Watched movies and series

The Batman (2022)

I'm one of the few people whose favorite Batman movie is Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever. It's lighter and more humorous than the other Batmans, and it's literally less dark, more colorful. And it has one of my favorites at the time, Chris O'Donnell.

I have to admit that I haven't seen any of Ben Affleck's Batmans, but I still don't quite understand why Batman had to be made into a movie AGAIN. In my eyes, Robert Pattinson doesn't fit the main role. And why is Batman an emogoth? It goes too far towards unintentional humor. The movie was also too long.

It bothered me where Gordon's performer is familiar for me. Well, from The Hunger Games.

 

 

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin 2022

I first read V.C. Andrews' book Flowers in the Attic as a teenager. It wasn't until much later that I found out that there is a sequel to it. There are five books in that series, the last of which is a prequel, meaning it takes place before the events of the first book. And of course, where history is rewritten.

This miniseries is based on that prequel, which I haven't read. It tells the story of the evil grandmother from the first book. Wasn't she originally evil, but just an innocent victim of evil?

Flowers in the Attic is famous for its incest, the entire series is full of it. Fortunately, despite that, the children always turn out to be damn beautiful.

Creepshow (2019)

The horror anthology series Creepshow (2019) is a sequel to Stephen King's film of the same name. I didn't really care for that film, but from its sequel, Creepshow 2, the story The Raft has always stuck in my mind. In it, young people go swimming in a lake, a big mistake. At the end, a sign is shown saying "no swimming"...

There were three seasons of this series on Viaplay, the latest fourth was missing.

The series is very much in the same vein as the legendary horror series Tales from the Crypt, which I would seriously like to see again.

The story of the very first episode is based on King's short story Grey Matter, and otherwise contains King references. And familiar actors...

One episode (All Hallows Eve) made me cry quite inconsolably with its sadness. It's about a group of teenagers going trick-or-treating on Halloween night. For some reason, all the adults seem to be genuinely scared of them...

When the big brother says to his little brother at the end that "now you can rest" and "I wish I could have known you longer"... 💔

 

 

I also remember the episode where a person selfishly causes the destruction of all of humanity and Earth.

It Ends with Us

I haven't read the book by Colleen Hoover that this movie is based on. I stopped watching this movie for a long time because the male lead disgusts me so much when I have read about his disgusting behavior on set.

Kind of a strange movie. The main character wore strange clothes. I must have missed a lot because I haven't read the book. And this movie didn't make me want to read it.

 

 

Saw X

 

I borrowed this movie from the library. The whole movie is just flashbacks and fan service. I was waiting for the iconic theme song throughout the movie. But it can't be helped, towards the end this movie inevitably brought a smile to my face. Just when during the end credits I thought what about that guy, there was a scene and a surprising cameo. The biggest problem with this movie is that you know for sure that nothing can happen to Jigsaw and Amanda.

 

 

 

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I hadn't seen this movie in a long time and I borrowed it from the library. There's a cat in the movie and the iconic theme song Moon River played in my head. Oh, the poor cats, what they did to them on set. I don't think I even knew it was based on a Truman Capote short story, which was next on my library lending list.

 

 

 

The Lion King (1994)

I had wanted to see this movie for decades, and now, inspired by the game Dreamlight Valley and the book Nala's World, I finally borrowed it from the library. I watched the original English version of the movie, not the Finnish dubbed version. For some reason, tears came to my eyes. Only afterwards did I realize that the movie was full of famous voice actors.

 

 

 

Amazing Race Australia

 

The task was tough, but I managed to watch 21 episodes of the sixth season of Amazing Race Australia in the summer of 2025. The original Amazing Race USA has always been shown in Finland (in the summer), but unfortunately not this time. We had to settle for Australia, from which the first season was not shown either. This sixth season was special because it had twice the number of teams, which makes no sense. Nor the fact that many teams were in quarantine for a long time, but were then allowed to return to the competition normally. And the time penalties for not completing tasks were also ridiculously small, only 10-15 minutes. In the original, 4 hours! With that Australian system, it would be more profitable to leave all the tasks undone. Unfortunately, I was spoiled for the winning pair when I went online to check if one of the competitors was still alive.

 

Northern Lights

 

This acclaimed series was on my bookmarks for a long time until I finally watched it. Two broken souls meet in a Dublin night. I don't know how I would have reacted to this if I hadn't read the spoilers in the episode descriptions. I'm surprised that adults who work and date regularly still live with their parents.

