My Favorite Movies

i may have gone overboard with the 5 star rating. but this is PRINCE, and this has so many childhood memories associated with it. Classic flik. Great music.

this is copy/pasted from my blog ... http://www.d1esel6.blogspot.com

I think I should start off by saying I'm a bit of a movie buff. Especially when I was younger, but I enjoy the art in film making. I enjoy great writing and story telling, great camera work and overall Direction, and I enjoy a believable acting performance. That being said, I have been majorly disappointed by the Film Industry, and it gets worse and worse each year. It seems like instead of trying to paint a masterpiece, Hollywood seems to do the Paint by Numbers film making. Cliched scripts, characters, direction, predictable action sequences, you name it. It's to the point where you already know whats going to happen by just watching the first trailer. Of course there are still good movies that come out, but generally in the Summer Action Movie genre this is the case. And I've been disappointed year ("Spiderman3"), after year ("War of the Worlds"), after year ("Planet of the Apes").
So even though I was blown away by the Teaser Trailer, and the finalized trailer that came out earlier this year, I was still skeptical about the new "Star Trek" flick which is officially released today (or yesterday, if i don't end up posting this until Saturday). Let me cut right to the chase, this movie didn't disappoint at all. Not only that, but it really exceeded my expectations which is very rare in a big blockbuster Sci-Fi Action flick. It's the first time since maybe "X2" that i walked out truly satisfied and surprised that a movie was a lot better than I expected. "Star Trek" had everything you want in a movie... Genuinely suspenseful Action scenes, Amazing special effects, Perfect cast who all nailed their roles, Humor, a well-paced and intriguing storyline, and great Direction.
I'm a big "Lost" fan, and when I heard JJ Abrams was working on a "Star Trek" movie I got excited basically because of him. I watched the old episodes of "Star Trek" when I was younger, but wasn't ever really an official "Trekkie". When I heard he was doing a "Pre-quel" of sorts, I Netflixed the first couple of seasons of the series, and instantly became a fan. The show just really works on different angles... it's corny, but the story lines are great, the acting is a little over the top, but you get real great characters from it. This movie actually takes all the positive things about the series and corrects all the negatives. Like I said the movie is sort of a "Pre-quel" (I won't give away why I have that in quotations, you'll get it when you see it) following James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from birth, to adolescents, to the Fleet Academy. They end up on the brand new Starship The Enterprise and get familiar with the crew. Zoe Saldana as just Uhura, Karl Urban as "Bones" McCoy, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. Honestly, the plot doesn't matter that much. It was somewhat simple, but interesting enough to keep you interested and at times it was unpredictable, it was enough to not distract you from everything else that was working so perfectly for this movie.
One thing being the cast. Being a fan of the original series and of these characters, I have to say it again everybody nailed their roles. They all managed to keep the essence of the characters and not overdo it or mimic their performances too closely. Zachary Quinto had probably the hardest challenge though. The half human, half Vulcan Spock is an extremely complicated character to tackle. And Quinto definitely did a great job, not only in tackling those complexities, but also by being the stand out and scene stealer of a great cast. I also have to mention Karl Urban's McCoy, who made a very risky move of doing an almost identical portrayal of the character as the originals DeForest Kelley. His mannerisms, the stuff he did with his face and eyes, even the southern accent. The risk paid off, because he was the main guy delivering all the laughs (Intentional laughs by the way). Simon Pegg, who I find hilarious normally, was unfortunately underused in this movie but still delivers as Scotty.
My hat is off to JJ Abrams who did a flawless job of directing this cast, and delivering one of the most Visually amazing films I think I've ever seen. From the opening sequence, he does camera angles and some very creative action shots that I've never seen before. I would say the last movie I saw where I truly thought "I've never seen that before" was Paul Thomas Anderson's Masterpiece "There Will Be Blood". With "Star Trek", I had a lot of those moments. The first couple of shots of the new "Enterprise" and actually most of the action shots literally gave me chills. Alot of things that I don't normally like in film (lots of lens flares, shaky camera, rotating and leaning camera angles), JJ made them fit perfectly in this film. I know that the movie is fresh on my mind and I may just be hyped up now, but I truly feel like this would deserve a bunch of Oscar nominations including Best Picture. I know that won't happen (My only real wish is that JJ can get a best Director nomination out of this), it will undoubtedly sweep a lot of technical categories, but this movie was a really incredible piece of art. One of those instances where it seems everything falls perfectly into place to create something truly Extra Ordinary. And this movie is that.

This is one of my favorite movies. a Movie i will watch pretty much every time i catch it on cable. And i dont know quite what it is that i love about it. Most likely Sigourney Weaver's wonderfully bitchy performance and Joan Cusack. Most likely i guess it's the general story and script behind all of it.

Great Job Everyone on this one.

saw this movie on Friday (8/14), and noticed that by Sunday on "At the Movies", Twitter, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes that everybody is Raving about it. And I think all the Hype is well worth it.
I went to see it without knowing much about the movie, and the story unfolded so well. There were twists and turns all over the place, it was totally UNpredictable which again is so very rare these days. Great acting, again Great story and Great writing. In fact everything worked so perfectly, from the make up and special effects, even the thinly veiled political references.
I have to be honest, I saw it at 930p after a busy work weekend, so the last half hour was kind of hard to get through. Excellent movie though despite that.

When i first saw this, i remember being really surprised and impressed. it had very funny parts that weren't forced and i appreciated that. and now the more i see it on cable, i seem to laugh at the same points and take (and this sounds lame, but whatever) the Emotional Journey with the characters everytime. I think that's the stamp of a good flick. Great movie!

Wall*E's here!
Update: i watched it Friday morning and now... Saturday night i'm ready to do a real review.
The movie was EXCELLENT. I have no real complaints about this movie. I think i was expecting something different from the plot. However that doesn't mean i was disapointed by what i got. I thought the storyline was really simple... but actually very smart in the execution. There are alot of details to the movie and i think the team here did a really clever job at revealing all of that information (without the benefit of too much dialogue) and still letting the movie be fun, funny and not drag it down.
The best thing about this and many other pixar movies. The animation is top notch. The VERY FIRST SCENE is Mindblowing and i'm not exagerating. I know you naturally have to expect the very best animation from Pixar, but i'm always shocked every year.
Unless youre one of those "I need to know everything about the story RIGHT NOW!" type people, i think everybody would enjoy this movie. it has so much to offer.