Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-28 (Friday)

On 3/1/2025 10:16 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 3/1/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 Yesterday, I was actually not so tired, and actually got through movies when I got home, along with a Y&R ep:
 soaps: Y&R - Tue's ep. [sigh...] An episode that was almost 100% Sharon.   :|  Yeah, Filis[sic!] is in this episode later too, but, like, the first 5-10 minutes was just Sharon. Oh, how I despise this character!! Anyway, Sharon and Filis[sic!] find themselves trapped inside a room at a shutdown sanitarium. They try to figure out who took them (it will almost certainly turn out to be Ian Ward) and what their abductor(s?) want from them.
 Nosferatu "Extended Cut" (2024) (Peacock) - Finally got around to watching this. In glorious 4k, so you can see every vein in Lily-Rose Depp's pained and manic face!!
    I have no idea what is in the "extended cut" - the theatrical version is 2 hrs 12 mins, while the "extended cut" is 2 hrs 16 mins: so 4 extra minutes.
    I liked the way this was filmed, esp. early on - there are some really beautiful shots. What I can't figure out is how much of this is "real-world shot" stuff, and how much of this is "greenscreen trickery" - I suspect my favorite shot in the thing is the latter, unfortunately.
    This film discombobulates me by using none of the names from "Dracula" - so no Van Helsing, no Renfeld, no Mina. I did not realize before watching this and looking into it that the original 1922 German "Nosferatu" film was an "unauthorized adaptation" of the 1897 Bram Stoker novel, and thus uses different (specifically German) character names.

The same thing happened to me!  I kept wondering why were all the names different when these are *clearly* the same characters.  LOL
  I have not seen the original - I will now put it on my list, and

it's on one of the streamers right now.

I think maybe I saw the original silent version, but I'm not sure.
I was seriously bummed out that I wasn't able to find "Shadow of the vampire" anywhere to stream.  It's not even available to buy on blu-ray.   "Shadow" stars Willem Dafoe as Count Orlock, in a movie about the making of the original "Noseratu."  The twist being, Dafoe's Orlock is a real vampire on set, and he's really killing the cast, while the director (John Malkovich) happily films it all.

    It takes a while for Willem Dafoe to show up (as, basically, Van Helsing), but he's a welcome addition when he does.

I thought Dafoe was playing Orlock in this movie and didn't realize he wasn't until he showed up later in the movie.

    A friend of my niece praised Depp's physical performance here, and it is quite good. (Is she a former dancer?...) Surprisingly, this had much, much less nudity than I was expecting, considering we know that Depp is always up for nudity (if not outright demanding it?!...).
    Ha! Nicholas Hoult has now starred in two different "Dracula" flicks - he needs to go for the trifecta!
    Really?! Bill Skarsgård plays the Count?! Really?!! Is there any supernatural film made these days in which Skarsgård is not the main villain?!!!

Well there is that upcoming "Welcome To Derry."  They'll probably find someone else to play the supernatural monster in that.  Let me check...Nope, it's Skarsgård.  ;-)

    Anyway, while this is perhaps a tad too long, I did enjoy this, and it looks great.
 

I think you probably liked it a bit more than I did.  Although I am looking forward to see what Robert Eggers does with the upcoming "Labyrinth" sequel.  Since "Labyrinth" is one of my all time favorite movies, he better not mess it up!

We Kill Them All (Tubi) - A 2025 thriller flick.
    The lead villain's accent gives this one away - it's clearly a Canadian film, and the end credits confirm as it was filmed in Saskatchewan(!).
    Gist: Two cute lesbians (Chloe McClay and Emma Newton, neither of whom I am familiar with) - well, the redhead (McKay) would be cute without all the tattoos - travel to a distant lodge (the film doesn't indicate where, but it's Elk Ridge Resort in Elk Ridge, Saskatchewan) to see the father of the redhead. But when they get there a group of thugs has already killed him looking for some old purloined loot kept by the redhead's old man. Before being killed, the old man takes one of the thugs out, leaving the thug's leader (Leo Fafard, with the obvious Canadian accent) and two underlings to search for the purloined loot.
    The young women drive into this without knowing what they're getting into - so this ends up being two cute lesbians fighting for their lives (and one of the two gets worked over by the head thug pretty bad!) against the three thugs.
    I'll give you one guess as to who comes out on top!
    This took a little too long to get going, but at least didn't take half the film to get going like something else I watched off Tubi recently!
    Anyway, this flick wasn't deep, but it did manage to pass 90 minutes.
  What did you watch?
 

I watched:
Law & Order: SVU - "The Grid Plan" - I honestly though they were doing an episode where the accused was innocent.  But since they didn't go down that path, I'm seriously wondering why they didn't even try to come up with a motive.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (4K disc ) 2024 movie directed by Guy Ritchie.  Based on a true story, Henry Cavill stars as a British soldier who is recruited by Winston Churchill to assemble a team of Inglourious Basterds who engage in Ungentlemanly Warfare to kill Nazis.
Inglourious Basterds (4K disc) 2009 movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.  Based on fake history, Brad Pitt stars as an American soldier who leads a team of Inglourious Basterds who engage in Ungentlemanly Warfare to kill Nazis.  Every man under Pitt's command owes him 100 Nazi scalps.  They are in the killing Nazi business, and business is a-booming.  Christopher Waltz steals the show as the head Nazi most in need of killing.  Another excellent Quentin Tarantino film.