Rating: 
Summary: It tried but failed.
Review: I was so looking forward to the SciFi channel's version of Dune but I was deeply disappointed with the end results of the mini-series. I give the first 2 hours 1 star, the second 2 hours 2 stars and the third 2 hours 3.5 stars. Bad acting (I'm being kind calling some of it acting), outright mis-casting, bad effects and huge liberties taken with the book for the first four hours (while the final two hours almost made you forget the heresies of the first four, they don't quite as they had a few problems too) just made me overall very dissatisfied with the whole thing. Yes, David Lynch did take liberties with the book in the 1984 film (weirding modules, black stillsuits with no hoods, face masks or capes, flying irons instead of ornithopters, Paul taking the water of life out in the desert with a bunch of sandworms looking on (but it was a cool scene anyway)), but at least the actors were for the most part right for the roles and in some cases perfect (Francesca Annis' Jessica WAS Jessica and Sian Phillips was most definitely the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. Kyle McLachlan made a good Paul but he was way too old for the role).The good parts of the mini-series were in my opinion: Chani; the knife fight with Jamis and his funeral; the way the weirding way was protrayed (most of the time); the stillsuits; the Harkonnen ornithopters; the religious leanings and fervor of the Fremen (captured the flavor of the book there definiely); Paul (for the final two hours only); and Baron Harkonnen (not some crazed floating fat man this time but a cunning and devious opponent). The bad parts: The cow who mangled Jessica beyond belief (one of the worst "actresses" I have ever had the misfortune to watch); Dr. Yueh...hi, I'm the traitor who only shows up right when its time to shoot the Duke and then get killed...never mind that I had a MUCH larger role in the book and I'm not supposed to be such a dweeb; the whole Bene Gesserit Sisterhood (portrayed as a bunch of shrill fishwives); the lack of proper desert/sietch behavior by the Fremen...hey, let's just open these silly face masks when we get NEAR the sietch, not inside...oh yeah, let's go stand out in the desert in our regular clothes for a while, we won't sweat that much, and oh yeah, don't mind that we are just out walking along casually and noisily out in the desert, those old sandworms won't dare attack us); Paul (for the first four hours he subscribed to three acting styles: (i) wooden, (ii) spoiled brat, or (iii) wooden spoiled brat; Gurney Halleck (this man was definitely no Patick Stewart); Duke Leto (William Hurt is an excellent actor...he just was way not the right person for this role...Duke Leto is supposed to radiate power and charisma, not wishy-washiness which is sadly what Mr. Hurt did); the technology in the mini-series was way too advanced for the universe after the Butlerian Jihad and the banning of most machines; the Atreides ornithopters--look, lets bring back flying irons but a tad bit better; Stilgar; the after-aftermath of the knife fight with Jamis...okay, we follow the book with the fight and the funeral and then....what about Harah and her two boys?...at least in the 1984 movie they are in the background (explanation scenes got cut but they were there); and last but certainly not least...why the heck was Irulan out and about instead of being just the narrator? She basically took over the roles of Count Fenring and his wife from the book and did them badly plus several other scripted scenes that weren't even close to being in the book. Gack. I'm just going to continue to hope that David Lynch finally does a director's cut of the 1984 movie, which despite its flaws was a much better adaption of the book overall than this mini-series.
Rating: 
Summary: Battlefield Dune
Review: OK, the title for this review isn't fair. I shouldn't insult Battlefield Earth like that. While they got a few things right - the look of the Navigator, the initial sandworm sequence - this series is a plodding, soul-less mess. Why is this book so hard to adapt? They had SIX HOURS to tell the story. Why did they leave so much out and add so much that had nothing to do with anything? Why did they make Paul so whiny and annoying? Why did William Hurt stumble around like he was on tranquilizers? Why were the Fremen running around outside during the day without stillsuits (Paul and Chani have a PICNIC outside without suits on!)? How the Fremen remain masters of stealth with eyes that glow in the dark? Why did the Baron have to rhyme his last line before every commercial break? Why did Feyd have a glowing white tortilla sticking out of his back? And just who is responsible for all those goofy hats? I could go on, but why bother. Don't even rent this one. Just read the book.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time and money
Review: If you want to see a faithful adaptaion of Frank Herbert's Dune, you must watch this movie. If you want to see a good film, please, don't waste your time in this stupid film. After having watched it I think that Lynch's film is a science fiction masterpiece. John Harrison tries to surpass David Lynch (even some scenes are -bad- copied) without success. The special effects are pretty good considering that this film has been made for tv, but the acting is so bad that you'll be bored.
