Dune (Movie)

2021-11-20

Lady Jessica Atreides: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear and I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past… I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Wow. That’s a movie with quite a sense of scale and granduer. The ships are huge, the worms are huge, the armies are huge, the Duke is honorable, the Fremen are pious, the Baron is gross, everything is spectacular. It’s a bit of a bummer that we’re going to have to wait a few years for Part 2, but I think it really did need the space to breath.

The worldbuilding and visuals are what really makes this movie. I watched it on HBOMax, rather than in theaters, but I do have a wall sized projected screen and that really does help. It’s quite a visually stunning movie. If they re-run Part 1 in theaters, I may have to check it out next time around…

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope Star Wars #4 Star Wars (All - Release Order) #1977-05-25 Star Wars (All - Chronological Order) #4

2021-11-17

There it is. A New Hope. The Star Wars I grew up on.

Man that’s a great opening. The scale of the Star Destroyer, dumping us in on the ’everyman’ droids, and that Vadar scene. Spectacular.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Star Wars #3 Star Wars (All - Release Order) #2005-05-19 Star Wars (All - Chronological Order) #3

2021-11-15

Revenge of the Sith is a somewhat fascinating story. It feels by far the darkest and most ‘adult’ of the prequel trilogy, probably best matching the feel of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, but at the same time, there’s a lot more humor in the early parts at least, with some truly weird and silly moments with R2 and the Battle Droids. You know… I just don’t understand the droids. I’ll get back to that in a bit.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Disney Animated #22

2021-11-13

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is just delightful–and a blast of nostalgia on top of that. I didn’t manage to actually watch all of the Disney classic growing up (still haven’t), but I definiately watched this one. And now, after reading many of the stories to my children, it’s a delight to be able to share the video form with them as well!

I really like the style of these stories. It’s a mix of animated world with the real storybook characters (Pooh et al), but also obviously in a book, as they hob from page to page. It’s not the story of style you’d always expect to work, but it really works here.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones Star Wars #2 Star Wars (All - Release Order) #2002-05-16 Star Wars (All - Chronological Order) #2

2021-11-07

Onward!

The things that I remember most about Attack of the Clones are the atmosphere of Kamino, the final battle on Genosis (mostly from the game Star Wars Battlefront), and some rather cringey burgeoning relationship dialog from Anakin and Padme.

I was not disappointed.

Luca Pixar #24

2021-11-02

Luca is something of an odd beast. It’s a cute little movie about two young sea monster boys who journey out onto land–where so long as they don’t get wet, they transform to look like humans. Wacky hijinks ensue, there’s a meetcute with a young girl, a big race scenes, some quickly resolved drama, and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s not the most thrilling movie, which isn’t really something that you expect to see from Pixar–if it had come from any other studio it would have been pretty impressive.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

2021-10-31

Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween

Man I love this movie.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians Disney Animated #17

2021-10-30

60 years ago. Dang. And you know? It holds up. The action is solid and story aren’t overly complicated but enjoyable, the animation really works (despite/because of the limitations of the time), and the villains are unambiguous and scary but not overly so. Perhaps best of all, it’s the story of an absolute pile of talking dogs. What’s not to love?

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Star Wars #1 Star Wars (All - Release Order) #1999-05-19 Star Wars (All - Chronological Order) #1

2021-10-29

Oh, that opening score. The title crawl. That’s a blast of nostalgia right there. I’m too young to have seen the original trilogy in theaters, but I watched the VHS tapes what felt like a million times. When The Phantom Menace came out, that was right in my wheelhouse. I don’t remember how many times I saw that movie in theaters.

And you know what? It’s not as bad as it’s often rated. Granted, if it wasn’t leaning so heavily on the rest of the Star Wars franchise, well… it would probably be about that bad. But I disagree that it doesn’t disserve a place in the core ‘Skywalker Saga’.

Overall, it’s a fun action movie wrapped around the rise of dark powers and corruption in the guise of–a trade war and senatorial discourse of all things. It’s weird, but I’ve grown to accept it at least?

Obi-Wan: You were right about one thing master. The negotiations were short.

It’s my favorite Star Wars movie so far¹ and only a hint of things to come!

Knives Out

2021-10-24

Lieutenant Elliott: I’m sorry this is an open and shut case of suicide and quite frankly Benny we are getting to the point where I have to ask you what we’re doing here.
Benoit Blanc: The method? Throat slit? Typical for a suicide?
Lieutenant Elliott: Yes, I mean, that’s dramatic, but look around. I mean, the guy practical lives in a Clue board.

Well that was a surprising yet great fun movie. In a nutshell, it’s a murder mystery. Heir of the family is found dead–apparent suicide. But things quickly become more complicated, with a detective (Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc with a hilarious southern drawl that still somehow works…) anonymously hired to ‘get to the truth’. The family is a nightmare, everyone has a reason to have offed the old man…