Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Ian J. Ball" Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: What Did You Watch? 2024-05-10 (Friday) Date: Sat, 11 May 2024 08:36:32 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 83 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Sat, 11 May 2024 17:36:33 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="4c07ce7726aeae58d51629d4135bfeca"; logging-data="2217020"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18IUcayyUUE5XzGFGiK2HyM" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:GompRMUhrEMMOVfefD+RAOd5f68= Content-Language: en-US Bytes: 5763 On Friday pay day(!), after getting some work done (but not enough!!), I resolved to make yesterday a "movie day" when I got home, so I basically did. First, I put "Double Jeopardy" on Showtime on in the background. This is a long-time guilty pleasure of mine, but I haven't see it in likely over a decade. This time, I noticed that Keegan Connor Tracy has a bit part in this (context: this film is set in Washington state and New Orleans, but was primarily filmed in Vancouver!) - I didn't know Tracy has been around that long!! Also, I had forgotten that Michelle Stafford (Y&R, and one-time GH) almost had a film career, having a notable bit part in this film too! In watching this, I realized there hasn't been a film like this in a long-time, and Hollywood needs to put out another flick like this with a plucky betrayed woman/wife on a mission of revenge! Righteous REVENGE!! while being pursued by somebody like Tommy Lee Jones!! Bloodshot (Hulu) - In glorious 4k!! (which is unusual to get on the Hulu!!) I think I remember seeing ads for this flick in 2020 (was this during COVID?!), and thinking I wouldn't mind seeing an "action picture" like this. But then I must have promptly forgotten about it! Apparently this is based on a comic series I have never heard of. This is YA Vin Diesel film that is partly financed/produced by the Chi Comms - I am starting to find it disturbing how many Diesel films have a Chi Comm tie-in (though this particular film sports no Chi Comm main characters, interestingly enough...) Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, some kind of special forces marine(?). After successfully rescuing a hostage in Kenya, he is attacked in the home of his and his wife's (amusingly, I didn't even recognize that the wife was played by Talulah Riley until I checked the film's end-credits!! - distressingly, Riley has not worked since 2022 and getting (re)married... :( ), where they are both held captive, and then eventually both murdered(!). Ray wakes up after, with no gunshot wound to the head and no memory of who he was, apparently brought back from the dead by a "mad scientist" type (Guy Pearce - anyone taking bets as to whether Pearce's character is EVOL!!1! or not?!) - the scientist has brought Ray back from the dead via the use of "nanites" which give Ray pretty substantial superpowers, like the ability to near instantaneously heal from almost any wound. The scientist dude wants Ray to be part of a team of other soldiers who have been technologically enhanced, among them Eiza Gonzalez (sporting an impressive push-up bra that must involve some next-level physics!!). But soon Ray remembers his wife murder at the hands of the scumbag, and runs off on a mission of revenge, sweet revenge!! If that was all that was going on here, this flick would be pretty flat. But luckily there's "twist", which makes this more interesting (if not more believable!!) than the film's initial simplistic premise. This flick won't be winning any awards. But it was a perfect way to scratch my "mindless Friday night action movie picture" itch. And it looked pretty decent in 4k, and is well shot in several (action) scenes. Deadly Invitations (Tubi) - This is the Tubi original film starring Natalie Brown and Lola Flannery (from The HUNDRED! [sic]), and apparently filmed in Vancouver, not Toronto, that was released in the last couple of weeks. Out of all the Tubi original films I have seen, this was the most like a straight-ahead Lifetime film - as other Tubi original films have ended up on Lifetime, I am pretty sure this one will end up being shown on Lifetime in 6 months to a year as well. Brown plays a recent widower - she is convinced that her husband's death was not a suicide, but some kind of murder. Her daughter (Flannery) is a teen brat, who blames her mother for her father's suicide, and is some kind of social media "influencer", but one who has had a recent scandal (I don't think we are ever told what this "scandal" was!). Anyway, soon enough the daughter is getting mixed up in some kind of weird (sex and drugs?!!) club, involving (Hollywood?) big-wigs who all wear masks (for "anonymity"!?) at the club. This, of course, is the same club the mother is convinced is somehow involved in the husband's "murder". Dangerous (and rapey?!) wackiness ensues. This was OK. Brown's character is incredibly unsymapthetic, as is Flannery's (mostly). But I am glad to see that Flannery is still acting, so there's that. But, like I said, this might as well have gone straight to Lifetime, as there is nothing that particularly identifies this film as a "Tubi original". What did you watch?!