Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
My parents were strangely always more into Star Trek than I was. I think they watched The Next Generation pretty religiously, but it (& kinda science fiction in general? save some of the major awesome works out there) always bored me. Then I saw the original series on TV randomly a few times and wondered a bit how this ridiculous, hokey, sexist pulp turned into the relatively clean-scrubbed, cinematic, ridiculous, hokey pulp TNG seemed to be. The answer seems to be the original movie (a much better route than the proposed "phase II" series) - and is it also the origin of the iconic orchestral TNG theme music (far cry from that deliciously absurd theremin-esque warbling). This movie is also what made Star Trek a big deal (from what I can see in my comfy retrospective crows nest), since TOS had lackluster ratings and only ran for three seasons before cancellation.
It's definitely an enjoyable movie, with its share of awe-inspiration along with the comically absurd ("I must try to mind meld with it!"), and this along with the likes of Serenity and Alien are making me want to keep more of an open ear to the genre (though those terrible SciFi channel movies aren't helping any...). Shatner and Nimoy were truly gods of their era. My geek wings will be more fully earned once I witness the Wrath of Kahn.
The Departed (2006)
A star studded intriguing double-double-agent crime drama, complete with a quite salty tongued Mark Wahlberg and a healthy body count. Gotta love Scorcese's abrupt startling music cues, making me think the copy I originally watched was an early cut or something. Long and dark but never torturous like a lot of Marty's work - very watchable. Only intermittently paid attention on this second viewing however.
The Rock (1996)
This kind of wham-bang action romp deserves only the most unhealthy of popcorns and largest bucket of soda, pile on that butter and make it a Garagantuan! Sean Connery is surprisingly more youthful and energetic than he acted in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (of course he had to play Harrison Ford's dad so I suppose that's understandable). Nick Cage manages to be unbelievably geeky yet not too annoying. Cars costing as much as small houses are obliterated, football games are nearly rudely interrupted, and the entire infiltration crew gets offed, leaving only the two leads, moments after said infiltration. Bruckheimer knew how to bring it then, though the Pirates and National Treasure sequels have me wondering nowadays. I did enjoy Michael Bay's Transformers very much, in case that was up in the air, and the sequel's Super Bowl trailer was impressive I thought.
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There's a few new podcasts I've been trying to keep track of that I figure I should help spread the word on...
Adam Carolla has a new podcast thats been very very funny so far, with a new guest every weekday its seeming. He's being paid to do the show for a year to see where it goes after getting laid off from terrestrial radio last month, and so far he's setting new podcast download records all the time. Don't miss out!
Giant Bombcast is the creation of some ex-Gamespot guys - namely Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, & Brad Shoemaker. Always perferred Gamespot over IGN, maybe just because of that dark background? They bring the laughs and drink reviews along with the game chat.
A Life Well Wasted is 1up's Robert Ashley's new project, an insightful and artfully edited show about games that sounds like it should be on NPR or something. Great potential there!
Out of the Game is something I just
happened to catch on Twitter today - quite a gem of a first episode featuring:
Robert Ashley
N'Gai Croal
Shawn Elliott
Jeff Green
Luke Smith
(not typing all those Twitter links)
If you knew and loved the old 1up podcasts those names should excited you, especially notorious mayhemite Shawn Elliott.
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