On 4/15/2022 8:09 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> I guess Ubi is taking a powder today...
>
> On a day when my brother visited town and I had to clean my place, I
> only managed to get through...:
>
> soaps: DOOL - Amazing! Gabi actually acts as a proactive force for
> "good" (for once!), and tricks one of the cons Ava Vitali hired to frame
> Rafe into giving her incriminating evidence against Ava! Gabi is set for
> the takedown!! Nicole warns Jake to stay away from Ava, but he doesn't
> listen. Xander asks Jack to be his best man (again!). In a massive
> contrivance, Gwen somehow knows Leo Stark from her past with Jake in
> Philadelphia - this is both eyeroll- and puke-worthy.  :/
>   GH - Spencer confesses his scheme to prove Esme was behind the sex
> tape to Cameron, but then swears Cameron to secrecy, even from Josslyn.
> Josslyn and Trina talk, and Trina flirts with the one cop who was nice
> to her. Dante catches Sam snooping on his phone and she confesses that
> she absconded with a police file on Trina's case, disgusting Dante.
> Sonny and Nina are caught in an armed robbery at the bar, but Brando
> helps save them - but this means that Sonny isn't viewed as "powerful"
> by Port Charles' lowly thungs anymore!!
>
> Deadly Cheer Mom (Tubi!) (not to be confused with the earlier "Killer
> Cheer Mom", starring Denise Richards!!) -

Denise Richards might have got me to watch.

OK, this starts cheesy, but it
> gets to be a pretty good mystery, and it's distributed by Mar Vista,
> with a pretty high profile cast, so I am wondering why it didn't end up
> on Lifetime...
>   Oh, OK, I see why now - the "bad guys" basically "win" in the end.
> Yeah, Lifetime would never sign on to a movie where the heroine(s) get
> *screwed* at the end!!
>   Sidenote: Like many Lifetime movies, this one is mistitled - the
> "cheer mom" in question never kills *anybody*!
>   Anyway, the IMDb page on this is woefully incomplete (let's see if
> IMDb will let me "fix" this!), but this has a decent cast - the main
> parents are played by Mena Suvari (who is also the cheer coach), Karla
> Mosely (yikes! she's 40 now!!), and... wait for it... Ashley Scott! The
> "ingenue heroine" is played by Tommi Rose (from "I Am Frankie", and a
> couple of other Lifetime flicks, including one where she's the psycho
> villain!!).
>   Based on the cast list, you only get *one guess* as to who plays the
> "deadly cheer mom"!!
>   In this, new cheer captain (Rose) (nepotism alert!) has her
> reputation attacked by a series of "deepfake" video. (This, at least, is
> a new angle for these kinds of flicks!)
>   But this has more than one twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
> However, I would have liked this more if the ending weren't so downbeat,
> with EVOL!!1! triumphant.
>   Note: This is apparently based on a "true" story, from Pennsylvania
> in the summer of 2020, where a cheermom threatened several HS
> cheerleaders with deepfake image.
>
>
> Recorded for later: Legacies.
>
>
> What did you watch?
>
>

I watched:

Halo (Paramount+) - "Homecoming" - Master Chief visits his home planet
while Kwan visists hers and both wind up disappointed.

Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+) - "Monsters" - Dr. Gaius Baltar makes a
cameo in a confusing episode that heavily implied a Q was going to show
up then pulled a bait and switch.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (4K disc) Captain America's old
friend shows up to take his shield, stick his name in the movie's title
and defeat Captain America. I love this one it holds up great.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (4K disc) - Tony and Banner build a murder bot.
What could go wrong? OK so this might be one of the lesser MCU
movies, but it's still fun to watch with lots of great set pieces. It's
only lesser when compared against the other movies that were so good
they broke the scale.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (theatrical) Third entry in
the Harry Potter prequel series. Before heading in to see this I was
skimming some reviews and seeing complaints about the movie not being
that good and being too confusing with too many subplots. So I went in
with low expectations. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I
enjoyed it. Much like the original Harry Potter series the movies get
better, and darker, as they go, and this is the best one yet in the new
series. First I'll admit the plot is a little convoluted, but which
Harry Potter movie doesn't have a convoluted plot? Moreover, the villain
the heroes are fighting can the see the future and has a sidekick who
can read minds. The good guys explicitly say they are going to
intentionally confuse things so that when the villain looks into the
future to see what they are up to, it won't make any sense. That being
said, I didn't have any trouble following the plot of the movie. I
always knew who the characters were, where they were, and what they were
doing. Mostly. I think what frustrated some reviewers is there's never
an exposition scene that explains what the plan was. And as the viewer
you just follow along with the characters who also don't know the full
details of the plan. So when everything was over and done with, I still
had some questions about some of the details of what went down and why.
But that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.

