This will probably be the last thread I can start this week.

I am continuing to make my way through animated films. On Sunday I
watched:


South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (4K disc) 1999 "R" rated animated
movie based on the popular TV series. The kids of South Park all head
to the new Terrance and Phillip movie which consists of cursing and fart
jokes. When the South Park parents see the kids repeating what they
heard in the movie the parents decide to blame Canada. This leads to a
war with Canada and the potential releasing Satan and his lover Sadam
Hussein upon the world. A bit dated, but still very funny. I was on
the fence but decided to skip "Team America."


The Simpsons movie (blu-ray) 2007 movie based on the popular TV series.
After Homer pollutes the local water supply the EPA decides to put a
glass dome around Springfield to prevent their pollution from spreading
to the rest of the country. Wackiness ensues. This was not very funny.
And I kept waiting for Mr. Burns to put block out the sun until I
remembered that was from the TV show. Maybe it was funnier when I
watched it 15 years ago. But at least now I can cross it off my rewatch
list.


Sausage Party (4K disc) 2016 "R" rated animated movie written by and
Starring Seth Rogren and Jonah Hill, who bring along the usuals to voice various food items who happily live in a grocery store unaware when they
leave the store they will be eaten by their "gods." It was a lot
funnier when I saw it in the theater. Another one I can cross off my
rewatch list.


MFKZ (blu-ray) 2018 French and Japanese "R" rated animated movie. I saw
it in the theater and really liked it. Enough time has passed that I
forgot what happens in it, and I've been eagerly looking forward to
revisiting it. The movie is a science fiction comedy about a young man
who starts to notice aliens walking among us. The aliens have
infiltrated the police and government and taking over the planet. The
aliens notice that the young man can see their true nature, and come
after him forcing him and his friends to go on the run. For no reason
that's ever explained the hero's best friend has a flaming skull. The
fact that it's never explained but occasionally referenced just adds to
the fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4FtyASGMBQ


Mayfair Witches (AMC) "Lasher" - Season 2, episode 1. (Spoilers for
season 1 finale and mild spoilers for premier.)

Picking up almost two years since the finale, AMC graced us with an all
two brief clip show that provided zero context for the clips. What is
wrong with these studios? They wait multiple *years* between seasons,
then don't bother to do a proper recap. :-/ I was watching the recap
and it showed a baby. I was like, baby, what baby? Where did this baby
come from? Anyway, At the end of last season apparently Rowan
(Alexandra Daddario) was pregnant and Lasher had himself reincarnated as
her baby. And Cortland was turned to stone.

Season 2 picks up with Rowan caring for her baby/toddler, which is now reincarnated Lasher, and *clearly* evil! The baby is growing at an
accelerated rate, (when has that *ever* worked out well on a TV show?)
And Rowan has deluded herself into thinking she can raise this demon
child into being good. There's a scene where she is awaken from her
sleep to find Lasher standing over hear with blood dripping from his
mouth as he eats something (unclear what, but probably a small animal)
and she still doesn't get it through her skull, this kid is evil! By
the end of the episode the "baby" is now a teenager, and he's already
killed someone. I couldn't tell for sure if Rowan was still in her
delusional everything is going to work out OK state or not.

This SNL skit is spot on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wzXC8Pbq8&t=47s


Recorded for later: Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale.

What did you watch?

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

On 1/6/25 7:55 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

This will probably be the last thread I can start this week.

That's A-OK - I should be back to a normal schedule tomorrow.

Mayfair Witches (AMC) "Lasher" - Season 2, episode 1.  (Spoilers for
season 1 finale and mild spoilers for premier.)

Yeah, there's no way I'm watching this show weekly - there's no way I
could follow it that way...

Recorded for later: Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale.

What is this?...

What did you watch?

Yesterday was a "football day", as it was the last day of the regular
season. For once, I enjoyed the results of (most of!) the games:

In the morning game, it took them a while, but eventually Tampa Bay
bested New Orleans, sewing up the NFC South title (Atlanta also lost
their last game which put an exclamation point on that).
In the afternoon games, first CBS decided the air the Kansas
City-Denver game over the San Diego-Las Vegas(Oakland!!) game (WHAT?!!),
which was a big mistake as Kansas City already had sown up the #1 seed
in the AFC Playoffs, and so played their *fourth-string(!!)* players in
this last game, which allowed Denver to absolutely crush Kansas City on Denver's way to a shutout win! Eventually CBS got the hint and switched
to the San Diego-Las Vegas game, which at least was somewhat
competitive, until the Chargers pulled away in the fourth quarter to
batter the Raiders! The Chargers secure the #5 seed in the AFC
Playoffs!! - The Chargers vs. the Texans will be the first Wild Card
Playoff game this coming Saturday! :)
The other afternoon game was way more disappointing, as the 49ers
cap off their awful 2024 season by losing (badly!) to the Arizona
Cardinals. :/
In the evening game - in the game to decide who gets the #1 seed in
the NFC Playoffs - Detroit played Vikings for the NFC North title. After
a fairly even start, the Lions ended up manhandling the Vikings
(probably as expected) to win the NFC North title, and the #1 seed (and
'bye') in the NFC Playoffs, with a 15-2 record, tying Kansas City for
the best record in the league.
Outside of the 49ers' awful effort this year, and Seattle not making
the playoffs, I'm actually fairly interested in this year's NFL Playoffs.

