Star Trek

This movie is a little late, but I finally got around to seeing it. As is the trend with most movies now, you show several iterations of it, then you go back and recreate how they got there. Remember the Star Wars double-trilogy, X-Men, to name a couple.

In this release of another Star Trek movie, we are taken back to when James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is born, a brief glimpse of his youth, and his unflattering attendance at Star Fleet Academy. Meanwhile, they also parallel Spock's youth and his rise to an officer in the Star Fleet (Spock (Zachary Quinto) is a bit older than Kirk).

The plot is confangled and a bit difficult to summarize, but basically the Romulans have attacked the Vulcans and there's a time warp and some treachery going on. After the captain of the Enterprise is taken hostage, it's up to Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov to save the Enterprise and Earth from Nero, the evil Romulan. The movie is full of action, pretty decent computer graphics, and sound effects.

The movie earned nominations for awards including a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album, and several People's Choice nominations: Breakout Actress, Breakout Actor, Favorite Franchise, Favorite Movie, though the movie walked away from each empty-handed.

Directed and produced by J.J. Adams, Star Trek is PG-13 for science fiction violence and some minor sexual content. And when you get to that part, the color on your screen is correct. She's green.

Also staring in the movie are Eric Bana (Captain Nero), Leonard Nimoy as old Spock, Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu (from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, and Winona Ryder as Spock's mother.

I really really enjoyed watching this movie and look forward to the sequel. I freely give this new Star Trek movie 5 stars. I will definitely watch it again.

The Ten

This is one of those movies you think will either be really funny or really stupid. After all, it starts the attractive Jessica Alba, Paul Rudd, Wynona Ryder, Liev Schreiber, Adam Brody, just to name a few.

You should take the fact that I fell asleep half way through the movie as an idication that it is not very good. Movies always keep my attention - unless they suck. And don't get me wrong - I can take a good religous spoof, as long as it's tastefully done and not done in hatred. The Ten passed that test.

The premise of the movie is to act out a story for each of the Ten Commandments. The one skit with the skydiver just would not end. It was not funny. It was irritating. I laughed a couple of times during the other skits, but not the kind of laughing that you would do when a guy steps on a rake and it comes up and smashes him in the nose.

Overall, I gave this movie 2 stars. It wasn't so horrible that it made me sick and I did laugh a couple of times. However, I would have preferred to have spent my time doing something else. If you are using this blog to gauge whether or not to watch this movie, skip it. Watch something else. you're not missing anything that's worth seeing.