I watched ....

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E08 Southern Comfort (2000)
DVD-r disc
Hoping to shift the balance of power in the United States' Civil War,
the League of Darkness heads across the Atlantic in the Prometheus while
being pursued by the crew of the Aurora. When the Aurora crashes,
Phileas, Rebecca, Jules, and Passepartout are welcomed into the home of
a true Southern belle, Saratoga Browne. Passepartout and Rebecca join
forces with the Union to try and defeat the Prometheus, while Phileas
and Jules go after the airship and Count Gregory, who kidnaps Saratoga
to force Phileas' hand. Jules and Phileas try to manage a daring rescue
but Count Gregory uses the power of the ship to reassemble his component
parts into an indestructible cyborg and combat the two.


The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E09 Let There Be Light (2000)
DVD-r disc
Following the death of Saratoga Browne, Jules, Rebecca, and Passepartout
have their hands full with a suicidal Phileas. Packing up the Aurora,
they decide to go on a tour of the United States. They meet up with a
young boy, Al, who they find is mechanically inclined and partially
deaf. He is also an incredible mechanical genius, having recreated the
design of the Cardinal's Chariot (from "The Cardinal's Design). It lacks time-travel capability, but the miniature armored model can hover and
move. Phileas' current gambling partner, an arms dealer, finds out about
Al and his invention, and decides to finance it with the help of the
Union. The others browbeat Phileas into financing a hearing operation
for Al - they go to find the boy and find out about the creation of the
new tank. Concerned that it will disrupt the balance of power between
the Union and the Confederacy, the group resolves to stop it.


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.

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

On 2/10/2024 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

I watched ....

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E08 Southern Comfort (2000)
DVD-r disc
Hoping to shift the balance of power in the United States' Civil War,
the League of Darkness heads across the Atlantic in the Prometheus while being pursued by the crew of the Aurora. When the Aurora crashes,
Phileas, Rebecca, Jules, and Passepartout are welcomed into the home of
a true Southern belle, Saratoga Browne. Passepartout and Rebecca join
forces with the Union to try and defeat the Prometheus, while Phileas
and Jules go after the airship and Count Gregory, who kidnaps Saratoga
to force Phileas' hand. Jules and Phileas try to manage a daring rescue
but Count Gregory uses the power of the ship to reassemble his component parts into an indestructible cyborg and combat the two.

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne S1E09 Let There Be Light (2000)
DVD-r disc
Following the death of Saratoga Browne, Jules, Rebecca, and Passepartout
have their hands full with a suicidal Phileas. Packing up the Aurora,
they decide to go on a tour of the United States. They meet up with a
young boy, Al, who they find is mechanically inclined and partially
deaf. He is also an incredible mechanical genius, having recreated the
design of the Cardinal's Chariot (from "The Cardinal's Design). It lacks time-travel capability, but the miniature armored model can hover and
move. Phileas' current gambling partner, an arms dealer, finds out about
Al and his invention, and decides to finance it with the help of the
Union. The others browbeat Phileas into financing a hearing operation
for Al - they go to find the boy and find out about the creation of the
new tank. Concerned that it will disrupt the balance of power between
the Union and the Confederacy, the group resolves to stop it.

What Did You Watch?

I watched:


Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.


Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - "Duty to Report" - I don't even know
where to begin with this one! So a therapist breaches confidentiality
with a minor patient to tell about the minor's possible abuse to a
different patient, because that patient happens to be a cop. The minor
never actually said anything happened, but the therapist had a feeling.
With knowledge of the feeling in hand the cop promptly goes to the
minor's house on a weekend without calling or anything ahead of time.
Barges in and insists on talking to the minor then drives off with the
minor to take them to the hospital. Leaving the parents wondering
what's going on. The minor then promptly lies about being assaulted and
points the finger at an innocent kid, who is also a minor. The cops
then bring in the other minor and without ever reading him his rights or calling his parents start to harass and bully the kid. I guess hoping
for a false confession, but even if they got one what could they do with
it? I guess now I should mention the girl who made the false accusation
is the daughter of a high ranking cop and he shows up and publicly
threatens to kill the other kid. They eventually figure out the girl
was lying about the first boy so they tell her to pick someone else for
them to go after and she does. I don't recall the exact line of
dialogue about the actual assault, but paraphrasing she never actually
said "no" but she maybe thought "no" so that means it was illegal. I
started to doze off towards the end, but I think the other kid probably confessed so that cleared everything up.


Jerry Maguire (blu-ray) 1996 dramedy written and directed by Cameron
Crowe and starring Tom Cruise as a high-powered sports agent who writes
a manifesto on putting the client first and is promptly fired for his
trouble. He starts his own agency with his loyal love interest
secretary (Renée Zellweger) and the one athlete he was able to convince
to go with him (Cuba Gooding Jr.). I guess the movie holds up well
enough. It's been a long while since I last watched it. I was a little surprised by how young everyone was in it. I also noticed a scene where
Cruise was watching an episode of Mission Impossible, which of course he started in the movie version that same year.


Vanilla Sky (4K disc) 2001 movie written and directed by Cameron Crowe
and starring Tom Cruise. This is a remake of a Spanish movie called
"Open Your Eyes." That movie stared Penélope Cruz and she also stars in
this movie in the same role she played in the original. The plot is
very hard to describe without spoilers. If you haven't seen it before
it's best to go in cold. But the basic premise is Cruise plays a rich
playboy who is in love with Penélope Cruz, but being stalked by a jilted
lover played by Cameron Diaz. Cruise then gets in a horrible car
accident that causes him to wear a face mask. But there's a lot more to
the story than that. The movie holds up very well.

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

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

Despite getting quite a bit done yesterday, I still managed to get
through two movies (and a soap!), because as soon as I got home I'm like
"F*** it! I'm watching a movie!!"

