History, fringe science, mystical stuff, old comics, goofy horror and science fiction movies, animated cartoons, 3D Game design. I write and paint occasionally.
Music
The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Ben Lee, PM Dawn, Paul Van Dyk,Pet Shop Boys, and classics from the 50s and 60s, especially Mowtown. I like 80s pop - the kind I listened to when I had a lot more hair and a lot less waist! I do like a good bit of the new stuff, Moby being my favorite. Most of all, I like songs that reach my soul, and sing for it when I don't have the words...
Movies
Movies are my greatest hobby. I LOVE them. I like high adventure movies, dark and mysterious movies, obscure movies, ground-breaking movies, goofy movies, stylish movies, screwball movies, and controversial movies. My all-time favorite is "The Wizard of Oz." Here's a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorites:
Monty Python And The Quest For The Holy Grail
Star Trek II The Wrath Of Kahn
Star Trek III The Search for Spock
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Wizard Of Oz
Black Sunday (1961)
Tron
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Name Of The Rose
Giorgio Moroder’s Metropolis
Pitch Black (Vin Diesel WOOF!)
The Chronicles Of Ridick (DOUBLE WOOF!)
The Haunting (original)
Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Excalibur
Re-Animator
Strange Invaders
John Carpenter's The Thing
Superman The Motion Picture
JFK
the 5 original Planet Of The Apes films
1941
House Of Long Shadows
Peggy Sue Got Married
The Right Stuff
Aliens
Johnny Got His Gun
The Ghoul
Lost In Space
Moulin Rouge
Poltergeist
Arabian Nights (Hallmark miniseries)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Mothra
Dagon
Bride Of Frankenstein
Phantoms
Television
I don't watch as much television as I use to, but then, who does? I've given up on series TV because the networks usually cancel the ones I like pretty quickly ("Pushing Dasies" being the most recent example). I mostly watch TRU, Discovery, and History Channel. I also still love the old reruns I grew up with...Here are some of my current and classic favorites:
(current):
Battlestar Galactica (Best show on television right now)
Doctor Who
Ghost Hunters
The Simpsons
South Park
Man vs. Wild
Dirty Jobs
Venture Brothers
Sarah Jane Adventures
The Graham Norton Show
Fringe
(classic):
Star Trek
Doctor Who
Black Adder
In Search Of
I Dream Of Jeannie
Green Acres
Beverly Hillbillies
Twilight Zone
Lost In Space
Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Underdog Show
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Xena Warrior Princess
Unsolved Mysteries
Wonder Woman
Dark Shadows
Battlestar Galactica
Absolutely Fabulous
X-Files (seasons 1-6)
Firefly
V
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
Roar
Books
I love to read. When I was growing up, a shy kid in a small rural Alabama town, books were my means of escape, and I cut my teeth on the classics. One of the biggest frustrations when I read other peoples' profiles is when they say: "I don't like to read," or "I don't read much," or even "Me eAt BOoks, wHAt ElSe THem foR?" Here's a list...
(classic):
1001 Arabian Nights (complete unabridged version)
Canterbury Tales
Le Morte D'Arthur
Dracula
Beowulf
20.000 Leagues Under The Sea
Doctor Faustus
(modern):
Tarzan Of The Apes
'Salem's Lot
Dark Tower series
It
Misery
The Shining
The Stand
Starship Troopers
Magician
The Martian Chronicles
The Hobbit
Johnny Got His Gun
The House At Pooh Corner
Most of Robert A. Heinlein's stuff
Everything by H. P. Lovecraft
Anything by Robert E. Howard
Heroes
DaVince, Michelangelo, Raphael (the ARTISTS, not the Ninja Turtles), Joan de Arc, Amelia Earhart, Molly Brown, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Forrest J. Ackerman, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, nurses, vets, soldiers, teachers, and anyone else, either creatively or heroically, who tries to make a positive difference in the world.
My personal philosophy:
"Watch life. Observe nature. Cooperate with it. Make common cause with the process of existence. Live life for itself; derive pleasure from the gift of pure being. Life is its own answer - accept it and enjoy it day by day. Live as well as possible, expect no more. Destroy nothing. Humble nothing. Look for fault in nothing. Leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence, for life is given by the Sovereign of the Universe - given to be savored, to be luxuriated in, to be respected..."
Well. After over three years since the new film was announced, to quote Nero, the villain in the movie, “The wait is over.”
I haven’t left a theater feeling so conflicted since 1982, when Spock’s body was launched into space at the end of “Star Trek II The Wrath of Kahn.” At that time, I felt grieved, and was sure that “Star Trek” was over, for good. I was very, very wrong.
