Short Review: Tigerbeat has rewritten history.



When I found out that pot-head Brad Pitt was cast as legendary warrior Achilles in Troy I thought it was a mistake. In most cases he has been recycling his role as Jeffrey Goines from 12 Monkeys since 1995. To be honest, pot-head Brad Pitt pulled it off and carries this silly movie.

Pot-head Brad Pitt’s Achilles shows us the inherent torment living in a world where one can have whatever he wants. He knows his of his abilities and his stature above the normal man, but its not enough. Pot-head Brad Pitt’s scenes where Achilles is forced into action because of issues thrust upon him by the arrogant and ruthless Agamemnon (Brian Cox reprising his landmark role from Super Troopers) are perhaps his best in the film. This is primarily because this is the only time Pitt is asked to act. Otherwise he's pretty much a greased up prop.

Brian Cox (Super Troopers) over-acting aside, the acting is actually good (for a bloated, loud McMovie) and the script offers interesting moments. The script also offers some silliness, but this is the Hollywoodization of Troy, what do you expect?

Wolfgang Peterson's direction is strong as usual for his work. This is particularly true in how he shoots his individual fight scenes. I believe he’s one of only a handful of major Hollywood director who is capable of presenting a fight sequence properly. His editing is not too quick and his shots are open enough for us to see the movement. In many cases today, fight scenes are a whirling vortex of close shots lit very darkly. I like it when I can see not only the faces of who is fighting, but how they are going about it. I’m silly that way.

Is this movie worth seeing? Depends, are you literate? Seriously, this is a big, fat Hollywood piece of cinematic chum. It is not a history lesson. If you can accept that, you will probably enjoy seeing this movie.



Cautions: There is plenty of bloody violence and some sexual moments. Neither are over the top however.


Related Reviews:
Brad Pitt movies
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)



Other Critic's Reviews:
USAToday
PopMatters





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Labels: Brad Pitt, Brendan Gleeson, Brian Cox, Diane Kruger, Eric Bana, film, movie review, Orlando Bloom

Hey, Dark Horizons calls it a masterpiece - good enough for me.

Let see, dropping feces, flatulence, urination and bestial sex - sounds like a real masterpiece.





Screenwriter: Adam Elliot
Director: Adam Elliot
Actors: Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Eric Bana (Star Trek)

Labels: Eric Bana, film, movie trailer, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette

Short Review: Anything that can possibility offend Trekkies and get them hyperventilating through their retainers is okay by me.


A production like this isn't new. Yet another Corporation continuing to recycle pop cultural baubles of previous generations, repackage it, and then sell it to quite possibly the dumbest generation to draw breath. This may be the case with this film. It may be a soulless McMovie rehash, but its a well made soulless McMovie rehash.

What is surprising is that it manages to achieve the balance of acknowledging its source material while still striking out on its own and finding its own voice. By the end of the film it is clear a new, individual franchise has been born. This is remarkable given that Star Trek is one of the most identifiable, dearly loved series in history. Producers have been trying to reboot the series for decades. After the surprise cult following in reruns, they began to pump out the popular films - oh but they were seriously awful . Honestly, they travel to San Francisco in the 1980's to save whales and we're expected believe Sulu doesn't go AWOL and stay behind?

As the actors aged, and the egos inflated and the internal conflicts boiled, the natural inclination to replicate the series took its course. Since the late 1980's there has been a continual string of syndicated television series attempting reignite the original series. The first outing, Star Trek: The Next Generation was good but not great. The remainder were stumbling affairs that never quite got over their derivative existences.

When JJ Abrams took over the franchise he smartly choose to break away from the failing model of retooling the Star Trek universe with new characters and instead chose the bigger risk of recasting the original characters. This isn't a small task.

It is easy to dismiss Star Trek given William Shatner's goofiness and the social abominations known as Trekkies, but this is one of the main myths of our civilization. Messing with Kirk and Spock is no different than recasting Darth Vadar, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and trying to make them your own. Thousands of people flock to stupid conventions over this crap. They made up a ridiculous fake Klingon language for Pete's sake. In our pop culture based society, Star Trek is a sacred cow. Abrams took a huge gamble, he could have had a humiliating disaster on his hands. When the original trailer hit, I thought he had taken the simple road. I wasn't the only one.


The film, thankfully, isn't the hollow teen dreamy junk pile that the trailer made it look like.

Abrams delivers a carefully executed origin story for the series that, thanks to a overly convenient time travel plot, explains away the old series and makes way for the new. While fun and light, the film is also technically marvelous. The story is impressively tight and direct. Abrams and company had the challenge of reintroducing us to characters many of us knew inside and out. These characters are a part of our lives even if we've never seen a single episode of the show. Their catch phrases alone litter our culture possibly more than any other series in history.

