Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) ***1/2

After over 25 years the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise prepares to come back to the ground in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, In the final film with the original crew a big wig from Klingon is coming to Earth to negotiate piece with the Enterprise being selected for escort duties. Through an unsavory set of circumstances the big wig is killed and the perp is though to be Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner).

Star Trek VI is much better than Shatner's vanity project that was part five. The plot is more cohesive, there's better acting (Christopher Plummer plays the main bad Klingon for Christ Sakes!), and the return of Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) as director. The film plays like a mystery, sort of like a weird episode of Matlock with a wrongly accused man on trial and the people trying to figure out whodunnit. The acting is above average for a Star trek film, mainly because Plummer is in this and he is awesome (I also have to point out to Sex and the City fans that the old whore from that show plays a Klingon in this).

The thing about Star Trek VI and all of the superior films of this series is that when the threat is low key the film is much better. When it's something huge, such as in I, IV, V it tends to water down the film into a massive pile of goop. The series was designed as social commentary (to a point) and when the films try to pull away from that an compete with Star Wars they tend to fail. The Undiscovered Country is a fitting farewell to the series.

Juno (2007) ****

Juno is about the 16 year old title character (Ellen Page) who ends up in one of the nightmare scenarios teenage girls wake up screaming about: pregnancy. After a short contemplation with abortion she decides to have the child and let a couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) adopt the child when it's born.
Juno has to juggle the problems of pregnancy (especially teen age pregnancy) with those of a young girl making her way through life in her own individual way while she grows feelings for the father of the baby Bleeker (Michael Cera).

It's hard to pin Juno down. You could call it a comedy and there are a ton of funny moments in the film, but it still feels like more than that. It's more of a coming of age tale. The rebellious teen when her 9 month trek started isn't quite the same as the rebellious teen that walks away from the maternity ward of the local hospital. There's a change, it's just funny along the way.

All the raves about Ellen Page are well deserved as she breathes the girl to life. Juno is your typical girl that doesn't fall into a clic- she's her own kind of person, which isn't a bad thing at all. You can feel that teenage disdain in her performance, even as she criticizes some of the would-be adoptive parents classified ads. Michael Cera plays his typical role as a low key, mild mannered kid that doesn't seem to get angry at anything, even when he is angry. Probably the best supporting actor in the film is J.K. Simmons playing Juno's father. He plays it like your typical clueless movie dad, yet he isn't. Every minute Simmons is one screen is wonderful. A perfect casting choice.

Directed by Jason Reitman, Juno represents the post-teeny bopper sets version of Knocked Up. It's a film about consequences and actions that shows how when you encounter an experience you make easy on yourself could end up affecting the rest of your life.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) 1/2

A Star Trek film subtitled "The Final Frontier" would have to be the most spectacular film ever produced. Well I'm here to inform you that this film is a cheap piece of garbage directed by Captain Kirk himself, who obviously couldn't handle being directed by Spock for another picture. The film follows Spock's half brother looking for God. Hilarity ensues as he hijacks the Enterprise and takes them on a journey to hang out with God.

You know there's going to be problems from the start when this appears on the screen:

Directed by William Shatner

To be honest Shatner can't direct himself out of a paper bag. I've seen better direction in animal sex footage. He also had a hand in the story, which starts out ridiculous and ends up stupid. The camping scene in the beginning, which could have been pretty good, fails horribly. Horribly. Stupid dialogue, bad acting, and shoddy effects ruin this sequence and continue to hamper the film throughout.

I've seen better entertainment going into a public toilet and noticing the last occupant did not know how to flush after a night of Taco Bell and vodka. The toilet has better production values, definitely.

Bride Wars (2009) *

Bride Wars is a predictable, cliched chick flick involving two best friends (Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson) who have obsessed over having a June wedding at the Plaza hotel. The both end up engaged at the same time and inadvertently get double booked on the same day. Hilarity ensues as they sabotage each other up to their nuptials.

What's sad about Bride Wars is that these two women are so obsessed with this damn wedding that their fiances are left to be one dimensional people just there so that they can have their wedding. What I find amazing is that apparently neither of these couples are going on a honeymoon. There's not one mention of it and I would think being obsessed with a wedding at the Plaza would also entail you to blow a few dollars on a night in the Catskills at least.

Bride Wars sucks. It's not funny and is actually kind of pathetic in a way. The only two reasons to watch this thing is 1) Anne Hathaway and 2) watching Kate Hudson mimic her mother.