Standing outside the Alabaster theater at 2:15 Friday morning, waiting for my ride, I didn’t know if I had liked what I just saw or not. There were…problems…with some of the changes made in my beloved characters that had left me unsettled.
“Star Trek” is very important to me. My earliest memories include the original show. I always tell people that science fiction is so big in my life because it is so wrapped up with the reality of my childhood: I remember being upset because in the summer of 1969, when I was 4 years old, my dad was changing channels on our big ol’ black and white tv, and I was upset because he wouldn’t let me watch an episode of the original “Star Trek.” I didn’t know at the time that “Star Trek” was already cancelled and after this round of summer reruns of the third season, the show would disappear for awhile. The other memory of that summer is also linked to the tv: The Apollo moon landing that everyone in the world was also watching. In this way science fiction and science reality became merged in my psyche, and I became aware of the possibilities of humanity, and “The Human Adventure.”
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!
The new “Star Trek” movie is not my “Star Trek,” both literally and figuratively. It’s made with a modern sensibility and attitude, for everyone, not just the initiated fans of a forty-year-old tv show. Events are different in this version of our beloved universe. Due to the plot, an alternate timeline is created, and the elder Spock from the original timeline finds himself in an alternate past created by the villain he is chasing. This allows for director J. J. Abrams to create a fresh take on an old franchise.
The story is great, and it feels like “Star Trek.” It’s almost non-stop action, and it’s big and loud and epic, like a sci-fi version of a “Lord of the Rings” film. This first film is busy setting up this new version of the characters and the universe, so there’s really no time for “boldly going” anywhere to discover strange new worlds and new lifeforms. I’m okay with that, but I better see something like what “Star Trek” is really about in the sequel.
The plot that brings Leonard Nimoy back as Spock is very clever, and ties in nicely with the last time we saw the character, in Next Generation’s “Unification” two-parter. There are some plot holes, like where did Spock get his little time-ship and the authorization to use it? And why are there seeming changes in established Trek cannon before Spock and Nero travel back in time? These are minor nitpicks of an old Trekkie and doesn’t really take away from the enjoyment of it. It’s still a fun ride.
I’m not so happy with the look of some of the film, however. I like the look of the Enterprise from the outside – it’s sleeker but harkens back to previous design versions – but the ship interior sets are too busy, too cluttered. I think the movie would have been just as good if they had gone a little more retro with the inside of the Enterprise. Instead, we are given a engine room that’s actually a redressed location, and it looks like a combination of the control room of nuclear power plant and a sewage treatment plant. As many on the net have commented, the bridge looks like an Apple retail store. Abrams’ choice to use lens flares constantly was really annoying – it just compounded the whole ADD – sense of the film. Really, the only thing that tells you you are in the era of the original show is the ship uniforms – the familiar red, blue and gold tunics.
The music is bland and uninspired, but they did have Nimoy do the “Space, the final frontier…” coda and they use the original series music in the closing credits.
The new cast does a great job playing these iconic characters. Chris Pine is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and definitely has Kirk’s swagger and confidence down, without it seeming like he’s trying to recreate Shatner’s mannerisms. I think my favorite scene is the Kobayashi Maru bridge simulator test, where Kirk, having changed the simulator program so that it is possible to rescue the simulated freighter ship from the simulated attacking Klingon ships, casually “phones in” the test from the command chair without the least bit of concern for the seriousness of the situation. Zachary Quinto is great, and very believable, as young Spock, a man struggling with his human emotions. Karl Urban as McCoy seems to channel the late Deforest Kelley, and even gets to use a few of the old Doc’s famous lines. Zoe Saldana is a beauty and a passable Uhura. I wasn’t so happy with Simon Pegg as Scotty: The character was played for laughs and really didn’t convince me he was the legendary “miracle worker” of later years. Surprisingly, my favorite performance, next to Nimoy’s, was Ben Cross as Spock’s father Sarek. He has a scene with Spock where he makes a confession that is really surprising and touching.
Now, about those things that bothered me: There are two. The first is the destruction of Vulcan. Yes, that’s the planet we saw imploding in the trailers. I can see the dramatic reasoning for it – an anonymous planet would not have had the emotional impact that drives the bulk of the film. But, how can we have “Star Trek” without Vulcan? Yes, there are a few thousand Vulcan survivors that elder Spock plans to lead to a colony planet, but it just doesn’t seem…right.
