My phone company Elisa sent me an email last week saying that I could watch five movies for free. One of those movies was even on my watch list: the Take That musical Greatest Days.
Then one night I remembered that that movie is only available until Sunday. And then on Friday I watched it.
Greatest days is about friends who were big Take That fans as teens. And in the present, they meet again when one of them wins tickets to the reunion concert.
Greatest days has received bad reviews. Its budget was lower than desired because Take That was never successful in the US, and therefore no funding came from there.
Some people have not liked the movie's versions of the songs, but I really liked them. There were both my favorite song (Never forget) and my least favorite (Back for good), and everything in between. The best part is recognizing the songs. Great music. Fortunately, the entire soundtrack of the movie can be found on YouTube. I also liked Take That's new version of the song Greatest day, I've never liked the original much.
In one scene, Take That even had a cameo, or the trio that is left of the band. As buskers begging for pennies, very funny.
I didn't guess what drama would follow from the fact that the ski jumping competition in Japan took place at four in the morning Finnish time.
I woke up at night to my spouse's snoring, went to the bathroom and looked at the clock. When I opened the TV, there were about ten jumpers left in the first round.
The first thing I noticed was that Domen Prevc was leading the competition. Then I noticed that the TV is not recording. Even though I had set the TV to record. Why doesn't it obey discipline? Why had it changed to the right channel even though it is not recording?
And of course Andreas Wellinger didn't have success while Domen does. Had to fear if Wellinger would even make it to the second round. (Wellinger was third in Saturday's race)
After the first round, the broadcast was interrupted just as the leader's jump would have been shown. Thanks Viaplay, you're a piece of shit.
I then went to watch the recordings, and I noticed that the TV had indeed started recording, but for some reason had stopped it after 31 minutes.
Then I noticed that the recording had ended just before Domen's jump.
I was so pissed. I thought I'd never see Domen's jump. When he leads after the first round for once.
I wanted so badly to grab the TV and throw it off the balcony.
I went to Viaplay's online service to watch Domen's jump.
I was sure that Domen would not win the competition. These newbies (jk) in the lead never make it in the second round. Shit in pants or something. I knew it would take a miracle to even get on the podium.
And then... Domen won the whole competition! Somehow miraculously, the last meters needed for the jump of the second round were found.
For some reason, Wellinger's success this season hasn't really felt like anything. But yes, I did feel Domen's victory. But FIS knew to tell that it had been five (!!) years since Domen's last victory. Wellinger used to be my number one favorite and Domen was number two, but it's been the other way around for a while now.
And then... Viaplay ended the broadcast just when the winner's interview was about to start. There was more than two hours until the start of the next program, so the broadcast could very well have been continued for yet another minute. Thanks Viaplay, you're a total piece of shit.
I thought well ahead of time what I would watch for Valentine's Day. A year ago, I watched Titanic at home when it was in theaters, but of course I didn't go to cinema to get covid.
Even before moving, I wanted to watch the Buccaneers for a long time, but then it came down to the fact that I didn't have a working DVD drive on my computer. So it's been quite a few years since I watched it last.
The Buccaneers is a six-part BBC mini-series based on Edith Wharton's book, which still hasn't been translated into Finnish. The series follows four young American women who go to England to get aristocratic husbands.
I own both the Finnish version and the Dutch version of that series on DVD. The Finnish version is messed up, it doesn't have a normal division of episodes and in addition it seems to have some strange and vague extra scenes. I think I've only watched it once, and after that I've always settled for the Dutch version. But it only has subtitles in Dutch, so you have to keep the voices loud, and still miss 90% of the speech.
I've always liked episodes 4-5 (6) of that miniseries more than the beginning, and sometimes I memorized a lot of dialogue from those episodes. I guess it's because when that series was originally shown on television, I only saw it from the fourth episode. And because there are too many screaming and giggling girls in the first episodes...
I just noticed that there's a completely new Buccaneers-series for Apple TV+, which has started in November 2023. A second season is coming. At first I was interested in that remake, but then I read the episode descriptions and concluded that yes, no thanks. Again, exactly one word comes to mind for a change: sacrilege. After all, I've already said that in remakes you have to make changes just for the sake of changes. And when historical series are forced into modern fashion... I couldn't even watch Bridgerton, even though I tried many times.
I wanted to watch a romantic movie for Valentine's Day, and I don't think I have many of them on DVD. Romantic comedies are made on an assembly line, and 27 Dresses is one of them. For some reason I've always liked it. It's about a woman who desperately wants to get married, but has been a bridesmaid 27 times.
And then why the title "Last Valentine's Day"? This is the last Valentine's Day when I get to play my favorite game, Friday the 13th: The Game. Of course, I already held a pre party on Saturday.
And of course this could be the last Valentine's Day anyway. Anyone of us can be the next victim of sudden death caused by the long-term effects of covid. Examples of them are reported in the media every damn day. But still, covid for everyone, and many times a year!