So, on my big pay day of the month, I watched:

Upgraded (on Prime, with one ad at the start (they promised two ads, but
only delivered just one!!)) - This is the new 2024 "rom com" starring
Camila Mendes.
And directed by Carlson Young! ("The Blazing World"; former co-star
of "Scream" the TV series), who also shows up at the beginning of the
flick as in a key but short wordless, uncredited appearance.
In glorious 4k HDR!!... And I'm not actually kidding: this was a
really, really good 4k image - probably the second best 4k movie watch
I've had (after "Fast X"). I dunno if Carlson Young is some kind of "4k whisperer" as a director, or Prime has lower signal compression/higher
bit rate (if so, that's a change, as Prime used to be on the lower end
on 4k bit rate), but this looked great!
If you want to see every single pore and wrinkle on Marisa Tomei's
face, this movie is for you!!
Final ancillary comment: I had no idea that Camila Mendes was tiny!!
She always seemed like she was the tallest of the "Riverdale" gals,
which means the others must be *really, really tiny*!! (Obviously,
Vanessa Morgan is tiny.)
Anyway, I saw a few seconds of Mendes hawking this movie on Kelly
Clarkson" (on Thurs?), and she compared it to "The Devil Wears Prada"
and this is definitely derivative of that.
Mendes plays a dirt poor assistant/intern at a big (fictional)
high-art auction house, who through pluck and skill ends up becoming the
"third assistant" to the auction house's New York director (Tomei) on a
trip to London for a potential big client auction. Of course, Tomei's
other assistants (Rachel Matthews (who like Mendes is an EP on this) and
Fola Evans-Akingbola) are haughty and full of themselves and treat
Mendes like dirt. And Mendes currently lives with her sister (Aimee
Carrero) and the sister's finance in a NYC studio - in one of the film's
better bits, the sister's fiance wants Mendes gone, and keeps
encouraging her to quit art, and join the US Navy!
Anyway, on the trip to London, a ticket agent feels sorry for Mendes
and upgrades her to first class (this would *never* happen!!) where she
"meets cute" Brit Archie Renaux, who turns out to be the rich son of an eccentric former European actress (Lena Olin!!). And Anthony Head is in
this playing Olin's best gay director friend!!... Anyway, Renaux gets
the impression that Mendes is herself the *NY director* of the auction
house, and Mendes doesn't correct him.
Wacky complications ensue from this mistaken impression!!
This wasn't deep, but it looks great (in 4k! and filmed in London),
and is amusing in spots. If you're in the mood for a good-looking rom
com, you can certainly do worse than this.

soaps: DOOL - Wed's ep. In a surprise to no one, this episode reveals
that Ava Vitali has indeed been Harris Michael's secret informant, and
they earlier expressed their love for each other (which makes Ava's
drunken sleeping with Stefan all the dumber and more unbelievable!). But
the killing of the drug dealer on the bust has left them high and dry in
trying to take down kingpin Clyde Weston!... Meanwhile Paulina's surgery
is moved up to the day of Chanel and Johnny's wedding, which seemingly
kills the wedding for that day... or does it?!

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!
Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid" buried in the desert
far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab
Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.
And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid, and decide to give the inside of
the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their
way out. And then the pyramid's "traps" start kicking in!
This is basically "trapped in a maze with monsters" horror movie.
And it's not deep. But it kept me entertained enough.
This ends pretty much like you would expect it to...


What did you watch?

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

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was terrible but less awful than the previous two, so I
wasn't inspired to snark. Maybe BTR1701 will comment on specific
failures of how police procedure and the law were depicted. At least i
this episode, every time the defense offered a theory of the crime
without any basis in reality, Price didn't sit on his hands but
objected. The judge overruled him each time. It was beyond idiotic that
the defense was allowed to comment on the victim's past drug use as contributing to her death and her client acting in self defense. I mean,
we had her corpse on the autopsy table. There would have been a tox
screen. Any drugs in her system that could have possibly hinted that she
had attacked the defendant would have been noted. Price could have
easily rebutted this but didn't.

At least they hammered home making the point that home security systems
are a direct invitation to invading your privacy.

Why have scripts made Maroun so hateable? She and Price had another
"serious" discussion in front of Jack about her theory that someone who committed murder while intoxicated WASN'T a danger to the public 'cuz
those exact circumstances wouldn't arise (this victim being dead and
all). Obviously the tainted witness abusing trust to spy on people is
dangerous to the public, but let's make the obvious point that while he victimized plenty of girls, he didn't commit murder.

Scenes for the next episode "Last Dance" 2/22/2024 announced it will be
Sam Waterston's final appearance as part of the main cast and that
Jack will be given the rare in-episode writeout. Steven Hill as Adam
Schiff never got one, nor had Michael Moriarity as Ben Stone, whom
Waterston succeeded.

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

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

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

Scenes for the next episode "Last Dance" 2/22/2024 announced it will be
Sam Waterston's final appearance as part of the main

Hey, thanks, I was going to ask if somebody would give me a heads up on
this. Set to record!


cast and that

Jack will be given the rare in-episode writeout. Steven Hill as Adam
Schiff never got one, nor had Michael Moriarity as Ben Stone, whom
Waterston succeeded.

Ben Stone sort of did. IIRC he got a scene that made it sound like he was quitting that is shot separately, there’s never a shot with him and Stephen Hill.

The best in episode write out, though, was Annie Parrise. And the crowd
went wild!


--
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)

In article <uq8cfr$38voe$1@dont-email.me>,
Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

I watched:

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was such a hot mess I barely know where to begin.

As you noted, the judge's behavior was so ridiculous and his rulings so blatantly contrary to law, I swear what we watched was some sort of
aborted judicial misconduct plotline that was dropped at the last minute
and pasted over with the equally ridiculous nonsense about who was
druggie and who was the victim.

