Frank Herbert's Children of Dune-Too Much Compression

This is the follow up to the SciFi Channel's adaptation of Dune, the classic science fiction epic by Frank Herbert.  Interestingly, both this mini-series and it's predecessor were both highly rated, but Skiffy, due to some changes in management, no doubt, did not seek to follow up on this and went the mass pandering route they did.  It is a creative desert they only recently have begun emerging from again.

"Imagine Greater", does not mean wrestling and reality TV.  That is "follow the leader" with the flimsiest of genre skins at best.

Anyway...

This one does continue the story of Paul Atreides (Alec Newman) who has become Maudib, leading the Fremen of Arrakis on a campaign across the known universe.  They have been taking planets left and right, raising the flag of Maudib far and wide.  Originally full of promise at its utterance, the name of Maudib becomes a curse on the lips of some.  Paul has taken to wandering among his people in disguise, listening to what they have to say and he has begun to believe that what started as a well needed change in the galactic order has begun to rot at its core.  But power tends to have its own momentum so he is at something of a loss as to what to do about it.  Machinations about him move, like the workings of House Corrino, and eventually, Chani gives birth to his children, son Leto II and daughter Ghanima.  Duncan Idaho reappears as a Tleilaxu ghola (a kind of golem/clone but breaks his programming in the assassination plot.  Eventually, Paul disappears and becomes a legend, some believing he is now a wandering prophet amongst the people.  Alia, his sister, the Abomination, brought into being when Paul's mother Jessica consumed the Water of Life when she was with child, takes over as regent.  She seems to be destabilizing, however.  With all those elements in play, and more to come, time is ripe for chaotic change in the galaxy.

This was an epic undertaking, and IMO, mini-series are one of the best approaches to adapting this material.  Now, Dune Messiah is a relatively short book compared to Dune or Children of Dune.  Still, that is a bit of an odd choice to mash the two together.  Despite that, and what seems a bit more of a reduced budget for special effects, they did bring this chapter of the Dune saga to life.  I especially note Alec Newman as Paul and his effective portrayal of Paul in his wandering prophet period.  Also, Daniella Amavia made a great Alia.  Her dance background made her grace as a fighter totally believable, and her natural charisma translated well as Alia descended into madness. 

I have to note Steven Berkoff as Stilgar.  Though he is decent, he did not compare to Uwe Ochsenknecht, who played him in Dune the mini-series.  I have no idea why they did not bring him back, but to not do so was a mistake.

Worth getting, especially if you are fan of this story.  Skiffy, more like this, please.

Mirror, Mirror-No Seven Years of Bad Luck Here

 

 

 

 

Fairy tales, that subset of fantasy that, in a post Disneyfication landscape, has for the longest time meant tame and kid-friendly.  Interestingly, though, Disney has been broadening it's audience for years, seeking a more adult audience as well as a general one, even with fairy tale characters, as witnessed by the show Once Upon A Time.  However, those characters aren't owned by Disney, leaving others to take their own cracks at those legends when the spirit moves them.  Such is the case with Mirror, Mirror, a spin on the classic Snow White tale.

 

 

First off, we have the Evil Queen, played with a sense of nasty fun by Julia Roberts, who, though a dabbler in magick, manages her magical talent as wrecklessly as her kingdom.  Hence, she is warned by her underlings, both natural and supernatural, that her powers are stretched to their maximum and a reckoning is coming, sooner or later.  Like a classic dictator, she engages in any means fair or foul to secure her throne and to pursue her whims.  The king has vanished and his legitimate heir apparent, Snow White (Lilly Collins), is kept out of sight and out of mind. 

 

Prince Andrew Alcott (Armie Hammer) an unmarried royal from a rich neighboring kingdom makes an appearance in the court and the Queen sees him as her golden opportunity to shore up her rule and  resources as well as sait her libedo.  When the Prince is seen enjoying the company of Snow White, she banishes snow and fakes her death.

 

Snow ends up finding herself falling in with a bunch of dwarves who have a side gig as bandits.  They eventually take her in, due to her friendly nature and cooking accumen.  In return, they begin teaching her fighting and banditry.  As secrets become unraveled in the kingdom, Snow becomes ready to fight the fight she must, physically, politically and magically.

 

I don't know why this one didn't do so well at the box office.  I haven't met a lot of people who enjoyed it.  In yet another mysterious year where somehow cinematic storytellers were pursuing similar themes (yes, fairy tales are a rage right now, but TWO Snow White films), this one was the clear underdog.  But with a great cast, sumptuous visuals perfect for it's fairy tale atmosphere and a story that was clearly written with a sense of fun and a cast that put forth that spirit, it deserved more than it got in the way of praise.