And that’s another thing: No effort is made to set the timeline straight once Nero is defeated. In fact, at the end of the movie, both young and old Spock remain as viable characters in this “new” universe. None of the characters are concerned that so many drastic changes have been made to the timeline and the future is so pliable now. I guess that’s the point of the whole relaunched franchise, but it’s out of character for old Spock. This is the same character that let innocent Edith Keeler get hit by a milk truck in 1936 New York so that time could be set right.
The other thing I found weird and hard to get used to is young Spock’s intimate affair with Uhura! Yes, seeing Spock kissing Uhura and pawing at her ass just wasn’t right! Again, this might be a set-up for the sequel, and Spock might reject Uhura in the next film in his attempt to be more Vulcan, but Uhura? Not that there’s anything wrong with her, she’s beautiful…but it would not seem ethical for Spock, as a Starfleet instructor, to become romantically involved with Uhura, one of his students, especially when there is already an established human romantic interest character from his past that would have made the same story point just as easily, Leila Kalomi from “This Side of Paradise.”
Okay, now I’ve gotten all of that off my chest. I did like the movie. It has become my second favorite “Star Trek” film, after “Star Trek The Wrath of Kahn.” I look forward to the next one.
In case you've been off-planet and somehow missed it, here's the trailer one more time:
REVIEW: “Perils of Nyoka” (1942)
I recently discovered a binaries newsgroup where people post those old movie serials I love so much, and I’ve finally gotten the chance to see many of the obscure and not-so-obscure classics that I’ve read so much about over the years. One I’ve been looking for for years was Republic’s “Perils of Nyoka,” (1942) later re-named for a re-release as “Nyoka and the Tigermen.” Thanks to the alt.binaries.multimedia.vintage-film group, I was able to enjoy this wonderful action-adventure chapterplay over the past few nights.
Nyoka (Kaye Aldridge), with Larry Grayson (Clayton Moore), attempt to discover the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, hidden somewhere among the ruins. This, along with the value of the gold and the treasure it was buried with, contains the medical knowledge of the Ancients, including, it is believed, the cure for cancer! Also hunting for the tablets are Queen Vultura (Lorna Gray), known as “Ruler of the Arabs,” a patent impossibility considering the low regard Arabs hold women in, and Cassib (Charles Middleton), her henchman and lieutenant. The serial is a 15 chapter adventure of back and forth horse chases and gun battles across the Arabian dessert (which looks suspiciously like Southern California), as both sides try to find the tablets.
Our plucky heroine, charming, independent and tough, is repeatedly captured by Vultura and rescued by Larry, who almost upstages the serial’s namesake as the action hero. But whenever one of the men in her party warns her of imminent danger, she refuses to hold back: she busts ahead to confront evil directly. One of my favorite things about this serial is that Nyoka and Vultura get into a couple of catfights in the course of the adventure! Her spunk, energy, and refusal to follow masculine authority is extremely appealing, and it makes her a very unconventional heroine for the era of the 1940s. Through the course of the serial she is subjected to being tortured on the rack, strung up over a flaming, bubbling pit of death, has a temple pulled down on top of her, knocked unconscious in a run-away chariot heading over a precipice, almost crushed in a room with a descending spiked ceiling (my favorite!), and menaced by Vultura’s gorilla Satan while literally hanging over a cliff’s edge! Whew! And that’s just the first seven chapters! Nyoka is often aided and/or rescued by a pet monkey named Jitters or her faithful German Shepard, Fang, both animals being almost smarter than the rest of her expedition party.
It was neat to see Clayton Moore, later to become famous as TV’s Lone Ranger, in a different role I was not familiar with. He is very dashing and athletic, which is a good thing, cause he gets into fights in every chapter. One of the things I like about Republic serials is that when it comes time for the prerequisite fight scene, the characters smash the furniture to pieces and throw props at eachother as they tussle and punch from one end of the set to the other, and then back again. Also in a slightly different role than I am used to is Charles Middleton. It was great seeing him as another character other than Ming the Merciless. He played Ming in all three “Flash Gordon” serials in the 1930s, and rarely had to get up off of his Thrown of the Universe. Here he is in swarthy make-up and Arab headdress and also gets to be an action star. Who knew he could ride a horse?
The story features many characters and extras, as well as pretty lavish sets for a serial. The music and even the title cards invoke a spirit of intrigue, mystery and adventure that is never boring. Perils of Nyoka is a winner because of the collected imaginations of its writers and the direction of William Witney. Witney’s innovative use of close-ups, cutaways, and shot sequences invest his visuals with comic-book verve, and the above-average effort he put in his direction makes this a stand-out serial. Several of his cliffhangers and accompanying resolutions are amongst the most exciting and kinetic within the genre.
Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen” film is as close to the perfect comic book movie as it’s ever going to get. It is the masterpiece of comic book movies. It is based on the limited-series-collected-as-graphic-novel written by Allen Moore and with art by Dave Gibbons. Long before the film started production, Snyder promised to stick as close to the graphic novel and make a faithful adaptation. I haven’t read the graphic novel yet – it sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read after I’d seen the movie, but Allen Moore is probably my favorite modern comic writer. I was very disappointed in the movie based on “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” – it was an okay adventure film but it bore only a superficial resemblance to the characters and original story. “V for Vendetta,” also by Moore, was a little better, but a change in setting and story-theme eviscerated the powerful message of the work it was based on.
The original 1940s Watchmen, known as the Minutemen
In “Watchmen,” It's an alternate 1985. Richard Nixon has been elected to a fifth presidential term. But the USSR is encroaching on Afghanistan, and the US isn't taking too kindly to it. An ex-superhero, known as The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is thrown through a plate glass window, many stories above the city. Was his murder somehow connected to the feared imminent nuclear holocaust between the United States and Russia? Someone seems to want the former do-gooders out of the way. A psychotic outlawed hero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), is investigating on his own. He tries to warn his former hero comrades of the possible plot to eliminate them all, but he soon finds himself accused and imprisoned for one of the murders.
The modern Watchmen
Enter the smartest man in the world, Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), formerly known as superhero Ozymandias, who is working with the ethereal Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a physicist who has achieved immortality and near-omniscience owing to a long-ago lab mishap. With Dr. Manhattan's help, Adrian hopes to dissolve the tension between the two superpowers. Dr. Manhattan’s lover, the former Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), feels Manhattan is loosing touch with his humanity, and it pushes her away and into the arms of the Night Owl II (Patrick Wilson), her former crime fighting associate from the days before such vigilantism was outlawed. The relationship rekindles their enthusiasm for the heroism game, and they soon take to the troubled streets again to try to make a difference.
The film is, like, 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but it flew by for me – I was too absorbed in it to be aware of the time. It never lagged, and each scene seemed necessary to the advancement of the plot. Although I haven’t read the GN, I am very familiar with its look and tone, and from what I saw tonight, Snyder’s film is right on the money. It is a panel-for-panel adaptation in some places. I’ve heard that the ending has been changed from the GN, but I think the ending in the film is just fine. Each major character is given an origin story in flashbacks. The soundtrack is riddled with classic songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The crazy-as-hell Rorschach was my favorite character, he’s just so violent and fucked-up mentally. I cried during his last scene. The special effects are flawless and stunning. The pattern on Rorschach’s mask is constantly shifting. Yes, Dr. Manhattan appears nude through most of the movie (At least he put on a suit to attend a funeral and a TV interview show), and is pretty well-endowed for those of us who appreciate such things. (Psst! It’s gotta be CGI, just like the muscles!) In fact, there is a lot of nudity in this film, mostly male, and sex, and gore and violence by the buckets full. People literally get pulped right before our eyes. Really, there’s something for everyone in this one.
Hitler finds out about new “Watchmen” ending
Dr. Manhattan and his floppy blue weenie…
I expect that the film will go over the heads of those who are unfamiliar with comic book heroes and their conventions, and those who know nothing of how groundbreaking the story was when it first appeared by turning those conventions on their ear. This is a pretty deep message about how even the best of heroes, just like real people, have human frailties, and how far such flawed individuals will go to enforce their version of justice and good. There’s also a moral question about how far and to what end you should go to justify a means when it comes to peace. The costumed crime fighters in “Watchman” run the gambit of different personality types, and each has a different method and viewpoint, just like real people. That’s why “Watchmen” the GN was so groundbreaking: It creates characters that are REAL and therefore interesting, not just the standard altruistic boy scouts with nary a flaw helping little old ladies across the street.
UPDATE: having finished the "Watchmen" graphic novel, I can now report that the movie is even truer to the book than I could have even imagined. Except for a few scenes between background characters on the New York streets, everything is there. A subplot, involving one of these peripheral characters reading a comic book called "Tales of the Black Freighter," is interspersed at intervals among the chapters. That comic, a ghastly and haunting pirate tale, will be released separately as an animated direct-to-dvd stand-alone next week. Later this summer, the animated film will be re-integrated into the main "Watchmen" film with linking scenes for a special director's cut of the movie.
