On 6/8/2022 9:47 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2022-06-08 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> What did you watch?
>
snip
>
> The Boys (Prime) - "Barbary Coast" (ep. #3.3). I didn't care for this
> episode as much as the first two ep's of season #3, because it's a
> disappointing "return to form" - Homelander is back in the driver's
> seat, and Butcher is back to being an irredeemable asshole. Problem is,
> we've been here before - seen it, done it.
>   Butcher is still recovering from the Temp-V Compound dose. Both
> Mother's Milk and Hughie are back with the Boys. But Hughie needs a
> cover story with Neuman (who is not in this episode), and so has Kimiko
> break his arm. Then Butcher, Hughie, MM and Kimiko go to visit Mallory
> (and Becca's boy Ryan), where they get her version of events with what
> happened with Solider Boy back in '84 (which, actually is full of holes
> in terms of what really happened). Enraged that Mallory kept the
> existence of a possible "superweapon" to kill Homelander from him,
> Butcher then vows to never forgive Mallory, and drives Ryan away from
> him by seeming to blame Ryan for Becca's death.
>   On the dumb reality show, Homelander gets the upper hand on
> Annie/Starlight (who wants to quit, but is talked out of it by Hughie) -
> while she gets her preferred choice of Supersonic into The Seven,
> Homelander insists upon restoring The Deep to The Seven as well, despite
> The Deep's earlier assault on Annie.

That's probably why he wants the Deep back. It's a power move and it
humiliates her.

Homelander then brutally humiliates
> The Deep (The Deep's wife is also shown to basically be a psycho), and
> then publicly announces at the show's end, that he and Starlight are "in
> love", which Starlight is forced to go along with.
>   And Frencie is asked by Cherie (I figured they had forgotten about
> her!) to give her a new ID so she can get out of the country, after she
> runs afoul of their old crime boss, "Little Nina" (hey! it's Katia
> Winter from "Blood & Treasure"!). Later Little Nina confronts Frenchie,
> and Butcher wants to use the relationship that to their advantage.
>
> Love and Monsters (Prime) - I don't think I liked this as much as others
> around here did, though it's aimable and enjoyable enough. It's just not
> very deep... But, Jessica Henwick! (and Ellen Hollman!).
>

It's a good movie. It doesn't need to be deep.

> American Siege (Hulu) - Another Bruce Willis special (more on this
> below...).
>   I can't figure writer/director Edward Drake out. He earlier did
> "Broil" (2018), which I though was quite decent - interesting story,
> well-filmed, etc. His first film, "Animals", looks like it's not
> available, so I can't check it out... But since "Broil", Drake has done
> "Cosmic Sin" (which was *awful*!), "Breach" and "Apex" (which I haven't
> seen yet), and "American Siege", all with Willis, and most being nothing
> more than low-budget tough-guy actioners - what happened to the guy who
> came up with "Broil"!?!
>   IMDb doesn't have production dates, but I think this must have been
> filmed earlier in Bruce Willis' "decline" - he has much more dialogue in
> this film than he had in, say, "Out of Death". But Willis' scenes are
> again all edited weirdly, like with amplfied use of (obvious(heh) and
> awkward) ADR in his scenes, or shots where Willis should be talking with
> his co-stars are instead just head shots of Willis by himself which are
> then inserted into scenes with others...

Maybe issues with him not being able to say the lines on set with
costars? Or maybe he wasn't on set at all for other reasons?

There are still lots of old good Bruce Willis movies to remember and watch.

>   Anyway, "American Siege" is weird and a little over-the-top, but
> probably one of the better recent Willis actioners (along with "Out of
> Death") - Set in Georgia, three townie losers (Johann Urb, Rob Gough,
> and a pretty kinetic Anna Hindman) take over and occupy what later turns
> out to be a local drug den, taking a hostage, demanding the truth of
> what happened to their missing sister/girlfriend.
>   The local big wig (Timothy V. Murphy, sporting a less than convincing
> southern accent!) finds this unacceptable, and sends the sad-sack local
> sheriff (Willis) and deputy, who turns out to be the big-wig's son, to
> resolve the matter before the Feds inevitably show up. A standoff ensues.
>   I guess this is kind of noir-y. The ending is... kind of strange - I
> like the last shot, but I'm not exactly sure what Drake was going for here.
>
>

I couldn't tell if you crossed over from a parallel universe, made some
typos, or both! So in 1998 Bruce Willis starred in "The Siege" directed
by Edward Zwick, which is sort of what you said...but as it turns out he
also starred in American Siege directed by Edward Drake. There was a
time where if Bruce Willis made a movie I knew about it and probably saw
it in the theater. Now he's cranking out direct to video movies faster
than I can keep track of them.

