I watched:

Various Youtube videos.

What did you watch?

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On 2/16/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

What did you watch?

Yesterday, I finished off "Longlegs", and got through two more (minor)
flicks (which I won't be getting a chance to today!), along with soaps,
and some golf:

Longlegs (Hulu) - This 2024 film feels like one of those movies that
looked better on paper than it does actually filmed.
Clearly inspired by the film "Silence of the Lambs" (but with a
twist!! [roll] ), right down to being set in the 1990s, "Longlegs" stars
Maika Monroe as <s>Clarice Sterling</s> Agent Lee Harker - and Lee isn't
just an FBI Special agent, she's a very, very special agent! as she
seems to be unable to interact normally with people (or kids!). Maika
Monroe is a good actress, and does fine here, but this character is
rather one-note, as Lee looks permanently discombobulated and afraid
that the next shoe is going to drop (on her head!), which doesn't give
Monroe a huge amount to work with.
Beyond that, the film has a good cast, with Blair Underwood as Lee's
boss, Alicia Witt (who shows up later, and is almost unrecognizably old
to me now) as Lee's mother, Kiernan Shipka in a supporting part, and
Nicholas Cage in over-the-top makeup and going completely over-the-top
in the role! - more over-the-top! than Nick has ever gone before!! - as
the apparent ring-leader of a series of family murders.
But as the film's open implies, this isn't "crime horror" a la
"Silence of the Lambs" - it's "horror horror", which probably means
there's some supernatural element here.
And that's where the film goes awry, especially with the film's ending.
So, while I liked well enough (but didn't love) the film's first two-thirds, it mostly lost me in the last-third, especially will the ending.
In retrospect, it definitely feels like this film is substantially
more "style than substance".
The ending does imply that they could easily do a sequel (there's
even someone listed in the end-credits cast listing implying as much,
esp. thoigh they end up not appearing in this film), but I'm not hearing anything about a sequel to this in the works.

soaps: GH - Fri's ep. After Molly admits she was inappropriately going
through Sam's medical records to try to track down her killer, Cody
figures out a way to let people know they are locked out on the
hospital's roof, and they are rescued by Isaiah and Lucas. Isaiah warns
Lucas about Jenz Sidwell. Lucy bring Sidwell to a Deception meeting, and
Lulu flips out as Sidwell tried to kill Lucky! - amazingly, Brook Lynn
seems to blame Lulu for this and not Sidwell! It's revealed that Natalia
was previously married to Sidwell. [roll] Alexis talks to Jason in the
cop shop and gets him to agree not to kill Cyrus Renault for Danny's
sake. To Ric's consternation, Ava accepts when Sonny shows up with an
offer to restore their joint custody arrangement; stupid Kristina is
outraged when Sonny tells her.
Y&R - Thur's ep. OK, this is ridic - it's revealed that Damian's
lieutenant dude (I guess his name is Holden?) somehow knows and was
previously involved with Audra - of course, she wants to keep this a
secret. Phyllis interrupts Billy's and Sally's romantic Paris getaway
with a phone call, which annoys both of them. Later - surprise! - it's
revealed that Billy is actually still going after Victor and the
Newmans, and has a secret partner working with him (I'm hoping it's
Lily, but it's more likely someone like Diane...).

golf - Day 3 of the Infinity Open, this year played at Torrey Pines.
Unclear who is going to win this thing, though Rory McIlroy didn't do
himself any favors, dropping several strokes on Day 3, putting him 5
back from the leaders.

Warning (Hulu) - Well this 2021 sci-fi flick ended up being disappointing.
The movie's poster shows Thomas Jane in a space suit, so you think
"Ok, great! It's a movie with Thomas Jane in space!"
Unfortunately, instead the film is a series of vignettes set in a
dystopian not-so-distant future, and Jane's spaceman is just one of the vignettes (though Jane's is actually the "framing device" for the film). Anyway, this gets frustrating on several levels, as some of the
vignettes are worse than others, and several of them (esp. Alice Eve's
and Annabelle Wallis') don't seem to come to any satisfying conclusion.
The ending is also over-the-top and frankly doesn't really match the
rest of the film - it's like the writers thought, "Well, we need a way
to wrap this up. Why don't we just go with [spoiler]?!!" Not good.
The acting is fine. Alice Eve seems to be having the most fun here,
playing a simpleton.
But this film is definitely skippable.

