TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Enterprise: The Andorian Incident

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Last night’s Enterprise episode (“The Andorian Incident“), was — at least IMNSHO — one of the better, if not the best, of the episodes I’ve seen yet. While according to current Star Trek lore, the Andorians were one of the three founding races of the United Federation of Planets (along with humans and Vulcans), yet we’ve rarely seen much of them, with their few ‘starring’ roles dating back to the original series. Well, this week we got re-introduced to them, and it looks like they may be much more major players than they have in the past, which could turn out to be quite interesting.

We are also being treated to a much more interesting view of the Vulcans. Always before, they’ve been coldly logical, somewhat aloof characters, with the race as a whole obviously a strong and trusted member of the UFP. However, we’re now seeing some of the Vulcans weaknesses and less-than-idealistic tendencies, and I for one find the new look at the history of the race fascinating (to coin a phrase). Typically, however, the new views have been raising quite a storm among many fans, and there are some very interesting arguments over at the Trek BBS on both sides of whether this is a good development or not. Personally, I think it is…but that’s just me, I suppose.

Looking forward to more….

One very cool weekend

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This weekend was all sorts of fun — about time, right? :) Not that I’ve been having bad weekends…this one just had a bit more to it.

My parents were stopping in Seattle for the weekend on their way home after visiting Florida for my Grandma’s 90th birthday. They got into town Thursday night, so after work Friday I walked down to their hotel and spent a very pleasant evening with them. We ordered pizza from Pagliacci’s, sat in their hotel room, and talked for a few hours. My family being who we are, the conversation bounced all over the place, from catching up on how the various members of the family are doing to everything that’s going on in the world at the moment.

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O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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After Enterprise, I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers’ last outing. A great little film, as it turns out. I’d already picked up the soundtrack a while back, which is an incredible collection of old-time bluegrass, folk, and gospel music, and it was neat finally seeing how all this wonderful music fit in with the film itself. The Coen brothers, of course, have a twisted sense of humor that I just love, and the movie was definitely one of the better outings I’ve seen from them — and one of the better performances I think I’ve seen George Clooney give. Incidentally, now I’m going to have to find Down from the Mountain: Live Concert Performances by the Artists & Musicians of ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, which apparently is available both on CD and DVD. Hmmm…Christmas is coming up pretty soon….

Enterprise: Terra Nova

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This week the Enterprise was off to “Terra Nova”:

The Enterprise crew alters course to investigate the mystery of Terra Nova, a legendary Earth colony whose inhabitants mysteriously disappeared decades ago. But when they arrive, they confront descendants of the colonists who have become more alien than Archer could ever have imagined.

Not bad, actually — definitely better overall than last week’s episode. I liked Archer’s frustration in being able to deal with the situation he ended up in — especially when he started fuming about how, “If I can’t make first contact with a group of humans…I don’t deserve to be on this ship.” T’Pol’s handling of Archer in the situation room was wonderful, too — I’m still not entirely sure just how serious her suggesting the stun grenades was, and how much of that was playing devil’s advocate.

For a wonderfully surreal time

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…pop in the new Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD, set the audio track to French (or maybe just mute it if you actually speak French), and turn on the ‘subtitles for people who hate the film.’

I watched about half an hour of the movie like this last night, and kept bouncing between laughing and just staring at the screen in bewildered amazement. I wasn’t sure what people meant when they mentioned that the ‘subtitles for people who hate the film’ were made up of text from Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV, Part II‘ — I thought they’d just run the text of the play underneath the Holy Grail. However, they’ve actually grabbed lines from Henry IV that are as close as they can be to the actual wording and intent of the lines in the Holy Grail that they’re replacing, and the end effect is truly, wonderfully bizarre. Some scenes don’t quite work, but in others, the correlation between what’s happening onscreen and what the subtitles are saying is freakishly accurrate.

I think this subtitle track may be one of my favorite features on the disc — probably not the one I’ll visit most often, but in terms of the sheer twisted humor of the idea (and the work it must have taken to assemble the track), I think it’s absolutely amazing.

