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Dune TV Mini-Series Released On DVD 107

Posted by Hemos 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."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Dune TV Mini-Series Released On DVD More

Dune TV Mini-Series Released On DVD

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  • It's still showing because the SciFi channel purchased the entire series. They've already paid for it, and they don't have anything else they can show, so they may as well show it.

    Besides, some people (no one I know) like it.
    --

  • More importantly. The second Farscape [scifi.com] DVD [advfilms.com] was released today as well.

    --Ty

  • How long till we get ST:TNG series on DVD? I mean of course a cheap version, not the 15$ an episode version! Something close to one season per double sided 18GB DVD. By my calc:

    177 episodes * roughly .66hours (40min) runtime = 116.82h
    DVD-18 = 8h of video
    116.82h / 8h = 14.6 --> 15 DVD-18

    Or even better, one DVD with all the episodes encoded with DivX;-)

    One can dream eh?
  • Black Scorpion has been relegated to the trash heap of the Saturday night at 11:00 pm time slot, where it can die a quick and painful death. The Tick is owned by Fox, and no one has figured out the method behind their programming madness.
    BTW, Put "Crossing Over, with John Edward" in the same file with Black Scorpion. What a piece of ...
    -----------------
  • You talk tv?
  • How the fuck can the fourth post (and the first ON TOPIC post) possibly be redundant?

  • Actually, you're operating with an ignorance of the actual origin of the term "Science Fiction". What you don't realize is that that term is incorrect. Earlier this century, the acronym "SF", which actually stands for "Speculative Fiction", was widely mistaken to be "Science Fiction" because of the typical subject matter of most speculative fiction works. Therefore, "Science Fiction" is a misnomer for "Speculative Fiction", which encompasses may genres of fiction, not just tech-heavy space opera. Correcting for that mistake, Dune and Star Wars are SF.
  • 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..
  • As for releasing TV series on DVD, anyone know why networks haven't yet?
    Try Columbia House. They have a lot of old series for sale. (I've got several Avengers, a couple Outer Limits and all 17 Prisoner epis)
  • go pick up the MST3k dvd...

  • But I did enjoy the movie. I didn't like it as much when it first came out (probably because I was about eight or so), but after watching re-releases on sci-fi channel, I'm beginning to enjoy it more.

    And before anyone starts ranting about how it's not all that true to the book, give it a break. That book is like 800 pages long, and making a movie that contained all of that would just plain not work.

    But I digress. Is this mini-series nearly as good as the movie? I've never seen it, so I wouldn't know. I'd really like it if there were like a four-hour or so version of the movie on DVD. Now THAT I'd purchase. (Especially if they can keep it all on one DVD. Heck, leave it all on one side of a DVD would be great, but oh well. As long as I only have to flip it once.)

  • Just to be a jerk... (Score:3)

    by MeowMeow Jones ( 233640 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @12:14PM (#351612)
    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.

  • 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.
  • sorry, it was my reflex post that goes anytime a DVD story is posted. but the copy & paste failed miserably. my bad.
    --
    Peace,
    Lord Omlette
    ICQ# 77863057
  • Yeah really... I was very suprised/disappointed when I came back later to see my post modded down. Doesn't seem right at all.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.
  • Anyone purchasing a mislabled DVD is owed at least their money back..

    So get your money back. At regular stores this should be no problem, I have returned several DVDs over the time (mostly because some had Dutch subtitles which could not be removed, silly VHS rips) without a problem. Sometimes a little persistance is required though.

    As for webstores... you wouldn't shop at an e-commerce shop without knowing their return policy (or behavior, rather), would you? See my DVD Buyers Guide [capsi.com].

  • I'm curious. How many people buy movies on DVD for the special features? I'm not one of them; I own a number of DVD movies, and I don't think any of them, with the possible exception of the L. A. CONFIDENTIAL DVD, has special features on it which merited more than a passing glance. I should be more interested, say, in what John Woo has to say in the audio commentary of HARD BOILED and THE KILLER, but I'm not, particularly; I bought the disc for the movie, not for "special features" and trivia.

