Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-12-25 (Wednesday)
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2024 10:10:13 -0800
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 113
Message-ID: <vkk665$332f6$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vkk2cc$329vf$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:10:16 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="29885eb6cae0ca9891d93ec03b1ff201";
	logging-data="3246566"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/AA89q2FZIHuh9zZwl+j3cwmmwIcRMVUs="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:yCU6xng5Y5d7nt6Co4OQD4zFl34=
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Content-Language: en-US
X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 241226-4, 12/26/2024), Outbound message
In-Reply-To: <vkk2cc$329vf$1@dont-email.me>
Bytes: 6547

On 12/26/2024 9:05 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> Christmas Day was partly a travel day for me, so we just watched 
> football and movies:
> 
> football - We didn't see the first game (Kansas City blew out the 
> Steelers! yay!!), but we did see the second where the Ravens just 
> absolutely *mauled* the Texans, who managed all of 2 points in the 
> entire game on a defensive safety - the rest of the game, the Ravens 
> offense just had their way with things.

I didn't see any football, but the family had some basketball game on.

>     A couple of points: Netflix still hasn't perfected live 
> broadcasting, though this wasn't a disaster like the Mike Tyson-Jake 
> Paul fight was - but it seemed like they had sound syncing issues (this 
> might have been partly on our end, but our experiment with a browser 
> stream had the same issue, so I think it was a Netflix issue) and 
> occasional visual artifacts. Also, Beyonce's halftime show seemed to go 
> on forever (it seemed longer than a Superbowl halftime show!!) - while 
> I've seen worse than this, my brother hated it! Ha!
> 
> Movies:
> 
> Land of Bad (Netflix) - I'm not sure how I had never heard of this 2024 
> spec ops flick before, as apparently it did get a theatrical release in 
> early 2024.
>     Liam Hemsworth stars as an Air Force... go between(?) between a 
> special ops team (Milo Ventimiglia, Luke Hemsworth, and Ricky Whittle) 
> and the drone pilot/operator (Russell Crowe) - the team is on an op in 
> the Philippines, while Crowe is on an air force base just outside of Las 
> Vegas.
>     As is usual, the op goes wrong when their rescue mission gets 
> sidetracked/waylaid by terrorists striking their intended target. While 
> Liam Hemsworth thinks the rest of his team is dead, Crowe has to use the 
> drone to get Hemsworth safely to a helicopter pickup point.
>     This was a pretty good spec ops flick, though I thought the ending 
> was too "over-the-top Hollywood".
> 

I'm pretty sure I caught this in the theater, but I already forgot 
everything that happened.


> Unfrosted (Netflix) - A very silly but very fun 2024 Netflix flick from 
> Jerry Seinfeld about the "cereal wars" between Kellogg's and Post that 
> led to the creation of Pop-Tarts (and the eventual failure of Post's 
> rival "Country Squares" product) in the early 1960s.
>     Hey, they get Jon Hamm and John Slattery from "Mad Men" to cameo!!
>     This was, I'm sure, in no way historically accurate, but it was 
> pretty amusing. It's nice to see that Seinfeld can put out something 
> funny without Larry David.
> 

This has been on and off my watch list.  I like the general concept for 
the movie, but the previews I've seen have not been funny.

> We then watched "Zoolander" which I haven't seen in quite few years. 
> Still hilarious.
> 
> 
> What did you watch?
> 


I watched:

Bad Santa (blu-ray) 2003 comedy starring Billy Bob Thornton as a 
foul-mouthed Santa Claus who teams up with Tony Cox to rob department 
stores during Christmas.  Mostly background noise with the director's 
commentary.  But the movie still holds up very well.


Bad Santa 2 (Showtime) 2016 sequel that picks up with more foul-mouthed 
criminal adventures with Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox this time being 
joined by Kathy Bates who plays Thornton's foul mouthed criminal mother. 
  I recorded this a couple of years ago, making it the oldest movie on 
my DVR.  I really wasn't in the mood to watch "Bad Santa" but at 2 years 
I didn't want to push my luck that this wouldn't self-delete.  And on 
the plus side, the last time I watched this, several years ago, was 
edited for TV version.  I don't know how I survived the edited version.


Doctor Who (Disney+) - Joy to the World - The annual Christmas special. 
I'm not even going to try to summarize this one.  But I did like the 
time manipulation tricks the Doctor was doing.  Although, why in the 
world didn't he just go to UNIT for help?

As an aside, I was thinking about maybe watching a few of the Who 
Christmas special episodes, but instead I've decided to finally crack 
open my blu-ray box set of new Who, and along with my old DVDs of 
classic Who, next year I'm going to a major rewatch starting with 
Classic Who going through new Who.  I really started out with just a 
couple of episodes, but I just kept adding more and more episodes to the 
list, until I pretty much had them all listed; or at least the ones I 
own on disc.  So, something for me to look forward to next year.


The 12 Days of Christmas Eve (Lifetime) 2022 TV movie starring Kelsey 
Grammer as a business man who dies on Christmas Eve and meets Santa 
Claus who turns out to manage the afterlife.  Santa agrees to send him 
back to Earth who a redo and find the true meaning of Christmas, but he 
keeps dying over and over sort of like Groundhog's Day.  But every time 
Santa sends him back (up to 12 times) to keep trying to find the true 
meaning of Christmas. This was mostly background noise.


What If...? (Disney+) "What If... Howard the Duck Got Hitched?" - 
Another not funny comedy episode.  Howard he marries Darcy and she lays 
a magic egg.  Now everyone in the galaxy wants their magic baby egg.  I 
don't want to even think about how she pushed that egg out!