This movie was brought to my attention by two sources. CLaP and the boys at Here Goes Nothing.
Boy am I glad I watched this.
This movie is over the top in all the right ways.
One of the best sequences is when Dynamite and his crew figure out what The Man is doing to them. It was... epic.
I'm going to cut this short. I run the risk of the descending into a quote fest; and those type of reviews are no fun.
Short version: If you like over the top action and comedy, Black Dynamite delivers.
While The Wrath of Kahn may be the best of the TOS movies, The Undiscovered Country gives it a run for its money.
Lets start our review by looking at the poster to the left. Seriously bad ass. You've got the Enterprise being attacked, and General Chang (none other that Christopher Plummer!) looking all menacing in the background.
As the movie opens, the theme over the credits is my favorite of the TOS movies. Dark and moody, it sets the tone of the film. The music comes to an end timed perfectly with the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis. This starts the set up for the remainder of the movie.
So the USS Excelsior (NCC-200), under the command of one Hikaru Sulu gets tossed around by the shock wave caused by the explosion of Praxis. If you look closely, you can see Tuvok (from Voyager) in the background. Not really, he's not added in until that scene from Voyager. Oh, and hey kids! Its Yeomen Rand, now a Commander and Comms officer on the Excelsior.
We then cut to the rest of the crew getting briefed by Spock on how only Nixon could go to China and that the Klingon Empire has only 50 Earth years of life left. So, Kirk and company are off to escort the Kligon Chancellor Gorkon to Earth for negotiations for peace.
So, what do you do when you host a Klingon diplomat? Break out the Romulan ale of course! Quote Shakespere and Hitler, and you've got a HELL of a dinner party.
Then it goes to shit. It looks as if the Enterprise fired on the Chancellor's ship, beamed two crewmen aboard and killed the Chancellor. And, Kirk and McCoy are blamed, and sent to the Klingon prison planet to die.
Never fear, they meet up with a changeling (not the same race as Odo from what I can tell), escape and make it to (and fans already know where) Kitohmer! Evil plan concocted by members of Kligon Command and Starfleet officers to prevent peace is thwarted by Kirk and company. We all live happily ever after.
Few notes.
Apparently, Worf had a ancestor who was an attorney and also named Worf
The Chancelor's party arriving on the Enterprise, really well done
Music, still bad ass and well done throughout.
While again, this may not be the best movie, it is certainly my favorite of the TOS movies. Tension, action and rel life overtones are abundant and make this an enjoyable ride; a fitting send off to the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A.
What does God need with a starship? No, really, what does He need with one? Well, Shatner decided that we needed to find out.
But I'm getting a head of myself.
Star Trek V is probably the least liked Star Trek film known to man. Let's review some of its.... finer points.
-Spock has a half brother
-We look for God
-Planet of Galactic Peace
-Spock's half brother
-Camping
Ok, so not terrible. Well, if you remove the main plot (Spock's brother Sybok wants to find God) its a great movie. We see the crew enjoying some shore leave, the Enterprise in less than working condition. A jaunt through the galaxy. Oh, and Klingons. Because we can't have a Star Trek movie without Klingons in some form or another.
Sigh. I dunno. This is another case of I liked the movie better when I was younger. I can see the flaws in it from a mile away. Its a weak point in the series to be sure. But a fun watch for kicks.
Whales. Fourth Star Trek movie and they go to whales. Not the worse choice. They could have searched for God. (see Star Trek V)
Really, not that bad of a film. Final part of the 'Spock' Trilogy sees the crew deciding to return to Earth and face the whale music for their actions.
So, on their way home a probe of unknown origin starts seriously messing with the Earth. Sapping power, kicking up storms, looks like Earth is seriously screwed.
Have no fear! Kirk and company shows up just in time, and with their stolen Klingon Bird of Prey figure out that the transmission coming from said probe is a whale song. Shit! We killed off all the whales. Time for time travel.
So, in our seriously rickity ship, we hit warp holy crap and go back to 1986 (hint: the movie was made in 1986. Coincidence?) So we find the whales, placed for our collection at the Oceanic Institute. There now follows some comedic hi-jinks. Your pretty standard stuff... Russian Chekov looking for the nuclear wessels. Cultural misunderstandings. Using a mouse to talk to the computer.
So, we get the whales into the Klingon ship and back to the present. Whales make it into the ocean and Earth is saved.
Kirk is yelled at, and by yelled at I mean demoted and given back the job he so desperately wants... commanding a starship. So, lesson here... be enough of a bad ass, screw up, you still get to do what you want. The future is going to be AWESOME!
A decent movie, used to be one of my favorites, but I think my opinion of it has dropped a bit. Has its issues, sure. Still very watchable. I like it. Another one of my favorite things that I can't wait to show my son.
Wired's 5 Films left on cutting room floor
And here we have another list of things on the Internet, and I shall comment on them. This time its movies that were never made.
Lets start with...
The Nightmare of Edgar Allen Poe - who was slated to play Poe? None other than Michael Jackson. That WTF look you have? Yup, same one I got.
At the Mountains of Madness - I have no comment, as I am not familiar with the source material
Genghis Kahn - Starring Steven Segal. I'd watch this, if only because of Segal. I wish this was made
Redezvouxs with Rama - Again, not familiar with source, but the casting attached. David Fincher to direct, Morgan Freeman involvement. I'd have to like to have seen this.
Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian - Like you need to ask, I would have been first in line for this.
So, what are the thoughts of the gathered masses?