Deadbolt (Tubi) - A 2024 Tubi Original film! Starring Rebecca Liddiard!!
I can see why Lifetime (likely) skipped on this one - while the
ending was pure lifetime, the rest of the film felt like it was lacking
in urgency in getting there - IOW, it wasn't action-packed enough for
Lifetime. Also, in places this seemed to be a little too "raw" for Lifetime.
And this was definitely "the perp is solved by the cast list" kind
of film - Jamie Spilchuk generally plays villains on Lifetime, so as
soon as he showed up, I knew exactly where this was going, if not how it
was going to get there.
Liddiard plays a psychologically fragile women, with a stalker
ex-boyfriend and an unsupportive mother (who only appears in a voice
role), who applies to be a roommate to a flighty artist type living in a somewhat sketchy part of town (what town?!) - maybe the best part about
this flick was that the flighty artist was played by Camille Stopps:
Stopps usually plays no-nonsense squares on Lifetime, but here she's
playing pretty much the opposite of this. I'm not sure that this is
Stopps' forte, but I enjoyed seeing her doing something different.
Anyway, soon, Liddiard's character becomes convinced either that the
place is haunted or that something (sinister?) is going on. Is the
stalker-ex behind this? Or is it the weird old dementia-stricken
neighbor?... Well, I went with my gut here, and I wasn't wrong!
As a Lifetime flick, this would be mediocre. As a Tubi flick...
well, I was just glad that it didn't sport a dumb twist ending (though
the denouement was a little too on-the-nose), so I guess that makes it
better than average for a Tubi Original.


What did you watch?

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On Feb 16, 2025 at 9:48:57 AM PST, ""Ian J. Ball"" <ijball@mac.invalid>
wrote:

On 2/16/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

What did you watch?

Yesterday, I finished off "Longlegs", and got through two more (minor)
flicks (which I won't be getting a chance to today!), along with soaps,
and some golf:

Longlegs (Hulu) - This 2024 film feels like one of those movies that
looked better on paper than it does actually filmed.

I put on my long legs and watched this last night, too. And I agree with your assessment.

Clearly inspired by the film "Silence of the Lambs" (but with a
twist!! [roll] ), right down to being set in the 1990s, "Longlegs" stars Maika Monroe as <s>Clarice Sterling</s> Agent Lee Harker - and Lee isn't
just an FBI Special agent, she's a very, very special agent! as she
seems to be unable to interact normally with people (or kids!). Maika
Monroe is a good actress, and does fine here, but this character is
rather one-note, as Lee looks permanently discombobulated and afraid
that the next shoe is going to drop (on her head!), which doesn't give
Monroe a huge amount to work with.
Beyond that, the film has a good cast, with Blair Underwood as Lee's boss, Alicia Witt (who shows up later, and is almost unrecognizably old
to me now)

Isn't she, though? It took me several scenes before I recognized as her as Princess Alia in DUNE. ("And how can this be? For he *is* the Kwisatz Haderach!")

as Lee's mother, Kiernan Shipka in a supporting part, and
Nicholas Cage in over-the-top makeup and going completely over-the-top
in the role! - more over-the-top! than Nick has ever gone before!! - as
the apparent ring-leader of a series of family murders.
But as the film's open implies, this isn't "crime horror" a la
"Silence of the Lambs" - it's "horror horror", which probably means
there's some supernatural element here.
And that's where the film goes awry, especially with the film's ending.
So, while I liked well enough (but didn't love) the film's first two-thirds, it mostly lost me in the last-third, especially will the ending.

