Prey

 

They are every bit as effective as the masks!

Notwithstanding my wife's presence here at home yesterday, early in the evening I tuned in a Christmas movie ─ 2015's Christmas Incorporated.

It is just possible that I once before watched it, but I was probably drunk. I could not recall anything specific, although the scene in the small-town toy factory did seem familiar, as did the town mayor as portrayed by very familiar actor Ron Lea.

I may well have watched the movie one Christmastime period when my younger brother had his girlfriend Bev staying with us for a couple of days to celebrate with us. Alas, he reported about three evenings ago that she is not going to join us this year, for she has to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, if I remember correctly. To come here would risk over-drinking and be punishing for her. (She works part-time in a bar or pub.) 

Actress Shenae Grimes-Beech had the lead role in Christmas Incorporated. She was completely unfamiliar to me; and although I thought that she had scrawny calves, by well into the movie she had managed to be very appealing to me ─ I could believe that her young boss would fall in love with her.

I know that I would have!

Another unfamiliar actress ─ Hannah Spear ─ had a supporting role, but I would have enjoyed seeing her with a far larger part. Heck, she would have been a great lead in a Christmas movie of her own.

I am rushing this post because I want to have a bath and then try to get out and maybe hike to a shopping mall a mile from here ─ the day has been below freezing, and things are growing even colder. Yesterday's snow is frozen, as is any of the melt.

Okay, with that explained, during the Christmas movie I drank two cans of the strong (8% alcohol) malt that I keep in stock. I was to have a further two cans later in the evening while watching a couple of shows with my brother once he got home from his daily socializing.

First I tuned in another movie or episode of the old Edgar Wallace Mysteries ─ this time, April 1962's Flat Two.  

As usual, the feature was quaintly ─ almost nostalgically ─ interesting. I was 12 years old when that film was released.

I do not know actor Bernard Archard by name, but he was certainly familiar, even though I can remember nothing that I may ever have seen him in. I thought that he strongly resembled a younger Jerome Flynn.

We watched the old flick on T.V., using our Android TV Box and a browser app by which I employed the Yandex search engine, and accessed the source for Flat Two that is presently here at OK.ru.

The final feature that my brother and I watched was the 2022 movie Prey. 

Wow! 

It was definitely a worthy component of the Predator franchise. However, the subtitles that we were stuck with in the movie source we accessed were too small to easily read. In fact, my brother ─ who was nearer to the T.V. than I ─ gave up even trying. I had to read aloud some of the key dialogue on his behalf.

I see now that the movie is available at OK.ru as well, but I cannot find an option for subtitles, and the movie appears to be in the original languages.

In the subtitled version that we ended up with via one of the streaming apps downloaded into our Android TV Box, as if the small English subtitling was not bad enough, later into the movie when a huge band of French buffalo hunters enter the story, their spoken French language was subtitled in French as well, so that was absolutely useless to my brother and I.

The lead character in Prey was played by actress Amber Midthunder, whom I thought was a young teen; yet she would have been 24 in the Summer of 2021 when the movie was filmed. My brother had even wondered if the character was a boy.

Provided that a person could acquire a properly subtitled copy of the movie, I would highly recommend it.

I am going to close this post because it is now after 8 p.m., and I wasted the time I had that would have allowed me to go anywhere. I got involved in setting up Christmas lights in our living room, and that took far longer than I ever expected.

My wife had to work a full day today at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time ─ the restaurant opens at 11 a.m. ─ so she was up by 9:30 a.m. to begin readying. She has a fair drive to get to the restaurant.

I never exercised at all today, so I am displeased with myself for at least not getting out on that walk this early evening. I am so damned adept at fouling up my own plans.

One further item merits reporting. This past week has seen at least three calls come for me ─ two on my cellphone, and one on the house line ─ originating from someone at the bank that holds the mortgage to our house. The mortgage contract expires in May 2023, but they seem to be pushing for me to renew earlier than that.

I am concerned over what the next mortgage is going to cost us. Possibly, I may enlist my brother to attend any appointment with me ─ he is somewhat savvier about this business.