Film

[astfgyl]

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/09/jodorowsky-reviews-villeneuve-dune-trailer-predictable-1234586462/amp/

I hope he is wrong but as he points out, this thing needs to be palatable enough to make the money back and could end up as GoT was to ASOIAF - Just faithful enough in the beginning to please book fans, but completely losing the plot by the end due to the difficulty of realising the source material.

[Born of Fire]

Herself stuck on Adam Sandlers new one on Netflix over the weekend. Hard to believe it's the same man who was so captivating in Uncut Gems. Terrible bollocks altogether.

[Emphyrio]

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/09/jodorowsky-reviews-villeneuve-dune-trailer-predictable-1234586462/amp/

I hope he is wrong but as he points out, this thing needs to be palatable enough to make the money back and could end up as GoT was to ASOIAF - Just faithful enough in the beginning to please book fans, but completely losing the plot by the end due to the difficulty of realising the source material.

I think it's a slightly easier to film movie than something like LOTR. If it looks predictable, that's because it's a million times easier to make a sci-fi film nowadays compared to when Dune was written, or even since the Lynch version, hence sprawling alien worlds are no longer a novelty.

What is industrial cinema? Blockbuster budget? So what, it's fuckin Dune. I can't think of anything lamer than a low budget version. The story is fixed, more or less. A director with a good eye, imaginative cinematography, a decent cast (No Sting) and off you go. Frank Herbert was the auteur. The director just needs to translate Herbert's vision, not flake off on his own tangent or artistic license. Auteur my left testicle.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

You make it sound so easy! And yet, so many adaptations fail abysmally. I wasn't posting Jodorowsky's opinions as any kind of authority, it's just I heard him say the same when asked last year at a talk of his I went to; he's repeating them now in light of the trailer, and here they're translated into English. What Jodorowsky wanted to do with Dune in the 70s is as profound as any feat undertaken within the book itself, which is part of what makes it so captivating. And it absolutely wasn't going to be low budget. His point is that today big budget exclusively means bowing to the studios, because they're paying, and because they want a return, and - above all - because they think they hold the exclusive recipe (bar some differences of seasoning) for what will be successful at the box office. I take it you haven't seen the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, or seen the films he made prior to that unfinished project, El Topo or The Holy Mountain. Time well spent!

To make a parallel, the whole thing is quite similar to what Zappa says about the evolution of the music industry; in the 60s and 70s you had business men throwing money at projects, taking a chance financially without getting involved in what the product should be, not pretending they had a clue what "the kids" would be into.

I think the new Dune will be good, for the record, but I am expecting it to look 100% Hollywood big budget of today, just like Bladerunner 2049 did, whereas the original Bladerunner, for all sense and purposes, looked like something from outside of time because it took more visual cues from classic film noir than from any sci-fi that was contemporary to it. Yadda, yadda, yadda. There should be room for everyone, but there's almost no surprises in widely available cinema anymore.

[astfgyl]

I think the new Dune will be good, for the record, but I am expecting it to look 100% Hollywood big budget of today, just like Bladerunner 2049 did, whereas the original Bladerunner, for all sense and purposes, looked like something from outside of time because it took more visual cues from classic film noir than from any sci-fi that was contemporary to it. Yadda, yadda, yadda. There should be room for everyone, but there's almost no surprises in widely available cinema anymore.

I think Blade Runner 2049 looked and felt fantastic but I do agree with the comments on the original. Cinema is a bit like the gaming industry now; a sort of case of "well gentlemen, a great deal of money has been invested in this project and we can't allow it to fail", resulting in the big releases trying to cater to all demographics and sterilising the output somewhat. I'd be skeptical that anyone could do justice to the book, but they are competing with our own imaginations so it's an uphill climb. I'm still hopeful it will be decent and thoroughly looking forward to seeing it, even without Sting!

[Carnage]

Good one on Film 4 on Thursday night if anyone's interested, Sweet Country:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6958212/

[Cailleach]

Wish Man
Darlin'

[Pedrito]

Hmmmm I watched the Jodorowsky docu and came away wondering if he had ever actually read the book/books. His ideas sound interesting, but he could have gone off and made something that doesn't have the Dune name on it. That said those ideas were a million miles away from the feel and tone of the books and throughout the documentary some of the people working on the art and visuals were saying they'd never even read the book. I'm not sure Herbert would have reacted favourably to his plans.

So, it's a case of interesting ideas and that's about all it is. I see he even criticises the current director having never seen any of his work. The technology to even attempt to make these types of movies has only come around recently also. Yes, plenty of stuff has a similar look to it, and I'm more than critical of that. That said, I had written the recent Blade Runner off, but repeated viewings have revealed it to be a very worthy follow up.

[Cailleach]

The Traitor

[Carnage]

Recently watched:

Motherless Brooklyn - Edward Norton starring as a '50s detective with Tourette's, trying to find out who killed his boss and why. Desperately trying to be as noirish as possible, it's alright at best. Very little to do with the book, apparently.

Bloodshot: Superhero bollocks with Vin Diesel as a nanite-enhanced revenge-seeking professional frowner. Bloodshit.

Harriet: Decent if jingoistic biopic of Harriet Tubman, her escape from slavery and work in freeing others in the run up to the American civil war. Worth a look.

Bill & Ted Face The Music - Like a mixture of the original two films with their kids doing most of the heavy lifting. Not great or funny at all.

[Trev]

Saw Demolition Man pop up on Netflix, still holds up

[astfgyl]

Demolition Man is a great flick. Going to lash it on here for the kids after seeing it mentioned.

Superbad lined up for after, I've never seen it but a few lads told me it was decent

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Superbad is a great stoner movie. Old School too. Actually, one season we were "midi" dosing on shrooms, say 20-25 at a time and one of the nights we stuck on Old School. Jesus, in pain from laughing!

[Ollkiller]

Superbad is a great stoner movie. Old School too. Actually, one season we were "midi" dosing on shrooms, say 20-25 at a time and one of the nights we stuck on Old School. Jesus, in pain from laughing!

Superbad is brilliant. Great flick with McLovin owning it. Old School tops it though. Legend of a film.

[Nail_Bombed]

Just watched the new Invisible Man flick. Pretty decent - gaslighting, toxic masculinity, power games and voyeurism. Not too far off what the original idea was.