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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 25, 2024 13:12:09 GMT -5
Not a movie, but since TV series are now basically extended films... After the disappointing final season of Game of Thrones, I wasn't particularly eager to watch this prequel series. What finally changed my mind was (a) an inexpensive DVD set that got within reach, and (b) the fact that this story is entirely based on George R. R. Martin's own story, and not a mix of his and someone else's plotting. It's a decent show, but it's never the emotional roller-coaster that GoT was. It has very few battles (offhand I remember one), very few sudden changes in status quo, and it has a ten year leap in the middle. Like its source material, it is more of a fictionalized history lesson than a novel adapted to the little screen; that can be seen as a fault (if one wanted more of the original seasons of GoT) or a strength (if one wants something that doesn't try to copy the original show's formula). It's mostly about the plotting and allegiance-swapping of numerous characters, most of whom want to decide who will succeed the current king of Westeros. HotD's main strength is in the plot, which details how a series of small decisions can lead to devastating results. Another is its verisimilitude (despite the presence of dragons!) in that no character can be identified as "the good one"; unlike the Starks or Daenerys in GoT, here, almost all of the characters offer a mix of virtues and faults. The only ones who definitely tip the balance toward the light side are elderly charcaters: the elderly king, who just wants peace to endure and his kids to get along, and his sister who should have been made queen in his stead if not for a Westeros equivalent of the Salic Law, but who eventually makes peace with that. All the others are ambitious, often mean, sometimes cruel, very often prone to expediency. The main character, the one whose point of view we follow, is not morally superior to the others; while we tend to root for her, objectivity must compel us to admit that the opposite side isn't worse than she is. The cast is pretty good, especially the actress who plays Rhaenys (let me check... her name is Eve Best). She strikes just the right balance between poise and humanity. The two actresses playing Rhaenyra (as a teenager and an adult) are also quite good, especially since it would have been easy for them to fall into the trap of playing the character as another Daenerys Targaryen. On the other hand, you don't get the large collection of great characters with great lines that GoT had (the Hound, Varys, Littlefingers, Tyrion, Brienne, Bronn, Tywin); this is a very plot-oriented series.
This first season also has an unfortunate moment where deviation from Martin's original story leads to a great TV scene... which makes no sense. {Spoiler: Click to show}As Prince Aegon is crowned, usurping his aunt Rhaenyra's position as heir to the throne, the ceremony is crashed by a dragon-riding Princess Rhaenys (an ally of Rhaenyra). The entire group of would-be usurpers is RIGHT THERE, expecting to be roasted alive by the dragon; but Rhaenys looks at them contemptuously, and after scaring them shitless witless by having her beast roar as if it was about to barbecue them all, she departs. It's a powerful declaration of war, but come on... why go through all the trouble of raising armies and getting thousands killed? Just incinerate the lot of them, and the war is over before it even began! I will probably watch season 2, as the Dance of Dragons begins (the civil war that will lead to the death of all of the dragons). The show is not as gripping as GoT was, but I find it worth the time. Kudos to the creators for trying something a little different, too. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 1, 2024 21:45:55 GMT -5
I just came back from seeing Dune part two with Son #1. It's always a pleasure to go to the movies with my kids.
It's a powerful movie, and an amazing adaptation... particularly in that it doesn't show us every scene from the book (far from it), introduces new material (lots of it) and yet remains absolutely true to the heart of Frank Herbert's novel. In particular, it corrects a misconception that the writer had himself decried way back when: this is not an adventure story, this is a warning against the rise of charismatic political figures. Believe me, when Muad'dib's jihad starts at the end, you don't feel the exhilaration of seeing the good guys go beat the bad guys... you feel dread and helplessness as history follows its course.
Villeneuve didn't go the easy way and jump years ahead between the two films to show us a Paul Atreides already paired with Chani and adapted to his Fremen life; the director takes his time to show the process, giving the story a lot more emotional depth and verisimilitude. As a viewer, you believe that this world actually exists (and the Fremen not speaking English helps a lot in that regard).
