Yesterday, the focus was not on TV watching... I got through:

golf - Day 3 of the Phoenix Open was majorly f***ed by bad weather (the
storm that had hit So. Cal. had moved on to Arizona, so the leaders only
got through half-a-dozen holes in the late afternoon before play had to
be called. So they will have to finish the last 2/3 of Day 3, and all of
Day 4, on Sunday! We'll see if they can manage it.

soaps: Both of these were Thur's ep's, and in both not a lot happened...
DOOL - NuTheresa is at an AA meeting, where Brady shows up - it
turns out he was close to his own slip-up. Harris sees Clyde Weston in
jail to taunt Clyde about the drug bust, and Clyde seems to threaten Ava
in return. John goes to Steve about his "meeting" with Constantine, but
they both seem to be holding out on each other. Horny Sloan is
increasingly frustrated by not being able to "do it" because of the
baby, etc. - she is a terrible mother!!
GH - Marshmallow Willow tries to talk Drew out his Revenge! crusade
against Nina, to no avail. Nina plots her Revenge! against Carly with
the help of lawyer Martin - Carly continues to be a bitch and totally
deserves to be obliterated. Michael tries to bury the hatchet with Sonny
who seems to just roll with it... (Huh?!) Anna and co. meet with FBI
agent Jagger to discuss the big case - Anna convinces Jagger to go "read
Sonny in".

B-ball (ABC) - The Golden State Warriors manage to hold on, to beat the
Phoenix Suns! The Warriors are at 0.500 ball now!!

Abducted Off the Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story (Lifetime) - I saw
all but the first 10 minutes of this.
This stars Riele Downs as Carlesha Gaither, and is very, very
similar to the two Lifetime flicks starring Katie Douglas ("The Girl Who
Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story", and "Believe Me: The Abduction of
Lisa McVey") - they all have the same basic plot: madman abducts young
woman and she has to use her wits and guile to stay alive. Meanwhile,
girl's mother desperately tries to find her daughter while diligent cops
work to get her back.
I did roll my eyes at how quickly the vaguely racist cop did a 180
and started working the case seriously too.
You can't take the Canadian out of the girl! - Downs Canadian accent
clearly slips through in a couple of places. In fact, despite being set
in Phili, it was clear this was filmed in Canada, as Downs wasn't the
only one with a Canuck accent.

What did you watch?

On 2/11/2024 8:38 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> Yesterday, the focus was not on TV watching... I got through:
>
> golf - Day 3 of the Phoenix Open was majorly f***ed by bad weather (the
> storm that had hit So. Cal. had moved on to Arizona, so the leaders only
> got through half-a-dozen holes in the late afternoon before play had to
> be called. So they will have to finish the last 2/3 of Day 3, and all of
> Day 4, on Sunday! We'll see if they can manage it.
>
> soaps: Both of these were Thur's ep's, and in both not a lot happened...
>    DOOL - NuTheresa is at an AA meeting, where Brady shows up - it
> turns out he was close to his own slip-up. Harris sees Clyde Weston in
> jail to taunt Clyde about the drug bust, and Clyde seems to threaten Ava
> in return. John goes to Steve about his "meeting" with Constantine, but
> they both seem to be holding out on each other. Horny Sloan is
> increasingly frustrated by not being able to "do it" because of the
> baby, etc. - she is a terrible mother!!
>    GH - Marshmallow Willow tries to talk Drew out his Revenge! crusade
> against Nina, to no avail. Nina plots her Revenge! against Carly with
> the help of lawyer Martin - Carly continues to be a bitch and totally
> deserves to be obliterated. Michael tries to bury the hatchet with Sonny
> who seems to just roll with it... (Huh?!) Anna and co. meet with FBI
> agent Jagger to discuss the big case - Anna convinces Jagger to go "read
> Sonny in".
>
> B-ball (ABC) - The Golden State Warriors manage to hold on, to beat the
> Phoenix Suns! The Warriors are at 0.500 ball now!!
>
> Abducted Off the Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story (Lifetime) - I saw
> all but the first 10 minutes of this.
>    This stars Riele Downs as Carlesha Gaither, and is very, very
> similar to the two Lifetime flicks starring Katie Douglas ("The Girl Who
> Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story", and "Believe Me: The Abduction of
> Lisa McVey") - they all have the same basic plot: madman abducts young
> woman and she has to use her wits and guile to stay alive. Meanwhile,
> girl's mother desperately tries to find her daughter while diligent cops
> work to get her back.
>    I did roll my eyes at how quickly the vaguely racist cop did a 180
> and started working the case seriously too.
>    You can't take the Canadian out of the girl! - Downs Canadian accent
> clearly slips through in a couple of places. In fact, despite being set
> in Phili, it was clear this was filmed in Canada, as Downs wasn't the
> only one with a Canuck accent.
>
>

This sound a lot like one of the movies I recently watched. But like
you said, they all have the same basic plot, and are filmed in Canada
while pretending it's the U.S.

> What did you watch?

I watched:

The Hustler (TCM) 1961 drama starring Paul Newman as a pool hustler who
wants to go up against the best hustler of them all "Fats" played by
Jackie Gleeson. George C. Scott also stars as a local crime boss who
manipulates and backs Newman. I think this might have been my first
time watching this movie. It was a bit melodramatic, but OK.