    As for this DUNE miniseries itself...it sucked. As bad as David Lynch's butchering of the story was, his DUNE movie was at least interesting; this Sci-Fi channel series was tapioca pudding in comparison, hamstrung by poor acting, ridiculous costuming, and badly incorporated special effects. About the only interesting aspect, from my perspective, was that at least we got to see most of the character of Stilgar (whose part is cut down almost to invisibility in Lynch's rendition.)

    hyacinthus.
  • The one aspect of the Dune universe that the movie effectively got but the mini-series didn't even COME CLOSE to getting was the decadence and stagnation of humanity. This is just something that is hard to 'fake' when you're production looks like they're trying to penny pinch everywhere. Also, the poor production values of the mini-series in general were a distraction. The mini-series simply wasn't worthy of being a contemporary american television production.

    Buy these people an Amiga and a video toaster...
  • If you can figure out how to extract the video from a TiVo, you can just make your own DVDs/VCDs...
  • _Battle Beyond the Stars_ is less painful to watch when it comes to amatuerish production values. A Y2K movie should be able to compare favorably with mediocre 70's space opera or 80's Dr. Who.

  • It was distributed by Artisan Entertainment

    At least Artisan doesn't practice the price discrimination that is region coding.


    All your hallucinogen [pineight.com] are belong to us.
  • Actually, the weirding modules made it more obvious why the Emperor might want to destroy the house Atriedes. They also provided a more compelling reason why the Fremen might actually need someone like Paul. Having a Betazoid on steroids just isn't that compelling when you've already got your own badass army.

  • Deleted scenes are one thing that I look for. The sixth sense dvd had some good ones, and the ones on the Road Trip dvd just had me rolling on the floor laughing. They never should have taken them out. It really depends on the movie. Another thing is that if your paying 20-25 dollars for a movie you want as much as you can get. If I ever get the money, I'm going to buy a multistandard television so I can buy Australian dvds. They have more features, but they're usually the same price.

    As a side note on Dune. I started to read the book once and I got bored within the first few pages. If a movie is going to be that long, it has to offer something really good to me.

  • Yes, some of the acting was poor, and at times the sets looked terribly fake. But the movie was entertaining. Don't watch it as a critic, watch it as someone who has an active imagination.
  • Posted by blerki:

    You can rent these [netflix.com] and as an alternative to time delaying the TV broadcasts, rip the video and burn Video CDs. Nice thing is, one episode fits neatly on one CD!

    Then donate a few bucks to the EFF [eff.org] to help make sure you'll still be allowed to use the digital equivalent of a VCR in a few years...

  • I'm not being fanatical but I would reccomend at least renting the dvd (if thats even possible). It was at least nice to see a more 'modern' interpretation. The funny thing is that where the old one excels the new one falters where as the old one faltered, the new one excels. :)
    "Me Ted"
  • The Dune mini-series sucked worse than the OJ Simpson trial. It seems that they blew the whole damned budget on the effects- both of them- and got the actors by picking the cream of the crop out of the dumster rubbagers behind the studio. The acting was less than inspired, the cinematography embarassing, and the "modernization" of the dialogue was both revolting and an atrocity. It was horrifying;y disgusting to see this great epic reduced to a Xena level of mediocrity.

    Unless the DVD includes footage of David Lynch publicly beating the director of this piece of shit, there's pretty much no point to buying it, unless you *really* need a DVD case for some reason.

    On the other hand, I've heard rumors that they're going to do Dune Messiah- a project that hasn't already been done, and been done a HELL of a lot better by a competent Director. Maybe that will take some of the venom out of the hardcore fans of Quality Entertainment?
  • Good luck finding people who want M*A*S*H on dvd! People who grew up with that show (my dad) are nearly as a whole sick of the show. Not because it was a bad show but becuse they have all seen every episode like 10 times (its one of the more frequently played re-runs).
    While they are at it they might as well throw a Stairway to Heaven track...
  • Wow! Someone did a first post without bragging about the first post.

    I don't think the miniseries was well received. I personally enjoyed it and I enjoyed the first movie as well. When I watch a movie or a TV series based on a book I don't sit and look for inconsistencies, instead I watch it to be entertained. You're not going to enjoy anything if you're scanning it for flaws.

    Some of the special effects were pretty bad while others were pretty good. Some of the hand to hand combat scenes reminded me of old Dr Who sequences with the Cybermen. Sometimes if looked really cheap but I still enjoyed it.

  • Books == Good
    Movie [imdb.com] == Good
    TV Series [imdb.com] == Crap

    Compare / Contrast [express.com]

    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."

