• What Did You Watch? 2025-02-10 (Monday)

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 11 04:30:41 2025
    After an arduous workout, I watched:

    THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN:
    Brad McCallum, strongman and FBI agent, recruits two former friends to a
    shady operation destined to expose a counterfeiting crime ring who hides
    behind diplomatic immunity. The almost perfect dollar bills have traces of radioactivity, which allows a scientist to identify it as the product of a �universal duplicating machine� with the capability of cloning practically anything into anything else, except a human being. In the wrong hands, this presents a risk for the humanity.
    This was an entertaining italian superhero-ish movie but it was distractingly silly in some parts (Benny Hill score) and the mute hero who constantly
    cackled was annoying.

    HISTORY'S GREATEST MYSTERIES:
    "The Search for Alexander the Great". More than 2,000 years after his death, the narrative of history's greatest egendary warrior king continues to captivate people. However, the location of his body has sparked significant dispute. When his remains suddenly disappear without a trace, a hunt across
    the ancient globe ensues. What happened to the mummy of Alexander the Great?

    HISTORY'S GREATEST MYSTERIES:
    "The Sinking Of The Titanic". The Titanic's tragic story captures the imagination of the public and experts of all kinds who still seek answers.

    What did you watch?

    --
    Let's go Brandon!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ian J. Ball@21:1/5 to Ubiquitous on Tue Feb 11 07:48:05 2025
    On 2/11/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

    What did you watch?

    My longest workday of the week, though I still managed to get through a
    movie and a soap:

    soaps: DOOL - Steve and Brady come to believe that something "bad" has
    likely happened to Ava, after they confirm that she never went to Hong
    Kong. Kristen is "reunited" with her presumed-dead crazy mom, and of
    course she throws Ava under the bus, and refuses to free Ava to protect
    Rachel (who again was not in the ep - I'd love to know what happened
    with the previous Rachel child actress, 'cos it seems like her departure
    wasn't planned)... Meanwhile, Jada goes to the DiMera mansion, and
    confronts EJ in the tunnels, and almost discovers captive Rafe! EJ,
    feeling the heat, drugs Rafe, and brings him to the same mansion where
    Ava is being held captive - Ava and Rafe will be kidnapping buddies
    soon!! And dumb Belle is starting to doubt EJ's "good intentions"! (Ha!)

    Cellphone (Hulu) - 2024 "horror" film (it's more like a "psychological horror"/thriller).
    Ten years ago Whitney Rose Pynn was essentially playing teenagers in Lifetime-type flicks - in this, she looks like a woman in her 30s. And,
    indeed - she's older than I thought she was, as she's about Nina
    Dobrev's age. (Sidenote: IMDb claims Pynn now goes by "Whitney Nobel",
    but she's never been credited this way, and I don't trust IMDb on
    actor's names as they have too many nitwit "contributors" changing
    actor's names when they shouldn't be changed.)
    This was a weird little indie horror film, and I kind of don't know
    what to make of it.
    It felt to me like the film we get at the end of this did not match
    the kind of film the opening segment implied this was going to be. In
    other words, it felt like the last 1/4 of this film went way off book!
    and deviated from the film we got in the first 3/4.
    Gist: Newly widowed and grieving woman, Wynne, racked with guilt
    over the death of her husband, moves to an isolated place in the country
    to caretake it for a man named Bob (Malcolm McDowell, but before you get excited it's voice-over role only) - they never say where this place is,
    but the movie is filmed in Ohio somewhere. Anyway, in the film's open,
    we see the previous tenants of this place, a married couple - and the
    husband seems to be racked by "haunted phone calls" on his cell, and
    eventually kills himself (what happened to the wife is unclear until
    later). Wynne starts getting similar "haunted phone calls" pretty much
    as soon as she moves into the place. Are the calls real? And who is
    calling her? - The place's supposed ghost? Or could it be, I dunno,
    SATAN?!...
    Wynne also come across a kind of "caretaker" at the place, Chris
    (Justin Malik Jackson) who talks non-stop, and seems to have
    deficiencies with honoring people's personal spaces. (Sidenote:
    Jackson's presence drives home how tiny Pynn the actress is - standing
    next to Jackson, Pynn looks like a child!)
    Anyway, Jackson's Chris is kind of like the "good angel" on Wynne's shoulder, while the cellphone is her "devil". Who will win the battle
    for Wynne's soul?!
    This is all a psychological exercise, until the film's final quarter
    when it takes a massive turn and kind of upends the film's main premise.
    I basically didn't appreciate the film's ending making the figurative
    this literal, and feel like it kind of loses the thread at the end, esp.
    in the obvious contrast with what happened to the couple in the film's
    opening vs. what happens with Wynne - why Wynne got such a wildly
    different experience than the earlier couple is never satisfactorily
    justified.
    So, while this was a lovely shot film, I think overall it's a "miss".


