Once a legitimate blog. Now just a collection of memes 'n menz.
No.
It finally appeared on streaming for free, and all I can say is I'm glad I didn't pay for a ticket to see it in a theater. I was already fast-forwarding about 2/3 of the way into it.
So many worn-out tropes. So many blindingly-stupid characters. The Xenomorph is so well known by now, my reaction has become, "Oh, it's you."
One of those movies I'll stop what I'm doing and watch no matter where it is in the story if I'm channel surfing…
Posted every year, just because.
I saw The Living End once, shortly after it premiered. I don't remember much about it other than I found it profoundly disturbing, coming out at a time when so many of my friends and loved ones were succumbing to AIDS and it seemed like I was going to a funeral every other week.
Private Vasquez, then and now.
Another one of those movies that if I happen across it, I stop what I'm doing and watch it through the end.
I enjoyed The Mandalorian. I enjoyed Boba Fett. Hell, I even found Obi Wan engaging enough to watch through the entire series. But everything since? I can't make it past the first episodes…
I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but let's recap.
I loved Alien. I saw it on opening night in 1979 (for those of you who might be new here, yes I'm old) and drove home constantly looking in my rear view mirror for anything that might be lurking in bed of my truck.
I loved Aliens even more. I got home and turned on every light in my apartment. Probably one of my favorite films of all time. Everything about it was exceptional.
I was disappointed with Alien3 only because they'd killed off Newt and Hicks. And to be honest, the whole setting gave me the "icks."
By the time Alien Resurrection came around, I was pretty much done with the franchise, but went to see it on opening night nonetheless. At this point I don't even remember the storyline; that's how much of an impression it left on me.
Nevertheless, fifteen years after Resurrection, I confess to quite a bit of excitement when Prometheus was announced—especially since Ridley Scott was directing. Initially I gave it an almost-glowing review, but in the intervening years and upon several subsequent viewings, my opinion of the film has soured considerably—mostly because of the outright stupidity exhibited by the majority of the characters.
And then three years later, along came Alien: Covenant. I was expecting so much from that film, and I should've known better. I wanted answers. What happened to Shaw and David? Did they find Paradise? No. We got yet another murderously psychotic android, a mention of Shaw's grusome death in passing, and a whole lot more stupid exhibited by the characters in the story. I walked out of the theater swearing off the franchise completely.
So now we have Alien: Romulus (with apologies to Star Trek for stealing the planet's name, apparently) yet another prequel to the original 1979 film. My ears perked up when I first head of this being in the works a couple years ago, but I quickly reminded myself how awful the latest crop of films had been and let the whole thing slide by the wayside.
Well, the film finally came out and while the reviews have generally been positive (minus the too-obvious callbacks—to the point of actual dialog being lifted—to the first two films, not surprisingly I have no desire whatsoever to waste money seeing it in a theater. I'll wait until it's streaming—and free—before I put any effort into seeing it.
To be honest, I've generally lost interest in going to movies. Ben and I used to go a lot, and prior to meeting Ben, I had a movie buddy who I'd see almost every new release with. But even prior to COVID, Ben and I were going less simply because it was becoming more and more difficult finding films we both wanted to see. The last two films I saw in a theater were Dune and Dune II, and neither one was a particularly enjoyable experience. With Dune it was because we were still in the throes of the COVID lockdown with all that entailed and Ben didn't really want to go. With Dune II, I was so disappointed disgusted with how Villeneuve butchered the remainder of the novel I left the theater shaking my head, vowing never to return.
I understand there's an Alien series coming out (aka Alien: Earth) on Netflix or one of the other streaming services. Will I bother? Hard to say. At this point I'm suffering from Alien burnout from too many poorly-executed installments of the story and honesly—how many more times can a chest-burster produce any sort of surprise or excitement?
…to seeing how Denis Villeneuve is going to portray Edrick, the Guild Navigator in Dune Messiah.
Will he be bizarre, or—since he seems to unconcerned with changing major parts of the story—will Villeneuve just omit the character altogether?
The Mother Ship model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Built by a team led by Greg Jein. Photos are of the original filming model and some of the fun 'greebles' on it.
It would've been hilarious if Beetlejuice had been engraved on that headstone, but then I realized over a decade separated the two films…
Lifted from a posting on Tumblr…
Not like that film was a one-off either.
I would like to add The Birdcage (1996) to this list of drag queen movies (mind you, it's based on La Cage Aux Folles, a French stage play from 1973 that was later made into a 1978 film*).
Which starred Nathan Lane as a drag queen just two years after he had voice Pumba in The Lion King:
And we ESPECIALLY need to remember Victor Victoria from 1982 (during the REAGAN administration), an absolutely joyful film is SET IN THE 1930S and stars everyone's favorite curtain-sewing nanny as a struggling soprano who decides to pretend to be a boy doing drag (DOUBLE THE DRAG FOR YOUR MONEY). I mean look at this photo:
* I love the Birdcage, but to this day I think the original La Cage still outshines it for the sheer comedic timing of the leads.
…this movie—or more specifically, Paul Mantee—gave me…stirrings.
I first read Wicked back in 2003 while suffering severe insomnia during my radiation therapy. It enthralled me through those many long sleepness nights, and the one thought I kept having was, "This would make a great movie!"
When it went to Broadway, I was at first a little disappointed, but immediately realized that this was the path to the silver screen, and now—two decades later—we're going to get it.
And I'm here for it. Yes, I loved the Broadway show. I have the soundtrack. It's been years since I last read the books, but nevertheless, this trailer brought tears to my eyes.