Yes, the ending is different. But I actually like the film's ending better. The GN's dux de machina is the one really silly element in the whole story and needed to be changed. So instead of a fake alien invasion involving a mutated telepathic squid that makes both super-powers sue for peace, a much more clever and practical plot point happens that results in the same resolution. So whats the dif? Works for me.
Every once in awhile, I like a piece of intense music. This is about as intense as it gets. This live version is inferior, but I still like it. Here's Fear Factory's "Zero Signal," used in the "Mortal Combat" soundtrack:
I'm not a big country music fan, but I am a Reba McEntire fan, and songs that tell stories. Reba's version of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" is a haunting classic of pure Americana. I grew up on Viki Lawrence's original version, but Reba outdoes her in spades. That's Reba in old age makeup and her younger self...
Love this video, and the song is awesome! Fatboy Slim "Right Here Right Now":
..
This is my favorite Moby song, "Porcelain"...
Everyone has a song/video that best describes their life, here's mine - Moby's "In This World":
" Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. "
~ The Declaration of Independence
If your pulled the plug do you think they would come after you screaming....."Brains, brains, brains.!!!!!"....poor guy....it must be terrible....why aren't you playing? Personally, I don't understand the attraction...but that is just me!! L-PP
7/10/09 I think I'm ready to talk about Michael Jackson... click here
6/20/09 A Cacophony of Crap click here
5/13/09 More about my animation click here
4/22/09 Baby steps...my SECOND animation click here
4/17/09 My first little animation video click here
3/16/09 Punked... click here
3/7/09 Ghost of snow days past... click here
3/6/09 A new murder mystery to solve! click here
2/17/09 Two movie classics, and a new computer language (sort of) click here
1/21/09 A day-off collection of odds and ends click here
1/14/09 The Doomed Kitten - an Analogy click here
1/5/09 new Goofy cartoon click here
12/31/08 Happy New Year! click here
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I'm producing a super hero cartoon pilot called "Mystics." Here's the first footage, the teaser from the pilot, which serves as a trailer:
Please visit my new animation site, chronicling the production of my "Mystics" cartoon pilot:
Past movie reviews are now archived at my new website! Click the banner bellow:
Something "new" for an old scifi fan to be excited about - "V" is coming back!:
The SUPER HOT Jamie Bamber from "Battlestar Galactica"
This is one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs, and my favorite of his videos:
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REVIEW: “Star Trek” (2009)
Well. After over three years since the new film was announced, to quote Nero, the villain in the movie, “The wait is over.”
I haven’t left a theater feeling so conflicted since 1982, when Spock’s body was launched into space at the end of “Star Trek II The Wrath of Kahn.” At that time, I felt grieved, and was sure that “Star Trek” was over, for good. I was very, very wrong.
Standing outside the Alabaster theater at 2:15 Friday morning, waiting for my ride, I didn’t know if I had liked what I just saw or not. There were…problems…with some of the changes made in my beloved characters that had left me unsettled.
“Star Trek” is very important to me. My earliest memories include the original show. I always tell people that science fiction is so big in my life because it is so wrapped up with the reality of my childhood: I remember being upset because in the summer of 1969, when I was 4 years old, my dad was changing channels on our big ol’ black and white tv, and I was upset because he wouldn’t let me watch an episode of the original “Star Trek.” I didn’t know at the time that “Star Trek” was already cancelled and after this round of summer reruns of the third season, the show would disappear for awhile. The other memory of that summer is also linked to the tv: The Apollo moon landing that everyone in the world was also watching. In this way science fiction and science reality became merged in my psyche, and I became aware of the possibilities of humanity, and “The Human Adventure.”
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!
The new “Star Trek” movie is not my “Star Trek,” both literally and figuratively. It’s made with a modern sensibility and attitude, for everyone, not just the initiated fans of a forty-year-old tv show. Events are different in this version of our beloved universe. Due to the plot, an alternate timeline is created, and the elder Spock from the original timeline finds himself in an alternate past created by the villain he is chasing. This allows for director J. J. Abrams to create a fresh take on an old franchise.
The story is great, and it feels like “Star Trek.” It’s almost non-stop action, and it’s big and loud and epic, like a sci-fi version of a “Lord of the Rings” film. This first film is busy setting up this new version of the characters and the universe, so there’s really no time for “boldly going” anywhere to discover strange new worlds and new lifeforms. I’m okay with that, but I better see something like what “Star Trek” is really about in the sequel.
