TV And Films

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

What you leave behind

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Well, it’s done. Last night I finished the last episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Dominion War is done.

As I’d mentioned before, I’d never seen DS9 before — I’d caught a few episodes here and there over the years, but hadn’t seen enough to really gain any appreciation for the series or the characters. Now that I’m done…well, while I hate to rank the three versions of Star Trek that I’ve seen (TOS, TNG, and DS9) as they each have their strengths and special places, I do feel comfortable in saying that DS9 is by far the strongest Trek incarnation as a whole.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for TOS. It’s the series that got this whole thing started, where we were first introduced to the Federation, the Klingons, the Vulcans, and many others, and the series that captured the hearts and minds of fans all over the world. I grew up watching Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew, and that in itself is very important to me.

TNG was the rebirth of Trek, and it took a big chance in daring to boldly go where Paramount had gone before. New characters, new ships, new aliens — and a new show that ended up being far better than many expected it would be when word first broke that it was going to be made. Much of my high school weekends were spent in the company of my friends, gathering at one person’s house or another each week to watch the adventures of Picard and crew (often followed up by watching re-runs of TOS that were broadcast immediately afterward). Here we had a modern Trek, and it turned our initial skepticism into belief and a reborn love for the Trek universe.

With DS9, I believe that all the best parts of Trek were brought to the forefront, and then given just enough of a “darker” twist that could have doomed the show from the outset, but instead served to create some of the best Trek I’ve seen. For all their strengths, the almost antiseptic perfection of much of TOS and TNG sometimes seemed almost too good to be true. The characters were almost too perfect, there was too often a definite “right” and a definite “wrong”, without the shades of grey that so often color the real world. DS9 saw this, and painted the entire show in those shades of grey (almost literally, in the design of the Cardassian station). Without breaking away from the ideals set forth by Roddenberry in creating Star Trek, DS9 showed that as good as Paradise is, it takes work to maintain, and the real decisions and ramifications of that work are rarely as clear-cut as we’d like them to be.

So while I hate ranking one series above the other, I will say that DS9 is most definitely my favorite of the three Trek incarnations I’ve seen. Wonderful stuff.

And now that I’ve finally finished it all…

…what now?

The Dominion War keeps distracting me…

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Just a quick note on the relative lack of posts (especially any of any real substance) lately — having never seen Star Trek: Deep Space Nine before, I’ve finally made it into their final season on DVD.

The war is at its peak now that the Breen have joined forces with the Dominion, the Founders appear to be dying, Gul Dukat (disguised as a Bajoran) is manipulating Kai Wynn’s lust for power on Bajor to try to release the Pah Wraiths, and we just lost the Defiant in a major battle. Things are looking really grim, and I’m watching as many episodes as I can each night in order to find out how it all wraps up without staying up too late and not being able to concentrate on work the next day.

So for the moment, I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with my Trek-loving geek self, and settle for a few “this-is-nifty-go-here” posts each morning until I wrap things up with Sisko and crew.

LotR Research Project

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A team of researchers at Lord of the Rings Research is going to be looking for our impressions of Peter Jackson’s films, with the questionnaire going live the day that Return of the King opens. Could be interesting…

A unique opportunity for you to record your thoughts on the final part of The Lord of the Rings. From the day the film is released, you will have the opportunity to take part in the biggest ever international research project, to find out what audiences in all countries thought of The Return of the King. What did you enjoy about it? Did anything disappoint or annoy you? Was it important to you?

(via hegemony rules)

MiddleEarth mania, week one: The Fellowship of the Ring

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Saturday Prairie and I started our three-week string of Lord of the Rings movie watching with the Cinerama‘s showing of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition.

We started by wandering down to Westlake Center to get lunch at the Indian shop in the food court, then spent some time window shopping and trying to avoid the holiday shopping crowds. We wandered up to the Cinerama to see if there was a line a little over an hour before the show, and (no big surprise, really) one was already forming, so we hopped in and spent the next hour or so chatting and watching people line up. Thankfully it was a sunny day without too much wind — I doubt I can expect that for the next two weekends, but the wait wasn’t all that bad this weekend, and we ended up fairly close to the front of the line. After about an hour, we made it in, found great seats (dead center, about six rows back), and waited for the movie to start.

One of the things I really appreciated about this was that they didn’t waste any time. The Cinerama is already a nicer experience than many other theaters, in that they don’t have the obnoxious advertising slides projected on the screen before the show. Not only was that the case this time, but when the movie started, it started right in — no “pre-show entertainment” (commercials), not even any trailers — just a short AMC Theaters splash reel, and then we went right into the movie.

The film itself was, of course, excellent. I hadn’t watched it in about a year, since Prairie and I watched it on DVD just before going out to see The Two Towers in the theatre. Just being able to see this version of the film in the theater is such a treat. The entire audience was great, too. One of the things I noticed and liked a lot was how many families showed up for this, some with kids who couldn’t have been more than 8 or 9, and how involved they all were. Well-behaved, no fussing or whining (pretty impressive for a 3+ hour event), and even when things on screen were scary (the cave troll and the Balrog, for instance), they were obviously fun-scared, not nightmare-scared.