Yep. No explanation whatsoever. Obviously something supernatural is going on because the fathers are being mind-controlled somehow to kill their families, then themselves, but all of that is never explained. The closest we get are
the shadowy hints of a satanic being lurking in the dark in some of the
scenes.

Warning (Hulu) - Well this 2021 sci-fi flick ended up being disappointing.

No way! I watched this last night, too! And I agree with your assessment. I kept thinking, this is horrible, I'll just turn it off and watch something else, but I kept giving it another 10 minutes, hoping something decent would happen. It never did.

Deadbolt (Tubi) - A 2024 Tubi Original film! Starring Rebecca Liddiard!!

Okay, in case you're wondering, I did *not* watch this one last night.

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

On 2/16/2025 9:48 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 2/16/25 1:30 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:

What did you watch?

Yesterday, I finished off "Longlegs", and got through two more (minor)
flicks (which I won't be getting a chance to today!), along with soaps,
and some golf:

Longlegs (Hulu) - This 2024 film feels like one of those movies that
looked better on paper than it does actually filmed.
   Clearly inspired by the film "Silence of the Lambs" (but with a
twist!! [roll] ), right down to being set in the 1990s, "Longlegs" stars Maika Monroe as <s>Clarice Sterling</s> Agent Lee Harker - and Lee isn't
just an FBI Special agent, she's a very, very special agent! as she
seems to be unable to interact normally with people (or kids!). Maika
Monroe is a good actress, and does fine here, but this character is
rather one-note, as Lee looks permanently discombobulated and afraid
that the next shoe is going to drop (on her head!), which doesn't give
Monroe a huge amount to work with.
   Beyond that, the film has a good cast, with Blair Underwood as Lee's boss, Alicia Witt (who shows up later, and is almost unrecognizably old
to me now) as Lee's mother, Kiernan Shipka in a supporting part, and
Nicholas Cage in over-the-top makeup and going completely over-the-top
in the role! - more over-the-top! than Nick has ever gone before!! - as
the apparent ring-leader of a series of family murders.
   But as the film's open implies, this isn't "crime horror" a la
"Silence of the Lambs" - it's "horror horror", which probably means
there's some supernatural element here.
   And that's where the film goes awry, especially with the film's ending.
   So, while I liked well enough (but didn't love) the film's first two-thirds, it mostly lost me in the last-third, especially will the
ending.
   In retrospect, it definitely feels like this film is substantially
more "style than substance".
   The ending does imply that they could easily do a sequel (there's
even someone listed in the end-credits cast listing implying as much,
esp. thoigh they end up not appearing in this film), but I'm not hearing anything about a sequel to this in the works.

I had a very similar reaction.

soaps: GH - Fri's ep. After Molly admits she was inappropriately going through Sam's medical records to try to track down her killer, Cody
figures out a way to let people know they are locked out on the
hospital's roof, and they are rescued by Isaiah and Lucas. Isaiah warns
Lucas about Jenz Sidwell. Lucy bring Sidwell to a Deception meeting, and
Lulu flips out as Sidwell tried to kill Lucky! - amazingly, Brook Lynn
seems to blame Lulu for this and not Sidwell! It's revealed that Natalia
was previously married to Sidwell. [roll]  Alexis talks to Jason in the
cop shop and gets him to agree not to kill Cyrus Renault for Danny's
sake. To Ric's consternation, Ava accepts when Sonny shows up with an
offer to restore their joint custody arrangement; stupid Kristina is
outraged when Sonny tells her.
   Y&R - Thur's ep. OK, this is ridic - it's revealed that Damian's lieutenant dude (I guess his name is Holden?) somehow knows and was previously involved with Audra - of course, she wants to keep this a
secret. Phyllis interrupts Billy's and Sally's romantic Paris getaway
with a phone call, which annoys both of them. Later - surprise! - it's revealed that Billy is actually still going after Victor and the
Newmans, and has a secret partner working with him (I'm hoping it's
Lily, but it's more likely someone like Diane...).

golf - Day 3 of the Infinity Open, this year played at Torrey Pines.
Unclear who is going to win this thing, though Rory McIlroy didn't do
himself any favors, dropping several strokes on Day 3, putting him 5
back from the leaders.

