Posted by
Hemos
on from the it's-out-it's-out dept.
mani writes "The Sci Fi Channel's interpretation of Frank Herbert's classic epic Dune has been released on DVD today. Here is an in-depth review of the 2-disc package."
How the fuck can the fourth post (and the first ON TOPIC post) possibly be redundant?
-- Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
False DVD labeling has to stop
by
Wag
·
· Score: 2
The movie studios have to learn what an Anamorphic DVD is and label the discs accordingly.
Offering 16x9 menus, 4:3 video and labeling it "Enhanced for 16x9 display" is just plain wrong and dishonest. This happens way too often and I'm tired of it. Anyone purchasing a mislabled DVD is owed at least their money back..
Or maybe provoke discussion, but hasn't it occurred to anyone that Dune is not a Science Fiction Book? It takes more than just being "set in the year 10,899" to be Science Fiction. The technology is incidental to the story. It's about mysticism and feudalism.
Oh yeah, and Star Wars isn't Science Fiction either.
It apparently wasn't that badly received, as the ratings for the second part were only slightly lower than those of the first (4.6 vs. 4.4).
For me, the worst "special effects" were the "outdoor" desert ones.
-- Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
I like this quote from the production company..
by
angelo
·
· Score: 2
Columbia/TriStar decided they did not want the Artisan supplementary materials if it meant that the long version of the movie would be released on DVD in the US prior to its foreign release, which they thought would encourage piracy.
In other words, Columbia TriStar was woried about hacked decks, not film piracy. They were afraid they couldn't get a foreign version out in time, thus losing money to region one hacks. Stick a fork in the film industry, if that is what is meant. They're done if they think CSS and unhackable decks will keep up forever.
Re:Speaking of tv show DVD's
by
cavemanf16
·
· Score: 2
Ahhh, I forgot, certain movie houses still haven't released DVD's yet because of copyright infringement fears (hence no LucasArts stuff yet:( ). I guess that spills over into the network sitcoms that Fox owns, like The Simpsons. Bummer.
Sorry, the Slashdot story to which I am posting, the post I made, and the article to which I linked, all refer to the mini-series. I understand that there is some potential for confusion, but I assure you, you are the one who is confused.
-- "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
Re:Please hook me up with what you're smoking...
by
cavemanf16
·
· Score: 2
Well, I think you're right about the original movie actually being better overall than the TV mini-series. I never have liked TV mini-series because of the poor acting and generally less well done overall production of the movie/show. I guess I'll go rent the original movie first, then maybe move on to the mini-series.
For $1.24 more you could own something half-decent
by
decipher_saint
·
· Score: 2
I would suffer an Insurance Seminar hosted by Jar Jar Binks for hours, no, days on end and have a grin on my face and people would ask me, "how can you stand it?" and I'll just say "because I watched the Dune Series on TV" and they'll say "I know what you mean, I know what you mean."
-----
-- crazy dynamite monkey
Another review & why it isn't anamorphic
by
skoda
·
· Score: 2
That link goes to a discussion/explanation of why the DVD isn't anamorphic, isn't 5.1 DD, and has a lesser set of special features. The link to their review is also there, in the first paragraph. -----
D. Fischer
Re:Speaking of tv show DVD's
by
Rob+Kaper
·
· Score: 2
As for releasing TV series on DVD, anyone know why networks haven't yet?
X-Files, Friends, Buffy, Star Trek Original Series, Farscape.. all out on DVD or being released as I type. (some of those only in region 2, others only in region 1, but that's the good thing about living in Europe: region-free or region-switchable DVD players)
I bet other shows will come as well, but that the networks want to wait and see how other titles are doing first. Hopefully Fox gives us The Simpsons and Paramount gives us DS9 before DVD hell freezes over.:-)
On the other hand.. don't ever trust a release announcement from distributors. Back To The Future should've been out in 1997 and it is still not.
I'm sure they all have very good reasons not to give us the goodies when we want them... right George Lucas?
Re:Please hook me up with what you're smoking...
by
JabberWokky
·
· Score: 2
The mini-series hwoever, was extremely entertaining AND true to the story. It captured the feel and flavor of Dune.
