On 6/5/2023 7:07 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2023-06-05 08:30:40 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> What did you watch?
>
> Yesterday was a strange day, as it was the last day before the start of
> Summer Session, so I didn't get to watch as much...
>
> Face/Off (Showtime) - I stumbled across this, unplanned... I think this
> is, without a doubt, the most (deliberately?!) *preoposterous* movie
> ever made!!
>   That said, after seeing this again after 25 years (love the cutting
> edge computer graphics for 1997!!), I think I came to the same
> conclusion I did back then - what makes this movie is John Travolta's
> over-the-topness. Nick Cage is hamstrung in having to be relatively
> restrained throughout most of the film, whereas Travolta gets to chew
> the scenery with abandon (whilst also doing a pretty dang good imination
> of Nick Cage!).
>   But otherwise, this is over-the-top John Woo, with lots and lots of
> "A-Team shooting" (IOW, most people can't seem to shoot their targets,
> like, 80% of the time!).
>   There are a bunch of people in this flcik, in supporting roles -
> like, for example, I didn't know that Thomas Jane was in this (or that
> Jane has been around that long!!). John Carroll Lynch is also in this as
> a prison guard, and a young James Denton is in this as a FBI underling.
> A pre-"That '70s Show" Danny Masterson is also in this as,
> appropriately, a potential rapist! And Dominique Swain is in this as the
> idiot daughter - she really has not aged well if you've seen her lately
> on Lifetime.
>   The final scene(s) don't make any sense - That's not how this works!
> That's not how any of this works!!
>
> I also saw a good chunk of "10,000 BC" - this ending is seriously marred
> by its ridiculous deus ex machina ending: it would have been a lot
> better if they'd had the courage of their convictions and killed Camilla
> Bella off at the end.
>

I *know* I must have seen this movie before, but I have no memory of it.

> soaps: GH - Fri's ep. Victor leaves Spencer (and Trina) the evidence
> they need to get Esme convicted - I knew Victor's inheritance for
> Spencer involved Esme, but I figured it would be something to egg
> Spencer on to kill her or something. I did not expect it to be the
> evidence to convict her... Meanwhile, Sonny confronts Ned, but I think
> Ned convinced Sonny that he didn't turn Carly and Drew in. And Michael
> offers Carly the video evidence of Sonny's arms deal, but of course the
> bitch refuses to use it. NuNuJordan has had enough of Curtis' indecision
> and permanently ends things between them on her end.
>
> golf - Leaders from Day 3, like David Lipsky, fell back on the last day.
> Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler surged, but it wasn't enough. For most of
> the last day, Denny McCarthy, who hasn't won on the PGA yet, was in the
> clear lead, with others like Rory McIlroy, Si-woo Kim and Victor Hovland
> jockeying for position. But as newbs are want to do, McCarthy stumbled
> at the end, allowing Hovland to get into a tie for the lead. This led to
> a playoff, and once that happened, I know Hovland would win it - he did,
> on the first playoff hole, when McCarthy choked on a par putt, while
> Hovland put his in the hole (though maybe just barely). Hovland has now
> won a tourney in each of the last of the 4 years or something...
>
> Titans (Max) - "Game Over", "Project Starfire" and "Titans Forever"
> (ep's #4.10-4.12, the last 3 episodes).
>   I finished out "Titans" yesterday.
>   I guess it ended OK.
>   I kind of liked how Sebastian/Brother Blood's app game in "Game Over"
> was all magic and EVOL!!1! and stuff (though, IIRC, the final version
> looked nothing like the original version he was tinkering with in the
> first half of the season!). But Conner allows the Titans to hack into
> Lex Corp's servers and destroy Sebastian's game.
>   OTOH, the subplot with Gar (and later Kory) hanging out with the Doom
> Patrol was annoying and pointless and superfluous, and nothing actually
> came of it - it was clearly just a thinly-veiled excuse to get the Doom
> Patrol on this show before it ended...  >:/
>   There is also an incredibly pointless cameo from Jason Todd, which I
> actually felt was kind of insulting after him going totally EVOL!!1! in
> season #3.
>   Anyway, in the end, Brother Blood eclipses Mother Mahem as the
> season's "Big Bad", so the Titans have to sever Rachel/Raven's
> "connection" to him, and then take him down.
>   The problem? Taking down Brother Blood is supposed to kill Kory.
>   Blood summons Trigon, and then kills him in the most anti-climactic
> way possible! No more Trion - 4 seasons of this comes to an ignominous
> end!!
>   Anyway, this show ends with the exact same ending as "10,000 BC",
> which is pretty disappointing.
>   In the end, the Titans pretty much "break up" (sort of), except for
> Dick and Kory, with Rachel going off to college, Gar going back to "The
> Red", Conner going off to train with Superman, and Tim splitting time
> between Gotham and Metropolis.
>   Hey, is Raven's "change in powers" (and her going all "Gandalf the
> White") in this season rooted in the comics at all? Or did they just
> make it up for the show?
>

I don't remember the ending of the show. I know I must have watched it,
but it must have been so bland that nothing about it stuck. The same
thing came up the other day with The Flash. I had to double check if
the finale already aired or not.

> Recorded for later: "Danger Below Deck", off Lifetime, as I was able to
> get to no TV movies yesteday night.
>
>

I watched:

FX (blu-ray) 1986 action movie starring Bryan Brown as a movie special
effects expert who is hired to fake the death of a mobster (Jerry
Orbach) in the witness protection program. But he's double crossed and
winds up going on the run after a hitman sent to kill him ends up
killing his girlfriend. Brian Dennehy also stars as the cop looking
into the case who Brown winds up teaming up with by the end. I think I
only saw this once before in the early 90s. It held up very well as a
nice thriller.

