Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-26 (Monday)

On 5/27/2025 10:42 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 5/27/25 8:00 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
 

What Did You Watch?

 I treated yesterday like a pure vacation day, and did nothing but play my video game and watch stuff, though I still was too tired to tackle "John Wick 4" (maybe today?...).
 I got through:
 soaps: DOOL - GH was a rerun yesterday (I'm assuming Y&R was the same), so all I got through was DOOL. Xander continues to be an unhinged asshole so Maggie kicks him out of the mansion (legally, she can't do that, so Xander should stick it to her by fighting it) so he steals Victor's portrait and throws it in a dumpster! Everyone else gives Xander the brush-off. Meanwhile, more hemming and hawing with (Fake!) John Black, and more John (& Marlena) flashbacks. Meh.
 Andor (Disney+) - Episodes #2.4-2.6.
    So, I'm not sure I care for this structure - each 3 episodes of season #2 is it's own "set", each taking place a year apart.
    Thus episode #2.4 again starts with "A Year Later" (IOW, a year after episode #2.3), and we are now in BBY 3! (from BBY 4).
    These ones had much less Mon Mothma, and much more Luthen and Kleya, and more direct focus on Cassian and Bix.
    Again, I found ep's #2.4 & #2.5 less than engrossing, but episode #2.6 picks up the pace, and is the best of this lot so far, though I thought the ending, while "dramatic", was kind of dumb/unrealistic.
    Much of these episodes focus on the machinations around the planet Ghorman. At first I thought the Ghormans were supposed to be Germans or Austrians (WWII irony?), but I quickly realized the Ghormans are actually supposed to be French - the language is French sounding, but not actually French - and thus the focus on fashion on their world.
    I'm guessing the following episodes will ratchet this up.
 

Yes, definitely French and that's all very deliberate.

 What did you watch?
 

A bit late, but I watched:
Fantastic Four  (blu-ray) 2005 superhero movie directed by Tim Story and starring Ioan Gruffodd as Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba, as Sue Storm, Captain America as Johnny Storm, and Michael Chiklis as The Thing.  With Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom (not sure if he's ever called "Doctor" in the movie).  This was mostly background noise with the cast commentary.  Chicklis is a fan of the comics and spent the commentary explaining to the other actors what was from the comics.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (blu-ray) 2007 sequel once again directed by Tim Story with the same cast returning.  But this time joined by Doug Jones as the Silver Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne).  More background noise.  I watched with a commentary by Producer Avi Arad, Writer Don Payne, and Film Editors.  They were pretty good about pointing out all the stuff they changed from the comics.  But my favorite was probably when one of them asked, "What's a U.S. army base doing in Siberia?"  Good question, but they are the ones who made the movie, they should tell me.
The Fantastic Four (blu-ray) 2015 movie, directed by Josh Trank, and starring Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Kata Mara as The Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell and The Thing, and Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. Together they are The Good Enough, I guess 4.  The Good Enough, I guess 4 must join forces to stop a disgruntled computer programmer named Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell).  The relationship between The Good Enough, I guess 4 can best be described in the immortal words of Arnold J. Rimmer as, "People I once met."  But if you must defeat a disgruntled computer programmer, the The Good Enough, I guess 4 are, good enough, I guess.
Unfortunately, this movie has no commentary track, so I was forced to listen to the actual dialogue.  This movie is what happens if someone decides the way to fix the Tim Story Fantastic Four movies is by removing every last ounce of humor or anything that could even remotely be considered fun.  Then desaturate the colors so much that even Zack Snyder would beg for a just a little bit of color to be added back. Anyway, this movie exists.  That's about all that's worth saying about it.  The only other thing that occurs to me about this movie is at the time Michael B. Jordan and Josh Trank were friends and it looked like the two of them were going to ride each other's coattails to success in Hollywood.  Then this monstrosity escaped, and Jordan dumped Trank and latched onto Ryan Coogler for success instead.  Jordan definitely traded up!
Life after Navigator (FawesomeTV) 2020 documentary about Joey Cramer who was the lead in "Flight of the Navigator" and played Tom Selleck's son in "Runaway."  Cramer had some success as child actor in the 80s before becoming a drug addict and eventually getting caught trying to rob a bank.  It was an OK documentary.  I got the impression the filmmakers were bending over backwards to show Cramer in the best light possible. I guess there's nothing wrong with that.  I should note, this is the second time that I watched something on FawesomeTV in the proper aspect ratio after seeing it displayed in the wrong aspect ratio on a different streaming service.
Anora (Hulu) 2024 movie about the young son of a Russian oligarch who marries a prostitute (Mikey Madison).  This movie popped up on my radar last year when it got a ton of award nominations including 6 Academy Award nominations, winning 5 of them.  I really want to call this an r-rated version of "Pretty Woman" except "Pretty Woman" was actually r-rated.  So perhaps a better description is a more realistic version of "Pretty Woman" although this movie is also played for laughs, so they weren't exactly going for realism either.  Just more believable depiction of rich man and prostitute.  Now to be fair, Madison's character keeps complaining that she is actually a stripper, not a prostitute.  But if she takes money to have sex with someone, which she absolutely does, multiple times, all I'm saying is the description seems to fit.