Mini Reviews, Episode 1

[Jesse]

Righteous Kill
With Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, I was expecting a pretty awesome movie. Turned out to be just average. It was enjoyable, but they tacked on a twist ending that failed miserably. Without spoiling anything, they kept showing the killer's viewpoint throughout the movie... and the killer frequently saw his own arms... and those arms had a very unique jacket on them. So the first time you see it, you know immediately who the killer is. Which makes the shocking twist ending pretty dull.

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising
This was actually pretty awesome, at least if you're into D&D. If anyone's familiar with the Dead Ale Wives' D&D skit ("If there are any girls there, I want to do them!"), this movie has elements of that. It basically follows a group of gamers as they play through a D&D campaign, cutting between the real world and their fantasy setting, and making fun of gamer stereotypes along the way (without putting them in an unfairly negative light).

The acting is sub-par and amateurish, and the special effects are terrible, but they put a ton of work into costume/prop design and the scenery, and more importantly, you can tell they really love the gaming hobby. The story itself is well written, and the characters are quite well developed. If you've ever played D&D, or have even the slightest interest in it, then this movie will be awesome for you... if not, you'd probably want to skip it.

David Lynch's Dune
I finished the book recently, so I figured I'd see what the movie brings to the table.

I can't say I liked it. You'd think if they were going to stray so far from the book, they'd make sure that people who hadn't read it could understand the plot. But they pretty much failed on both accounts. Some things just didn't fit at all with what was in my head while reading -- especially the Harkonnen.

Lynch made the Harkonnen all weird and crazy and psychotic and gross, whereas the book made them sound like just another House of peoples in the universe. Not necessarily evil -- just opposed to the Atreides. And definitely not psychotic... in the book, they were methodical, calculating, diabolical, but not the zany bouncing-off-the-walls, screaming-his-head-off Duke that Lynch portrayed him as. And Feyd-Rautha, in the book, was very much a mirror of Paul -- in the movie, he fell far short.

But I guess complaining about how badly David Lynch screwed up Dune is pretty commonplace. I just had to rant about it. I didn't especially care for the book, but screwing up the film adaptation so badly just gets my goat.