Movies

[Der Zeitgeist]

3 hours ago, sunday said:

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.

So, was it woke enough for you?

[sunday]

https://arkhavencomics.com/2024/03/03/the-dark-herald-recommends-dune/

Edited March 3, 2024 by sunday

[Stuart Galbraith]

2 hours ago, Ssnake said:

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.

Ive not watched it, so I cant comment. But its like 3 hours long, so there must be some monkey magic going on somewhere...

 

[Ssnake]

Well, thanks, 41 minutes extra. Okay, I'll give it a look. This is interesting!

[Ivanhoe]

I've only watched the 1st Harry Potter movie, and don't really care for the HPU, but this gal popped up on my Youtube feed, and she cracks me up;

 

[Stargrunt6]

Lookit that, Baron's a bruv, trust.

 

 

[sunday]

https://arkhavencomics.com/2024/03/04/the-dark-herald-recommends-dune-ii/

[Ivanhoe]

Not exactly a recent movie, but Tubi TV has a bunch of Humphrey Bogart movies on tap of late.

I've watched The Maltese Falcon and In a Lonely Place the last couple of weeks. The latter I thought was a really good movie, the much more ballyhooed Maltese Falcon not so much.

After watching In a Lonely Place, I read a couple of articles about Bogart. One article said that his friends/acquaintances from Hollywood maintained that his character in In a Lonely Place was the closest a character came to his real personality.

In a way, I think that The Caine Mutiny might have been Bogart's best acting work. Kinda ballsy to play a mentally ill antihero after decades of leading man roles.

Watching some of those old classics, I have realized there were some A-list actresses who were both beautiful and could really act. Gloria Grahame and Ava Gardner for example.

[Stuart Galbraith]

If you havent seen it, might be worth watching 'Passage to Marseille', which I thought was reasonably good faire when I saw it about 3 decades ago. Perhaps its aged since of course.

Yes, been getting Gloria Grahame pop up on my Twitter feed a lot lately. She did a creditable turn  in 'The Man who never was'.

 

 

[rmgill]

On 2/26/2024 at 1:59 PM, Stargrunt6 said:

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.

As much as they get wrong or not great with the costumes, they get Leto II and Ghanima, the Weirding Way, the Sand Trout/spice/worm/ecology, the golden path and the possession of Alia by her Grandfather just right., 

[rmgill]

On 3/3/2024 at 6:16 AM, sunday said:

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.

Arrakis was settled, iirc by a large population from the arab/middle eastern world, but with a synergy of Zen-Sunni religious folks. Which implies some Asian influence. 

The known galaxy had a great deal of moving around and one could expect populations to homogenize in isolation and then mix and then homogenize again. The pre-spacing guild human diaspora would have had some very isolated pockets of humanity and then with the Cymeks and the tyranny of Omnius, movemnet would be very constrained. 

On 3/3/2024 at 6:16 AM, sunday said:

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.

I feel that in Dune 1984, Paul is too old initially but the correct age later. It's supposed to be several years. Not less than 9 months from the death of the old Duke Leto to when the Emporer is deposed. 

Likewise in Dune 2021, Paul is the correct age at the beginning but not old enough at the end of the 1st book. Theres to have been enough time for Alia to have been born, Leto II (The older) to be born, then captured and killed, then Paul becomes Emporer. In children of Dune, Chani gives birth to Leto and Ghanima but dies in child birth with both children being prescient/pre-born due to the amount of spice AND their genetics of their father. 

Leto II (the younger) and Ghanima backstop each other from, madness while their Aunt is overtaken by the ancestor personality of her grandfather.

[rmgill]

14 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

 

Watching some of those old classics, I have realized there were some A-list actresses who were both beautiful and could really act. Gloria Grahame and Ava Gardner for example.

Have you tried the Thin Man Series? 
 

 

[Stargrunt6]

1 hour ago, rmgill said:

As much as they get wrong or not great with the costumes, they get Leto II and Ghanima, the Weirding Way, the Sand Trout/spice/worm/ecology, the golden path and the possession of Alia by her Grandfather just right., 

I need to watch CoD. I even bought it, but gave it and a ton of my stuff away during a move.