The conflicting stolen drugs and the addiction allegations would have
been a simple matter to solve: Price gets a warrant for the defendant's
blood and they actually read the tox screen from the victim's autopsy. Whichever person was addicted to opiates and stealing drugs from client
homes would have a toxic stew in their blood.

Instead Price just throws up his hands in frustration and lets Agent
Navabi steamroll him in front of the jury.**

And the whole moral dilemma about giving the child porn guy a pass to
secure his testimony was also easily solvable. Just drop the child porn charges, have him testify, then go back to your office and ring up the
Secret Service and present them with all the evidence tied up in a bow
for them and let them prosecute him federally for the porn.

**The IMDb entry for actress Mozhan Marno, who used to play Agent Navabi
on THE BLACKLIST now shows her name as Mozhan Navabi, and that's how she
was credited in this episode as well. So what happened here? Did she
love her character on THE BLACKLIST so much that she officially adopted
her last name? Or, in some kind of bizarre coincidence, did she meet and
marry a man who just happened to have the same name as her TV character?

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - "Duty to Report" - I don't even know where to begin with this one! So a therapist breaches confidentiality
with a minor patient to tell about the minor's possible abuse

It's not a breach of confidentiality. A therapist has a duty under the
law to report actual or suspected abuse of a minor. There literally was
no legal confidentiality there to breach.

to a different patient, because that patient happens to be a cop.

Whether Olivia was the proper person to tell is a different issue. State
law may or may not require reporting to Child Services and by not doing
that, the therapist may have f'd up, even if she did report it to a sex
crimes cop who was out of her jurisdiction.

They eventually figure out the girl was lying about the first boy so
they tell her to pick someone else for them to go after and she does.
I don't recall the exact line of dialogue about the actual assault,
but paraphrasing she never actually said "no" but she maybe thought
"no" so that means it was illegal.

Yep. She came right out and said she never told him no or to stop but
went along with it because he had a hard-on and she figured it would
basically be mean to stop him at that point.

Based on that, Olivia runs around telling everyone who will listen that
the boy raped her because if she didn't want to have sex, even if it's
just in her mind and she never communicates that in any way to the boy,
then it's rape.

I'm starting to only watch these L&O shows as snark material at this
point but the political messages they're forcing into these these shows
are appalling. Men are supposed to be mind readers and know the inner
dialogue of the woman they have sex with now? Puh-leese.

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

In article <uq8ijg$3cmqa$1@dont-email.me>,
"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to >prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was terrible but less awful than the previous two, so I
wasn't inspired to snark. Maybe BTR1701 will comment on specific
failures of how police procedure and the law were depicted.

My main complaint this season has been that Shaw's suits have shrunk yet another size. That button on his suit coat is doing some real heavy
lifting these days. Why won't they put him in clothes that fit him?!?

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

In article <uq8bal$38mqp$1@dont-email.me>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

Despite getting quite a bit done yesterday, I still managed to get
through two movies (and a soap!), because as soon as I got home I'm like "F*** it! I'm watching a movie!!"

So, on my big pay day of the month, I watched:

Upgraded (on Prime, with one ad at the start (they promised two ads, but
only delivered just one!!)) - This is the new 2024 "rom com" starring
Camila Mendes.

Mendes plays a dirt poor assistant/intern at a big (fictional)
high-art auction house, who through pluck and skill ends up becoming the "third assistant" to the auction house's New York director (Tomei) on a
trip to London for a potential big client auction. Of course, Tomei's
other assistants (Rachel Matthews (who like Mendes is an EP on this) and
Fola Evans-Akingbola) are haughty and full of themselves and treat
Mendes like dirt. And Mendes currently lives with her sister (Aimee
Carrero) and the sister's finance in a NYC studio - in one of the film's better bits, the sister's fiance wants Mendes gone, and keeps
encouraging her to quit art, and join the US Navy!

Anyway, on the trip to London, a ticket agent feels sorry for Mendes
and upgrades her to first class (this would *never* happen!!)

It happened to me once!

I was checking in for a work trip on a flight to Dubai from Washington,
DC.

I asked whether I was getting a window, aisle, or one of the three
middle seats (this was one of the huge two-story Airbus planes with 10
people and two aisles to a row in coach). She typed and typed on her
terminal and frowned and said, "It looks like they've got you in the
middle seat in the center but I think I can do better than that, hang
on."

She typed and typed and typed-- I thought she was writing a novel she
typed so much-- and then printed out a new boarding pass for me. I
thanked her and walked off, noting that my new seat number was 2B and
thinking, well at least I'm near the front of the plane.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I boarded and seat 2B was not only
First Class but it was the kind of First Class where you have your own
little island cubicle pod where the seat turns into a full-length bed,
the works. I was kind of torn during the flight because I really wanted
to sleep but if I did that, I'd miss out on meals, snacks, and other
amenities.

I still to this day have no idea why the check-in girl upgraded me to
what would have been a multiple-thousand-dollar seat but I'm glad she
did. (Since it was foreign travel, I could not fly armed as usual and so
the check-in girl had no idea about my job, which is usually the cause
of most upgrades).

Of all the flights I'd taken for work where this could have happened, a
16-hour flight from DC to the Middle East was definitely the best I
could have chosen.

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

On Sat, 10 Feb 2024 14:58:50 -0800, BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

In article <uq8bal$38mqp$1@dont-email.me>,
"Ian J. Ball" <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

Despite getting quite a bit done yesterday, I still managed to get
through two movies (and a soap!), because as soon as I got home I'm like
"F*** it! I'm watching a movie!!"

So, on my big pay day of the month, I watched:

Upgraded (on Prime, with one ad at the start (they promised two ads, but
only delivered just one!!)) - This is the new 2024 "rom com" starring
Camila Mendes.