🤣 🤣 🤣
In a twist of fate that would change music history, a DJ in Cleveland discovered a hidden gem on the B-side of a record. He decided to flip The Champs' "Train to Nowhere" record and play "Tequila" instead. That move catapulted the tune to the #1 spot on the Billboard Chart on this day in 1958! Of course, the track "Tequila" got another bump in 1985 from this scene from "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." #TrueStory
"I was expecting to be blown away…but I wasn't."
Dune Part Two was my most—and quite frankly my only—eagerly awaited movie of 2024. I wanted to love it unconditionally. I really did. But I didn't.
I had such high hopes, especially with how Denis Villeneuve so lovingly crafted Part One. But I started getting a pit in my stomach a few weeks ago when it leaked that an adult actress, Anya Taylor-Joy, would be playing Paul's sister, Alia. How? Why? (Those of you familiar with the book know how problematic having an adult in this role is.)
In the book, Alia is a child—three years old as I recall—when the final battle sequence takes place. Her high strangeness, being a fully-developed adult consciousness with memories of generations before her within a child's body, is integral to the story and was the reason she was such a compelling character (fully fleshed out in later novels). Was she going to be age-regressed and CGI'd onto a younger actor? Would her voice be dubbed onto an as-yet-unrevealed child actress? So many questions.
Well, I got the answer last night.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Villeneuve simply sidestepped the whole issue by simply not having her born in this film. I know this is set up for the next installment in the series, where Alia is significantly older, but how is that going to be handled? Jessica had the baby and she grew up off screen?
And you know, the more I think about it this morning, the more this pisses me off.
(Deep breaths. Deep breaths.)
The film was visually stunning, as I expected. The soundtrack lush, and the other minor changes (with one exception that I'll get into shortly) didn't annoy me. Villeneuve flushed out the story a bit in a way I could've seen Frank Herbert doing himself. Austin Butler's portrayal of Feyd-Rautha was truly psychotic—much more so than I imagined when I read the novel, and a far, far cry from Sting's blue metallic speedo portrayal in Lynch's 1984 adaptation.
There were some editing issues that stood out for me. Before Paul's coming-of-age riding of the Sandworm, he was sent out into the deep desert by Stilgar to survive overnight and return the next morning. We see him walking off, and then all of a sudden Chani shows up and she's explaining how windtraps work to collect moisture and he's making googly eyes at her—and then it's the next day and they're all back with the group.
Further, Paul's firstborn—who died in the violence of the last third of the book—was completely absent in this adaptation. Not a word of it was mentioned, even though Chani was clearly wearing the blue nezhoni scarf, indicating she gave birth to a male child. And yet, not a word. Nothing. Zilch.
And that brings me to the ending…
Paul kills the Baron because Alia isn't born yet and…because poetic justice for the Baron killing Paul's father? Okay, in context it did make sense.
I understand that we're being set up for a third film based on Dune Messiah, but to have Paul announce that he would be marrying the Emperor's daughter Irulan for purely political reasons without simultaneously reassuring Chani that nothing had changed between the two of them? I mean, that was one scene that has stayed with me since I first read the novel in 1977:
"I swear to you now," he whispered, "that you'll need no title. That woman over there will be my wife and you but a concubine because this is a political thing and we must weld peace out of this moment, enlist the Great Houses of the Landsraad. We must obey the forms. Yet that princess shall have no more of me than my name. No child of mine nor touch nor softness of glance, nor instant of desire."
"So you say now," Chani said. She glanced across the room at the tall princess.
"Do you know so little of my son?" Jessica whispered. "See that princess standing there, so haughty and confident. They say she has pretensions of a literary nature. Let us hope she finds solace in such things; she'll have little else." A bitter laugh escaped Jessica. "Think on it, Chani: that princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine—never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine—history will call us wives."
As this final scene in the film was playing out I kept whispering to myself, "Say it. Say it!"
But no. That whole interchange never happened. Chani stormed off in a huff, summoned a worm, and rode off into the sunset.
Will I see it film again? Probably not. I had tentative plans to see it in IMAX with a couple friends in the coming week, but I begged off and told them (both huge fans of the book) why. Am I disapointed in it overall? Not overall, but with specific parts, yes. Very much so. Is this the closest adaptation to the book I'm likely to see in my lifetime? Definitely.
Do I recommend it? If you've never read the source material, and only saw Part One, definitely. You'll enjoy it for the story that it is. If you know and love the book (and you've read my spoilers) go in with your eyes open and make up your own minds. And let me know what you think!
At least he didn't make it rain…
In anticipation of Friday night's cinematic premiere of Dune Part 2, I rewatched Dune Part 1 on Netflix last night. I wasn't planning to, although several times over the past couple weeks I thought I really should watch it again before Friday. I have it on disc, but the player isn't even connected to anything any more, and it's more of a hassle than it's worth to get everything set up for only one movie. So when I was scrolling through Netflix and saw it come up (with the note "Leaving Soon" underneath the icon) I thought it was the perfect opportunity to return to Arrakis for a couple hours.
I haven't seen the film since its debut back in 2021 except for maybe one screening shortly thereafter when I got the blueray release.
All I can say is, "Wow!" Better than I remember (and at the time I thought it was awesome), and with this go-round I found myself catching a lot of small details that screamed references to the book that had slipped past me upon my initial viewings.
I was already excited for Part 2, but even moreso now after being reminded last night of how much Villeneuve genuinely loves and reveres the original source material.
And now he's actively planning for a third move that follows the events of Dune Messiah? Yes, please!
My back hurts.