    What did you watch?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From anim8rfsk@21:1/5 to Ubiquitous on Tue Feb 11 09:32:29 2025
    Ubiquitous <[email protected]> wrote:
    After an arduous workout, I watched:


    What did you watch?

    Hey, thanks for asking!

    DEATH IN PARADISE S14E02 (which is actually episode three because they
    count the Christmas episode as zero)

    worst episode of the season. The murder method is stolen straight from the Watson wedding episode of SHERLOCK.

    The DI finds a piece of evidence and needs a glove to pick it up. His
    stupid useless incompetent officer demands he says please, or she won’t
    give him an evidence glove, and when he buckles under she smugly smirks
    that he’s learning. I wish that these people carried firearms and he would’ve just shot her in the face.

    Meanwhile, the commissioner is conning him into staying. Why does the DI
    guest cottage have a record collection?

    The commissioner himself is all bummed out that they’re phasing out his position. Come on the guy is in his mid 70s.

    Next week looks like it will set the new record for worst of season as the murder weapon is part of Jimmy Carter’s legacy of death and right from the previews you can see see that they have no idea how it works.


    --
    Let's go Brandon!





    --
    The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Blueshirt@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 11 17:14:54 2025
    anim8rfsk wrote:


    DEATH IN PARADISE S14E02 (which is actually episode three
    because they count the Christmas episode as zero)

    worst episode of the season. The murder method is stolen
    straight from the Watson wedding episode of SHERLOCK.

    The DI finds a piece of evidence and needs a glove to pick it
    up. His stupid useless incompetent officer demands he says
    please, or she won’t give him an evidence glove, and when he
    buckles under she smugly smirks that he’s learning. I wish
    that these people carried firearms and he would’ve just shot
    her in the face.

    Meanwhile, the commissioner is conning him into staying. Why
    does the DI guest cottage have a record collection?

    So people can relax whilst on holiday and play some Reggae
    tunes?

    No records, no cry.

    The commissioner himself is all bummed out that they’re
    phasing out his position. Come on the guy is in his mid 70s.

    He's still Philip Smith to me!

    [FWIW, he was also Rassilon in some of the Big Finish "Doctor
    Who" audio adventures.]

    Next week looks like it will set the new record for worst of
    season as the murder weapon is part of Jimmy Carter’s legacy
    of death and right from the previews you can see see that they
    have no idea how it works.

    Mrs Blueshirt loves "Death in Paradise" so I catch a few
    episodses here and there. I don't think she realises it's back
    though as I haven't seen an episode since Christmas, with that
    new Detective over from London looking for his Mum.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From anim8rfsk@21:1/5 to Blueshirt on Tue Feb 11 11:14:45 2025
    Blueshirt <[email protected]> wrote:
    anim8rfsk wrote:


    DEATH IN PARADISE S14E02 (which is actually episode three
    because they count the Christmas episode as zero)

    worst episode of the season. The murder method is stolen
    straight from the Watson wedding episode of SHERLOCK.

    The DI finds a piece of evidence and needs a glove to pick it
    up. His stupid useless incompetent officer demands he says
    please, or she won’t give him an evidence glove, and when he
    buckles under she smugly smirks that he’s learning. I wish
    that these people carried firearms and he would’ve just shot
    her in the face.

    Meanwhile, the commissioner is conning him into staying. Why
    does the DI guest cottage have a record collection?

    So people can relax whilst on holiday and play some Reggae
    tunes?

    No records, no cry.

    The commissioner himself is all bummed out that they’re
    phasing out his position. Come on the guy is in his mid 70s.

    He's still Philip Smith to me!

    [FWIW, he was also Rassilon in some of the Big Finish "Doctor
    Who" audio adventures.]

    Next week looks like it will set the new record for worst of
    season as the murder weapon is part of Jimmy Carter’s legacy
    of death and right from the previews you can see see that they
    have no idea how it works.

    Mrs Blueshirt loves "Death in Paradise" so I catch a few
    episodses here and there. I don't think she realises it's back
    though as I haven't seen an episode since Christmas, with that
    new Detective over from London looking for his Mum.