    -----

  • Gotta do it...

    "The year is 10,191..."
  • If I remember right, they edited out about 30 minutes for US audiences, for both time and content. Does anyone know if those scenes are in this version?
  • Oh yeah, and Star Wars isn't Science Fiction either.

    Correct, it's a Western. Vaugely similar to "The Searchers"


    ---
  • Posted by gamgee5273:

    Actually, I enjoyed the mini-series and admired the fact that it attempted to film something that can't be filmed - yet. Lynch's Dune was a "glorious mess" (quoting someone from years ago) and I'm happy to say the mini-series was more pleasing - even when I was 11 I felt the movie lacked. 16 or 17 years from now we may see another, better piece, but, for now, I find the mini-series the best interpretation thus far and seems to set it in the 60's mindset that the book promotes (the sets, the costumes, everything seems to call back to 60's production values without actually using them - on purpose, I think). As for Dune Messiah - Sci-Fi has signed a contract with the writer/director of the mini-series for another mini-series combining Messiah and Children of Dune. Makes good sense, I think, as those three books are truly the heart of the entire series. Of course, God Emperor of Dune would be cool to see in a few years if just for Leto...
  • The Digital Bits info & review [thedigitalbits.com]

    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
  • Hobbits suck!

    Yeah well Ent's ain't so great either!

    ---
  • The original Dune II game was the granddaddy of all RTS games. I can't rememver how many hours I spent on that game. Westwood released a remake of the game, updating the graphics. It's basically Command & Conquer with a Dune feel, but it was still a great game.

    I never finished the original, and it always bothered me. I can't tell you how much satisfaction it gave me to finally beat the new version. Any Dune afficianado should check the game out.

    Westwood is also working on a new Dune RTS game with a 3d engine. Sign me up!
  • 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 [bttf.com] 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?

  • For those that enjoyed the gorgeous set design and mind-blowing soundtrack of the orignial movie, and who, like me, found found it's obscurity and ambiguousness of plot and language as engaging and intrigueing as it was in the book, there is hope. The story-board/narration techniques of the director's cut may not be the final word on that effort. There is supposed to be enough material to be edited into 15 HOURS of film. So much was excluded, but perhaps it could be salvaged someday... (wish I had a link to a quote of the above info, I believe it was the director's daughter who said that...)
  • He thinks little rubber bats with X-files alien heads are cool? It looked like a re-used vampire from an outer limits episode. I still prefer the original Spacing Guild Navigators. They were intimidating. The enitre guild was intimidating...like they should have been. The Spacing Guild from the tv show seemed weak and fairly unimportant. In fact, the characters and sects in the tv show were all weaker and less intimidating that they were in the movie. That really bothered me.
  • Man with TiVo record at best quality and make video tape the way *he* likes it.

  • 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

  • Re:dvd evil... maybe not this DVD (Score:3)

    by boarder ( 41071 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @12:32PM (#351647) Homepage
    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.

  • There must be plenty of people willing to buy entire seasons of no longer aired tv shows on a DVD, imagine the number of people who would buy MASH for example.

    No longer aired? On FX alone, M*A*S*H is on six times a day!
    ___

  • *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.
  • This story is about the mini-series, not the movie. Your posting refers to the movie.
  • hmmm... Interesting idea.

    However, there are scenes from Star Wars that can be overlaid onto The Searchers (For example; the scene where Luke comes running over the hill to look down on his burning house is the EXACT same shot in The Searchers.)

    This type of similarity makes me think Lucas was emulating the American Western, which very likely was emulating the Authian Legend.

    This is of course the same conversation as Guns & Roses is influenced by Aerosmith who was influenced by The Rolling Stones who were influenced by Muddy Waters therefore Guns & Roses was influenced by Muddy Waters who they only know as a reference to the blues.

    You may be right, but I doubt it was the writer's intent. Certainly not the Filmaker's
    ---
  • Not to be an ass but -- wait, yes, I'm being an ass. But, at least these days, doesn't usage denote meaning? If you say 'no' then I say 'shut up'.
  • Did that flop on TV or what ? I forgot all about that show till now. Was it that good ?
  • The review basically says that while the movie itself is great, the DVD version does not do it justice.

    Problems cited include 2.0 stereo, non-anamorphic transfer, and the fact that the "Making" book is a lot better than the extras the disc has to offer.
  • Terrible acting.

