..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

..Wilmington on DVD ..MCN Weekend

Star Trek, The Limits of Control, Next Day Air, Rudo y Cursi, Battle for Terra
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Star Trek  (Three-and-a-Half Stars)
U. S.; JJ Abrams (2009)

Countries, eras and presidential administrations (thank God) may come and go, but Captain Kirk and Vulcan First Officer Spock, the dynamic duo trading barbs and running the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek, may just apparently live on the edge of forever -- or as long as the Trek movies keep making lots of money.
   
The latest Trek movie, called simply Star Trek, seems poised to make the biggest killing of the whole series. More than that, it strikes me as a genuinely audience-pleasing movie, one which should give a thrill to the mass audience, to the hard-core fans (Trekkies, Trekkers, Trekkums or whatever) -- and even to moviegoers (there are probably a few)  who couldn’t care less or think Trek is dreck and that Spock was the baby manual their parents or grandparents used.
     
Here, director J. J. Abrams (of Mission: Impossible III and TV’s Felicity and Lost) and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (of Transformers) show how young Kirk (Chris Pine) and young Spock (Zachary Quinto) met after dear old days at the Starfleet Academy and their assignment (a complex chore, in Kirk‘s case) to the Enterprise, under Captain Chris Pike (Bruce Greenwood) -- just in time to lock horns with the crazed Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana), who’s hell-bent on blowing up everything Federated in sight. This is the first time out against heavy firepower and lizard-faced bad guys for the classic Enterprise ensemble. And now we know why Kirk was always so confident, Spock always so calm. At saving the universe, they’re genuine naturals.
     
As we watch, a gang of evil, ugly, well-equipped Romulan space-villains intent on planetary genocide, and led by the obsessed Nero, run up against the Starship Enterprise‘s band of cocky young kids, including Kirk, Spock, Doc “Bones” McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov and all the rest, most just graduated from Starfleet Academy and eager to strut their space stuff.
       
I had a great time myself. But the current movie’s powers of audience seduction may seem ironic, because the original TV series, which started, with the original cast, back in 1966, was no huge popular hit. It wasn’t a pre-Star Wars or a ’60s-style Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon, but a more intellectual show that specialized in well-written moral fables, albeit set on a slightly tacky looking space ship control room set. And it was cancelled after three seasons -- then brought back as a movie and several reborn TV series because of what was probably the most ferocious and undying (and determined) fan loyalty, against all odds, in the history of pop culture. (Star Wars addicts will object, but, remember,  they started off with an all-time  number one box-office hit, not with a beleaguered little critics’ darling prize-winning show kicked off the air by Klingon-like TV execs.)
     
Yet this movie reunion/restart, which even has acting room for Leonard Nimoy himself, will undoubtedly be the biggest hit ever for the series, and big chunks of it almost are Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, or what Flash and Buck might have been with millions to spend and the cream of contemporary twenty-first century movie technology at their disposal.
     
The new Star Trek does manage to hit both bases. It brings back the classic ensemble, all now played at a younger age, by younger actors, and adds the emotional drama and some social message stuff, plus one slam-bang action sequence after another. Star Trek, James Bond-style, starts off with a super-bang -- a deep space blowup -- and then after some childhood action or psychological stuff for Kirk and Spock, keeps racing us from one space fight and planetary catastrophe to another, with time in between for some emotional drama. It’s the action that tends to hog the show, but the rest of it is, as someone might say, personality-driven.
   
Anyway, you’ll be happy to learn that this Star Trek -- the eleventh movie in the science fiction TV-and-film series dating back to 1966 (when the whole thing started on TV, with the original cast) -- definitively breaks the notorious Star Trek odd-numbered curse: the supposed continuing jinx, in which even-numbered Trek sequels turn out to be good, while odd-numbered ones are disappointments.
     
The new Star Trek is an odd-numbered prequel -- number eleven in sequence of release, number one as a series restart -- that pretty much blows the house, or the galaxy, down. It‘s a wildly kinetic show which pleases on several levels: by effectively reintroducing that entire Enterprise crew, by showing us how they met, and also by piling on one technically virtuosic, shoot-the-works action FX scene after another.
             
The movie, typically for Abrams, is almost continuously exciting. The camera rarely stops moving, or racing, through sets and planet-scapes that are gargantuan jaw-droppers. The action is hellacious, the villains monstrous, the FX mind-boggling. Meanwhile, the emotional-Kirk/logical-Spock clash scenes keep clicking, while the young Kirk dangles off so many cliffs and moving starship floors, he looks like a good candidate for cliffhanger insurance. Fans of quieter, more thoughtful fare  -- like, the original TV show -- might start to feel they‘re on overload. (I did myself, for the first twenty minutes or so.) But the mass audience and most Trek fans should be pretty happy. So should Paramount’s accountants.
   
