Star Trek - 2009

Let me start this off by saying I’m a huge fan of Star Wars. The idea alone of watching anything relating to Star Trek left me feeling traitorous and sick to my stomach. I mean come on, fraternizing with the enemy is enough to get people shot in some countries, so think about what another Star Wars fan would do if they found out one such as myself had “turned to the Dark Side”.

But I also have another devotion; I’m an avid fan of Simon Pegg. With this, I had to weigh my options. Should I grit my teeth and bear the raping of my delicate Force-Sensitive mind, or should I stay a Trekaphobic and miss the opportunity to watch one of my favorite actors perform brilliantly (as he always does). I hesitantly say luckily, but luckily the former beat out the latter. With that, let’s begin.

Star Trek (2009)
Director: J.J Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Leonard Nimoy

The movie starts out with a light show and a futuristic Romulan ship attacking the USS Kelvin. Ironically enough, this just so happens to be the ship where George and Winona Kirk reside, with more irony following when George is made the new captain upon the attack and Winona is in labor. After the ship sustains too much damage, George orders Winona to escape in a pod, but to keep communication open so he can hear the birth of his son. With his last few seconds alive before a daring gambit, George tells Winona not to name their son Tiberius, for it’s a ridiculous name. Although she apparently listens and decides James should be the child’s first name, it is soon revealed that the full name for the child is James Tiberius Kirk (Who in the hell didn’t see this coming?!?!?!?!).

But that isn’t where the irony or coincidences end in the film, for the entire movie is riddled with them. Between the first encounter of Kirk and McCoy, to the chance meeting of Scotty on a backwater planet, Star Trek gives the audience an underlying tone of fate being stronger than time (I can’t say too much without giving away plot). This is where I’d be ridiculing other films for such attempts, usually for failing at the idea of trying to tie people together in such an odd fashion. Yet, I can do nothing but commend Star Trek for doing this because they did it (Dare I say it…) almost brilliantly. It pains me to say such things (Not just because of my ties to Star Wars, also because I haven’t praised a movie like this in some time), but J.J Abrams stepped up to the plate with his game face on and delivered a home run. The acting is great, the CGI is fantastic and there was nothing better than seeing these “new” faces deliver such lines as “Damnit Jim”, “I’m giving her all she’s got”, or watching Chris Pine’s William Shatner impression during the Starfleet Training Exercise.

Although I still feel great betrayal to the Star Wars mythos, I have to say that I cannot wait until the summer of 2011 for when the sequel to this film comes out. Until then, remember two things: Don’t judge a starship by its hull, but mostly “Live long and prosper.

P.S – I urge all Star Wars fans to put aside their differences and at least give this film a shot. Hating this movie without ever watching it will only prove your ignorance and blindness to the Force. Not to mention that it was Yoda who said that hate is just one of the emotions that can lead to the Dark Side…. Mull that over for a bit and see if you don’t kick yourself in the ass for how right I am.

Halloween - 2009

When I was a kid Halloween was one of the only times of the year that you could really be a kid. Nothing was greater than dressing up as a spooky creature, trick or treating for candy, being allowed to get away with some mischief, and above all else becoming scared. Sadly, Halloween has kind of fallen to the sidelines with other such holidays as Easter, Valentine's Day and the 4th of July.

However, I refuse to let it die without a fight.

This October was a very busy month for me. I was bombarded with zombie scavenger hunts, film festivals and script editing galore! Luckily, my down time was spent doing something productive - turning my front yard into a massive pile of scary and the macabre! There were zombies, scattered limbs, guillotines, and the guest appearances of the Grim Reaper and Satan.
Granted, I've seen houses a lot fancier than mine, but that doesn't change the fact that the response from the neighborhood was overwhelming. Let me put it to you this way, kids were falling off their bikes while checking out my house.

So I spent the month decorating and transforming the house into a B-Rated film, but completely spaced out on setting myself up with a Halloween costume. However, I had acquired a pretty awesome mask at the beginning of the month, which then became the bane of the children's existence. I garbed myself in all black, including a trench coat, and wore some demonic gloves to add some flavor to the outfit. I then sat out in my front yard as an inanimate object and waited for my opportunity to strike. Yes, there were the few skeptics who could see I was blatantly a person, but the crowd of people who became my scare victims overshadowed the former group by a landslide.

In short, scaring children dressed as Scooby-Doo, chasing male nurses halfway down the road, making teeny-boppers cry, nearly getting eaten by a pitbull and running after kids whose only choice was to flee into a moving vehicle was a great way to resurrect the Halloween spirit for myself, and hopefully for the neighborhood. Let's only hope that it carries on into next year for the haunted attraction I have planned!