Movie Monday! #1 - Star Trek Into Darkness

As an attempt to give this blog a little bit of structure on a weekly basis, I've decided to have a film entry at least once a week.  I'm going to talk about movies in this thing anyways, why not dedicate a entry to it.  I might think of a better name in the future but for now, we'll just call it Movie Mondays!

As the first entry of M&M, let's start with a blockbuster.  It was to my greatest pleasure that my wife and I got to go out on a Thursday night and see a movie (with 2 little ones the freedom is limited).  Since we both agree paying $9 for a movie is kind of crazy, we decided to hit the dollar theater and pay $1.75 instead.  This theater has the popular (and not so popular) blockbusters, but they are all movies on their last leg before their DVD/Blu-Ray release.  Since it was there, Star Trek Into Darkness was a no brainer for us to see.  We highly enjoyed the first one and with the addition of Benedict Cumberbatch into the cast, we didn't want to miss this one.  

Again lead by the directing and writing team of JJ Abrams and Damon Lindeloff, Star Trek Into Darkness is a great movie.  I've heard it said that these new Star Trek movies could be considered fan fiction with a multi-million dollar budget!  For Abrams it isn't (he grew up with Star Wars - a 3rd trilogy coming soon) but for Lindeloff (and the other writers) it is.  In the 2009 release, Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterpirse crew received a time-travel twist that allowed both original and new to coexist.  This makes the work faithful to the past and heaped full of references from older versions, but with a completely different storyline.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens with a big sequence to reinforce the relationship between Kirk (with his cockiness and willingness to challenge the rules) and Spock (with his icy intellect and his need to stick to the Starfleet play book).  And that relationship between Kirk & Spock is tested throughout the movie which has all the original cast back, Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (McCoy), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), and the always great Simon Pegg (Scotty).  Plus we get the addition of Alice Eve, Peter Weller (best known as Robocop) and of course Cumberbatch.

The best part of this movie is Cumberbatch, with his stony stare and rumbling voice (much like his role as "Sherlock"), he is fearsome, relentless and a one-man army of awesome.  If you've seen the first of this reboot and enjoyed it, definitely catch this one.  If your still hesitant with this new view on an old classic, give in to the greatness and enjoy it with the rest of us.

Did you see it yet?  Let me know what you thought about it (either pro or Khan!!!!).

Disney's Cars in the Sky!

I went, I saw, I enjoyed it very much.

Recently took my son to see "Planes" (Mommy was invited too) at our local Movie Tavern.  As a major "Cars" and "Cars 2" fan, this was a natural choice for my son to see on the big screen.  And as an almost 3 year old (only days away from a birthday) he sat nicely and watched the entire film politely.  But this post is not about him, it's about the movie.

It's a worthy spin off.  I'll admit that I was hesitant when I heard that Dane Cook was going to be the lead voice, but he did a good job.  This is an excellent voice cast with the likes of Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, John Cleese and even Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer (in what I would say are great animated "cameos").  And for those that are Pixar enthusiasts, John Ratzenberger does have his part, but you'll have to find out for yourself who he is.

If you like the Cars movies, then most likely you'll like this one, but I won't be the critic that judges it for you.  It's a good animated feature film that will find it's way onto my shelf at some point.  There are funny lines and funny moments.  There are both interesting and uninteresting characters.  But one thing is for sure, kids will enjoy this movie and so will many adults too (ok that's really two things). 

Sure the Cars movies drive me nuts when my son wants to watch them on a daily basis, over and over again, but in general they are good movies that are fun to watch.  I myself look forward to many more sequels, spin-offs and shorts made in the world of Cars & Planes.

Have you seen it, going to see it, or have no interest what so ever in seeing it?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Oh...Despicable Me

Ok, so I'm a little tardy on this post, but I have a note from my extremely busy schedule.

So, my wife and I took our almost 3 year old son to see Despicable Me 2 this past Saturday.  I wasn't too excited when the first movie came out but having watched it numerous times, it's been a movie that I've really grown to enjoy. So a sequel is definitely something I wanted to see.  Plus, with a 3 year old, something new is always a plus.  You can only watch certain Disney movies (that shall remain unnamed for their protection) so many times before you want to chuck the DVD (and/or Blu-Ray) into the nearest shredder.  *In best PSA voice* We must protect others from the torture of repetitive viewing.  Be Kind and Hide Your Discs.

Anyway, back to DM2.  I don't want to get bombarded by pissed off blog readers because I posted a bunch of spoilers.  God knows, there's not enough of that on the Internet.  So I'll try my best to avoid them.  I would say that this is a movie worthy of the original.  Steve Carell returns a Gru and is as funny as ever!  Kristin Wiig, who is Hilarious!, plays second fiddle very well (did you know she had a part in the first one, look it up [www.imdb.com]).  Also, a lot of the others in the original voice cast are back, including Russell Brand and Miranda Cosgrove.  Plus some great additions like Steve Cogan and a surprisingly hilarious role by Benjamin Bratt!

If you liked the first, you'll highly enjoy the 2nd and I hope they release a third.  A good trilogy is always appreciated.  I'd definitely see a 3rd, and maybe even in the theater (which I wish I did more of).

The first sign of droppings

Like every other person in this world, I have tons of thoughts.  Some of them are good, some of them are bad and a lot of them should not be shared with the general public (I'll keep those to myself).  However, I do feel I have an opinion that is worth sharing with those who would like to read it.  Hopefully this blog and my brain spillings into it will be enjoyable, and maybe to even some readers it could be helpful.

I'll post things like my opinions of movies I happen to see, books it took me forever to read or no time at all to finish, or maybe even talk about the newest musical artist that enticing the nation's listeners (or at least my daughter's ears).  Anything and everything is fair game for this blog and very well could be discussed.

Sure there are a lot of opinions our there (the internet is full of them both positive and negative), so the question stands, why am I adding mine to the mix?  The simplest answer is because I can.  I may not like the same things other people do but what I'm going to try to do differently is give my thoughts on the topic, not critic the topic itself.

I welcome readers questions, comments or, if you're a Nerdist podcast fan like myself, leave a quemment. I'm looking forward to trying out this whole blog process and appreciate feedback.