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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-06-21 (Friday)
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 21:24:13 -0700
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On 6/22/2024 9:40 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> I mostly watched more (lower-rung) movies on Friday, along with soaps:
> 
> soaps: DOOL - The prom ep. Tate's date (still can't remember her name) 
> confronts Holly about their plan to use her so Holly and Tate can sneak 
> off to be together. Indeed, Tate and Holly do sneak off to be together, 
> and it looked like maybe they were about to "do it", but are caught by 
> NuTheresa (in an amusing bit!) and Brady!... Meanwhile, Ava comes back 
> to town, gets (unnecessarily) chewed out by Kayla, and then comes 
> face-to-face with Harris (who I am assuming is going to tell her he's 
> leaving town for good). Steve meets with Justin and intends to turn 
> himself in (alone) for helping break Clyde out of prison. Alex continues 
> to be an asshole.
>     GH - Lil' Violet comes home to find dad Finn passed out on the 
> floor, and bleeding from a cut from his hand, and panics and calls 
> Tracy, who comes to rescue her - Monday should be good as we'll get to 
> see Tracy verbally just *lay out* Finn. Tracy takes Violet to Chase's 
> and Brook Lynn's... Meanwhile, Sam (re-)confronts Carly with the 
> incriminating recording of Carly that Agent Cates is holding over Jason; 
> later, Cates shows up to sweet-talk Carly, but Carly now knows the truth 
> about him. Sam goes to Spinelli to complain that Jason threw the rest of 
> them under the bus for Carly (true!). Anna doesn't make much headway in 
> finding evidence against Valentin, who is wooing her hard! but Jason is 
> also there lurking, and I think he's going to get the evidence while 
> Valentin is distracted by Anna...
> 
> Double Walker (Tubi) - [sigh...] This 2021 flick was pure "artiste" 
> indie cred(/crud) BS.
>     I refuse to accept the idea that, just because you're going for an 
> "artistic film" that you can't tell a coherent story! 

+1

This was abut 100%
> "atmospherics".
>     But this flick was all over the map! (At least it has some naked 
> nudity to make up for it...) Mostly it tells one version of a kind of 
> "Ghost" story, but then completely pivots near the end to a different 
> version, and then finally ends completely inconclusively, to the point 
> I'm not sure what happened (or if anything happened?!!). (So, was it all 
> the mother's dream?!)
>     Bah!!
>     This stars Sylvie Mix (as the Ghost), who also co-wrote it (so, she 
> wrote herself nakedly nude scenes?!!).
>     I wish this had been a lot better, with a lot more thought put into 
> it, as I actually kind of like the concept. But, for instance, they say 
> that the Ghost can only be seen by "believers and sinners" - so why the 
> hell could the movie theater young adult see her when he was clearly 
> neither of the above?!
> 
> What Happens in Miami (Tubi) - A 2024 Tubi Original film.
>     Basically, this can be summed up as: Bitchy white girl(s) deserve to 
> die, and the women of color who kill her(them) deserve to get away with it.
>     This one was very disappointing. It was very clear from mid-film 
> that that was where they were going with this, so really there was no 
> "mystery" (despite them trying to contrive one) and the end "twist" was 
> not even a "twist".
>     Further, I resented the way this was written, because early in the 
> film they portray the white girl, portrayed by Annalisa Cochrane, as 
> completely normal, but as the film went on she became more and more 
> (uncharacteristically) bitchy and EVOL!, purely by writer convenience, 
> to basically prove their overall point that "Bitchy white girls deserve 
> to die".
>     Well-filmed and edited, this still may be the worst Tubi Original 
> film I have seen (though "Tow" was pretty damn bad (for different 
> reasons!) as well) just because as a "message film" this was junk.
> 
> Simulant (Hulu) - Disappointing sci-fi, though I liked the performances, 
> esp. Sam Worthington, Jordana Brewster, and to a lesser extent Alicia Sanz.
>     Basically, this is the old "androids become sentient and try to take 
> over the world" bit. The problem is that the filmmakers take this too 
> literally, as if the humans would have no measures in place to ever 
> prevent such an occurrence.
>     Also, I didn't like Simu Liu's 

I had to double check you weren't talking about Atlas.  I forgot Simu 
Liu played a simulant trying to wipe out humanity in two different 
movies.  But I think I did see this back when I had Hulu.

character at all, as he seems to be
> behind driving a development that will lead to wholesale human slaughter 
> - like, has he thought through what he is trying to do?!
>     Anyway, this ends on the expected downbeat note (actually, maybe 
> more downbeat than I was expecting), which I didn't care for at all...
>     P.S. Von Flores looks so old now!!  :(
> 
> What Comes Around (Hulu) - This 2022 flick, starring Grace Van Dien 
> (must have been made before she "paused" from acting, and AFAICT she is 
> still "paused" on acting...), Summer Phoenix and Kyle Gallner, was 
> probably the "pick" of what I saw yesterday, though I'm not sure that is 
> saying much...
>     This takes a while to get going, but it does build through the end, 
> and manages a pretty decent ending (though I would hardly call it 
> conclusive).
>     Van Dien's teen character is romanced over-the-internet by Gallner's 
> character, who is clearly too old for her. When her mother (Phoenix) 
> finds out, she justifiably goes over the moon.
>     But, wait! There's more going on here!!
>     I can't really say more without spoiling it. But as I said - at 
> least this builds through the end, and manages a decent ending, which is 
> more than I can say for the other movies I watched on Friday!!
> 
> 
> What did you watch?


I watched:

Doctor Who - (Disney+) - "Empire of Death" Episode 8 / Season finale. 
The Doctor and Ruby try to stop Sutekh from wiping out all life in the 
universe.  Some mysteries are answered some are not.  Pretty good finale 
overall.  I'm looking forward to next season.