Sweeping Strings

Dune Part 2 - the conflict between the various factions for control of Arrakis' 'spice' production begins in earnest, and in its depiction Villeneuve turns in an absolutely spectacular sci-fi epic that thrills the eye and stirs the blood. Brilliant.

R.I.P. Richard Lewis. Loved his and Larry's sparring on Curb.

Dune Part 1 - I have decided to go and see part 2 on my day off tomorrow, so I thought I'd better see part 1 first. Like Blade Runner 2049, this is a lengthy, mostly stately-paced and visually stunning sci-fi flick directed by Denis Villeneuve. Unlike that movie, I wasn't bored ... again, the visuals are stunning but the narrative kept me interested as well (and I was able to follow it OK, which is always a bonus. lol).

Overall, I don't think I liked it that much. Still, quite amusing to see stalwart Brit/Irish actors (Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Dervla Kirwan) popping up in a high-profile HBO show.

I recognised bits of it ... after seeing the movie 'back in the day' the first time round, I rented the soundtrack CD from a place that used to rent CDs as well as VHS cassettes and taped it (the tape's long gone). Some nicely stirring stuff in it, in the days long before he became a score 'factory' just churning 'em out.

Backdraft - squabbling brothers, a serial arsonist and political skullduggery are all in the mix in this Ron Howard number set in the Chicago Fire Department. Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Robert De Niro and Donald Sutherland all do fine but the real stars of the show are the pre-CGI pyrotechnic effects which are spectacular, terrifying and utterly convincing.

Overall, the track record of videogame movies isn't too good.

You may think that, I couldn't possibly comment .

A Star Wars-related wang is perfectly capable of popping up repeatedly, if Mattris' constant reappearances in the Disenchantment thread are anything to go by.

Must admit that before this post the wellbeing (or otherwise) of Anakin's/Vader's 'pants lightsabre' hadn't crossed my mind at all.

Solid supporting cast too, with the likes of George Dzundza and William Atherton.

Occasionally through gobfuls of dough he can be heard to mutter 'This is revenge for that bloody steamed chicken diet I was on during the training regime!'. No Mercy - Tough Chicago cop Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) goes down New Orleans way after the crime lord (Jeroen Krabbe) who killed his partner, with his 'moll' (Kim Basinger) in tow. Decent enough mid-80s thriller, with a quite exciting stalk-and-shootout climax in a burning hotel.

Back to fun, escapist action-adventures 2 hours or so in length. Globe-trotting, glamour, thrilling stunts and action sequences, gadgetry and humour. Modern sensibilities be damned ... no more 'this time it's personal', no more 'MI6/field agents/the 00 section is irrelevant', angst and self-reflection to be kept to a minimum (stuff along the lines of the scene on the beach in Goldeneye is absolutely fine). Unapologetically have Bond be a straight, white, patriotic hero who takes pleasure in eating and drinking well and in casual sex. Make clear that the reason he enjoys these things is because (for all he knows) he could be dead tomorrow. And yes, he kills in the line of his work when necessary. If the 'yoof' find any of this 'problematic' ... they don't have to watch them. Simple. Hire artists who are actually worth a damn to write and record the theme songs again. I realise I'm probably dreaming, but this is what I would do if it was up to me. Seemed to work pretty well from 1962 - 2002.

Wonder did NTTD's length stem purely from the notion that the film that finally 'kills' Bond should feel 'epic' or whatever?

Lord alone knows where Bond goes from here, but the signs ain't great IMO. Producers currently seeming to care more about the Amazon gameshow than getting the ball rolling on the next movie in any significant way speaks volumes.

They had some good stuff back in the day, Lauryn Hill's a helluva vocalist. lol?

Am enjoying the Ted series, there's a pretty decent gag 'hit-rate'.

People are disparaging about Barbara Bach in TSWLM, too. You can either get all bent out of shape about Bond Girls of old being hired for their eye-candy qualities ahead of anything else back in the day or you can shrug and say 'That's how it was back then'. I prefer the latter.

Twins Of Evil - these 70s Hammer vampire flicks become difficult to tell apart after a while. With Peter Cushing (not as Van Helsing, but it might as well be) and some pretty ladies, some of whom sportingly disrobe.

Gotta love Cubby Broccoli saying 'OK, we'll build it then' when it turned out that there wasn't a soundstage big enough to house the TSWLM tanker interior.

And then there are the times when it's so astonishingly well done you forget you're looking at a studio set. Rear Window, for example.

Barry Gibb exec producing. It'll be quite nice about them then, I'd imagine.

Have quite enjoyed dark comedy Based On A True Story (1 episode left to go). I've long been uneasy about exactly what it is that true crime podcast fans get out of them, and this satirises that quite well.

Isn't that a fairly standard release schedule for Marvel stuff? Or at least it was before the movies began flopping.

The Mothman Prophecies - early Noughties supernatural thriller in which Richard Gere's Washington Post journo unexplainedly ends up in the town of Point Pleasant (after setting out to drive to somewhere completely different) in West Virginia, the townsfolk of which having been experiencing weird phenomena (the strangest of which is the titular being, an eight-foot-tall humanoid that seems to predict upcoming disasters and which Gere's character's wife seemingly saw and made sketches of before she died). Chilly and unsettling, which is what you want from this sort of thing. Also starring Debra Messing, Laura Linney, Will Patton and Alan Bates.