  • Good question (Score:3)

    by TopShelf ( 92521 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @11:06AM (#351656) Homepage Journal
    I missed it as well, but I do remember this from my coworkers, several of which are big SF fans:

    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.

  • My opinion:

    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; 2b=b;2=1
  • ..the Saturday Matinee near my house put this out really early. I saw it on the shelves last week.
  • 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.

    -----------------
  • 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!

  • 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 (Score:3)

    by seanmeister ( 156224 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @11:28AM (#351662)
    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...)

    --

  • QUOTEWe [spacecast.com] 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
    ---
  • Apparently, there was a little monetary dispute between the director and Artisan, so he simply withheld all the goodies.

    On a brighter note, the region 2 version might have all the bells and whistles included. Yet another reason to get that region-free player.

    There's more information here [thedigitalbits.com].
    ________________________________________________ __

  • Here is a link to a good article with info on why the DVD turned out the way it did: The Dune Debate [thedigitalbits.com] There is input from Artisan (the producer of the DVD set) and New Amsterdam (the company that produced the mini-series).
  • That's what I'm talking about. I can thing of a bunch of shows I'd collect and several (The Simpsons, The Wonder Years) that I'd buy as soon as they came out. I just wish the tv guys would get their acts together. I'm sure that it's possible that they don't release them to keep re-run viewership high, but realistically I for one don't watch many syndicated shows... even my favorites like the Wonder Years that comes on in the middle of the night if at all.

    The networks also need to understand that people who will watch reruns will still probably watch reruns even when they own the DVD. Hell, I've watched movies that I own when they ran on tv, even with the commercials I still sat there...

  • 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.
  • 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 saw the movie not long after it first came out, before I read the book. I think its actually better if you hadn't read the book first, because you won't be distracted by the differences. Since then I've read and re-read the entire series of 6 books probably four times. Watching the movie nowadays, yeah, there are parts where I just groan and shake my head - the stupid sonic amplifiers (I forget what they're called in the movie, damn them, damn), the goofy sound of Voice, special effects circa 1984, etc.

    But, I think compared to the mini-series, the movie was high quality. Like the review in this /. article says, the movie has excellent casting, strong (if melodramatic) acting, good music. The mini-series has none of it... it couldn't have been any worse if they grabbed some people off the street, dressed them up, and had them read lines. I appreciate the accuracy, but its just not enough to make it enjoyable for me, not by a longshot...

    Congrats that you could get your girlfriend to read the book though... my wife raises an eyebrow and looks at me funny when I try to watch the movie with her, and she fell asleep in the first few minutes of the mini-series.
  • Call it crap if you will, but the fact remains that the TV series was far more true to the story than the movie was. Lots of good actors and better acting doesn't change the fact that the movie was an inferior representation of Dune.
  • I read the first book (and started to read the second, but I lost it somehow). I have not seen the mini-series and was reading through these comments to see if it was worth renting it on DVD. I personally liked and own the original Dune movie, it was too abrupt and lept off from the story in many places, but it was entertaining and interesting to see someone take such a difficult book and make it into a screenplay. When I first heard about the mini-series I scoffed, and trust me I still do...It will take convincing and I guess $4 to prove to me whether or not it is worth it..

    and many of my friends have seen the original movie but have not read the book, and were able to follow the storyline perfectly fine, and understood the subtleties that refered to larger sections of the book itself. I guess its a difference of taste...
  • No, it's the Arthurian legend.
  • The SCI-FI version blew ass. I dunno what you people are thinking.
  • 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'm sorry, but as sick as I am of this AYBABTU stuff, "ALL YOUR SPICE ARE BELONG TO US" is actually REALLY funny.
  • <CLUE>William Hurt played Leto in the TV miniseries. [imdb.com]</CLUE>

    --
  • yes, the moderation system has one fatal flaw...idiots always enter into the equation.
    This is quite common actually, I've posted in the first 10 before with an interesting point, and gone back an hour later to see myself modded down and ignored because post #47 said the same thing. more than once.
  • Maybe I'm just weird, then, because I think you are totally off-base about Dune. Its mastery of mood and character were far better than the SciFi attempt. Yes, there were discrepancies, but the movie that had any chance of making the "best fit" curve would not be the mini-series by any means. It was utter crap. The acting was wooden, the lines were totally mangled, and plot was totally torn apart.
    Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
  • 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.
  • heh - i think i'll just end up renting the DVD and ripping it to CDs. After seeing some benchmarks for encoding DVD's to mpeg4 on tomshardware, i think my athlon can do it quite well.
  • it's at TimepassTown [timepasstown.com] ... frankly, worth a visit...
  • Beautiful scenes, Crappy actors. Good script, bad use of grapics. The question is, to be or not to be!
  • Probably could have been a hell of a movie if you had someone do it right and create an 8 hour movie-a-thon.