Here, here. I agree totally - they captured many of the facets of the Dune novel, selecting as many as would fit in the time constraint, and doing those facets justice. Yes, they dropped some good flavor, some important points... but the points they did drop versus those they focused on seemed well thought out, given this was supposed to be watchable by those who hadn't read the book.
I still find it amusing that twice now I have argued with people who halfway through tossed out: "They never even mentioned the Kwisatz Haderach!" In both cases, they hadn't seen it in the early parts, and didn't watch the rest of the series. Yes, things were shuffled around, but it's obvious it was done to make the three episodes more self-contained.
Sure their was silly plotting to feminize Irulan, but the story was there. I felt that this was Dune.
Actaully, in the Book/DVD that came out (I believe called "Secrets of Dune"... I got it for Christmas), the director says the character he intentionally changed the most was Irulan. He felt it was needed to build a stronger bridge to the next books in the series... an indication that he very much intends to make the rest of the series.
--
Evan
-- "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Re:dvd evil... maybe not this DVD
by
boarder
·
· Score: 3
First of all, what does "Don't give the MPAA! *ahem*" mean? I don't understand that phrase at all.
Besides, what does the MPAA have to do with this?
It wasn't a motion picture that was released in
theaters or anything. It didn't get a rating so the MPAA had nothing to do with this.
Maybe you meant the DVD CCA?
Even then, it doesn't require their consent to make a DVD so they weren't involved there. The show was put on (I think) by the SciFi channel and they aren't part of the CCA so you're not supporting the CCA. It was distributed by Artisan Entertainment (which may be in the CCA, but I'm not sure), but they are a major place for independent films so you may want to support them.
Or maybe you are talking about the lack of legal DVD movie players for Linux?
I thought there finally was one. If not, I think you can use the new DeCSS program that was written in C to decode and play in real time which would make it fair use if you delete the copy you make of it everytime.
The only reason not to buy this DVD would be if you didn't like the show. The same goes for some foreign/anime films.
-- IANAL, but I play one on/.
Re:(OT) Re:Speaking of tv show DVD's
by
jovlinger
·
· Score: 2
*clap*
*clap*
*clap*
bravo. well said.
Since the originals are of much lower quality than movies, that lowers the bandwidth requirements even more. Are we looking at 150MB for an hour's worth of entertainment?
I personally don't have a television, but I do have sneakernet fast internet access with my laptop, so if I were able to rent/download/subscribe to just-past-their-prime television series to play in the BG while I cook, I'd be all over that.
However, the price has to be right. $10 a month gets me basic cable, and $200 gets me an All-In-Wonder to skip comercials with, so they have to compete with those prices.
I wonder whether bandwidth prices for the studios can make that worth their while.
On the plus side, the religion in Dune makes a bit more sense than Co$. Maybe Herberts should have started a religion -- at least its copyrighted texts would be better written.
-----------------
--
------------ /* You are not expected to understand
Re:Speaking of tv show DVD's
by
cavemanf16
·
· Score: 2
Well, I for one will at least go rent this DVD, even if it did suck. The book was so good, I'd like to see an interpretation of it on the screen.
As for releasing TV series on DVD, anyone know why networks haven't yet? Is it to increase re-run viewership? I would buy every episode of M*A*S*H* and The Simpsons in a heartbeat, and I know plenty of friends who would do the same. Leave it up to annoying corporate profit mongers!
Both movie and TV series so-so
by
peter303
·
· Score: 2
The TV series was 50% longer, so it could show
more of desert fremen life. The CGI worms and
thropters were better.
The TV series lacked the stylistic unity of the movie.
The movie clearly delineated the various planets
and cultures, while TV series mushed them together.
The camera work, sound and acting were better in
the movie.
William Hurt was so cardboard, that I fell asleep
during his parts.
New RLE DVD Compression scheme
by
seanmeister
·
· Score: 3
I've been waiting eagerly for this DVD - it's the perfect test bed for my new lossless DVD compression algorithm. Dubbed the "William Hurt Compression Algorithm", this RLE scheme saves space by finding all of William Hurt's scenes and using a single frame of William Hurt to span the duration of the scene.
I guarantee that the viewer will not notice the difference! (At least, not in this movie...)
