What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Big fan of that film, but then again Guilermo Del Torro rarely has a dud.

[Zzzptm]

The Paper Chase

Love this film, work ended early, so I decided to watch it. Best movie about studying, ever.

[Typhon]

In Hammer's 3rd film of the Karnstein Trilogy, twin females visit relatives in a small town near Karnstein Castle.  One of the twins desires to meet Count Karnstein, while the other has a timid personality.  More beautiful women abound, and Cushing is terrific as a witch hunter.  A great and attractive story of the macabre.  8.5/10

Fun Fact:  The Collinson twins in the film were the very first twins to appear in Playboy magazine's centerfold.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I need to catch up with my recent viewing... I've seen Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Dune, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard and Spencer in the last few weeks.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Stars Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Naomie Harris, Michelle Williams and Steven Graham. Directed by Andy Serkis.

Eddie Brock (Hardy) still has the symbiot Venom inside him and struggles to live the double life controlling Venom and being a jobbing journalist. Cletus Kassidy (Harrelson) is a violent convict who Brock goes to interview. Long story short Kassidy gets his own symbiot (called Carnage) and breaks out for revenge! It's a romp from start to finish, funnier than many films which purport to be comedies. It's a simple story and refreshingly short (97 minutes). 8/10
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Dune

Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Mamoa, Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista and Charlotte Rampling.

I'm not super familiar with the book or the 1980s film (I have seen it but not in like 30 years). The Atreides family take control of Dune where the product Spice is mined, and soon rival factions make life difficult for them.

From the start this felt like Game of Thrones meets Star Wars, there's big vehicles which perhaps look too much like they are inspired by Star Wars but then the books pre-date that so it might be the other way round. The Sandworms are suitably big and impressive. It should be clarified that this is only half the story with the second part only having just been given the go ahead. It does feel incomplete but it is very well made if a little slow in places. 7/10
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The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Starring: Samuel L Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas.

Once again the bodyguard Bryce (Reynolds) has to protect the hitman (Jackson) only this time he is accompaied by his wife (Hayek), even though his AAA bodyguarding licence has been suspended. The plot is suitably light as the main point for watching this film is for the comedy, the action and Salma Hayek looking lovely even in her 50s!! It might even be better than the first one! 8/10
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Spencer

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sean Harris and Sally Hawkins

It's Christmas '93 (I think!) and Princess Diana goes to Sandrigham to spend a few days with the royal family. The film attempts to show the depths that her mental health has fallen to shortly before she split from Prince Charles.

The pluses are that Stewart does a passable Diana, and Spall, Harris and Hawkins are very good in their respective roles. On the minus side is that the film is tedious and completely unrealistic. BTW I dodn't want to see it, the girlfiend did... even she didn't like it much! What worries me is that Stewert is already a front runner for the Oscars... dear God! 3/10

[Zzzptm]

We all watched Best in Show again last night. Princess Bride next week.

[Charger]

I'm planning on watching The Dune tonight so thanks for the heads up! I kind of expected it to be bit slow because it's got a running time of over 2,5hrs.

I really enjoyed the mini series that was made in the early 2000s. But I also did enjoy the Lynch version although the effects on that one are very very dated.

[Charger]

DUNE

Denis Villeneuve takes on the mammoth task of telling the story of Frank Herbert's classic. The story begins with House Harkonnen losing the hold of planet Arrakis and the production of the precious Spice to the House Atreides. But everything is not as it seems and soon the house Atreides is brought down and the battle for the future of Dune begins as the Duke Leto is killed and his son Paul and his concubine a Bene Gesserit witch Jessica flee to the desert to look for protection and alliance with the native people Fremen.
Paul who is believed to be the messiah, the chosen one begins to see his greater fate through series of visions and dreams brought on by his Bene Gesserit side.

The story itself is massive and ofcourse cannot be told in a single movie (and this was meant to be a movie series with sequal/s coming) but this does drag on a bit too much. Villeneuve takes more than 2,5 hours to tell the same ammount of story than the 2000 miniseries told in it's first 90 minute episode! It is rather strange. This could have easily been edited down to that same length without losing too much story.

The acting was very good and even the bold choice to cast an unknown to the role of Paul Atreides did not hurt as Timothee Chalamet did a fine job as did Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica. Bigger stars were actually given a much smaller roles like Dave Bautista as Rabban Harkonnen, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck and Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho...but as to be expected the grand role of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen played by Stellan Skarsgard took the center stage when ever he was on screen...sadly his scenes were far too short and few...but his make up was great, could barely recognize him. The under use of the Baron was a bit of a travesty as he is one of THE great villains.