    Yeah, will finally start getting into that next week apparently

    --
    The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Arthur Lipscomb@21:1/5 to Ian J. Ball on Tue Feb 11 19:32:00 2025
    On 2/11/2025 7:48 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
    On 2/11/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

    What did you watch?

    My longest workday of the week, though I still managed to get through a
    movie and a soap:

    soaps: DOOL - Steve and Brady come to believe that something "bad" has
    likely happened to Ava, after they confirm that she never went to Hong
    Kong. Kristen is "reunited" with her presumed-dead crazy mom, and of
    course she throws Ava under the bus, and refuses to free Ava to protect Rachel (who again was not in the ep - I'd love to know what happened
    with the previous Rachel child actress, 'cos it seems like her departure wasn't planned)... Meanwhile, Jada goes to the DiMera mansion, and
    confronts EJ in the tunnels, and almost discovers captive Rafe! EJ,
    feeling the heat, drugs Rafe, and brings him to the same mansion where
    Ava is being held captive - Ava and Rafe will be kidnapping buddies
    soon!! And dumb Belle is starting to doubt EJ's "good intentions"! (Ha!)

    Cellphone (Hulu) - 2024 "horror" film (it's more like a "psychological horror"/thriller).
       Ten years ago Whitney Rose Pynn was essentially playing teenagers in Lifetime-type flicks - in this, she looks like a woman in her 30s. And, indeed - she's older than I thought she was, as she's about Nina
    Dobrev's age. (Sidenote: IMDb claims Pynn now goes by "Whitney Nobel",
    but she's never been credited this way, and I don't trust IMDb on
    actor's names as they have too many nitwit "contributors" changing
    actor's names when they shouldn't be changed.)
       This was a weird little indie horror film, and I kind of don't know what to make of it.
       It felt to me like the film we get at the end of this did not match
    the kind of film the opening segment implied this was going to be. In
    other words, it felt like the last 1/4 of this film went way off book!
    and deviated from the film we got in the first 3/4.
       Gist: Newly widowed and grieving woman, Wynne, racked with guilt
    over the death of her husband, moves to an isolated place in the country
    to caretake it for a man named Bob (Malcolm McDowell, but before you get excited it's voice-over role only)

    Too late, the second I read Malcolm McDowell I started to think maybe
    I'll give it a look. Now I'm disappointed.

    - they never say where this place is,
    but the movie is filmed in Ohio somewhere. Anyway, in the film's open,
    we see the previous tenants of this place, a married couple - and the
    husband seems to be racked by "haunted phone calls" on his cell, and eventually kills himself (what happened to the wife is unclear until
    later). Wynne starts getting similar "haunted phone calls" pretty much
    as soon as she moves into the place. Are the calls real? And who is
    calling her? - The place's supposed ghost? Or could it be, I dunno, SATAN?!...
       Wynne also come across a kind of "caretaker" at the place, Chris (Justin Malik Jackson) who talks non-stop, and seems to have
    deficiencies with honoring people's personal spaces. (Sidenote:
    Jackson's presence drives home how tiny Pynn the actress is - standing
    next to Jackson, Pynn looks like a child!)
       Anyway, Jackson's Chris is kind of like the "good angel" on Wynne's shoulder, while the cellphone is her "devil".

    So 976-Evil?

    Who will win the battle
    for Wynne's soul?!
       This is all a psychological exercise, until the film's final quarter when it takes a massive turn and kind of upends the film's main premise.
    I basically didn't appreciate the film's ending making the figurative
    this literal, and feel like it kind of loses the thread at the end, esp.
    in the obvious contrast with what happened to the couple in the film's opening vs. what happens with Wynne - why Wynne got such a wildly
    different experience than the earlier couple is never satisfactorily justified.
       So, while this was a lovely shot film, I think overall it's a "miss".



    I don't know, if it's a 976-Evil clone, it's worth at least adding to
    the watch list, even if I never get to it.

    What did you watch?




    I watched:

    Babylon 5 (blu-ray) "The Ragged Edge" - Season 5, episode 12. The
    Garibaldi is now an alcoholic storyline is kicking off. Meanwhile G'Kar
    has an unwanted cult spring up around him.

    "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father" – - Season 5, episode 13
    Reggie Lee and Dana Barron (National Lampoon’s Vacation) play new Psi
    Corp recruits who join Bester on a hunt for a rogue telepath. I don’t
    know why, but none of the regular cast members, except for Jeff Conway, appeared in this episode.