 

So I shall give it.   Mirror, Mirror, good flickage, my lovelies.  I'm not even a big fan of the films of director Tarsem Signh.  He's known for visually stunning and mindbending movies like The Cell and The Fall. The narrative here is much more straightforward than what he usually does, and this is fine.  Visually, there is no mistaking this rendition of Snow White for any other.

 

Again, good flick.



The Serpent And The Rainbow-The Voodoo That I Do

I have a fetish for women's armpits.  Gonna just throw that one out there.  Besides being a fervent big boob guy (natural, please), I've always enjoyed women's underarms.  Don't ask me why, but it goes back as far as I can remember.  When a lady shows off her pits in a movie or TV show, it has always stuck in my memory.  Two films especially stood out with such.  Right in the middle of a sex scene, usually early on, in the first Phantasm as well as Serpent and the Rainbow, the female protagonist in the throes of ecstacy, or sometimes just doffing her upper garment, shows off her armpits.  I remember that in my one previous viewing, the female protagonist, a doctor played by Cathy Tyson, lifts her arms to the heavens in ecstacy.  Ah, yes, sexy.  Saw her lovelies, too.  Now, for some reason I remember it being in the middle of a voodoo ritual.  Twas not the case.  Just lovemaking, the first instance of such between her character and the ethnobotanist/anthropologist Dennis Alan, played by Bill Pullman.

Yes, she had sexy armpits.  And boobs.

But despite the scene not being one of voodoo ritual, voodoo ritual is what you get in this film by horror master Wes Craven.  Based on a book by the same name published three years earlier, this film shows Pullman's character being drawn to Haiti on consignment by a corporation to obtain a sample of the legendary zombie powder of voodoo legend, on the idea it can revolutionize anesthetic procedures, save lives, and make said corporation a truckload of cash.  Even before Alan comes to Haiti, he finds himself pursued by a sense of approaching evil, supernatural menace, though he also apparently finds his spirit animal/guardian, a jaguar.

But off to Haiti he goes, finding a land in turmoil, buried in mysticism, and where the normal laws of science and civilization seem to have a tenuous at best grasp on reality.

I have to admit, watching Craven's ouvre of late, I'm not the biggest fan.  His dialogue seems ham fisted, his characters are flat and obvious and the threats are too obvious, they don't play with your mind nearly as much.  This is not the case with Serpent.

From the start, there is the question of mind vs. reality, and the intriguing idea that the two aren't nearly as far apart as we like to believe in Western culture.  Also, the political instability angle in Haiti was important, though background in the narrative.  Alan wasn't just up against "powers and principalities", he was up against a very real flesh and blood threat.  And, unlike on the spiritual plane, where Dargent Peytraud, Captain of the Haitian secret police was simply an evil and powerful sunovabitch, in the "real world", he was a hard man doing a tough job in a nation on the verge of coming apart.

Makes the evil a little harder to dissect.

Subtlety not often seen in a horror film, much less a Wes Craven flick.  This was a darn good horror film and possibly Craven's best.

Byzantium-Yes, There Are Good Vampire Movies Still

I'll say this for director Neil Jordan.  You take a look at his resume, he doesn't look like a horror director.  But he is one on atmosphere, also very plain in his other excellent vampire film, the great adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire, starring Tom Cruise as Lestat.   He does return to the vampire genre with Byzantium, and his touch with atmospherics as well as narrating tales of flesh eating immortals wafting down through history has not lost it's touch.  If you are looking for overly sentimental vampires acting like creepy teenagers, this is not your movie.  If you are looking for an over the top actioner with vampiric superheroes, this is also not your film.  This one is about blood sucking immortals trying to make it in the world of mortals.  Sure, they may be immortal and individually far more than a match for any mortal, but piss off the masses and set them with a mind to murder...well, out come the pitchforks and torches.

 

 

 

That is the world of Clara and Eleanor Webb, a mother and daughter vampire pair who have been drifting through the world for a few centuries.  Clara had Eleanor when she was a human prostitute in the Napoleonic era.   Later, she received her dark gift through guile and seeing her moment (the vampires in this world limit the gift to males) and later, when she had her chance, brought ther daughter over as well.  Eventually, they drift into seaside London and find a hotel that has seen better days, occupied by one man.  They wend his way into his graces and Clara decides to open up the old prostitution business to make use of all these rooms.  Eleanor goes to school, writes gothic, biographical stories about her life as a vampire and meets a boy she likes.  All this while, the police are tracking them, and they fear this fraternal vampire order is as well.

 

But even for immortals, there comes a time where the children need to fly from the nest and fend for themselves.

 

Moody without being dreary.  Thoughtful without being pretentious.  Taking it's premise seriously without being full of itself, Byzantium is a good vampire flick that offers some new looks as well as old tropes, beautifully shot and you actually care about these characters and their fates.

 

Good one.

