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Francis: I agree with you about Killer Joe and felt that it was another excellent (and brave) recent performance by Matthew McConaughey.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a strange day for me. I had already watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture months ago from my boxed set of the Blu-rays ( Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection)) and decided to put on Star Trek II (The Wrath of Khan), which looked and sounded wonderful. While watching some of its special features, I was captivated by writer/director Nicholas Meyer tribute to Ricardo Montalban and wanted to hear more, so I re-watched the entire movie with Meyers' audio commentary. Then I watched Star Trek: The Search For Spock with director Leonard Nimoy's commentary, and ended with Star Trek: The Voyage Home with the commentary by Nimoy and William Shatner. All the movies looked and sounded wonderful on Blu-ray, and the audio gave my big Klipsch speakers a good workout. I never expected to watch so much of those movies yesterday, but it was a delight and this is one boxed set I'm glad I bought. Back in the mid 1970s I used to work out at the Bruce Conner gym in the Westwood/West L.A. area, and would often chat with Montalbam while we used adjoining stationary bikes, and he was very charming. In his tribute (as well as in his audio commentary)l, director Meyer makes the point that those were Montalban's real pecs and not movie magic. Incidentally, I agree with Meyer: Montalban would have made a great King Lear!
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Posted: |
May 19, 2014 - 8:36 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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Star Trek Into Darkness 3-5
I thought the first film in this reboot series was cringe worthy. One of the worst films I have ever seen. For this outing I passed on seeing the sequel in the theater. Not caring about spoilers I became aware of the Wrath of Khan elements liberally stolen for this picture. With that in mind, I was able to put aside my issues with this approach, nor was I surprised when these elements appeared in the film.
Into Darkness story is all too familiar nowadays. Ripped right from current headlines we have elements of terrorism, first strike, and a secret lawless military organization.
The plot itself was nonsensical, full of plot holes, easy outs, perfect timings, and really stretched my suspension of disbelief. As is typical today, we go from point "a" to point "b" because that is where the writers need us to go, regardless of the lack of logic involved.
All that said, this film was a great improvement over its predecessor. Into Darkness has heart, focusing on family, friendship, duty, and flawed ideology. Something missing from most blockbuster films nowadays. The chemistry between the main characters, especially Kirk, Spock and Pike were evident and the acting was quite good. There were a few times I actually felt for the characters and the situations they were in.
It also helped that they concentrated on the better characters and actors this time around. I always felt McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov came across as Saturday Night Live shticks in the first film. They are more like parodies than real people. Luckily they were more or less in the background for most of this picture, because their outing isn't much better the second time around. (Though Scotty is growing on me)
At the end of the day I would recommend this film. It is well crafted, moves along briskly, has some nice character interplay and was generally well filmed. Ignoring my issues with the script it was entertaining despite it's many flaws.
Edit: A side note, the Klingon's looked more like Ferengi! 
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Been watching lots of movies. This past weekend:
GODZILLA - 0/out of 10 - complete waste of time and money.
STEP UP 3D - 5/out of 10 - As pedestrian a film as you are ever likely to see, but the dancing is impressive and the use of 3D, excellent. Beautifully rendered on Blu-ray 3D.
OKLAHOMA! - 10/out of 10 for the film, 8/ out of 10 for the Blu-ray - Better than I remembered it. Perfectly cast, scored, directed film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway show. The Todd-AO version on Blu-ray looks remarkable, except for one screw-up during a scene that was filmed day-for-night, and should be dusk, but is rendered on Blu-ray as broad daylight. Also, the soundtrack has been denoised, making for a less than exciting presentation, when compared to the incredible laserdisc track.
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solium: Re: At the end of the day I would recommend this film (Star Trek: Into Darkness). It is well crafted, moves along briskly, has some nice character interplay and was generally well filmed. Ignoring my issues with the script it was entertaining despite it's many flaws.
I'm a huge Chris Pine fan and happened to enjoy his first foray as Capt Kirk and bought it on Blu-ray. But I took my time with Darkness and was glad that I did, because I didn't feel that Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain worked at all and have no desire to see the movie again, so it's the first Star Trek I've NOT bought on either DVD or Blu-ray.
As you may have noticed, I watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan yesterday and enjoyed the writer/director's tribute to Ricardo Montalban on the Blu-ray
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I recently received the elaborate boxed set of the entire 8 season run of Showtime's Weeds, which, a day or so after I placed the order, regretted doing so. But I watched the final (special features) disc today, and was simply delighted by the cast and crew's affectionate look back on the show, and found myself glad that I had bought it. And what an attractive set it is, with the 15 Blu-ray discs in a hard book-like holder with lots of photographs and itself inside a very sturdy electric green plastic holder. Been a long time since I've seen many of these seasons and am looking forward to watching them. (But, unfortunately, it's like pulling teeth to extract a disc from the tight pages!)
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HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS 3D - 8/out of 10
Lots of fun, and excellent use of 3D, beautifully rendered on the Blu-ray.
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Sirusjr: Re your I've recently started watching Weeds on Netflix. I'm still in Season 1 but largely enjoying it. Seems my husband took a little longer to get into it but he enjoyed the last few episodes.
Oh, it gets better and better! Some of the later seasons are simply outrageous! What a hoot! I hope you stick with it! I had the the first of the 15 Blu-ray discs for the entire series sticking out of its tight page, not wanting to put it back in if I was going to have to force it out again, but finally put it away, and hope to start watching it again from the beginning very soon.
Earlier today I watched I, Frankenstein starring Aaron Eckhart and Miranda Otto, which I liked a lot, though I didn't love it. Interesting premise and fascinating execution. It's not perfect, but I still recommend it. Always reliable Bill Nighy was the cold and evil one, and it was good to see the lovely Yvonne Strahovsky, who some of you may remember as the killer love interest of Dexter Morgan in the final 2 seasons of that Showtime series that will still be around long after we are all gone!
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