--
Re:New RLE DVD Compression scheme
by
seanmeister
·
· Score: 2
Attn Canucks: Dune also on Space Channel
by
Stavr0
·
· Score: 2
QUOTEWe are pleased to announce that Frank Herbert's DUNE will broadcast in three two-hour parts - April 7, 8 and 9 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. DUNE, a highly-acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel set in the year 10,991, stars William Hurt./QUOTE ---
Here is a link to a good article with info on why the DVD turned out the way it did:
The Dune Debate
There is input from Artisan (the producer of the DVD set) and New Amsterdam (the company that produced the mini-series).
It sucked! Rent the original movie instead. Though it can't hold a candle to the book, it sucked much, much less than the TV series.
--
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Speaking of things that suck on Sci Fi...
by
Greyfox
·
· Score: 2
How the fuck has Black Scorpion survived this long? They need to ditch that lame piece of shit and start showing two episodes of The Tick instead. (Lexx and Farscape are pretty cool, though.)
--
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If you value freedom (as in liberty) please do not purchase the DVD. When you buy a DVD, you buy into a system that:
1. Uses Region Coding to deny consumers their rights.
2. Uses Copyright and "Trade Secret" laws and the DMCA to invade 15 year old Norwegian's privacy and deny American Journalists their right to publish.
3. Limits the Consumer's Fair Use Rights by not allowing the Consumer the ability to digitally extract clips of the film.
4. Limits the Consumer to access the content only on "approved" operating systems which generally do not include Free Software OSes.
5. Provides technologies that are ignorant of content already in the Public Domain and ignorant of issues involving content that will fall into the Public Domain.
Please support the EFF. Please refrain from buying or using DVD technology.
Re:For $1.24 more you could own something half-dec
by
GMontag451
·
· Score: 2
I don't know why everyone is saying the movie had better acting. Big name actors like Patrick Stewart and Dean Stockwell != better acting. Personally, I thought the acting in the mini-series much better portrayed the muted and controled emotions that I got from the book then the over-the-top melodramatic preformance of the people in the movie. I thought the mini-series was better in every respect than the movie. And though the mini-series did leave out some important info, they somehow did it in a way that didn't affect the sotry line. Not having read the book for a couple years, I didn't even notice the discrepencies until the second time I watched it.
Well, when the Dune mini-series came out on VHS I rushed to get it ASAP since I don't get the scifi channel and unfortunately missed it. While I love the Move, the book and even the Mini Series I was really disappointed with the VHS quality. The whole 6 hour epic was shoved on one tape! They were to cheap to make it 2 or even three higher quality tapes which I would have gladly paid more for. The more you shove onto a tape the more the quality degrades. The video was ok, pretty clear, but it could have been better. The audio was horrible. I had to endure static and hissing through out the ENTIRE film. I was really disappointed because of that. It's not like it was a little hiss here and a couple of pops and cracks there. Instead it hissed the entire movie and not just a little soft hissing, very loud distracting hissing.
At first I thought it was equiptment failure, so I cleaned my tape heads and checked all the cables. I even tried other movies and none had the hissing so only the tape was left. I tried the tape on another vcr and television with the same results.
It looks like the only way to get decent audio is with dvd, but apparently the video will be "fake" On the VHS the Video was ok but the audio sucked so if you want a copy better decide which is more important. I was very displeased since I loved the miniseries and really wanted a good copy. oh well....
Please hook me up with what you're smoking...
by
alexhmit01
·
· Score: 3
The movie was utter garbage. Evven the extra long uncut version is crap. It doesn't cover the story, it unpleasant to watch, and requires reading the book to know what is going on.
I love Dune, read it a few times, read the first four books (was rereading them a few months ago to finish the series, but real life interfered), used to play on DuneMUSH II for hourse on end. But I hate the move.
The mini-series hwoever, was extremely entertaining AND true to the story. It captured the feel and flavor of Dune. I truly feel that you saw Dune. Sure you missed out on the Mentats, the true importants of Dr. Yueh's deception, etc., however, the essence of Dune (a plot within a plot) was there.
Sure their was silly plotting to feminize Irulan, but the story was there. I felt that this was Dune.
