Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-12-14 (Saturday)

On 12/15/2024 8:49 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 12/15/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
 

I watched:
>
BAYWATCHING NIGHTS: THE VORTEX:
In the most confusing episode of Baywatch Nights to date, Mitch and Ryan's
future spirits are sent through time by Native Americans to fight some slug
zombies.
https://youtu.be/pDt3kGj8k-E?si=NPm1xd5t81JkzzFq

 It really is amazing that this show ever came to be!...
 

I must have given up on "Nights" long before this aired.

What did you watch?

 I had to give a final exam review session yesterday afternoon, so not much...:
 soaps: GH - Thur's & Fri's ep's. Thur's ep was mostly set up - the payoff came at the end: Tracy accidentally exposes the Willow-Drew "sex video" at the Quartermaine holiday party! While everyone is dumping on Drew, bitch Willow storms out - helped/egged on by Nina, Willow tries to get her kids off the Quartermaine's property (smart!), but at the end of Friday's ep, they are stopped by bitch Carly! (Now Willow is finally going to see what Nina has always known - that Carly is a total and complete irredeemable bitch!)... Meanwhile, in a development that really pisses me off (again!), Dex dies (i.e. is murdered) by heart attack at GH. (This is really going to mess Josslyn up! - She's now had two boyfriends die on her! She's cursed!!) And NuNuLulu and Dante talk after Lulu breaks into Windemere(sp?) looking for clues as to Charlotte's (and Valentin's) whereabouts.
 Love Bomb (Tubi) - This was a weird little flick. Is it horror? Torture porn? (Not really.) A psychodrama wrapped in a mystery?... Tubi's blurb for this basically covers this overall: "A mysterious dating app designed for one-night stands brings three strangers together with deadly consequences for all those involved." It stars (former?!) porn star Jessie Andrews (who has no problem with a little naked nudity), and Zane Holtz and Josh Caras. It's mostly odd, and keeps you kind of guessing, with an ending that's... well, unexpected, I guess.
 

I watched:
Sonic the Hedgehog (4K disc) 2020 live action movie based on the popular video game.  Ben Schwartz voices the CGI hedgehog who battles the evil Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).  I'm not at all familiar with the original video game, but according to the commentary they stuck close to it.  I don't know.  I don't care.  It was mostly background noise.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (4K disc) 2022 sequel which has the wacky hedgehog once again battling Dr. Robotnik.  This time Robotnik has help from Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba).  Even more background noise.  I barely pared attention, but I did look up at the end to notice Jim Carrey piloting a giant robot, which I guess is from the game.
Super Mario Bros. (4K disc) 1993 live action movie based on the popular video game.  And yes, this is the 1993 version starring Bob Hoskins as Mario, in 4K.  A boutique label studio released this as a really good 4K set loaded with a ridiculous amount of extras.  Multiple commentary tracks, deleted scenes, featurettes, even the full work print version of the movie.  I *will* be revisiting this multiple times.
But first up I watched with the screen writer commentary.  Basically as he walked through the making of the movie, he said what was already well known, the movie was written and rewritten on the fly as they made it. He also said multiple times that this was one of the very first video game movies and at the time they had no idea how to translate a video game into a movie.  I do *not* buy that!  They had the game.  All they had to do was put what was in the game in the movie.  How hard is that?!?  The screenwriter said the first version of the script was supposed to be a lighter more family friendly (and game accurate) version of the movie.  But then they cast Bob Hoskins and significantly rewrote the script to be darker.  But then after they made the movie Disney decided to make the movie less dark.  And the constantly clashing of no one involved knowing what they wanted didn't help matters.  He said the directors while nice, gave the actors almost no direction at all.  Also well known, but the writer confirmed Hoskins had a horrible time making this movie.  It was like nightmare for him, and he turned to drinking to cope.  He said at one point the producers threw the screen writer under the bus when they made a change that Dennis Hopper (Koopa) didn't like and instead of admitting it, they told Hopper he made the change and Hopper called him into a meeting and yelled at him.  He also questioned what was up with the movies score.  He couldn't understand why they didn't use any of the game's iconic music.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (4K disc) 2023 New CGI movie based on the popular video game.  Unlike the 1993 live action version, which only barely resembled the game, this is pretty much the game come to life. Although when you think about it, the plots of the 1993 live action and this version aren't that far off.  In both versions Mario and Luigi are plumbers living in New York who get transported to the mushroom kingdom where they have to stop Koopa and his war machine.  It's just the new version actually follows the game and has all the stuff from the game in the movie.  And it just works.  One of the first things I noticed, probably because they mentioned it on the live action version commentary, is this version uses the game's iconic music throughout. And that music really does help set the tone and sale the movie.  Seeing Mario wear the suits from the games put a smile on my face.  I've watched this before, but I think I enjoyed it a little more this time around.
Secret Level (Amazon streaming) - This is a new animated anthology series set in different video game worlds.  The episodes are short, about 15 minutes each.  I had not originally plan on watching this, but when I realized the series dropped the other day, I figured now would be a good time.  I binged through several episodes.
"Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen's Cradle" - Episode 1.  Mostly background noise.  I really wasn't paying any attention.  But it sure did look nice.
"Sifu: It Takes a Life" - I never played this game before.  I have no idea what was going on and didn't pay much attention.
"New World: The Once and Future King" - I never played this game before. But Arnold Schwarzenegger voiced the King, so I paid attention. Basically Schwarzenegger plays a spoiled king who shows up on an island to conquer it, but finds conquering it a *lot* harder than he anticipated.  This one was OK.
"Unreal Tournament: Xan" - Mostly background noise.  I really wasn't paying any attention.  But it sure did look nice.
"Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear" - Another game I've never played.  And I have no idea what was going on with this one!
"PAC-MAN: Circle" - The *only* reason I kept going was to make it to the Pac-Man episode.  And this was by far the worst episode!  It was painfully bad and had *nothing* to do with the game.  They paid lip service to the game by referencing eating, mazes, and ghosts, but visually and storywise, they should be ashamed of themselves.  Anyone considering watching this series to see Pac-Man don't bother.
There are two more episodes already released, but I may or may not bother to watch them.  Although, I probably will resume once the Mega Man episode drops.  I am curious what they do with that.