Mendes plays a dirt poor assistant/intern at a big (fictional)
high-art auction house, who through pluck and skill ends up becoming the
"third assistant" to the auction house's New York director (Tomei) on a
trip to London for a potential big client auction. Of course, Tomei's
other assistants (Rachel Matthews (who like Mendes is an EP on this) and
Fola Evans-Akingbola) are haughty and full of themselves and treat
Mendes like dirt. And Mendes currently lives with her sister (Aimee
Carrero) and the sister's finance in a NYC studio - in one of the film's
better bits, the sister's fiance wants Mendes gone, and keeps
encouraging her to quit art, and join the US Navy!

Anyway, on the trip to London, a ticket agent feels sorry for Mendes
and upgrades her to first class (this would *never* happen!!)

It happened to me once!

Yes, it does happen. Not often but it can happen. I suppose it is more
likely if you are a frequent flyer. I've never flown enough to have it
happen to me but I've heard about it from others.

I was checking in for a work trip on a flight to Dubai from Washington,
DC.

That's the sort of flight where you really want that upgrade.

Of all the flights I'd taken for work where this could have happened, a >16-hour flight from DC to the Middle East was definitely the best I
could have chosen.

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

Despite getting quite a bit done yesterday, I still managed to get
through two movies (and a soap!), because as soon as I got home I'm like "F*** it! I'm watching a movie!!"

So, on my big pay day of the month, I watched:

Upgraded (on Prime, with one ad at the start (they promised two ads, but
only delivered just one!!)) - This is the new 2024 "rom com" starring
Camila Mendes.
And directed by Carlson Young! ("The Blazing World"; former co-star
of "Scream" the TV series), who also shows up at the beginning of the
flick as in a key but short wordless, uncredited appearance.
In glorious 4k HDR!!... And I'm not actually kidding: this was a
really, really good 4k image - probably the second best 4k movie watch
I've had (after "Fast X"). I dunno if Carlson Young is some kind of "4k whisperer" as a director, or Prime has lower signal compression/higher
bit rate (if so, that's a change, as Prime used to be on the lower end
on 4k bit rate), but this looked great!
If you want to see every single pore and wrinkle on Marisa Tomei's
face, this movie is for you!!
Final ancillary comment: I had no idea that Camila Mendes was tiny!!
She always seemed like she was the tallest of the "Riverdale" gals,
which means the others must be *really, really tiny*!! (Obviously,
Vanessa Morgan is tiny.)
Anyway, I saw a few seconds of Mendes hawking this movie on Kelly Clarkson" (on Thurs?), and she compared it to "The Devil Wears Prada"
and this is definitely derivative of that.
Mendes plays a dirt poor assistant/intern at a big (fictional)
high-art auction house, who through pluck and skill ends up becoming the "third assistant" to the auction house's New York director (Tomei) on a
trip to London for a potential big client auction. Of course, Tomei's
other assistants (Rachel Matthews (who like Mendes is an EP on this) and
Fola Evans-Akingbola) are haughty and full of themselves and treat
Mendes like dirt. And Mendes currently lives with her sister (Aimee
Carrero) and the sister's finance in a NYC studio - in one of the film's better bits, the sister's fiance wants Mendes gone, and keeps
encouraging her to quit art, and join the US Navy!
Anyway, on the trip to London, a ticket agent feels sorry for Mendes
and upgrades her to first class (this would *never* happen!!) where she "meets cute" Brit Archie Renaux, who turns out to be the rich son of an eccentric former European actress (Lena Olin!!). And Anthony Head is in
this playing Olin's best gay director friend!!... Anyway, Renaux gets
the impression that Mendes is herself the *NY director* of the auction
house, and Mendes doesn't correct him.
Wacky complications ensue from this mistaken impression!!
This wasn't deep, but it looks great (in 4k! and filmed in London),

It looked good in 1080I on the Firestick as well.

and is amusing in spots. If you're in the mood for a good-looking rom
com, you can certainly do worse than this.

Earlier today, our old friend obvious, and I had this exchange

Robin:

Upgraded (movie) (12:01 am, Prime Video)
When Ana is upgraded to first class on a work trip, she meets handsome
Will, who mistakes her for her boss. The white lie that sets off a
glamorous chain of events, romance, and opportunity, until her fib
threatens to surface. Stars Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux; 1h 44m.

Me:

“Camilla and Archie“
Too cute.

Ob:
I watched this movie last night. This is one of those films about someone struggling in life. By struggling, I mean that she has to live on her
sister's couch while the sister's beau is constantly annoyed with her.

And she brings home million dollar paintings from Work to brighten up the place!

She also has to struggle with dragging a wheeled suitcase around that she
is apparently incapable of lifting off the ground.

Me:
The actress is only 5 feet tall. It is possible her arms don’t go up high enough to lift a suitcase off the ground.

Ob:
She also has to struggle with getting given nice clothes and she has to struggle with going to rich parties and she has to struggle with working
for several weeks before she finally becomes independently wealthy. Oh,
yes, and she meets the man of "everyone's" dreams and has to struggle with overcoming her own lies in order to try and land him as a boyfriend. This
was an ok film, I guess, but the people doing annoying accents and the generally juvenile simplicity of success (along the lines of PERCY JACKSON)
was irritating.

Me:
I watched it too! I definitely liked it more than you did. Although I agree with most of your complaints.

My big problem is that the lead is pretty much unlikable through the whole thing. Her sister‘s boyfriend is completely right to be annoyed with her as
a roommate, and she needed to be somewhat contrite. I think this is just
the female writer and Director hating men. Certainly that’s the only reason for the only person she fires at the end to be the man.

But Marissa Tomei was a hoot as was Lena Olin and I was amazed they got
away with Giles the vampire watcher playing the stereotype gay drunk from
the 1960s.

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!
Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid" buried in the desert
far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.

Biden says it’s in Mexico.

And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid, and decide to give the inside of
the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their
way out. And then the pyramid's "traps" start kicking in!
This is basically "trapped in a maze with monsters" horror movie.
And it's not deep. But it kept me entertained enough.
This ends pretty much like you would expect it to...