I have it sitting on tape just waitting to get a Dune-watching together.
Another reason that this series rocked? The original movie was painful, and sucked. It was unpleasant to watch, and if you hadn't read Dune, don't bother. This was fun even if you hadn't. My girlfriend watched it with me, and afterwords, she finally picked up my copy of Dune to read. This was after months of my prodding.
This mini-series was good, and probably got people to read Dune that hadn't yet.
There's an interesting backstory to this DVD, about why it doesn't have the director's cut, anamorphic widescreen, decent special features, or Dolby Digital 5.1, as was originally advertised. You can read more about it here. The short version is the consumer got screwed by inter-studio bickering and inane licensing issues. Oh, and if you liked the series, save your money, because they'll be doing a special edition DVD soon.
-- "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
So I guess you consider Bill Shatner as a *good* actor?
I don't know about the AC, but I would. People who say he's not have never given a good objective look at his 'Star Trek' performances. Like every actor, he has things he's good in and things he's not good in (viz. Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather' vs. Marlon Brando in 'The Island of Dr. Moreau; Robert DeNiro in 'Taxi Driver' vs. Robert DeNiro in 'The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'). He's very, very good as Captain Kirk, in pretty much anything. Shatner's performances as Kirk are much more varied and nuanced than Stewart's as Picard. Stewart is a much more horrendous scenery-chewer, and he seems to be all about stentorian bombast.
The same is true for Elvis. A couple of his movies--the ones he *wanted* to do, the more serious, dramatic ones--are great in every sense of the word. People are finally starting to realize that Elvis could have been a great actor if the studios had given him a chance to be something other than "that long-haired freak who sings". He should have gotten the breaks that Sinatra did--and Sinatra became a great dramatic actor (witness "The Manchurian Candidate") because he refused to be cast as "the singer" all the time.
Shatner will get his due someday, just like Stallone and Elvis and everyone else that snobs like to shit all over.
ps I love it when people pull out the "classical training" crap in defense of Stewart; Shatner gained fame first as a Shakespearean actor too--it's meaningless.
pps For proof, if I say "Star Trek V", what's your reaction? I thought so. But if you watch it, really, seriously watch it, and compare it to "Insurrection"--it holds up well. Especially the part where Kirk denies Sybok and snarls out "I NEED my pain!"
But the real source was research doen by Joseph Campbell and documented (in a few books, but especially by) Hero of a Thosand Faces.
He basically disected the world's mythology and found certain story paradigms that existed in just about every culture known to man. You would have different characters and adventures, but the basic dramatic structure would be the same. The interesting thing is that the stories came about independantly. There's just something in the back of human's brains that makes certain stories universal.
The original Star Wars was based on the "Hero's Journey" paradigm. Lucas has acknowledged this.
Campbell is interesting reading if you get the chance, and have the inclination.
Slashdot Mirror
--Ty
How the fuck can the fourth post (and the first ON TOPIC post) possibly be redundant?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
The movie studios have to learn what an Anamorphic DVD is and label the discs accordingly.
Offering 16x9 menus, 4:3 video and labeling it "Enhanced for 16x9 display" is just plain wrong and dishonest. This happens way too often and I'm tired of it. Anyone purchasing a mislabled DVD is owed at least their money back..
Oh yeah, and Star Wars isn't Science Fiction either.
Trolls throughout history:
Jonathan Swift
I don't think the miniseries was well received.
It apparently wasn't that badly received, as the ratings for the second part were only slightly lower than those of the first (4.6 vs. 4.4).
For me, the worst "special effects" were the "outdoor" desert ones.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Columbia/TriStar decided they did not want the Artisan supplementary materials if it meant that the long version of the movie would be released on DVD in the US prior to its foreign release, which they thought would encourage piracy.
In other words, Columbia TriStar was woried about hacked decks, not film piracy. They were afraid they couldn't get a foreign version out in time, thus losing money to region one hacks. Stick a fork in the film industry, if that is what is meant. They're done if they think CSS and unhackable decks will keep up forever.