It’s a relief to see how big a crush these moviemakers have on the original series, how determined they are to make this both brilliant new start and grand reunion. I hated the blaze-of-glory kiss-off of the crewless Kirk in Star Trek: Generations. But the new movie wisely pays tribute to the old guard, making a fond and witty transition from the first cast to their well-chosen counterparts. The new Kirk (Pine) is almost as cocky, and sometimes annoying as Bill Shatner; the new Spock, Zachary Quinto, has an eerie physical and dramatic resemblance to Leonard Nimoy. The other actors are all nice fits: Zoe Saldana as a sexy, sassy new Uhura, John Cho as a hyper-aware Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as an excitable Chekov -- with special high marks going to Karl Urban’s youthfully irascible McCoy and Simon Pegg  (of Shaun of the Dead) very funny as, natch, Scotty.
     
The original cast -- Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), George Takei (Sulu), Walter Koenig (Chekov), DeForest Kelley (Bones), and James Doohan (Scotty) -- may not be around here, of course, but they get a very respectful nod from the filmmakers, the movie and from their counterparts. And traditionalists may brush away a tear or two when a grave and serene Leonard Nimoy, as Spock from the future, shows up in a major way, courtesy of time travel. To tell the truth, I would even have liked to see Shatner time-hopped back to the party too, even though he was killed off in the disastrous screw-up of Generations -- an odd-numbered  Trek, if there ever was one. But no such luck, and the movie‘s only major disappointment.
     
Maybe I speak too soon. One element, crucial to the Gene Roddenberry Star Trek mythos, does seem less evident here: the show’s signature predilection for those strong social themes. The original series attracted its fanatic following partly because of the cast chemistry, partly because of its nods to high-grade contemporary literary science fiction -- some prime s. f. authors, like Theodore Sturgeon (Amok Time), Harlan Ellison (The City at the Edge of Forever)  and Trek discovery David Gerrold (The Trouble with Tribbles) worked on some of the best scripts -- but also because of those messages on brotherhood, universal peace, technology, ecology and other humanistic social themes, that played so well in the ‘60s.
     
I suppose you could say that this Star Trek comes out four-square in favor of a good Starfleet Academy education, and strong inter-galactic cooperation, and against planetary genocide, and Romulan planetary terrorism. (By the way, if Rush Limbaugh were in Star Trek, he‘d be a Klingon for sure.) But it tends to be more of a super-Flash Gordon blast-you-out-of-your-seats action movie, interspersed with Kirk-Spock meet-cute fireworks (and Uhura as the third side of the triangle)
       
As such, it’s fun, a blast, a terrific fresh start. Why ask for too much more? But maybe I’m off-base and action-jaded. Maybe the message here is that you can’t triumph over the future without knowing, acknowledging and paying all due respect to the past. That’s a pretty good lesson. And, after all, to steal a phrase from Ted Sturgeon, this is a Trek that (I’m sorry) will live long and prosper.

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The Limits of Control (Three Stars)
France/Spain/U.S.; Jim Jarmusch, 2009
     
A mysterious Lone Man (Isaach de Bankole) travels through France and Spain, making wordless assignations with all-star strangers (John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal and many others) some of whom keep passing him messages in matchboxes. Finally (spoiler, spoiler) the Lone Man encounters the ultimate in corruption, or maybe Bill Murray.
     
Despite a splendid cast, picturesque settings and knockout Christopher Doyle cinematography, this new Jim Jarmusch movie has gotten him his worst reviews in quite a while. I disagree. The deadpan acting, measured pace, painterly compositions and anti-Establishment theme may annoy some, but that’s partly because the first three on that list are such a deviation from the movie business as usual, at least for American writer-directors. Jarmusch has always been a rebel and a stylist, and this movie has lots of both rebelliousness and style.
     
On the other hand, I‘m sorry to say that Isaach de Bankole, whom I usually like, may have been thrown a dirty curve with this lead role. He’s asked to keep our attention while doing and saying almost nothing. It’s a tough job. And that kind of role needs an actor who’s a bit less strikingly handsome and more oddball, explosive and dangerous-looking -- like Lee Marvin in Point Blank, a movie that a very obvious influence here.
   
I think Jarmusch might have been better advised to cast himself as The Lone Man and Bankole as his boss. After all, Jarmusch is a founding member of the Sons of Lee Marvin, and, from some angles, he even looks a bit like L. M. -- or maybe his wayward offspring. Unfortunately, even if the movie were improved by something like that (and for me, it’s good enough as it is), J. J. would then probably have gotten even worse reviews. Somebody might even have called him a wannabe European socialist.