I’ll probably track this down being an Egyptian movie completist.

What did you watch?

Dwayne “The Rock“ Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead
of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD.
To the point where I don’t even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it’s shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he’ll be hobbling
around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he’ll be running full
bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in
the average rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the “limited“ commercial interruptions were intrusive and obnoxious and poorly placed.


MASTERS OF THE AIR

The adventures of Brigadier General Frank Savage, and his Motley crew of
B-17 (they call them Bee one sevens) crews continue. This week we get a sex scene where two clothed people are shot in darkness in silhouette swaddled
by bed clothes.


--
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)

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead
of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't
even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling
around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full
bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by
Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

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

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer. >>>There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to >>>prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was terrible but less awful than the previous two, so I
wasn't inspired to snark. Maybe BTR1701 will comment on specific
failures of how police procedure and the law were depicted.

My main complaint this season has been that Shaw's suits have shrunk yet >another size. That button on his suit coat is doing some real heavy
lifting these days. Why won't they put him in clothes that fit him?!?

It's a compromise? He really wants to act in the nude?

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

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead >> of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't
even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is >> that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling
around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full
bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in >> the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by
Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

Yes. Although I was thinking how much better it would be if it was high do DaDario .

--
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)

On 2/10/24 3:28 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead >> of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't
even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is >> that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling
around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full
bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in >> the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by
Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

Yes, she was the best thing about this flick, and I was disappointed to
see that she's done nothing else (at least in the U.S.)...

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 3:28 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead >>> of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't
even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is >>> that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling
around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full
bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in >>> the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by
Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

Yes, she was the best thing about this flick, and I was disappointed to
see that she's done nothing else (at least in the U.S.)...

Her latest film was also apparently Bruce Willis‘s final film, ASSASSIN. Rated 3.2 on IMDb. Yikes. Available on the Hulu. I’m watching it now…

Her bio was really sketchy.

--
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)

On 2/10/24 5:04 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 3:28 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead >>>> of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't >>>> even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly
outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is
that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling >>>> around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full >>>> bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in >>>> the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value.

The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by
Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

Yes, she was the best thing about this flick, and I was disappointed to
see that she's done nothing else (at least in the U.S.)...

Her latest film was also apparently Bruce Willis‘s final film, ASSASSIN. Rated 3.2 on IMDb. Yikes. Available on the Hulu. I’m watching it now…

I did see that when I was finishing out the final films of Bruce Willis
last year. The film is largely a misfire. I don't remember Quinlivan in
it - her role must have been small.

Her bio was really sketchy.

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

On 2/10/2024 11:25 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was terrible but less awful than the previous two, so I
wasn't inspired to snark. Maybe BTR1701 will comment on specific
failures of how police procedure and the law were depicted. At least i
this episode, every time the defense offered a theory of the crime
without any basis in reality, Price didn't sit on his hands but
objected. The judge overruled him each time. It was beyond idiotic that
the defense was allowed to comment on the victim's past drug use as contributing to her death and her client acting in self defense. I mean,
we had her corpse on the autopsy table. There would have been a tox
screen. Any drugs in her system that could have possibly hinted that she
had attacked the defendant would have been noted. Price could have
easily rebutted this but didn't.

At least they hammered home making the point that home security systems
are a direct invitation to invading your privacy.

Why have scripts made Maroun so hateable? She and Price had another
"serious" discussion in front of Jack about her theory that someone who committed murder while intoxicated WASN'T a danger to the public 'cuz
those exact circumstances wouldn't arise (this victim being dead and
all). Obviously the tainted witness abusing trust to spy on people is dangerous to the public, but let's make the obvious point that while he victimized plenty of girls, he didn't commit murder.

Scenes for the next episode "Last Dance" 2/22/2024 announced it will be
Sam Waterston's final appearance as part of the main cast and that
Jack will be given the rare in-episode writeout. Steven Hill as Adam
Schiff never got one, nor had Michael Moriarity as Ben Stone, whom
Waterston succeeded.

Wow! I don't think I realized Waterston has been on the show since Moriaty.

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

On 2/10/2024 2:41 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article <uq8cfr$38voe$1@dont-email.me>,
Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

I watched:

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was such a hot mess I barely know where to begin.

As you noted, the judge's behavior was so ridiculous and his rulings so blatantly contrary to law, I swear what we watched was some sort of
aborted judicial misconduct plotline that was dropped at the last minute
and pasted over with the equally ridiculous nonsense about who was
druggie and who was the victim.

The conflicting stolen drugs and the addiction allegations would have
been a simple matter to solve: Price gets a warrant for the defendant's
blood and they actually read the tox screen from the victim's autopsy. Whichever person was addicted to opiates and stealing drugs from client
homes would have a toxic stew in their blood.

Instead Price just throws up his hands in frustration and lets Agent
Navabi steamroll him in front of the jury.**

And the whole moral dilemma about giving the child porn guy a pass to
secure his testimony was also easily solvable. Just drop the child porn charges, have him testify, then go back to your office and ring up the
Secret Service and present them with all the evidence tied up in a bow
for them and let them prosecute him federally for the porn.

**The IMDb entry for actress Mozhan Marno, who used to play Agent Navabi
on THE BLACKLIST now shows her name as Mozhan Navabi, and that's how she
was credited in this episode as well. So what happened here? Did she
love her character on THE BLACKLIST so much that she officially adopted
her last name? Or, in some kind of bizarre coincidence, did she meet and marry a man who just happened to have the same name as her TV character?

I completely missed it was the actress from the Blacklist. According to Wikipedia Navabi is her given last name. She simply returned to using
it again. Perhaps the writers used her real name because they liked it.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - "Duty to Report" - I don't even know
where to begin with this one! So a therapist breaches confidentiality
with a minor patient to tell about the minor's possible abuse

It's not a breach of confidentiality. A therapist has a duty under the
law to report actual or suspected abuse of a minor. There literally was
no legal confidentiality there to breach.

to a different patient, because that patient happens to be a cop.

