Dune

Tedious, sometimes boring, sometimes with dodgy effects, but you know, in this case I don't mind it at all. Given the fact that the entire film was shot at Barrandov Studios and that all the desert scenes were shot in one room, those imperfections have their charm. Often you see actors pretending to walk in the desert and right behind them you notice a hanging canvas with painted dunes. There are a lot of moments like that, and picking up on those imperfections is very entertaining on its own. Despite that, I was drawn into the story because “Dune” itself is a great novel and this version sticks to it pretty faithfully. The actors are often rather stilted, but it was nice to see a large number of our actors, of whom Karel Dobrý had an unexpectedly big role. Also, Pištěk’s costume design is great, but that can be expected from him. But like I said, the most entertaining part of the whole film are the cutely imperfect visual effects from our specialists. PS: Having watched it again and re-read the book many years later, I can only conclude that this is probably what Lynch's version was supposed to look like, reverent to the source material. (28/12/2002)

The special effects are terrible, sometimes truly awful by today's standards, and I don't mean because classic techniques are used, but because they're simply done poorly. But it's still "Dune," and its story is captured fairly faithfully. The problem is that it lacks the depth and impact that the book has; it just tells a story without the same resonance. The presence of Czech actors is nice; of course, Barbora Kodetová impressed me the most, especially because I already loved the character of Chani from the book. It's weak, but I still liked it more than Lynch's version, although Lynch's version has its strong points too. (01/05/2014)