Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-04-05 (Saturday)

On 4/6/2025 10:46 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 4/6/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

What did you watch?

 I finished "Reacher" season #3, watched a dumb movie off Tubi, and watched the "Who Shot EJ?" episode of DOOL, along with some golf:
 soaps: DOOL - Thur's ep. This is really dumb - Why are they playing coy with who shot EJ?! Hint: It's the character that was shown tossing a gun, and then just left town possibly for good (Ava). I don't know why they are trying to make a mystery out of this!! Anyway, Ava gets written out of the show in this ep. (which pisses me off!!). And nothing else important except for EJ getting shot happened.
 golf - Day 3 of the (Valero) Texas Open. Honestly, I wasn't paying much attention, except to note that older guy Brian Harman was in the lead by several strokes and should win this unless he melts down on Day 4.
 Reacher (Prime) - Ep's #3.7 & #3.8, the season finale.
    Overall, I did enjoy season #3 quite a bit, definitely more than season #2, and maybe even more than season #1 (though I liked that season #1 was patented "Reacher against town", which they've definitely gotten away from since then).
    I was disappointed that Reacher never got to bang the cute French maid before she was killed (and his cover was blown).
    I was also disappointed that we didn't get any real naked nudity from Sonya Cassidy (after Willa Fitzgerald ponied up for that back in season #1).
    I definitely enjoyed ep. #3.5, where Reacher's cover is blown and he barely escapes with his life, but taking a whole bunch of thugs and giving him the "CW-Arrow" treatment!
    In fact, this season is a departure from the previous two in how many people Reacher just summarily executes rather than killing in "self-defense"!
    I did enjoy the Reacher-vs-Paulie fight in the finale, though it went on, like, two segments too long (Paulie definitely should have been dead at the end of the "ocean" segment!), though I did like how Reacher ultimately dispatched Paulie!
    I also liked how Sonya Cassidy dumped *Reacher* at the end, rather than the other way around - nice change of pace!
    Good work from Anthony Michael Hall in these ep's.
    This show has already had Hall and Robert Patrick as "baddies" - I will be disappointed if Neal McDonough (or Ron Perlman) don't show up as the main baddie of season #4!
    But I look forward to season #4 - though I am curious about what book they will choose to adapt next (that has not been announced).
 Zero Hour (Tubi) - There are *multiple movies* with this title, including the post-apocalyptic 1957 flick "Zero Hour!" with Dana Andrews...

That's what I immediately thought of.  But are you sure it's "post-apocalyptic?" I only ever saw it once, years ago when I learned it was the basis for "Airplane."
But this was a low-budget 2023 entry that clocks in at about

70 minutes.
    Even that was too long.
    I watched this mainly because it stars Mikaela Hoover - who is literally probably best known for being in 2 episodes of "Two Broke Girls" (so she's not a major actress!) - and Sarah Dumont (who, based on the name, I confused with *Emma* Dumont!).
    This was a one-man movie show: written, directed and co-starring Justin Groetsch (who?!) - well, it was actually him and his wife (or sister?), as she produced.
    Did Groetsch really think he was being clever with this flick?!
    He tries a "twist" at the end, but that lasts for all of about a minute, before he launches a "double-twist" ending which didn't work for me at all. And he keeps showing flashbacks to explain/justify these lame twists. This didn't work at all either.
    The only parts that work (very!) mildly are the parts in the middle with Hoover trying to escape late-night intruders into her office. But this flick takes too long to get going, isn't all that great in the middle, and pretty much falls apart at the end with the lame "twists".
    Bah!
 What did you watch?
 

I watched:
Final Destination (blu-ray) 2000 horror movie staring Devon Sawa as a high school student who boards a plane for a school trip to Paris when he suddenly has a premonition that the plane will blow up killing him and his classmates (exploding planes due tend to do that).  Sawa freaks out causing a commotion getting himself and several classmates including a teacher kicked off the plane.  The plane promptly takes off and blows up leaving Sawa and his friends comprised of recognizable early 2000s teen stars still alive.  Death then sets out to even the score and make sure everyone who was supposed to die winds up dead, one painful way or another.  Ali Larter co-stars as one of the students who got off the plane and now has to avoid death.  Tony Todd makes his first appearance as a coroner who seems to know a little too much about what's going on.
Final Destination 2 (blu-ray) 2003 sequel which finds death minding its' own business when suddenly a group of people selfishly refuse to die during a highway pileup accident thanks to someone having a premonition beforehand.   So death sets out to make sure everyone who is supposed to be dead winds up dead, even if it means killing them in overly complicated and unnecessary painful ways.  But it is after all those people's own fault for not dying when they were supposed to die.  What were they thinking?  Ali Larter returns as a survivor from the first movie who brings her expertise in cheating death to the team.  And Tony Todd returns as a coroner who seems to know a little too much about what's going on.  Nice touch when one of the characters asks how did he know her name and he just smiles.
Final Destination 3 (blu-ray) 2006 sequel which opens with a group of young people boarding a roller coaster.  Unfortunately for them, it's their time to die and the coaster comes apart mid ride killing everyone.   Or so that was death's plan. But one of them had a premonition of the pending disaster and got off the coaster taking a few people with them. Death of course isn't going to stand for this so death spends the movie killing them in unnecessarily random and painful ways. This one wasn't that good.  Tony Todd only made a voice cameo and this was 2D when it was clearly meant to be in 3D.  And the kills weren't particularly memorable either.
The Final Destination (3D blu-ray) 2009 sequel, and 4th film in the franchise.  This time they got it right.  This one is in 3D and opens with a group of people attending an auto race.  The race goes horrible wrong with a massive accident that kills the drivers and people in the stands.  Normally death would have been happy with such a large haul, but one of the people in the crowd had a premonition of the impending blood bath and managed to get out saving several people from what would have been their certain death.  Death of course isn't going to let this stand so it spends the movie hunting them down and killing them in overly complicated and unnecessary painful ways.  The two standouts are probably the car wash sequence and the mall escalator.  My main gripe with this one is, no Tonny Todd, not even a voice cameo.  At least we know he's going to be back for part 6.
Cobra Kai (Netflix) - "Into the Fire" - Season 6, episode 11.  In the last episode one of the students was killed during the big annual brawl.   This episode picks up with a funeral for the dead student.  The student conveniently had no family, so the Cobra Kai dojo was able to give him  the funeral and cremate the corpse.  Was funeral rights listed in the brochure when he signed up for Karate lessons?  Anyway, he was a Cobra Kai student and now Cobra Kai is out for revenge against and actively teaching the students how to deal killing blows.  Meanwhile the tournament has been called off, but Silver is working behind the scenes to get it back, but the organizers will only resume the competition if everyone agrees, and of course Danial doesn't want to finish the competition after a student has died.
A Goofy Movie (Disney+) 1995 animated movie.  I never saw this movie before now.  I never really had any interest in watching it before now. But over the last couple of years I've been hearing more and more about it.  There was even a fake documentary as part of an episode of "Atlanta" and now next week there is a real documentary about the making of this movie.  So I just had to know, what is it about this movie that has everyone talking.
The plot has Goofy taking his teenage son, Max on a road trip to go fishing.  The plot is a lot like "National Lampoon's Vacation."  Max starts out as a teenager who can't stand to be around his "goofy" father and is terrified that he will grow up to be just like him, but as the two travel they grow to bond and have a loving father/son relationship. I didn't find the movie particularly funny, and I didn't like any of the songs, but I can definitely see how the father/son bonding theme must have really hit home with the audience of the time, especially fathers taking their young sons to see this movie, it probably stuck with them over the years.