Given the large cast, these introductions threatened to slow the story down every time someone new appeared on screen. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman do a masterful job of weaving these introductions seamlessly into the story. On top of these introductions, they also managed to rewrite the characters in a way that enhances our memory of them. This is particularly true of Spock.

Leonard Nimoy's Spock is a cultural landmark. In this production, we are shown the young Spock, first as a promising professor and then as an officer on the Enterprise. Zachary Quinto, who appears to have been born to play the role, tackles the task of portraying this iconic figure. Quinto has to balance between marking the role as his own while also paying homage to Nimoy's classic portrayal. The script's conceits allow to present Spock as we know him while still giving him amble room to infuse his own details. His Spock is written not a mimicry of the earlier version of Spock but instead as a new angle on the old character.

The duality between the old and new is the approached used for the whole franchise. This is not an attempt to replace the old version, simply a new generation putting their own mark on things. This franchise isn't going to be the cultural standard that the original version has become. It's not that good, nor important. It is entertaining however and will provide some relaxing cinematic eye candy.

The downside of the film are a few poor choices that seriously break the narrative flow. If you've seen the trailer you have already have witnessed the amazingly stupid young Kirk stealing an antique car and driving it over a cliff. In this sequence, he is being chased down a dirt road by a cop. Young Kirk then turns on the radio and LISTENS TO THE BEASTIE BOYS. What? No one listens to them now, except musically illiterate morons, and we're expected to believe this is something a kid would turn to a few hundred years in the future? The entire sequence should have been cut. It is as poorly conceived as the jazz sequence in Spider-Man 3.

There are other choices that cut into the story as well, like having Scotty being transported into the water pipes, having Kirk illogically being sent down to an Arctic locale on a planet, and other items that act as sidesteps to the main thrust of the story. All of these diversions steal time away from the main story which does need some help.

The main villain Nero, a revenge obsessed Romulan, is pushed to the back burner for most of the film and only appears when its convenient to establish character for Kirk, Pike or Spock. Nero is the least developed character in the entire film and is given the least amount of attention. His whole reason for revenge is not given enough depth to have any real meaning so his actions are without context and therefore meaningless. This deficiency would kill most other stories, this production survives because it gets the audience so wrapped up in the interpersonal drama on the Enterprise that this exterior force is more of an annoying procedure rather than life threatening conflict.

This is a solid movie that succeeds well beyond expectation. This is easily the most fun I've had seeing a McMovie since Iron Man last year. This is fluff but it is very good, very entertaining fluff.




Related Reviews:
Star Trek movies
Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn (1982)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Happy Catholic
Need Coffee

Labels: Chris Pine, Eric Bana, film, JJ Abrams, Karl Urban, Leonard Nimoy, movie review, Star Trek, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Short Review: Anything that can possibility offend Trekkies and get them hyperventilating through their retainers is okay by me.


Sure its a soulless McMovie rehash, but its a well made soulless McMovie rehash.

The best word to describe this film is "fun". No matter your opinion on if it wise to allow corporations to continue recycle pop cultural baubles of previous generations, repackage it, and then sell it to quite possibly the dumbest generation to draw breath, this is still fun. This is a huge chunk of cinematic chocolate cake.

What is surprising is that it manages to achieve the balance of acknowledging its source material while still striking out on its own and finding its own voice. By the end of the film it is clear a new, individual franchise has been born. This is remarkable given that Star Trek is one of the most identifiable, dearly loved series in history. Producers have been trying to reboot the series for decades. After the surprise cult following in reruns, they began to pump out the popular films - oh but they were seriously awful . Honestly, they travel to San Francisco in the 1980's to save whales and we're expected believe Sulu doesn't go AWOL and stay behind? As the actors aged, and the egos inflated and the internal conflicts boiled, the natural inclination to replicate the series took its course. Since the late 1980's there has been a continual string of syndicated television series attempting reignite the original series. The first outing, Star Trek: The Next Generation was good but not great. The remainder were stumbling affairs that never quite got over their derivative existences. When JJ Abrams took over the franchise he smartly choose to break away from the failing model of retooling the Star Trek universe with new characters and instead chose the bigger risk of recasting the original characters. This isn't a small task. It is easy to dismiss Star Trek given William Shatner's goofiness and the social abominations known as Trekkies, but it is one of the main myths of our civilization. Messing with Kirk and Spock is no different than recasting Darth Vadar, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and trying to make them your own. Thousands of people flock to stupid conventions over this crap. They made up a ridiculous fake Klingon language for Pete's sake. In our pop culture based society, Star Trek is a sacred cow of sorts. Abrams took a huge gamble, he could have had a humiliating disaster on his hands. When the original trailer hit, I thought he had taken the simple road. I wasn't the only one.