F/X2 (blu-ray) 1991 sequel which finds Bryan Brown reluctantly roped
into helping the police with his special effects expertise. This time
he thinks he's helping to catch a stalker, but once again falls victim
to a double cross and has to team up with Brian Dennehy (who after the
events of the first movie is now a private investigator). The two once
again catch the crooks and save the day using Brown's skills as a
special effects expert. The "special effects" he pulls off in this
movie is pretty ridiculous, but you just have to roll with it. I
remember when this movie came out the advertising campaign was pretty
good and at the time, I had no idea the first movie even existed but for
this one was clearly labeled as part 2, which alerted me to its'
existence. I haven't watched this since the time of the original
release. It holds up well enough. I think this is probably the first
time I've watched both movies back-to-back and in the proper aspect ratio.

Blame It on the Bellboy (blu-ray) 1992 comedy starring Bronson Pinchot
as a bumbling hotel bellboy who mixes up three guests from England who
are vacationing in Italy. Dudley Moore plays a Guest named Melvyn Orton
who is in Italy to look at a property to purchase for his boss. Bryan
Brown plays a hitman named Mike Lorton who is in Italy to kill a mobster
(Andreas Katsulas from Babylon 5) and Richard Griffiths (from Harry
Potter movies) plays a man named Maurice Horton who is in Italy to cheat
on his wife with a computer date. After the mix-up Dudley Moore's
character is mistaken for the hitman and captured by the would be
target. Bryan Brown mistakes the computer date for the target of the
assassination. And Ricard Griffiths mistakes the real estate agent for
the computer date. Wackiness ensues! I saw this once in the theater
when it first came out and remembered really liking it. I bought the
movie then forgot about it until I noticed it also starred Bryan Brown
and figured now or never. It wasn't as funny as I remembered, but
thankfully it is mercifully short at only 78 minutes.

The Transformers: The Movie (4K disc) - The original 1986 animated movie
and still by far the best Transformers movie. It remains one of my
all-time favorite movies. I have been looking forward to this! I've
probably watched this more times than any other movie, and it never gets
old. PERFECT MOVIE. If you weren't between 7 and 10 years old in 1986
it is really hard to convey just how world changing this movie was at
the time. The movie opens and within the first minute an entire planet
gets destroyed. Completely wiped out. Then minutes later, the regular
heroes that us kids have been watching every weekday are brutally killed
off. One gets shot in the head point blank. And this is a cartoon for
kids! "I've got better things to do tonight than die." One of the best
movie deaths ever put on screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iwY2LXhz0

Bumblebee (4K disc) 2018 reboot/prequel of the Michael Bay Transformers
movies. Set in the 1980s, it starts with the war on Cybertron where the
Autobots are losing the war then shows Optimus Prime sending Bumblebee
to Earth to establish a new base for the Autoboots. Bumble winds up in
the hands of Hailee Steinfeld, a young girl with dreams of owning her
own car. He also has to protect her from a pair of Decepticon scouts
who have tricked the military (lead by John Cena) into helping them
track down Bumblebee. This movie was such a breath of fresh air after
the Bay flicks. Finally, a Transformers movie that uses the original
80s designs. I haven't watched it since seeing it originally in the
theater. It held up great. "They literally call themselves
Decipticons. That doesn't set off any red flags?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu5m4sr6e6I

The Idol (HBOMax) "Pop Tarts & Rat Tales" - New drama on HBO. I watched
in on HBOMax for the 4K and Dolby Atmos. It stars Lily-Rose Depp as a
famous pop idol who maybe going through a mental break down and is
caught up with a cult leader played by "The Weeknd" who also created the
show. I suspect they were using Britney Spears as a template, but it
could have been any young starlet caught up in a sex scandal. I was
mainly prompted to watch by all the negative reviews. They were
practically begging people to *not* watch it. When something has
reviews *this* bad, I figure it's worth checking out! It was a bit of a
convoluted mess. I'm not at all sure what was going on. But I'll
probably check out episode 2.

The Lazarus Project (TNT) New sci-fi series about a man named George
(Paapa Essiedu) who wakes one day to discover he has to relive 6 months
of his life. He tries to warn his wife about a pending world ending
plague, but she doesn't believe him. As the plague gets closer and he
prepares for it he also drives his wife away due to his odd ramblings
about things that haven't happened yet. Then a mysterious woman shows
up (Anjli Mohindra from Doctor Who) and explains he has really gone back
in time 6 months and says if it happens again he can join a top-secret
government agency made up of people with the same ability, that they use
to save humanity from world ending events. It's basically Seven Days,
but 6 months (up to one year) instead of Seven Days.

SPOILERS for the end.

SPOILER SPACE
P O
I L
E R
S P
A C
E George joins the top secret time agency and learns the terrorist they
are trying to stop is a former time agent. Apparently lots of former
time agents go bad. The team goes after him and everyone except George
gets killed while out on the mission. The terrorist manages to detonate
a nuke prompting the agency to reset the timeline several months.
However, since the terrorist is a former time agent he is aware of the
timeline reset and now knows the team is after him. But to further
complicate things thanks to the resetting of the timeline George is
temporarily distracted on a day that in the original timeline he stopped
his wife from getting hit by a bus. But thanks to the distraction the
bus runs her over. This is where the episode ended but she seemed
pretty dead. So this means if George succeeds in stopping the terrorist
his wife stays dead. And per the agency protocols there are no plans to
reset the timeline just to save her life.