From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
On 9/5/2026 10:57 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
Well, after working hard for two weeks straight (had to run meetings,
and get new instructors ready for the new semester, and then classes
started this past week), I decided that this long weekend, and
especially today (Saturday), I was going to blow off some steam and just watch movies!!
Unfortunately, a number of the movies I wanted to watch are either unavailable to me (e.g. Project Hail Mary) or haven't come to streaming
yet (e.g. It Ends, Backrooms).
You are in for a treat once you get to see Project Hail Mary.
Backrooms was OK. I didn't watch the original YouTube series so I'm
sure a lot of the inside references went right over my head. I haven't
gotten around to It Ends yet.
So I think I cobbled together a pretty decent line-up of flicks for a Saturday anyway:
Mando & "Baby Yoda" (aka. "The Mandalorian and Grogu") (Disney+) - In glorious 4k!
OK, let me get this out of the way first - overall, I enjoyed this. It's not deep. But as "Space Westerns" go, it's mostly decent.
That said, I can see the problems here, and can understand why it didn't do well at the Box Office.
Well, first - It's a theatrical movie spinoff of a TV show. Have
those EVER worked?!! I mean, since "Batman '66", has this ever worked?!
(cough) Star Trek (cough)
Second, this is basically nothing more than a higher-budget over-
long episode of "The Mandalorian" TV series. There is nothing wrong with this if you like the series - But why did this have to be released in theaters?!! Why not just do another season of the TV series?
And, third - There is just *way too much* CGI in this flick! Like,
not just the monsters - I think that almost every *character* besides
Mando (and Sigourney Weaver) in this film is CGI.
Oh my god! I can't believe you just said that. LOL. This movie is
famous for using practical effects instead of CGI. When you think about
it, that's high praise for the practical effects that you couldn't tell
the difference. I had a similar experience while watching in the
theater. I knew there was something different about the effects, but I couldn't tell what.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ySFHHPElUpY
https://theasc.com/article/mandalorian-grogu-razor-crest-miniature-cinematography/
https://www.facebook.com/starwarsnerdout/posts/behind-the-scenes-footage-from-the-mandalorian-grogu-offers-a-detailed-look-at-t/1639092671207498/
This seriously took me
out of the movie in several places...
I can't explain why, but I have a similar experience with a lot of
Spider-Man movies. For some reason the actual person in a suit just
looks like it's CGI to me, even though it's an actual person. And it
will similarly take me out of the movie for a second.
Remember when they used to make
movies with "practical effects" and, like, costumes and puppets and
stuff?! Well, you don't have to worry, because there's not much of that
in this film!
If you say so... ;-)
In addition (and this was not unexpected) - it does pretty literally become the "Baby Yoda" flick for a stretch in the middle.
Yeah, that middle section could have been deleted.
But, mostly aside from the gratuitous and annoying over-use of CGI,
I did actually enjoy this film. It's fine as a low-stakes "popcorn" Star Wars-universe film.
The Martian (Ultra HD Blu-ray disk!) - So this wasn't just in "glorious
4k" - it was in "super-duper glorious 4k!!" :D
I don't have the 4K version. :-(
And, yes - I had never actually watched this before. It's been on TV for years now, but it's one of those films I refused to watch for the
first time on ad-supported TV. And then I bought it on UHD Blu-ray a
couple of years back and decided tht I would wait to watch on UHD disk. Well, today was finally the day for it, esp. as I can't watch "Project
Hail Mary" yet.
I thought the film itself was quite good.
Yeah, sure, they definitely gloss over the specifics of how Matt
Damon manages to survive on Mars for so long.
Matt Damon was the best botanist on the planet. Doesn't that explain
it? ;-)
But this is a good, mostly hard-science based thriller, and I'd love to see more flicks like this made.
And it looks incredible on UHD Blu-ray - I'm guessing better than it would have looked in a theater.
The Long Walk (HBO Max) - I quite enjoyed this too, though I didn't find
it as emotionally involving (or wrenching!) as some people on r/horror apparently did.
I did think David Jonsson was quite outstanding in this - get this
guy more acting gigs, STAT!! (Oh... He's the new "Black Panther"! Now it
all makes sense...)
And Mark Hammil is unrecognizable in this - I didn't even realize it was him until the final credits!
Apparently, Stephen King thinks this is one of the better
adaptations of his works, and I think I mostly agree. Though I was a
little horrified to learn after watching this that the film total
changes the character arc for Peter McVries (Jonsson's character) which, while it works for the film, is a major change from King's book's
ending. This put me a little off after the fact.
Anyway, this one gets a 'Thumbs up' from me.
And what did you watch, at the start of your Labor Day weekend?!
This is a catch up. Over the last couple of days, I watched:
Battlestar Galactica (blu-ray) - I finished the second season. I was surprised they kept the Pegasus as a new Battlestar that's just part of
the fleet now. Season 2 adds Xena and a scenery chewing Dean Stockwell.
Season 2 ends on a cliffhanger that I am looking forward to see
resolved in season 3.
Practical Magic (4K disc) 1998 movie staring Sandra Bullock and Nicole
Kidman as two sister witches under a course that whoever they fall in
love with will die. It's OK. I mainly upgraded to 4K and watched
because there is a sequel on the way.
The Craft (4K disc) 1996 movie about 4 teenage girls who discover they
can do real magic. But things quickly escalate out of hand when the
power goes to some of their heads. This movie has one of my favorite
lines, "This isn't real!" "Then why are you still bleeding?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRvP-g5gao
The Craft: Legacy (blu-ray) 2020 sequel that is 85% remake of the first
movie and 15% new stuff. I suspect they added the bare minimum of new
stuff so it could technically be called a sequel instead of a remake.
I actually like the new stuff and wish they had spent more time focusing
on those new plot elements instead of rehashing the first movie. It's annoying that so much of this one is a rehash seeing as how it is
actually a sequel that takes place in the same universe.
Barbarian (4K disc) 2022 movie written and directed by Zach Cregger. I watched with the commentary which opens with Cregger commentary that technically this is a Disney movie. That matters because this is a very
hard R horror movie. And it took a few years before Disney finally
released this on disc. Anyway the plot is sort of divided into 2
connected stories. The first has Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård
as two people who finds themselves at the same Airbnb that was seemingly double booked. And the second half features Justin Long who finds
himself at the same Airbnb. In both sequences very bad things happen at
the Airbnb that would make fans of "Hostel" squirm. This was mostly background noise.
Weapons (4K disc) 2025 movie written and directed by Zach Cregger. The
movie is set in a small town where one night all, except one, of the
children from a particular classroom run away never to be seen again.
The locals blame the classroom teacher, demanding she must know why all
the kids ran away. The rest gets into spoiler territory. The movie
holds up well, but I would have liked a commentary track.
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