Another week begins

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Been a busy morning so far, but I figured I’d grab a couple minutes to babble away for a bit. I ended up having a pretty nice weekend — a good balance of getting out and doing stuff, and kicking back and killing time at home.

Friday evening I headed out with Chad and Kelly, since Kelly is in town for a little bit on her way out to a job in Colorado, and we all went to see From Hell, the new Johnny Depp film about Jack the Ripper. I’d give it a very solid ‘good’ overall — not bad, but not great. Worth a matinee showing, at least. However, the closer it got to the end, the more I liked it — and while the end didn’t come as a total surprise to me, I really liked the choices that were made in presenting the final events of the film, and even what those events were. Of course, I don’t want to give away a whole lot here…suffice it to say I was somewhat pleasantly surprised with the closing moments of the film.

Saturday I went out with Chad, Don, and Kelly for a bit. We started with brunch at El Greco, a nice little spot up Broadway a bit, then we all headed down to the Pike Place Market to do some birthday shopping for Dez. Of course, as we were wandering around in a cooking store finding her present, who should we run in to but…Dez! Just the way these things work, I guess. In any case, everyone got things hidden in time, and we chatted with her and her sister Morgan for a bit before they took off again, and we got the gifts and skedaddled. I wandered home to rest and watch a movie, then that evening walked up to Chad and Don’s house and we all cabbed over to Casey and Dez’s place for Dez’s birthday party. Was a lot of fun…just a few friends kicking back and talking. Round about midnight I was getting tired, so I packed up one of the computers I’ve had over at Casey’s and hauled it home with me on the bus.

Sunday was spent mostly cleaning up at home — since I got the TV I’d been just enjoying being able to watch movies again, so had let the house go a bit, and I finally got sick of it. Popped in The Emperor’s New Groove to listen to as I cleaned, and got just about everything put away. I’ve even got my computers set up on my table, all plugged in and ready to go as soon as Rick gets here with my monitors (not that I’m anxious or anything….). Much nicer living in a place that’s actually all clean and presentable.

That evening I went out with Heather, a girl I’ve met here at work. She works for one of the other businesses in the building, and after getting to talking after running into each other a few times, we figured we’d get together sometime. So, we ended up heading out to the Satellite Lounge, just a few blocks up Pike, and sat and talked there for a few hours. Was a very pleasant evening — and I figure any girl that I mention Closet Land to and have her know exactly what movie I’m talking about (it’s not the most well-known flick out there) has got to be pretty cool. Anyway, it made for a very nice evening…we’ll see what happens from here, I suppose.

And that about catches us up to the here and now, as I continue muddling my way through another week punching the green button. Fun fun fun….

Enterprise: Unexpected

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Benefits to actually having a TV — while the reception is pretty cruddy, it does allow me to watch the single TV show I’ve got any real interest in, Enterprise. Last night’s episode was “Unexpected”:

When Tucker is dispatched to assist an alien ship with its power source problems, he is delighted to have a friendly encounter with one of the ship’s female engineers. But after discovering that their special moment has resulted in his becoming pregnant, he realizes he’s had an unwitting experience with alien sex. Now it’s up to the Archer and the crew to return the rapidly growing alien baby to its mother.

Definite mixed feelings about this episode, for me. It was enjoyable enough, and certainly fun to watch, but it definitely had a few moments that concern me a bit.

Things I liked: Trip’s attitude throughout the show — I really liked the understated, very dry approach he took. Archer’s reactions were hilarious, the number of times he had to work to stifle a smirk were hilarious. I do have to admit, too, to a thrill when the Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser appeared on the Enterprise’s viewscreen. I’ve always liked that ship (and Klingon design in general — though they were finally upstaged by the Next Generation-era Romulan Warbird…but I digress), and seeing it in action again was quite nice. On the other hand…

Things I didn’t like: We’re four episodes in, and they’ve already succumbed to the temptation to get some sort of Holodeck on the show. Okay, so the Enterprise didn’t end up with it, but still — is it that difficult to come up with original ideas? And would the Klingons really be appeased/tempted by the possibility of being given holographic technology? Seems to me that they’d be more interested in the cloaking technology that the alien ship was using. Besides, they seemed far to easily dissuaded — it’s hard for me to believe that given the level of tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire during Kirk’s time, that any Klingon 100 years earlier, with far less contact with Humans to draw from, would put up with Archer’s down-home “Aw, shucks, Paw,” attitude for any longer than the time it would take to send a torpedo up the Enterprise’s tailpipe.

