DUNC it!

It seems that a) everyone will see this movie, and b) everyone will like this movie. Everyone... WILL!!!

Paul Atreides goes with his parents to the planet known as Dune. Everyone gets attacked, and Paul barely gets away and...

End of part one!

Okay, that was a rather glib summary, but if you know the story you know what happens. This movie is quite a faithful adaptation of the book. Remember that scene? Yeah, it's in the movie. Which means this is a long ass movie, with lots of stuff happening... and yet not much does really happen. The book works better because it has room to breathe, but translating onto screen, it feels like some elements are skipped over.

However, there's no real doubt that there will be a part two. Especially with some performances (hello Zendaya) not really coming into anything until part two.

But at least the music is great!

[END]

Read more!

Hilloween Kalls

Oh dear gods... what the hell is this mess of a movie supposed to be?

One part of this movie is supposed to follow on from the previous movie (which I can't recall the name of), and it is trying to make a statement about what is the real impact of Michael Myers. Another part of this movie is trying to reference the previous movies like it is an anniversary special. And yet another part is going "hey, how about some kewl Michael kills?"

And the problem is... none of these parts are integrated! It's like they had three different scripts they mashed together. Or, rather, more like they had a raft of deleted scenes from other movies they wanted to cram into one movie to get everything out of the way.

(And make no mistake about this being the end of the franchise... they aren't allowed to kill Myers off.)

What we get is an incoherent mess. I'm not sure why half the actors bothered to be here, possibly they were contracted, possibly they just wanted the money. Certainly it's not for the artistic merit.

Just best to avoid, but I'm sure everyone already even halfway invested in this series will check this out.

[END]

Read more!

Jimonthy Blonde

Partially I suspect because cinemas could not open up fully, this took a while to come out compare to other countries... but still before others. But not as bad as some other movies on the slate...

What if there was a weapon that could target people and be used safely around others? And what if the British spies were entirely responsible for it getting out of hand? That's the plot, but the majority of this movie is actually about the relationships between Bond and other characters, mainly his not wife Madeleine Swann and also her relationships with other characters. Which sometimes gets interrupted with action scenes.

Am I saying this movie is focusing on the wrong things? Well, it's so bloody long it focuses on everything. There were a lot of parts where I was thinking "could this be edited down? yes!".

That said, it has a lot to pack it. It has a lot of references to the rest of the series, and James' interaction with Felix is one of the better parts of the movie. There are some good action sequences, but not all. And as for the villain... is he even in this movie? I'm fairly sure you could remove him and not really notice.

It's too long, but this does sit in for a full story with Craig's Bond. That said, I did stay right to the end to see if they put the usual title card at the end...

[END]

Read more!

Pushing Mildred's Buttons!

This was the last episode of season 6 that I was in. Given the time zones involved, I don't sign up for much, and so it's getting over already... and then season 7 will kick in!

At the time, I had a better reason for why I convinced people that this title was good. There was Mildred pushing buttons, as well as such pushing Mildred's psychological buttons... but listening back now, that doesn't come across anywhere near as well as what I recall.

[END]

Read more!

Not Young

Fine, let's see the latest M. Night twist!

A couple of families go to a resort and get taken out to a lovely beach that has great views, great water and a small side effect of aging people rapidly. ... ... ... skip to 90 minutes and then we wrap up what is actually going on.

Seriously, the main chunk of this movie is nothing happen. We have the gimmick, and then the gimmick goes on.. and that's it! Nothing interesting develops from that, and even the big reveal of what is going on is "meh". Certainly not a surprise twist. Not that I saw it coming, but that I just didn't care that that's what the answer was.

Because it doesn't work. There's the premise, but it doesn't actually work that way! There are some hat tips to actual science, but most of it is ignored because that's not what the story is about. But what the story is about is "people hang around" and that isn't a story that anything exciting happens with.

This might be a movie to catch on tv, but I definitely wouldn't say you need to go to a cinema to see it.

[END]

Read more!

Shaun Chi

Finally managed to see the latest Marvel movie, with lockdown easing and movies coming out later.

Shang-Chi has daddy issues, understandable when your dad is the leader of the Ten Rings. In fact, the whole movie is about family issues. There is also a lot of martial arts fighting, and Awkwafina, but otherwise it's family. (So this is the Fast and Furious of Marvel movies?)

A lot of people are loving this movie, but I can't say it feels like more than an average Marvel movie to me. So ... uh... I don't feel like I have a lot of say here.

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it. Just that as I think back on it... I'm remembering bits from the trailer more than the actual movie. Considering that I was careful to avoid any spoilers and stuff, maybe I was expecting too much?

In all, it was decent, but... that's about it.

[END]

Read more!

KondyMon

After some issues, I did manage to see this sequel to the 1992 movie (which I also watched prior).

An artist becomes fascinated by the legend of the Candyman, but his latest project is connecting him with the being in ways he didn't expect. But as he gets in touch with the Candyman, the Candyman reaches out and touches others in rather unpleasant ways.

While I did see the 1992 movie, I haven't seen the others. And guessing how sequels would probably up the horror factor of "man with hook who appears in mirror", I'm not immediately pining to. While this is Clive Barker, look what happened with Hellraiser...

But this version picks up from '92 and references that. As such, it is useful to see that movie, but they do explain a lot of it. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is the artist of the main role, and he gets to experience some personally unsettling thing, which is a key factor of these movies. In that it is what people find out about how other people treat people (in particular, how black people are treated).

Less of a factor is the horror element of hook related fatalities, and some bee themed stuff. Unfortunately, this movie does go into "hey, let's kill some random people," which undermines the personal nature of the movie and could be scenes from any killer movie. The bee thing is a neat touch, but is only really incidental, and easily could have been dropped... or ramped up.

I'm sure I missed some parts of the movie, but this easily could be a different type of horror movie that occasionally treads into the common paths.

Oh, and completely unrelated, but goes through my head all the time...

[END]

Read more!