What was the last film you watched?

[pcolbeck]

Finally watched "The Death of Stalin" last night. Its really good. Loved Jason Isaacs as a blunt northern Georgy Zhukov.
Its a black comedy but Simon Russell Beale's portrayal of Beria is genuinely creepy and frightening.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Unlikely I'll get to see this in the cinema.

Nerd facting. I've just remembered that the fremen don't use suspensors or shields (same tech) because they attract worms (and drive them to a frenzy). So the use of lasers as a booby trap is a particularly fremen tactic that works for them when fighting off-worlders.

The only city is behind a range of mountains called the Shield wall. The only place on Arrakis where worms can't go.

Also the regular sandstorms generate static charges which will short out a shield.  I don't think the shield/lasgun effect is mentioned in the film, but in the book it's Duncan Idaho or Gurney Halleck who leaves one as a booby trap.

I thought Paul planted the booby trap shield to bring the worms through the shield wall of Arrakeen when they take it back from the Harkonnens?
We'll see that in Part II.

(click to show/hide)

The shield wall is both a projected shield and mountains. They use Nuclear bombs against the mountains, and rely on a massive storm to short out the projected shield. Fremen ride worms through the gap in the mountains.

When accused of breaking the prohibition against using atomics, Paul says that the prohibition is only against using atomics on people; he blew up a mountain.

Dunno if any of this will make it into the film.

[ian]

Seriously, nerdballers, none of the Dune story makes any sense. I know the laws of nerballerdom demand you try and impose logic with preposterous explanations – in fact there's a theory that the entire internet was invented for this very purpose – but absolutely nothing in Dune makes any sense. It didn't when I read it as a teenager and it doesn't now. The entire plot is nonsensical. Life will be easier if you make an accommodation with this fundamental truth. Nonsense is the mind killer.

I feel David Lynch, no stranger to things making no sense, ran with this. Or rather walked, since even he seemed to be forced into endless exposition and inner monologues in some vain attempt to make it intelligible to laypeople.

[andrewc]

Hang the heretic & pour his water upon the sand.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Hang the heretic & pour his water upon the sand.

<starts tying the rope and building the scaffold>


On another topic, last night I watched 1917.

Decent. Conveys atmosphere well.
Some bits were overdone. The whole waterfall sequence was just silly and not necessary.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Apollo 13

That is a masterpiece of filmmaking.

Even though I knew the outcome, the tension in the film was irresistible. 

I was very curious about how they created the free-fall scenes. They 'did it for real', renting the vomit comet from NASA and filming in sections lasting seconds. Must have been absolutely exhausting.

There is a feeling of reality to the scenes that would be very very difficult to achieve with CGI.

[redshift]

One of the best cinematic explanations of engineering problem solving, too:

"Make this fit into the hole designed for this, using nothing but that."

[Kim]

One of the best cinematic explanations of engineering problem solving, too:

"Make this fit into the hole designed for this, using nothing but that."

That scene was dramatic licence, but still one of the best bits in the film.

In the movie, Ed [Robert E.] Smylie’s—there’s this really neat scene where they’ve got a tableful of stuff and he dumps a bag on the table, and he says, “Figure something out.” Well, the real world is better than that. The real world is that we had had a simulation, and I think it was on Apollo 8, I believe, where the sim sup had jammed one of the cabin fans with a screw that floated loose. I think they had broken some electrical connections or done something of that ilk. The conclusion, you know, the simulations were done with the rule that the simulation may be four hours, but it’s not over until everything is under control. So sometimes those things got to be rather lengthy simulations.

The solution that they came up with was that they could make a way to use the vacuum cleaner in the command module with some plastic bags cut up and taped to the lithium hydroxide cartridges and blow through it with a vacuum cleaner. So, having discovered it, they said, “Okay, it’s time for beer.”

Well, on 13, someone says, “You remember what we did on that sim? Who did that?” So in nothing short, Joe [Joseph P.] Kerwin showed up, and we talked about “How did you build that bag and what did you do?”

Oh, it was easy. Solving that problem took an hour, maybe two. Because it’s real now, they made him build a demonstration model, so that took another thirty minutes. Then “How are we going to tell these guys in the cockpit?” And the answer was, if you just said go tape your lithium canisters to the suit hose, that’s probably all they had to say, but they proved it all out and had to show it to all the management that it would work. Of course it worked like a gem.