The plot that brings Leonard Nimoy back as Spock is very clever, and ties in nicely with the last time we saw the character, in Next Generation’s “Unification” two-parter. There are some plot holes, like where did Spock get his little time-ship and the authorization to use it? And why are there seeming changes in established Trek cannon before Spock and Nero travel back in time? These are minor nitpicks of an old Trekkie and doesn’t really take away from the enjoyment of it. It’s still a fun ride.
I’m not so happy with the look of some of the film, however. I like the look of the Enterprise from the outside – it’s sleeker but harkens back to previous design versions – but the ship interior sets are too busy, too cluttered. I think the movie would have been just as good if they had gone a little more retro with the inside of the Enterprise. Instead, we are given a engine room that’s actually a redressed location, and it looks like a combination of the control room of nuclear power plant and a sewage treatment plant. As many on the net have commented, the bridge looks like an Apple retail store. Abrams’ choice to use lens flares constantly was really annoying – it just compounded the whole ADD – sense of the film. Really, the only thing that tells you you are in the era of the original show is the ship uniforms – the familiar red, blue and gold tunics.
The music is bland and uninspired, but they did have Nimoy do the “Space, the final frontier…” coda and they use the original series music in the closing credits.
The new cast does a great job playing these iconic characters. Chris Pine is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and definitely has Kirk’s swagger and confidence down, without it seeming like he’s trying to recreate Shatner’s mannerisms. I think my favorite scene is the Kobayashi Maru bridge simulator test, where Kirk, having changed the simulator program so that it is possible to rescue the simulated freighter ship from the simulated attacking Klingon ships, casually “phones in” the test from the command chair without the least bit of concern for the seriousness of the situation. Zachary Quinto is great, and very believable, as young Spock, a man struggling with his human emotions. Karl Urban as McCoy seems to channel the late Deforest Kelley, and even gets to use a few of the old Doc’s famous lines. Zoe Saldana is a beauty and a passable Uhura. I wasn’t so happy with Simon Pegg as Scotty: The character was played for laughs and really didn’t convince me he was the legendary “miracle worker” of later years. Surprisingly, my favorite performance, next to Nimoy’s, was Ben Cross as Spock’s father Sarek. He has a scene with Spock where he makes a confession that is really surprising and touching.
Now, about those things that bothered me: There are two. The first is the destruction of Vulcan. Yes, that’s the planet we saw imploding in the trailers. I can see the dramatic reasoning for it – an anonymous planet would not have had the emotional impact that drives the bulk of the film. But, how can we have “Star Trek” without Vulcan? Yes, there are a few thousand Vulcan survivors that elder Spock plans to lead to a colony planet, but it just doesn’t seem…right.
And that’s another thing: No effort is made to set the timeline straight once Nero is defeated. In fact, at the end of the movie, both young and old Spock remain as viable characters in this “new” universe. None of the characters are concerned that so many drastic changes have been made to the timeline and the future is so pliable now. I guess that’s the point of the whole relaunched franchise, but it’s out of character for old Spock. This is the same character that let innocent Edith Keeler get hit by a milk truck in 1936 New York so that time could be set right.
The other thing I found weird and hard to get used to is young Spock’s intimate affair with Uhura! Yes, seeing Spock kissing Uhura and pawing at her ass just wasn’t right! Again, this might be a set-up for the sequel, and Spock might reject Uhura in the next film in his attempt to be more Vulcan, but Uhura? Not that there’s anything wrong with her, she’s beautiful…but it would not seem ethical for Spock, as a Starfleet instructor, to become romantically involved with Uhura, one of his students, especially when there is already an established human romantic interest character from his past that would have made the same story point just as easily, Leila Kalomi from “This Side of Paradise.”
Okay, now I’ve gotten all of that off my chest. I did like the movie. It has become my second favorite “Star Trek” film, after “Star Trek The Wrath of Kahn.” I look forward to the next one.
In case you've been off-planet and somehow missed it, here's the trailer one more time:
REVIEW: “Perils of Nyoka” (1942)
I recently discovered a binaries newsgroup where people post those old movie serials I love so much, and I’ve finally gotten the chance to see many of the obscure and not-so-obscure classics that I’ve read so much about over the years. One I’ve been looking for for years was Republic’s “Perils of Nyoka,” (1942) later re-named for a re-release as “Nyoka and the Tigermen.” Thanks to the alt.binaries.multimedia.vintage-film group, I was able to enjoy this wonderful action-adventure chapterplay over the past few nights.
