Dune (1984)

This 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's dense and difficult 800-page read was at one point ten to fourteen hours of footage that over the course of director David Lynch's famously difficult production, was pared down to just two, and the result is laughable, with glib voiceovers bridging those lost hours on the cutting-room floor and mere sentences attempting to confer importance on too many details - too many feudal empires and ruling families warring over a precious resource on the planet Arrakis - but nonetheless the movie succeeds as a psychedelic rock opera full of fantastic SFX (a floating bloated villain, gleaming hyper-blue eyes, gigantic earthworms, yellow upside-down lightning) all set to a Toto-and-Brian Eno soundtrack, a heady, mind-numbing treat bringing to mind the camp excess and pulp spectacle of Flash Gordon - for better or worse.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Flash Gordon (1980)

Oh how I adored this as a kid when I went to the local twinplex to see it, to my mind then a simple comicbook space adventure about an American football star tasked with saving Earth from an evil intergalactic Emperor Ming...and, well, I still love it having watched it again as an adult but now recognise a strong subtext in what is a kitsch sci-fi full of drag outfits, butch winged S&M costumes, leather underpants, and bizarre rituals involving hands plunging into muddy holes.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS