I have no idea why they included the duel at the end, but cut the part where Paul cries over having to kill and the Fremen are awed by him "giving water to the dead". It's the crucial part of that scene, adds to Paul's character and imparts how precious water is and a lot of how mystical its preservation became to the Fremen.


I hope you'll enjoy it at least half as much as I did. Stay for BOTH after credits scenes! I only saw the first one, and when I learned about the second one later I was so angry :D

Yes, that was quite the omission I think. Which as you say again comes back to it that perhaps the film should've hammered on the value of water a bit more.
The harshness of Arrakis' climate at least was incredibly well done.

Will do, thanks for the heads up :)

Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

Apart from some occassional cringy stuff, it was a cool movie, certainly entertaining. However, I did think the previous Godzilla movies were better. This one goes more into the old lore stuff, which I'm not that familiar with, especially when it comes to Kong, so it felt a bit disjointed in this regard. Overall though, I enjoyed it, and would watch it again.


Rings (2017)

Another The Ring-based movie. Is someone actually in charge of the canon of this franchise? if there is, they were snoozing when this film was made. Nothing against the casting, but the writing is just terrible, as if it was written by someone still in Highschool, or even Middle school. But then I read that it was written by three people ... three people ... and one of them has a very impressive backlog.The movie feels juvenile and simple-minded, as there are so many gaps in the reasoning or logic, and short-cuts in the story's progression and narrative. It's OK for a jumpscare or two, but as anything to do with "the Ring" it's very disappointing; the original is just used a gimmick in this movie, which also simply copies the first movie 50% of the time ... it's like modern Star Wars all over again. I don't think I would watch it again.

I just watched the movie 3096 Days.A strong, hard, emotional and in fact a very sad film based on a true story.This story made me wonder how many people are around who, due to upbringing or childhood traumas, have acquired some specific inclinations for themselves. And as a result, you can not trust anyone.

No Time to Die. It was alright, I guess. I can't say I'm very fond of Daniel Craig's Bond movies beyond Casino Royale. They just aren't very memorable to me. This is another one. It appears there won't be another, but I'm guessing whatever the company does next with a new actor will be similar.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Almost missed it, but managed to make it to one of the last showings over here.

I enjoyed it a lot as well! The only thing I hated was the constant crackling of candy wrappers behind me, and the weirdly loud open mouth popcorn chewing. I swear, even if I try and go for the final showings when there's very few people, I always seem to run into this problem. Happened with Dune as well, except there the two idiots behind me were talking as well. Fortunately the worst of the incessant eating noises subsided midway through the movie.

Anyways, about the film, it clearly was made as a love letter to the original film, and it tickles me that this somehow annoyed several reviewers. The final act was particularly special in this regard, with a few scenes I found genuinely moving.
The only thing I didn't really care for was the teenage romance shoehorned into the story, and I that they went a little too far with the girl's scientific expertise in one/two scenes. Also, the original music used in a couple of scenes didn't always feel natural. But these are minor nit-picks.

And thank you very much for the heads-up about the second after credits scene! I definitely wouldn't have expected it, and would probably have left before it otherwise.

The Billion Dollar Code - Netflix mini series

I liked it! The story, the acting, the rythm... Happy face deserved :)

Funny, I had a similar issue, only it was two women talking. I actually moved a few sits away to not hear them (fortunately the theatre was mostly empty, it being a mid-week showing). To be perfectly honest, me and my friends often talk in the cinema, joking about the movie, but only if we're sitting far enough to not bother anyone.

Yep, that ending really got me, and that's despite the fact I saw it coming almost from the start. It's proof of how stupid the mania of "subverting expectations" in movies and tv shows these days is. Subverting expectations is easy. Living up to expectations, delivering what people might see coming and making it still touching and poignant or funny despite that - that's and achievement. And it works because it's not just a tribute to something nostalgic, it works because it's properly built up in the movie itself. It works as an emotional climax of the film and the character's adventure, not just fan service.

On a somewhat relate note - I just watched the Blues Brothers for the first time... and I guess I just don't get it. Maybe it's because I'm not a big blues fan. Maybe it's because I've never been to Chicago. But, while I would never say it's an outright bad film, and it did make me laugh a few times, for most of it I felt like most of it going over my head. For long stretches of time (and oh boy, is the film too long) I wouldn't even crack a smile. Oh well, I guess even I have to find an 80s movie that doesn't work for me.

Those two in Dune sat smack in the middle of the theatre :P I also got up and moved forward, right to the front row to get as far away from them as possible. Unfortunately that meant, since it was a small theatre, that I saw the film from a weird angle. But that somehow actually added to the other-worldliness of the picture :)

Absolutely, that's a perfect way to put it. It was done so well that I'm actually a little bit worried that it will reverberate in me whenever I watch the original from now on.