Nyoka (Kaye Aldridge), with Larry Grayson (Clayton Moore), attempt to discover the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, hidden somewhere among the ruins. This, along with the value of the gold and the treasure it was buried with, contains the medical knowledge of the Ancients, including, it is believed, the cure for cancer! Also hunting for the tablets are Queen Vultura (Lorna Gray), known as “Ruler of the Arabs,” a patent impossibility considering the low regard Arabs hold women in, and Cassib (Charles Middleton), her henchman and lieutenant. The serial is a 15 chapter adventure of back and forth horse chases and gun battles across the Arabian dessert (which looks suspiciously like Southern California), as both sides try to find the tablets.
Our plucky heroine, charming, independent and tough, is repeatedly captured by Vultura and rescued by Larry, who almost upstages the serial’s namesake as the action hero. But whenever one of the men in her party warns her of imminent danger, she refuses to hold back: she busts ahead to confront evil directly. One of my favorite things about this serial is that Nyoka and Vultura get into a couple of catfights in the course of the adventure! Her spunk, energy, and refusal to follow masculine authority is extremely appealing, and it makes her a very unconventional heroine for the era of the 1940s. Through the course of the serial she is subjected to being tortured on the rack, strung up over a flaming, bubbling pit of death, has a temple pulled down on top of her, knocked unconscious in a run-away chariot heading over a precipice, almost crushed in a room with a descending spiked ceiling (my favorite!), and menaced by Vultura’s gorilla Satan while literally hanging over a cliff’s edge! Whew! And that’s just the first seven chapters! Nyoka is often aided and/or rescued by a pet monkey named Jitters or her faithful German Shepard, Fang, both animals being almost smarter than the rest of her expedition party.
It was neat to see Clayton Moore, later to become famous as TV’s Lone Ranger, in a different role I was not familiar with. He is very dashing and athletic, which is a good thing, cause he gets into fights in every chapter. One of the things I like about Republic serials is that when it comes time for the prerequisite fight scene, the characters smash the furniture to pieces and throw props at eachother as they tussle and punch from one end of the set to the other, and then back again. Also in a slightly different role than I am used to is Charles Middleton. It was great seeing him as another character other than Ming the Merciless. He played Ming in all three “Flash Gordon” serials in the 1930s, and rarely had to get up off of his Thrown of the Universe. Here he is in swarthy make-up and Arab headdress and also gets to be an action star. Who knew he could ride a horse?
The story features many characters and extras, as well as pretty lavish sets for a serial. The music and even the title cards invoke a spirit of intrigue, mystery and adventure that is never boring. Perils of Nyoka is a winner because of the collected imaginations of its writers and the direction of William Witney. Witney’s innovative use of close-ups, cutaways, and shot sequences invest his visuals with comic-book verve, and the above-average effort he put in his direction makes this a stand-out serial. Several of his cliffhangers and accompanying resolutions are amongst the most exciting and kinetic within the genre.
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REVIEW: “Watchmen” (2009)
Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen” film is as close to the perfect comic book movie as it’s ever going to get. It is the masterpiece of comic book movies. It is based on the limited-series-collected-as-graphic-novel written by Allen Moore and with art by Dave Gibbons. Long before the film started production, Snyder promised to stick as close to the graphic novel and make a faithful adaptation. I haven’t read the graphic novel yet – it sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read after I’d seen the movie, but Allen Moore is probably my favorite modern comic writer. I was very disappointed in the movie based on “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” – it was an okay adventure film but it bore only a superficial resemblance to the characters and original story. “V for Vendetta,” also by Moore, was a little better, but a change in setting and story-theme eviscerated the powerful message of the work it was based on.
The original 1940s Watchmen, known as the Minutemen
In “Watchmen,” It's an alternate 1985. Richard Nixon has been elected to a fifth presidential term. But the USSR is encroaching on Afghanistan, and the US isn't taking too kindly to it. An ex-superhero, known as The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is thrown through a plate glass window, many stories above the city. Was his murder somehow connected to the feared imminent nuclear holocaust between the United States and Russia? Someone seems to want the former do-gooders out of the way. A psychotic outlawed hero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), is investigating on his own. He tries to warn his former hero comrades of the possible plot to eliminate them all, but he soon finds himself accused and imprisoned for one of the murders.
