Dune (2021)

Internet Movie Database Movie Reviews

From the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert

Yeah, right, summarize Dune in one line! Okay, here goes: Paul Atreides’ father is killed, making him Duke of a planet that produces the most valuable substance in the universe, which everyone is assembling to fight over.

LOL. Not even close. The book is, even with its ponderousness, a wonderful classic that all of you should have read by now. It’s rich, full of great characters and inventive storylines and danger and romance and…

It’s good, okay?

But there is so much happening in the book that the 1984 David Lynch version on the big screen has been considered a joke ever since. I liked it at the time, but I had read the book and knew what was happening; I understand that if one has not read the book, it is well-nigh incomprehensible.

There was also an excellent miniseries made in 2000 with William Hurt; it was 4 1/2 hours long, and did a much better job of telling the story and making sense out of it.

So now here is yet another movie version, with all the modern FX tech. Mr. Otter and I were pretty excited and went to see it as soon as it hit the theaters…and our opinion is… (drum roll please) PRETTY DAMN GOOD.

The story is edited down to comprehensibility, and it was well done. The plot moves and makes sense, as far as I can tell nothing important was left out, the FX were, of course, wonderful, and the actors were good. Except Jason Momoa, who is good eye-candy but can’t act to save his life, but he played the warrior who dies nobly almost right away, so that worked out fine.

Really, my only quibble with this movie were the words in the title at the beginning of the movie: PART I.

On the one hand, dammit. I hate waiting for the next part of ANYTHING.

On the other hand, good. Making this into several parts will allow them enough time to actually tell the story right…and it looks like they got a good start.

So the Otter is cautiously optimistic about this one. Stay tuned for more reviews, everyone!

Once Upon a Time in America

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From the novel The Hoods by Harry Grey

A gangster returns to the Lower East Side where he grew up and started on his life of crime, hoping to put his past to rest.

This was one of our Zoom Movie Nights; during the lockdown in 2020, Mr. Otter, CoyoteRambles and I would set up a Zoom session, and after we had chatted a bit, would watch a movie while connected and talk about it afterwards. It was so much fun that we are continuing the movie nights indefinitely! We alternate choosing movies, and this was my choice; I’ve seen most of Sergio Leone’s movies, but always wanted to catch this one and never had. And I was not disappointed!

De Niro is a gangster who is haunted by his past, and that past (and his childhood) make up a large part of this movie; most of his young life is shown, with the present as a frame story and mystery about what actually happened to De Niro’s friends from the past.

This was so enjoyable! Not a typical mobster movie (and I had really expected a Godfather clone), but more of a character study framed by the question of what’s really going on in the future. The prohibition-era kids who will grow up to be gangsters are really good, and the fact that the film focuses so strongly on them makes it a much better viewing experience than it otherwise would have been.

Recommended by The Otter!

Citizen Kane

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The life of a rich and famous man told in flashbacks by a reporter who is trying to figure out the meaning of Kane’s last word: Rosebud.

So this movie came out in 1941, flopped, was hidden in the RKO vaults in embarrassment, and got boo’d at the Academy Awards for that year every time it won…nine times, that was. And yet it’s one of the most famous, studied, and talked about films of all time. It wasn’t until it was rereleased in the 1950s that people said, wait a minute, look at that camerawork! And history was made. Just goes to show how public opinion can change.

My experience of this movie is exactly the same: when I saw it as a young Otter, I thought it was kind of stupid. I didn’t know anything about cinematography or William Randolph Hearst or the times, and just didn’t get it.

Then on one of our Saturday Zoom movie nights, Mr. Otter, CoyoteRambles and I watched Mank, which was very good, and I said, if you guys don’t mind seeing Citizen Kane yet again, I would love to give it a rewatch when it’s my turn to pick. And so we did.

And like Americans of the 1950s and later, this time I got it.

It’s a good movie, a good story, Welles is awesome, and the cinematography, especially the camera angles and the light, is really amazing.

Small quibble: there is a librarian in this movie, and she’s a stereotypical dragonish book guardian who doesn’t want anyone touching her hoard…meh.

So much has been written about this movie and it’s so ingrained in our pop culture that I really don’t have much else to say about it…my readers (bless them) have probably seen it more times than I have.

But I’m glad to join the group of Kane supporters. Thanks for waiting, everyone.

Mank

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Herman J. Mankiewicz is trying to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane and has 2 months to do it.

So it was 2020, and like everyone else we were locked up at home. We had started a Saturday Zoom movie night with CoyoteRambles, and alternated choosing movies, and (being a classic movie buff and cinematography blogger) he picked this one.

Now, Mr. Otter and I have been Netflix subscribers from the beginning, back when you could only get DVDs in the mail…we have watched a bunch of tv series on Netflix…but this was the point when we realized that not only do Netflix and Amazon make movies, they make GOOD movies! And our lives were forever changed.

But I digress.

I have never liked the movie Citizen Kane. I watched it once as a young Otter and thought it was kinda stupid…but I do like stuff about early Hollywood, so I was totally down for this.