Blue Brothers isn't quite up my street either, and I similarly think that I can't fully appreciate it for what it is. But I'll be damned if it doesn't have some epics scenes:
106 miles to chicago
Aretha Franklin Scene
Final song

I just watched Disney's Jungle Cruise...

... and...

... it's not terrible.

Again, there's Disney's recent obsession with sexual politics mixed in a movie clearly geared toward young children, but it's not overwhelming of the narrative -- although I'm still uncertain why an effeminate character needs to "come out" unless it has a direct relationship to the story? Still, they've found a way to make it somewhat meaningful in context.

Strange thing is Emily Blunt is supposed to push the story forward, but she's IMO the least interesting of the leads. I loved her in Sicario, but she seems better IMO in adult stories as a kind of blank canvas. Here she's affable but kind of gets lost in the over-the-top mix.

The direction (Jaume Collet-Serra) is actually pretty good (although I wish there were more practical effects!) and makes me sad that this director didn't make the upcoming Uncharted movie. Yeah, the movie is a bit long and the ending isn't quite as exciting as I'd hoped, but it all plays well enough as escapist fare forgettable in 5 minutes after viewing.

Not exactly "just watched", but I finished watching the anime movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time for the second time about 20 hours ago.

I quite liked it in the first time around, and upon rewatching it, I spotted far more plot details I hadn't before, including things that weren't explicitly said, a bunch of foreshadowing and, right at the start of the movie, 2 bait and switches.

The movie itself is the most slice of life work about time travel I've seen so far, and it is a slow burner until about half of the movie since it is setting up the events for the second half of the movie.

I also quite liked the direction of the sound effects and the dynamic cuts between scenes. Often sounds coming from far from the focus of the scene have a lower volume than sounds close to the focus of the scene, and cicadas in the movie sound as deafening as in the real world without being too high pitched. And about cuts between scenes, pretty often a new scene is a direct continuation of the event that was just shown, giving a sense of continuity.

The only thing I noticed I disliked was the art direction for the characters, which seems pretty crude and low on details (although, for a movie originally from 2006, maybe that's to be expected?)

Anyways, I highly recommend the movie.

Thanks all, for the sweet memories of renting films in a local shop many years ago. The Keep, Tampopo (*that* kiss) John Woo, Wong Kar Wai...

Eager to see Ghostbusters Afterlife - old-fashioned physical FX, and Shadow of Chernobyl in the opening of the trailer, it seems as if every scene has delicious pop culture references.


Enter The Void (2009)

Uh-huh.

Caught the first few minutes, haven't seen such arty & subjective presentation of 'the psychedelic experience' in films. Certainly worth seeing the imaginative visuals ('2001: a space odysee' notwithstanding).

Had not heard of the director, so I stopped watching in order to look up the his other films. They're not my Tea and Crumpets, and I shan't be watching the rest of this one.

But the reviews may indicate that for those with a broad mind & a strong stomach, this is quite a ride.


Radius (2017)

No spoilers.

Male writer (car crash amnesiac) seeks similar female, with a view to navel-gazing & narrative research.

A dream-like dress rehearsal of some play's second draft, with a stage cast filmed on location. Some of the outdoor locations and camera filters are pretty, as are the disjointed SF/phylosophical elements.

Automata

Looks inspired by Isaac Asimov's writing. An insurance investigator (Antonio Banderas) for a robot company investigates the possibility that a robot is repairing itself, thought impossible due to built in protocols. The post apocalyptic movie is quite bleak with only 23 million people left after solar flares wipe out 99% of human population and caused possible world wide desertification.
The term 'mechanical clouds' caught my eye and left me intrigued, wondering how would they work. They looked like blimps tethered around the city.

Gaspar Noe is one of my favourite directors of all times, the guy transmits with their films what he want and show a reality that we don't often want to see or we consider taboos, like you said, it's not the cup of tea everyone prefers, but in my case I really like it, no, I love it.
My favourite movie form him is Love (2015), the movie is basically a porno with a good story, that feels real, not your typical Hollywood movie with happy endings and magical solutions, just normal people with normals and real problems. The movie combines the tenderness, hatred, pain and passion of a ypung couple, that have to live with their mistakes, a fantastic movie that everyone should watch but unfortunately no one will.

And other of his movies, Irreversible (2003), is the movie that make him famous, for two scenes of extreme violence, those scenes that want you make you look to other way, but at the same time make you feel gulty because if you look to other way you are ignoring this things that actually happen and you are an accomplice like the guy that run away in "that scene". For me is just simple a genius.

Noe's films are for me just a 'Hell to da naw, naw, naw - with da bicycle'


But my inner child/teen knows you are correct; he is the kind of reality check that 'hollywood' really needs.