Star Trek

Star Trek (2009) could convert anyone into a Trekkie. Are you up for the challenge?

James Kirk (Chris Pine) joins Starfleet to try to live up to his father, who sacrificed himself to save the people on his ship (including James and his mother). James Kirk is irresponsible and cocky, however intelligent--finding his way to trouble by hacking the space stimulation training. Spock (Zachary Quinto), the tattleteller, is a half-Vulcan-half human (which is kind of like being a mudblood). His logical Vulcan side is constantly at war with his emotional human side, but he decides to shut his emotions down to be a calculating and cool Commander. James Kirk manages to get on the Enterprise despite his violation and encounters the same Romulan ship that killed his father. Kirk's laidback and impulsive personalty clashes with Spock's, but they eventually team up to save whatever planet that needs saving...

 Run away! Run away! →→→

Although I haven't watched the original Star Trek [yet], I felt like the movie was too short to express the vastness of their universe. J.J. Abrams wanted to include so many awesome StarTimeWarpAlienKickAndLazerAndNotToMentionTheFoldingKatanaScenes that he forgot about the storyline. I guess Star Trek didn't really need a great plot because of all of the special effects...it just would have made Star Trek more cohesive (instead of sending Captain Kirk to all these weird places just so he can have some cool action scenes). 

Don't worry...these redshirts are safe.

Setting the plot aside, I really enjoyed Star Trek. The vision was there and this new world that J.J. Abrams created consumed me.Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto were great (although Zachary was a little too Sylar-creepy to me--maybe it's the ears). The Enterprise crew was perfectly cast and provided a little comic relief that lightened the mood.

Perhaps more background information on the different crew members will be revealed in the next movie (especially because of that cliffhanger ending)!

Cliffhanger! Hanging from a cliff!

Noticeable side effects: Headache, Nausia, Heartburn, Indigestion, Upset Stomach, Diarrhea. Yay! Pepto Bismo!

I had no idea why I had a headache until I watched the behind-the-scenes footage...deliberate lens flares with handheld flashlights and spastic camera shaking? You've got to be kidding me. I could have gotten a seizure.

Live Long and Prosper!

Knowing

What a weird movie...

50 years ago at William Dawes Elementary School, Lucindia Embry suggested to make a time capsule with letters to kids of the future. Lucindia fills her paper with numbers and is stopped before she finishes, which ends up in the hands of Caleb (in the present). Caleb starts to hear strange whisperings, but ignores it because he thinks it's just feedback from his hearing aid. Caleb's (Chandler Canterburry) alchoholic, widow, melancholy, etc etc father, John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), finds it and deciphers it. He finds out that the numbers are the date, death tolls, and coordinates of major disasters over the past fifty years. So...what happens when the numbers end? They stalk Lucinda's daughter Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne) and her daughter, who also hears whispers, to find out the rest of the numbers, but the future looks grim anyways. Will the whispering "people" save them?

Good alcoholic-widow-daddy

I wish the movie had a better direction. The trailers got me hyped up to see this mystery-thriller, but I ended up disappointed. However, with the brilliant acting from Nicholas Cage, he saved it and Knowing became the best movie in the world...

Brilliant acting--so many different emotions

Just kidding. Nicholas Cage had one face throughout the whole movie. Maybe he is just confused all the time. Maybe his eyebrows are permanently fixed upon his head like that. Whatever it is, his acting made Knowing a little stale and boring. I have got to say that end-of-the-world movies are becoming more and more unoriginal these days. Aliens? Exploding sun? Religion? Weirdo possessed girl? Check, check, check, and check. It was like the writers wanted to squish everything that makes a movie "cool" to make the ultimate movie, but like David and Goliath, less is more. The second half of this movie was surprising and unpredictable, mostly because it's completely outrageous complete with plot holes and raised eyebrows (from me and Nicholas Cage). 

Aaak! The eyebrows are contagious!

Inception

Is he dreaming? Is he not? Is the whole movie a dream? My brain!!!

Christopher Nolan probably gets a good laugh from all of these theories and interpretaions of his crazy confusing (but good) movie.

It'll blow your mind

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an Extractor that searches people's minds while they dream to unlock their deepest secrets. Saito (Ken Watanabe) sends Cobb and his sidekick, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), on a mission to plant an idea (called an inception) into a business rival's mind. Saito wants Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to break up his dead father's empire, but this is considered impossible to all the extractors except Cobb. Cobb takes the job in return for him being able to live with his children again. Cobb gathers Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and Ariadne (Ellen Page) for his mission, along with Arthur and Saito. Yusuf makes a strong sedative for them and Fischer so they wouldn't wake up until the mission is complete. Saito buys the airline that Fischer would be flying on to get all of them in the same room. Ariadne is the architect of the dream to replace Cobb (because his deceased wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), haunts his dreams). They plan to go down 3 levels into the dream (a dream within a dream within a dream) and perform synchronized "kicks" (or feelings of freefall) to wake everyone up in each of the dream levels. But when its too late to turn back, they realize that if they die in the dream, they'll end up in Limbo (wait 50 years to wake up because of the sedative and the dream would feel like reality) , which is like purgatory. With Fischer's armed projections in his dream and Cobb's evil wife, inception does seem impossible.

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

I had to google the heck out of Inception it to understand it. That's what makes the movie so intriguing- how much depth there is. This film is so different- the ideas, the action...the whole concept. It's hard to wrap my head around it, but it kept me thinking after the movie, which is great. I love movies that leave an aftertaste kind of impression on the viewer. The action was very cool, especially Arthur's anti-gravity bit. The humor is very subtle and it is a breath of fresh air in all the seriousness of guns and evil wives. With an awesome cast like Inception's, nothing can go wrong with the film. They seemed to work really well together. Leonardo DiCaprio had a mysteriousness to him (very similar to Shutter Island, actually- rockin' the slick hair look). He had great chemistry with Marion Cotillard, but Ellen Page didn't really fit with him. Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt exchanged some funny dialog- just like a bickering couple. Ellen Page seemed more subdued in this movie (Ariadne isn't a quirky character like Juno), but she still had her likable charm. Oh yeah...killer ending. It's like Shutter Island all over. DiCaprio's messing with my brain again.

So...what do you believe? Is it a dream or reality?