YADM – Yet Another Dune Movie

Most of you know that Dune is one of my favorite book series. It’s one of those books that I claim shouldn’t only be listed under Sci-Fi since they cover a lot more in them even though the story is just science fiction. Now, granted the first I heard about Dune was through a video game, and later through a movie before I even realized that it was a book, but dude the book is still so much better.

Now Variety is reporting that Peter Berg (director/producer of The Kingdom) just got rights to work on new Dune Movie from Paramount Studios. IMDB already has a page up stating a potential 2010 release.

Now, I’m both pissed and excited. Pissed since no one has yet been able to do a good adaptation of the book (David Lynch was very close, however). And excited for the vary same reason. I mean, may be, just may be they will get it right this time around?

Bollywood movies

People who know me also know that I am not the one to willingly see an Indian movie. The predictability of the movies and the amount of “tribute” scenes just make the whole experience unbearable. That said Taare Zameen Par came highly recommended by my sister, aunt, roommate, and a couple of friends. So finally today I made some time to see the movie.

Story of the movie is nothing that hasn’t been done before. There’s a boy who is dyslexic which is causing problems at school, along comes the savior and sorts it out. But just because it is not a novel story line doesn’t mean that it didn’t do a good job. The movie as a whole was simply brilliant. The cinematography is reminiscence of the likes of Finding Neverland. The kids acting was phenomenal. Even the songs weren’t that bad.

I would confess, however, that there was times through the movie where I thanked whoever discovered the 1.5x mode on video playback. The movie is 2.5 hours long, and sometimes you just wish things will go faster.

My thoughts on Bourne

Having finally gotten around to seeing the final (probably) installment of the Bourne trilogy I can finally start talking about the things that went through my head when I saw this series. Any one who has talked to me about it knows that I thought the first movie itself was a big disappointment for me. But a lot people I know loved it. I know why, and they know why I hated it.

I have to say that the third installment in the (movie) series was damn good. So instead of dissing out about how things could have been so much better if the book was followed, I figured I’ll point out things that the book had that they didn’t bother to cover in the movies.

  1. He finds out his past in the first book allowing books two and three cover a lot more.
  2. Bourne is not only slippery as an eel, but also is a chameleon – simple dress changes make him look very different.
  3. Bourne is a weapon, but not a hired gunmen. His task is to flush out Jackal. Bourne’s task was to stop Jackal’s kills. If he fails, he was to leave his calling card so that Bourne got the credit for the kill.
  4. The reason Marie started helping Bourne was more intense in the books.
  5. Marie doesn’t die. In fact, she helps him with the recovery and they get married.
  6. Bourne is like Max Payne – getting seriously hurt but still kept pressing on.
  7. Bourne gets to track down an impostor in the second book who lead him to the Jackal.
  8. Marie learns a lost of Bourne’s tactics in book one which she uses in book two.
  9. The government was still a bastard but at least they didn’t kill US citizens and gave the couple a beach house with full security.
  10. David Webb and Jason Bourne is almost two different characters making the main character completely schizophrenic.