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Tron Legacy (2010) dir. Joseph Kosinski

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'My name!' said the old man again. 'Have you not guessed it already? You have heard it before, I think. Yes, you have heard it before. But come now, what of your tale?'

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Venom (2018)

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JOHN BLACKTHORNE and USAMI FUJI SHŌGUN | 1.10 A Dream of a Dream

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Bambi (1942)

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FRANK CASTLE IN EVERY EPISODE 💀 THE PUNISHER 1.08 - COLD STEEL

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My mom heard about this movie and wanted to try it out. So I got it from the library! This is an adaptation of the stage play about C.S. Lewis of the same name.

Taking C.S. Lewis’s own words from his works (mostly Surprised by Joy), The Most Reluctant Convert stars Max McLean as Lewis, telling the story of his life and his road back to Christianity. As he does so, we’re shown scenes from different parts of his life, including his mother’s death, his time in World War I, and his fateful conversation with Tolkien in Magdalen College.

I have some mixed feelings on this film; ultimately, I liked it, though I strongly suspect that it would have been better to see on stage. There’s not a lot of action in the story–it’s narration over flashbacks, like you’re watching Lewis go through his memories in a set of Pensieve-like sequences. However, it’s not like this is a widely-performed play, so I imagine the film is a creative compromise to be able to let more audiences access it, rather than only let a select few people see it. And I’m glad that more people could get to see it that way! 

But…. this isn’t really a movie the way we generally think of it. It’s sort of like a docu-drama? Or perhaps a TV special you might see on PBS or something about a famous author. It kind of reminds me of the BBC special on Terry Pratchett from a few years back, Terry Pratchett: Back in Black, where you had an actor playing the author and talking about his life and career.

I can’t help but wonder if the entire experience isn’t actually better than reading Surprised by Joy? Or if this feels a bit like a docudrama version of Surprised by Joy. Either way, you should read that book because it’s great.

There are a couple of dramatizations of events in this movie that to me, don’t quite work, or feel rushed. Tolkien is kind of just there for a bit, without enough establishment. The Great Knock is probably a worse example; this isn’t the actor’s fault, but his first scene feels like a man walks up and says, “Hello! I’m an important person in Lewis’s formation of life! Moving on!” There’s also a part of that sequence in which the older Lewis narrates that the Great Knock’s house is filled with books… while the shot we see has no books in it, and Lewis is looking off-screen. You do see books in a later shot, though at that point it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.

Still, it’s a good movie, only think that it’s not quite anything that hardcore fans of C.S. Lewis haven’t heard before. It is cool to see a lot of this acted out dramatically, and I think it’s incredibly cool that they managed to shoot this on-location in places that Lewis actually visited or lived in (and during COVID restrictions, no less–the BTS footage shows how difficult that was!).

I do get a bit sad watching this movie, though, because Lewis is working so hard to talk about the reasoning behind being atheist, agnostic, theist, or Christian. This was not, for Lewis, about emotion, but Reason and Rationality. And yet so many people now argue about belief or non-belief because of what they feel, and so many atheist arguments aren’t reasoned out as much as taken from the Internet because they were told to believe these things.

Anyhow, that’s not really a reflection on the quality of this movie.

If you have interest in C.S. Lewis, you should check this film out, or the play if you’re in an area where it’s being performed. I don’t know if it’ll hold much appeal out of that audience, though, unless you’re really interested to see how this one-man stage play was adapted into film.

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And yes, I plan to cover Shogun when it ends!

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Watched this again over the hiatus!

I remember that when watching the 2016 Suicide Squad that I thought that there was, buried somewhere in this mess, a good (but not great) movie that had gotten bogged down in its terrible editing. It’s a popular movie to dunk on but, you know, I ran into a few people who actually genuinely liked that movie, suggesting to me that, while I didn’t think it was very good, it’s not the universally-hated film that grumpy YouTube critics would have you think.

Still, the 2021 version is much better.

Keep reading

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By Frank, they did it! They made an excellent follow-up to Dune: Part One!

