Movies

[Rick]

Wife and eye saw the original Wizard of Oz yesterday. Interesting 1939 movie. Seemed longer when I was a kid.

[Stargrunt6]

7 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I did like Alexander. Guilty pleasure perhaps.

I might give it a chance.  Vangelis' music in it was awesome.

[Ivanhoe]

[Stargrunt6]

On 11/30/2023 at 5:48 AM, Rick said:

Wife and eye saw the original Wizard of Oz yesterday. Interesting 1939 movie. Seemed longer when I was a kid.

The production history is quite morbid in spite of the gaiety of the movie. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

12 hours ago, Stargrunt6 said:

The production history is quite morbid in spite of the gaiety of the movie. 

Yeah, about that...

[Ivanhoe]

Compare and contrast 1986 vs 2022;

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls062528373/

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls099693310/

Subjective, of course. But 100 years from now, people will still be watching:

Aliens, Platoon, Blue Velvet, Stand By Me, The Hitcher, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Fly, Top Gun, Hoosiers, Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, Heartbreak Ridge, Crocodile Dundee, etc.

 

 

 

[TrustMe]

Amazon to make Warhammer 40K movies.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67753779

[Ssnake]

A woke, gender-fluid Warhammer variant?

 

[TrustMe]

13 hours ago, Ssnake said:

A woke, gender-fluid Warhammer variant?

 

They can't do worse than The Ring of Power.

[bojan]

13 hours ago, Ssnake said:

....gender-fluid Warhammer variant?

That is called "elves" in every fantasy setting.

Edited December 20, 2023 by bojan

[TonyE]

Two (!!!) new movies about the sinking of the german heavy cruiser Blücher seem to be in preparation in Norway: "Blücher" and "Natt til niende" ("Night of the ninth").

[Stuart Galbraith]

The Man from Uncle does SOE. Ding Dong.

 

[Stargrunt6]

On 12/20/2023 at 4:53 AM, TrustMe said:

They can't do worse than The Ring of Power.

 

[Der Zeitgeist]

Dune Part 2 currently sits at 97% at Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[Stargrunt6]

So I just saw Dune 2.

Theater was packed, people applauded at certain points, otherwise dead ass quiet.

It was amazing. It did different things with the plot, some more welcomed than others. Otherwise who wants to hear a cover song played note by note?

Acting was mostly good, Josh Brolin redeemed himself, Javier Bardem gets the game ball AGAIN from me. Austin Butler did amazing, I like some things they did with his character, but not others.  His character has a more active role in this version, which I do like. What I don't is that they made him a psychopathic cannibal.

Soundtrack was immense and outstanding, Herr Zimmer comes through again.

Sets and consumes are still kinda bland for the most part. Giedi Prime was amazing in some aspects, but not others (black and white, zzz). 

I absolutely enjoy the different languages spoken in these films. It fleshes out the world a lot and makes it seem more realistic. 

No spoilers. But they definitely ended on a sequel hook.

Edited February 26, 2024 by Stargrunt6

[Ssnake]

I for one am looking forward to seeing at least novels 3 & 4 being brought onto the screen just so we see the story advance. I shall do my consumer duty by watching it at least once in theaters, possibly twice, and getting it on disc just so they can't steal it from me whenever movie execs feel like it.

[sunday]

There are the miniseries.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287839/

[Ssnake]

Yes, and as much as I respect them for trying, it's only gradually better than the Soviet TV Lord of the Rings production compared to Peter Jackson's. Dune needs a budget as epic as its story.

[Stargrunt6]

8 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Yes, and as much as I respect them for trying, it's only gradually better than the Soviet TV Lord of the Rings production compared to Peter Jackson's. Dune needs a budget as epic as its story.

Too bad they spent most of the budget on a flat, miscast, and drunken Will Hurt. They probably spent too much on Jean Paul Gaultier to design the laughable costumes, too.

Otherwise, until Villaneuve came along, it handled the plot and backsetting the best. It made positive changes to some characters like Irulan and Feyd, giving them a more involced role in the story.  Villenueve's Dune 2 does the same.

[Yama]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:19 PM, Der Zeitgeist said:

Dune Part 2 currently sits at 97% at Rotten Tomatoes.

That rating has lot of "new epic hype" thing going on.

For first two hours, I was totally going for five-star rating. Pacing was bit faster than in the first one, 'being there' feeling was right...well, there, I loved the environment and Paul's conflict with his role and the route Jessica was pushing him towards was well done. Paul's character was bit less cynical in the movie than in the book, but I did not mind it.

However the last 45 minutes has the movie collapsing upon itself. Storytelling becomes incredibly compressed, and none of the plot points resolve in satisfying way. All the Harkonnen's are killed in incredibly anticlimatic fashion. All the Sardaukar are unceremoniously killed offscreen. They also compressed the timeline, Alia is not even born during the movie! I guess that a talking baby would have been creepy, but what's even the point of her character if she is not shown or given anything to do except talk via Jessica?

I am really miffed, as the ending ruins otherwise nearly perfect movie, it felt exactly like last season of Game of Thrones. This really should have been two movies of two hours, rather than one three-hour movie.

[Stuart Galbraith]

I got to be honest, I just watched part 1 on Netflix, and whilst I accept it loses a lot on the small screen (admittedly HD), I was kinda disappointed with it. There isnt what I would call a stirring musical score. The Desert scenes look great, but hardly comparable to Lawrence of Arabia. The acting is great, but the dialogue is flat. Its certainly not bad, but its hardly the huge step forward over the 1984 Dune which certainly looked magnificent even on a small screen, and clearly had its positives (Like Patrick Stewart, in combat, toting a Pug, heart plugs, Sting dying in a knife fight etc etc) Even relatively minor characters in the original film like Dr Wellington Yueh were given some gravitas. In this version they are dull and lifeless, extraordinary in that they are the pivot on which the whole story turns.