The Twilight Zone (blu-ray) - "A Game of Pool" - Season 3 episode 70
from a 1961 episode of the original series. Jack Klugman plays a pool
shark who says he'd give anything to play against "Fats" (Johnathan
Winters) who is considered the best player, but dead. Fats is called
down from heaven to accept the challenge. The stakes are win and live,
lose and die. I was surprised this episode aired a few months after
"The Hustler" was released. I assume it was made to tie in with the
movie. The blu-ray had a ton of extras for this episode, including two
commentary tracks, one from Winters and the other from the original
episode's writer and director. I *briefly* sampled each commentary but
settled on watching the episode straight. I bought this set well over a
decade ago and it was still in the shrink-wrap. At least I had a reason
to finally watch. These blu-rays are great, beautiful transfers and
*loaded* with extras. I really need to start watching them!

The Twilight Zone (DVD) - "A Game of Pool" - Season 3 episode 55 from
the 80s series. Esai Morales plays a pool shark who says he'd give
anything to play against "Fats" (Maury Chaykin) who is considered the
best player, but dead. Fats is called down from heaven to accept the
challenge. The stakes are win and live, lose and die. This was pretty
much a straight remake of the 60s episode with the same dialogue. Except
this has a different ending that was originally written for the 60s
episode but not used. I know this episode used the original written
ending, but the ending that aired in the 60s was better.

The Color of Money (TCM) 1986 sequel to "The Hustler" directed by Martin
Scorsese and starring Paul Newman who reprises his role from the
original movie but this time around he mentors a young pool shark played
by Tom Cruise. Newman tries to teach him how to hustle but Cruise is to
pig headed to listen to Newman's advice and insist on showing off his
skills thereby scaring off the marks. This was not very good. I guess
the main problem was there were no likable characters. I'm not saying
there were likeable characters in "The Hustler" but I didn't actively
dislike most of them. And Jackie Gleeson's "Fats" seemed like a nice
enough guy. But in this movie everyone was just rotten and I didn't
care what happened to them. And on top of that the print looked horrible.

On 2/11/2024 8:38 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>
> What did you watch?

Thank you for asking.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E10 The Ballad of Steeley Joe (2000)
DVD-r disc
While waiting for Passepartout to arrive from Baltimore with the Aurora,
Jules, Rebecca, and Phileas pass the time aboard the gambling boat, the
Memphis Belle; Phileas by gambling and Jules and Rebecca by socializing
with a newspaperman, Sam Clemens. They meet up, also, with a group of
ex-Confederate soldiers, including Frank and Jesse James, bent on a life
of crime who steal the Aurora and kidnap Passepartout. Using alcohol and
a fantastic story about "Steeley Joe", Passepartout is able to escape
from the gang and find refuge in the town of Apache Wells.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E11 The Black Glove of
Melchizedek (2000)
DVD-r disc
And we're back to no plot summaries in IMDb. Most of Our Heroes have
made it back to London and Phileas gets a black glove with strange
symbols on it in the mail. Verne is back in Paris and gets a mysterious
visit from a man tattooed with strange symbols. Lots of mysterious and
strange things happen and Rebecca gets kidnapped by an old Chinese man.
A few more magical mystery happenings and some kung-fu fighting ends
with the old Chinese man a pile of dust and Our Heroes walking home.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E12 Dust to Dust (2000)
DVD-r disc
In the teaser Phileas has a nightmare about spiders. Phileas and Jules
are transporting a mummy and a couple of archeologists to New York. One
of course being an old teacher of Phileas and the other a mysterious
beautiful woman. Rebecca's boss in the Secret Service is not happy
about that, it is causing political problems with the digging of the
Suez Canal. Spiders start appearing onboard the Aurora and in Rebecca's
luggage. Everyone arrives in New York, the mummy is presented and the
old professor drops dead and his face melts. Rebecca and Jules
investigate while Phileas is enchanted, literally, by his female
passenger. Oh, and look! Now Phileas' nightmare is coming true! He
shouldn't have kissed the spider woman. The rescue! Passepartout in
full beekeeper gear spraying insecticide, Rebecca have a nightmare logic
fight with Spider-Woman and Jules unwrapping Phileas because he's immune
to Spider-Woman's charms and her spiders by virtue of still having his
virtue. Oops, maybe not. Having freed Phileas now he's the sacrifice!
Oh, never mind, his virgin blood turned Spider-Woman and her mummy hubby
to dust.

What Did You Watch?

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

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

>The Hustler (TCM) 1961 drama starring Paul Newman as a pool hustler who
>wants to go up against the best hustler of them all "Fats" played by
>Jackie Gleeson. George C. Scott also stars as a local crime boss who
>manipulates and backs Newman. I think this might have been my first
>time watching this movie. It was a bit melodramatic, but OK.

Carrie's mother! Also Michael Constantine, Principal Kaufman and the
comic father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And did you spot Jake LaMotta?

Note that Jackie Gleason was a fine dramatic actor. Also, he wanted the
audience to know that he was an excellent pool player. There were no
cutaway shots.

The Cincinnati Kid (1965) explores similar themes.

>The Twilight Zone (blu-ray) - "A Game of Pool"

I'm sensing a theme here.

>The Color of Money (TCM) 1986 sequel to "The Hustler" directed by Martin
>Scorsese and starring Paul Newman who reprises his role from the
>original movie but this time around he mentors a young pool shark played
>by Tom Cruise. Newman tries to teach him how to hustle but Cruise is to
>pig headed to listen to Newman's advice and insist on showing off his
>skills thereby scaring off the marks. This was not very good. I guess
>the main problem was there were no likable characters. I'm not saying
>there were likeable characters in "The Hustler" but I didn't actively
>dislike most of them. And Jackie Gleeson's "Fats" seemed like a nice
>enough guy. But in this movie everyone was just rotten and I didn't
>care what happened to them. And on top of that the print looked horrible.

Wow. I hate this movie, and your assessment is even harsher than mine.