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From: "Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-26 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2024 17:54:11 -0700
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On 4/27/24 5:18 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
> On 4/27/2024 8:22 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> 
>> Yesterday, I finished off Fallout, and watched a movie:
>>
>>
>> What did you watch?
> 
> I watched:
> 
> 
> 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.

That is very disappointing - I was actually looking forward to this one. 
[sigh...]

> 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.

I doubt I am going to like this movie at all. [shrug]