    No trailers? 2.0 stereo? Yeech. As the review says, there's better remixes of '60s TV series.

    I'll pass, thanks though.

    DanH
    Cavalry Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]
  • I could of sworn I saw this while was at the mall last night.. on dvd none the less. I wasn't paying much attention to it though, has this been released before? or possibly a little earlier than today (ie, last week?) -neil

    "Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."
  • The series was kind of cool, I just have one question: Why did all the costumes look like Dr. Suess designed them??
  • my honey got into it while watching it, and almost wanted to read the book.

    The dialog was straight from the book.

    Chani was a hottie.

    The spice induced hallicinations were cooled.

    The ornithopters sucked, the Harkonnen uniforms were kind of lame.

    The worms were very phallic.

    They fudged the last battle scene, they didn't show the atomic blast and the emperor's ship getting hit.

    I'd probably watch it again.
  • I wish the companies that hold the redistribution rights for tv shows would realize the market potential for releasing shows to DVD. For instance, The Simpsons would be nice, and now Futurma (though I do hear that the Simpsons are on their way). There must be plenty of people willing to buy entire seasons of no longer aired tv shows on a DVD, imagine the number of people who would buy MASH for example.

    Of course if they did begin to release a lot of these shows you'd probably only get a couple of shows for a $20 DVD. It'd cost a fortune to but a season. It would be great to have a whole season of a tv show on one DVD though.

    Of course the one thing that they should have put on DVD and did was every episode of Dexters Lab, Cartoon Network gave it away in a contest, but never released it for sale, I would love to get my hands on that.

  • I would guess that is exactly the reason, at least for the Simpsons. I would be willing to bet that Fox makes more money off of selling the Simpson reruns than they do from selling commercial time on current episodes. I imagine they prolly dont charge an arm and a leg for each rerun broadcast, because as you said, many affiliates show it up to 3 times a day. But at the same time, I think this allowed them to pretty much saturate the market areas, and make bank due to the sheer number of affiliates willing to pay the price.
  • I'll buy it. Would be cheaper in the long run

    DanH
    Cavalry Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]

  • Off Topic response...

    I've been thinking that this is going to be the real DivX :) Deux (what a stupid name) battle; trading old television show episodes.

    They are smaller so the downloads are going to be available to more people.

    There is a large group of people that have video tapes of their favorite shows (a friend of mine has the entire ST:TNG on tape); all they need is a user-friendly way to copy them into a digital format.

    And, finally, while nobody is too worried about new movies since any new movie will eventually be available on DVD (yes, even _Deus Bigalo, Male Gigalo_), there are no gaurantees that any television episode will ever be released on DVD, particualarly if it only appealed to a niche audience.

    I'd love to get my hands on those short-run early eighties comedies (like _The Charmings_ and _Sledge Hammer_) just to see if they are as funny now that I'm twenty years older.

  • vhs review (Score:3)

    by nothng ( 147342 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @11:41AM (#351691)
    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... (Score:3)

    by alexhmit01 ( 104757 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @11:44AM (#351692)
    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
  • Dune is great. People may not like it but it is one of the better movies I have ever seen. It is up there with Army of Darkness, yes a cheesy low budget movie but still very cool.
  • I downloaded this a few months ago, it was a terrible piracy job... I hope the DVD rips are better looking :)

    mmmm.... DiVX ;-)
  • Agreed. Much more important in the long run. Sooner or later Farscape will be recognized for the landmark show that it is.
    -----------------

  • Lackluster DVD (Score:4)

    by Gromer ( 9058 ) on Tuesday March 20, 2001 @11:51AM (#351696)

    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 [thedigitalbits.com]. 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.

  • 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.

  • But I still haven't heard anything about Lincoln freeing the robots.

    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.

  • 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

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