Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Ian J. Ball" Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-01 (Saturday) Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2024 14:09:59 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 144 Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 02 Jun 2024 23:10:00 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="f08c6ed79211783f66363e068e43470e"; logging-data="3703286"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1816kswVO4uMQ6rceMyLfPm" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:SfNROKgP6ih8kWIGirhEhHM/Slg= In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US Bytes: 7232 On 6/2/24 11:27 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote: > On 6/2/2024 9:28 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote: >> On 6/2/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote: >> >>> What did you watch? >> >> I took it really easy yesterday. I only managed to get through a soap, >> some golf, and two movies: >> >> Blumhouse's Fantasy Island (Hulu) - In glorious 4k! > > Hulu has it in 4K?!?  The movie was released on disc only on blu-ray.  :-/ Yes. I was surprised - I noticed after watching that it had apparently been in 4k, and double-checked that Hulu indicated that it was. >>     I think I liked this 2020 flick quite a bit more than Anim did. >> Yeah, the ending was a little too all over the place, and "too cute". >> And this was unfortunately "PG-13 horror" when I was expecting(/hoping >> for) "hard R horror" out of this, > > Well...if you watched it on disc you could have watched the unrated > version.  :-) > > Here is a comparison of theatrical vs unrated cut: > https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=246728 OK. >> which was disappointing, and which >> also made for a much *less dark* film that I was anticipating. >>     But, such as it was, this was an OK "twisty" take on "Fantasy >> Island". >>     And, hey - at least they got it right that Lucifer Hale is *pure >> EVOL*!!1!11!!  ;) >>     It's a little annoying that Portia Doubleday's character also >> didn't suffer a horrific fate. >> >> Fun fact: Before I went to bed last night, LMN was playing 2009's >> "Sorority Wars" starring... Lucifer Hale! 15 years ago, when Hale was >> about... what? 19? (so this was pre-PLL (bitches!!)), she was >> adorable. By 2020?... Not so much!  :p >> >> Blacklight (Hulu) - Also in glorious 4k! >>     Honestly, it kind of blows me away that even relatively >> "low-budget" flicks like this one (though, I guess USD$43 mil isn't >> exactly "low-budget"...) are now getting 4k presentations on the >> streamers. >>     Anyway, this was just OK - it's kind of like "The Parallax View" >> but without Warren Beatty, the pervasive 1970s pessimism, or the >> hopeless ending. >>     Liam Neeson plays Travis Block - a man with a "particular set of >> skills" - which in this flick involves getting deep-undercover FBI >> agents out before they get into "too deep"!! The flick makes clear >> that Block is not an actual FBI agent, but an independent contractor. >> He works for the "head" of the FBI (Aidan Quinn - which means you just >> *know* he's EVOL!!1!). >>     First problem, though, is that this was filmed in Australia >> (Neeson and Quinn may be the only non-Aus actors in the cast), with >> Canberra and Melbourne very, very unconvincingly standing in for >> Washington DC. (I've only been through DC once, and even I could >> easily tell this was not filmed in DC!). >>     Neeson has a perennially disappointed and slightly hostile adult >> daughter (Aussie actress Claire van der Boom), and an adorable >> 6(?)-year old granddaugther (one-time child actress Gabriella Sengos) >> whom Block teaches all of his paranoia too! >>     Anyway, when one of the people Block pulls in from undercover >> (Taylor John Smith) starts spouting conspiracy nonsense about the FBI >> eliminating domestic political "agitators", you know the guy is >> actually on to something. Eventually, a plucky guttersnipe reporter >> (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is dragged into this. >>     This is nothing we haven't seen before, either more generally, or >> specifically from Neeson, and a number of the other Neeson films in >> the same vein are probably better than this one. >>     But "Blacklight" sure does look pretty in 4k!!  ;p > > I don't think I've heard of this one.  Is Neeson in the Bruce Willis > phase of his career where he's cranking out low budget direct to video > movies faster than people have time to watch? Yes, sort of. But, "Blacklight", as I said, actually had $43 million budget, so it was actually meant to be a theatrical release. (It bombed theatrically.) > I watched: > > Confess, Fletch (Showtime) 2022 movie (which has been sitting on my DVR > since 2022) starring John Hamm as "Fletch," who gets caught up in a > convoluted plot involving a stolen painting and a murder.  Beyond that I > really didn't follow the plot of this movie at all.  I've been working > my way through this for the past few days and finally finished it.  The > movie was just sort of on as I watched Fletch make wise cracks and annoy > the police.  Maybe fans of the character will like it more, but I was > just waiting for it to be over. I strongly dislike the Chevy Chase films, but have been meaning to get to this one for John Hamm. > I also watched some  M. Night Shyamalan movies. There *will* be > spoilers!  Stop reading now if you don't want to know the twists... > > SPOILER SPACE > P > O > I > L > E > R > > S > P > A > C > E > > Unbreakable (4K disc) 2000 movie written and directed by M. Night > Shyamalan. Not a fan - too slow. > Split (4K disc) 2016 movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. > James McAvoy stars a a man with split personalities several of which > decided to kidnap three teenage girls including Anya Taylor-Joy. This is a tough watch, and I even really like Taylor-Joy. > Glass (4K disc) 2019 movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I remember being disappointed with this one. > Knock at the Cabin (4K disc) 2023 movie written and directed by M. Night > Shyamalan based on a 2018 novel.  The plot follows a family vacationing > at an isolated cabin who are visited by four people who show up > predicting the end of the world if the family doesn't do what they say, > and what they say will have deadly consequences.  This was my first time > watching it since seeing it in the theater.  The movie holds up very well. I think I mostly liked this one, except for the ending. But I recall BTR saying that the ending of the film was actually much better than the book it is based on, so... [shrug]