I do have to admit, though — while I was originally a little disappointed that I couldn’t get tickets for the full LotR marathon, after sitting in the theater through one film, I think I’m glad. I’m not sure my butt could handle 9-10 hours in a theater seat!

NetFlix Freak (nee Fanatic)

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There used to be a handy little application for managing your NetFlix queue called Netflix Fanatic. Unfortunately, it stopped being available a while ago, apparently after the author’s employer claimed that the app had been developed on company time and equipment.

However, now comes NetFlix Freak — all the goodness of NetFlix Fanatic, and then some.

  • Drag and drop to rearrange movies in your queue
  • Select two movies in your queue and swap their positions
  • Shuffle your rental queue
  • Fast searching of the Netflix DVD catalog
  • Add multiple movies to your queue in one action
  • Add new movies at the beginning of your queue, the end, or shuffle your queue automatically after new movies are added
  • Keep track of who rented which movie in your household
  • Import your entire rental history (not just the last 90 days)

…and much more.

Roy Disney resigns from Disney

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Wow. Okay, so it’s been fairly obvious that Disney isn’t what it once was (how many recent Disney movies can you think of that were really worthwhile that weren’t Pixar productions with the Disney logo stamped on them?), but this is still a fairly amazing development. Roy Disney himself has left the Walt Disney company, and includes a call for Michael Eisner’s resignation or retirement in his letter of resignation.

It is with deep sadness and regret that I send you this letter of resignation from the Walt Disney Company, both as Chairman of the Feature Animation Division and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.

You well know that you and I have had serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management in the company in recent years. For whatever reason, you have driven a wedge between me and those I work with even to the extent of requiring some of my associates to report my conversations and activities to you. I find this intolerable.

…I believe your conduct has resulted from my clear and unambiguous statements to you and the Board of Directors that after 19 years at the helm you are no longer the best person to run the Walt Disney Company. You had a very successful first 10-plus years at the company in partnership with Frank Wells, for which I salute you. But since Frank’s untimely death in 1994, the company has lost its focus, its creative energy, and its heritage.

[…]

In conclusion, Michael, it is my sincere belief that it is you who should be leaving and not me. Accordingly, I once again call for your resignation or retirement. The Walt Disney Company deserves fresh, energetic leadership at this challenging time in its history just as it did in 1984 when I headed a restructuring which resulted in your recruitment to the Company.

I have and will always have an enormous allegiance and respect for this Company, founded by my uncle, Walt, and father, Roy, and to our faithful employees and loyal stockholders. I don’t know if you and other directors can comprehend how painful it is for me and the extended Disney family to arrive at this decision.

(via aeire)

First LotR:TRotK review…almost

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A reporter from the New Zealand Herald got to see an advance screening of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and has posted — well, it’s not really a review…

The Return of the King is … sorry about this, but we’re not allowed to tell you what we think of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King until next Tuesday.

[…]

So we can’t actually say whether it was the single most amazing cinema experience of our recent memory or not.

Neither can we say in which bits we may or may not have got more than a little weepy, or whether we were emotionally affected at all. And we certainly couldn’t even hint at which film is clearly the best in Peter Jackson’s trilogy now that we’ve seen all three.

We probably need a second look at The Return of the King to decide for sure. Or maybe a third or a fourth…

Something tells me they liked it. ;)

In the meantime, it’s three weeks until LotR:TRotK opens here. Next weekend, I’ll be seeing the Extended Edition of LotR:TFotR at the Cinerama. The next weekend, it’ll be the Extended Edition of LotR:TTT. And finally, the weekend after that, LotR:TRotK.

My precious…

Bad Santa

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I first heard about Bad Santa thanks to Pops about a week ago, and it immediately sounded like something that would be right up my alley.

Roger Ebert’s review has just solidified that. This movie will be seen by me, quite possibly tomorrow. Here’s some random choice snippets from Ebert…

Santa is a depressed, alcoholic safecracker. The kid is not one of your cute movie kids, but an intense and needy stalker; think of Thomas the Tank Engine as a member of the Addams Family. … “Bad Santa” is a demented, twisted, unreasonably funny work of comic kamikaze style, starring Billy Bob Thornton as Santa in a performance that’s defiantly uncouth. … You expect a happy ending, but the ending is happy in the same sense that a man’s doctors tell him he lost his legs but they were able to save his shoes. … There are certain unwritten parameters governing mainstream American movies, and “Bad Santa” violates all of them. … I didn’t like this movie merely because it was weird and different; I liked it because it makes no compromises and takes no prisoners. And because it is funny. … When Billy Bob Thornton got the script, he must have read it and decided it would be career suicide. Then he put the script to his head and pulled the trigger. … What I can’t picture is, who will attend this movie? Anybody? Movies like this are a test of taste. If you understand why “Kill Bill” is a good movie and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is not, and “Bad Santa” is a good movie and “The Cat in the Hat” is not, then you have freed yourself from the belief that a movie’s quality is determined by its subject matter. You instinctively understand that a movie is not about what it is about, but about how it is about it. You qualify for “Bad Santa.”

(via Nate)