Ob-xkcd

[redshift]

One of the best cinematic explanations of engineering problem solving, too:

"Make this fit into the hole designed for this, using nothing but that."

That scene was dramatic licence, but still one of the best bits in the film.

Oh, I know.  But having spent much time in a BBC regional station, fed on table scraps and throwaway bits from That London, and re-using R/WOP'd kit in desperate attempts to make telly without it costing any more money, it describes pretty much every solution we had to find through the whole of the 1990's!

IIRC, the whole LEM-as-a-lifeboat thing had been tested in the simulator as well.

[Beardy]

I do like that film, but really REALLY cringed when some numpty at work decided that it would be a good idea to use the film as an example of operational excellence and problem solving.

 Thus they create a whole company wide educational presentation around it. I’m not sure just how quickly it was pointed out to the (probably newbie MBA twit) that in the past we used to run fully redundant hot swappable production systems with unit test models, integrations test models and full production test models for all in house developed software, but these had been slimmed down and rationalised in cost cutting measures implemented by former newbie MBA twits.

 The programme of educational presentations quietly went away.

[Manotea]

Saw Dune last night with the kids.

Apart from a miscast Mamoa as Duncan Idaho it was just about perfect.

I came out feeling quite emotional

It has always annoyed Mrs Manotea that the lead character is named Paul. 'Nuff said 😎

[Pedal Castro]

Saw Dune yesterday on Imax, it was OK.

What I didn't realise until recently was that someone I was at Uni with who now works at JPL named the "sand" dune features on Titan after places in the book!
https://eos.org/geofizz/dune-universe-inspires-titans-nomenclature

[De Sisti]

The Quatermass Xperiment.

[T42]

The Quatermass Xperiment.

Good old Hammer horror.  Just looked it up: Brian Donlevy, who played Quatermass, was in Pershing's expedition against Pancho Villa.

[rogerzilla]

A Nightmare On Elm Street (the original, not some crappy remake)
  I still laughed when Johnny Depp got sucked into the bed and at the ending.

[Kim]

Saw Dune, was underwhelmed.  Lots of moody colour-cast concrete, battle scenes where I was expecting Jar Jar to secure victory by tripping over a droid, and a plot that seemed like it was about to get started in the last 20 minutes.  The ornithopters were good, though, and they delivered on the worms by giving the sand vagina from Return of The Jedi^[1] the full Tremors^[1] treatment.  Notable absence of 80s rock stars.


_{[1] Watching either of these would be a more enjoyable use of your time.}

[ian]

Plot that seemed like it was about to get started in the last 20 minutes sums it up.

Otherwise it's three hours of some people moving to another planet to replace some other people who are, for some reason, angry with the first people. Then they come back and invade the planet they've just vacated and kill those people. Because, well, because. There's also sand and, as pointed out, coloured toned concrete.

[pcolbeck]

The Cruel Sea yesterday afternoon on TV.

I think despite having caught bits of it a hundred times since my childhood that this is the first time I have watched it through from beginning to end. Made in 1953 but I think it stands up well.
To be honest I don't think it could be made now, yes the special effects would be better but apart from jumping into the North Atlantic as a ship sinks there aren't actually that many. In fact really not a lot happens, no over the top heroics or massive battles. Five years of plodding back and forth across the Atlantic with an occasional diversion to Gibraltar or Russia. Sometimes they get to drop a few depth charges but we don't see the sub except once mainly convey ships explode in the distance as the only evidence that a sub is there. Not enough action or storyline to get made these days.
The film is a study in grinding relentless work and stress in horrible circumstances. Surprisingly little jingoism considering when it was made as well.

[Croft]

Plot that seemed like it was about to get started in the last 20 minutes sums it up.

Otherwise it's three hours of some people moving to another planet to replace some other people who are, for some reason, angry with the first people. Then they come back and invade the planet they've just vacated and kill those people. Because, well, because. There's also sand and, as pointed out, coloured toned concrete.

I've just learned of the (failed) attempt by Alejandro Jodorowsky to make a 14 hour version in the 1970s. Be grateful for small (3 hour) mercies.

