Actor Tony Curtis Passes

Sad news this week as the great actor Tony Curtis has passed away. I’m not an expert on his work, and I never kept up with him that much, but his role in Spartacus (1960) was emotionally gripping and incredibly acted. He was able to make the viewer feel his emotion and his journey to find something greater than himself, and the loyalty and fidelity between he and Spartacus made that great film even greater.

[via Telegraph]

Review: Star Trek

I have never been made this upset by a movie remake, and that says a lot. At worst, I expected this movie  to mess with the continuity of all the other films: make people meet when they shouldn’t, get dates wrong, have technology be too advanced or too futuristic etc. But what happened was even worse…

Star Trek, which has a sequel coming, has changed the way Star Trek movies are made by concentrating on action and special effects more than story, acting, suspense, drama, and politics. They have effectively killed or wounded the drama of deep space opera films for years, even decades, to come. By having an over the top pace, blatantly stealing from the other Star Trek films as if they are out of date, and by disregarding or plain messing up on straight forward rules about time travel and the laws of sci fi science, this movie has hurt all science fiction movies even more than Star Wars Episodes I-III. I will never again be able to watch a new true to form Star Trek movie because from now on they will be reduced to this macho over the top action flick junk. I had a hard time figuring out Kirk’s age in the film, but I am quite sure he was made captain before he made it out of Star Fleet Academy, which would mean he went from not even having a real rank to skipping 5 officer ranks in a few days.

“So if I join a 3 century old organization and I yell at people enough, I can make captain and run the whole show in a few days on machismo alone?!” Yes. Apparently you can. Read more »