And it was excellent, even though I found a lot of discussion online about this movie not being historically accurate-evidently there are voluminous records of Welles’ writing the Kane script from the 250 page tome he received from Mankiewicz, rather than M whipping the whole thing into shape himself; they share the Best Screenplay Oscar that came of their collaboration. Aside from that, though, this is an amazing movie.

Gary Oldman plays the eponymous title character (I do love that word. Eponymous. Eponymous. Eponymous.) in his usual brilliant style; his Mank is bitter, alcoholic and acerbic. He sees everything going on around him through a dark lens, and there’s plenty to see. Upton Sinclair is running for Governor in California as a socialist, the Great Depression is in full swing, William Randolph Hearst owns most of the newspapers in the country (which means he owns the press, and can print or not print what he wants, in a time when everyone got their information from newspapers.)

And aside from politics, it’s 1930s Hollywood, and there’s plenty going on there too, especially with Marion Davies, Hearst’s mistress, wanting to be a star and him doing his best to make her one.

This movie was a joy to watch, not only for its view of the time, not only for how well written and acted it is, but also for how beautifully it was filmed. It isn’t just an excellent movie, it’s GORGEOUS.

If you haven’t seen it, seriously, watch it now, you won’t be sorry.

Spartacus

Internet Movie Database Movie Reviews

From the novel of the same name by Howard Fast

A slave leads an almost successful revolt against the Roman Empire.

I love this movie so much. It’s got a great story, spends a lot of time on the characters (which is kind of hard on the viewer, since this is one of those movies where just about everyone dies), and really lovely cinematogaphy (which is one of the four Oscars this movie won.). Three’s lots of Roman pomp and a pretty darn good scene with the Roman legions deploying for battle. There’s enough action to keep my explodo-loving brain happy, but enough character development to engage me as well.

Aaand…there are so many more things to talk about relating to this movie, I’m just going to hit the high points:

• As you can see, this is an Otter Family Favorite Movie. Both Mr. Otter and I have seen it many times and love it.
  
• The cast is amazing: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Tony Curtis, to name just a few. Not to mention being directed by Stanley Kubrick, who took over from the original director; evidently the first scene, in the mines, is all that remains of the footage Anhony Mann directed
  .
• Fun fact: the mine scenes in the beginning were shot in Ryan, a mining area near Dante’s View in Death Valley..
  
• This was the movie that finally ended the Hollywood Blacklist, when Kirk Douglas insisted on giving Dalton Trumbo credit for writing it (after being blacklisted, Trumbo had written a ton of movie screenplays, two of which had won Oscars, but all had been credited to pseudonyms)
  
• The book was excellent as well, but very differently structured from the movie. Howard Fast, himself a victim of the blacklist, wrote it while serving time in prison for contempt of Congress.
  
• There is a scene in the middle of the film that is pretty tame now but at the time was cut for being waaaay too suggestive; when the original version was restored, the film existed but not the soundtrack for that part. Tony Curtis rerecorded his lines, but Olivier was dead, so Anthony Perkins did a really fabulous job of putting his Olivier on.

If you haven’t seen this excellent classic movie, DO IT NOW. Trust the Otter, you won’t regret it.

Rosemary’s Baby

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From the novel of the same name by Ira Levin.

Rosemary and her husband move to a new apartment with eccentric neighbors. She gets pregnant. Then things start getting REALLY WIERD.

This is an iconic horror movie, directed by Rpman Polanski and starring John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow. I remembered having seen it as a young otter, but didn’t remember anything about it, so I was happy when we watched it on Saturday Movie Night, although I warned Mr. Otter and CoyoteRambles that if it got oogie, I’d leave.

And as wierd, atmospheric and creepy as it was, it was never oogie.

What it was, after hearing jokes about it (including an excellent Mad Magazine parody) for fifty years…was pretty damn good. The suspense builds, the neighbors start out a little odd and get stranger and stranger, her husband is reassuring but not helpful, and the web around here closes in as you watch and can’t do anything.

A classic that’s well worth revisiting.

Onward

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Another animated movie about a (young person/young animal/cute being that is not human) looking for (his/her) (missing/gone/dead) (mother/father/other role model) with the help of (cute animals/friends/enemies/siblings) and (learning a lesson/bonding with companions/forgiving parent) by the end.

And having just explained the whole formula for every doggone Pixar movie ever made…this one was pretty damn awesome.

It’s a world that is pretty much like ours but with magic added. Ian is a teenaged elf who lives in a normal suburban house with his mother and brother, and on his birthday gets a magical staff that will allow him one more day with his father. OF course the spell goes awry, and he and his older brother spend the whole movie trying to make it work before it expires.

But this one (unlike many others, and I’m looking at you, Wall-E) has a heart. The characters really make you care about them (well, this geeky D&D loving otter did) and the story is touching and funny and made me cheer for the teens. I loved the brothers, the kickass mom, and all the amusing characters and plot twists.

See it for yourself, you’ll be glad you did.

1917

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During one day in April 1917, two soldiers are sent to cross no-mans-land at the front and deliver a message.

Ottersis and I were all over this- the previews were amazing, the movie had great word-of-mouth, and we both love war stories. Mr. Otter was full of reasons why this movie couldn’t have happened the way it did, sight unseen, so we left him at home and had a good time.

