I saw the Dune miniseries and Children of Dune. They might be more accurate to the book than Lynch's, but I didn't think either of them was especially good. I did think they handled the speed of Paul and Leto II really well. Some decent effects.
It's been several years since I saw the two mini-series, but I remember liking them a lot. Maybe because they tried to follow the books more closely and I have read the series of books twice. But I also liked Lynch's version. I'm for sure looking forward to the new movie.
I've read most of Lynch's Dune stuff, and I've enjoyed some of it. I've read a lot of his son's work, too, and I think some of that is okay. My main critique of Herbert's writing is that he gets long-winded. My absolute favorite book of his is Chapterhouse: Dune. I think it's brilliant. So, I don't mind that Lynch took some liberties with the film. I think that he way he treated the Weirding Module is the coolest thing in sci-fi, better than the lightsaber.
Wanted to take a minute to give Bruce some love. Really sad he's having to hang it up because of aphasia. I've been really rough on his career choices as a day player these past 5 years or so, but now it makes so much more sense. He wasn't in the IRS boat Cage was in and he didn't age out of the business like Sly and Arnold because Bruce could handle the drama work and knew how to use his words. His words were as effective as the muscles of his action contemporaries in the 80s/90s. So that makes the fact that he lost that even more tragic. I think he gave us the greatest single action hero and action film ever (and the best Christmas movie) in Die Hard. His wit and everyman-ness made him relatable in ways that Sly and Arnie never were. Some of my other favorites of his: Moonlighting, Last Boy Scout, Pulp Fiction, 6th Sense, Jackal, Sin City, Lucky Number Slevin, and his guest spot on Friends. The fact that he worked with both Shane Black and QT is just a testament to how well he could deliver words on the page. Going to miss him and I wish we got a better farewell because Looper was the last really solid movie we got from him.
Recently watched the following: Midsommar, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, The Witch Absolutely loved all of them, found them a very refreshing take on the horror genre. Even if “horror” might only loosely apply to some of these, they were still just all around well crafted movies. Lots of interesting themes, great acting and cinematography, and very trippy. Anyone have any suggestions for movies that remind you of any of these 4? I had done some searching for horror movie recommendations and also heard some good things about The Babadook and It Follows, which I also just watched. These were also good movies, but didn’t quite scratch the same itch as the first 4 I listed.
It Follows is a masterpiece! Babadook is like Hereditary, really. It's very well done. Ari Aster makes some complicated films that are usually brilliant and way too much to take in with just one watch. I thought VVitch was pretty darn good, too. I haven't seen Lighthouse. It's hard for me to bring myself to watch it. I've been watching a ton of horror films lately. Let me come up with a list for you!
Have you seen The Invitation? I'd recommend starting with that one. Even if you don't like it at 15 minutes, keep watching.
I already had Mother! on my list of horror/psychological thrillers to watch next, and had ended up skimming through the past few pages of this thread where I saw Weezy’s comment here. That was enough to convince me to watch it, so I went ahead and finished it last night. I think it was similar to the other movies I listed in the sense that it was so trippy and you don’t really have any idea where it’s going to go next, but I may have ruined it a bit for myself in terms of the expectations I went in with. I was thinking it would be a home invasion horror movie, when it really was more of “The Bible: The Movie” Still enjoyed it overall though and probably need to spend some more time thinking/reading about it. I haven’t heard of that one, I’ll add it to my list, thanks! Some other movies I’ve been contemplating are “It Comes At Night” and “Suspiria”. The latter, I’m not sure if it’ll be my cup of tea but mainly interested because apparently Thom Yorke did the music for it.
I didn't like "It Comes at Night." I think it was tricky advertising. You'll see if you watch it. I'm one of (I guess) the few who likes both the original Suspiria and the remake.