The modern Watchmen
Enter the smartest man in the world, Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), formerly known as superhero Ozymandias, who is working with the ethereal Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a physicist who has achieved immortality and near-omniscience owing to a long-ago lab mishap. With Dr. Manhattan's help, Adrian hopes to dissolve the tension between the two superpowers. Dr. Manhattan’s lover, the former Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), feels Manhattan is loosing touch with his humanity, and it pushes her away and into the arms of the Night Owl II (Patrick Wilson), her former crime fighting associate from the days before such vigilantism was outlawed. The relationship rekindles their enthusiasm for the heroism game, and they soon take to the troubled streets again to try to make a difference.
The film is, like, 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but it flew by for me – I was too absorbed in it to be aware of the time. It never lagged, and each scene seemed necessary to the advancement of the plot. Although I haven’t read the GN, I am very familiar with its look and tone, and from what I saw tonight, Snyder’s film is right on the money. It is a panel-for-panel adaptation in some places. I’ve heard that the ending has been changed from the GN, but I think the ending in the film is just fine. Each major character is given an origin story in flashbacks. The soundtrack is riddled with classic songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The crazy-as-hell Rorschach was my favorite character, he’s just so violent and fucked-up mentally. I cried during his last scene. The special effects are flawless and stunning. The pattern on Rorschach’s mask is constantly shifting. Yes, Dr. Manhattan appears nude through most of the movie (At least he put on a suit to attend a funeral and a TV interview show), and is pretty well-endowed for those of us who appreciate such things. (Psst! It’s gotta be CGI, just like the muscles!) In fact, there is a lot of nudity in this film, mostly male, and sex, and gore and violence by the buckets full. People literally get pulped right before our eyes. Really, there’s something for everyone in this one.
Hitler finds out about new “Watchmen” ending
Dr. Manhattan and his floppy blue weenie…
I expect that the film will go over the heads of those who are unfamiliar with comic book heroes and their conventions, and those who know nothing of how groundbreaking the story was when it first appeared by turning those conventions on their ear. This is a pretty deep message about how even the best of heroes, just like real people, have human frailties, and how far such flawed individuals will go to enforce their version of justice and good. There’s also a moral question about how far and to what end you should go to justify a means when it comes to peace. The costumed crime fighters in “Watchman” run the gambit of different personality types, and each has a different method and viewpoint, just like real people. That’s why “Watchmen” the GN was so groundbreaking: It creates characters that are REAL and therefore interesting, not just the standard altruistic boy scouts with nary a flaw helping little old ladies across the street.
UPDATE: having finished the "Watchmen" graphic novel, I can now report that the movie is even truer to the book than I could have even imagined. Except for a few scenes between background characters on the New York streets, everything is there. A subplot, involving one of these peripheral characters reading a comic book called "Tales of the Black Freighter," is interspersed at intervals among the chapters. That comic, a ghastly and haunting pirate tale, will be released separately as an animated direct-to-dvd stand-alone next week. Later this summer, the animated film will be re-integrated into the main "Watchmen" film with linking scenes for a special director's cut of the movie.
Yes, the ending is different. But I actually like the film's ending better. The GN's dux de machina is the one really silly element in the whole story and needed to be changed. So instead of a fake alien invasion involving a mutated telepathic squid that makes both super-powers sue for peace, a much more clever and practical plot point happens that results in the same resolution. So whats the dif? Works for me.
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Every once in awhile, I like a piece of intense music. This is about as intense as it gets. This live version is inferior, but I still like it. Here's Fear Factory's "Zero Signal," used in the "Mortal Combat" soundtrack:
I'm not a big country music fan, but I am a Reba McEntire fan, and songs that tell stories. Reba's version of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" is a haunting classic of pure Americana. I grew up on Viki Lawrence's original version, but Reba outdoes her in spades. That's Reba in old age makeup and her younger self...
Love this video, and the song is awesome! Fatboy Slim "Right Here Right Now":
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This is my favorite Moby song, "Porcelain"...
Everyone has a song/video that best describes their life, here's mine - Moby's "In This World":
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Thank you!!! How have you been??? I know you're excited about the new Star Trek....how's work??
L-PP
LOL I want one to :-)
:: bites Lee on the arm and grunts :: Grr you pl..ay noaw tooos!
If your pulled the plug do you think they would come after you screaming....."Brains, brains, brains.!!!!!"....poor guy....it must be terrible....why aren't you playing? Personally, I don't understand the attraction...but that is just me!!
L-PP
You and me need to chill for a weekend good sir!
I am sooo not into those comic book movies!! How are you?? Still happy and productive?? Just checking on you!!
L-PP
Thank you for the kitty your amazing to have remember :-)
Why?
New puppy? That's not a nice thing to call your new boy toy :-p