Absence of Malice (1981) **1/2

Absence of Malice is another one of those early '80's news/courtroom dramas where people have to face what's legal and what's moral. The film stars Paul Newman as Michael Colin Gallagher, a liquor warehouse owner in Miami whose father was a player in the syndicate. Gallagher is clean, but a federal prosecutor (Bob Balaban) use him as a way to gain leverage in the case of a missing union boss. A story is "leaked" to reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) who ends up writing the story and starting the snowball effect of events that soon goes out of control.

To be perfectly honest, the only reason to watch this film is for Paul Newman. Newman once again electrifies the screen. The rest of the cast is blah. The story, which starts out interesting, soon turns into a ridiculous cat and mouse game that is far from believable. You could compare this film to All the President's Men or ...And Justice for All but they aren't really in the same league. The only other redeeming part of the film is Wilford Brimley's cameo near the end of the film. He makes a rather dull ending a little more exciting. Other than that the film is a dull exercise in how to suckle onto a popular genre.

The Shining (1980) *****

Stephen King hates this movie. Hates it with a passion. He hated it so much he had it re-made for TV. King felt that it was butchered, mis-cast, and a total abomination to the original novel. You must also remember that Stephen King directed Maximum Overdrive and Stanley Kubrick directed 2001. Need I say more.

It's hard to say what exactly The Shining is about. I can throw out the basics: A man, his wife, and their son travel to an isolated Colorado hotel so that the father can act as caretaker through the harsh winter months. While there he slowly cracks and goes nuts while weird things appear to be going on. That's the basic plot, but what IS The Shining exactly. Is it a ghost story about an old, haunted hotel? Is it a family's breakdown from being cooped up alone together for so many months? Is it about a gift that apparently the father, son, and cook share? Is it an abusive father finally going totally ape shit? What Stanley Kubrick does with The Shining is weave all of these together to the point that we don't know what's really going on... and we do know what's going on.

You can take so many things from The Shining. Depending on what road you traveled will depend on how you see The Shining. Kubrick seems to intentionally not call it a ghost story, yet lays the possibility right there before you. Honestly, does anything really supernatural actually happen in the hotel that couldn't be explained by the occupants going nuts one by one?

Jack Nicholson once again plays the perfect psycho almost too well. He looks crazy even on the ride up to the hotel, which could be an allusion to what's coming up. Danny Loyd plays the son, acting like your typical little boy. Curious and scared all at the same time. The only real weak link in the cast is possibly Shelly Duvall. I say possibly because her performance could have been exactly as Kubrick wanted.

Kubrick directs the film with relish, giving us a nice open feeling in this cooped up hotel. He throws visions throughout the film, doing it before it was the cool thing to do. He has created a modern masterpiece, though it's hard to call it horror. Yeah there's an elevator of blood and one axe murder, but can we really call it a horror film. It's more like a psychology project. Just like 2001, when you get right down to it The Shining presents us with more questions than answers- classic Kubrick.

So what's my opinion on The Shining? I see it as the ultimate dysfunctional family. Dad is an abusive, ex-drunk who combined with cabin fever, writer's block, and his son's over imagination is driven to snap. Everything else falls like dominoes. But don't take my opinion for the concrete truth. It's up to you to answer your questions. In the end Kubrick is like a great professor that makes you crave more.

Talk Radio (1988) ****

When I was a kid I listen to talk radio (yes, I was THAT kid). The guy I listened to was He Who Goes Bump in the Night, Jim White on KMOX out of St. Louis. I think I stumbled on the guy after a Cardinals game. Jim White had been on the air in St. Louis for years and his shows were usually open format. Most callers were congenial, but every once in awhile a tirade would start either from a caller or from the host himself. There was the occasional Nazi or someone without a clue. These are the people that listen to the radio late a night. Check out Coast to Coast AM if you don't believe me.

With Talk Radio we get to take a look at Barry Champlain (Eric Bogosian), a nigh time talk radio host who is no holds barred and tells it like it is even though most of his listeners don't like it. Most callers hate him. When he goes out in public his ridiculed. But his shows popular as hell. So popular he's about to go national. But is that what he really wants? National hatred.

Barry's main argument to people is to turn off the damn show. That may be what you and I have in mind. But you have to remember the old story about a car accident. It's disgusting, it's horrible, but you sure as hell can't look away. You may hate what he says, but you just can't not stop listening to him because you have to know what he's going to say next.

Oliver Stone directs this film base on Bogosian's play and the film does have some of Stones flourishes, but it's really a claustrophobic piece. By the end of the film you're ready to get the hell out of that studio. You feel as stuffy and confined as the characters and during the times you do get out it's not for a breath of fresh air or freedom, it's more of how the disease from the radio has spread. Excellent performances throughout featuring Bogosians best work to date.