Chani has a lot more to do here than in the novel, and we learn a lot of peculiarities about Fremen society; Southerners being more religious than Northerners, for one, and having a specific accent. Villeneuve also shows us how Jessica, as Reverend Mother, stokes the fires of Fremen fanaticism -something that sends a shudder down our spine. Turning Paul into a messiah is a long process, especially as he strongly resists the notion. And his girlfriend simply loathes the concept, leading to unexpected but welcome (in the dramatic sense) emotional conflict.
I wonder what the general reception will be, as this is not a plain adventure/revenge sci-fi story. It's a very adult one, which doesn't make us want to cheer by the end; rather than vengeful catharsis, the ultimate feeling is one of bittersweet acceptance that some forces, once set in motion, are just stronger than any of us. It may be seen as a fault by people who just want to see the scales of justice balanced, but it makes for a more realistic story.
And if Javier Bardem doesn't get the Oscar for best supporting role for this film, I'll be very disappointed indeed. He just steals the show as Stilgar.
Special effects are excellent, in that you don't notice them. Dune part one suffered from a certain video game aesthetics that I dislike, but it's not the case here. This really looks like a foreign place I've never seen but that doubtless exists somewhere.
I saw Dune part one four times at the theatre; I don't know if it'll be the same with this one, but I certainly wouldn't mind. (There must be an Imax theatre somewhere not too far...)
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2024 20:35:01 GMT -5
I probably won't be able to get to Dune part 2 for another couple of weeks so I'm trying to avoid hearing too much about it until then, even though I already know the basic story from the book. Still, nice to see a positive review, as I gather yours is without reading it in detail.
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2024 23:20:43 GMT -5
The last new movie I've seen is Wim Wenders's Perfect Days, which was pretty great. Very appropriate use of the Lou Reed song from which the title is derived. A low key character, long stretches with little or no dialogue, but it all comes together to make one of the very best new films of the last few years, that I've seen.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 12, 2024 17:47:00 GMT -5
I watched The Last Repair Shop, which won the Academy Award for best documentary short a couple of days back. It takes a look at the Los Angeles School District and the folks who repair the music instruments that are provided by the District to students. It's one of the few school districts in the U.S. that provide instruments at no cost to the students, profiling four of the workers who repair and maintain the 80,000 musical instruments.
This hits home for me. My youngest son was a percussionist throughout junior high and high school. I have to say percussionist because he used to bristle at mere drummers (though he was a far better drummer than he ever gave himself credit for). He was the only 6th grader that was allowed to play drums in his junior high band (6th graders had always had to play another instrument and then could move to percussion). I think in some ways it saved him. He struggled in school even though he is very bright. But he was socially awkward and just refused to get organized. But if he didn't do well in all the classes he didn't care about, he didn't get to drum.
Music is important. It can alter lives...and save lives. This is a lovely documentary and it's not a long watch.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 22, 2024 15:56:13 GMT -5
I watched The Last Repair Shop, which won the Academy Award for best documentary short a couple of days back. It takes a look at the Los Angeles School District and the folks who repair the music instruments that are provided by the District to students. It's one of the few school districts in the U.S. that provide instruments at no cost to the students, profiling four of the workers who repair and maintain the 80,000 musical instruments. This hits home for me. My youngest son was a percussionist throughout junior high and high school. I have to say percussionist because he used to bristle at mere drummers (though he was a far better drummer than he ever gave himself credit for). He was the only 6th grader that was allowed to play drums in his junior high band (6th graders had always had to play another instrument and then could move to percussion). I think in some ways it saved him. He struggled in school even though he is very bright. But he was socially awkward and just refused to get organized. But if he didn't do well in all the classes he didn't care about, he didn't get to drum. Music is important. It can alter lives...and save lives. This is a lovely documentary and it's not a long watch. Can only second what you've written so insightfully, slam. Wish I could put into words what music has meant to my sons since they were little boys. One's a drummer, one's a guitarist, but both play other instruments as well. All for the sheer love of it and the joy playing and singing bring them. Of course, in our community, as in so many others, music and art programs have been slashed, sliced, chopped, deveined, deboned and minimized. Because unimportant. As a previous soulless superintendent of schools told the head of our Music Department seven years ago after one his many impassioned pleas to keep music from being further diminished literally and figuratively, "Dave, I'll talk to you when the state starts testing music classes." |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 25, 2024 19:10:52 GMT -5
Another one of these???