Rating: 
Summary: Top priority on my March DVD budget.
Review: I've been waiting for the DVD since I saw the mini-series on Sci-fi. Which, considering we have Time Warner here, has a terrible reception for any station above 50, where Sci-Fi happens to reside. Perhaps David Lynch's monstrosity lowered my expectations of what Dune was, having never read Herbert's acclaimed novel, but even in such a less-than-perfect presentation, this took my breath away. To have a prestine, anamorphic presentation with Dolby Digital Audio (even if it is only 2.0) is a real treat. With Clerks: TAS, Dogma: SE, Myst III: Exile, and this all coming out relatively close to each other, I'll have to cut down on my food budget:)
Rating:
Summary: Reply to Eric Brown of Waynesville
Review: I thought that I'd take a moment to reply to Mr. Brown on a couple of points: (1) Patrick Stewart played Gurney Halleck and not Duncan Idaho in David Lynch's 1984 adaptation...an adaptation which benefited from a larger budget, yes, but also suffered from Lynch's own very poor script; (2) it is hardly tawdry (or whatever term you used) that the 2000 adaptation should include the seduction of the ne-Baron Feyd Rautha Harkonnen by the Imperial Princess Irulan (whose name incidentally is an anagram for both "Ruinal" and "Urinal")...after all it occurs in the book, only in Herbert the seduction is undertaken (at the behest of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood) by Lady Fenring, I believe, in order to salvage what they could of that bloodline; (3) it is definitely NOT true that the 2000 adaptation used less of the novel than that of 1984...it uses more and to good effect; and (4) as for the "cheap" special effects...i think they did pretty well on $20 million for 6 hours of TV...moreover, any adaptation of Herbert's Dune series is going to suffer from the very fact that Herbert was more interested in abstractions, characters, and the inner dimensions of the human experience (and our socio-biological envelopment within the environment) than in the description of technology...something that would've helped any film adaptation but could only have proven distracting within the context of the novels, given Herbert's interests...one reads Herbert to discover something central to the human experience and not to find out what sort of spaceship or weapon people will be using in several thousand years. Finally, I think this is a marvelous addition to the Dune corpus, enjoy it, I did.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT...
Review: Excellent adaptation, a visual delight! the acting from the mostly unknown crew first rate. this adaptation exceeds and demolishes the previous attempt. if only it was afforded the budget of a cinema film, i can only but imagine!!!! A MUST SEE!
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: Some may not have liked the origal Dune movie, but it was worlds better than the mini-series. I quit watching after the first episode because the script, acting, and costumes were atrocious. This is the age of CGI like the Matrix and Toy Story 2, yet the Dune mini-series didn't even have half the quality of special effects needed to save it. My disappointment about the original Dune movie was that not enough of the Dune world was able to fit in the it. I wanted more. The costume and set designers of the movie were able to put on screen what I could not muster from my imagination with my best attempt. I must admit I started to watch the mini-series with very high expectations, but the show was barely watchable.
Rating:
Summary: Very good conversion from book to film...
Review: It is not possible to truly capture Frank Herberts words on film, but this Movie does as good a job as it seems possible. Great movie even if you haven't read the book. A good job was done to include almost all of the different storyline details of the book. Virtually no liberties were taken in that regard. Excellent work. Of course, the biggest strength of Frank Herberts book was the <i>thoughts</i> that people had. A movie will never be able to truly capture that, but this did a fair job. HANDS DOWN better than the old one...
Rating: 
Summary: Sci-fi Epic finally given its due
Review: At last, Frank Herbert's epic tale has been given the scope it deserves. Avoiding any attempt to pay homage to David Lynch's overly-maligned, but dark and closter phobic, effort, this version is rich in colorful imagery and drama. Of particular note is the costume and set design, which gives this tale its enormous visual strength. Influenced heavily by the fashions and architecture of Renaissance Italy and ancient Middle Eastern civilizations, this version is a feast for the eyes. Though there are some needless expansions of Herbert's original story, they cannot diminish the power of this epic. It's a pity it's a TV version, because something this big can only be appreciated on the Big Screen.
Rating:
Summary: how close can you get?
Review: Having read all the dune books that Frank and his son Brian have and are putting out about the Dune universe, I was sceptical about this mini series until I saw it. Without doubt, this has to be the closest rendering of the book to date not even the movie with Kyle Maclachan is that close, Some of the script is actually lines from the book. Dune lovers are gonna want this movie big time.
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