Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Totenkindly]

Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated 'Super Size Me' director, dies at 53

Morgan Spurlock, the Oscar-nominated director of 'Super Size Me,' has died at 53.

ew.com

His 30 Days series is also worth watching.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

This is on Peacock; I need ro watch this.

 

[Totenkindly]

Oh, random final stab at Madame Web -- even the product endorsements were shameless. (Most glaring is the Pepsi moment.)

 

[The Cat]

Of all the things Madame Webb can see coming, she sure didnt seem to see the network executives coming.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched Dune 1 again, I'll watch the second part either late tonight or tomorrow.

I like the film a lot in general, but I really love the first half / intro material, setting up all the characters and the narrative arc. I think it's pretty elegant in how it manages to humanize and sketch everyone out. Some of my favorite material are the relationship moments. It is really clear that Leto and Jessica both desperately love their son, and also how Duncan and Gurney both love and care about him. Jessica and Leto also love each other, but Leto is feeling both optimistic and doomed.

Jessica definitely can manipulate, but she's more than just the Bene Gesserit, she's a lover (consort if not technically a wife) and mother. Ferguson sells Jessica so well -- firm and calculating, but also very attached to Leto and Paul. There's a few moments when Paul faces death in this film and it just cracks Jessica wide open -- you can tell how terrified she is under the surface that she might lose him. It's devastating when Paul opens the cloth and sees his father's ring -- and a minute later, Duncan rushes to him to hug him and call him by his first name, then formally kneels and pledges himself to "his lord duke."

"Elegant" is a word i like to use, having read part of the book now. The film manages to cull things way back but still manages to evoke the feeling and the essence of the story. Like stated in an earlier post, I think the most character modification I saw was for Gurney, who seems far less whimsical in the film and his extremity is what is reinforced -- harsh, direct, intense, with only a few lines quotes to signify that he is also very cultured (as he's the only one who shows himself to be well-read and has a quote for different things).

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I watched The Year Between yesterday.

This one is difficult to talk about, but I think it was worth the watch. The story is about a young woman named Clemence who drops out of college and moves back home and gets diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. The actress playing Clemence was also the writer and director.

I appreciated that they didn't make her attitude and behavior likable; she's a bully and a thief, and just generally offputting. She's not a quirky saint whose madness is more just eccentricty.

I also loved the way most of the characters express themselves so bluntly. The only exception is Steve Buscemi, the father, but even that slips on occasion.

 

[Totenkindly]

Finished Dune 2 last night. This was my second view (since I saw it once in the theater).

I have to say the home transfer is amazing, especially the sound -- I only had it at 50/100 (I usually put it at 50-60) and the sound palette is so diverse with enough bass frequencies that I could feel the air throb in some sequences (especially with the sandworms). The sound palette was really important for this film in particular and the 4K disc delivers.

I wish I felt as strongly about the rest of the film. It's still pretty decent, but I don't really feel a lot during, except maybe in the last quarter of the film -- unlike Part 1. Emotionally:

• They had so much plot to get through and characters that a lot of film feels more plot-based (moving people around), versus having time to focus on the relationships.
• I didn't feel like they really sold Chani and Paul's relationship well. Aside from Paul seeing Chani so much in his dreams, I didn't really feel like they had a lot of chemistry. I know Villeneuve said he struggled with the romantic dialogue, and while it is polished and far better than Star Wars (as an example, lol), it didn't really evoke much while I watched it.
• In fact, much of it is this way. I was hoping the Princess would make me feel something (since she's trapped in this political shitshow) and I really wanted to feel bad for her. Or maybe feel more about Feyd, since he was such a dichotomy -- savage and cruel on one level, honorable on another. So many of the characters, I never felt like I really got into.
• This includes Jessica, who I felt so much towards in Dune 1, but here she seems to go dark side pretty quickly and just seems obsessed with pushing Paul and the situation towards the jihad. Which is fine, but I wish it would have been tied to her loss of Leto or something really personal.

I guess Paul never really committed to the jihad until after drinking the Water of Life and could see everything laid out around him and realized it was really the only way through. Does that make him evil or bad, though? If it's survival and then justice for Atreides?