 

 

Halloween 2025

I thought I wouldn't be able to get pumpkin this Halloween. Because fresh pumpkin is a lot of work and there's only a little bit of edible part left. And because the last time the pumpkin puree exploded all over the place. Well, I bought frozen pumpkin puree. Maybe it won't explode when opened? Except the instructions say to thaw it in the fridge for a day before using it. I'm scared of what will happen this time.
 

I always want to use this pumpkin picture in my Halloween posts. It's from a wall calendar from years ago.

 

 

Pluto TV has been showing Friday movies again, and this year Saws too.

But it was hard to decide which movie to watch for Halloween. I've been wanting to watch Skeleton Key again for years, but I don't dare. It's too haunting. I'd be interested in Langoliers too, but that's too horrible.

I finally decided to watch It, it's been a while since I last watched it. I already missed Pennywise, the original. Tim Curry ❤️

But then I realized that it's been even longer since I last watched Interview with the Vampire, so I watched it first. That vampire movie has been a scandal for many reasons. Tom Cruise chosen as Lestat. Homoeroticism. Kristen Dunst and Brad Pitt's kiss. I guess the moral of the story is that you shouldn't seek out other people, it only leads to suffering and death.

What's annoying about It's DVD release is that the scenes during the opening theme of the second episode have been cut out completely. And now there's was problem that there's something wrong with the disc, it freezes at the very end and complains that "the disc can't be played". Even though the cheapness of the TV miniseries is obvious, It still manages to entertain me.

 

 

Today's big plan is (of course?) to play Friday. Before, I had true horror of Halloween in Friday, playing as Lachappa. But then I realized that playing as Deb is even more terrifying for me, because I can't stand seeing the bunny die. Last Halloween, I did it so that if a small map was selected, I played as bunny, otherwise as Lachappa. And that's what I plan to do today too. My dream would be to survive as bunny at least once.

 

 

These days I play Friday on PC and my body can't stand sitting for long periods of time. So I take a lot of breaks and then watch the (original) Pet Sematary movie. It was the first Stephen King book I ever read, by the way.

 

 

I thought I wouldn't have much time to play Friday because I was supposed to go to Gloria today, Friday, which is the official Halloween, even though there are no parties. But I was very surprised when I found out that Gloria is having a Halloween party tomorrow, Saturday, which is All Saints' Day. Has there ever been one there before? At least not before this decade. The last time I went to a Halloween party was in 2019. We were at a certain bar's Halloween party, where we didn't stay for many minutes. Then we went to Gloria, where there wasn't a Halloween party, but it was still fun.

I did such a radical thing that I washed my "Halloween" dress even though the washing instructions say it shouldn't be washed with water. Why shouldn't a dress made of 100% polyester be washed with water? It seems to be still intact after washing. Still, I'm afraid that the dress won't fit me properly anymore because I've lost weight. Too many clothes hang on me like a garbage bag. Although judging by the clothing ads, that's the fashion these days...

 

 

But inspired by a certain streamer, I came up with an urge to dress up as cat Claire someday. That would be the perfect combination for me. So that's a life goal? I think I've already thrown away the shorts from my previous Claire "costume". The Made in Heaven shirt is still there, and unused... While searching for my cat ears, I also found black gloves, a purple grenade "bag" and... a water gun. The Claire wig is of course still there, but it gave me a headache. Unfortunately, the Claire costume I looked at years ago doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere anymore. I want to be original Claire and not remake.

I bought purple tortilla chips from Lidl's Halloween selection, so the party can begin!

 

 

Ps. Found the perfect Halloween shirt, but unfortunately at Target, which doesn't ship to here. Cat + Friday ❤️ Of course, there would be shirts for sale elsewhere with the same theme, but with different images which are not as good.

 

Movie review: The Long Walk

Damn, this is bullshit.

That was my first reaction when the changed ending of The Long Walk (affiliate link) movie started to be revealed.

This article contains some plot spoilers.

50 young men participate in a walking race. Only one makes it to the finish line alive.

I had worked hard and painfully to protect myself from spoilers. I knew that the ending had been changed, and that people thought the new ending is crap. But I didn't know what the changed ending would be.

At some point, I first hoped and then feared that the ending would be a dream or hallucination of a character, but no. Fortunately, the very last seconds were faithful to the book, meaning the character's final fate was left open.

Making a character evil (and stupid!) who only thirsts for revenge and corrupts his friend into the same thing is not good. Making everything and everyone's deaths pointless in the end, even the father's. Of course, it was all pointless from the start. The point is that no one ever really wins the Long Walk.