April 1917, a message must be sent across no-mans-land to stop an attack that will kill hundreds of men, including the brother of one of the guys carrying the message. The phone lines have been cut and the radio won’t work for (reasons), so they have to carry it themselves. Through trenches, bodies, no-mans-land, the german lines, towns under attack, you name it.

The thing is, the movie is close to real-time; the whole thing takes place in less than 24 hours of screen time. And the camera either follows, looks at, or uses the main character’s own pov the whole time. That alone makes it pretty amazing, especially the first third of the movie which is right up close to them and what they’re seeing and doing; after that it’s more like a regular movie, but that first third is really involving.

The story is excellent- the things that happen to them, the things they see, their talk and their friendship, the events of the war: all of these are really well done. The cinematography is excellent, it’s a beautiful picture, if one can say such a thing when so much of what is on screen is the awfulness of WWI.

If you like war movies or edge-of-your-seat suspense, this is a great choice.

2001: A Space Odyssey

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There is a book with this title by Arthur C. Clarke; he worked on it with Stanley Kubrick while the movie was being filmed, and the book was released after the movie came out with out.

Like I can describe this movie in one sentence. Okay, here goes: Human evolution as enhanced by wierd monoliths, from early man to space travel, and what happens to the first astronauts to go to Jupiter. Hm. Not perfect, but it’ll do.

I saw this movie when it was new, when I was a very young otter indeed, at the Hollywood Cinerama Dome, which has an 86 FOOT WIDE SCREEN. It was quite an experience, and I’ve never forgotten the wonder and coolness of that movie, and have seen it many times.

And yet, here it is 2020, and I had not reviewed it…which means that I have not seen it since January 1, 2002, which is when I started reviewing every movie I watch. Wow. That amazed me.

CoyoteRambles was visiting us, and as is our wont, after a good dinner we settled down with some delicious libations to watch a movie or two. This came up in the conversation, and since he had taught it in a class for foreign students, we decided to watch it; one of the best things about watching movies with CoyoteRambles is that he knows so much about movies.

And as I remembered, it was wonderful.

But…there are SPOILERS ahead.

If you are one of the few in the world who haven’t seen it yet, you may want to come back to this review after watching it. Go ahead, I’ve got some free time.

You back? Okay!

So yes, the cinematography is amazing. And beautiful in many ways. We found out from CR that the only reason the makeup artist DIDN’T win an Oscar for the first section, the apelike hominids, was because everyone thought they were really apes instead of people with amazing makeup…wow.

It’s fun, fifty years later, to see the concept of future tech.

On the one hand, video phone calls and recorded video messages. On the other hand, no handheld devices.

On the one hand, computers. On the other hand, mostly keypads or voice commands.

On the one hand, a regular shuttle flight to the space station, stewardess and all. On the other hand, palatial amounts of room and meal/drinks service…not really the travel experience of today for most people, plus for a trip like that economizing on space would be important.

Hindsight is so easy. But the internal logic of how all of it worked together was very consistent, and a joy to watch, either then or now…although seeing it as a 10 year old, the plot didn’t completely make sense to me until I read the book…but I was that kind of kid, ALWAYS read the book.

CoyoteRambles said he had had an epiphany about the movie, even after watching it umpteen times: at the end Kier Dullea finds a hidden recorded message about the government finding a monolith on the moon, realizing that it was sending a signal to Jupiter, and covering that up…and that ‘knowing’ that, having it in his memory but having to lie about it, was what drove HAL crazy. That was an interesting insight!

This is one of the truly great movies. If you haven’t seen it, do it now.

 

 

Little Women

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From the book of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.

The lives of four girls growing up during the Civil War.

I wasn’t a girly girl at all…I didn’t read Judy Blume or Nancy Drew or ANY book called Little Women. I did, however, read Little Men and Jo’s Boys and loved them, as well as a lot of other Alcott books. I didn’t actually read this book til I was in college. And I LOVED it, and read it several times.

I may have seen one of the earlier movie adaptations of this story, but (maybe happily) don’t remember either of them. A friend has told me that the Hepburn version BAD, Allyson GOOD. Maybe sometime I’ll watch them and let you know.

Mr. Otter and I went to see this, he never having read the book and me being very familiar with it, and we both loved it.

Firstly, it’s beautiful. The cinematography is lovely, and evocative, and a joy to the eye. Color, movement, flow, all wonderful.

The actors are all excellent, and it was nice to see Laura Dern playing Marmee with a bit of spunk. Mr. Otter’s Golden Love Object, Meryl Streep, plays Aunt March. And the rest of the cast was very well chosen, including Saoirse Ronan as Jo.

The manners are a little too modern; everyone is too open, too easy with each other, too informal. There is a scene where Jo (living on her own and trying to get published) is dancing in a pub or bar with a group of men. Nothing salacious, and today we’d think nothing of if, but it WAS NOT DONE then. Just things like that were noticeable…but make it a little more relatable to modern audiences.

Overall, this was a fine movie, and we both enjoyed it immensely.