I watched:

Jubilee (TCM) 1978 movie which I guess is maybe a punk rock musical.
This was released as part of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee back in
1977 so I guess TCM aired it now thanks to the current Jubilee. I had
never heard of this movie before, but I recorded it to watch with my
upcoming Rocky Horror and similar movie marathon. It looked like it
would fit. I'm watching Rocky Horror this weekend, but figured I'd dive
into this a few days early. My suspicion that this would fit well with
Rocky Horror proved very much true when the opening credits rolled and
listed two actors from Rocky Horror in this movie and early on they even
referenced Rocky Horror directly. But unlike Rocky Horror, which I
like, this movie was garbage! I can't summarize a plot because as far
as I can tell it didn't have one. Just a collection of 70s British punk
rockers hanging around occasionally interrupted by what I guess was
flashbacks to the first Queen Elizabeth, who I think was maybe peering
into the future and seeing the punk rockers. And lots of gratuitous
nudity. There are a few songs thrown into the movie, but not enough to
really call this a musical. I was a little torn at first when I saw all
the Rocky Horror connection if I should hold off and watch it with Rocky
Horror like I had originally planned, but it was so bad I just wanted to
get through it and be done with it. Then I headed to Netflix to give it
a 1-star rating so I don't accidentally watch it again.

Superman & Lois - "All Is Lost" - Why does Superman just stand and look
at the villain when he should be using heat vision or dropping large
heavy objects on them at supersonic speeds?

The Flash - "Into the Still Force" - Episode from a few weeks ago. I
wish I could say it was background noise, but unfortunately I was paying
attention to this mess.

The Flash - "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen" - Flash is hit by a
ray that makes him grow old. Somehow this was even worse than the
previous episode. And with Iris written out of this episode and not
even mentioned, they gave all of the scenes and lines that were
obviously written for her character to Cecile.

This Is Us - Series Finale which was mostly background noise.

On 6/8/2022 2:14 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2022-06-08 18:53:17 +0000, Arthur Lipscomb said:
>>
>>> On 6/8/2022 9:47 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>>> On 2022-06-08 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>>>
>>>>> What did you watch?
>>>>
>>> snip
>>>>
>>>> American Siege (Hulu) - Another Bruce Willis special (more on this below...).
>>>>   I can't figure writer/director Edward Drake out. He earlier did
>>>> "Broil" (2018), which I though was quite decent - interesting story,
>>>> well-filmed, etc. His first film, "Animals", looks like it's not
>>>> available, so I can't check it out... But since "Broil", Drake has done
>>>> "Cosmic Sin" (which was *awful*!), "Breach" and "Apex" (which I haven't
>>>> seen yet), and "American Siege", all with Willis, and most being
>>>> nothing more than low-budget tough-guy actioners - what happened to the
>>>> guy who came up with "Broil"!?!
>>>>   IMDb doesn't have production dates, but I think this must have been
>>>> filmed earlier in Bruce Willis' "decline" - he has much more dialogue
>>>> in this film than he had in, say, "Out of Death". But Willis' scenes
>>>> are again all edited weirdly, like with amplfied use of (obvious(heh)
>>>> and awkward) ADR in his scenes, or shots where Willis should be talking
>>>> with his co-stars are instead just head shots of Willis by himself
>>>> which are then inserted into scenes with others...
>>>
>>> Maybe issues with him not being able to say the lines on set with
>>> costars? Or maybe he wasn't on set at all for other reasons?
>>
>> His recent films strongly imply that he is unable to do scenes with
>> co-stars as a normally-functioning actor could.
>>
>> This explains the weird uses of ADR, the weird framing of shots with
>> Willis, and the weird editing that is going on with scenes with Willis
>> (esp. with other actors).
>>
>> Mike Burns, who directed "Out of Death", talks at length about Willis'
>> condidtion on the two films he did with Willis. Another director, Jesse
>> V. Johnson, said he wouldn't have worked with Willis again.
>>
>> https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-03-30/bruce-willis-aphasia-memory-loss-cognitive-disorder
>>
>>
>
> Thanks for the link.

+1

That article is so depressing! And how in the world can you make 22
movies in 4 years? Well I guess if you shoot all the scenes in 1 day
it's doable.

On 6/13/2022 7:24 AM, Micky DuPree wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> writes:
>
>> This Is Us - Series Finale which was mostly background noise.
>
> It was anticlimactic, but realistic, in that putting affairs and
> thoughts in order after a death usually is anticlimactic. I thought the
> episode was O.K. on that basis.
>
> Looking back, my favorite scenes of the series were when the
> Pearsons-by-marriage got together and complained about how hard it was
> to be associated with the Pearsons. :-D
>
> -Micky
>

Yeah, I tend to like those scenes too. It's the writers basically
breaking the fourth wall.