Anyway, like I said this is a darker movie in the franchise. Gellert
Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen without explanation) is
consolidating his power and trying to seize control of the wizarding
world. Meanwhile Dumbledore is building an army of his own (the usuals
from the first two movies) to go against him. Lots more action and
battles this go around. It sort of reminded me of with the Star Wars
prequels getting to see young Anakin and Obi Wan Kenobi in their primes.
The same thing here. We get to see young Dumbldore doing battle in
his prime.

On 4/15/2022 9:23 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
>
> Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (theatrical) Third entry in
> the Harry Potter prequel series.  Before heading in to see this I was
> skimming some reviews and seeing complaints about the movie not being
> that good and being too confusing with too many subplots.  So I went in
> with low expectations.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I
> enjoyed it.  Much like the original Harry Potter series the movies get
> better, and darker, as they go, and this is the best one yet in the new
> series.  First I'll admit the plot is a little convoluted, but which
> Harry Potter movie doesn't have a convoluted plot? Moreover, the villain
> the heroes are fighting can the see the future and has a sidekick who
> can read minds.  The good guys explicitly say they are going to
> intentionally confuse things so that when the villain looks into the
> future to see what they are up to, it won't make any sense.  That being
> said, I didn't have any trouble following the plot of the movie.  I
> always knew who the characters were, where they were, and what they were
> doing.  Mostly.  I think what frustrated some reviewers is there's never
> an exposition scene that explains what the plan was.  And as the viewer
> you just follow along with the characters who also don't know the full
> details of the plan.  So when everything was over and done with, I still
> had some questions about some of the details of what went down and why.
>  But that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.
>
> Anyway, like I said this is a darker movie in the franchise.  Gellert
> Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen without explanation)

Johnny Depp is in movie jail. Something about his divorce/libel
lawsuits backfiring or something. I don't follow the gossip closely
enough to remember the details even if I did care. But basically Depp
got dumped because of bad PR.

> is
> consolidating his power and trying to seize control of the wizarding
> world.  Meanwhile Dumbledore is building an army of his own (the usuals
> from the first two movies) to go against him.  Lots more action and
> battles this go around.  It sort of reminded me of with the Star Wars
> prequels getting to see young Anakin and Obi Wan Kenobi in their primes.
>  The same thing here.  We get to see young Dumbldore doing battle in
> his prime.
>
>
>
>
>

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 4/15/2022 1:00 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 4/15/2022 9:23 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
>>
>> Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (theatrical) Third entry
>> in the Harry Potter prequel series.  Before heading in to see this I
>> was skimming some reviews and seeing complaints about the movie not
>> being that good and being too confusing with too many subplots.  So I
>> went in with low expectations.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how
>> much I enjoyed it.  Much like the original Harry Potter series the
>> movies get better, and darker, as they go, and this is the best one
>> yet in the new series.  First I'll admit the plot is a little
>> convoluted, but which Harry Potter movie doesn't have a convoluted
>> plot? Moreover, the villain the heroes are fighting can the see the
>> future and has a sidekick who can read minds.  The good guys
>> explicitly say they are going to intentionally confuse things so that
>> when the villain looks into the future to see what they are up to, it
>> won't make any sense.  That being said, I didn't have any trouble
>> following the plot of the movie.  I always knew who the characters
>> were, where they were, and what they were doing.  Mostly.  I think
>> what frustrated some reviewers is there's never an exposition scene
>> that explains what the plan was.  And as the viewer you just follow
>> along with the characters who also don't know the full details of the
>> plan.  So when everything was over and done with, I still had some
>> questions about some of the details of what went down and why.   But
>> that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.
>>
>> Anyway, like I said this is a darker movie in the franchise.  Gellert
>> Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen without explanation)
>
> Johnny Depp is in movie jail.  Something about his divorce/libel
> lawsuits backfiring or something.  I don't follow the gossip closely
> enough to remember the details even if I did care.  But basically Depp
> got dumped because of bad PR.
>