The Howling-Some Monsters Just Want to Join The Burbs

Take one future movie Mom (Dee Wallace who will play Elliot's maternal unit in ET), playing Karen White, a TV news anchor investigating a serial killer case.  Her encounter with the killer leaves her traumatized, which begins to affect both her work and her relationship with her husband.  She consults with a shrink who was advising on the killer case, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick McNee), who advises a stay for her and her husband to relax, a place called The Colony.  She goes and begins mixing with the folksy, eccentric folks there, but quickly begins to get a vibe that there is more to this place than meets the eye.

See,  there be werewolves out.  Some believe that they can temper their wild natures and coexist with humans in the modern world.  Some are of the opinion, why bother? 

And there it is, a modern werewolf tale.  Not limited to the full moon, these shapeshifters can shift whenever they wish.  They have the silver bullet and fire weaknesses, but when in human guise, you can't tell who they are and that they want to eat your face.

The wild vs the civilized.  A rational person realizes and is at peace with both.  We were savage before we were civilized and one only has to go to the news to see that the savage, the wild, lives with us still, bursting out in all sorts of unhealthy ways.

This film is honest about that.

A werewolf classic.  Don't know why it took me so long to see it.

PS.  The werewolf transformation sequences in here are good, especially considering the era.  Though the ones to be seen in An American Werewolf in London as well as Michael Jackson's Thriller are better.  This film is still the gods.

Frankenstein's Army-I Don't Recommend Enlisting

I've another dose of indie film here, but one that again shows you just what a subjective pastiche the horror genre can be.  I've no doubt there will be crowd that will totally get off on Frankenstein's Army.  I'm just not in that crowd.  Let me explain...

Done in the "found footage" style, though as my good friend Mike Watt of Happy Cloud Pictures (check out his stuff, such as Resurrection Game and Feast of Flesh), the film stock is NOT anything like what you saw out of the era, such as color and level of resolution and how the lights look (but hey, if it was in black and white, you wouldn't have all the GOREGOREGORE!!)...anyway... 

It is World War 2, the Eastern Front.  A squad of Soviet infantry operating behind the lines stumbles across what looks like some kind of lab.  After finding disturbing clues that the Germans shelled their own real estate, they turn the power on and find the damn place crawling with clockwork creatures that are a combo of madcap mechanics and corpsely flesh.  Slowly, they begin to lose numbers to these things, as they get closer to the source of the mystery...Dr. Frankenstein, the one who made the monster, had a grandson.  And the kid is bugfrick nuts.

And that is what it comes down to.  The Soviet soldiers reveal great inhumanity all along the campaign trail and you really didn't feel that much for the bastards, considering their callousness as in no real way balanced out.  Frankenstein is WAY crazier than his grandfather, who really was just too ambitious for his own good.  However, it really doesn't lend well to the movie plots.  Sure, he's throwing these monsters together but it is not clear what his goal is.  As Mr. Spock once said, "Madness has no motive, or reason.  But it may have a goal."  But this guy, he mumbles some stuff, but it frankly makes no sense, not even in an insane kind of way.  Finally, sure, the critters were the work of "genius" in the way they operated at all, but they made no sense.  Just crazy patchworks, not really effective at combat.  The Russians lost their lives not due to the lethal effectiveness of the monsters, just these "hardened soldiers" played horror movie stupid to the hilt.

The movie was really just an exercise in gore and mayhem.  If that is the way you like your horror, this might do you.  But, if you like a point, interesting characters, a reason for being re. the villainy and if you are going to go "found footage", authenticity, you will be out on all counts.

Pass.

Computer Chess-Game Over. Shall We Play Again?

Ah, the early nineteen eighties, the beginning of the personal computing era, pre-Windows.  Horn-rimmed baby geniuses were whipping their creations for all they were worth to build the future.  Build it, they did.  Long term, I firmly believe that it will be something cool, even wonderful.  But right now, baby is still in it's terrible twos and we are cleaning up the poopy as we try to figure out just what it is we have wrought and just what sort of adult will it grow into. 

This little indie scifi thinker was made in that era, when those fellas were doing said driving, in this case, at a convention where they showed off chess programs.  They would play the computers against each other and the best program would square off against a chess champion waiting to best the winner.  This is before Deep Blue and the idea that a computer program could beat a human chess player was unthinkable.

Unkept hair and awkward social presences, check.  Sheer computer passion and genius?  Check.  Hot lady geek just waiting for a moment to remove glasses and top (neither happens, though if it had, it would have been glorious), check.

Big machine mystery?  Oh, heck yeah.

Problem is, they didn't fill the intervening space with characters I felt interested in or compelled by.  The central dilemmas, I could not care less about.  Mostly, I felt a little awkward by anything not completely computer related.

Yes, the mystery was there, but unlike, say, PI, which had a similar premise but a far more interesting execution, this one failed to really build on it's premise and just kind of left me cold.

Yeah, that was weird at the end, but a whole lot of not much to get to it.

Try again.