The Hall of Fire

Zone of Interest

Fascinating and original take on horrendous events, would recommend.

I've been re-watching the extended 1984 Dune (I won't call it the David Lynch version as he disowned it) and while the 2021/24 films are far superior there's actually a handful of things I think the 1984 version does better. Despite having less time to work with it does more with some secondary char...

This is worth noting. https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1768945141761311013?s=20 Interestingly, the first minister of Scotland, the Lord Mayor of London and the Prime Minister of the U.K. are all men of South Asian heritage, meaning that the PM, two of the three first ministers and the head ...

Dune 2 has passed $380 million, so it's now broken even on its modest $190 million budget. Which is great news for cinemas, Legendary, Warner Bros, and the industry generally, which had suffered series of bombs through 2023 ( Barbie and Oppenheimer being high-profile exceptions). Interestingly, it'...

To give the high-level review without explicit spoilers, the film really succeeds on the foundations. The script is solid. It has some excellent acting. We knew Timothee Chalamet was able to play Paul, but he was also able to summon the gravitas to play the war leader Muad’dib, and his transformatio...

Saw Part 2 this evening. Unsurprisingly, a heavy meal of a film that will take some time to digest. It definitely hits the combination of visual spectacle we’d expect from Denis Villeneuve following Part 1 with an unsettling otherworldliness appropriate for the source material. As an adaptation it h...

Very strong reviews for Part 2 - 96% on Rottentomatoes.

Carlson: Why did you invade Ukraine?
Putin: In the beginning there was Eru, the One, whom the Elves call Illúvatar....

Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is the only serious Democratic challenger to Joe Biden's candidacy this year, but it's not clear to me what he stands for. Most of his policy positions are similar to Joe Biden's. He's a little more centrist, I guess. He's had some support from Republicans donors. Bu...

This year's Republican primaries will be unusual because President Trump is as close to an incumbent as anyone has ever been in the modern primary era without actually being one. That said, I've been surprised at just how solid his support is. Based on the Iowa results and the polling in NH it looks...

Reuters: " Venezuelans vote in referendum on disputed territory with Guyana ." The dispute has been going on for about a century. It concerns some 60,000 sqare miles, which is about two-thirds of Guyana. There was an agreement in 1966 that set the current borders. An international court h...

He has certainly made some highly questionable business decisions on Twitter/X. On the other hand, he has now released a truck which is impervious to arrows, so he will be racking up some good sales among drivers who've been worried about the risk of attack by Mongolian horse archers during their da...

Túrin Turambar wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 9:40 am Argentine presidential election run-off coming up in a few weeks!

Guess who won

Argentine presidential election run-off coming up in a few weeks!

I think that high-profile opposition from Indigenous people on both the left (Senator Thorpe) and right (Senator Price, Warren Mundine) created a muddled situation, and given the cost of living crisis, the Yes Campaign failed to cut through the confusion. The response I got out in Keilor was mostly ...

I was taken aback by the result - not that the proposal was defeated but that not one state passed it. The opinion polls suggest there was a late swing against the motion. Or rather, the 'Yes' case kept on tanking the end. I did some canvassing for Yes in Keilor in early September, it was pretty mi...

A grim night for Labo(u)r supporters in the antipodes last night. New Zealand's Labour Government has been defeated, while in Australia, the Federal Labor Government's proposal to amend the Constitution to create an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body went down decisively.

Just re-watched Oppenheimer . The first time, from memory, I've watched a film twice in theatres since Return of the King in 2003. I had read most of the source book, American Prometheus , in the meantime. It really came together for me on the second viewing, and I was impressed with just how true t...

It's easy to see how something like this could have happened. "Humans like recommendations for places to eat when they are on holiday" "Humans like recommendations for cheap or free attractions" "Oh look, a place that provides free food - the humans will love that!" So ...

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is at 39% on RT , with reviews complaining about bloody violence overlaid with ominous music and not too much else. Which is what I was afraid of, and is a trend with Dracula being poorly-served by film. Hollywood doesn't seem to think audiences will buy Stoker's far m...