Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Ian J. Ball" Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-23 (Thursday) Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2025 14:25:39 -0800 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 92 Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2025 23:25:40 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="3d8075b16eeb7c196b596d3daa250f14"; logging-data="2562296"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18ZVbPqNEBHS8ii8h6raSQT" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:xvHvitSx9dtqgWDIJu639ATNiCI= In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US Just fixing the header... On 1/24/25 10:43 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote: > On 1/24/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote: > >> What did you watch? > > Yesterday was my last meeting before classes start next week. So I > decided to focus a little more on movies (off Tubi), and I ended up only > watching one soap: > > soaps: DOOL - Wed's ep. Ha! Stephanie admits to Alex that she wanted to > be with him all along (I *knew* it!), and they were sort of "working > through their stuff" when Joy (who won't see this coming!) arrives and > drags Alex off to see Bonnie (who wasn't in this ep) in the hospital. > Earlier, Joy talks over Bonnie's situation with Kate (Kate, of course, > is trying to blame Bonnie!), and then Joy admits that Alex is the only > person in Salem who has been decent to her (wait until she finds out > about Alex and Stephanie!!)... Otherwise it was "soap sabotage" stuff - > Jada questions Kerry, and can't tie him to the Bonnie stuff (or the > poisoned cupcakes). They "show us" (but don't show us the face of) > someone "crossing Bonnie" of their list, and it looks like Alex may be > their next target - as this doesn't seem to be Hattie, I can't figure > out who this is. > > Then I watched two (disappointing!) movies off Tubi: > > Night Blooms (Tubi) - A 2022 Canadian flick - this is pretty typical of > Canadian indie flicks, portraying Canada as a pathetic country filled > with pathetic youth and pathetic adults/parents. (Yes, *everyone* is > pathetic in this film - there's not on non-pathetic character!) The only > wrinkle is that this is set in the 1990s - so is Canada even more > pathetic now?! >    P.S. Filmed in Nova Scotia, just to make it even more pathetic(!?!). >    Anyway, I watched this because it stars Jessica Clement, and as I > expected she's the best thing about this film by far - her character is > also pathetic, but at least Clement has the ability to attack the role > with gusto - Clement really does deserve more and higher profile roles: > she recently had a memorable guest stint on "Cross". >    Ostensibly, this is about how Clement's 17-year old character > targets and seduces her bestie's (Alexandra McDonald, not to be confused > with the superior Allie MacDonald who hasn't seen to done much in the > last 5 years or so...) father, played by Nick Stahl (and, wow - he looks > old now!). Of course, this leads to disaster for all involved. But, > they're all rundown pathetic Canadians anyway, so who cares?! >    And, being a Canadian indie, they of course add unnecessary > elements, like how Clement's character is seemingly guided(?)/haunted(?) > by an EVOL! "spirit woman" who looks like a hipster lesbian(!?!). >    So, this flick was good for Clement, but bad for everything else, > and I don't think I would recommend this even for fans of Jessica Clement. > > Final Girl: Halloween (Tubi) - I found most of this supposed > "horror" ("psychological horror"?) to be quite mild. I guess that's > another way of saying it's actually very "mid"... >    That is, until the ending, when I thought the whole film fell apart. >    The set up is this: high school girl (Krystal Lynn, a redhead though > not quite as attractive a redhead as the similarly named redhead > Stephanie Lynn from "Little Black Lie" that I watched recently...) > survives a slaughter at a house party where masked-killer kills everyone > else, including her boyfriend, but not her. >    This is an OK set-up, though as a horror "slaughter", this opening > sequence is undeniably "mild" (or listless/lacking in urgency or proper > horror atmosphere!). >    The problem is everything that comes after - her friends seem > generally unsupportive, and the other kids at the highschool are so mean > and cruel to her that it defies believability. >    I also disliked most of the casting - for example, I didn't believe > for a minute that the actors cast as her parents would have produced > this pale redheaded daughter! (Get the basics right, people!) >    Once back to school, the killer continues killing, and then it > becomes a mystery to figure out who the masked-killer is. Meanwhile, the > final girl's mean father stonewalls the poor downtrodden detective on > the case (who is paired with an idiot "comedy relief" uniformed cop, > which was another discordant element of this film!). >    But the real problem is that this falls apart with the ending. >    Basically, almost this entire same premise was covered, and covered > *much better*, back in the 2015 film "Last Girl Standing" - now that > film actually delved much more deeply into the psychological horror > aspects, and was substantially better in delivering its ending. >    I did like a couple of the supporting players here: Grace Winters > (no picture on IMDb, despite having a decent-sized filmography) as one > of the final girl's besties, and Nathaniel Hinson as the slacker > (neighbor?) dude who has an obvious crush on the final girl. No one else > really stood out here. >    Anyway, if you want this kind of flick, skip this one, and go with > the much more harrowing "Last Girl Standing". > > > What did you watch?