Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2002
After a dismal resurrection on film with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it appeared that the crew of the good ship Enterprise was finally stilled forever. Enter two heroes to rival Kirk and Spock in Harve Bennett and Nicholas Myers. Star Trek II is everything that shines about Star Trek. Finally the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy dazzle longtime fans with the chemistry that made the original series so enduring. In The Motion Picture, the characters come off stiff and cold. They hardly seem to know each other. In Wrath of Khan we believe these old friends haven’t missed a beat. Add to all of this perhaps the greatest Star Trek villain of all time in Ricardo Montalban’s enigmatic and obsessive Khan and you truly see Star Trek at its very best.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 26th, 2002
There have been so many “buddy cop” films that it has become its own genre of sorts. Still, no pairing has yet matched the chemistry of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon franchise. Even with four films now under their belts, the duo is capable of delivering a relationship that is worn and comfortable while still remaining fresh and exciting. Some of the franchise’s running gags begin in this first film, like Riggs and his dislocated shoulder and Murtaugh’s familiar “I’m getting to old for this shit.” If you are more used to the later films, this one will strike you as a bit grittier and certainly darker.
Synopsis
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2001
Hoooo boy! I bet you had forgotten what movies were like in 1979, right? Let me sum it up for you then: slow moving, and brown. The contrast in cinematic styles alone is shocking – this movie is full of long, long, long 20 second shots accompanied by ear-straining orchestrals; contrast this to the frenetic pace of today’s movies where camera angles change every three seconds and you’ll see how film styles have evolved in the 20 years since this movie was made to match waning attention spans. The highlight of this fil... for me was Spock uttering “Resistance would be futile, Captain…” Now we know where today’s producers get their ideas.
Enough about the style though, let’s get digital: this is a great DVD release. Trek fans should buy it, without question. The movie features new scenes in the “Director’s Cut,” new visual effects, and a mountain of extras. One of the best things about this release is that the production crew worked with the mandate that they wouldn’t do anything that couldn’t have been done in 1979; as such the new scenes blend seamlessly with the rest of the movie. Contrast this with the Star Wars re-releases of a few years back where painfully new looking CGI animations attempted and failed to co-mingle with original footage; seamlessness makes this re-release a masterpiece (see the “Redirecting the Future” documentary included on the second DVD for more on this).
