Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-22 (Saturday)

On 2/23/2025 8:09 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

I spent most of yesterday procrastinating, but I did eventually gets stuff done in the afternoon and evening. But this all meant that I didn't get through much yesterday:
 soaps: Y&R - Tue's and Wed's ep's. The main event(s) here were Claire's and Kyle's lunch with Victor, which went exactly how you'd expect, except that Victor showed his cards and tipped off Kyle and the Abbotts that he's still coming after them. And (Nu)Summer's clear jealousy of Claire with Kyle, which Daniel keeps calling her on (I love how he said she's going all "Phyllis" on this, and Summer *is* acting exactly like Filis[sic!] here!), which ended up annoying Summer so badly that she left Daniel at the restaurant!... Meanwhile, Filis is missing (wanna bet she flew to Paris to go after Billy?!).
    DOOL - Fri's ep. So much for Kristen getting the memory erasing drug! - It's too late! Brady and Patch(!) rescue Ava, and confirm her story about Rachel Blake still being alive, so they all haul Rachel Blake down to the cop shop! (Kristen can't use that drug now!!) But EJ still had a chance, so EJ goes to inject captive Rafe with the drug (who, of course, Patch *didn't* discover), but Rafe breaks free and they struggle over the syringe! (I will love it if EJ accidentally gets injected with the drug instead!) Meanwhile, Shawn bickers with Belle about her "relationship" with EJ (he is right - it's unprofessional!). Javi tells Jada that FauxRafe cheated on her with the stripper on the night before their ill-fated wedding.
 My Amish Double Life (Lifetime) - I was really hoping that it was going to turn out that there were two totally separate and unrelated conspiracies around the two murders involved in this flick. The fact that I'm disappointed should tell you how this turned out.
    And the identity of the main "big bag" was way too obvious as well. About the only somewhat unexpected wrinkle was who their accomplice was.
    Gist: Sheltered Amish girl Emma (Lexi Minetree, the new Elle Woods!!) is heart-broken when her daddy dies under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and is even more alienated when the Amish elders and even her Mom (Lifetime semi-staple Lesa Wilson) sweep the mysterious aspects of his death under the rug. So, under the influence of her rebellious friend (I think this is as high a profile role as Rachel Coopes has gotten yet), Emma sneaks out to the "English" world, where she meets a seemingly nice guy (Ty Trumbo) at a nightclub. On their second date, he has to leave town, and conveniently(?) lets Emma stay overnight at his mansion as she's fed up with the Amish elders stonewalling looking into her father's death. Of course, that night Emma is knocked out and the dude's estranged(?) wife is murdered, with the murder pinned on Emma.
    In a fit of rare common sense for a Lifetime heroine, Emma picks up all of the incriminating evidence, and beats it out of there and back to Amish land. (How did she know to take the evidence?! She doesn't watch "Law & Order"! She's Amish!!!) But, of course, the cops end up tracking her down anyway. And he "boyfriend" seems all to willing to throw Emma under the bus.
    This went exactly where I expected it too. I was really hoping that Emma's mom would turn out to be EVOL! too, and was involved in the dad's death along with the Amish elders, but this movie didn't have close to that much wit about it.
    So, I thought this was pretty "par for the course" for a middling Lifetime flick, though I guess Emma makes for a relatively "plucky" heroine (until the ending when she acts like an idiot that would have gotten herself killed!) - I mean, she is "young Elle Woods" afterall!  :p
  What did you watch?
 

I was out and about yesterday.  I caught the new "Back to the Future" musical.  I wasn't impressed.  I just kept being annoyed by all the plot changes they made, one in particular seemed to create a huge plot hole that was glossed over.  But all the scenes featuring the Delorean were really good, especially when gur pne syrj ng gur raq. Say what you will about the plot, they spent some money on the production.
Resuming my Quentin Tarantino watch (which I'm interpreting broadly) I watched:
Sin City (blu-ray) 2005 movie based on the Frank Miller comic directed by Robert Rodriguez (Tarantino directed a scene or something) with an all star cast including Bruce Willis as the only honest cop in the city who saves a young girl who grows up to be Jessica Alba who he then has to save again from Nick Stahl.  Powers Boothe plays Stahl's evil father.   Mickey Rourke steals the show as Marv, a big thug with a heart of gold.  With Rosario Dawson leading a group of hookers, and way too many more famous people to even try and list.  It's been a while since I last watched this but it held up great.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (3D blu-ray) 2014 prequel and sequel which expands on the original movie with many of the original cast back including Mickey Rourke as Marv and Powers Boothe as the evil Senator who this time is going up against Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The way I remembered it, this movie wasn't that good, but I found myself enjoying it.  It's not as good as the first one, but nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be.  And the 3D was great.
I tried to post this the other day, but I'm not sure it went through. As far as my Tarantino watch goes, I've already watched these:
Natural Born Killers (4K disc) 1994 movie written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone.  Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as a pair of psycho killers who travel the country senselessly murdering people for no reason.  Stone went way over the top in making this movie and really could have used someone to step in and force some restraint.
True Romance (4K disc) 1993 movie written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott.   Christian Slater stars as a video store clerk who falls in love with a prostitute played by Patricia Arquette.  In an act of true romance Slater murders Arquette's pimp (Gary Oldman) and takes off with his drugs.  This prompts Oldman's business partner played by Christopher Walken to come after them to get the drugs back.
On the commentary track Scott said he read the script for this and Reservoir Dogs back to back.  He wanted to direct Reservoir Dogs, but Tarantino told him he was going to direct Reservoir Dogs himself, so Scott had to settle for directing True Romance.  Also on the commentary Scott talked about the scene between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken, Scott wanted Walken to put the gun to Hopper's head, but Hopper didn't want to have the gun touch his forehead.  To prove to Hopper it was safe, Scott had the prop guy put the gun to Scott's forehead and pull the trigger.  This caused the barrel to come out cutting Scott's head and making him bleed.  I guess Hopper had a point.
Reservoir Dogs (4K disc) 1992 movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.  This was Tarantino's debut film.  The story jumps around in time to reveal a bank robbery gone terribly wrong with the surviving bank robbers returning to their hideout to figure out what went wrong. This movie has never looked this good.  This new 4K looks outstanding.
Pulp Fiction (4K disc) 1994 movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.  John Travolta and Samuel J. Jackson star as a pair of hitmen who having philosophical conversations while also trying to not break anyone's concentration.  Great movie and this new 4K disc looks great. The reason my Quentin Tarantino watch has been delayed multiple times over the past few years is every time I was about to watch the movies another movie would get a 4K upgrade so I would hold off and push the watch date back.  And this just kept happening again and again.  But now that I'm locked in and watching these it was worth the wait.  These 4K discs look stunning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QGeMApnBQQ
 From Dusk Till Dawn (blu-ray) 1996 movie written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriquez.  George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino play a pair of murderous bank robbers who take Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis hostage to help sneak across the border to Mexico.  But they make a stop at a bar that turns out to be a hangout for blood thirsty vampires.  It's been a while since I last watched this.  The movie holds up great, but the print on this disc has seen better days.