ROTTEN TOMATOES: Latest Watch List

 From Worldometer (new deaths from COVID-19 yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093    4732        1185       246          82

July    22     1205    7128        1293      1120         572

Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835         130

Sept     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82

Oct      8        957    6420          730       967        160

          21     1225     6849           571       703         85

Nov     4      1199       8192         276       511         74 

          11       1479    10178         564       550         60

          14      1260       8823        727       449         53

          17      1615     10502        676       472        118

          18      1964     10970        754       587        124

          19      2065     10758        644       584        115

          20      1999     11136        521       562          88

Summary:  

• Another bad day for humanity. 
• The U.S. had by far the most new deaths with 1999, leading #2 Italy with 699.  
• The World had 662,957 new cases yesterday, #1 being the USA with 204,179, so much more than #2 India with 46,288.
• China had 17 new cases and no deaths yesterday.  
• Four vaccines being readied, with Sinopharm most prominent.
• 56,000 traveling abroad were inoculated last week, and no cases were reported.
• Doing human testing in 10 countries.
• The European Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine appears to be safe and is in Phase 3 trials.

Our new First Lady, Jill Biden:

Three months ago I reported on all the Rotten Tomatoes 100% Amazon Prime and Netflix programs.  Today, I'll scan through a few prominent productions, starting with an offbeat 2015 R-film, Knock Knock, starring Keanu Reaves, rated 36/20 by Rotten Tomatoes.  It was recently made available by Netflix and earlier this month was their #1 movie:

Knock Knock stars Reeves as a happily married husband and father who’s visited by a couple of stranded young women (de Armas and Lorenza Izzo) when his wife and kid are away. He invites them in like any good person would do so that they can use his Wi-Fi, but this turns out to be a huge mistake, as the psychotic pair set out to seduce him and systematically destroy every element of his idyllic life. To reveal any more would be to spoil the fun, but suffice it to say, it needs to be seen to be believed.

I watched it and was stunned.  Why would Keanu Reaves sign up for this film?  It is sadistic to the extreme.  Those low Rotten Tomatoes ratings and nature of the movie say a lot about viewer interest.  In a totally different way--prurient rather than cruel--seven years ago I report on Movie 43.  Here is the opening quote:

I just saw the most pornographic, shocking, funny and surprising film I've ever experienced.  Did you know that Hugh Jackman, Gerard Butler, Dennis Quaid, Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Emma Stone, Terrance Howard, Liev Schreiber, Uma Thurman, Jason Sudeikis, Gregg Kinnear, Seth MacFarlane, Naomi Watts Kate Winslet, three real NBA stars and others, are all in this same movie?

Rotten Tomatoes gave 4/24 ratings to this flick.

Let me move on to a few Hispanic efforts, with ratings by Rotten Tomatoes.  N means Netflix and P for Prime.

• 
  Taco Chronicles:  (N) about food.
• 100% from reviewers and 94% from audiences in Season 1
• no review yet from Season 2
• I love tacos, but recently have shifted to simplifying the process.  All my life, I liked those I personally made, with crisp tortillas I carefully fried in olive oil.  But the mixture kept falling out of the "sandwich."  Now, I skip this part because it's a hassle, and just add all those additives and various hot sauces to a large salad topped with Fritos.  

• 
  Money Heist: (N) a heck of a robbery.
• The first three parts got 100% ratings.
• Part 4 only got 75%, while Part 5 hasn't yet been filmed.
• One of the more addictive series I've watched.  I highly recommend you give this one a chance.

• 
  Elite:  (N) about an exclusive school in Spain overwhelmed by events, natural and man-made.
• Seasons 2 and 3 at 100% and S1 at 92.  S4 not rated yet.
• Haven't watched it.

• 
  Green Frontier:  (N) beauty of the jungle, murder, ghosts, indigenous culture?
• Eight episodes rated 100%/100%.
• Haven't seen this series yet, but will soon.

From Germany, I just completed watching two 100% seasons of Counterpart (P) I earlier summarized last week.  Wow.  Challenging, compelling, twisting, you name it.  I very highly recommend your focusing on this Netflix series as soon as possible.  JK Simmons is fabulous, as is the whole cast.  Truly creative writing.  My posting tomorrow will be linked to the tantalizing scientific concept advanced in this series, which, surprisingly, was not re-signed to season 3 by STARZ.  I would think, though, that even if the subject matter is eclectic, some sponsor will be found.

The first season of Babylon Berlin (N) got 100/95 ratings by Rotten Tomatoes.  Season 2 audiences gave it a 98 score.  I'm still in S1.  The birth of the Nazi Nation.  Police/spy drama.  Rated for those 17+.  Supposedly the most expensive non-English RV program ever made.

Here is a list of the top rated German productions on Netflix and Amazon Prime:

• #1  Dark: (N) 95/95--S1 89 / S2 100 / S3 97

Dark is set in a German town in present day where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families.

• 
  #2  Biohackers:  (N) 100/82

Mia goes to medical school to get close to a professor she suspects had a hand in her past family tragedy and gets tangled in the world of biohacking.

• #3  How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast):  (N) Audience 94

To win back his ex-girlfriend, a nerdy teen starts selling ecstasy online out of his bedroom -- and becomes one of Europe's biggest dealers.

• #4  Babylon Berlin:  (N) 100/95

Inspector Gereon Rath, shell-shocked from his service in World War I, uncovers a dangerous web of intrigue when he investigates an underground porn ring.

• 
  #5  Last Word:  (N) ?
• #6  Perfume:  (N) Audience 72

Three murders.  Same disfigurement.  something to do with sense of smell.

• #7  Charite':  (N) Audience 100, 2 seasons, about life at a hospital.

Activities in a famous Berlin Hospital between 1943-45.

• #8  Charite' at War:  (N) Audience 100, same, but during war.

• 
  #9  Dogs of Berlin:  (N) Audience 87

Dogs of Berlin tells the story of two contrasting Berlin police detectives who become a team against their will -- and are forced into a territorial battle with the Berlin underworld that confronts them with their own human weaknesses and criminal activities -- and into a final decision on ...

• #10  Old Money:  (N) ?

Song #37 is The Blue Danube, On (or By) the Beautiful Blue Danube in German,  was composed by Johann Strauss II in 1866 for the Paris World Fair the following year.  A typical performance lasts 10 minutes.  It has become the Austrian national anthem.  The most popular waltz ever?  Aptly used in the 1968 film 2001:  A Space Odyssey.

Some complain that the Danube is gray.  Apparently, on a clear day there is a section going right by Vienna that looks blue.  Here is a photo I took while having lunch.  Blue enough for me.

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