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Dune (2021)
Dull and grey
I have not read the book. And I did watch the 1984 film, which I found visually entrancing though utterly incomprehensible. I read the reviews here and watched this 2021 version. Granted I did have more idea of what the story actually was in this one, but Wow, DULL! Half of the movie took place in the dark. We could see virtually nothing in a room with the lights out (very large TV BTW). And where was all the visual splendour everyone talked about!? Even the sand worms were an anticlimax. Our very good 3D did not save it. For me this didn't have anything like the visual impact of the first version. I didn't have a problem with the talkie scenes but there was just no eye interest and I found myself thinking "is this still going on?". If only the two films could have been combined into something comprehensible AND with visual appeal...
Shallow Grave (1994)
Interesting premise yet soulless delivery
I liked this when it came out but rewatching in 2021 I found it a strangely empty experience. From scene 1 on, I disliked all of the main characters. Stuck up young doctor, cold accountant and unspeakable jerk.. and all of them feeling just SO superior.. Each of them was repulsive in their own right. With no-one to root for I found the premise interesting but, as another reviewer has already stated, in a "who cares?" way. The best bit for me by far was Cameron's "moment"- because he was the only character for whom I felt any empathy at all.
Silence of the Heart (1984)
Emphasis on the aftermath makes the central event unconvincing.
I found this film good in parts. If we skip to the part where Skip has already committed suicide, his parents' reactions, from denial to realisation and acceptance, are believable. Dana Hill plays a compelling grief-stricken sister, letting loose on his room in her anguish, and tackling his classmates on the matter. My problem? - Skip's demeanour in advance of his suicide just doesn't convey suicidal anguish. At best he comes across as glumly resigned and a bit anxious. He's unhappy about poor school marks.. but his parents seem perfectly nice reasonable people, not demons who will beat him and berate him over this. The girl he has a crush on turns him down - perfectly nicely, as it happens - and what teenager hasn't been infatuated in vain and repelled much less kindly? We see no tears, no hair-tearing, nothing to stir the emotions and convince us he is more than a little downhearted. And at a pool party - the VERY NIGHT of his suicide - he performs a comic strip-tease for his friends. It really just doesn't ring true.
Neither does his friend Ken's assertion that "he told me he was going to kill himself". Or only if you read into this teenager much more sensitivity and intuition than is portrayed in the film. And neither does his sister's later assertion that Ken is acting really odd and said nasty things to her (he didn't).
On the basis of Skip's only mildly depressed-seeming behaviour, his sister's speech claiming that "we all let (his suicide) happen", though heartfelt, left me wondering exactly what signs all these relative strangers were meant to have noticed and acted upon, when we, the audience with a window directly into Skip's emotions saw nothing terribly concerning.
N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir (1995)
Disjointed and unbalanced with little characterisation
I found this movie disjointed. It makes sense that Benoit might want to sink himself in an oblivion of drink and drugs to forget his pain, but a huge amount of the film was spent on this part of the story, with some drugs scenes in long, unnecessary detail. Then just as you think that this is what the film is about, suddenly, and without warning or any helpful thought process from Benoit, things change. And then again, though later passages are increasingly brief since there's just not time left after the earlier drug marathon. I found myself having to rewind to work out where Benoi was and the explanation (there was usually none) since the changes are so quick and unexpected. The ending feels contrived, rather silly, and very much as if it was just a tag-on of the "how do I end this now?" variety. It makes no sense based on what we have seen of Benoit previously. Throughout, Benoit is a very superficial character, we really get no insight into his feelings or thought processes, and without that, he comes over as cold, selfish, and arbitrary in his actions. You don't feel the sympathy for him that you should. Maybe you are meant to read behind his actions but in my view, too much is left to the imagination .