"I'm not feeling motivated to be valuable to anyone but myself."

When Alex Kurtzman took over the television side of Star Trek, he started with Star Trek: Discovery.  Michelle Yeoh played one of the better characters on the series. She started as a ship's captain and was soon killed off. But then the ship heads into the Mirror Universe, where Yeoh's character of Philippa Georgiou wasn't a Starfleet officer. She was the emperor of the Terran Empire. She ended up on our side of the looking glass and had some rather interesting stories. It turns out that almost from the beginning Yeoh had some ideas of a spin-off she hoped to do. That series was Section 31, which involved a black-ops agency within the Federation, and she thought our kind of evil emperor might be a perfect fit.

"You lost the moment you walked into this restaurant"

Do you know why they serve peanuts on airplanes? Even with all of the allergies out there, it remains an airline staple, and for one very specific reason. Chewing gum is a big deal for the airlines. The little time given to clean a plane between flights makes those of you inclined to put your chewing gum under your seat a bit of a problem. So they serve you peanuts, because peanut oil causes the "sticky" element of gum to completely break down. Try it. Your gum falls apart if you add peanut oil to the equation, and that's exactly what director Christopher Landon has done with his latest Blumhouse thriller, Drop. Someone added a bit of peanut oil to the production, and it kind of never really sticks together. And that's too bad. Because there's a kind of clever and original element here that could have been a lot more interesting. Let's try to separate the gum from the peanut, shall we?

"The thing I love about Valentine's Day is the expectation of the unexpected. That something magical could happen, and maybe that special someone will come back into your life and change its course for the better."

Valentine's Day is one of those Hallmark holidays that leave us with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Unless, of course, you happen to be alone, or a member of the Bugs Moran gang in Chicago in 1929. So it really means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I really do question the use of that particular day for the setting for first-time director Jonathan Eusebio's action film Love Hurts. The Valentine's Day angle is pretty weak, and a think gimmick for what is basically a comic martial arts film that gives Vietnamese actor Ke Huy Quan his first starring role. The gimmick pretty much failed, and the film tanked after just a short time at the box office, bringing in a measly $15 million with a budget of over $18 million.

Having never played the game and having no frame of reference for this adaptation, I had to rely heavily on reinforcements to let me know if the movie was true to the game. According to my nephew, there were some deviations, such as the final boss, but for the most part, he said the movie was true to the game. From my perspective, A Minecraft Movie was an entertaining movie that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is to be expected with Jack Black cast as Steve, the only original character from the game. Black delivers in the fashion that he is famous for, a bit of overacting and breaking out into song in the oddest moments. Adding to the silliness is Jason Momoa, who fully embraced his goofy side that we usually only get to see when he is doing interviews. Jack Black and Jason Momoa being given free rein to crack jokes and overact; what more can you ask for? Along for the ride are Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), Sebastian Hansen in his second film role, and Emmer Meyer of Wednesday and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which explains why I’m still waiting on season two of Wednesday.

“When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?”

That is essentially the theme of Black Bag. When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband -- also a legendary agent -- faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage or his country. With a plot like that, you are most definitely going to need some top-shelf actors to convey the nuance and tension of a married couple that can’t fully trust one another. Enter Cate Blanchett and Miachel Fassbender on the heels of his espionage series The Agency. Toss in Steven Soderbergh as the director, and you get yourself a party.

Our pals over at Universal have given us a copy of Love Hurts on Blu-ray to give away. It's the Valentine's Day action film you won't soon forget. Remember Short Round from Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom? Now he's all grown up and kicking a little butt. Here's your chance to win a copy.

To win a copy of this prize, follow these instructions.

"What my associate is trying say is our new brake pads are really cool. You're not even gonna believe it. Like, let's say you're driving along the road with your family. You're drivin' along, la-de-da, woo. All of a sudden there's a truck tire in the middle of the road. And you hit the brakes. Eeee. Whoa, that was close. Ha-ha. Now let's see what happens when you're driving with the "other guy's" brake pads. You're drivin' along,  the kids start shouting from the back seat, "I gotta go to the bathroom, Daddy!" "Not now, damn it!" Truck tire. I can't stop! There's a cliff. Aaahh! And your family's screaming, oh my God, we're burning alive!" "No! I can't feel my legs!" Here comes the meat wagon. And the medic gets out and says, "Oh my God." New guy's around the corner puking his guts out. All because you want to save a couple extra pennies."

There are a ton of parallels between the Chris Farley/David Spade comedy team and that of John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd. Both teams began in the Saturday Night Live arena. It was that physical big/little guy combination that has its roots with Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello.

"Space... the funniest frontier?"

Star Trek: The Animated Series first aired in September of 1973, four years after the three seasons of what is now referred to Star Trek: The Original Series. It was a straight sequel that continued the five-year mission of the starship Enterprise. All of the original cast lent their voices to the characters they played in the live-action series, with the notable exception of Walter Koenig. Chekov was replaced with an alien that had three arms and legs named Arex, who was voiced by James Doohan, as were many of the other guest characters throughout the two years the series ran.

“Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?”

“My queen, your beauty is beyond compare, but there is one -- her beauty grows -- from deep within ... Snow White. She is as pure as snow.”

Controversy up front, and this film has had it share of it, starting with the casting of titular character. The casting of Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, as Snow White, drew criticism, as the character is described in the original material as having skin "as white as snow". This is actually not that uncommon for a Disney live-action. I would even dare to call it commonplace. And while I don’t agree with it personally and actually like the idea of these stories evolving and that they are “open to all ethnic groups", I’m just saying that I am not surprised at this criticism. We saw the same thing with the live-action Little Mermaid.

"Ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball, From Soho down to Brighton, I must have played them all, But I ain't seen nothin' like him, In any amusement hall, That deaf, dumb and blind kid, Sure plays a mean pinball." 

I was first introduced to The Who through the original Tommy album. It was one of my mother's favorites when I was young, and she had actually written out by hand her interpretation of the story the rock opera appeared to tell. I can't remember those scribblings, and I'm not even sure if they're still tucked away in that Decca album I have around here somewhere. But the music always stayed with me. Now, I didn't ever become a huge fan of the band. I always liked them and collected a couple of their albums over the years. I did play a lot of pinball, however. I fell more in with the likes of Elton John. So you can imagine how excited I was in the summer of 1975