Anyway, taken as a whole, it was an okay episode, with some fairly amusing moments — but for someone who’s been watching Star Trek practically since birth, I really wonder how this show’s going to integrate its story arc with the known back story of the Trek universe. So far, they seem to be doing a fairly shaky job of that, which worries me. Ah, well — we’re also only four episodes in, and none of the Trek series have really hit their stride until somewhere between their second and fourth year, so I supposed it’s a little early to write “Enterprise” off just yet.

Still….

Thirteen Days

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I rented Thirteen Days (about the Cuban Missile Crisis) the other night, as I hadn’t seen it, and I was curious both about the film itself and about New Line‘s Infinifilm brand.

The movie was certainly quite decent (though Kevin Costner seemed to do his usual trick of being an inattentive babysitter for his accent, rather than actually adopting it), but what really struck me about it was the similarities to the current air of tension, fear, and paranoia sweeping the nation. While the setups for the two conflicts are different, the attitudes and feelings of many of the characters in the film were very familiar. In one of the (fascinating) historical background pieces, there were some ‘man on the street’ interviews with people at the time this all was going on — and just about anything that they said could easily have been said at any point within the past month. Average people worrying about their safety, whether or not it’s right to go to war, whether a conflict is justified — very eerie to hear sentiments I’ve heard, read, and spoken since September 11th coming from the mouths of people forty years back.

It also made me very curious about just what’s going on in the conference rooms of the White House these days. Considering the wide range of emotions and suggested courses of action during the Cuban Missile Crisis that only recently came to light (such as Kennedy’s secret tapes of the meetings, as discussed in the extra materials on the disc), it really makes me wonder how much is being debated — and how much is known — behind the scenes, that we’re not likely to find out for years, and possibly decades. I’m not one to try to raise paranoia or fears…the film just made me think a lot more than it probably would have had the events of September 11th not taken place. Until now (I’m 28, by the way, born in ’73), I hadn’t really had anything that could make me sympathise with the events portrayed — I could empathise to a certain extent, but I hadn’t had any experiences that really came that close to what was happening in 1962. Desert Shield/Storm affected me to a certain extent, but not like this — it was too distant…a war on TV. Now, for better or for worse, it’s all too easy for me to understand just what was going through peoples minds then — because it’s going through mine, now.

Neat, neat stuff. Not necessarily comfortable. But very worthwhile.

A sunny Saturday afternoon

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Just thought I’d drop in and toss a bit up here. I’m sitting at Aurafice, a coffee/internet joint just 2 blocks away from my apartment — nice little place, and while I’m not sure what the music that’s playing right now is, it works quite nicely for me.

Yesterday after work I swung by home just long enough to check (snail) mail and change clothes, then headed back downtown. The movie 2001 has been cleaned up, restored, and is hitting theaters again, and yesterday was the opening night of its run here in Seattle — at the Cinerama, no less. There was no way I was going to miss out on seeing this, and being able to see it in a theater like that on opening night — no ifs, ands, or buts, I was there. Took a bus downtown and made it there 40 minutes before the show started just to make sure I could get in and get a good seat.

What a show it was, too. I’d not yet been to the Cinerama here — though I’d heard it was a theater more than worth going to, I’d not yet seen something playing there that was going to drag me down. I’m very glad I did this time, though. The auditorium is incredible — 800-some seats, and a 30 foot by 90 foot curved screen! Just a huge picture (though, in all honesty, I believe the number one auditorium at Fireweed Theaters is larger), a new near-pristine 70mm print of 2001…very, very, very cool. Definitely the way to see it.