So many years late and Jim White's retired from the night time airwaves and the Cardinals aren't on KMOX anymore. I'm sure there's another guy at night buy he probably isn't as abrasive as White. Talk radio today is more user friendly with hosts chanting the mantras of the demographic they're designed for. Talk radio is a time capsule of those days when guys said what they though on the radio, not what was expected of them.

Charlie Bartlett (2007) *1/2

Charlie Bartlett is about Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin), a prep school failure who bucks the system by doing bad things. After being thrown out of another school he ends up at a public school whose principal (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a dish rag and the principals daughter (Kat Dennings) who Charlie falls for. He becomes a BMOC after becoming the school shrink and pill dispenser due to his dysfunctional families various shrinks and doctors. His hopes of becoming a superstar at school are fulfilled but at what cost.

Let's be perfectly honest. This film is Rushmore, just not as funny. This is what is called a "teen angst" film. What exactly is Charlie's angst? Sure they explain that he never had the chance to grow up, but it seems like he's been having a good time otherwise. He doesn't even seem that pissed off. The other teenagers have angst, but it's directed at camera in the class of '83 love shack. They're lucky to have that. The entire school's medicated, why are they all pissed off. Oh, they riot when the drugs are gone? So what this film amounts to is that we all need to be heavily medicated. Nice.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Kat Dennings are the only two redeeming things about this film. Otherwise , it's trash. I was hoping for a film with a soul, but this crap has nothing. A pure disappointment.

(just a note that the DVD release advertised that this film starred "Ironman's Robert Downey, Jr." Obviously the studio didn't have much faith in it either)

Frost/Nixon (2008) ****1/2

By 1977 Americans were outraged. A sitting President had committed numerous crimes and ran the White House almost like a white collar Corleone family. He was forced into resigning from office and was subsequently pardoned by his predecessor (whom I think was manipulated into doing because of Ford's good nature). The American people wanted closure from this man that had shattered faith in the government with a stack of tapes and defiance. They wanted to hear his arguments and how he felt about those topics that forced him into exile.

Frost/Nixon is about the legendary interviews between British TV personality David Frost (Martin Sheen) and Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) that started out as a farce but ended with the first real admissions by the disgraced President. The film is basically the build up to the interviews. Frost is not a journalist, he's and entertainer or "performer" that sees a Nixon interview as a great stepping stone. You could almost call him the Ryan Seacrest of his time. He's everywhere, yet gives no real intellectual information. He pursues the Nixon interview, which no one else will touch, betting his reputation and finances on this program.

I'm not Ron Howard's biggest fan. Probably my favorite film of his is that classic pimps in the morgue film Night Shift. Most of his other stuff comes off as sentimental crap. Frost/Nixon is a lot better than most of his usual stuff. It's a great look at what could be called the last chapter of the Watergate scandal. Michael Sheen is fantastic as David Frost, right down to his muttonchops. He fills the role with all of the super celebrity energy that filled the real Frost. Frank Langella's Nixon is equal or better than Anthony Hopkin's portrayal. Hopkins was a caricature of Nixon, while Langella nails his mannerisms and speech perfectly (even though the actual sound of the voice is off).

Frost/Nixon isn't something the kids are going to like. It's a look back at a scandal that seems akin to Jefferson's "Dusky Sally" and Lincoln's bending of the Constitution considering all they've had to digest during this decade which is starting to rival the 1970's as a huge mess. The film does establish a standard that started with these interviews- the President (or former) being more media savvy. Sure, someday we'll probably have Hall/Clinton or Oprah/Obama. But those will just be the grandchildren of these interviews.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) **1/2

When going over the Star Trek films part four is always summed up with one sentence:

This is the one with the whales.

Star Trek IV continues the work of the previous two and starts off where three leaves off. The crew is preparing to leave Vulcan in their Klingon vessel, but while they're gone a mysterious probe has come to earth and is disrupting electronics and weather on the planet all while sending an odd sounding message that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) figures out is whale songs. All they need is whales to return the message right? Wrong. Whales were killed to extinction in the 21st century. The only answer now is to time warp back to the era of Reagan and bring back some whales.

As you can tell Star Trek IV is going to be a fish out of water film akin to Back to the Future only a little more pronounced. Every other scene entails some member of the crew facing 20th century culture in the weirdest way. That's to be expected, but it does get old after awhile. It's also rather telling that the plot is basically taken from the first film just jumbled up a bit. Another mysterious probe threatens earth. Jesus, why is everyone so pissed off at us.

Nimoy returns to direct again and does so adequately. There's no real flash and as I said in the other reviews the actors are the same as they had been for twenty years. Overall Star Trek IV is an average film that plays to much on the fish out of water. It's a preachy film and with that comes the responsibility to allow the viewer to understand that something is a problem without slamming it down your throat and not sacrificing the story. This film fails on both fronts.