Star Trek 11

Wow, wow, wow!

J.J. Abrams has made Star Trek sexy and cool again.  This movie will not disappoint.  J.J. Abrams takes us back to the beginning and we meet the characters as young, passionate, hopeful and inexperienced.

There is a lot to like about these characters.  They’ve got the actors right, the pace is fast (no boring bits).  The CGI and the gadgets are beyond cool at ‘lust’ phase.

Even if you’ve hated the old Star Trek, you’ll love this new edition because its so fresh.  Like many of you who will go and enjoy, I’m excited and looking forward to more adventures with this young and hot cast.  The new James T Kirk, Chris Pine does the role proud and so does Zachary Quinto as Spock.  Simon Pegg adds zest as ‘Scotty’ while NZ’er Karl Urban does us proud as ‘Bones’.   This film is a big thumbs up!

Steph’s rating: 9.9/10

WATCHMEN

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:
by FranksFilms

I’m breaking my own rule – twice.

Firstly, since this is a ‘video recommendation’ segment, I shouldn’t recommending a movie that’s not yet been released on video ………..but I am. If it helps, you can think of it as a video that you have to go over to your “friend’s house” to watch. You know that friend who’s house is that big building in the center of town, with the big marquee,  and he always has lots of your neighbors over, and treats you with enormous buckets of popcorn and soda ……except that you have to pay him.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The first fifteen minutes started really strongly.  It moved along fast and had that Hollywood epic feel similar to watching ‘Independence Day’ for the first time back in the nineties.

However, it kind of eventually turned slow and lost its way.  I really like Jennifer Connelly and she was good in this.  Keanu Reeves character was so so.  However there’s only so many ways that the plot in a an alien sci-fi movie can go, 1)  the heroes kill the aliens and save the world, 2) everyone dies, 3) umm not sure there is a third scenario.

There’s an environmental story-line that is somewhat condescending… snooze…

I love ‘the good end of the world’ style flick, but this one disappointed.  No fear, no shock value, nothing we haven’t seen before.

Untraceable

I love cybercrime stories and I really enjoyed the byline in Die Hard 4.0 about ‘Fire sale’, when all the computers in the country go down. Real conspiracy stuff.

So when I saw the trailer for Untraceable I was really keen to see this film. The plot is about a FBI agent who tries to shut down a live website showing people being tortured and murdered. I was very concerned when I bought my ticket and it has R18 on it. It’s pretty gruesome stuff.

However in the light of ‘cyber bullies’ and ‘humiliation by Youtube’ being a plague of the modern age, I was curious as what this film would depict.

I didn’t really enjoy this film, its not the kind of film you’d sit down and watch again, but it was a suspenseful thriller and it did make me think. Has technology gone to far, or is technology just reflecting society and all its woes as it currently is? Deep stuff.

CAPRICORN ONE

This was an unexpected surprise in terms on a recent DVD hire. Set in the late 1970’s – only a decade after the first manned mission to the moon – a NASA team plans a mission to Mars. Or does it?? As a result this leads to a cover up or possible national embarrassment.

I must admit when I first watched the opening credits of this sci-fi movie, there was the thought of “Oh well this could be good money really poorly spent…”

But I was to be proved wrong. As I watched on – keeping in mind the whole time that this movie was made in the same year as the first Star Wars – it was easily apparent that some of the action aside (OJ Simptons is one of the lead actors), that this has a great sci-fi plot. So much so that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this got remade at some stage.

THE HOST

We Love Movies -Video recommendation of the Week:

Ode to the monster movie:

I just saw an outstanding monster movie recently called Cloverfield. It wasn’t like Frankenstein or Godzilla or any of the others I can remember from my childhood, and it will very likely change the nature of monster movies to come – a new benchmark – and when it comes out on video in a few months, I’ll have more to say about it then. But in the meantime, it reminded me of another great monster film I’d seen recently – this week’s movie, THE HOST.

Jumper

David Rice (Christensen) discovers he can teleport (Jump) himself anywhere. He uses his gift to live a global and indulgent lifestyle until he finds him himself being hunted by those who are determined to kill them.

The Good:

I love the idea of being able to transport yourself anywhere, anytime. This movie concept is pure escapism. The action scenes, especially the car and fight scenes are quite cool. I really enjoyed the Rome and other ‘geographical’ location shots.

Children of Men

This is a movie I really enjoyed. Close to the best movie of the year.

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, the movie is set in Britain, the year is 2027, and the worlds youngest person is killed by a mob wanting an autograph. He is 18 years old and viewers around the world are stunned watching the news, which again highlights the trouble mankind is in, with no hope and no future.

‘Theo’ (Clive Owen) plays a depressed worker, who on hearing the news of the death uses it to get the afternoon off work, he is dragged into the story by his ex-wife who is a resistance leader, he helps partially for the money however their are obvious relationship reasons as well.

The task starts easy, get some papers via his brother to enable a woman across the border, as they are bringing her back they are intercepted by your typical mad max outcasts where the ex wife dies while escaping. As he gets ready to leave the group he discovers the woman is actually pregnant with the first child in 18 years, and finds himself protecting her from resistance and government alike who all have political agenda’s to use the child for their own purposes.

Throughout the movie the setting and technology are believable, “Theo’s” character is extremely well portrayed, never the hero, just doing what needs to be done, gradually changing, overcoming the past, and finding hope in getting the mother and child to safety.

Wayne’s rating 8.5/10