I really got Gurney. They did a little more with his silly music here, but it was very brief. But his emotions are palpable, and we know exactly why he is invested in all of this.

Of interest in the final knife fight, this time I started thinking about how the Bene Gesserit viewed Feyd as an option for their messiah figure and someone they could control, and he was also genetically bred for this. Well, I started to get the idea that maybe Feyd also has been having dreams and maybe those were also guiding him like Paul was being guided. This is primarily coming from how the Bene Gesserit viewed Feyd, but also from something Feyd said -- in the arena, he says, "You have fought well, Atreides" as he kills the last captive (winning that fight) but then repeats it verbatim fighting Paul, after he seemed to think he would win but then says it anyway. It reminds me of Paul's visions, where he saw himself die originally but ended up living; they seem to have second sight but it's only partial and not always accurate, until Paul drinks the Water of Life... and Paul never seems to doubt the outcome, he simply is hurt by what he knows it will cost him personally. [I didn't finish the book yet, so I don't know what Herbert wrote about that fight.]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Finished Dune 2 last night. This was my second view (since I saw it once in the theater).

I have to say the home transfer is amazing, especially the sound -- I only had it at 50/100 (I usually put it at 50-60) and the sound palette is so diverse with enough bass frequencies that I could feel the air throb in some sequences (especially with the sandworms). The sound palette was really important for this film in particular and the 4K disc delivers.

I wish I felt as strongly about the rest of the film. It's still pretty decent, but I don't really feel a lot during, except maybe in the last quarter of the film -- unlike Part 1. Emotionally:

• They had so much plot to get through and characters that a lot of film feels more plot-based (moving people around), versus having time to focus on the relationships.
• I didn't feel like they really sold Chani and Paul's relationship well. Aside from Paul seeing Chani so much in his dreams, I didn't really feel like they had a lot of chemistry. I know Villeneuve said he struggled with the romantic dialogue, and while it is polished and far better than Star Wars (as an example, lol), it didn't really evoke much while I watched it.
• In fact, much of it is this way. I was hoping the Princess would make me feel something (since she's trapped in this political shitshow) and I really wanted to feel bad for her. Or maybe feel more about Feyd, since he was such a dichotomy -- savage and cruel on one level, honorable on another. So many of the characters, I never felt like I really got into.

It seems like she's angry about what her father did, so maybe marrying Paul wasn't that bad for her.

• This includes Jessica, who I felt so much towards in Dune 1, but here she seems to go dark side pretty quickly and just seems obsessed with pushing Paul and the situation towards the jihad. Which is fine, but I wish it would have been tied to her loss of Leto or something really personal.

I guess Paul never really committed to the jihad until after drinking the Water of Life and could see everything laid out around him and realized it was really the only way through. Does that make him evil or bad, though? If it's survival and then justice for Atreides?

I'm not 100% sure what makes him change his mind in the book, but he saw all the futures before drinking the water of life. I think it had something to do with just consuming a certain amount of spice. He realized at that point that he became addicted to it and could never leave Arrakis. At this point, he didn't want to face the road that would result in him killing his own grandfather, though. The changing of his path might have been related to the death of his own son, Leto II, which wasn't shown in the movie.

I really got Gurney. They did a little more with his silly music here, but it was very brief. But his emotions are palpable, and we know exactly why he is invested in all of this.

Of interest in the final knife fight, this time I started thinking about how the Bene Gesserit viewed Feyd as an option for their messiah figure and someone they could control, and he was also genetically bred for this. Well, I started to get the idea that maybe Feyd also has been having dreams and maybe those were also guiding him like Paul was being guided. This is primarily coming from how the Bene Gesserit viewed Feyd, but also from something Feyd said -- in the arena, he says, "You have fought well, Atreides" as he kills the last captive (winning that fight) but then repeats it verbatim fighting Paul, after he seemed to think he would win but then says it anyway. It reminds me of Paul's visions, where he saw himself die originally but ended up living; they seem to have second sight but it's only partial and not always accurate, until Paul drinks the Water of Life... and Paul never seems to doubt the outcome, he simply is hurt by what he knows it will cost him personally. [I didn't finish the book yet, so I don't know what Herbert wrote about that fight.]

