The best intentions...

Things obviously haven't gone to plan, but here are a few more reviews.

Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988)

I actually saw this movie in the theater when it came out; the third one as well. My dad is a big horror film fan and took me to see stuff like this all the time. This is one of my favorite Freddy movies. It uses an interesting conceit - a high school girl has a tendency to experience vivid daydreams, and soon realizes she has a connection to Krueger (Hmm. I wonder why?). She ends up beating him by using the "special dream powers" of all the other kids he has killed in the movie. Silly, yes, but its execution is very amusing. This is the only early film in the series that doesn't even try to be serious. Yes, it's a bad movie, most in the series are, but as a fan of horror films, I think this is funny and scary enough to be enjoyable.

Stripes (1981)

Directed by Ivan Reitman

Starring:

Bill Murray
Harold Ramis
John Candy
John Larroquette
Sean Young
Judge Reinhold

Made a year after the slightly better Private Benjamin, this military comedy still holds up pretty well. The story is slightly similar to the aforementioned Goldie Hawn movie. Two guys in their thirties, played by Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, have depressing lives. One guy decides that the Army is just the thing they both need, so he talks his friend into enlisting with him. Zaniness ensues.

This is probably one of the most uneven films Reitman has ever made. It starts off really well, managing to be very entertaining, until the guys make it out of boot camp half way through and are assigned their mission: guarding a top secret military vehicle/weapon - built like an RV - in Germany. Murray gets the great idea to steal it on the weekend with his friend for kicks and take a vacation in the country. While this is going on, their commander and the rest of the soldiers hunt them down, accidentally winding up in Soviet territory - enemy country back then. Murray and Ramis find out and end up saving the day, thanks to the help of the RV and their former drill sergeant. Overall, it's not as funny as the first half.

The other problem I have is that the love interest part of the story isn't that interesting. Bill Murray and a young Sean Young really don't have much chemistry.

This movie is more than worth watching, though. The first half is filled with classic, hilarious scenes. The graduation parade is my personal favorite. More than anything, this movie is a foreshadow of the next, much better Reitman/Ramis/Murray collaboration - Ghostbusters.

Star Trek (2009)

Directed by J.J. Abrams
Starring:

Chris Pine as James T. Kirk
Zachary Quinto as Spock
Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime
Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Eric Bana as Nero
Simon Pegg as Montgomery Scott
Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson (Spock's mother)
Ben Cross as Sarak (Spock's father)
Tyler Perry as some admiral (wtf?)
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as the voice of the Starfleet computer

I bought this movie Tuesday and decided to watch it immediately. As was made obvious back in September, I am a huge Star Trek fan. Watching this series re-boot was exhilarating back in May. However, as much as I enjoyed it, there was something about it that I didn't particularly like. It became quite clear watching it for the second time Tuesday night.

Making the decision to cast new actors for such iconic characters was a huge risk, but it definitely paid off. The actors that played Kirk, Spock and McCoy nailed their parts. Most of the rest were good as well. The only actor I didn't really care for, surprisingly, was Simon Pegg as Scotty. There was just something off about the way he decided to play the engineer.

The main problem with this film is that the first ten minutes are absolutely breathtaking in intensity and emotion. It's all downhill from there. The only thing that saves the first half is that the movie does a great job of introducing all the characters, focusing on Spock and Kirk. The execution of this is extremely entertaining. This is aided in no small part by the fact that all of the actors seem to be have had a great time playing larger than life characters, especially Pine and Quinto. The acting is the best part of this movie.

However, there is a point in this movie, a point which completely changes the time line from the original Star Trek universe, that stands as a definitive marker for when the movie starts to sour. I am not going to say what it is because it absolutely shocked me, and should not be ruined. From the beginning, it's clear that this movie was created as a new, parallel Star Trek universe. However, I did not anticipate one of the changes.

The problem is that the second half of the movie is an action-oriented movie, unlike the first half, which is much more character-oriented. Now, Star Trek is well known for its action. Unfortunately, JJ Abrams and the two screenwriters apparently did not understand what made Star Trek so popular amongst its fans: the characters. In all the Star Trek movies, and in most of the shows, all of the major fight scenes featured sarcastic dialogue and some humorous actions and facial expressions. The second half of this film features absolutely none. Zero. I am at a loss to explain why this is. The action scenes in the first half all did to great effect. To be blunt, the second half of the movie is deadly dull, which is unforgivable because it is mostly non-stop action. This is made even worse by the fact that the villain, Nero, has a number of scenes in the second half. Eric Bana did what he could with the role, but there just wasn't much to him, making his character a bit boring.

The second half of the movie also features ridiculously sloppy writing. Terrible, terrible explanations were given to explain why things were happening or needed to happen. Terrible explanations.


Overall, despite my harsh critique of the second half, I highly recommend this movie. The first ten minutes alone make it worth it. I cried both times. And if that weren't enough, the acting, with the exception of Pegg, is a pure delight. These two things are more than enough to make up for the second half.