Sunday night, I managed to get through another Lifetime flick I missed
recently by pulling it off OnDemand:

Vanished Out of Sight (Lifetime via OnDemand) - A certain percentage of Lifetime flicks are indie flicks produced for theatrical distribution
that fail to find a distributor and so get bought by Lifetime instead
(e.g. "Stockholm, Pennsylvania", and the recent "Held Hostage in My
House"). This flick is one of these - originally titled "Blind River",
it is very clearly intended to be a theatrical indie (e.g. it's much
higher budget, with a "bigger" soundtrack, than a standard Lifetime flick).
As an indie flick, it's a odd choice (IOW, it's not surprising it
wasn't picked up by a distributor).
Annalise Basso stars as a blind woman, single mother and rape
survivor with PTSD, trying to raise her 5(?)-year old daughter on her
own. Of course, she's overly protective. And, of course, she's freezing
out her current boyfriend (Tracy Campbell).
Anyway, as you'd expect, her daughter goes missing, and she doesn't
trust the local cops led by Steven Ogg (Basso's co-star on the
"Snowpiercer" TV series). So this PTSD blind woman starts searching for
her daughter on her own.
Then her support dog goes missing. Then the boyfriend goes missing.
I'm not really giving anything away by saying that the blind woman's earlier rape likely plays into the daughter's and boyfriend's
disappearances.
Like "Stockholm, Pennsylvania", this makes for a very odd Lifetime
flick. But also as an indie flick, I can't figure out who the filmmakers thought the audience for this film would be.
Anyway, I liked Basso and Ogg in this. But I can't say I liked the
film overall very much.

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

On 1/6/2025 8:46 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 1/6/25 7:55 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

This will probably be the last thread I can start this week.

That's A-OK - I should be back to a normal schedule tomorrow.

Mayfair Witches (AMC) "Lasher" - Season 2, episode 1.  (Spoilers for
season 1 finale and mild spoilers for premier.)

Yeah, there's no way I'm watching this show weekly - there's no way I
could follow it that way...

You mean the recap that consists of a series of random out of context
clips from the first season isn't helpful? LOL

Recorded for later: Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale.

What is this?...

I saw a promo for this while watching Mayfair Witches and hit the record button. It's a new series. The show is set in I guess an alternate
history England where witches have settled in an affluent small town.
Everyone knows witches exist and they are heavily regulated and licensed
to practice magic. I thought it was a British show, but according to
Wikipedia it's an American series based on a novel. However, the author
of the novel is British.

I just finished the first episode this morning. It's pretty good. In
the pilot people are living in this small town, where everything is
going great until there's an "accident" at a party where several high
profile teens are killed. A police detective opens an investigation
into the accident but people are acting suspicious and there turns out
to be more to the story.

Here's a trailer, but it shows a lot of stuff from episodes that haven't
aired yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJB2IAlvnAM

What did you watch?

Yesterday was a "football day", as it was the last day of the regular
season. For once, I enjoyed the results of (most of!) the games:

   In the morning game, it took them a while, but eventually Tampa Bay bested New Orleans, sewing up the NFC South title (Atlanta also lost
their last game which put an exclamation point on that).
   In the afternoon games, first CBS decided the air the Kansas City- Denver game over the San Diego-Las Vegas(Oakland!!) game (WHAT?!!),
which was a big mistake as Kansas City already had sown up the #1 seed
in the AFC Playoffs, and so played their *fourth-string(!!)* players in
this last game, which allowed Denver to absolutely crush Kansas City on Denver's way to a shutout win! Eventually CBS got the hint and switched
to the San Diego-Las Vegas game, which at least was somewhat
competitive, until the Chargers pulled away in the fourth quarter to
batter the Raiders! The Chargers secure the #5 seed in the AFC
Playoffs!! - The Chargers vs. the Texans will be the first Wild Card
Playoff game this coming Saturday!  :)
   The other afternoon game was way more disappointing, as the 49ers
cap off their awful 2024 season by losing (badly!) to the Arizona Cardinals.  :/
   In the evening game - in the game to decide who gets the #1 seed in
the NFC Playoffs - Detroit played Vikings for the NFC North title. After
a fairly even start, the Lions ended up manhandling the Vikings
(probably as expected) to win the NFC North title, and the #1 seed (and 'bye') in the NFC Playoffs, with a 15-2 record, tying Kansas City for
the best record in the league.
   Outside of the 49ers' awful effort this year, and Seattle not making the playoffs, I'm actually fairly interested in this year's NFL Playoffs.

Sunday night, I managed to get through another Lifetime flick I missed recently by pulling it off OnDemand:

Vanished Out of Sight (Lifetime via OnDemand) - A certain percentage of Lifetime flicks are indie flicks produced for theatrical distribution
that fail to find a distributor and so get bought by Lifetime instead
(e.g. "Stockholm, Pennsylvania", and the recent "Held Hostage in My
House"). This flick is one of these - originally titled "Blind River",
it is very clearly intended to be a theatrical indie (e.g. it's much
higher budget, with a "bigger" soundtrack, than a standard Lifetime flick).
   As an indie flick, it's a odd choice (IOW, it's not surprising it wasn't picked up by a distributor).
   Annalise Basso stars as a blind woman, single mother and rape
survivor with PTSD, trying to raise her 5(?)-year old daughter on her
own. Of course, she's overly protective. And, of course, she's freezing
out her current boyfriend (Tracy Campbell).
   Anyway, as you'd expect, her daughter goes missing, and she doesn't trust the local cops led by Steven Ogg (Basso's co-star on the
"Snowpiercer" TV series). So this PTSD blind woman starts searching for
her daughter on her own.
   Then her support dog goes missing. Then the boyfriend goes missing.
   I'm not really giving anything away by saying that the blind woman's earlier rape likely plays into the daughter's and boyfriend's
disappearances.
   Like "Stockholm, Pennsylvania", this makes for a very odd Lifetime flick. But also as an indie flick, I can't figure out who the filmmakers thought the audience for this film would be.
   Anyway, I liked Basso and Ogg in this. But I can't say I liked the
film overall very much.

I see it's available to stream, but that ends tomorrow.

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

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

This SNL skit is spot on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wzXC8Pbq8&t=47s

"From the Isles of Rizzoli..."

That was funny.

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

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

South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (4K disc) 1999 "R" rated animated
movie based on the popular TV series. The kids of South Park all head
to the new Terrance and Phillip movie which consists of cursing and fart >jokes. When the South Park parents see the kids repeating what they
heard in the movie the parents decide to blame Canada. This leads to a
war with Canada and the potential releasing Satan and his lover Sadam
Hussein upon the world. A bit dated, but still very funny. I was on
the fence but decided to skip "Team America."

I still blame Canada.

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

On 2025-01-06 16:46:11 +0000, Ian J. Ball said:

Yesterday was a "football day", as it was the last day of the regular
season. For once, I enjoyed the results of (most of!) the games:

In the morning game, it took them a while, but eventually Tampa Bay bested New Orleans, sewing up the NFC South title (Atlanta also lost
their last game which put an exclamation point on that).

I'm in the Nashville media market so I saw the Titans getting thumped
by the Texans. Local fans are starting to get grumpy about the past few seasons. The team is getting ready to play in an extravagant new
stadium in a couple of years and as far as I'm concerned they don't
deserve one with their recent record -- it was claimed the current
stadium built as recent as the 1990s wouldn't be cost effective to
upgrade. Kansas City has played in the same stadium since 1972.

In the afternoon games, first CBS decided the air the Kansas
City-Denver game over the San Diego-Las Vegas(Oakland!!) game
(WHAT?!!), which was a big mistake as Kansas City already had sown up
the #1 seed in the AFC Playoffs, and so played their
*fourth-string(!!)* players in this last game, which allowed Denver to absolutely crush Kansas City on Denver's way to a shutout win!
Eventually CBS got the hint and switched to the San Diego-Las Vegas
game,

I thought that sucked, I wanted to watch Kansas City getting their
asses kicked for once until the bitter end, not just for three
quarters. Of couse the story would've been entirely different if
Mahomes and several other starting players hadn't been sitting the game
out.

In the evening game - in the game to decide who gets the #1 seed in the
NFC Playoffs - Detroit played Vikings for the NFC North title. After a
fairly even start, the Lions ended up manhandling the Vikings (probably
as expected) to win the NFC North title, and the #1 seed (and 'bye') in
the NFC Playoffs, with a 15-2 record, tying Kansas City for the best
record in the league.
Outside of the 49ers' awful effort this year, and Seattle not
making the playoffs, I'm actually fairly interested in this year's NFL Playoffs.

We're probably looking at a KC/Detroit Super Bowl. Should be a good one.

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