Mr. Plinkett reviews Star Trek

The man that brought us the epic 70 minute review of Phantom Menace actually likes Star Trek:

Star Trek: Tik Tok

Tik Tok Spock! Lol

Chris Pine Film Fest

Last night I watched the film Bottle Shock on Netflix on my computer.  Imagine Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman and Chris Pine in the same movie, and no, it's not in space.  It takes place in Napa Valley in 1976, and Rickman is the wine snob who showed that California wines were just as good as French in a blind contest he held in Paris.  Chris Pine plays the hippie, and I do mean hippie with long stringy hair, son of a winery owner (Pullman).  It's a mildly amusing film, and fun in that's it's a true story.  Besides wearing tight 70's jeans and t-shirts, there's not a lot to Pine's slacker character, Bo.

Today, I'm doing a sort of mini-Chris Pine film festival.  I'm watching my Star Trek DVD as I type this, and watched clips on Youtube of Just My Luck and Princess Diaries 2 to see what he was like in some romantic roles. 

My conclusion is that Chris Pine must have had one hell of an audition for Star Trek, as previous to that he basically had mostly Ken doll leading man roles.  He's so amazing and full of personality in Star Trek, and before that, meh.  Maybe there's some small gem or guest star part I haven't seen yet.

Thank you J. J. Abrams, for finding this rough cut diamond, and giving it a little polish!  Because he was certainly rough. 

Although you've got to hand it to the Chris.  You do have to be quite an actor to fake attraction to Lindsay Lohan!

Star Trek Wet Suit

For only $469.95, you too, can have your own made-to-order Star Trek wet suit.  And it also comes in Command Yellow and Science Blue, if you're concerned about what happens to the red shirts on Star Trek!

Star Trek 2009 A-Team

Now that the Star Trek DVD is out, we should have a lot more fun videos like this!

Chris Pine is Breakout Star of the Year in December GQ

GQ has an assortment of several covers for December.  Chris Pine is the breakout star of the year, Barack Obama Leader of the Year, and the boys of Hangover are the Comedians of the Year:

Star Trek 2009 Gag Reel

One more week till the Star Trek DVD is released! I can't wait to see the movie again, and all the extras like the gag reel above.

EW's Popwatch has Zachary Quinto talking about some of the behind the scenes fun:

While Zachary Quinto cracked not much more than a knowing smirk while playing Spock in director J.J. Abrams’ re-vamped Star Trek – out on DVD Nov. 17 — “we did do plenty of laughing off camera,” chuckles Quinto. Anyone who’s seen the leaked gag reel from the movie that’s an extra feature on the impending DVD (it’s out Nov. 17) knows what he’s talking about. “J.J. leads with a sense of humor,” Quinto adds, “and that makes it a lot easier when you’re undertaking something as large as this project was.” So who had Quinto cracking up the most? “Simon Pegg was a big culprit in making me laugh all the time,” Quinto says, but he also singles out co-stars Chris Pine, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood and Karl Urban. “It’s really a funny group of people.”

Star Trek Deleted Nero Prison Break Scene

I found Nero to be the weak link in the Star Trek movie, and I do love Eric Bana. It never made sense that he just waited all that time to take his revenge. Well, it seems he was in a Klingon prison, and the line from the trailer "The wait is over." refers to his breaking out after being tortured. J. J., I think you should have kept this short clip in the original movie. It would have helped me get the Nero character, who needed a bit more depth and explanation.


Star Trek - DVD Bonus Footage

Hat tip: /Film

Klenginem

I guess we'll have to take his word for it that he's really rapping in Klingon!

Live Long and Prosper Foam Hand

For the Star Trek Fan who wants to make a statement at the next game! Find it on Thinkgeek.

Science Fiction Super Trailer - "Wipe Them Out"

The Ultimate Sci Fi Mashup Trailer!!

Can you even imagine how expensive this film would be?

Chris Hemsworth to star as Thor

We would never have had a clue who the heck Chris Hemsworth was just a few weeks ago, but after his short but memorable splash onscreen as Capt. Kirk's father, George Kirk, he has nabbed the role of Thor. He's also been cast in the Patrick Swayze role in the remake of Red Dawn.

He's a 25 year old from Australia, continuing the tradition of American manly men being found on foreign soil. Hemsworth certainly made an impression on me, in that opening sequence of Star Trek. As Bruce Greenwood's Capt. Pike put it, "[He] was captain of a starship for 12 minutes and, in that time, saved 800 lives."

Production is expected to begin next year on Thor, with Marvel shooting for a May 20, 2011 release.

I still can't get over the fact that Kenneth Brannagh, of all people, is directing Thor. Kenneth Branagh has described Thor as "a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario." Samuel L. Jackson will also star.

My Favorite Movie: Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Only watch this if you've already seen Star Trek, as there are major spoilers:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Or they could have all read Joseph Campbell....

Why was young Kirk listening to 'Sabotage' in Star Trek?

This buzz falls in to the category of I don't care if it's true, because it's just too cool!

In the beginning of the Star Trek film, young James T. Kirk has stolen his stepdad's car, and is racing across a field in Iowa, blasting some 'old school' tunes. I didn't catch the song at the time, but it was the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage". Why would that be meaningful, you ask?