The film, thankfully, isn't the hollow teen dreamy junk pile that the trailer made it look like.

Abrams delivers a carefully executed origin story for the series that, thanks to a overly convenient time travel plot, explains away the old series and makes way for the new. While fun and light, the film is also technically marvelous. The story is impressively tight and direct. Abrams and company had the challenge of reintroducing us to characters many of us knew inside and out. These characters are a part of our lives even if we've never seen a single episode of the show. Their catch phrases alone litter our culture possibly more than any other series in history. Given the large cast, these introductions threatened to slow the story down every time someone new appeared on screen. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman do a masterful job of weaving these introductions seamlessly into the story. On top of these introductions, they also managed to rewrite the characters in a way that enhances our memory of them. This is particularly true of Spock. Leonard Nimoy's Spock is a cultural landmark. In this production, we are shown the young Spock, first as a promising professor and then as an officer on the Enterprise. Zachary Quinto, who appears to have been born to play the role, tackles the task of portraying this iconic figure. Quinto has to balance between marking the role as his own while also paying homage to Nimoy's classic portrayal. The script's conceits allow to present Spock as we know him while still giving him amble room to infuse his own details. His Spock is written not a mimicry of the earlier version of Spock but instead as a new angle on the old character. This duality between the old and new is the approached used for the whole franchise. I never got the feeling they were attempting to replace the old version but were just putting their own mark on things. This franchise isn't going to be the cultural standard that the original version has become. It's not that good, nor important. It is entertaining however and will provide some relaxing cinematic eye candy.

The downside of the film are a few poor choices that seriously break the narrative flow. If you've seen the trailer you have already have witnessed the amazingly stupid young Kirk stealing an antique car and driving it over a cliff. In this sequence, he is being chased down a dirt road by a cop. Young Kirk then turns on the radio and LISTENS TO THE BEASTIE BOYS. What? No one listens to them now, except musically illiterate morons, and we're expected to believe this is something a kid would turn to a few hundred years in the future? The entire sequence should have been cut. It is as poorly conceived as the jazz sequence in Spider-Man 3. There are other choices that cut into the story as well, like having Scotty being transported into the water pipes, having Kirk illogically being sent down to an Arctic locale on a planet, and other items that act as sidesteps to the main thrust of the story. All of these diversions steal time away from the main story which does need some help. The main villain Nero, a revenge obsessed Romulan, is pushed to the back burner for most of the film and only appears when its convenient to establish character for Kirk, Pike or Spock. Nero is the least developed character in the entire film and is given the least amount of attention. His whole reason for revenge is not given enough depth to have any real meaning so his actions are without context and therefore meaningless. This deficiency would kill most other stories, this production survives because it gets the audience so wrapped up in the interpersonal drama on the Enterprise that this exterior force is more of an annoying procedure rather than life threatening conflict.

This is a solid movie that succeeds well beyond expectation. This is easily the most fun I've had seeing a McMovie since Iron Man last year. This is fluff but it is very good, very entertaining fluff.




Related Reviews:
Star Trek movies
Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn (1982)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)



Other Critic's Reviews:
Happy Catholic
Need Coffee

Labels: Chris Pine, Eric Bana, film, JJ Abrams, Karl Urban, Leonard Nimoy, movie review, Star Trek, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Director: Eric Bana
Actors: Eric Bana (Troy), Jay Leno and Phil McGraw

Labels: documentary, Eric Bana, film, movie trailer

Screenwriter: Judd Apatow (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story)
Director: Judd Apatow (Knocked Up)
Actors: Adam Sandler (Click), Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express), Leslie Mann (Orange County), Eric Bana (Munich), Jonah Hill (Superbad) and Jason Schwartman (I Heart Huckabees)

Labels: Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, film, Jonah Hill, Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann, movie trailer, Seth Rogen

Screenwriters: Roberto Orci (Mission Impossible III) and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers)
Director: JJ Abrams (Mission Impossible III)
Actors: Chris Pine (Smokin' Aces), Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana (Troy), Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), Zoe Saldana (Vantage Point), John Cho (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) and Karl Urban (Doom)

Labels: Chris Pine, Eric Bana, film, JJ Abrams, John Cho, Karl Urban, movie trailer, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Screenwriters: Roberto Orci (Mission Impossible III) and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers)
Director: JJ Abrams (Mission Impossible III)
Actors: Chris Pine (Smokin' Aces), Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana (Troy), Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), Zoe Saldana (Vantage Point), John Cho (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) and Karl Urban (Doom)

Labels: Chris Pine, Eric Bana, film, JJ Abrams, John Cho, Karl Urban, movie trailer, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana