A Look Back: Star Trek – The Motion Picture
Before looking back at Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), I have to go back even further for context. The original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 – 69), “The Cage” didn’t sell because it was considered too cerebral. Out went Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) as the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise 1701, and in came Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) for the new pilot as the series became a little more action-oriented. The struggles of The Original Series – including the letter-writing campaign that resurrected it after it had been axed following season two – have been well documented. But it lasted only one…
My Worst Movies from 2019
No top ten this week. I don’t go out of my way to watch bad movies. I’d rather avoid them. But, sometimes, they find me. Other times (like with J.J. Abrams‘s The Force Awakens) I fear the worst but hope for the best. So this is just six movies that I stumbled upon from 2019. What makes them among my worst? There are obvious symptoms: poor plotting, terrible story, one-dimensional characters, etc. But there’s also another symptom – a symptom I experience: feeling physically ill. Some might consider that an exaggeration. It’s not. When I sit down to watch a movie or television show, I come into it totally open.…