June 12: Star Trek

"The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful, time-traveling Romulan creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time."

Star Trek is one of those rare kinds of films that you crave more of the second it's finished. You simply want more.From the beginning, Star Trek was ambitious, as it took a beloved franchise and decided to pretty much remake it. So, a lot was riding on J.J Abrams' new envisioning of the adventures of the USS Enterprise. Luckily, Star Trek is terrific in nearly every aspect, from the perfect casting, intriguing story, and amazing special effects (minus the over-use of lens flares). It energizes a franchise that hasn't seen much action in over a decade and recreates a vibrant, futuristic, fully-fleshed out world that is not only welcoming to newcomers of the Star Trek universe, but also a great return for lifelong fans of the TV shows and movies. 

Don't be hatin'. 

The story of Star Trek is incredibly unique. As opposed to completely remaking and retelling the stories of Captain Kirk and Spock, Star Trek creates an alternate timeline/reality to the original series. Using a black hole as a means of time travel, the histories kind of mix together. Future Spock (played by the real Leonard Nimoy) comes through the time vortex and discovers Kirk (Chris Pine) and present Spock (Zachary Quinto) are not the friends Future Spock thought they were. Future Spock puts events into motion to help Kirk realize Spock's importance as a friend and adviser, and together they must stop the evil Romulan warrior, Nero (Eric Bana) from destroying Earth. It's not as confusing as that may sound and the story is actually one of the film's biggest strengths, which is usually missing in big-budget summer blockbusters. Along with a strong plot, the acting is spot-on and a bunch of little known actors (at the time) fill the Starfleet uniforms with perfection. Chris Pine is excellent as Kirk, making the character his own while still having slight "homages" to the great William Shatner. Quinto is just as good as the seemingly emotionless Spock and the two have a chemistry together that keeps you excited about what adventures they will share in the future. Even the supporting cast is as strong, with Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), and Anton Yelchin (Chekov) fitting their respective roles with the gravitas as though they were born for them. Everything simply works. Wonderfully.

Perfect. 

As you can probably already guess, I strongly recommend Star Trek. I remember seeing it theaters and just being blown away by the film. I was never a huge fan of the original TV series, but this film made me want to be a fan in the deepest way possible. I don't know if that was just a high from seeing a great movie in the best venue possible (a theater, not a computer screen) or if it was me being "converted" into a Trekkie. Either way, I am a fan, and I desperately want to see another Star Trek film sooner than later. The worst part of the movie is knowing that I will only get movies, and not a long running TV show with these characters (and actors) again. Just watch it, and enjoy. 

The Good:

on its own, Star Trek is a fast-paced, interesting, hilarious, and beautiful film

The Better:

the fact the film is not only good on its own, but is also a respectful, worthy entry to the franchise

The Best:

pitch-perfect casting in not only each iconic role, but even the secondary background characters

Overall: 9.4/10

Trailer:

June 1: This Means War

"Two top CIA operatives wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman."

This Means War is a terrible mess of a film that, sadly, cannot be saved by its three extremely charismatic leads. It's incredibly shocking how unfunny the film is, and any romance the film tries to inject in itself falls extremely flat. The action sequences are few and far between, and when fists are thrown and bullets are shot, it all happens very quickly. Not to mention, the entire mess has disgustingly bad special effects and is poorly edited. Oddly, nearly every scene ends with a fade to black, as though the movie is going to a commercial break. It's almost as though the film had more of a script for individual scenes as opposed to an entire, fully developed story. Which is not a surprise, as the film jumps around constantly trying to drag out a ridiculous premise for 99 minutes with the most random scenes thrown in here and there. 

It's like blowing a bubble. The bigger it gets, the thinner it spreads, and when the whole thing is over, you're left with a big mess. 

This Means War is about two spies who work for some unnamed agency, who are not only partners but very close friends. FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) have always had each other's back and really nothing has come between them. However, after the two begin dating the same girl, Lauren (Reese Witherspoon), their friendship is tested as the two try to win her over by competing against each other. Both men use million dollar equipment and fellow "spy colleagues" to track Lauren and learn all about her, while sabotaging dates. There is also a sub-plot, if you will, where an angry German is after the two spies for killing his brother. This little extra story does not fit anywhere in the plot and really leaves you confused. When it comes to the characters, none of them are developed, and all three leads come across as incredibly shallow. Tuck does have some substance to his character, as he does have a son from a marriage that ended, but even then it's the gooey, ew-y, cliche substance. Lauren is a complete whore, as she's the one playing the two men, and it is such a departure for the usual sweet and likable (which she is not in this) Reese Witherspoon. She has absolutely no chemistry with either of the men, while Hardy and Pine are terrific together as spy partner buddy guys. I would actually watch a full-fledged action comedy with the two of them, if, of course, it had a much stronger script, editing, and absolutely no Witherspoon. 

It also doesn't help that Lauren's best friend is played by Chelsea Handler, who is not only an insult to "comedy" but to people in general. Seriously, she's so f**king annoying and ugly I don't understand how she's any bit relevant.

Stay away from This Means War. It's not worth your time and it is extremely frustrating that such talent can make such a piece of shit. Of course, a lot of the blame can be put in the hands of the hack director, McG (who also made Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation). He has very little talent, and while he can, on occasion, film a great action sequence, he has no act for directing actors, even if they're very good at their jobs. This Means War is one of his worst films and is definitely a skip. Let's just hope that after the success of Inception (for Hardy) and Star Trek (for Pine), that these two leading men continue with much better career choices after This Means War, because they are both clearly better than this. 

The Good:

the chemistry between Hardy and Pine is surprising and the only entertaining part of the film

The Bad:

the film's plot, or lack of, is such a crappy mess that not even the three star (and very charismatic) leads cannot save it

The Ugly:

wondering how, again, these three stars would ever agree to be a part of the film as it's up there on all of their lists for the worst film of their careers

Overall: 3.0/10

Trailer: