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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-03-15 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2024 16:03:08 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 3/16/2024 1:40 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> 
>> The Frighteners (blu-ray) 1996 horror comedy directed by Peter Jackson
>> and starring Michael J. Fox as a conman who uses his ability to see and
>> talk to ghosts to con people until he stumbles upon the ghost of a
>> serial killer who hasn't let being dead slow him down.
> 
> I sort of like this movie, but it falls apart in the middle. I've read
> that the version distributed in the United States is heavily edited of
> the New Zealand version. I've never seen what Peter Jackson intended. I
> just looked; there's a director's cut that's 12 minutes longer. Also,
> there are two different DVDs for home video, the second with
> inferior audio.
> 

I was hoping for a 4K upgrade.  I heard one was on the way over a year 
ago but it never materialized.  At least not in the U.S.


> Any idea what version you watched?
> 

I watched the director's cut.  I have no idea what was put back in.  I 
didn't listen to the commentary.  I do remember being less than 
impressed when I saw the movie in the theater.  Over time I've more or 
less forced myself to like it.  But part of that might be I've been 
watching the director's cut.  I think it also helps if you go in knowing 
what to expect.

Like you said, I sort of like it.  I honestly don't understand why I 
don't like it more.  Everything about it really screams great movie, 
then I actually watch it and the best I can muster is it's OK I guess.

Now that I think about it, maybe the problem is there are no likable 
characters in the movie.  I never thought about it before now, but the 
movie really has no one to care about.  The movie probably would have 
been significantly better if Michael J. Fox's character was likable. 
Right from the start his character is being a total jerk to his ghost 
helpers and he's just in it to rip people off.  And now that I think 
about it some more, the people he targets are basically widows and 
orphans!  He has barely any character growth beyond that.  I know by the 
end he's supposedly a nice guy, but the movie never justifies that 
change.  It just happens because reasons.

Who was a mid 90s contemporary who cold have played the part but made 
the character likable?  Brad Pitt?  Johnny Depp?  Keanu Reeves?  Will 
Smith?  John Cusack?


>> Halo (Paramount+) - "Thermopylae" - Penultimate episode.  I forgot to
>> mention I watched this the other day. In this week's episode something
>> almost happened!  In fact I was so sure something was going to happen
>> that I even stood up to focus my attention on the screen just as the
>> show ended and the credits rolled.  In next week's finale, something is
>> sure to happen.
> 
> Ouch


All I know is the finale better be 45 minutes of nonstop space battles 
and action or else!