When You Stare at Goats On Acid...

When I first heard the title to this movie I said, "WTH"! And this was my reaction upon seeing the movie. This movie has a phenomenal cast that includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges. Each of them shine at different times in the movie. I have to say though, that Jeff was a perfectly cast for the hippie nonviolent commander of the New Earth Army, a Jedi monk warrior. With so many great actors, it's a shame that they could not all shine at the same time. The movie takes on the journey of self-discovery, showing that life could be strange, funny, and adventurous; if you choose to take that route. The movie is great at times, and disappointing at other times. This movie would have been better if had just been about the creation of the New Earth Army. It's still a good movie to see, but using LSD to see it will improve it. It gets 2 and 1/2 out of 5 garlics.

Provoking Opportunity

I saw Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story," and it got me thinking. This movie, like all of his movies, is one that definitely has a perspective, and some may not agree with it, but I like when a movie gets me to think, whether I agree with the movie's perspective or not.

The issues in the movie were those of the economic system in the USA, the disparity between the wealthy and the poor, and the escalation of political unrest. All big issues, and they're issues that impact us daily. When I think about them, I feel a sense of urgency coupled with frustration. It's difficult know what to do about them, that's where the frustration comes in, and so I usually leave those issues in the "thought for later" drawer of my mind. Until talking with the few friends who actually think about these things, or reading a book on the subject, or when I notice that it's getting tougher every day to make a living in this land of opportunity.
These thoughts were brought to my mind again watching Moore's movie. In some form or other, he questions the big issues of our economic system. Perhaps not fully, and perhaps in an exaggerated fashion at times, (it is after all a movie), but Moore puts forth a strong argument against capitalism in a thought provoking work. He says that what we need, what was the original intention of this country, is democracy. I vote for that.
I give it four out of five garlics.

Trek It Out

I'm not a trekkie. I remember watching the original "Star Trek" series (in reruns), and enjoying the show, but at that age I liked to watch almost anything on television. Yet "Star Trek" remained in my memory as a unique show of television. I did not like the slew of spin-off series that followed the original in later years. No Captain Kirk? No Spock? No point. And here we are with a movie that has a whole new gang, same as the old gang. But guess what? They pulled it off.

Chris Pine plays William Shatner's Captain Kirk, and he achieves the near impossible by channeling Shatner's pitched braggadocio without going over the top. Zachary Quinto's Spock was perfect. Various actors portraying Spock's Vulcan race, have been boring examples of what is presented as an almost emotionless race. Quinto is brilliant in that he hints at the highly controlled emotion just underneath the surface, especially in that his is a young Spock, having all the more difficulty in dealing with his half human self. Hats off to the director J.J. Abrams also, for keying in on that aspect of Spock. Abrams directing is superb, dynamic, but very little of the "shaky cam" effect that directors have taken to recently to try and impart the feeling of intense action. Instead he moves the storyline along quickly capturing action, but letting the details of both character and spectacular cinematography have their moments.

Directing aside, as good as it was, it was the characters that made the movie work. The casting director not only did an amazing job filling the iconic roles with young actors who could pull them off, but somehow found actors that could generate a similar chemistry to that of which I believed was impossible to recreate. That is the chemistry between the characters Kirk, Spock, and Bones (played brilliantly by Karl Urban). The core three, as I call them, are what made the old Star Trek special, and now the new one. Probably not quite the same, but eerily similar. Plot wise, there were some holes, but nothing that took away from a great movie experience. I'm looking forward to the next trek. Four out of five garlics.