[The Little Mermaid (2023)]

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It does need to have a good second weekend and strong legs which could be difficult in the current box office circumstances. 

I agree, we do need to wait for the second weekend before we declare this movie a flop. Both Avatar 2 and GOTG 3 had underwhelming openings and they had great legs at the box office, so it wasn't a problem. That being said, the international numbers are admittedly pretty awful. This also supposedly has a $250 million budget and there's going to be a lot of competition in the coming weeks with Into the Spiderverse, Transformers, the Flash, Elemental and Indy 5. I'm hopeful, but nervous. 

[The Little Mermaid (2023)]

I liked it! It's may genuinely be the only one of these remakes that I've actually liked. I did not enjoy Cinderella or the Jungle Book, and I outright hated the Beauty and the Beast remake. I really liked how they expanded on Ariel and Eric's relationship in this. There's only so much you can do with the love at first sight thing, but I still thought it was well done. 

Is it just me or did Disney really not want to shell out for extras in this movie? Is just didn't feel like there were a lot of people or merpeople in it. 

[Sing Along: High Fidelity in the Media]

That's a shame! I admittedly wasn't the biggest fan of the show, namely because I really didn't like Rob as a character. Zoe Kravitz is super talented though, and I was curious to see where they'd take things in season 2. 

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I'm disappointed but not surprised. I wonder how much of this decision was related to uncertainty due to COVID vs the ratings.

I could be off base here, but I also wonder if licensing had something to do with it. Licensing all of that music can't have been cheap. It seems like this may have been one of those shows where it needed not just decent, but decidedly above-average viewership numbers in order to justify its continued existence. 

[Author Antics]

I thought that these videos were good. I must admit, that I am horribly heartbroken over all of this. For me personally, Rowling and Harry Potter are too intertwined for me to continue to enjoy the franchise. Like sure, I can still enjoy Roald Dahl's work, even though he was a horrible anti-Semite and a bully, but he's also been dead for almost 30 years. Rowling, on the other hand, is a living author who is actively using her massive platform to spread transphobic garbage. *sigh* I'm just so sad. 

 

 

[Frozen 2 (2019)]

I was pretty disappointed by this. That was not a tight screenplay. It feels like there was very little conflict driving the plot, at least until the end of the movie. I was really looking forward to this, because the trailer looked great and I liked the first film. With this one though, yeah I just kind of sat there bored out of my skull for the most part. There are some cute moments. The animation looked absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately though, I guess it's a thumbs down from me. 

[S44.E06: Steve Carell / Ella Mai]

I think that the astronaut sketch was my favorite one they've done in years. I was in tears when poor Kambuca's arm came off. 

4 hours ago, helenamonster said:

Science question: I thought that if animals were exposed to the conditions of space sans suits, they, like, disintegrated? Not freeze up like they got caught in the second Ice Age? Pedantry aside, this was my favorite sketch of the night.

I looked it up. You don't disintegrate, but it would actually take anywhere from 12-26 hours for your body to freeze solid. Here's about a 1 minute-ish long video on it if you're interested.

[Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)]

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On 11/8/2018 at 10:20 AM, Spartan Girl said:

One little moment I liked in the scene where the executive guy (Mike Myers) was trashing Bohemian Rhapsody was when he started going on about how it had "nonsense words" like "bismillah."  And it cuts to Freddie's face, which is tightening in anger, because for those who may not know, "Bismillah" is not a made up word, it's a Muslim invocation ("in the name of God"). 

 

That's really interesting that he would use "bismillah" since Freddie Mercury wasn't actually Muslim, he was Zoroastrian. I was looking it up, and according to Wikipedia, there are less than 200,000 Zoroastrians in the world today. That thing that his father keeps saying about "good thoughts, good words, good deeds" is apparently like a Zoroastrian mantra.

Going to see this again today. 

[S01.E18: Paula Needs To Get Over Josh!]

Oh I agree.  I don't think he was pining for her all the time. I also don't think he's thrilled to learn the truth.  But he also has a really really hard time advocating for himself and breaking up with someone.  I think he knew for a while that he didn't want to marry Valencia but he kept letting himself be pushed closer and closer to that.  And I suspect Rebecca will be even pushier.

Yeah, this might be a bit mean of me, but Josh is a total coward. Notice how it was Valencia who had to end that relationship, not him, even though he was clearly unhappy in it. Also, in the first episode, he breaks up with Rebecca on the last day of summer camp, right before he runs off to be picked up by his parents. He chose to break up with her right at the moment when he wouldn't have to deal with any fallout. So yeah, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rebecca and Josh are still together when season 2 starts. In addition to that his family totally loves her, and he kind of screwed over his best friend in order to be with her, both of which could lead to a feeling of obligation to be in the relationship. I recently re-watched the pilot and Josh says something like "you probably don't remember me much do you?" At first, it seemed to me to be boilerplate meeting-someone-you-haven't-seen-in-a-long-time language, but now I wonder if Josh actually remembers his time at camp that well. 

 

Scarlett O'Hara & Rhett Butler, is that you?

OMG, this comparison really kind of fits. Scarlett O'Hara is actually supposed to be 16 at the beginning of Gone With the Wind. So, Rebecca is Scarlett. Josh is Ashley, aka her teenaged fantasy crush that she holds onto. Greg is Rhett, the cynical guy who sees through her, but can't help but adore her in spite of himself. It makes sense to me. 

 

I really couldn't enjoy the reunion between Rebecca and Paula. I know this is Sitcomland, and the standards of behavior are different, but Paula is a bit of a sociopath. That song rocked though!