One thing that irked me the most though was the pronounciations of the names...especially Harkonnen...but there has been a lot of debate on how they are pronounced although some recordings of Herbert telling the right way do exist.

The visuals were great, the Harvesters looked the part, and the thopters were very cool but the Worm was also rather under used which was a shame. But we should se much more of them in part 2...hopefully.
Also the Space Guild Navigators were never shown...and they are a rather large part of the story...again hopefully more in the next part.

The movie did justice to the story but it did drag on bit too much for my liking. It felt that Villeneuve was putting bit too much effort in trying to create a space opera rather than a proper sci-fi epic. Also for a budget of over 160 million one would have expected bit more grandious space visuals. Now too much time was spent on close quarters.

It had much good but also bit too much fluff. But it did make me anxious for part 2.

*  *  *

[Zzzptm]

For some reason, I now want to see Spice World...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Please hand in your man badge!


@Charger

Not sure I would describe Timothee Chalamet as an unknown! He may not have been in films that will interest you. I've seen him in a couple of films -- Christopher Nolan's "Interstella" and Greta Gerwigs "Lady Bird". And he was Oscar nominated for "Call Me By Your Name" (a film I have little interest in seeing). I would agree that this is his first leading role in a big budget blockbuster!

[Charger]

@Charger

Not sure I would describe Timothee Chalamet as an unknown! He may not have been in films that will interest you. I've seen him in a couple of films -- Christopher Nolan's "Interstella" and Greta Gerwigs "Lady Bird". And he was Oscar nominated for "Call Me By Your Name" (a film I have little interest in seeing). I would agree that this is his first leading role in a big budget blockbuster!

Interesting... I've never even heard of him...granted I haven't followed the Oscars anymore as closely in the past few years but I usually do remember the nominee's names though...although I have never heard of Call Me By Your Name either....

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

@Charger

Not sure I would describe Timothee Chalamet as an unknown! He may not have been in films that will interest you. I've seen him in a couple of films -- Christopher Nolan's "Interstella" and Greta Gerwigs "Lady Bird". And he was Oscar nominated for "Call Me By Your Name" (a film I have little interest in seeing). I would agree that this is his first leading role in a big budget blockbuster!

Interesting... I've never even heard of him...granted I haven't followed the Oscars anymore as closely in the past few years but I usually do remember the nominee's names though...although I have never heard of Call Me By Your Name either....

The main problem with the Oscars is that they nominate films/actors which are rarely on the publics radar. And on those odd occasions films which the public do like get nominations they rarely win. It's no wonder that audience figures are dropping. It's only really Joker recently which had big box office that won any awards and even that divided the Batman fans!

[Charger]

@Charger

Not sure I would describe Timothee Chalamet as an unknown! He may not have been in films that will interest you. I've seen him in a couple of films -- Christopher Nolan's "Interstella" and Greta Gerwigs "Lady Bird". And he was Oscar nominated for "Call Me By Your Name" (a film I have little interest in seeing). I would agree that this is his first leading role in a big budget blockbuster!

Interesting... I've never even heard of him...granted I haven't followed the Oscars anymore as closely in the past few years but I usually do remember the nominee's names though...although I have never heard of Call Me By Your Name either....

The main problem with the Oscars is that they nominate films/actors which are rarely on the publics radar. And on those odd occasions films which the public do like get nominations they rarely win. It's no wonder that audience figures are dropping. It's only really Joker recently which had big box office that won any awards and even that divided the Batman fans!

And adding the whole left wing extremist propaganda machine the whole gala has become is the icing on the cake...it's like it's not even about the movies anymore...
. I used to love the oscars and now I can't even watch them anymore.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

We saw Cruella on rental. It stars Emma Stone, Emma Thompson and Mark Strong in this prequel to 101 Dalmatians that charts the rise from street urchin to fashion trend setter of Cruella de Ville.

This Disney production is stylishly made and although a little slow to begin with picks up later on. We get to see her love of dogs and a post credit scene suggests at the remake of the 101 Dalmations or maybe is just to encourage people to watch the old films! Quite colourful, quite entertaining with a little twist towrards the end. 6/10

[Thelemech]

Love this damn movie so much!! It is always watched around this time of year as an Iconic Christmas movie 
9.5/10

[Charger]

^^^
THE best Christmas movie ever made! Lethal Weapon is a close second though.