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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-11-25 (Monday)
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2024 11:32:53 -0800
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On 11/26/2024 9:13 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 11/26/24 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> 
>> What did you watch?
> 
> After grading and teaching, I finally got to Thanksgiving Break 
> yesterday. So, I "celebrated" by watching a couple of movies, and...:
> 
> GH - Ava's trial begins. Not much happens, but Kristina doesn't take the 
> stand until the end of the episode when Ric hits her with "Why are you 
> lying?!" Heh... Meanwhile, Michael gets Drew to admit that he never 
> intended to make Curtis permanent CEO, but secretly records the 
> conversation, and then plays it for Curtis! Dumb Lulu plots her escape 
> from the long-term care facility, and does make it out. (So they want us 
> to believe that she's been secretly working to walk to overcome her 
> atrophy - I don't think you can get over that in a couple of days!! - 
> without anyone catching her?!
> 
> MNF football - The Chargers keep it close in the first-half, but then 
> come pretty close to getting blown out by the Ravens in the second half. 
> In the end, the Chargers are lucky they only lost by a touchdown.
> 
> Then the movies:
> 
> Wild Things 2 (Tubi) - After having watched "Wild Things: Diamonds in 
> the Rough" (aka. "Wild Things 3") the other day, I decided to (re-)watch 
> this one. I am pretty sure I watched this once before, but it would have 
> been 2 decades ago, and I didn't remember it.
>     Watching "3" and "2" back-to-back like this was interesting. They 
> both have very, very similar plotlines - to the point where it's unclear 
> which movie is ripping off which!

I know I've watched 2 and 3 but I don't remember them either.  Although 
I'm pretty sure if I started to watch 2 it would all come back to me. 
Not sure about 3.

>     "3" was "sexier" (Sarah Laine was much more game for this kind of 
> thing than Susan Ward (or Leila Arcieri) were) than "2", and "3" felt 
> like it had more naked nudity (I'm not sure it really did, but it felt 
> like it did). "3" was also more fun, and more over-the-top.
>     "2" has arguably the better cast - it's weird to think that Susan 
> Ward did this film *after* "Sunset Beach" (and after "The In-Crowd"); 
> Ward was basically done after "Make It or Break It" less than a decade 
> after "Wild Things 2" - she hasn't worked since 2012. But I was not 
> expecting Isaiah Washington to pop up in this! (the year before "Grey's" 
> premiered!) This one also has Faith Salie in a smallish part!
>     Most importantly, this one has Katie Stuart (the American one) 
> playing Susan Ward's "bestie", and she blows Ward off the screen in 
> every scene she's in 'cos she's so lovely! I was always bitterly 
> disappointed that Katie Stuart didn't have a bigger career - she really 
> only recurred on "Titans" (2000-2001), did a stint as Sage Alcazar on GH 
> in 2003 (I had forgotten about that!), and then did this flick and 
> "Tamara" (2005). Stuart's last role was in 2009, and she hasn't worked 
> since. Such a shame.
>     "2" is also closer to being a traditional crime mystery - alot of it 
> is Isaiah Washington's insurance investigator figuring out what is going 
> on with Ward and Arcieri.
>     So, "2" is the better mystery, but is basically incredibly light on 
> the "naughty bits" (Arcieri uses a body double; Ward and her character 
> never get naked at all!). "3" seems naughtier, and is more fun, with I 
> think a better payoff.
> 
> Center Stage: Turn It Up (Tubi) - So, apparently, Tubi has all 3 "Center 
> Stage" films, but is losing them by the end of the month. I've seen the 
> first one multiple times, and I've seen the third one, "Center State: On 
> Pointe" once, but I've never seen the middle one, from 2008 - this one. 
> So I jumped on it, 'cos who knows if it will be available anywhere after 
> Tubi?!!
>     "On Pointe" is pretty much a straight up sequel to "Turn It Up" - 
> Nicole Munoz is in both films (as is Kenny Wormald); Peter Gallagher and 
> Ethan Stiefel are in all three films... But Munoz is literally a *child* 
> in "Turn It Up" (they say she's 13, and she was actually 14 at the time, 
> but she honestly looks younger), playing the lead's sister. In "On 
> Pointe", Munoz (who was 22 by 2016) is the lead, trying to get out of 
> her sister's shadow... I'm disappointed to what happened with Munoz - I 
> saw her in something recently (must have been either "Wild Cards" or 
> "Tracker"), and she was all tatted up, and didn't look good at all... 
> FTR, "On Pointe" was the weakest of the films, to my recollection.
>     Anyway, the lead in this film is Rachele Brooke Smith, in pretty 
> much her first acting role, ever! and it's clear in 2008 that Smith was 
> still a dancer first, and an actress second. (It'll take Smith another 
> decade before she starts doing Lifetime films!)
>     The movie plays a lot more like a "Step Up" ripoff 

I was just about to ask if this series was a "Step-up" ripoff.


than a "sequel"
> to "Center Stage" - Smith's character misses the cut into Peter 
> Gallagher's snooty ballet academy, and ends up working in a bar where 
> she does "sexy" dancing rather than ballet. Wormald's character, who is 
> like the most promising male ballet dancer in Gallagher's academy's new 
> class, ends up hitting Smith up for off-the-books "training" in pas de 
> deux.
>     You know where this is going...
>     I don't know if this was filmed lousy, or if this was a lousy print, 
> but it looked bad on Tubi - maybe even "480p/DVD-rip" bad. I wonder if 
> there's a better print/rip of this out there somewhere...
> 
> 
> What did you watch?
> 
> 

I watched:

Superman & Lois - "To Live and Die Again" - Penultimate episode.  Meh! 
I am tired of Lex taunting Superman and Superman just taking it.  This 
is what should have happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJ4uTCFhQM


911 - "Wannabes" - Episode 8.  Mostly background noise.


What We Do in the Shadows - "Nandor's Army" and "Laszlo's Father" - 
Mostly background noise.