Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-03-29 (Saturday)

On Mar 30, 2025 at 10:28:48 AM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb"
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

 Reacher (Prime) - Ep's #3.1 & 3.2. With the way the season premiere ep
 started off, I thought for sure something was up... Sure enough, much of
 it was staged, and Reacher was sent in, undercover, to investigate...
 Anthony Michael Hall! And Reacher is sent in by a DEA agent played by
 Sonya Cassidy - the good news is that she's not using her native British
 accent! the bad news is that she is *not* pulling off a convincing
 Boston accent either!! I don't know what accent that's supposed to be,
 but I don't hear Boston!... Anyway, I kind of don't like this set up any
 more than season #2's, as this isn't "Man Against Town" Reacher again
 (see season #1), but Reacher working with a "team" (as Cassidy has two
 other DEA types helping her). But it's better than S2 I guess, as
 Reacher is doing most of the work solo, with the DEAs just providing
 backup... In ep. #3.2, Reacher brutally murders a thug who knows too
 much like it's nothing!!
 

 
When that happened I was stunned.  At first I thought the guy was just
unconscious, then I though maybe it was accident. I mean Reacher
wouldn't just murder a guy in cold blood would he? Yeah, he would.
Then you hear the bones crunching as he's folding him up.

I wasn't surprised because I'd read the book. In the book it was more of a
case of self-defense, though. Angel Doll was going for a weapon when Reacher
killed him.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (blu-ray) 2005 sci-fi comedy
starring Martin Freeman as a man who is rescued by his best friend (Mos
Def) who turns out to be an alien from the destruction of Earth.  The
two then go on adventures through space and time.  Coincidentally this
movie also stars Alan Rickman and Sam Rockwell who were also in "Galaxy
Quest."  I guess it's an OK movie.  It certainly looks nice.  But the
problem is, although I never read the original book, I did watch the
original BBC miniseries based on the book.  So I can't help but compare
it to that series. Even though on a technical level this movie
outclasses the low budget BBC series, the BBC series was at least (as
far as I know) complete, whereas this movie just sort of stops half way
through, setting up a sequel that was never made.

The HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE series works as books. They're hilarious. But it's
because of the style of prose and the author's wit. It doesn't really
translate to the screen.