The Menu is the best movie I watched this year.
It’s phenomenal and I didn’t find it overly gory as much as disturbing. But I like these kind of films. Delving into the psyche and how to overcome the psychopathy in the end.
Maybe I am darker than my morning coffee on the inside. IDK
Nicholas Holt played his role to absolute perfection.
I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and I turned it of after 40mins. Not sure why there was so much hype about it. The filmmakers claimed that they were influenced by Wong Kar Wai but I don’t buy it. It’s more like they were influenced by Jeff Lau’s parodies of Wong Kar Wai’s movies.
Don’t believe me?
Short Round was previously in this:
His one and only HK flick which was directed by Jeff Lau. It’s one of Jeff Lau’s worst movies.
How did you make it to 40 min
I watched 10 and was too confused
Have you seen 消失的她? It’s actually quite good. Much better than the soviet version
Haha the accents probably threw you off, right? Michelle Yeoh speaks with a 100% Malaysian accent. I have no idea what Short Round’s (her husband. I call him “Short Round” because his only memorable role was in Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom and he was somehow even more irritating in this movie lol) accent was, probably HK. Neither their Mandarin nor English accents sounded like anyone from China.
I only made it to 40min because I’m used to watching weird, Wong Kar Wai influenced “post modernist” HK movies made in the 90s. Jeff Lau’s movies, when they were good, were the only ones which made sense. The absurdist stuff(prior to Wong Kar Wai’s influence) stemmed from Stephen Chow’s All for the Winner which was written and directed by Jeff Lau. It was an actual trend in HK comedies throughout the 90s.
I haven’t seen the movie mentioned but I’ll check it out sooner or later.
I watched The Exorcist: Believer. I really wish I hadn’t.
1/10
Dune Part 2 finished up an unbelievably good adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Taken as a whole, Dune 1 and 2 are easily in my top 10 films of all time, I’m just not sure where yet.
Like Lord of the Rings, modern technology allowed the filmmaker to faithfully adapt the author’s decades-old work to the big screen without any major compromises.
I’m actually eager to hear what political activists make of this film. True to Herbert’s work, it is an anti-colonialist story with other elements that don’t fit neatly into any modern political box.
I think it was adapted quite faithfully, so I don’t consider any of the “woke” elements to be “woke” in the modern sense. It is all part of the story with plausible explanations when you put yourself into the universe Herbert has created.
I recommend seeing it on the biggest screen you can find. My local theater is quite nice but I’ll probably make the trek to go see it in IMAX in the next few weeks.
Dune 2: possible some spoilers
I REALLY liked the movies. Like a lot. Saw part 2 on a huge IMAX screen. It was definitely a spectacle. There were things I didn’t like about it. Things I felt like deviated from the books, although it didn’t really affect the overall story. I haven’t read the books since the mid-80s, so I probably don’t remember a lot accurately. I was a big fan of the David Lynch version. There were some things I still think it did better. I’m pissy the voice weapon things weren’t in this one. And I feel like Paul was WAY too reluctant to become the messiah, but that could be because I haven’t read the books in so long. If I had never read the book or seen the original movie, this would probably have been the best couple of movies I’ve seen. It’s definitely a must see.
Thanks for reminding me to edit out some minor spoilers.
I first read Dune in the 90’s and really dove into the whole series in the early 00’s, so my recollection of every detail isn’t there either.
I see any deviation the same way I did with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, as understandable compromises when adapting the books to film.
I actually liked the Lynch version as well, but I had read the books so it mostly made sense. There was a lot of great design, special effects, music and acting in that hot mess.
The voice-weapon thingies from Lynch’s adaptation were called “weirding modules”, and they weren’t in the book at all. Villaneuve’s version is much more accurate when it comes to how the characters in the books actually fought and how the Bene Gesserit abilities actually worked.
The notion of Paul’s reluctance and feelings of regret was expanded upon in Herbert’s later novels. I REALLY like how this film is perfectly set up for a part 3. The source material is there, the entire production organization is in-place and I think the money will definitely be there too.
It was awesome how Villeneuve was able to take the story and really give us his version of it.
As a kid, the book almost seemed like a swash buckling adventure story.
In the David Lynch version of the movie the bad guys are charming and fun.
These movies really get into the grim parts of the story like betrayal and acceptance of certain doom. Like in other versions of the story I never thought about how intense and scary it would be for a child to fight a man to the death with knives.
It was great to get a fresh, intense look at a story I thought I knew.
Well it did have peak Sting, who is about as charming and fun as it can get. Here’s Lynch’s totally 1980’s depiction of Harkonnen shenanigans on Geidi Prime.
Gotta love the first comment on the youtube clip.
“No cell phones just everyone living in the moment”
Why can’t ya just ignore that and enjoy the movie?