Whether Olivia was the proper person to tell is a different issue. State
law may or may not require reporting to Child Services and by not doing
that, the therapist may have f'd up, even if she did report it to a sex crimes cop who was out of her jurisdiction.

That! I wouldn't have said anything if she simply asked Olivia her
opinion on what to do about an anonymous patient. But her reporting
duty shouldn't be to any random cop without a paper trail. I think she
even said she was going to still make a proper report. So why give
Olivia the details too? Other than "plot" of course.

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 5:04 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 3:28 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

In article
<1900771704.729297827.214252.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is: SKYSCRAPER on Prime.

No, this is not a remake of the Anna Nicole Smith classic. This is instead
of blatant rip off of the original DIE HARD. To the point where I don't >>>>> even need to tell you the plot.

It is hard to see a lot of it though given that it's shot supposedly >>>>> outside in total darkness lit by firelight.

The big twist is that the rock only has one leg. The super annoying part is
that they keep forgetting this, and so in one scene, he'll be hobbling >>>>> around like Chester on Gunsmoke and then the next he'll be running full >>>>> bore with no impediment.

There is some amazingly big stupid in this. But perhaps no more so than in
the average Rock movie, and he usually delivers entertainment value. >>>>>
The prime defaulted to Canadian French audio. The day before it was
defaulting to Italian, and before that German.

At least the "limited" commercial interruptions were intrusive and
obnoxious and poorly placed.

My main memory of this movie was the smokeshow female sniper played by >>>> Hannah Quinlivan. She went right into my pocket.

Yes, she was the best thing about this flick, and I was disappointed to
see that she's done nothing else (at least in the U.S.)...

Her latest film was also apparently Bruce Willis‘s final film, ASSASSIN. >> Rated 3.2 on IMDb. Yikes. Available on the Hulu. I’m watching it now…

I did see that when I was finishing out the final films of Bruce Willis
last year. The film is largely a misfire. I don't remember Quinlivan in
it - her role must have been small.

There are all these women that look alike, and they don’t name them and they’re all switching bodies. I was watching for her and never found her.

Her bio was really sketchy.

--
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)

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

On 2/10/2024 11:25 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to
prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was terrible but less awful than the previous two, so I
wasn't inspired to snark. Maybe BTR1701 will comment on specific
failures of how police procedure and the law were depicted. At least i
this episode, every time the defense offered a theory of the crime
without any basis in reality, Price didn't sit on his hands but
objected. The judge overruled him each time. It was beyond idiotic that
the defense was allowed to comment on the victim's past drug use as
contributing to her death and her client acting in self defense. I mean,
we had her corpse on the autopsy table. There would have been a tox
screen. Any drugs in her system that could have possibly hinted that she
had attacked the defendant would have been noted. Price could have
easily rebutted this but didn't.

At least they hammered home making the point that home security systems
are a direct invitation to invading your privacy.

Why have scripts made Maroun so hateable? She and Price had another
"serious" discussion in front of Jack about her theory that someone who
committed murder while intoxicated WASN'T a danger to the public 'cuz
those exact circumstances wouldn't arise (this victim being dead and
all). Obviously the tainted witness abusing trust to spy on people is
dangerous to the public, but let's make the obvious point that while he
victimized plenty of girls, he didn't commit murder.

Scenes for the next episode "Last Dance" 2/22/2024 announced it will be
Sam Waterston's final appearance as part of the main cast and that
Jack will be given the rare in-episode writeout. Steven Hill as Adam
Schiff never got one, nor had Michael Moriarity as Ben Stone, whom
Waterston succeeded.

Wow! I don't think I realized Waterston has been on the show since Moriaty.

Moriarty did Q and Waterston did QED.

Just saying.

--
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)

In article <atropos-4DC9FF.14415510022024@news.giganews.com>, BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

**The IMDb entry for actress Mozhan Marno, who used to play Agent Navabi
on THE BLACKLIST now shows her name as Mozhan Navabi, and that's how she
was credited in this episode as well. So what happened here? Did she
love her character on THE BLACKLIST so much that she officially adopted
her last name? Or, in some kind of bizarre coincidence, did she meet and marry a man who just happened to have the same name as her TV character?

She worked under the name Mozhan Marno (there's an accent acute over
the final "o") until last year, when she began using her actual name,
Navabi.

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

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

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

Law & Order - "Unintended Consequences" - Team Law investigate the
murder of a real estate agent while Team Order prosecute the killer.
There was an eye witness to the crime so this shouldn't be hard to >>prosecute. Except they pulled one of those Law & Order judges that
never went to law school, so there's that. Actually, I'm pretty sure
the judge was working for the defense team.

This episode was such a hot mess I barely know where to begin.

As you noted, the judge's behavior was so ridiculous and his rulings so >blatantly contrary to law, I swear what we watched was some sort of
aborted judicial misconduct plotline that was dropped at the last minute
and pasted over with the equally ridiculous nonsense about who was
druggie and who was the victim.

The conflicting stolen drugs and the addiction allegations would have
been a simple matter to solve: Price gets a warrant for the defendant's
blood and they actually read the tox screen from the victim's autopsy. >Whichever person was addicted to opiates and stealing drugs from client
homes would have a toxic stew in their blood.

Instead Price just throws up his hands in frustration and lets Agent
Navabi steamroll him in front of the jury.**

And the whole moral dilemma about giving the child porn guy a pass to
secure his testimony was also easily solvable. Just drop the child porn >charges, have him testify, then go back to your office and ring up the
Secret Service and present them with all the evidence tied up in a bow
for them and let them prosecute him federally for the porn.