And one character has been made into a saint, representing all that is good in the world. Well, he certainly wasn't like that in the book. On the contrary, he got his scar from trying to rape his girlfriend.

And I didn't think it was believable that the main character would suddenly just give up and betray his mother, especially after he had just realized that she was right. Mothers are always right about everything.

And then there's the fact that an alternate ending has been filmed, because an upcoming home release 4K will have it. 

 

 

Of course, I understand that the book's ending had to be changed. The ending of the book would have been too bland, more drama was needed, and that's certainly what's at the end of the movie.

Besides the ending there are of course a lot of other differences between the book and the movie.  

I'm not a fan of blood, gore, and guts, not to mention (diarrhea) crap. I knew in advance that the movie was going to be incredibly violent, and I kept my eyes closed at many points. There was also a lot of swearing, even the f-word was only used a few hundred times.

I liked it when the major said "Good luck, son" to one of the characters right at the beginning. 

But the true star of the movie was of course the eyeless cat, which I wondered already in the trailer.

 

  

 

The Long Walk is one of my favorite works by Stephen King, and I had been waiting for decades for it to be made into a film. Still, it was hard to find time in my busy schedule to go see it, and it was almost a month after the premiere. There were a total of 8 people in the audience at a Tuesday night screening. 

 

Ps. One of the trailers shown was for The Running Man, which will premiere in November. That's also one of my favorites from King's books, but I don't like the fact that this film has gone in a more comedic direction. And the ending has been changed from the book, apparently because of WTC...

 

Autumn dress mania

Autumn came with a bang. It was literally the last moment to go on a cruise if you wanted to go on a summer vacation. Even a day later, it wouldn't have worked.

And exactly the same thing with my own health. I wondered about the swelling in my stomach after the trip, and a day or two later severe endometriosis pain began.

My computer screen has started to scare me. Sometimes it goes dark unexpectedly, and only comes back on when I close it and open it again.

Dresses

I bought dresses from online second hand store. Two dresses from the same seller saved on postage, the dresses themselves only cost one and two euros. These were on sale for a long time but nobody bought them. A black party dress (size 38) and a violet-gray sheath dress (38).

 

But then when I tried to buy the third dress (a black sheath dress, size 36), the online store wouldn't let me do that. Every time I got the message "Your bid failed. Please check the information you entered and try again." The product in question was on sale with supposedly safer service. It's really safe to buy when you can't buy at all. I then corresponded with their customer service, and finally I was able to buy the dress.

 

 

Then I was sad to find out that all these dresses are too big for me. The usual story, lots of clothes but nothing to wear. Too small, too big, see-through, too short, ill-fitting. I still don't know what to wear to my grandma's funeral.

Movies

This fall I would like to do many things, but they all cost (too much).

The book The Long Walk is one of my favorite works of Stephen King. I've been waiting for decades for it to be made into a movie. And now it's premiering on the day of my grandma's funeral. It's been many years since I last went to the movies, can you still buy tickets the same way you used to? I mean buy online and pick them up at the box office? But I hear that movie tickets cost 20 euros these days...

The last Downton Abbey movie is also premiering on the same day. But I hate a certain DA character so much that I can't stand it. Killed Sybil, fu.

 

 

Friday 12.9.: my grandmother's funeral, the premieres of The Long Walk and Downton Abbey, the release date of the Borderlands 4 game, the start of the World Athletics Championships.

The play Murder on the Orient Express will be performed at the local theatre this autumn, which I am always interested in. But the tickets cost over 40 euros. It's a bit of a shame that I don't have a student card, I could get a discount on many things.

It would also be nice to go bowling. I've never been to the new bowling alley here.

 

In the midst of a crisis

When a nightmare that I've been waiting for for years to come true comes true and the rug is pulled from under my feet, my mental stamina is low. And yet I should pretend to be able to function normally in everyday life, when all I want to do is cry and collapse. And study deadlines are approaching. "For the former world has passed away"

 

Stress of course causes and worsens endometriosis pain. My hip has been hurting more than usual, and has slowed my walking even slower than usual. Is that because of perimenopause? Now I have also had other joint pains, and even strange muscle pains. And my sleep has also decreased for a long time already. I always use melatonin before going to bed, but these days I wake up abnormally early in the morning and usually can't fall back asleep.

