What movies are you watching? (2021)

Netflix?

Don’t think so. I got it off Apple TV.

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Dune. A must-see. Amazing cinematography and across the board great performances. Get to the IMAX.

I wish I felt the same way, and I wish I’d seen The Green Knight instead! (That one was only playing in the morning yesterday.)

I thought Dune was fine, but disappointing. Often looks grand, absolutely! Some marvelous scale moments (surprisingly, not so much with the sandworms). But the visuals didn’t quite click for me - long lingering shots like in Villeneuve’s Blade Runner, but drained of all color; cool starship visuals like in Arrival, but in Arrival those scenes worked so well because of the juxtaposition with our own world.

Portentous. So portentous. This moment? The Zimmer score LOUDLY tells you it’s portentous. So is this moment! And this moment too! All two and a half hours is in fact portentous! And particularly portentous points of prophecy presumably pivotal to the plot - with distorted sound and music which had me remembering “Oh yeah, this is why I always have subtitles turned on.” I barely have a clue what people were saying for big stretches, and what clues I do have were from the Chinese subtitles (and my Chinese is crap). I dunno, maybe I just shouldn’t bother with theaters.

Great cast underused. I thought insanely charismatic Oscar Isaac would make Leto more interesting and appealing. Nope, not really. I don’t understand the choice to make Jessica look confused for such big stretches. Chalamet did well as Paul, except that I saw Little Women recently and kept thinking of Laurie. Jason Momoa appeared (Duncan Idaho), and I thought, “Oh, finally maybe there will be something a bit less portentous?” Eh, not really. I’m fond of the book but when big moments happened I just didn’t really care.

Javier Bardem and Zendaya are underused for logical reasons, in that they’re only barely introduced in this part of the novel, and will have much bigger roles in the theoretical Part 2.

I’ve been meaning for ages to go back and watch the Lynch version. I have fonder memories of its insanity than what seems to have become critical consensus - supposedly that film makes no sense, but I’m not sure if Villeneuve’s version makes much more sense. It feels like there’s a big chunk of the Harkonnen / Empire / Atreides machinations missing, but perhaps that’s because I missed big stretches of dialogue.

Weirdest moment was Doctor Yueh speaking with an East Asian accent, and then communicating in secret with Paul in Chinese. This is the year 10,000 [says so at the start], and I’ve just been assuming of course they’re not “really” speaking English (and the written language we see on texts isn’t English), but now that they’re suddenly introducing a different real present-day language, so what am I supposed to think is linguistically happening? I dunno, maybe it’s just me, and in a way that was the part of the movie that engaged me the most in a “WTF?!” sense.

I’ve seen reviews that claim you can follow the new movie fine if you don’t know the books. I’m skeptical of that claim. If you’re a fan of the book or of Villeneuve, it’s good to see; otherwise, I don’t think I’d recommend it.

Oh, and in the “taking itself too seriously” vein, there was a James Bond trailer - I assume it’s also online. Boy that franchise does not seem to know what to do with itself.

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Totally agree. I can’t believe they think people actually want to sit through a 2 hour 45 minute Bond film. Bond should be fast and fun like a roller coaster ride, not some almost 3 hour slog fest. I have a feeling this one won’t be worth the wait (originally supposed to hit theaters almost 2 years ago if you can believe it).

I think they need to do something innovative with the franchise. Maybe make a new film take place in the 1960s.

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That was an Austin Powers movie

edit: i just saw the starbucks in that frame, franchise pun totally unintended!

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I’ve wondered if Austin Powers did the same sort of long-lasting damage to Bond as Blazing Saddles did to the western.

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and badgers (oh wait, that was UHF)

Two words; Forgiven

The Western was a lost cause in the late 70s…but it survived fine. Doc Holiday. Even Bare Back Mountain. The genre expanded. The JOhn Wayne remake was killer.

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Oh, it absolutely survived, and it’s still around (with some excellent films!), but it changed - and I’m not sure if it’s ever been as prominent as it once was. Once people would ask “What’s the latest western?”, and now it’s “What’s the latest superhero flick?”

Maybe @DrewC is on the right track with putting Bond back in the 60s or 70s. The basic premise of a spy running around saving the world seems old-fashioned these days, and doesn’t really match contemporary visions of how the world works (not that it was all that accurate back then either). I dunno, to me at this stage a super-spy foiling a plot to save today’s world is a bit like a cowboy riding down Zhongxiao Road to bring law and order to town - just a weird anachronism.

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Yeah, almost every Bond movie since the 90s has had to insert a line about him being a “dinosaur” or “relic” of a different time. Well, why not just put him back in that time then? They don’t have to be clones of the Sean Connery movies. They can be reinterpretations of the original Fleming books, but something about the Bond formula needs to be shaken (not stirred) and it needs to be something deeper than just stunt-casting (like having a black guy or a woman play him).

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Thanks. I’ll just wait for the Max torrent then.

Well that’s disappointing. I was really looking forward to this one. I’ll still see it, because Dune, but I was hoping to be dazzled.

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A lot of the reviews are much more positive about it than I am - hopefully you’ll enjoy it more. Could be my expectations were just too high.

Note as well this is very much Part 1, and I don’t think they did a particularly good job at making it an interesting film on its own (not as good as Fellowship of the Ring, for example). My opinion may change when / if Part 2 is released. Or, for that matter, if I rewatch it with English subtitles.

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All the Dune adaptations so far have set a pretty low bar, so maybe I’ll end up liking it, ha. I did like the Lynch version for atmosphere, but the storytelling was so flawed that it just didn’t make for a cohesive whole.

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I got hbomax for cheap for six months. Watched Cry Macho. Kind of a throwback westernish movie. No silly Hollywood plot curves. Just straight story. Not bad, but… some major characters lacked depth.

Ok, watched Malignant. Hum, yeah. Ok. If we had a peak woke horror movie thread, this would be a good jumping off point. :laughing:

Kill all the cops in Seattle and imprison men In mental cages, but not before matricide and slaughtering a cell full of very diverse violent women. Jesus.

Watched Candyman last night. Cinematography is decent, but all of Jordan Peele’s racism nonsense feels very forced and ridiculous. The ending was a joke

I find the horror movie genre a great place to vent the woke stuff.

I’ve never seen an American horror film as terrifying as J-horror classics like’ Ju On’ or ‘The Audition.’ Although ‘Hereditary’ came close.

Yes, most recent Hollywood “Horror” is garbage, especially if it’s slapped with a PG-13.

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Halloween is coming.

I’m thinking to start watching shows now for the hell. And fun.