Ok, ended up watching The Invitation last night, and thought it was excellent! Pretty much had me gripped the whole way through Spoiler Went back and read some discussions about the movie and was surprised to see some mixed reactions online. At least on Reddit, there seemed to be a good amount of people complaining that it was “boring” with most of the movie just mundane dinner conversations, or complaints that the characters were unrealistic for not picking up on some of the odd things going on. I couldn’t disagree more. I may have even enjoyed the movie more in the first half before **** hit the fan, because the way the odd behavior of the hosts subtly added tension to the otherwise mundane party was done so well. I also thought the characters and dialogue were really well done and realistic. Yes it’s obvious to the viewer that there was something weird going on, but when you’re with friends it’s easy to push aside those concerns and tell yourself everything is okay. But I also really enjoyed how the movie makes you start to question whether we’re seeing the story from the perspective of an unreliable narrator who is still grieving. Whether all the red flags about the party were just in his head. I have been in a very similar situation where I had reunited with a friend after not seeing him in several years and spent the night in his house with a few other friends. For whatever reason, I got the vibe that the host wasn’t all there mentally anymore and I felt very uneasy. There were moments where he was the old friend I knew, but moments where bursts of anger came out of nowhere. I don’t know why, but couldn’t shake the feeling that I should sleep with one eye open. But nevertheless I carried on outwardly like everything was fine and just like the good old days, as did the rest of my friends there. Nothing serious ended up happening that night, but later found out the rest of my friends had the same bad vibes as I did but were similarly trying to hide it to avoid conflict. Later found out that friend who was hosting got kicked out of an academic program for threats of violence. So I think that’s probably why the movie struck a chord with me.
The Northman was great, I think at this point I’m officially a Robert Eggers fan and will look forward to anything he puts out. This one was not AS bizarre and off the wall as The Lighthouse, probably on paper a more typical Hollywood plot and setting. In fact when I first saw the trailer a few months ago before I had watched The Witch/The Lighthouse and learned about Eggers, I had no interest. Viking movie about revenge? I assumed a typical blockbuster action movie. But nope, that couldn’t be further from the case. Well shot and acted with some epic and brutal action sequences, but still very off kilter and challenging. Next on my list to watch in theaters is Everything Everywhere All At Once, don’t know much about it but have heard some very good things from some friends
I heard 2000 Mules was amazing and eye opening. Not playing where I'm at, but love to hear feedback. *edit* Just found it online https://dinesh.locals.com/post/2083099/2000-mules
Top Gun Maverick: best thing I've seen this year. They never get the sequels right when decades have passed since the last one. This was the exception. They knocked it out of the park. Could be recency bias, but I think it is better than the original. This one had heart and emotion that the first didn't have because of how well it handled Maverick and Rooster's relationship. I didn't think Miles Teller looked much like Anthony Edwards before the movie, but he did great as Goose's son and looked the part. The action and flying kept you at the edge of your seat. Wish it would've been a full theater (saw it mid day today), because there were several crowd cheering moments that would've been fun to experience in a packed theater. If possible, see it in Dolby. Feeling the jet engines roar right out of the gates adds to the experience.
Watched the original Top Gun for the first time a few nights ago. Was trying to appreciate it for being iconic for its time… but I did not like it very much. Top Gun: Maverick? Might be my favorite movie theater experience since The Dark Knight.
I think IMDB has it right about the Top Gun movies. Original was okay, but cheesy. Maverick is simply a fun ride full of comedy, emotions and adrenaline.
I watched the original Top Gun over 100 times probably, in the 80s, until our VHS copy was absolutely ran ragged lol, plus a few times more on my DVD lol…So I would not miss TGM on the big screen, first time I entered the theater in 3 years. Boy it was a magnificent experience seeing Maverick fly jets again. Tom deserves an Oscar for his performance like Stallone should have won in Creed. With the awards tainted or stained by Weinstein, Tom winning will wipe the scandal off these trophies.
I've been enjoying some direct to streaming releases. The Prey - no spoilers for now. I thought it was mostly well done. Compelling story. Some very cool characters. And a beautiful dog They/Them - I watched it, enjoyed it, and then read the reviews. Wow. I honestly think people can't tell the difference between talking about a subject and endorsing the subject. Or, put another way, just because a film uses X to tell a story, that doesn't mean the story is really about X. Famous example: JR. Bonner is about a rodeo, but it's not about a rodeo. If you know what I mean.