Lowmag.net
Ahhh, I forgot, certain movie houses still haven't released DVD's yet because of copyright infringement fears (hence no LucasArts stuff yet :( ). I guess that spills over into the network sitcoms that Fox owns, like The Simpsons. Bummer.
Sorry, the Slashdot story to which I am posting, the post I made, and the article to which I linked, all refer to the mini-series. I understand that there is some potential for confusion, but I assure you, you are the one who is confused.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
Well, I think you're right about the original movie actually being better overall than the TV mini-series. I never have liked TV mini-series because of the poor acting and generally less well done overall production of the movie/show. I guess I'll go rent the original movie first, then maybe move on to the mini-series.
Movie == Good
TV Series == Crap
Compare / Contrast
I would suffer an Insurance Seminar hosted by Jar Jar Binks for hours, no, days on end and have a grin on my face and people would ask me, "how can you stand it?" and I'll just say "because I watched the Dune Series on TV" and they'll say "I know what you mean, I know what you mean."
-----
crazy dynamite monkey
The Digital Bits info & review
That link goes to a discussion/explanation of why the DVD isn't anamorphic, isn't 5.1 DD, and has a lesser set of special features. The link to their review is also there, in the first paragraph.
-----
D. Fischer
ShoutingMan.com
X-Files, Friends, Buffy, Star Trek Original Series, Farscape.. all out on DVD or being released as I type. (some of those only in region 2, others only in region 1, but that's the good thing about living in Europe: region-free or region-switchable DVD players)
I bet other shows will come as well, but that the networks want to wait and see how other titles are doing first. Hopefully Fox gives us The Simpsons and Paramount gives us DS9 before DVD hell freezes over. :-)
On the other hand.. don't ever trust a release announcement from distributors. Back To The Future should've been out in 1997 and it is still not.
I'm sure they all have very good reasons not to give us the goodies when we want them... right George Lucas?
Man with TiVo record at best quality and make video tape the way *he* likes it.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Here, here. I agree totally - they captured many of the facets of the Dune novel, selecting as many as would fit in the time constraint, and doing those facets justice. Yes, they dropped some good flavor, some important points... but the points they did drop versus those they focused on seemed well thought out, given this was supposed to be watchable by those who hadn't read the book.
I still find it amusing that twice now I have argued with people who halfway through tossed out: "They never even mentioned the Kwisatz Haderach!" In both cases, they hadn't seen it in the early parts, and didn't watch the rest of the series. Yes, things were shuffled around, but it's obvious it was done to make the three episodes more self-contained.
Sure their was silly plotting to feminize Irulan, but the story was there. I felt that this was Dune.
Actaully, in the Book/DVD that came out (I believe called "Secrets of Dune"... I got it for Christmas), the director says the character he intentionally changed the most was Irulan. He felt it was needed to build a stronger bridge to the next books in the series... an indication that he very much intends to make the rest of the series.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Besides, what does the MPAA have to do with this?
It wasn't a motion picture that was released in theaters or anything. It didn't get a rating so the MPAA had nothing to do with this.
Maybe you meant the DVD CCA?
Even then, it doesn't require their consent to make a DVD so they weren't involved there. The show was put on (I think) by the SciFi channel and they aren't part of the CCA so you're not supporting the CCA. It was distributed by Artisan Entertainment (which may be in the CCA, but I'm not sure), but they are a major place for independent films so you may want to support them.
Or maybe you are talking about the lack of legal DVD movie players for Linux?
I thought there finally was one. If not, I think you can use the new DeCSS program that was written in C to decode and play in real time which would make it fair use if you delete the copy you make of it everytime.
The only reason not to buy this DVD would be if you didn't like the show. The same goes for some foreign/anime films.
IANAL, but I play one on
*clap*
*clap*
*clap*
bravo. well said.
Since the originals are of much lower quality than movies, that lowers the bandwidth requirements even more. Are we looking at 150MB for an hour's worth of entertainment?
I personally don't have a television, but I do have sneakernet fast internet access with my laptop, so if I were able to rent/download/subscribe to just-past-their-prime television series to play in the BG while I cook, I'd be all over that.
However, the price has to be right. $10 a month gets me basic cable, and $200 gets me an All-In-Wonder to skip comercials with, so they have to compete with those prices.
