Confess, Fletch (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not having seen the prior Fletch films, I can’t compare Jon Hamm to Chevy Chase, but this was amusing and enjoyable. Hamm’s ongoing incredulous bemusement at the situations he’s in works quite well.
TV And Films
The shows and movies I like (or don’t).
🎥 Bodies Bodies Bodies
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An entertaining-in-the-moment but oddly paced and ultimately forgettable take on the classic “country manor house murder” mystery. Lee Pace’s involvement was a pleasant surprise, though.
📚 A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann
22/2023 – ⭐️⭐️
Much of the story focuses on McCoy being forced to deal self-doubt driven by his past mistakes. While it’s meant to be an exploration into McCoy’s psyche and history, it ended up just kind of dragging on and getting monotonous.
🎥 Cocaine Bear
Cocaine Bear (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Exactly what it says it will be, exactly what you think it’s going to be, and exactly what we wanted for a lazy Saturday afternoon. The only thing I didn’t like was how underlit the climactic 10 minutes were (I swear movies used to have scenes at night that you could actually see). But aside from that, it’s an ideal 90 minutes of ridiculous characters getting mauled by a bear high on cocaine.
📚 The High Country by John Jackson Miller
16/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A fun, light romp of an adventure, rather perfect for the first Strange New Worlds book. Several Enterprise crew are stranded on a world where electronics don’t work and technology is tightly controlled. This results in a mishmash of the Wild West, mountainside castles, tall ships, mysterious aurora, and steampunk-ish clockwork creations. All with a welcome dash of humor throughout. I enjoyed this one a lot.
📚 Line of Fire by Peter David
4/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A short, YA story following Worf at Starfleet Academy. It feels like the first three books (of which this is the middle book) were written as a full-length (~300 page) book and then split into thirds; it references events from its predecessor, and ends with a “To be continued…”. This is the first of this series of Trek books I’d come across, and while not being a full story, it’s fine for what it is.
Really, the weirdest part is that the primary Starfleet Academy instructor is a Professor Trump. Rather unfortunate choice of character name, that one.
📚 The Children of Kings by David Stern
3/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pre-TOS adventure with Captain Pike just a few months into his captaincy of the Enterprise with Spock and Number One under his command. A Klingon/Orion/Starfleet dustup gets a little confusing trying to keep track of the players and motivations, with a somewhat out-of-left-field twist at the end that seemed a little too convenient for my tastes.
One amusing bit: The author’s endnote indicates that he thought of this as something of a prequel to the 2009 Star Trek rebook (so still in the Prime universe), though he still pictured Jeffrey Hunter as Pike rather than Bruce Greenwood; meanwhile, having recently enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds, I found myself more often picturing Anson Mount as Pike. The more actors we have inhabiting key roles, the more the mental visualizations start to shift as you read, I guess.
🎥 Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Delightful, funny, and sweet. Very pretty as well, both in terms of scenery and costuming. An excellent way to spend a couple pleasant hours on a slow Saturday afternoon.
🎥 Ticket to Paradise
Ticket to Paradise (2022): ⭐️⭐️: Unimaginative and entirely predictable, but harmless, and more or less (you choose which of those is most correct) saved by Clooney and Roberts’ undeniable easygoing chemistry.
However:
No points to whoever decided to dress Julia Roberts in a series of jumpsuits. She spent most of the film looking like a 1960s garage attendant.
Also no points to the screenwriters for apparently not knowing that one doesn’t become a lawyer about to start at a prestigious New York firm directly out of “four years of college”.
Nic Cage is a Trekkie
Here’s a fun snippet of an interview between Nic Cage and Kevin Polowy, where Nic definitively declares himself a Trekkie:
Video originally posted to Twitter by Kevin; I downloaded it to add subtitles. Transcript below as well.
…speaking of Massive Weight, the last time I talked to Pedro, he said he wanted to recruit you into the Star Wars fold. How do you feel about this? Has there been any movement on this?
I’m — No, is the answer, and I’m, I’m not really down. I’m a Trekkie, man, I’m on the Star Trek, I’m on the Enterprise, that’s where I roll.
Oh! Okay — I didn’t know this about you.
Yeah, well, this is the first interview of the new year, you might at well get something that no one knows.
But that’s a fact. I grew up watching Shatner, I thought Pine was terrific in the movies, I think the movies are outstanding, and I like the political and the sociological —
To me what science fiction is really all about, and why it’s such an important genre, is that is really where you can say whatever you want, however you feel, you put it on a different planet, you put it in a different time, in the future, and you can, without people just jumping on you. You can really express your thoughts, like Orwell, or whomever, in the science fiction format. And Star Trek really embraced that, I thought they got into some serious stuff.
This is a great nugget of information, and now we have to make that happen, we’re gonna put this out to the internet: Nic Cage for Star Trek, 2023. It’s gotta happen.
But I’m not, I’m not in the Star Wars family, I’m in the Star Trek family.
Got it, got it. We’ll put it in the record. I’ll break the news to Pedro for you.
Okay, thank you.