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From: "Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-12 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2024 10:00:58 -0700
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OK, yesterday, after work and errands (and a nap!), I got through a 
soap, and a couple of Tubi movies:

soaps: DOOL - Thur's ep. Wow, they are really going to drag out this 
Everett storyline, aren't they?! Stephanie confronts Everett about not 
signing the divorce papers, and Stephanie is disturbed by his response. 
Later, Everett goes to see Marlena, finally tells her that he "saw 
himself" under hypnosis, but then refuses any other hypnosis treatment, 
and storms out of her office... Steve is apologetic to Kayla, who is 
still mad about Steve's role in Clyde's jailbreak, and then Steve tells 
her about the mission, years ago, in which John allegedly killed 
Constantine's daughter. Constantine secretly vows revenge against John, 
despite publicly "forgiving" him... Dumb Holly and NuTate have a 
"picnic" (I didn't see any picnic!!) in the park, but are seen by Kayla 
and Stephanie, and try to get Kayla and Stephanie to pledge not to say 
anything... In the "at least they're not dragging this storyline out!" 
department, Ava finally comes clean, and tells Harris that Clyde called 
her with "one more job".

Tubi "original" movies:

Lowlifes (Tubi) - This was OK, until the ending which *really* put me off...
    In this, a family from L.A. (Canucks (all!?) Matthew MacCaull, Elyse 
Levesque, and teens Josh Zaharia and Amanda Fix) are out in the boonies 
"camping", when they are seemingly menaced by a couple of local rubes 
(one of whom is played by now-"veteran" Canuck character actor Richard 
Harmon!).
    Will the family escape the local rube menace?!
    But, wait! There's a TWIST!!
    I must admit - I didn't see the twist coming.
    Bottom line: After a somewhat slow start, this turns into a decent 
cat-and-mouse suspense flick, once the urban family gets to the rubes' 
family's farmhouse.
    But the ending really put me off - it was both a cliched and 
pro-forma "final twist", that was too clearly choreographed, and it was 
the kind of ending that just feels completely arbitrary.
    There is definitely a problem today with too many people delivering 
sh*tty endings to their horror flicks. Very few deliver an ending that's 
worthy of note...
    Sidenote: The movie was really adle-brained on the "boonies" part - 
they show an establishing shot of Mount Rainer! but all of the rubes 
speak with southern accents!! (Is this supposed to be West Virginia or 
something?! - They never say!)

Festival of the Living Dead (Tubi) - This, OTOH, wasn't nearly as good 
as even "Lowlifes".
    I only watched this because it co-stars Camren Bicondova from 
"Gotham", as I wasn't sure that Bicondova was even still "around" in the 
business - she sports shorter hair in this film (actually, I think she 
switched to that hairstyle even before the end of "Gotham"), which I 
don't really care for.
    Anyway, this is kind of a "direct sequel" to the original "Night of 
the Living Dead", and seems to have nothing to do with "The Return of 
the Living Dead" series - the conceit here seems to be there was a local 
zombie outbreak in 1968, but it was contained, and there are no zombies 
currently...
    Well, that is, until somebody decides to hold a "music festival" 
near the site of the original meteor impact. (This is incredibly dumb - 
the meteor is still there, 55 years later, completely in tact, with the 
government having done nothing to cordon the area off, or at least take 
away the meteor?!!)
    Anyway, Ashley Moore and Camren Bicondova play childhood besties who 
have drifted apart near the end of high school due to Moore's 
character's desire to be "popular". While Bicondovan babysits Moore's 
little brother, Moore and her current (lousy!) friends and boyfriend 
head off to the musical festival.
    A zombie riot ensues!!
    Meh.
    This flick costars Maia Jae Bastidas (from "Gen V") and Keana Lyn 
Bastidas (from The All New! NEW!! "Hardy Boys", and from a recent 
Lifetime flick), whom I didn't realize before now were, 1) different 
people! and, 2) apparently (identical) twins!
    Anyway, this was skippable - as zombie movies go there is almost 
nothing to recommend it.


> What did you watch?