We’re going to have a couple of minor spoilers in this review; be aware.

After the events of the first movie, Paul Atreides has joined the Fremen in their fight with the Harkonnens. He becomes a leader among them, and even finds love in Chani, one of the lead freedom fighters. But his role as leader stirs some to think he’s their prophesied messiah. That’s a role he doesn’t want to take, because he’s foreseen how much violence it will lead to across the galaxy, and Chani (correctly) sees the prophecy as a method the Bene Gesserit use to manipulate and colonize. As the conflict goes on, however, Paul finds himself wondering if he has to use this image of himself as a messiah; not helping, his mother has started pushing his cult among the Fremen.

Gosh, this movie was great. The first movie and this one reminded me of what it was like to watch an epic film series, a sequence of stories told cinematically in a fantastical setting that build on each other, and together tell a coherent, complete story. Do you remember when everyone was trying to do that? I’m not talking about comic book films, obviously. A lot of films didn’t succeed, to be sure, but then teen romance films became A Thing, and then dystopian films became a thing, and then comic book films, and so most studios didn’t even try to do these kinds of epics anymore. So I was very happy to see Dune managing it.

I am bummed that we’re not going to receive an extended edition, like we did with Lord of the Rings. I know that these movies are already very long, but the director admitted that he cut a lot of things to make it all fit

The changes to the narrative are noticeable, to those who have read the book, but I think they work. A lot of people came away from the original Dune novel thinking that it’s a straightforward Hero’s Journey, and that the following books are a departure from that, even though there are hints throughout that book that Paul becoming a messiah figure is A Very Bad Thing. These movies maybe beat you over the head with that, though I think it ultimately works because, yeah, it’s a very bad thing, and it all goes south incredibly quickly.

Making Chani the main voice of the, “Wow, this messiah business is some BS, huh?” opinion is an interesting choice. It is a bit heavy-handed in how it gives you the intent of the messiah storyline to the audience; it is also good that someone has this view in the movie, because yes, the prophecy was invented to do what Chani says it was–manipulate a populace. I’m curious as to how the third movie, if it happens, will go with her, as the version in the book is fine with the messiah role. She has a large part in Dune: Messiah, and I don’t know how it will fit in with the version of Chani that’s in this movie. 

We should also talk about the Bene Gesserit? They’re interesting, but there is one part of the film that doesn’t quite work for me. Slight spoiler, but in this movie, it’s revealed that they’re the architects of the plan to wipe out House Atreides. That doesn’t make any goshdarn sense, given that they wanted Jessica and Paul to survive in the last movie, and it’s unclear what they would get out of this. It makes more sense the idea as it is in the books–that the Emperor wiped them out because he saw it as a threat to his power without direct action, but also a way to weaken House Harkonnen.

There are some creative choices in the direction of the way things look? Mostly I’m thinking of the Harkonnen homeworld in this film, which is a really fun change of pace. The way it looks is completely different from both Arrakis and the Atreides homeworld. It not only shows you what’s it like for a world under Harkonnen control, and the entire sequence develops their family. And it’s a great introduction to Feyd-Rautha, a key character in the proceedings of the story’s climax.

It’s a fantastic film. It’s an excellent sequel to the first one, and it displays just how much the director understands what he’s doing in telling a visual story. I love this and I want to see more of it. Not just in the sense of wanting to see the sequel (which I do), but I want to see more of these kinds of movies. The big epics, the ones that are telling big stories with epic battles in multiple parts, told by directors who know how to make them memorable instead of copying what’s already been made popular.

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Knives Out 2019 | dir. Rian Johnson

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TODA MARIKO and OCHIBA-NO-KATA SHŌGUN | 1.09 Crimson Sky

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Don't ever, ever listen to the jinn. The jinn? Jinn. Desert spirits. They whisper at night. They can posses you.

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Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve Zoolander (2001) dir. Ben Stiller

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JURASSIC PARK (1993) Dir. Steven Spielberg

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TANGLED (2010) dir. Nathan Greno, Byron Howard

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the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.