When Jack was prosecutor, way back when, there were several episodes in
which Jack made a deal not to prosecute knowing that the case could be prosecuted in Kings County (Brooklyn), or by the feds on another
episode. The writers are not the least bit familiar with this show.

**The IMDb entry for actress Mozhan Marno, who used to play Agent Navabi
on THE BLACKLIST now shows her name as Mozhan Navabi, and that's how she
was credited in this episode as well. So what happened here? Did she
love her character on THE BLACKLIST so much that she officially adopted
her last name? Or, in some kind of bizarre coincidence, did she meet and >marry a man who just happened to have the same name as her TV character?

Good catch

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!

There are plenty of other reasons to hate it, but may I point out that
nobody actually found the footage?

Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid"

Which, depending on what source you follow means it isn’t actually a
pyramid


buried in the desert

far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.
And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid,

Which somehow is at the top, but they have to go in and then climb up to
the top, which is conveniently inside the 5 foot high pile of fake rocks amongst the real ones.


and decide to give the inside of

the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their
way out.

And here comes a big stupid in which they showed and explained the
attaching a wire to the girl that they could use to find their way back and
yet when they get inside, it turns out she doesn’t have a wire attached to her, although her father did. And when they don’t know which way to go
among the endless level tunnels that branch out from the very tip of the pyramid that’s not really a pyramid it doesn’t occur to them to look for the wire laying on the right path or to look for their own footprints.


And then the pyramid's "traps" start kicking in!

This is basically "trapped in a maze with monsters" horror movie.
And it's not deep. But it kept me entertained enough.
This ends pretty much like you would expect it to...

After a half a dozen false endings, it did not end the way I would expect
it to. It ended with the names of the people that made this thing. I would
have never put my name on this.

In short, this movie sphinx.

What did you watch?

--
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)

On 2/11/24 12:54 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!

There are plenty of other reasons to hate it, but may I point out that
nobody actually found the footage?

I just know that Arthur would hate it!!

(It's unclear about the "found footage" part - it depends if [spoiler]
was dragged back into the pyramid at the end or not...

Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid"

Which, depending on what source you follow means it isn’t actually a pyramid

"a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping
sides that meet in a point at the top"

This qualifies...

buried in the desert
far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab
Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.
And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person
documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid,

Which somehow is at the top, but they have to go in and then climb up to
the top, which is conveniently inside the 5 foot high pile of fake rocks amongst the real ones.

and decide to give the inside of
the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their
way out.

And here comes a big stupid in which they showed and explained the
attaching a wire to the girl that they could use to find their way back and yet when they get inside, it turns out she doesn’t have a wire attached to her, although her father did. And when they don’t know which way to go among the endless level tunnels that branch out from the very tip of the pyramid that’s not really a pyramid it doesn’t occur to them to look for the wire laying on the right path or to look for their own footprints.

And then the pyramid's "traps" start kicking in!
This is basically "trapped in a maze with monsters" horror movie.
And it's not deep. But it kept me entertained enough.
This ends pretty much like you would expect it to...

After a half a dozen false endings, it did not end the way I would expect
it to. It ended with the names of the people that made this thing. I would have never put my name on this.

In short, this movie sphinx.

The biggest disappointment is that they teased Ashley Hinshaw naked
nudity (it's what she's known for!!) but then failed to deliver on it.

But I didn't like the ending either.

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

On Feb 11, 2024 at 12:54:49 PM PST, "anim8rfsk" <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!

There are plenty of other reasons to hate it, but may I point out that
nobody actually found the footage?

Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid"

Which, depending on what source you follow means it isn't actually a
pyramid

I follow the Goa'uld.

When they were looking at it with the satellite, he said it was over 600 feet tall, yet when they went inside at the apex, they went down a few flights of stairs and fell through one floor and suddenly the dad is saying they're at
the bottom.

buried in the desert

far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab
Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.
And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person
documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid,

Which somehow is at the top, but they have to go in and then climb up to
the top, which is conveniently inside the 5 foot high pile of fake rocks amongst the real ones.

and decide to give the inside of

the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their
way out.

And here comes a big stupid in which they showed and explained the
attaching a wire to the girl that they could use to find their way back and yet when they get inside, it turns out she doesn't have a wire attached to her, although her father did. And when they don't know which way to go
among the endless level tunnels that branch out from the very tip of the pyramid that's not really a pyramid it doesn't occur to them to look for
the wire laying on the right path or to look for their own footprints.

Yes, footprints was my immediate idea. No one even looked down.

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

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

I watched ....

What Did You Watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

I forgot to mention that the fire stick foisted off on me some awful thing called BLUE MOON that was shot on an iPhone in a country with the steering wheels are on the wrong side of the vehicle. IMDB gives it solid 10s for wonderfulness, and I would give it. Oh, a zero in fact, that’s what I did give it.



--
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)

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/11/24 12:54 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick!

There are plenty of other reasons to hate it, but may I point out that
nobody actually found the footage?

I just know that Arthur would hate it!!

(It's unclear about the "found footage" part - it depends if [spoiler]
was dragged back into the pyramid at the end or not...

Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid"

Which, depending on what source you follow means it isn’t actually a
pyramid

"a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping
sides that meet in a point at the top"

This qualifies...

Siri says it has to have a minimum of four sides as well as a base equaling five sides total.

buried in the desert
far south of Cairo. To add "flavor", this takes place during the "Arab
Spring", so Egypt is dangerous to outsiders... but the pyramid dig is
far from civilization.
And the daughter-father team is now being filmed by a two-person
documentary film crew who show up at the dig.
Anyway, because of the unrest, the Egyptians order the dig to be
halted, and the crew to leave the country, but they have just unearthed
the entrance to the mysterious pyramid,

Which somehow is at the top, but they have to go in and then climb up to
the top, which is conveniently inside the 5 foot high pile of fake rocks
amongst the real ones.

and decide to give the inside of
the pyramid a quick look before they leave.
You know that's a bad idea!!
The archaeologists, their "tech guy", and the two-person documentary
film crew eventually get "lost" inside the pyramid, and can't find their >>> way out.

