And The Nominees Are...
Homer: Starchild
Don't know if it's just my computer or what, but the second picture in my last blog entry seems to have gone walkabouts, thus rendering the last paragraph even more non-sensicle than if it had been there. Hmm. Try googling "simpsons space odyssey" under image search and it should pop up in the top left if your computer and my computer do the same thing.
Make It So
Yesterday I watched First Contact, which is the 7,834th film in the Star Trek series. I've only ever seen one Star Trek movie in my life (Generations, and that was years ago) and it wasn't all that stunning, but this one is surprisingly good and justified my decision to randomly tape it out of the blue when it was on the other day. It's basically about a group of... space ship people I guess (what do you call them?) who are after an enemy that has gone back in time and taken over Earth before Earth was able to travel into space. So they go back, destroy the "Borg" ship that was itself attempting to destroy man's first ship capable of light-speed travel (which would according to history get us noticed by an advanced race and hence establish man's... First Contact with alien life) and then go down to 21st century Earth to check if the light-speed ship (set for launch a day later) is in fact undamaged. Complications arise when they discover the Borg on the enemy ship managed to teleport onto their own ship, the Enterprise (as I've discovered from the Next Generation eps I used to watch years ago, everyone likes teleporting everywhere), and that these Borg are taking over the crew, the ship's technology, and attempting to have a second attempt at destroying the light-speed ship using the Enterprise's own weapons.
This movie is entertaining (especially watching people from 400 years apart interacting with their wildly different customs, and the treatment of a historical hero - the guy who built the ship - as a "great man" as those in the future know him from textbooks when in reality he built the ship in hope of making money and is a drunk) and exhilarating (especially the will-they-notice-our-heroes scene when Jean-Luc Picard and company attempt to sabotage the Borg's new weapon). What's more, it's interesting for a number of issues raised including an android's attempts to become more human, although a discussion he has with the Borg leader about what makes a perfect being I felt could have been developed a bit more than it was. There are a few cliches, an occasional sci-fi-geek-pleasing bad line like "assimilate this!" when the Borgs (who assimilate people into their race through technology and make them half-cyborg... I think...) have their weapon blown up, and there are more contradictions than one could be bothered listing. But for all of that it's both interesting and fun, and as I can happily suspend my disbelief for a fantasy adventure like this, this movie gets a B, or 3.5/5.
EDIT: First Contact has a score of 7.4 on IMDB, was nominated in 1996 for an Oscar and is 94% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (100% Cream Of The Crop). Guess I'm not the only one who likes it. On that note, I strongly recommend the movie because now I know it isn't just my opinion, but the opinion of many that it's good. See it. Resistance is futile.
Speaking then of Oscars:
The Oscar Nominees Have Been Announced
Hopefully Village Skycity Cinemas will be running another free-movies-for-a-year competition involving picking the Oscar winners this year, because I don't see how I can lose with this predictable list:
http://www.oscars.org/78academyawards/noms.html
King Kong got only 4 nominations (booo!), and Batman Begins only got 1 while Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang missed out completely (argh!). Of my other Top 5 movies of last year (which I never got around to counting down like I did 6-10, and Harry Potter is now my new number 6 having been dislodged by Munich), Revenge Of The Sith was snubbed and got just a make-up nomination (with Narnia, Geisha and War Of The Worlds beating it into the effects categories) but thankfully SOMETHING I LOVED got a mention: Munich was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Editing, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay. Knowing my luck, it will probably lose all 5.
With 8 nominations, Brokeback Mountain will be the hot favourite for Best Picture, but expect variation amongst the acting categories. I will say no more in case that Village pick-the-oscar-winners competition does run and people steal my picks :p Must... defend... title...
Don't know if it's just my computer or what, but the second picture in my last blog entry seems to have gone walkabouts, thus rendering the last paragraph even more non-sensicle than if it had been there. Hmm. Try googling "simpsons space odyssey" under image search and it should pop up in the top left if your computer and my computer do the same thing.
Make It So
Yesterday I watched First Contact, which is the 7,834th film in the Star Trek series. I've only ever seen one Star Trek movie in my life (Generations, and that was years ago) and it wasn't all that stunning, but this one is surprisingly good and justified my decision to randomly tape it out of the blue when it was on the other day. It's basically about a group of... space ship people I guess (what do you call them?) who are after an enemy that has gone back in time and taken over Earth before Earth was able to travel into space. So they go back, destroy the "Borg" ship that was itself attempting to destroy man's first ship capable of light-speed travel (which would according to history get us noticed by an advanced race and hence establish man's... First Contact with alien life) and then go down to 21st century Earth to check if the light-speed ship (set for launch a day later) is in fact undamaged. Complications arise when they discover the Borg on the enemy ship managed to teleport onto their own ship, the Enterprise (as I've discovered from the Next Generation eps I used to watch years ago, everyone likes teleporting everywhere), and that these Borg are taking over the crew, the ship's technology, and attempting to have a second attempt at destroying the light-speed ship using the Enterprise's own weapons.
This movie is entertaining (especially watching people from 400 years apart interacting with their wildly different customs, and the treatment of a historical hero - the guy who built the ship - as a "great man" as those in the future know him from textbooks when in reality he built the ship in hope of making money and is a drunk) and exhilarating (especially the will-they-notice-our-heroes scene when Jean-Luc Picard and company attempt to sabotage the Borg's new weapon). What's more, it's interesting for a number of issues raised including an android's attempts to become more human, although a discussion he has with the Borg leader about what makes a perfect being I felt could have been developed a bit more than it was. There are a few cliches, an occasional sci-fi-geek-pleasing bad line like "assimilate this!" when the Borgs (who assimilate people into their race through technology and make them half-cyborg... I think...) have their weapon blown up, and there are more contradictions than one could be bothered listing. But for all of that it's both interesting and fun, and as I can happily suspend my disbelief for a fantasy adventure like this, this movie gets a B, or 3.5/5.
EDIT: First Contact has a score of 7.4 on IMDB, was nominated in 1996 for an Oscar and is 94% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (100% Cream Of The Crop). Guess I'm not the only one who likes it. On that note, I strongly recommend the movie because now I know it isn't just my opinion, but the opinion of many that it's good. See it. Resistance is futile.
Speaking then of Oscars:
The Oscar Nominees Have Been Announced
Hopefully Village Skycity Cinemas will be running another free-movies-for-a-year competition involving picking the Oscar winners this year, because I don't see how I can lose with this predictable list:
http://www.oscars.org/78academyawards/noms.html
King Kong got only 4 nominations (booo!), and Batman Begins only got 1 while Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang missed out completely (argh!). Of my other Top 5 movies of last year (which I never got around to counting down like I did 6-10, and Harry Potter is now my new number 6 having been dislodged by Munich), Revenge Of The Sith was snubbed and got just a make-up nomination (with Narnia, Geisha and War Of The Worlds beating it into the effects categories) but thankfully SOMETHING I LOVED got a mention: Munich was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Editing, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay. Knowing my luck, it will probably lose all 5.
With 8 nominations, Brokeback Mountain will be the hot favourite for Best Picture, but expect variation amongst the acting categories. I will say no more in case that Village pick-the-oscar-winners competition does run and people steal my picks :p Must... defend... title...
posted by Steve @ 9:01 AM
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