Is that the first thought that comes to your head after finishing a good movie?
Cmon man.
Is the future going to be super woke or super un woke? Or woke on the surface but un woke underneath? And what does that make you think about society today?
Questions like these are classic elements of the science fiction genre. Part of the fun is the possible challenge to your own beliefs. You’re supposed to want to know how other people interpret it.
I think you gotta cut dude a little slack in this case.
Because, as I said, I’m eager to hear what political activists make of this film. It’s rather silly of you to suggest that it was my first thought after seeing the movie, as it is rather obvious I have plenty of other thoughts on this film.
The lack of forced wokeness is also deeply relevant to this film’s achievement.
Part of what made Dune such a great adaptation is that the producers did not turn it into a vehicle for modern ideas or make changes to the source material in the name of inclusion, representation or equity. Peter Jackson didn’t inject modern ideas into his adaptation of Tolkien’s work either, and it stands as one of the most beloved and popular films of all-time. It didn’t require Aragorn to be replaced with a woman or black hobbits to have broad appeal to all people of all races across the entire world.
This is easily contrasted against Amazon’s Rings of Power mini-series, which had a shockingly similar budget to Dune for each minute of screen time produced. I only watched the first episode and it was absolutely awful and completely un-Tolkien. Their first creative decision was to demote Galadriel from a regal and wise elf queen who is older than the sun to an immature scouting party leader who is soooo much better at sword fighting than the boy elves, something Tolkien never described her doing. Then we get the inexplicably racially diverse band of proto-Hobbits with a logistically nonsensical caravan lifestyle that was also never described by Tolkien.
It fucking sucked for that and lots of other reasons, but first and foremost because modern politics had to be injected by “reimagining” a dead author’s lifetime work. Creative decisions on an adaptation of books written decades ago were completely shaped by modern politics, much to the detriment of the end product. That’s how Star Wars movies manage to lose money, against all odds.
Dune didn’t have any of that. It was a faithful adaptation that will have a very broad appeal to both old and new fans alike. That, to me, is absolutely worth pointing out. Indeed, the Fremen casting was much more true to the books than Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, where the desert-dwelling Fremen were all played by Europeans. Do these guys look like they’ve been living in the harsh desert for generations?
Woke activists got their grimy hands into Lord of The Rings and fucked up something that could have had potential. They got their grimy hands into Star Wars and did the same.
Not so with Dune, and now we all get to enjoy something special.
How was Star Wars “woke”? In my opinion, it was just terrible writing. I definitely agree with you on some modern media having a lot of annoying virtue signaling.
My apologies for responding to your thoughts in a rude manner. I just didn’t think it’s worth listening to complainers/noise from people who are miserable about everything.
It’s okay, I can understand the sense of exasperation. Why bring politics into this? Hopefully I explained myself well.
How was Star Wars woke? I agree it also featured terrible writing, but much of that is due to making sure everything in the plot will fit through a woke-shaped hole. Again, to contrast it with Dune, they didn’t try to do that. You get a white savior story, like it or not.
The first creative decision for the Rise of the Skywalker was to reimagine the exact same story as A New Hope with a Mary Sue for the lead character. They went on to sever all story ties with the original movies, some of the most popular of all-time, in order to advance lame plots shaped by modern woke ideologies for the sake of including modern woke ideologies. Luke Skywalker was completely re-written as a character and he sucked. He sucked real bad.
The Han Solo movie was a pathetic cash grab where we finally settled that debate my friends and I always had back in the third grade.
Is Lando Calrissian a transgender lesbian, a pansexual fuck fiend who is into woke feminist robots, or a smooth-talking brother out on the hunt for some good-old fashioned trim?
We had to wait 30-some odd years for Solo to be released to learn that he’s actually a pansexual fuck fiend who is into feminist robots. I knew I called that one right back when I was 8.
Edit: To clarify a bit, calling the new Dune a “white savior” story is just pointing out that both of the new Dune movies definitely fit the filmmaking trope and could easily be interpreted that way.
I’ve read all of the books plus some of his kid’s books, so I know better than to describe the overall plot that way. There’s a LOT going on in the Dune universe.
There’s a lot to point at as woke in Disney Star Wars, but for hard facts, consider the following:
Every named hero that Disney introduced is played by a woman or non-white (or hispanic) male. Exception is K2SO, but that seems like a non-relevant exception as what we see on screen is entirely CGI and clearly non-human. There are also a couple other minor characters who are exceptions, but they all die quickly (Galen Erso, Lor San Tekka). In general, white men are only allowed to be heroes when it leads to immediate death (Han, Luke, Kylo, Hux all act in a way that is somewhat heroic and immediately die, almost inexplicably in Luke’s case).
