On Mon, 5 Jun 2023 16:20:17 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
wrote:

>shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 5 Jun 2023 11:05:41 -0700, anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>>> 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?
>>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> I remember this being a good movie.
>>
>> I liked this movie enough to see it a few times.
>
>I think I may have even owned it on laser.
>
>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I remember this being a lousy movie, and I was very disappointed
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>
>>> Girlfriend
>>>
>>>
>>> about a pending world ending
>>>> plague, but she doesn't believe him.
>>>
>>> Despite the fact that she has no problem with him, inventing an app to
>>> predict the future
>>
>> Well the predicting was based on information that everyone has
>> available and could be explained. The time travel bits required a leap
>> of faith to believe it.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As the plague gets closer and he
>>>> prepares for it he also drives his wife
>>>
>>> Girlfriend.
>>>
>>>
>>> away due to his odd ramblings
>>>> about things that haven't happened yet.
>>>
>>> Despite the fact that she has no problem with him, inventing an app to
>>> predict the future
>>>
>>>
>>> Then a mysterious woman shows
>>>> up (Anjli Mohindra from Doctor Who)
>>>
>>> She looked familiar. Who was she on who? Call
>>
>> She is best known from her time on THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES.
>>
>
>I don’t think I watched that past the first episode when they dropped K-9
>into a black hole or whatever.
>
>
>>>
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>> And she gives him her business card, despite the fact that when time resets
>>> you just wake up where you were, you can’t take anything with you.
>>
>> Yes, but all it had on it was an address. Something unusual that he
>> could easily remember. Plus he even visited the place only to find it
>> burnt down in the future. She could easily approach him again in the
>> future if he forgot where she told him to meet.
>
>But come on. This is a guy who didn’t even remember a bus was about to hit
>his girlfriend. Again. All I want for her to do is when she hands in the
>card, say “memorize it“
>
>I was flashing back to the Stargate SG one Groundhog Day episode where it
>took Jack like three or four variations before he believed that he couldn’t
>carry the information with him, and he had to memorize it.
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> to save humanity from world ending events. It's basically Seven Days,
>>>> but 6 months (up to one year) instead of Seven Days.
>>>
>>> Agreed, it’s blatantly seven days, with big lifts from Larry Niven’s all
>>> the myriad ways, especially the 1963 Kennedy got us all killed bit. He.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> I find it incredibly improbable that you’d forget that your “friend” pushed
>>> your girlfriend in front of a bus in front of you. Maybe if he’d had a
>>> meeting on the other side of town in that iteration, but for God sakes,
>>> he’s standing right there.

That was one bit that always bothered me. Why not just have something
happen that prevents him from saving her?
>>>
>>> But thanks to the distraction the
>>>> bus runs her over. This is where the episode ended but she seemed
>>>> pretty dead.
>>>
>>> The previews for next week said she was not just merely dead, but really,
>>> quite sincerely dead.

Which is going to provide George's motivation going forward with the
show. Spoiler!!!!! Not that it should be a huge surprise that her
death sets up his actions going forward.

>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> Apparently they have to do the reset manually, which makes you wonder how
>>> the first one happened. And they have strange protocols for deciding that
>>> the world ended. Thousands dying isn’t enough. Millions dying is. Bombs
>>> going off aren’t enough unless one is atomic. Seriously, if somebody sets
>>> off a nuke in Paris, does the world really end for anybody else?
>>
>> Probably because a nuke going of in Paris is most likely going to end
>> up with someone else getting a gift of a warm bright future packaged
>> up and delivered by a bomber or missile.
>
>But she can wait to push the reset button until that happens, unless
>somebody drops the first bomb on her.
>
>In fact, they should really have a failsafe in case somebody does drop the
>first bomb on her. Auto reset!

What a concept.

>
>>
>>> There’s another time travel movie I’ve seen recently, and can’t remember
>>> the name of that they lifted this dilemma from.
>>
>> TENENT.
>>
>
>Interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen that. If not, I certainly should!
>Thanks.

It's a strange movie and controversial to some because of the way the
time travel works. There's bits of it that make no sense at all from a
physics standpoint even if you bought the idea of being able to travel
back in time, but I found the idea of it quite intriguing once you
ignore those illogical bits. (Something that you need to do with most
science fiction stories.)