Oh, I knew that. I meant within the movie there is no explanation. I
want to avoid spoilers, so I'll just say that within the Fantastic
Beasts series Depp wasn't the only one to play Grindelwald. There is an
in movie explanation for why multiple actors played the same character
in the first movie. But for this one there is no explanation. It's
just a straight recasting of the character.

Depending on how things play out, Ezra Miller might find himself
similarly recast without explanation. Although speaking of Miller, I
found his character to be much better the third time out. In the first
two movies he was supposed to be this naive innocent and it just didn't
work for me. This time around they told him to play it as a cold
stalker / murderer type and he pulled that off much better.

>> is consolidating his power and trying to seize control of the
>> wizarding world.  Meanwhile Dumbledore is building an army of his own
>> (the usuals from the first two movies) to go against him.  Lots more
>> action and battles this go around.  It sort of reminded me of with the
>> Star Wars prequels getting to see young Anakin and Obi Wan Kenobi in
>> their primes.   The same thing here.  We get to see young Dumbldore
>> doing battle in his prime.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

On 4/15/2022 3:06 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-04-15 21:50:20 +0000, anim8rfsk said:
>
>> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>> On 4/15/2022 9:23 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (theatrical) Third entry in
>>>> the Harry Potter prequel series.  Before heading in to see this I was
>>>> skimming some reviews and seeing complaints about the movie not being
>>>> that good and being too confusing with too many subplots.  So I went in
>>>> with low expectations.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I
>>>> enjoyed it.  Much like the original Harry Potter series the movies get
>>>> better, and darker, as they go, and this is the best one yet in the new
>>>> series.  First I'll admit the plot is a little convoluted, but which
>>>> Harry Potter movie doesn't have a convoluted plot? Moreover, the
>>>> villain
>>>> the heroes are fighting can the see the future and has a sidekick who
>>>> can read minds.  The good guys explicitly say they are going to
>>>> intentionally confuse things so that when the villain looks into the
>>>> future to see what they are up to, it won't make any sense.  That being
>>>> said, I didn't have any trouble following the plot of the movie.  I
>>>> always knew who the characters were, where they were, and what they
>>>> were
>>>> doing.  Mostly.  I think what frustrated some reviewers is there's
>>>> never
>>>> an exposition scene that explains what the plan was.  And as the viewer
>>>> you just follow along with the characters who also don't know the full
>>>> details of the plan.  So when everything was over and done with, I
>>>> still
>>>> had some questions about some of the details of what went down and why.
>>>>  But that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, like I said this is a darker movie in the franchise.  Gellert
>>>> Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen without explanation)
>>>
>>> Johnny Depp is in movie jail.  Something about his divorce/libel
>>> lawsuits backfiring or something.  I don't follow the gossip closely
>>> enough to remember the details even if I did care.  But basically Depp
>>> got dumped because of bad PR.
>>
>> You made me look. Apparently he’s been busy suing anybody that calls
>> him a
>> wife beater, from the press to his wife herself. The problem is the
>> courts
>> are finding against him and saying he absolutely is a wife beater
>> which may
>> well lead to actual criminal charges. In two different countries no less.
>
> The context here is that Amber Heard is a psycho, and a dangerous one at
> that.
>
So this ISN'T a case of opposites attracting? ;)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.