I wonder whether bandwidth prices for the studios can make that worth their while.
Terrible acting.
Best Slashdot Co
1) The week before the airing, there were a few water-cooler conversations about the upcoming movie.
2) After it aired, nary a peep was heard.
If it was indeed a flop, it was a silent, unmourned one.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
My opinion:
; 2b=b;2=1
This DVD needs a better mini-series.
End of story.
---
a=b;a^2=ab;a^2-b^2=ab-b^2;(a-b)(a+b)=b(a-b);a+b=b
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
On the plus side, the religion in Dune makes a bit more sense than Co$. Maybe Herberts should have started a religion -- at least its copyrighted texts would be better written.
-----------------
------------
As for releasing TV series on DVD, anyone know why networks haven't yet? Is it to increase re-run viewership? I would buy every episode of M*A*S*H* and The Simpsons in a heartbeat, and I know plenty of friends who would do the same. Leave it up to annoying corporate profit mongers!
The TV series was 50% longer, so it could show
more of desert fremen life. The CGI worms and
thropters were better.
The TV series lacked the stylistic unity of the movie.
The movie clearly delineated the various planets
and cultures, while TV series mushed them together.
The camera work, sound and acting were better in
the movie.
William Hurt was so cardboard, that I fell asleep
during his parts.
I guarantee that the viewer will not notice the difference! (At least, not in this movie...)
--
QUOTEWe are pleased to announce that Frank Herbert's DUNE will broadcast in three two-hour parts - April 7, 8 and 9 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. DUNE, a highly-acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel set in the year 10,991, stars William Hurt./QUOTE
---
Here is a link to a good article with info on why the DVD turned out the way it did: The Dune Debate There is input from Artisan (the producer of the DVD set) and New Amsterdam (the company that produced the mini-series).
It sucked! Rent the original movie instead. Though it can't hold a candle to the book, it sucked much, much less than the TV series.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
How the fuck has Black Scorpion survived this long? They need to ditch that lame piece of shit and start showing two episodes of The Tick instead. (Lexx and Farscape are pretty cool, though.)
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If you value freedom (as in liberty) please do not purchase the DVD. When you buy a DVD, you buy into a system that:
1. Uses Region Coding to deny consumers their rights.
2. Uses Copyright and "Trade Secret" laws and the DMCA to invade 15 year old Norwegian's privacy and deny American Journalists their right to publish.
3. Limits the Consumer's Fair Use Rights by not allowing the Consumer the ability to digitally extract clips of the film.
4. Limits the Consumer to access the content only on "approved" operating systems which generally do not include Free Software OSes.
5. Provides technologies that are ignorant of content already in the Public Domain and ignorant of issues involving content that will fall into the Public Domain.
Please support the EFF. Please refrain from buying or using DVD technology.
I don't know why everyone is saying the movie had better acting. Big name actors like Patrick Stewart and Dean Stockwell != better acting. Personally, I thought the acting in the mini-series much better portrayed the muted and controled emotions that I got from the book then the over-the-top melodramatic preformance of the people in the movie. I thought the mini-series was better in every respect than the movie. And though the mini-series did leave out some important info, they somehow did it in a way that didn't affect the sotry line. Not having read the book for a couple years, I didn't even notice the discrepencies until the second time I watched it.
Well, when the Dune mini-series came out on VHS I rushed to get it ASAP since I don't get the scifi channel and unfortunately missed it. While I love the Move, the book and even the Mini Series I was really disappointed with the VHS quality. The whole 6 hour epic was shoved on one tape! They were to cheap to make it 2 or even three higher quality tapes which I would have gladly paid more for. The more you shove onto a tape the more the quality degrades. The video was ok, pretty clear, but it could have been better. The audio was horrible. I had to endure static and hissing through out the ENTIRE film. I was really disappointed because of that. It's not like it was a little hiss here and a couple of pops and cracks there. Instead it hissed the entire movie and not just a little soft hissing, very loud distracting hissing.
At first I thought it was equiptment failure, so I cleaned my tape heads and checked all the cables. I even tried other movies and none had the hissing so only the tape was left. I tried the tape on another vcr and television with the same results.
