Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-11-28 (Thursday)

On 11/29/2024 7:29 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

Yesterday was Thanksgiving with some family - so no movies, no soaps, just football, football, football!
 

I did the exact opposite!  I avoided all family, stayed home and vegged out.

NFL football - First game was Detroit Lions vs the Bears. The halftime show was Shaboozey!! (Huh?!...)

I think it's spelled Shipoopi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOz2TSbmmhw
The Lions should have blown the Bears

out, and indeed in the first half it was a walk as the Bears offense couldn't even stay on the field. But something weird happened in the second half, and the Bears came back and almost made a game out of it. But then the Bears flushed away their chance in the last 30 seconds with terrible coaching - I would literally have fired the coach after this.
    Second game was Cowboys vs. the Giants. Again, this really shouldn't have been close, and mostly wasn't, but the Cowboys never really put the Giants away like they should have. Still, they won.
    The late game was the Packers vs the Dolphins, in Green Bay, in a little bit of snow. This was the blowout you would have expected! For the second year in a row, NBC refused to show even more than a few seconds of the halftime show (am I supposed to know who Lindsey Stirling is?!), instead wasting our time even more with a "human interest" bullsh*t piece about one of the players - this is why people hate NBC Sports and have ever since Dick Ebersol ruined sports (esp. the Olympics) with "human interest" crap.
  What did you watch?

I watched:
Hostel (blu-ray) Normally I don't like these types of movies but I was able to pick up a blu-ray double feature for 99 cents several years back.  At that price for two movies...  I'm pretty sure I saw this once before and didn't care for it, but I was willing to give it a second chance.  Written and directed by Eli Roth, the plot involves a few Americans lead by Jay Hernandez on a Eurotrip who head to an out of the way hostel where they quickly learn it's a front for rich Europeans who like to torture and murder tourists.  I guess it was OK, especially if you close your eyes during certain scenes, it wasn't as gross as I feared it would be.
Hostel II (blu-ray) This was on the same disc as the first one.  This one I remember watching way back when and actually liking, although going in I had no real memory of the plot.  Picking up where the first movie ends, they tie up some lose ends before transitioning to a new group of tourists, this time all female.  But in a bit of a twist one of them turns the tables on the torturers.  I remember that's what I liked about it when I saw it way back when.  The ending seemed to be very abrupt, but it was otherwise OK.
Thanksgiving (Netflix) This is a new 2023 horror movie directed by Eli Roth based on a fake trailer that was part of "Groundhouse."  The plot is basically Scream if you know what I did last Thanksgiving.  A generic killer in a Thanksgiving themed mask seeks revenge a year later for a tragic event that happened on Thanksgiving.  The script writes itself. After the movie was over I tracked down the original fake trailer and it was about 75% of what was in the fake trailer made its' way into the real movie.
The Mask of Zorro (4K disc) 1998 movie starring Antonio Banderas as Zorro, Catherine Zetra-Jones as his love interest and Anthony Hopkins as the first Zorro who trains Banderas to be the new one.  I think I saw this once before and didn't care much for it, but was willing to give it a second chance.  It past the time I guess.
The Legend of Zorro (4K disc) 2005 sequel which has Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zetra-Jones returning to argue while saving the day.  I'm pretty sure I never saw this one before now. It was a blind buy to go with the first one.  Meh.  Mostly background noise.
The Lone Ranger (blu-ray) 2013 Western staring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as his trusty sidekick, the Lone Ranger.  I saw this once before and liked it.  On second viewing, I still liked it.  One of the main things I like about the movie is the framing device.  The movie starts out in 1933 and has Tonto relaying his past adventures to a kid dressed up like The Lone Ranger.  Except there are various plot holes and inconsistencies in his story, which the kid keeps point out as he tells it.  The movie is directed by Gore Verbinski who also directed Depp in several Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and has a similar sensibility.