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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-26 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2024 17:18:05 -0700
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On 4/27/2024 8:22 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> Yesterday, I finished off Fallout, and watched a movie:
> 
> Fallout (Prime) - Last two episodes of season #2.
>     Yeah, I figured it was going to turn out like this... I have no idea 
> if the premise problem here is from the video games themselves, or if 
> the TV show sort of grafted on their own "premise" here, but either way 
> I didn't buy this world's "origin" or the motivation of the "bad guys".
>     It also seems like the TV series didn't delve enough into the 
> background with the various "factions" (esp. the New Calif. Republic vs. 
> the Brotherhood of Steel).

I've never played the games, but from what I've heard in the games the 
Brotherhood is somewhat colluding with Vault-Tec.  I can't speak to the 
origins, but my understanding is the series followed the basic premise 
of the game closely.  But at the end of the day, since I never played 
the games, I don't really care how close the show is to the games.

>     Anyway, I will keep watching this - there's some promise with more 
> Lucy teaming up with The Ghoul. But the resolution to season #1 left a 
> lot to be desired. In addition to strongly disliking and not buying the 
> motives of Vault-Tec, etc., I was also strongly annoyed with Norm's fate 
> (though I did very much like the brain-in-the-jar robot!) - Will we even 
> see Moises Arias in season #2?!
> 
> I Am Rage (Prime) - This 2023 film is absolutely ridiculous - 
> unfortunately, it wasn't *ridiculous enough*!

I don't think I've heard of this.  Maybe I'll add it to the watch list.

>     It opens with a seemingly unrelated thing showing some masked woman 
> (Marta Svetek), surrounding by other apparent cult figures in masks, 
> killing and exsanguinating some dude.
>     This stars Hannaj Bang Bendz (who I am quite sure I have seen in 
> something else before, though I can't for the life of me figure out what 
> that was!) as a woman who clearly has psychological issues. Her new 
> boyfriend (Derek Nelson) wants to take her on a camping trip with his 
> brother, and then to his parents' country estate to meet his whole family.
>     The movie itself is kind of weird - Bendz is clearly British, and 
> this clearly filmed in the UK, but the boyfriend and his family, and the 
> "big client", are clearly supposed to be American(?!).
>     Anyway, the boyfriend's brother seems shady, though his fairly hott 
> slutty girlfriend (Antonia Whillans) seems OK.
>     Of course, things are not what they seem, and when they get to the 
> parents' manor, soon enough things take a turn. It's not long before the 
> lead's "rage issues" start coming in handy.
>     The problems here are: 1) this takes way too long to get going, 2) 
> when it does get going, it's still sluggish, and 3) with such an 
> ridiculous over-the-top concept, they should have just embraced it and 
> taken it to the hilt by going "over-the-top" with it. Instead, they 
> never really embrace the ridiculousness (save in one or two places), and 
> so the whole film doesn't really work.
>     Another issue is that Bendz doesn't seem like any sort of "martial 
> arts expert" (none of the cast do!), and if you're going to do a flick 
> with a fair but of hand-to-hand fighting, you really need to have 
> castmembers who are good at that (or good at faking it!), or the film 
> suffers from being unbelievable, with lackadaisical fight scenes.
>     So, the problem here wasn't the premise, at least in terms of the 
> lead's origins - it was more like a lack of preparation and follow-through.
>     Also, I was disappointed when it turned out the baddies weren't 
> actual vampires, just a kind of "faux vampire".
> 
> 
> What did you watch?


I watched:


Survivor - "Spicy Jeff" - Only worth mentioning because in this episode 
Jeff was Spicy.  He literally brought a pillow and some popcorn!  LOL


There were two movies that debuted this weekend.  "Boy Kills World" and 
"Challengers."  "Boy Kills World" is a new action comedy starring Bill 
Skarsgård as a deaf-mute young man who goes on a blood soaked revenge 
spree to slaughter the people who killed his family.  The movie also 
stars Jessica Rothe, Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, and "Mad Dog" from 
the Raid movies.  How could you possibly go wrong?  "Challengers" on the 
other hand is a 2 hour long drama starring Zendeya.  The plot involves 
her being in a love triangle with tennis players.  So it was not a hard 
decision picking which movie to see on Thursday night.  Except "Boy 
Kills World" was not playing in IMAX or Dolby cinema.  All the high 
quality theater screens had been taken over by "Challengers."  So I went 
to the local theater and saw  "Boy Kills World" on a regular screen...

"Boy Kills World" - I actually saw this on Thursday night, but didn't 
feel like talking about it.  Given the cast and premise I went into this 
with high expectations.  My expectations were crushed.  I though I was 
going to get "Crank" and instead I got "Gamer."  :-(  It's just a mess 
of a movie.  I'm trying to wrap my head around this is a hard "R" 
revenge fueled blood fest (with "Mad Dog" from the Raid movies!), and 
yet I was nodding off due to boredom.

So after the movie I headed over to Rogerebert.com and saw they gave 
"Boy Kills World" 1 star.  I also noticed they gave "Challengers," the 
movie that stole all the Dolby Cinema and IMAX screens, 3 1/2 half 
stars.  So I went to see "Challengers" in Dolby Cinema Friday night.

"Challengers" - The plot is actually kind of hard to describe without 
getting into spoilers, and that's in spite of the fact the plot is very 
basic.  Zendeya stars as a former tennis pro who is now married to a 
famous tennis player and is his coach.  But there is a bit of a love 
triangle (or hate triangle) with her husband's rival and former best 
friend.  This movie was surprisingly really good.  Much better than the 
blood soaked revenge fest.  Although "Challengers" is also very "R." 
The vibe of this movie feels a *lot* like "Less Than Zero" or "Rules of 
Attraction," and could easily be set in that universe (there are several 
movies set in that universe).  I checked the credits to make sure it 
wasn't actually based on a Bret Easton Ellis book, because it felt like 
it was.  The movie also borrows a page from "Memento" and tells the 
story in somewhat reverse order.  It's not always going in reverse, but 
there are a lot of jumping around in time, usually backwards.

Anyway, decide for yourself:

Boy Kills World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDWQorTluFs

Challengers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXEK7y1BuNQ