Every named villain that Disney introduced is played by a non-hispanic white male. Exception is Captain Phasma who exists because "girls can be stormtroopers, too.
This is across 5 movies and dozens of examples. It’s not a coincidence. They intentionally made it so that you can tell if someone is a villain by determining if he or she is a non-hispanic white male.
Admittedly, original Star Wars was mostly white men. But that was everyone, villains and heroes alike. What Disney has done would be the equivalent of casting all of the imperials as Black actors and none of the heroes as black actors.
How do you feel about Chani riding away? It caught me off guard since it’s the first real example of something that is clearly and intentionally breaking from the books in a way that will require significant effort to redirect back to the original story if they do Dune Messiah in part 3. Of course, they seem to build to it throughout the movie since Chani is much more of a passive aggressive bitch in the movie than she ever was in the book, but I was surprised that they actually committed to it. They had avoided making any lasting changes to the book plot to that point.
It’s not the exact same, dude. The new death star is much bigger and more powerful.
I think terrible writing is a factor. How much of the bad writing is due to woke authors though? Woke authors that seem to keep writing the same female lead character over and over. It seems like all of these female lead characters skip over the hero’s journey. They just start awesome and bad ass. If they do develop into a more powerful version, it isn’t through training with the help of a mentor (and if this does happen, it is almost for sure the mentor is female), it is realizing they had the power all along (and often they just couldn’t see it because of patriarchy some how).
It seems like a lot of the female leads are not allowed to have any weaknesses either. They are fearless, unwavering on principles, and don’t have to compensate for the physical disadvantages women have in combat. It is just kinda boring (the problem with Superman). Look at Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor as a contrast to these newer characters. She starts out as a waitress. She isn’t tough, she is a typical young woman. She doesn’t try to fight the terminator, she runs in fear. She gets tougher over time, develops skills related to combat and weapons to give her a chance at survival, but still wouldn’t try to fight a terminator one on one. When she attempts to assassinate Miles Dyson, she can’t do it when she sees his little boy because of empathy, and being a mother herself. She has internal conflict about her actions, she isn’t sure of herself. It’s just a well written, interesting character.
There were a few things I left out because they were spoilers. I’m not going to make the case that it is 100 percent faithful, especially across the entire book series. I put Dune parts 1 and 2 firmly within Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings territory, which is also not 100 percent faithful to the books.
What they both do is adapt the books to the screen in what I believe is the best possible way it could have been done. Film adaptations will always involve compromises of sorts, but these both meticulously capture the important details of the author’s universe and still pull you along into a complex, compelling story. Many readers of both Herbert and Tolkien can and do find the books very hard to digest. Not so with the films, which are made with both the book fans and new fans alike, somehow nailing it in incredible fashion.
I was bummed out that the scouring wasn’t in the LOTR. I wanted an extra hour at least. Glorfindel, majestic elf-lord blessed by the Valar, didn’t even get a name-drop, let alone 7 or 8 minutes of film time. Tom Bombadil, the great mystery being was also nowhere to be found. And don’t get me started on the Army of the Dead.
Taken as a whole, I see it all as understandable creative decisions that help tell a more compelling story without inserting anything other than a filmmaking and storytelling agenda. From a human point of view, it’s not hard to imagine a woman who, hear me out on this one, is upset in this situation. Even with the extraordinary circumstances. Especially with the extraordinary circumstances.
I doubt it will deviate from the overall plot in any sort of egregious way, if and when part 3 gets released.
Back to compromises. You could argue that Villeneuve went a little woke with his casting choice of Dr. Kynes in part 1, and maybe he did. Kynes was very un-developed as a character, and that’s probably for the best. I don’t think the film viewers are missing out on something that’s vital to getting an appreciation of the work as a whole. Kinda like the LOTR characters I mentioned above. All of the planetology stuff was cool to read about, but there’s a plot to advance and I thought the actress who played Kynes did a perfectly good job of portraying the important aspects of the character that were relevant to the film’s plot.
Was it woke to race and gender swap Kynes? Maybe. Probably. But given the immense pressure I suspect the film was under, it’s really not a major deviation from the plot, and sometimes a little communism is the best way to avoid a lot of communism.
Villeneuve’s Dune 1 and 2 are still a much better film depiction of Frank Herbert’s books than anything that’s been attempted before it, film or miniseries. It’s not even close. It’s as far apart as LOTR and Frank Bashki’s depiction, which I own and have seen many times.
I like how both Paul and Chani have weaknesses in these films, even if it wasn’t explicitly written about. I think any deviations were minor and lent themselves to making a better overall film for the general audience and even most fans.
If I want to watch a movie where the lead character doesn’t have any bad traits I just pop in one of my many timeless Steven Segal classics I have on VHS and DVD. They’re almost all better than The Last Jedi.