Warning (Hulu) - Well this 2021 sci-fi flick ended up being disappointing.
   The movie's poster shows Thomas Jane in a space suit, so you think
"Ok, great! It's a movie with Thomas Jane in space!"

Snip
Never heard of this before but it's added to watch list.

What did you watch?

After multiple delays, over the past few years, at long last I am
finally going to dive into my Quentin Tarantino movies. But before I do
that, I have a bunch of John Travolta movies sitting on a shelf
collecting dust that I want to get out of the way first. So after many
years of waiting, I finally watched:


Grease (4K disc) 1978 musical about a group of 30-year-old high school
students in the 50s who teach an exchange student from Australia that
the only way to find true love in America is to transform yourself into
a leather clad slut. This new 4K disc has great picture quality. And thankfully they put subtitles on the commentary track so I could listen
to the full audio while reading the commentary.

Grease 2 (blu-ray) 1982 musical about a group of 20-year-old high school students who teach an exchange student from England that the only way to
find true love in America is to transform yourself into a leather clad thug.

Hairspray (blu-ray) 2007 musical (remake of a John Waters movie) about a
group of high school teens in the 60s who want to dance on the local
television station dance show, but things get complicated when some of
the kids want to integrate the dance. Nikki Blonsky stars as the young
girl who leads the charge. Christopher Walken plays her father and John Travolta plays her mother. And hey Michelle Pfeiffer is in this, I
didn't know she was in this movie too. I don't think I've watched this
since the original release. I'm particularly a fan of the movie, but
since I'm watching Travolta movies, it seemed like as good a time as any
to watch it again. It was actually a lot better than I remembered.
Rounding out the all star cast are Amanda Byrnes, Queen Latifah, James
Marsden, Zac Efron, and Brittany Snow.

I was supposed to stop there, but it was pretty early so I kept going.

Blowout (4K disc) 1981 movie written and directed by Brian De Palma and starring John Travolta as a movie sound effects guy who happens to
record the assassination of a presidential candidate one night. No one believes him when he insists it wasn't a routine car accident. The film
also stars Nancy Allen as a ditzy female love interest (I'm wondering if
that's her natural voice or what) and John Lithgow as the assassin. I
only saw this once before and didn't remember it, but it was OK.


Get Shorty (blu-ray) 1995 comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld based on a
Elmore Leonard novel. The movie stars John Travolta as a Miami loan
shark who moves to Hollywood and tries to bully his way into the film
industry. I haven't watched this since I'm guessing the 90s, or at
least since the sequel came out. It held up well enough. I watched
with the director commentary and he kept talking about this little movie
that Travolta had just filmed called "Pulp Fiction" and another movie he
was gearing up to film called "Men in Black." That commentary track was
like a 90s time capsule.

Be Cool (blu-ray) 2005 sequel to "Get Shorty." I'm pretty sure this was
my first time watching this since seeing it in the theater. The plot
was a mess and all over the place. Basically Travolta is back and now
he wants to get into the music industry. And he uses the same old bully techniques he tried in Get Shorty. The first movie had a large all star
cast, this one has an even larger all star cast, including Dwayne
Johnson, who looked a lot smaller than I was used to seeing. This one
was definitely skippable, but notable for reuniting Travolta and Uma
Thurman who find themselves dancing with each other for reasons.

I was able to get two days knocked out in one.

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

Grease 2 (blu-ray) 1982 musical about a group of 20-year-old high school >students who teach an exchange student from England that the only way to
find true love in America is to transform yourself into a leather clad thug.

I've never seen this but there are supposed to be some hot young thangs
in it.

Blowout (4K disc) 1981 movie written and directed by Brian De Palma and >starring John Travolta as a movie sound effects guy who happens to
record the assassination of a presidential candidate one night. No one >believes him when he insists it wasn't a routine car accident. The film
also stars Nancy Allen as a ditzy female love interest (I'm wondering if >that's her natural voice or what) and John Lithgow as the assassin. I
only saw this once before and didn't remember it, but it was OK.