I dont get the hype. I was even disappointed that after making so much of doing a cover of Pink Floyds 'Eclipse' for use in the Trailer, they didnt even use it in the film.

[Ssnake]

While I admire the Lynch film for what it is, it most certainly has severe deficits too. There's no explanation for the navigator guild (Butler's Jihad is omitted as background info), they invented the sound module as a shortcut to bypass other plot diversions; the last 20 minutes of the story are very rushed (probably because there was no budget left for decent battle scenes). While I like the looks of the Lynch sandworms, the new ones' attack from the bottom makes a lot more sense. The new ornithopters appear more convincing.

Lynch's film is often savored for, well, the Lynch parts of the film, which are very free interpretations from the novel. The bong coffins of the navigators and their hideous looks are certainly one of those things; Baron Harkonnen's appearance and overacting is another.

 

I agree, Lawrence of Arabia had much better desert scenes; that's also my main point of contention with Villeneuve's film. The desert scenes would have required more heat blur; in fact, the insistence of the pt 1 palace guards that Leto must stop admiring his city and come inside so they can close the massive sun shutters is wholly unconvincing.

However, I want this to succeed so that we'll see books 2, 3, 4 turned into movies and we finally advance the whole story, rather than have just a two-part film of the ground that Lynch covered. So I keep my fingers crossed for some later director's cut that un-rushes the final half hour of the second movie, and that we'll get to see parts three to eight in the next fifteen years or so.

[sunday]

Saw the movie yesterday in a large screen cinema, not an IMAX unfortunately, with a movies-connoisseur friend. We both liked it, especially the work of that Bardem wokist.

He was surprised to find Christopher Walken still working, as he remembered watching him in The Deer Hunter back when that movie was premiered. Also, he found the plot a bit confusing, as he is not into the Dune universe. He thought the movie as pretty good, but he still prefers Lord of the Rings. Me too.

Music was a bit annoying at times, but perhaps a Lawrence of Arabia-type score would have not be proper for an alien world populated by gigantic killer worms. Battle scenes were mostly convincing, that infantry Zerg-rush thing excepted. The ride of the worms a bit before was adequately epic.

I liked the hardware design. Aircraft and spacecraft both. Worm's teeth looked more like hairs or bristles that true teeth. Director surely loves his flamethrowers!

On the woke part, it was noted that all Harkonnen population, and all the Sardaukars were lily-white, Nordic types, while there was an Asiatic-looking Atreides fighter. Fremen were, of course, diverse and inclusive, with Arabic touches.

I agree with @Yama on the ending being rushed, but that is common to the rest of the movie - for instance, Alia only appears in a dream sequence, instead of being the force that she is in the books and in the Lynch movie.

[Stuart Galbraith]

4 hours ago, Ssnake said:

While I admire the Lynch film for what it is, it most certainly has severe deficits too. There's no explanation for the navigator guild (Butler's Jihad is omitted as background info), they invented the sound module as a shortcut to bypass other plot diversions; the last 20 minutes of the story are very rushed (probably because there was no budget left for decent battle scenes). While I like the looks of the Lynch sandworms, the new ones' attack from the bottom makes a lot more sense. The new ornithopters appear more convincing.

Lynch's film is often savored for, well, the Lynch parts of the film, which are very free interpretations from the novel. The bong coffins of the navigators and their hideous looks are certainly one of those things; Baron Harkonnen's appearance and overacting is another.

 

I agree, Lawrence of Arabia had much better desert scenes; that's also my main point of contention with Villeneuve's film. The desert scenes would have required more heat blur; in fact, the insistence of the pt 1 palace guards that Leto must stop admiring his city and come inside so they can close the massive sun shutters is wholly unconvincing.

However, I want this to succeed so that we'll see books 2, 3, 4 turned into movies and we finally advance the whole story, rather than have just a two-part film of the ground that Lynch covered. So I keep my fingers crossed for some later director's cut that un-rushes the final half hour of the second movie, and that we'll get to see parts three to eight in the next fifteen years or so.

For me, the saving graces of it are the technical aspects (I would agree the Ornithopters are very convincing), and the performances. I think Chalomet is a damn good actor (I think he was pretty good in that very free and liberal adaptation of Henry V), and I think Rebecca Fergusson is really damn good in it. Like she is in most things to be fair. Zendaya, she hardly says anything in part one, let alone do anything other than glower. Maybe she is more convincing in part 2 with more material, I dont know.

But at least on the basis of part 1, I dont think this is the ultimate adaptation. Maybe there never will be. This is after all something like the 3rd version now. Lord of the Rings got it right in 2.

Supposedly there is a fan edit of the 1984 version up on youtube, that incorporate as LOT of material that was jettisoned before release. Ive got a feeling that might be an interesting viewing. More Combat Pugs hopefully.

[Ssnake]

1 minute ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Supposedly there is a fan edit of the 1984 version up on youtube, that incorporate as LOT of material that was jettisoned before release.

I'd like to see proof of existence; there's always been the myth that there were hours lost in the editing, but this has always been categorically rejected by Lynch and others who were directly involved. Lynch kept shooting until he ran out of money, then assembled what he had, and that was it. Is, at least, the conventional wisdom up to this point.