I have way too much unnecessary stuff and I should try to get rid of it. While trying to do that, I went through a music book from 1989, calles School Music 5-6. Are children still taught such misogynistic songs today? On the song Orient Express, an old maid wants to be raped. Then, for example, the song Oman kullan silmät, to which our elementary school teacher taught us additions that denigrate women. Or Minun kultani kaunis on. So beautiful that even horses laugh at her.

 

 

I managed to clog the kitchen sink. I poured mouthwash and dog ear cleaner into it. At least the mouthwash had tea tree oil in it, but mouthwash should never contain anything that clogs drains, because mouthwash always ends up in the drain anyway. And there was no oil or grease in that ear cleaner either, but alcohol and peroxide, among other things. But the drain still got blocked. Even the home plumber stuff didn't help, only a plunger. I'm such a loser that I'll probably destroy the whole house.

The idea came to me to watch my favorite movie Gone with the Wind (affiliate link) for Easter. I had been thinking for a while that it had been a while since I last watched it. And of course I needed an excuse to finally use this picture. Maybe the day I hate, Good Friday, will be spent with this movie, after all it's a 4 hours long plus intermission.

 

I had to post a couple of pictures on my The Bold and the Beautiful blog, which I thought Google would complain about. But I thought Google would consider strangulation pictures as violence. I was wrong, Google bots think they are sex. What does it say about our wonderful modern times that strangulation is no longer violence but sex?

 

A movie suitable for Valentine's Day?

This blog post contains affiliate links.

 

I "celebrate" holidays in a great way, meaning I watch a movie that fits the theme. On Valentine's Day, a romantic one.

Last year I watched The Buccaneers miniseries, and the movie 27 Dresses. The year before last I probably watched Titanic.

 

 

Now I checked my DVD shelf to see if there was anything suitable for the theme.

Pretty Woman

Some Like it Hot

The first Sex and the City movie (I liked to watch it quite often years ago)

A Walk in the Clouds (Keanu Reeves)

Where the Heart Is (Natalie Portman and James Frain, I like him)

A Fish Called Wanda

Someone might argue that not all of these are suitable for this purpose. I've also wanted to watch Gone with the Wind for the millionth time for some time. And what about my favorite Red Eye? I've only seen it a few times recently, and it was on TV only six times last year. Many people have thought Red Eye is a romantic movie at the start of it.

 

 

The Notebook

Well, I ended up watching the movie The Notebook on Viaplay, for the first time, even though I've been meaning to watch it for a long time. Now my interest was piqued by an online comment that said the male lead in this movie is a toxic asshole. Well, he did blackmail the woman into going on a date with him right at the beginning by threatening to commit suicide.

In The Notebook, a rich girl Allie falls in love with a poor boy for some strange reason, and her parents don't like that.

That movie is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks. I haven't read it, and I don't think I've read any other books by that author. But I hear the relationship in the book is less toxic than in the movie. You always have to add drama to movies.

What did I think of the movie? It's hard to say. I really couldn't be a movie critic. I guess The Notebook has been quite popular, I don't quite understand why.

I have to say that I'm not a fan of Ryan Gosling, but I do like Rachel McAdams (and James Marsden). I shed a few tears towards the end of the movie, but I have no desire to see this movie again.

 

Previously, I would have played Friday today, in honor of Valentine's Day, wearing pink outfits. So those pink outfits would be on the game characters, and not on me... Is this the first time I really miss Friday? When I've been feverishly thinking about what to play this Friday night... There's just no game that's fun.

 

 

Should I just drink my sorrows away? I haven't been drinking much lately. I've never had such a large and diverse Absolut vodka collection before. I've kind of grown to like that Absolut Watermelon.

 

 

Movie review: Salem's Lot (2024)

This post contains affiliate links.

 

The movie Salem's Lot, based on Stephen King's book of the same name, was finally released on Max. It was originally supposed to come already in 2022, and to cinemas. So a late release is never a good sign?

 

 

In Salem's Lot shit hits the fan in a small town. I don't know if this is a huge spoiler, but it's about vampires. Bad things happen to children in the story, so if you can't stand it, don't watch this movie. Personally, I don't appreciate the fact that in King's books the main character is always a writer, and this is the case in Salem's Lot as well.

I was surprised that this new Salem's Lot is set in the 1970s (like the original book) and not moved to modern times, as seems to be the trend.

I hear this movie got bad reviews, but I happened to like it. The 70's were executed nicely. Things are moving fast, some say too fast. There really is no idling. In the past, only mini-series have been made about this book, which may be better suited to this story in terms of length.

