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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-08 (Saturday)
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2024 13:47:31 -0700
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On 6/9/2024 10:48 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 6/9/24 8:09 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> 
>> What Did You Watch?
> 
> Yesterday, lots of stuff:
> 
> The Vigilante (Tubi) - This 2023 flick was an odd one - it couldn't 
> decide if it was a "message film" like a Lifetime flick or if it was a 
> low-budget actioner, and as a result it kind of didn't succeed at either 
> - it wasn't "action-y" enough IMO, but it was also way too violent to be 
> a Lifetime flick.
>     German-American actress Jet Jandreau stars as a marine, initially 
> stationed in Afghanistan. (Stuff happens in the opening that is 
> unnecessary, except to establish that she has PTSD from the incident.)
>     While there, her younger sister Aimee (Jamie Timmons, who obviously 
> is a dancer) gets pinched by human traffickers who want a "dancer" type. 
> (I had problems with this, as the traffickers didn't pinch her even 
> cuter friend who was driving - why wouldn't you take 2 for the price of 
> one?!)
>     Of course, the Marine immediately comes home, and meets up with a 
> fellow retired Marine (Eric Pierce), who of course is conveniently some 
> kind of computer genius-type (as well as being handy with weapons on 
> ops!). They soon start investigating, and raiding human trafficking 
> "warehouses" (usually in residential neighborhoods) on their own to try 
> to find the sister.
>     This wasn't deep, and it was too "message-y" for what it was 
> offering. But the fight scenes were actually well filmed (did they get 
> the "Arrow" stunt crew on this?!) and seemed realistic (if perhaps 
> choreographed a tad slower than they should have been...).
>     I'm still wondering how the lead heroine went to jail at the end of 
> this, but her ex-marine partner apparently didn't!?!
> 

Sounds like it's worth checking out.  But why Tubi?


> golf - I caught enough of Day 3 of the Memorial to see that Scottie 
> Scheffler was well ahead in another tourney this year, and lost interest.
> 
> Blockers (Peacock) - In glorious 4k!!
>     Wait! What?!! Why the heck are they showing this in 4k?!! (Maybe NBC 
> Universal is trying to upgrade their film library?!...)
>     I had never managed to get to this raunchy 2018 comedy before.
>     It stars Jon Cena (who always seems up for mayhem!), along with 
> Leslie Mann (amazing she is still around) and Ike Barinholtz (who 
> funnily enough I've never really run across much before as I didn't 
> watch "The Mindy Show") play over protective parents to three teen girls 
> (Geraldine Viswanathan, Kathryn Newton and Gideon Adlon, respectively).
>     Inappropriate wackiness ensues when the three parents (actually, at 
> first it's just Cena and Mann, with Barinholtz trying to stop them) vow 
> to stop their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night.
>     This was amusing enough, though I'm not necessarily a fan of raunchy 
> comedy - I did like the bits with Gary Cole and Gina Gershon as fellow 
> hot-to-trot parents.
> 
> Maxton Hall (actual title: "Maxton Hall - Die Welt zwischen uns") 
> (Prime) - Ep. #1.1 In the original German! (And in HDR!)
>     I am very confused by this - this is a German series, filmed in 
> German (stupid Prime made me go in to manually change the audio track to 
> its native German, but I put English subtitles on), but set in England 
> very clearly - IOW, this isn't German students at an English boarding 
> school! It's supposed to be *English students*, in England! who for some 
> reason are talking in German!!
>     (And it's even weirder - the YA novel this series is based on is 
> written by a German author, but I guess she set the book in England?!?)
>     Anyway, this YA series shares the same problem that plenty of 
> Hallmark romance flicks do - while the lead girl, Ruby (Harriet 
> Herbig-Matten) is plucky and generally likeable (though Herbig-Matten is 
> one of those young women who is so skinny that she has almost 
> nonexistent calves!), the "handsome rich boy" (Damian Hardung) is so 
> thoroughly unlikable and contemptible that I am have a lot of trouble 
> understanding why should be rooting for these two to get together, 
> potential hott sexx!1! be damned!
>     Anyway, for "reasons", these two immediately get to hating each 
> other, once "handsome rich boy" is forced to notice the under-the-radar 
> bookish "smart (but poorer!) girl". By the end of the first episode, for 
> more "reasons", they are forced to work together by the school's 
> headmaster. (See where this is going?!)
>     This series is only 6 episodes (though it has already been renewed 
> for season #2), so I will probably make my way through this...
>     Sidenote: The best looking person in this cast is "handsome rich 
> boy's" beautiful redheaded, but scandalous! sister (she's having an 
> affair with a teacher), played by Sonja Weißer - import her to America, 
> STAT!!  ;p
> 
> The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Kach Story (Lifetime) - This was 
> about as I expected - depressing through and through (though, at the 
> same time, underdeveloped).
>     Jordyn Ashley Olson (likely best known from 2018's "Dragged Across 
> Concrete") plays Tanya Kach, a 14-year-old high school freshman living 
> in a foster home (we never get the reasons for why her mother is legally 
> prevented from seeing her daughter), who is picked on by everyone in the 
> high school. Her only friend is the school's security guard (Robert 
> Baker), who of course is a creepy predator.
>     Soon enough, the security guard convinces the girl to run away from 
> the foster home, once rejected (again) by her mother (though, again, 
> it's for "legal reasons") and come live with him. Obviously, school is 
> out of the question at this point too. The issue is that the dude lives 
> with his elderly parents, and so keeps Tanya locked in his upstairs 
> bedroom.
>     Where she is basically held captive for years and years. Eventually, 
> once she's past 18, the guard starts letting her outside on short 
> errands, where she eventually gets enough courage to turn on the 
> bastard. At the end, we get a flashforward 12 years, but all of the 
> details of the intervening years are left out. IOW, this film really 
> didn't cover some of the important details enough.
> 
> Clickbait: Unfollowed (Tubi) - Written and directed by Katherine Barrell 
> and Melanie Scrofano!! (who also appear!).
>     Filmed in Cape Town!! (Wait! - Why wasn't this filmed in 
> Can-a-der?!!) It also seems like the "talent" in this one is South 
> African as well.

And that's why it was filmed in South Africa.  ;-)

>     Tubi categorizes this one, released just on Friday, as "horror", but 
> it's more accurately "dark comedy horror".
>     Six "influencers" - it's actually 7, as one influencer "team" is a 
> 10-year-old boy and his predatory mother (Jessica Stanley) - are invited 
> to a mansion for a competition to improve their social media presence.
>     But, as you might expect, this competition is deadly for the losers! 
> (Once place the film falls down is with special effects - the first 
> death is especially poorly EFX'ed...)
>     Will anyone get out alive?! Are any of these influencers worth 
> saving?!! And who is doing all of this?!!!
>     This was amusing in parts. But there are some plot holes - I never 
> really got/bought the villains' motivations for doing all of this. And 
> were their Squid Game-esque henchmen supposed to be real people, or 
> robots?!
>     Also, you never actually see Barrell's face in this movie, as she's 
> wearing a hideous mask (it's supposed to be cosmetic surgery... well, 
> sort of!).
>     Bottom line: This was OK, maybe made slightly more enjoyable for 
> knowing that Barrell and Scrofano wrote and directed it.
> 
> 

But it's on Tubi!  I have enough trouble remembering to watch shows on 
streaming channels I actually like.  They might as well put it on USA or 
TBS.