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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 11:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Joe--LOL. Yes, it's me with my "Mark Twain" mustache. In this shot, not the one in the video, I look more like Buffalo Bill Cody to me. But when they gave me the black bow tie, I looked very much like Twain. Redbone and Zappa are interesting choices, however, and very flattering to me, since I love the way both those guys look. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 12:32 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I was thinking Burt Lancaster, but you'd need a haircut. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 5:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: I was thinking Burt Lancaster, but you'd need a haircut.
Bite your tongue--not about Lancaster, about the haircut.  |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 9:18 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2148
Location: my computer
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I was thinking more along the lines of my great-uncle Sol. The one we never talked about.
*grins* |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 10:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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My daughter's comment:
"I never knew that Mark Twain was coming to kill me." |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 11:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| LOL |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 4:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Caught Star Trek tonight. It's fast paced, funny, touching, completely entertaining. And unsatisfying. Where's the utopia? Where's the philosophy? Why are all the cast members young, pretty fuck toys? It makes sense for Chekov, who was "Davy Jones in space" the first time around. But this time they're all pin-ups. Weirldy, at one point this 90210-meets-21 Jump Street cast snickers at Chekov's youth. Yet none of these crew members is old enough to have voted in more than one presidential election. It's like the old movies where the gang of kids doesn't want someone's little brother tagging along because he's 10 instead of 12.
I got the impression from the first series that the characters had been aboard plenty of ships, served many posts, earned their credentials. I also got the feeling that, though they built a strong rapport, they just happened to be assigned to the same vessel on a five year mission. The new series with its "Muppet babies" cast wants them all together at the start of their careers, and of course wants us to believe they are inseperable, a little safe womb of friendship that no one can break up or join. Just like the gang on Friends.
The best thing about the new cast is Zachary Quinto as Spock. He looks astonishingly like the young Leonard Nimoy (though wasn't Spock's skin lightly green-tinted on the original series? Somewhere along the way this aspect has been jettisoned). He doesn't have Nimoy's great voice, but he has what no actor other than Nimoy playing a Vulcan has had: a twinkle in his eye. Both Nimoy and Quinto get a kick out of playing the "purely logical" card, knowing full well how much it frustrates the humans. I think the script rushes too quick to bring out Spock's emotions; they should subtly express themselves over time (what makes Kirk's line in The Wrath of Khan, "Of all the people I have known, he was the most human," so touching is that this realization took so long to manifest itself), but considering this is a movie and not a weekly series, the choice isn't surprising.
Nimoy himself is in the movie of course, and I couldn't be happier. He's my favorite Star Trek actor in my favorite Star Trek role, and he adds a certain level of gravitas to the proceedings. It's curious. I'm not a huge Star Trek fan. I haven't seen all of the original series, and only a spattering of the moves, but these people and this series holds a special place in my psyche. When First Contact allowed us to witness the initial meeting of Vulcans and Earthlings, I didn't think "look a the actors." I thought "I can't believe I'm lucky enough to witness this momentous moment in history!" And here Spock references his long friendship with the old Kirk, speaking to the young Kirk, and the scene had me tearing up. The fact is, the bond between Spock and Jim means something to me.
Happily, this is a movie that cares about relationships. For all the fast-paced action, and the witty banter, it doesn't degenrate into a self-satified action flick of the Lethal Weapon variety. And it never becomes the movie equivalent of a video game. People's deaths, even that of minor characters, means something (which is why the movie's final laugh line, though funny, rings false).
Still, I would have preferred the movie to be a bit more chill. I know some scenes lasted more that 30 seconds, but other than those with Nimoy, I'd be hard pressed to name them. The movie feels like it's all montage, a two hour-plus trailer. I could have done with fewer explosions and more dialogue. I know we need the backstory on Kirk's dad, but did we need it dramatized, and part of that long opening sequence? Do we need to see Kirk and Spock as the Pec's Bad Boys of their native planets? Do we need to see Kirk as the farm boy agawkin' at all the young fillies at the Academy he wants to nail? And do we need all those weirdly shaped aliens who look like they belong in the Star Wars canteen rather than the Star Fleet Acadamy? We even get a cutesy Ewok type trailing Scotty. Does anyone ever need to see a cutesy Ewoky type again?
For all that, I enjoyed the picture on its own terms and even plan to see it again. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 7:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I understand Joe's POV and yet disagree completely with him. Star Trek the television series always put me instantly to sleep with its pretensions. The movie is hot. Nimoy was the only actor who bored me at all. Great voice, no energy. And the prologue was sensational--probably the best such "back story" prologue I've ever seen. So...we disagree. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 8:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Guess so.
The movie is hot. But who wants Star Trek to be "hot"? Why attibute Paris Hilton standards to a series infinately superior? This movie is a very well done, but fairly typical, Hollywood product. It misses what much of what made the original show unique.
By the way, now that I know you consider the original Star Trek series a snoozefest, I'm no longer bothered that you find The Rocky Horror Picture Show "soporific."
Different strokes. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 9:04 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Why attibute Paris Hilton standards to a series infinately superior?
Obviously, I don't think the series is "infinitely superior." But more to the point, I don't think Paris Hilton or her standards are anything like "hot." I think she's an idiot and all her standards are idiotic.
Star Trek (the 2009 movie) is hot. Paris (the hotel heiress) is not.
Neither is Star Trek (the television series), but it's hotter than Paris (the hotel heiress).
Paris (the city) is hotter than anything, except (sometimes) NYC (the city).
Parentheses (the punctuation marks) are neither hot nor not, but they are (sometimes) fun. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 9:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| The funny thing is, while I don't put the movie on the intellectual level of the original series, I did enjoy it tremendously. And as I said, I plan to see it again. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 10:10 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I give Paris Hilton a little slack because it must be difficult to be a hotel. People probably call her up and ask how much she charges a night. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 10:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I understand prices are lower if you have companions. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| lissa |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 1:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2148
Location: my computer
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| I stayed at the Paris Hilton before it was a celebrity. And it is infinitely hotter than the celebrity. |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 9:51 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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