 

It hasn't even been that many years since I re-read Salem's Lot, so I guess I should be able to tell you how faithful this movie is to the original work. But I can't say that I remember the details of the book very well.

After watching this movie, I would like to change my necklace pendant to a cross...

Movie: Greatest Days

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.

 

Then we need a NKOTB-musical...

Last Valentine's Day

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!

 

Movies watched in 2023

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is a really bad movie, starting with the lead actor and Jigsaw's voice. But I had to watch it just to hear the iconic music. The movie also has one of my favorite actors, Samuel L. Jackson. Who is the murderer was clear right from the start because that's how the characters of that actor always are? And especially when the "death" of that character was not shown, and not even his family. Besides, the so-called bad guy was right! And a Saw movie without Tobin Bell is sacrilege. Ps. Saw X already came.. and it has the real and original Jigsaw.

Alice in Borderland (Netflix) is like a copy of Squid Game except Alice came first. A group of young people find themselves in a reality where deadly games are played in which they have to participate. Is there any way out of this new world? I liked this series surprisingly much, there was enough excitement.

Bullet Train (Viaplay) is an action comedy which is my favorite genre of movies. Few action comedies are funny or entertaining, but Bullet Train is plenty. Brad Pitt plays a criminal who goes on a bullet train to do a simple theft task, but in the end there is nothing simple about it. Warning: the movie has a snake in a big role.

Firestarter (2022) is a remake film adaptation of Stephen King's novel, and it commits the worst possible sin: horrific suffering and death of an innocent cat. The problem with remakes is always that they "have" to do things differently than in the original and therefore the plot moves too far from the source material. I don't remember if I've ever seen the first Firestarter movie, but it's (also) been getting bad reviews.

 

I just happened to notice Ghostface on the home screen of the TV, and had to go back to it quickly. I was surprised that Scream 6 had already appeared on Netflix. I liked the movie surprisingly much. It had a lot of references to previous Screams and other horror movies. I had read the plot description before, but I didn't remember anything about it. Except that one certain character doesn't die. Of course, it was funny that a character named Jason watched a F13 movie.

I started watching Melrose Place on free Pluto TV, which I had thought for years that it would be nice to watch again, I had only seen it once before. Well, first I was disappointed when after the second to last, i.e. sixth season, the first season started, i.e. the last seventh season was completely missing! And then in the first season, at one point, they suddenly jumped forward about four episodes. So it makes no sense if there are episodes missing and not everything is shown. The series itself is quite eventful, at least after the first season. Well, luckily, the last season of MP had also appeared on Pluto later.

 

In October, I started watching Areena's series The Secrets She Keeps, because it had been featured in the media and I had seen clips of it in the mornings on Yle. At the very beginning I realized that I have watched it before, but I thought only the first episode. But at the end of the first season I realized that I had watched it all. Only the second season was new for me, and I think it was better than the first. I was a bit surprised by the changed appearance of one of the characters, but the actor had been recast for some reason. Downton Abbey's Laura Carmichael stars in this series.

Death on the Nile is one of the few Agatha Christie books that I have read, along with Murder on the Orient Express, and both more than once, albeit decades ago. So I didn't remember who dies here and who is the murderer. But while watching this 2022 movie, I thought that there was definitely no lesbianism in the book. And did five characters die in the book? And I only realized after the movie that Arnie Hammer is in it, if I had known that beforehand I wouldn't have watched the movie. And then I remembered that I had read about it before.

Towards the end of the year, Disney plus was on offer and I then watched 24 from there. I started from the third season now. Last time I watched the second season, but not to the end. I've watched the fifth season the most often, it's where the most shocking things happen and according to general opinion, it's the best season of 24. From the sixth season onwards, I wouldn't really even want to watch. I can't stand it when Curtis dies, it's my jump the shark moment. About Curtis's death, it is said that Curtis is out of character. Chloe is the one who is out of character in the sixth season. Heels and a skirt, that's not the Chloe I know.

I was looking forward to the Netflix reality show Squid Game: The Challenge. At least initially, it received only negative reviews. But in my opinion, the drama build up was on point, except for the completely lame ending. I actually stopped watching when there were just 14 minutes left in the last episode. And I could guess the winner just because the appearance of one competitor had become unrecognizable after the race. And I don't remember ever hating a contestant on any reality show as much as one person on this show. I just hoped that this person wouldn't make it to the final. Fortunately, they didn't make it, even though it was really close.