Because William Shatner famously cannot pronounce the word 'sabotage'. He says it like sabotaage with the "a" sound like in the word 'at'. Must be a Canadian thing. There is a hilarious audio clip of someone trying to correct him in an voiceover session:

I'm going to choose to think that J. J. Abrams purposefully chose that song to give a little nod to Shatner.

Others wonder if sending a 60's car over a cliff might have other meanings. From /Film:

Abrams chose a 1960s Corvette. Some reports even say it’s a 1966 Corvette, the same year that Gene Roddenberry’s television series began to air.

Could it be that the corvette represents something more than just a fast car? I believe that by throwing the 1960’s era car off a cliff, Abrams was making a statement - “this is not your father’s Star Trek movie” - we’re throwing all that stuff away, off a cliff no less. This is the new Star Trek.” It’s worth noting that my theory originally appeared on the site in November 2008 with the same exact wording, “not your father’s Star Trek movie”, before that line was made the focus of the film’s television campaign.

Hat tip: Cinematical

Weekend Star Trek Update

Star Trek - Movie Review

In a word, Star Trek was "Awesometastic," or at least that's what my 16 year old son called it. He has only the vaguest idea of who Kirk and Spock are, and I'm not sure he's ever seen a full classic episode. He loved it, and that shows that J. J. Abrams has a huge success on his hands. This, unlike many past Star Trek films, is not just for the diehard Trekkies who know all the inside jokes. It's an origin story and a prequel, so while there are plenty of fun Easter eggs for the long time fans, it's a film easily accessible to all the new fans that J. J. Abrams just made for the franchise.

I really have to hand it to the writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. While J. J. Abrams admits that he was not a huge fan of Star Trek, they both obviously are. They have honored the history, while coming up with an ingenious solution to how to revitalize Star Trek. Time Travel and paradoxes are traditional for Star Trek, but I just loved how they worked it to show us these characters we've known for so long, and yet tweak things just enough to make it really interesting. I'm sure the fans will have lots to chew on discussing all the differences from the "canon". They also included all those iconic lines that fans want to hear, but they happened in a very natural part of the story, and never felt forced ("Fascinating"). This movie has fast exciting action, but it's all about the characters and that is what made it really entertaining to me.

Focusing on the origin of Kirk and Spock and their relationship -- totally inspired. Both Zachary Quinto and Christopher Pine had tough jobs and big shoes to fill. I have to say I was really impressed with Christopher Pine. He did not do an impression of Shatner, but made Kirk his own capturing the essence of the character.

But the actor who really surprised me was Karl Urban as Bones. He was just great as Dr. McCoy from that very first scene with Kirk. They took all his history, the divorce, his fear of flying, and just gave him a great cantankerous entrance to the story. Loved it! From the limited films I've seen Urban in (LOTR, Bourne, etc.) I just never would have pictured him doing such a good funny Bones. "I may throw up on you!"

Each main character gets a little moment to shine, and Simon Pegg was my husband's favorite as Scotty. "I like this ship. It's exciting!" Eric Bana's evil Nero was good, but not great. But then, who can match Ricardo Montalban as Khan or the Borg.

Three and a half stars. Huge thumbs up! My husband is a big fan. He even has two phaser rifles and an honest to God Klingon desk from the Christies auction. He loved the movie and believe me, he's a harsh critic. For super fans like him, we just looked at each other several times during the film at the little gifts the writers gave us. Captain Pike was the captain of the Enterprise in the original series pilot and features in the episode "The Menagerie" which has Pike in a wheelchair, and Spock as his former first officer. So cool that Pike was in this origin movie, and at the very end, we noted that he was in a wheelchair in the final ceremony. Just tons of cool touches like that, but still lots of exciting action, too. As the writers said in a recent interview:

I think in its simplest form "Star Trek" has been about naval battles, essentially submarine battles in space, so everything was a bit slow, which is great. It is a wonderful staple of Trek because that forced storytellers to come up with amazing ways for the bridge crew to deal with these problems. Star Wars was about World War II dogfights. As a kid, I loved Trek for the characters, but I loved Star Wars for the speed. But there is no reason why those things should be mutually exclusive. Also, at a practical level, if we going to be introducing Star Trek to a new generation of kids, and given what kids are used to now with Star Wars and Transformers and Iron Man and the speed of those movies, it was going to be very hard to bring them back to a slow naval battle. So we thought must be respectful to the naval battle aspect of the franchise, and yet we can bring something else to it.

I'm looking forward to seeing it again to catch even more Easter eggs! Star Trek has always been about hope and optimism in the future. I think the producers lucked out by releasing this movie at the beginning of Obama's first term. It's a time we could use some more hope and optimism, just like the sixties when the series premiered.

Also, the writers have really opened things up for sequels. Star Trek had gotten rather ossified with over 40 years of history. Now, they could even face familiar situations with different outcomes. Javier Bardem as Khan, anyone?

Trivia note -- J. J. Abrams has been friends with actor Greg Grunberg (Heroes) since high school and finds a way to put him in everything he does. Greg is the voice of Kirk's stepdad on the phone early in the film.

Enterprise vs. the Death Star

Top Ten Lines Never Before Said In a "Star Trek" Film

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Kirk and Leia = Love in Space

He made his way to another universe!

Hat tip: /Film