it exists.
The Killer (Peacock) 2024 action movie and remake of John Woo's 1989 movie of the same name.  John Woo directed this remake himself.  Set in Paris, a hitwoman (Nathalie Emmanuel) with a heart of gold is sent by her handler (Sam Worthington) to do a job at a nightclub with instructions to kill everyone there.  During the job she accidentally blinds a singer and decides to spare her life.  Her handler insists she finish the job and kill the singer too.  But the killer's heart of gold gets in the way and she decides to protect the woman instead. Also in the mix is a cop (Omar Sy) who is always one step behind her. This was not a good movie and quickly became background noise.  They *really* should have kept the original plot point where the hitman falls in love with the person he blinded and takes on one final job to get money for an operation to restore her sight.  What's the point of even doing a remake if you remove the romance angle?  And by setting it in France it felt more like a Luc Besson movie than a John Woo film.  By giving the hitwoman a backstory and a handler, it felt more like a watered down La Femme Nikita than the Killer.