[ian]

Eternals. It felt a bit like it, it was the first time in a Marvel movie where I found myself checking my watch. Not awful, but does the world need yet another bunch of superheroes (with obligatory exposition-heavy backstories)? Disney seem to think so, and I suppose they got my money, so they may be right. Probably the weakest of the canon. You know the deal, the usual bunch with the usual random powers (who decides who gets what power, why don't they just have all the powers, am I think about this so much?) save the world from the usual big bad (what's my motivation, erm, big CGI budget?)

Fairly high on the meh-o-meter. Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek were criminally underused, we may be ready for the gay kiss, but we're not yet ready for older women in leading roles.

They seem to be stuck in a situation where they want to do something different with the genre but with exactly the same formula.

[mrcharly-YHT]

The Cruel Sea yesterday afternoon on TV.

I think despite having caught bits of it a hundred times since my childhood that this is the first time I have watched it through from beginning to end. Made in 1953 but I think it stands up well.
To be honest I don't think it could be made now, yes the special effects would be better but apart from jumping into the North Atlantic as a ship sinks there aren't actually that many. In fact really not a lot happens, no over the top heroics or massive battles. Five years of plodding back and forth across the Atlantic with an occasional diversion to Gibraltar or Russia. Sometimes they get to drop a few depth charges but we don't see the sub except once mainly convey ships explode in the distance as the only evidence that a sub is there. Not enough action or storyline to get made these days.
The film is a study in grinding relentless work and stress in horrible circumstances. Surprisingly little jingoism considering when it was made as well.

Did it include them dropping depth charges when the water is full of sailors from a sunken ship?

I've read the book several times and that part always stayed with me. The utter horror of it.

[rogerzilla]

Plot that seemed like it was about to get started in the last 20 minutes sums it up.

Otherwise it's three hours of some people moving to another planet to replace some other people who are, for some reason, angry with the first people. Then they come back and invade the planet they've just vacated and kill those people. Because, well, because. There's also sand and, as pointed out, coloured toned concrete.

I've just learned of the (failed) attempt by Alejandro Jodorowsky to make a 14 hour version in the 1970s. Be grateful for small (3 hour) mercies.

AIUI the David Lynch version was also ridiculously long to start with and had to be edited so much for cinematic release that the plot was, quite literally, lost.

[T42]

Plot that seemed like it was about to get started in the last 20 minutes sums it up.

Otherwise it's three hours of some people moving to another planet to replace some other people who are, for some reason, angry with the first people. Then they come back and invade the planet they've just vacated and kill those people. Because, well, because. There's also sand and, as pointed out, coloured toned concrete.

I've just learned of the (failed) attempt by Alejandro Jodorowsky to make a 14 hour version in the 1970s. Be grateful for small (3 hour) mercies.

AIUI the David Lynch version was also ridiculously long to start with and had to be edited so much for cinematic release that the plot was, quite literally, lost.

Same thing happened to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World, which always manages to send me to sleep anyway with the last narrated bit.

[pcolbeck]

The Cruel Sea yesterday afternoon on TV.

I think despite having caught bits of it a hundred times since my childhood that this is the first time I have watched it through from beginning to end. Made in 1953 but I think it stands up well.
To be honest I don't think it could be made now, yes the special effects would be better but apart from jumping into the North Atlantic as a ship sinks there aren't actually that many. In fact really not a lot happens, no over the top heroics or massive battles. Five years of plodding back and forth across the Atlantic with an occasional diversion to Gibraltar or Russia. Sometimes they get to drop a few depth charges but we don't see the sub except once mainly convey ships explode in the distance as the only evidence that a sub is there. Not enough action or storyline to get made these days.
The film is a study in grinding relentless work and stress in horrible circumstances. Surprisingly little jingoism considering when it was made as well.

Did it include them dropping depth charges when the water is full of sailors from a sunken ship?

I've read the book several times and that part always stayed with me. The utter horror of it.

Yes it did. When they get to port the captain gets absolutely plastered as he is finding it hard to live with what he knew was necessary but awful.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I started watching 'The harder the fall'.

Lasted less than 10 minutes.

All style (well, clothes), gun twirling and no story. No atmosphere, no build.