And here comes a big stupid in which they showed and explained the
attaching a wire to the girl that they could use to find their way back and >> yet when they get inside, it turns out she doesn’t have a wire attached to >> her, although her father did. And when they don’t know which way to go
among the endless level tunnels that branch out from the very tip of the
pyramid that’s not really a pyramid it doesn’t occur to them to look for >> the wire laying on the right path or to look for their own footprints.

And then the pyramid's "traps" start kicking in!
This is basically "trapped in a maze with monsters" horror movie.
And it's not deep. But it kept me entertained enough.
This ends pretty much like you would expect it to...

After a half a dozen false endings, it did not end the way I would expect
it to. It ended with the names of the people that made this thing. I would >> have never put my name on this.

In short, this movie sphinx.

The biggest disappointment is that they teased Ashley Hinshaw naked
nudity (it's what she's known for!!) but then failed to deliver on it.

But I didn't like the ending either.

--
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)

On 2/11/24 6:00 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

I watched ....

What Did You Watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

I forgot to mention that the fire stick foisted off on me some awful thing called BLUE MOON that was shot on an iPhone in a country with the steering wheels are on the wrong side of the vehicle.

OK, there are at least 4 movies titled "Blue Moon" (one of them looks
French, but they don't drive on the wrong side of the road!), so you'll
have to be more specific here...

IMDB gives it solid 10s for
wonderfulness, and I would give it. Oh, a zero in fact, that’s what I did give it.

This is like Tubi pushing "Starfish" (2018) because it's "highly rated
on Rotton Tomatoes". I've seen "Starfish" (you can probably find my
review via a Google Groups search - I think I watched it during COVID) -
it's incredibly slow, and incredibly disappointing. There's no way it
should be "highly rated".

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

On 2/11/2024 6:00 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/11/24 12:54 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/10/24 9:01 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

What Did You Watch?

The Pyramid (Max) - Definitely *not* in glorious 4k!! (though the
outside desert scenes still looked pretty good).
This 2014 flick is one of only... what? three?! flicks that Ashley
Hinshaw headlined before she married Topher Grace and mostly retired
from acting to be a mom.
Anyway, this was filmed like a pseudo-documentary, which means
Arthur would hate it as its mostly filmed like a "found footage" flick! >>>

There are plenty of other reasons to hate it, but may I point out that
nobody actually found the footage?

I just know that Arthur would hate it!!

(It's unclear about the "found footage" part - it depends if [spoiler]
was dragged back into the pyramid at the end or not...

Hinshaw and Denis O'Hare play daughter-father archaeologists who
have discovered a mysterious "three-sided pyramid"

Which, depending on what source you follow means it isn’t actually a
pyramid

"a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping
sides that meet in a point at the top"

This qualifies...

Siri says it has to have a minimum of four sides as well as a base equaling five sides total.

And you are trusting Siri because...?

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

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/11/24 6:00 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

I watched ....

What Did You Watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

I forgot to mention that the fire stick foisted off on me some awful thing >> called BLUE MOON that was shot on an iPhone in a country with the steering >> wheels are on the wrong side of the vehicle.

OK, there are at least 4 movies titled "Blue Moon" (one of them looks
French, but they don't drive on the wrong side of the road!), so you'll
have to be more specific here...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8124376/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

IMDB gives it solid 10s for
wonderfulness, and I would give it. Oh, a zero in fact, that’s what I did >> give it.

This is like Tubi pushing "Starfish" (2018) because it's "highly rated
on Rotton Tomatoes". I've seen "Starfish" (you can probably find my
review via a Google Groups search - I think I watched it during COVID) -
it's incredibly slow, and incredibly disappointing. There's no way it
should be "highly rated".

--
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)

On 2/12/24 6:25 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/11/24 6:00 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

I watched ....

What Did You Watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

I forgot to mention that the fire stick foisted off on me some awful thing >>> called BLUE MOON that was shot on an iPhone in a country with the steering >>> wheels are on the wrong side of the vehicle.

OK, there are at least 4 movies titled "Blue Moon" (one of them looks
French, but they don't drive on the wrong side of the road!), so you'll
have to be more specific here...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8124376/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

When almost no one in the cast has a portrait pic on IMDb, it is pretty
much always a bad sign...

IMDB gives it solid 10s for
wonderfulness, and I would give it. Oh, a zero in fact, that’s what I did >>> give it.

This is like Tubi pushing "Starfish" (2018) because it's "highly rated
on Rotton Tomatoes". I've seen "Starfish" (you can probably find my
review via a Google Groups search - I think I watched it during COVID) -
it's incredibly slow, and incredibly disappointing. There's no way it
should be "highly rated".

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

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/12/24 6:25 AM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

On 2/11/24 6:00 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

I watched ....

What Did You Watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

I forgot to mention that the fire stick foisted off on me some awful thing >>>> called BLUE MOON that was shot on an iPhone in a country with the steering >>>> wheels are on the wrong side of the vehicle.

OK, there are at least 4 movies titled "Blue Moon" (one of them looks
French, but they don't drive on the wrong side of the road!), so you'll
have to be more specific here...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8124376/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

When almost no one in the cast has a portrait pic on IMDb, it is pretty
much always a bad sign...

Yeah, I was only sure I found it because of the banner picture for the film itself with the bald guy.

IMDB gives it solid 10s for
wonderfulness, and I would give it. Oh, a zero in fact, that’s what I did
give it.

This is like Tubi pushing "Starfish" (2018) because it's "highly rated
on Rotton Tomatoes". I've seen "Starfish" (you can probably find my
review via a Google Groups search - I think I watched it during COVID) - >>> it's incredibly slow, and incredibly disappointing. There's no way it
should be "highly rated".

--
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)