    "Darkness Ascending" - Season 5, episode 15 - Lennier gathers proof the
    attacks against the alliance are being done by Centauri ships. But so
    far no one has realized the Centauri are just ponds of a greater threat.

    "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder" - The Alliance declares war against
    the Centauri.

    "Movements of Fire and Shadow" - As the war against the Centauri heats
    up Team B5 discover the Centauri attack ships are being remotely controlled.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Adam H. Kerman@21:1/5 to Arthur Lipscomb on Wed Feb 12 15:28:00 2025
    Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]> wrote:

    Babylon 5 (blu-ray) "The Ragged Edge" - Season 5, episode 12. The
    Garibaldi is now an alcoholic storyline is kicking off. Meanwhile G'Kar
    has an unwanted cult spring up around him.

    I thought the cult gag got milked too long and ultimately made no
    important point.

    "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father" - Season 5, episode 13
    Reggie Lee and Dana Barron (National Lampoon's Vacation) play new Psi
    Corp recruits who join Bester on a hunt for a rogue telepath. I don't
    know why, but none of the regular cast members, except for Jeff Conway, >appeared in this episode.

    It's the effect of the 22 episode order with a reduced production schedule,
    88 days in lieu of 110. And they were likely doing portions of two episodes simultaneously during the five-day week. None of the actors in the main
    cast ever had guarantees that they'd appear 22 episodes were season;
    it was more like 8 episodes, I think.

    And remember, for the first two seasons, neither Andreas Katsulas nor
    Peter Jurasik had minimum episode guarantees at all, which is beyond
    insane. So much of the five-year story arc was designed around Londo,
    and G'Kar had to be there to represent how the Centauri had devestated
    the Narn home world. We wouldn't have watched the show without the two
    of them.

    "Darkness Ascending" - Season 5, episode 15 - Lennier gathers proof the >attacks against the alliance are being done by Centauri ships. But so
    far no one has realized the Centauri are just ponds of a greater threat.

    "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder" - The Alliance declares war against
    the Centauri.

    "Movements of Fire and Shadow" - As the war against the Centauri heats
    up Team B5 discover the Centauri attack ships are being remotely controlled.

    War by proxy combined with a false flag operation is entirely evil.

    This is why we needed the Season 5 renewal.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Arthur Lipscomb@21:1/5 to Adam H. Kerman on Wed Feb 12 21:45:28 2025
    On 2/12/2025 7:28 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
    Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]> wrote:

    Babylon 5 (blu-ray) "The Ragged Edge" - Season 5, episode 12. The
    Garibaldi is now an alcoholic storyline is kicking off. Meanwhile G'Kar
    has an unwanted cult spring up around him.

    I thought the cult gag got milked too long and ultimately made no
    important point.


    True.

    "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father" - Season 5, episode 13
    Reggie Lee and Dana Barron (National Lampoon's Vacation) play new Psi
    Corp recruits who join Bester on a hunt for a rogue telepath. I don't
    know why, but none of the regular cast members, except for Jeff Conway,
    appeared in this episode.

    It's the effect of the 22 episode order with a reduced production schedule, 88 days in lieu of 110. And they were likely doing portions of two episodes simultaneously during the five-day week. None of the actors in the main
    cast ever had guarantees that they'd appear 22 episodes were season;
    it was more like 8 episodes, I think.


    I noticed Tracy Scoggins seemed to be missing a lot.

    And remember, for the first two seasons, neither Andreas Katsulas nor
    Peter Jurasik had minimum episode guarantees at all, which is beyond
    insane. So much of the five-year story arc was designed around Londo,
    and G'Kar had to be there to represent how the Centauri had devestated
    the Narn home world. We wouldn't have watched the show without the two
    of them.


    100% true.

    "Darkness Ascending" - Season 5, episode 15 - Lennier gathers proof the
    attacks against the alliance are being done by Centauri ships. But so
    far no one has realized the Centauri are just ponds of a greater threat.

    "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder" - The Alliance declares war against
    the Centauri.

    "Movements of Fire and Shadow" - As the war against the Centauri heats
    up Team B5 discover the Centauri attack ships are being remotely controlled.

    War by proxy combined with a false flag operation is entirely evil.

    This is why we needed the Season 5 renewal.

    Season 5 set up so many dangling threads that never got resolved. And
    they seemed to be going out of their way to do so.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)