I'm fond of the set-piece action sequence in 30th Street Station. This
is known as the first movie in which Vinnie has actually learned to act.

I don't recall if there's a story about dubbing Nancy Allen.

The ending -- Vinnie using the literal scream of horror on the movie
soundtrack -- is a little sick.

Much of the script was inconsistent.

I can't believe you didn't pair it with the original Italian-UK
production Blow-Up (1966), with some nudity of famous actresses.

Get Shorty (blu-ray) 1995 comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld based on a >Elmore Leonard novel. The movie stars John Travolta as a Miami loan
shark who moves to Hollywood and tries to bully his way into the film >industry. I haven't watched this since I'm guessing the 90s, or at
least since the sequel came out. It held up well enough. I watched
with the director commentary and he kept talking about this little movie
that Travolta had just filmed called "Pulp Fiction" and another movie he
was gearing up to film called "Men in Black." That commentary track was
like a 90s time capsule.

I liked this. I never finished the tv series.

Be Cool (blu-ray) 2005 sequel to "Get Shorty."

Never seen it

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 2/16/2025 11:09 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

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

Grease 2 (blu-ray) 1982 musical about a group of 20-year-old high school
students who teach an exchange student from England that the only way to
find true love in America is to transform yourself into a leather clad thug.

I've never seen this but there are supposed to be some hot young thangs
in it.

I actually like Grease 2 more than Grease 1. Grease 2 is wall to wall
kitschy songs, and I love every second of it. LOL
It's basically a gender swapped version of Grease with Michelle Pfeiffer playing the leader of a girl gang who Maxwell Caufield lusts after. But
she only dates cool riders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3IpNbltyw

Some of the songs might be considered *slightly* suggestive, but only if
you have a dirty mind. Otherwise they are pretty straightforward and no
hidden meanings at all.

Here's an innocent song about plant biology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWKu1BbZhkQ

Here's one about bowling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJGQgAniyho

And this one is all about patriotism, featuring Lois Lane's little sister. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiNWDfHz8Io

Blowout (4K disc) 1981 movie written and directed by Brian De Palma and
starring John Travolta as a movie sound effects guy who happens to
record the assassination of a presidential candidate one night. No one
believes him when he insists it wasn't a routine car accident. The film
also stars Nancy Allen as a ditzy female love interest (I'm wondering if
that's her natural voice or what) and John Lithgow as the assassin. I
only saw this once before and didn't remember it, but it was OK.

I'm fond of the set-piece action sequence in 30th Street Station. This
is known as the first movie in which Vinnie has actually learned to act.

I don't recall if there's a story about dubbing Nancy Allen.

The ending -- Vinnie using the literal scream of horror on the movie soundtrack -- is a little sick.

Much of the script was inconsistent.

I can't believe you didn't pair it with the original Italian-UK
production Blow-Up (1966), with some nudity of famous actresses.

I had no idea the other movie existed. Except for the two "Grease"
movies, everything I'm watching has been sitting on a shelf you years
still in the shirnkwrap. Technically, even that "Grease" disc was also
sitting on a shelf still in the shrinkwrap for a couple of years.

Get Shorty (blu-ray) 1995 comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfeld based on a
Elmore Leonard novel. The movie stars John Travolta as a Miami loan
shark who moves to Hollywood and tries to bully his way into the film
industry. I haven't watched this since I'm guessing the 90s, or at
least since the sequel came out. It held up well enough. I watched
with the director commentary and he kept talking about this little movie
that Travolta had just filmed called "Pulp Fiction" and another movie he
was gearing up to film called "Men in Black." That commentary track was
like a 90s time capsule.

I liked this. I never finished the tv series.

I forgot there was a TV series. I think I maybe watched the first
episode, but not more than that.

Be Cool (blu-ray) 2005 sequel to "Get Shorty."

Never seen it

You are seriously not missing much!

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