No idea what it's about, but the trailer doesn't suggest much in terms of new ideas.
Get them on Earth, already, as in the first Dark Horse black and white miniseries!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2024 16:44:22 GMT -5
Glad there's going to be a sequel to Ben Affleck's The Accountant.
Autistic or not, he knew to invest his money in Action Comics #1
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 30, 2024 4:03:27 GMT -5
Watched another one that teeters on the edge of being what we would consider a 'new' movie here (although to me, pretty much everything released after 2000 or the early '00s at least is 'new'), Z for Zachariah (2015).
It's based on a novel of the same name from the 1970s which I'd heard about but never read. It's a post-apocalyptic SF tale, set in some small, isolated rural valley somewhere in the eastern US that was somehow spared after a nuclear holocaust apparently destroyed the rest of the planet (or at least the rest of the country). Steep, at places craggy hills and weather patterns somehow keep the air clean, and there's a well-stocked aquifer under the valley. Initially it's inhabited solely by a young woman, possibly in her late teens, named Ann (played by Margot Robbie) who lives in her family's farm house with her dog. She has a cow for milk and some chickens for eggs, and since she's a farmgirl she's able to plant enough food to get by. Then one day a man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in a radiation suit and a cart full of equipment enters the valley. After some initial tension, and after Ann treats him for radiation sickness, and they become friends, and the man, John, provides some helpful tips for running the farm, etc. (He used to be an engineer and was hiding out in a gov't bunker a mile underground but eventually ventured out.) Their life gets into a routine, but then another survivor, a man who calls himself Caleb (Chris Pine), mysteriously appears in the valley, claiming that he was hiding out in a coal mine. This creates some more tension, although with Caleb around, John is able to move ahead with a project to build a water mill on a stream to produce electricity.
This is a pretty good movie, albeit quiet and slow-moving - and it's only nominally SF. It's more like a psychological drama about survival and relationship dynamics among a small number of people rather than a 'thriller' as the trailer refers to it.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 31, 2024 4:44:53 GMT -5
Finally got around to watching Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) last night...
Set in New Zealand, it's about a troubled little kid named Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) who's been moved from one foster home to another who finally gets placed with a couple - a cheerful good-natured woman named Bella and a surly man named Hector (Sam Neill) - who live out in the middle of nowhere. Ricky actually ends up acclimating pretty quickly, but when Bella dies unexpectedly and the social welfare department announce that they will come to take him back, he runs away into the wilderness and gets lost. Hector tracks him down after about a day, but then breaks his ankle so they have to spend a few weeks in a makeshift tent in the forest while he heals. In the meantime, the authorities think Hector has gone mad and abducted Ricky, and it leads to a wildly amusing manhunt.