It looks like the only way to get decent audio is with dvd, but apparently the video will be "fake" On the VHS the Video was ok but the audio sucked so if you want a copy better decide which is more important. I was very displeased since I loved the miniseries and really wanted a good copy. oh well....
The movie was utter garbage. Evven the extra long uncut version is crap. It doesn't cover the story, it unpleasant to watch, and requires reading the book to know what is going on.
I love Dune, read it a few times, read the first four books (was rereading them a few months ago to finish the series, but real life interfered), used to play on DuneMUSH II for hourse on end. But I hate the move.
The mini-series hwoever, was extremely entertaining AND true to the story. It captured the feel and flavor of Dune. I truly feel that you saw Dune. Sure you missed out on the Mentats, the true importants of Dr. Yueh's deception, etc., however, the essence of Dune (a plot within a plot) was there.
Sure their was silly plotting to feminize Irulan, but the story was there. I felt that this was Dune.
I have it sitting on tape just waitting to get a Dune-watching together.
Another reason that this series rocked? The original movie was painful, and sucked. It was unpleasant to watch, and if you hadn't read Dune, don't bother. This was fun even if you hadn't. My girlfriend watched it with me, and afterwords, she finally picked up my copy of Dune to read. This was after months of my prodding.
This mini-series was good, and probably got people to read Dune that hadn't yet.
Alex
I downloaded this a few months ago, it was a terrible piracy job... I hope the DVD rips are better looking :)
;-)
mmmm.... DiVX
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
There's an interesting backstory to this DVD, about why it doesn't have the director's cut, anamorphic widescreen, decent special features, or Dolby Digital 5.1, as was originally advertised. You can read more about it here. The short version is the consumer got screwed by inter-studio bickering and inane licensing issues. Oh, and if you liked the series, save your money, because they'll be doing a special edition DVD soon.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" -Salvor Hardin
I don't know about the AC, but I would. People who say he's not have never given a good objective look at his 'Star Trek' performances. Like every actor, he has things he's good in and things he's not good in (viz. Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather' vs. Marlon Brando in 'The Island of Dr. Moreau; Robert DeNiro in 'Taxi Driver' vs. Robert DeNiro in 'The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'). He's very, very good as Captain Kirk, in pretty much anything. Shatner's performances as Kirk are much more varied and nuanced than Stewart's as Picard. Stewart is a much more horrendous scenery-chewer, and he seems to be all about stentorian bombast.
The same is true for Elvis. A couple of his movies--the ones he *wanted* to do, the more serious, dramatic ones--are great in every sense of the word. People are finally starting to realize that Elvis could have been a great actor if the studios had given him a chance to be something other than "that long-haired freak who sings". He should have gotten the breaks that Sinatra did--and Sinatra became a great dramatic actor (witness "The Manchurian Candidate") because he refused to be cast as "the singer" all the time.
Shatner will get his due someday, just like Stallone and Elvis and everyone else that snobs like to shit all over.
ps I love it when people pull out the "classical training" crap in defense of Stewart; Shatner gained fame first as a Shakespearean actor too--it's meaningless.
pps For proof, if I say "Star Trek V", what's your reaction? I thought so. But if you watch it, really, seriously watch it, and compare it to "Insurrection"--it holds up well. Especially the part where Kirk denies Sybok and snarls out "I NEED my pain!"
He basically disected the world's mythology and found certain story paradigms that existed in just about every culture known to man. You would have different characters and adventures, but the basic dramatic structure would be the same. The interesting thing is that the stories came about independantly. There's just something in the back of human's brains that makes certain stories universal.
The original Star Wars was based on the "Hero's Journey" paradigm. Lucas has acknowledged this.
Campbell is interesting reading if you get the chance, and have the inclination.
Trolls throughout history:
Jonathan Swift
And the new movie where Chris Tucker plays the first black president is certainly Speculative Fiction, but I doubt it'll win any Nebula Awards.
Trolls throughout history:
Jonathan Swift
Don't give the MPAA! *ahem* And why didn't you tape it while it was on TV? Then we could just pass around the tapes and it'd be fair use.
Of course if you enjoyed the miniseries, I guess buying a DVD is the only way to show it, ne? bah
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O