After I walked home from that, I found a call on my voicemail from Alex — apparently his plans changed, and he is in town for one last weekend before heading back up to Alaska. I met up with him, Casey, and Chad at the Bad JuJu Lounge (right next door to The Vogue), and hung out with them for a bit. Went home fairly early, though — this whole 6am wakeup time during the week kinda puts a damper on too much late-night revelry on Friday nights.

Not much has happened so far today, though who knows what the evening might bring. I did put together another new mix…hopefully it won’t be too much longer before I’ll be able to post the .mp3 files. Until then, though….

To boldly go…

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…where three television series and nine movies have gone before.

Or something like that, right?

But hey — they’re doing it with style. Gotta admit, I thought last nights premiere of Enterprise, “Broken Bow,”, was pretty darn cool. Finally, it really does look like we’ve got a new entry to the Star Trek universe that just might be able to carry on the torch and keep viewers interested. It’s about time.

Things I liked:

The ship — especially the interiors. It really does look something like a cross between a starship and a submarine. Very cramped interiors, walkways going around the various parts of engineering…very nice look. Besides, I’ve always liked the design of the Star Trek universe.

The technology — they seem do be doing a credible job of placing the technology somewhere between what we have today and what was thought the future could look like in the original series, from the sliders on the transporter to T’Pol’s viewer on the science station. With nobody really trusting the transporters yet, it’ll be nice to have extra-vehicular missions using shuttlecraft the majority of the time (one of my favorite TOS episodes was The Galileo Seven, a premise which wouldn’t have worked without a shuttlecraft — sometimes the transporters made things a bit too convenient, I think). The use of an actual grappling hook device rather than a tractor beam was a very nice touch.

The cast — I have to say, I think they just may have done a good job here. I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard that Scott Bakula was going to be the new captain, but I ended up really liking Cpt. Scott Archer. The rest of the regulars came off well too — about my only reservations are with Ensign Hoshi Sato (while the constant nervousness about whether the ship is about to explode around her ears is amusing, the writers will have to tread carefully not to make it just flat-out annoying) and Dr. Phlox (reminds me a bit too much of characters like Neelix [VOY] and the early Ferengi [TNG/DS9] — good ideas that didn’t hold up well over the long run), but as this is solely based on a 2-hour first episode, these characters could become much more than they seem in a season or two. I was also pleasantly surprised with Sub-Commander T’Pol. Considering the jumpsuit they’ve put her in just screams out, “Look at me! I’m the resident token sex object!” she actually ended up with a character much more thought out than I at first expected. She also has that wonderful trick of managing to smile without actually doing it — I think it’s something in the eyes, but it’s something I haven’t really seen an actor pull off with a Vulcan character since Spock and Sarek.

The fact that the show is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen. Very cool — now if only I had a high-def TV and receiver to watch the thing on!

Things i’m iffy on:

Okay, what was the point to the decontamination scene? Or, rather, was there a point beyond titillation? Admittedly, it wasn’t bad as far as prime-time titillation goes, and I have to give them props — not only did they have T’Pol strip down to her skivvies, but they also had Commander Charles Tucker in there (either for the women or the gay men in the audience, or both) — but it seemed out of place, and clumsily done. Either the two of them were just helping each other with the decontamination gel, or they were flirting, but the scene played like a clumsy mix of both. Ah, well — at least it was good eye candy, right?

The opening theme. Y’know, assuming I ever get in a situation where I can watch this show on a weekly basis, I think that song is going to grate on me more and more every time. The visuals during the credit sequence are nice, I like the exploration theme — but did they have to go to some horrid, cheezy, adult-contemporary soft-rock ballad? Ugh. That can go, as far as I’m concerned — and it can go as far away as possible.

Overall

A good, solid B+, I think. I’ll catch more episodes when I can — whenever that may be — we just might finally have another worthy contender to the Star Trek universe here.