Written and directed by Taika Waititi (based on a novel from the 1980s), this is a very entertaining and funny movie - some aspects of it veer into the ridiculous, but it has so much heart and Neill and Dennison (who many may recognize from his role in Deadpool 2) are so likeable that you can easily forgive any excesses.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 31, 2024 9:22:02 GMT -5
Finally got around to watching Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) last night... Set in New Zealand, it's about a troubled little kid named Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) who's been moved from one foster home to another who finally gets placed with a couple - a cheerful good-natured woman named Bella and a surly man named Hector (Sam Neill) - who live out in the middle of nowhere. Ricky actually ends up acclimating pretty quickly, but when Bella dies unexpectedly and the social welfare department announce that they will come to take him back, he runs away into the wilderness and gets lost. Hector tracks him down after about a day, but then breaks his ankle so they have to spend a few weeks in a makeshift tent in the forest while he heals. In the meantime, the authorities think Hector has gone mad and abducted Ricky, and it leads to a wildly amusing manhunt. Written and directed by Taika Waititi (based on a novel from the 1980s), this is a very entertaining and funny movie - some aspects of it veer into the ridiculous, but it has so much heart and Neill and Dennison (who many may recognize from his role in Deadpool 2) are so likeable that you can easily forgive any excesses. Great movie from the director who gave us What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Mar 31, 2024 9:57:46 GMT -5
Another one of these??? No idea what it's about, but the trailer doesn't suggest much in terms of new ideas. Get them on Earth, already, as in the first Dark Horse black and white miniseries! Yeah, it was certainly a slick trailer...but it seems like a remake of the original film not a sequel. I'd love an infestation kind of film set on Earth, maybe playing off COVID fears. |
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Post by moviefan2k4 on Apr 13, 2024 4:27:59 GMT -5
I like James Gunn as a filmmaker. I never saw any of his horror work, but the first two "Guardians" movies were mostly okay (still haven't seen the third, though). As such, I'm looking forward to his rapidly-approaching take on Superman. The character has been through many ups and downs over the years, so here's hoping this new film is one of the former.
I'm also a big fan of Michael Jackson, but I'm somewhat cautious regarding the upcoming biopic. My main point of hesitation is that it was written by John Logan, who co-scripted "Star Trek: Nemesis" (the worst "TNG" film).
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Post by berkley on Apr 20, 2024 2:06:01 GMT -5
Saw a new South Korean horror movie, Exhuma. This was really good, almost great but for a few drawbacks. It's about a team of supernatural experts, sort of: two older guys who find appropriate grave sites for rich clients, and two younger people, a female shaman and a male medium, who are investigating a haunting or curse of some kind. The two pairs have worked together before and end up collaborating again on this case. This set-up is presented very effectively, the characters attract the viewers' interest right away.
Reportedly a big commercial success in SK, I think it has some of the drawbacks of blockbusters the world over - the most important one here being a kind of kitchen-sinkism, like a superhero movie that can't be contented with one strong villain, they have to throw in another one or more to make it even BIGGER and BETTER. So the main flaw I see in Exhuma is its structure: it's going along nicely with a relatively slow build then starts accelerating to the climax - but then, when the initial mystery seems to be mostly resolved, it veers off in another direction with another, though related, threat that becomes another story on its own.
It really should have been two movies, because not only was the first section strong enough to stand on its own, it also had a different ambience to the second, mostly due to the different nature of the menace they were facing. The second part would have made a great sequel to the first, IMO.
Actually, it looks like it might have been set up to start a franchise, as the four protagonists make a kind of team and there's a bonding scene at the end. All four are strong characters, especially the oldest guy and the female shaman, who is very charismatic and is at the centre of the best scene in the movie, in which she conducts a kind of shamanistic ritual that is one of the most exciting things I've seen onscreen for a long time. Unfortunately, that scene comes relatively early and afterwards the film starts moving more into blockbuster territory I spoke of, in contrast to the idiosyncratic horror film it seemed to be for the first third or so. Still, this gets a very strong recommendation from me and I hope the sequels I think they were hinting at do happen.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 21, 2024 3:26:11 GMT -5
Finally got around to watch one of *the* most talked about movies last year, Barbie...
I don't have much to add to the general discussion; I'll just say I found it generally quite entertaining, and also pretty thoughtful. And don't believe the hype from some quarters of the internets, gentlemen, it's not 'emasculating'.
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