I don't remember anything like that at the knife fight, but there is something about him being another candidate for the Kwisatz Haderach. I liked that the movie shed more light on this and what they went. The Bene Gesserit preferred Feyd because he was easy to control and (closer to the original plan), I think. You'll recall that Jessica was supposed to bear a daughter, who was supposed to be wed to Feyd.

I preferred this to Part I. Part I was a lot of necessary table-setting and this is finally getting to the "good stuff."

 

[Totenkindly]

It seems like she's angry about what her father did, so maybe marrying Paul wasn't that bad for her.

It didn't really seem to be an awful fate compared to what her options generally were. Marrying Feyd would have been potentially worse, even if he was more manipulatable.

I don't remember anything like that at the knife fight, but there is something about him being another candidate for the Kwisatz Haderach. I liked that the movie shed more light on this and what they went. The Bene Gesserit preferred Feyd because he was easy to control and (closer to the original plan), I think. You'll recall that Jessica was supposed to bear a daughter, who was supposed to be wed to Feyd.

Ah okay. I knew she was supposed to bear a daughter, but the films did not really say why. Feyd was definitely easier to control. Paul was fighting against being predictable and not doing what they expected. The Reverend Mother didn't like him much when she first met him because he wasn't pliable. "Goodbye, human. I hope you live." It kind was a great emotional payoff when he tells her to shut up at the end of Dune 2 when she starts arguing with him and his Voice compels her to immediately be silent.

I preferred this to Part I. Part I was a lot of necessary table-setting and this is finally getting to the "good stuff."

Lol. I thought the good stuff was the character building.

 

[The Cat]

Regarding Feyd's original purpose:

Feyd was supposed to be the betrothed of the female Atreides daughter Jessica was to bear the Duke Leto. Feyd and let's just call her Paulina, were supposed to be the parents of the Kwisatz Haderach. Because Jessica disobeyed the Sisterhood. Paul became the Kwisatz Haderach an generation early, thus allowing the foundational seeds of Leto II's Golden Path, which not only would change the face of Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. The Spacing Guild, CHOAM and The entire Imperium.

A single act of reckless love changed the course of the Imperium, just as a single emotional response by Erasmus the Thinking Machine sparked into existence the Butlerian Jihad and undid thousands of years of Thinking Machine Rule.

 

[The Cat]

A younger Willem DaFoe would have made for a perfect casting of Sam Spade in reboot of the Maltese Falcon.

 

[The Cat]

Grammarly and ChatGPT did not help anyone write better.
I really do think people have been using this kinda thing to get into the industry only to discover they don't know what the fuck they're doing. They lived their life like one of those fail your way to the top 80's movies and now the humanities suffer. TBH I don't blame them. Who wouldnt want to pull off a successful scam that leads to all your hollow dreams to come true. I do think you should chose a more honorable scam than making "movies" and "television shows" or "Books" But what the hell I didnt get off the Tremors Train till Tremors 3, and I stuck through Hellraiser Bloodlines so it's not like I dont enjoy me some fun bad movies, I just want to feel like it was written by people instead of Clippy. Not that theres anything wrong with that.​

 

[Totenkindly]

Risk aversion is back in, apparently. But guess what? All of their succeses were risks. They more need to be able to take profitable risks.

Pixar predictably pivots to sequels, reboots, and "mass appeal"

Pixar has had a tough few years, so now its looking to mine its IP for easy success

www.avclub.com

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[The Cat]

View attachment 30712

Tagline: "He wants to play a game."

 

[The Cat]

Van Helsing might have been my favorite popcorn movie of the time had Kate Bekinsale lived. As it was I saw it the once loved it till the end walked away and never looked back for even one rewatch.

 

[Totenkindly]

Midjourney always has trouble with spelling, but at least it got the gist of it correctly in the samples I requested.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Midjourney always has trouble with spelling, but at least it got the gist of it correctly in the samples I requested.

View attachment 30719

I would watch the Chansaw massacre. I would enjoy a movie about all the 4-chan users getting banned from their site.

 

[The Cat]

Need. Need this.​