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Next Day Air (Three Stars)
U.S.; Benny Boom, 2009
     
In the Philadelphia ghetto underworld, a dangerous and crazy neighborhood where there are, as Humphrey Bogart once remarked, so many guns and so few brains, a pot-smoking delivery guy named Leo (Donald Faison) mistakenly delivers a box full of cocaine to two equally stupid criminal wannabes, Mike Epps as Brody and Wood Harris as Guch, who then try to peddle the blow to stoic-faced but inept dealer-cousin Shavoo (Omari Hardwick) and taciturn torpedo Buddy (Darius McGrary).

Unfortunately, the intended cocaine recipient, Jesus (That ’s Jee-zuz, not Hay-soos)  lives up the hall with his Santeria-obsessed girlfriend Chita (Yasmin Deliz). And, after doing a cut-rate Robert De Niro impression, he’s off on a mad search for the Next Day Air guy and the coke, pressured by implacable gang czar Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera), who apparently doesn’t have a sense of humor.
     
Diablo may be poker-faced, but I laughed all the way through this defiantly tasteless African-American crime comedy, a neo-noir with attitude and a strong feature debut for both music video director Benny Boom and writer Blair Cobbs.
     
But the movie is really sabotaged by its ending, not so much by the violence (which works well and is a good resolution for the amusingly amoral plotline) but the goofy and Hollywood-cokey coda after the blowup, which takes us out of the world of Reservoir Dogs and back into the world of Friday. Even if the audience likes that ending, it’s a mistake, and it throws the show’s moral fudging and cutesy flaws,  easy to ignore otherwise, into relief. On the other hand, the dialogue is unusually good and the acting is terrific, including Mos Def as a light-fingered fellow delivery man and Malik Barnhardt as the guy who sleeps through it all.
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Rudo y Cursi (Two-and-a-Half Stars)
Mexico; Carlos Cuaron, 2008

Nearly every sports movie cliché you can imagine -- and a few you probably can’t -- pop up in writer-director Carlos Cuaron‘s Rudo y Cursi (“Tough and Corny”), a lively but massively unconvincing tale of Mexican soccer-playing brothers trapped in the pro-sports fast lane. The movie marks a disappointing reunion for costar/buddies Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna (the lusty travelers of Y tu Mama Tambien) and a flawed first outing for Cha Cha Cha Films, the highly promising joint venture of those brilliant and irrepressible filmmaking Three Amigos, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron (Carlos’ brother).
   
Tough and corny is right. Rudo y Cursi shows us the flabbergasting rises and falls of two soccer-hero siblings, Luna as Beta (a.k.a. Rudo) and Gael as Tato (a.k.a. Cursi), who go straight from the banana plantation to incredible rookie superstardom as all-star goalie and scoring leader, on different teams.

Unfortunately, the boys are soon afflicted with bad women, drugs, booze, and killer gambler/gangsters who disrupt their march to the all-time soccer records. Spoiler ahead. I’ll bet you can’t guess which goalie faces which scorer in which last minute penalty kick for what championship.
     
All of this is narrated, by the way, by the brothers’ cynical scout (Guillermo Francella), who can really pick ’em, even if they’re knee deep in bananas and tantrums. Cuaron, who co-wrote Y mama with Alfonso, seems blind to the comic potential, or the outright absurdity,  of his script, which is sometimes presented as if it were Body and Soul or Eight Men Out. Happily, we know that the Amigos, and Bernal and Luna will recover nicely, as long as they stay away from cynical talent scouts and record-breaking clichés. (In Spanish, with English subtitles.)

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Battle for Terra (Two-and-a-Half Stars)
U.S.; Aristomenis Tsirbas, 2009
     
This beautifully animated 3D science fiction fable is an alien invasion story twisted inside out, a War of the Worlds in which, as Pogo Possum was fond of saying, we have met the enemy and he is us. Here, the monsters from outer space are Earthling cosmonaut/soldiers looking for another planet to colonize and the threatened protagonists are the peace-loving, amphibian-looking Terrians, who have foresworn war, but are ready to pull their weaponry out of mothballs to save their planet from conquest by the little pink men. Trying to bridge the gap between alien species and worlds are plucky little Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), Jim, the Earthling soldier whom she rescues (Luke Wilson), and cute little translator/robot Giddy (David Cross), who looks and acts like a talking cross between R2-D2 and Wall-E.
   
I was okay with director Tsirbas’s affectionately artsy anti-war fantasy -- with its pro-ecology, peacenik themes and seductive other-worldly visuals -- until the explosive, guns-blazing climax: predictable for this kind of anime-influenced show, but a mood-wrecker and message-shredder nonetheless. Still, Battle is often redeemed by its dreamlike visuals, which suggest a fusion of Star Wars with a poetic French hybrid like Fantastic Planet, and the all-star voice cast, which includes Brian Cox as the warmongering General Hammer, along with the great James Garner, Dennis Quaid, Rosanna Arquette, Danny Glover and Star Wars’ old Skywalker, Mark Hamill.

Read Michael Wilmington on DVDs

- Michael Wilmington
May 7, 2009

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