At least the mini series had the banquet scene and soemthing like Feyd's bday, even if they took liberties.

I reread those scenes in the book a lot btw.

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

4 hours ago, rmgill said:

Have you tried the Thin Man Series? 
 

 

 

Not yet, I am still grinding through the numerous Raymond Chandler flicks.

One of my favs in Noir is Pickup on South Street. Having recently finished my book about George Koval, I need to watch Pickup on South Street again.

 

 

[Stargrunt6]

Is the Grate Site updated on the Cerveza Cristal meme?

https://twitter.com/search?q=Cerveza Cristal &src=typed_query

 

[TrustMe]

Finally got round to see Dune 2. I tought the script was different from the book but it wasn't very good. The acting was uneven and some of the actors were miscast like christipher walker as the emperor.

I don't intend to by the 4K version when it comes out.

[Ssnake]

It may not have been as good as the first one, but it wasn't terrible at all. Sure, Alia's absence was a bit of a let-down in the sense that the timeline presented in the moviue is now warped in a not-so-good way. Vladimir Harkonnen's plan to present mild-mannered Feyd Rautha as the benevolent alternative to stupid and cruel Raban to pacify Arrakis wouldn't have cost much to mention, which takes away a good deal of his high intelligence (rather, his final minutes make him appear rather dumb).

Still, I can't say that I agree with the early criticism that the last thirty minutes felt rushed. To me the pacing was good throughout the whole film. Riding the Shai Hulud definitely looked more exciting and dangerous than in the Lynch version, though maybe they were a tad fast (especially in the absence of a wiggly tail to propel the whole monster). Hey, Herbert's source material is a rather peculiar mix of fantasy and hard science-fiction, with a good portion of Foundation and Lawrence of Arabia thrown into the blender.

The biggest fault, I think, lies in not explaining that you can't use force shields on the ground because it attracts sandworms, and that you can't shoot force shields with rayguns because, thermonuclear explosion. If you aren't aware of those premises, you keep scratching your head about seemingly uneven use of them in the various battle scenes.

[Ivanhoe]

On 3/11/2024 at 2:59 AM, Stuart Galbraith said:

If you havent seen it, might be worth watching 'Passage to Marseille', which I thought was reasonably good faire when I saw it about 3 decades ago. Perhaps its aged since of course.

Yes, been getting Gloria Grahame pop up on my Twitter feed a lot lately. She did a creditable turn  in 'The Man who never was'.

 

Sadly, neither is available on any of the free channels I frequent, at least ATM.

 

[Ivanhoe]

You Dunatics do not have me convinced, but I may very well pick up the Blu-Ray eventually, simply to watch Zendaya.

Now if Hollywood decides to remake the Return of the Jedi with Zendaya playing Princess Leia in the bronze bikini, well that's a whole different kettle of fish.

 

 

[TrustMe]

error post

Edited March 14, 2024 by TrustMe

[Stuart Galbraith]

15 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

Sadly, neither is available on any of the free channels I frequent, at least ATM.

 

Passage to Marseille is on youtube, but you will need a google account to buy it.

 

 

Man who never was pops up a lot on ok.ru channels, although tbh, im not sure how secure that is...

[lucklucky]

Does playing James Bond gives a long life?

Roger Moore died 89 yrs. old  - he was actually older then Connery

Sean Connery died 90.

George Lazenby still going 84. 

Timothy Dalton still going 78.

Edited April 7, 2024 by lucklucky

[Stuart Galbraith]

David Niven made it to 'only' 73. Peter Sellars pegged out at 54. Not that the original Casino Royale is must regarded these days, but they both played James Bond.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(1967_film)

Its quite interesting to go back to the novels. Bond in 'Moonraker' is protrayed as a chancer with a deathwish, whom resigns himself to a job where his lifespan is likely going to draw to a rapid end, without seemingly much regret. Whcih is painfully ironic, with so many of them turning into old men.

 

[lucklucky]

Those don't count, they are not part of the canon. 😝

[Ivanhoe]

On 3/14/2024 at 8:28 AM, Stuart Galbraith said:

Passage to Marseille is on youtube, but you will need a google account to buy it.

Walmart has the DVD online for 12 bucks, but $74.63/lb seems a bit pricy;