Star Trek (2009) A Review

Star Trek (2009) is a wonderful, action packed, humor filled, and loving reboot of the classic original Trek series. Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, and John Cho are awesome. Zachary Quinto is spectacular as Spock.


Eric Bana is great as the villain Nero. He gives depth to his character, a character that we've seen in Trek before: a man bent on a self-destructive obsession to hurt the one that had hurt him in the past, like the brilliantly mad Khan in ST:TWOK. Nero could have ended up being a one dimensional cartoon villain, but Bana is a very good actor and brings much to the role.


Like Khan, Nero is a man obsessed with vengeance. He wants to hurt Spock, just as Khan had wanted to hurt Kirk.

Nero blames Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy in an ST:TNG episode) for the destruction of his home world Romulus and the death of his family. Nero wishes to destroy Vulcan and to force a helpless Spock to watch.

Zachary Quinto as Spock and Zoe Saldana as Uhura bring out levels of feelings and emotions not found in the original series or movies. They have a very touching, very close, and very real relationship, the type of relation ship that Dr. Chapel on the original series had always wanted with Spock.


Saldana portrays Uhura not only smart, funny and tough but also as a very caring human being. She truly cares for Spock and unlike, Nurse Chapel, Uhura has managed to get emotionally close to Quinto's Spock. So, in a way, we can get a glimpse of how Spock's mother, Amanda, must have bonded with Sarek during their own courtship.

In Star Trek (2009) there is a subtle acknowledgment by Ambassador Spock the events in this movie are taking place in an alternate time-line. Nero fell through a black hole that existed within the TNG universe and he fell into this movie's alternate time line

Thus the destinies of some of our beloved characters, in addition to Kirk, such as Spock, Uhura, and Scotty, are totally screwed up.

That screw up in the time-line could also explain why the Enterprise is built on Earth, in Iowa, instead of at the San Francisco Ship Yards.

This is the most beautiful looking Trek movie since The Motion Picture. The visual effects are top-notch. The production design is imaginative and a delight to behold. The Enterprise Bridge is a thing of beauty. It's like being inside of a futuristic Apple computer.


The re-visioned Enterprise is a true work of art. Hard core Trekkers will not be disappointed. Yes, there are some minor differences, for example, the Boussard collectors are larger than on the original ship, making the warp nacelles a bit thicker. But overall, this ship is as beautiful as The Motion Picture Enterprise.

Star Trek (2009) is the best movie of 2009. A perfect movie.

Over-Rated Movie Directors in No Particular Order

1) Charlie Chaplin. That’s right, I said it. I never got The Tramp and never will. And, by the way, The Three Stooges did a hell of a better job making fun of Hitler in You Nazty Spy and I'll Never Heil Again than Chaplin did in that Great Dictator movie.

2) Noam Baumbach. Pretentious filmmaker about pretentious, self-involved people. With Mr. Baumbach movies, movie critics are under the impression that they are watching an intellectual movie about intellectual people made by an intellectual. Wrong on all counts.

3) Whit Stillman. Pretentious filmmaker about pretentious WASPs. His movies are just a painful, excruciating look at characters created by some lame Noel Coward wanna-be. So witty, so smart, so stomach-turning.

4) Michel Gondry. Just pretentious. And like my complaint with Tim Burton, Mr. Gondry seems to do the same wacky, arty-farty stuff over and over. Intellectual? Intelligent? Witty? No, just tedious and boring.

5) QT. I liked Reservoir Dogs but Pulp Fiction was all hype and style over substance. Kill Bill was watchable thanks to the great cameraman Robert Richardson, but overall, that movie was way too long, too indulgent.

6) Michael Moore. Preaching to the choir. Yawn. We get it, Mr. Moore, America (the land that's been paying your royalties from your books, movies, and TV shows for years) sucks. Big Deal.

7) Marty Scorsese. Yes, his record is pretty darn good but come on movie critics, admit it when he makes a stinker like Gangs of New York or Age of Innocence.

8) Tim Burton. He may tackle different stories but his films all end up looking the same: Male and female characters with Bride of Frankenstein hair, heavy Goth make up. Wacky production design. Same old, same old. Tedious and exhausting.

Follow Spot Blog of the Day™ - Music Man

The Music Man has ended its interminable run at Pensacola Little Theater. The techies - managed by Carol Mankins - and the large cast rocked on this show.

The sets were nutty, like the two-sided set pieces. Stage right had a large living room set on one side and the exterior of a billiard hall on the other side, stage left had the exterior of a porch backed with the exterior of a Livery stable.

During scene changes the techies ran out onto the darkened stage to rotate the set pieces so that the appropriate side faced the audience for the next scene. Therefore the techies were as choreographed as the actors and dancers.

The lighting designer and follow spot operators also rocked. Sound was great despite technical difficulties like broken wireless mikes.

The cast really shined on the stage. Everyone brought life and joyous excitement into their repective roles.

For example, Scott Haring, who portrayed Marcellus, the Music Man's former partner in crime, acted with such gusto that we tech folk fell apart everytime he growled "Hey! Gregory!!"

The biggest plus of the production was the Barber Shop Quartet as portrayed by Pensacola Fiesta Barbershop Chorus. Listening to their delightful voices blend into a glorious harmony as they sang “Lida Rose” and “Sin in Sincere” made sitting through the show night after night tolerable.

Music Man ain't a bad show but some of those dialog scenes just went on and on...and on...

The music numbers: "Wells Fargo Wagon", "You Got Trouble", "Gary Indiana", "Pick-a-Little", and "Seventy Six Trombones" were spectacular. The orchestra was energetic, the dancing and singing by the large cast was perfect.

But thank the Lords of Kobol this show is finally over. Now, onto the next.

Retro Blog - Seussical The Musical Summer of 2008

My wife and I had operated the spot lights for the Pensacola Little Theater production of Seussical The Musical this past summer(2008.)

The show was a big hit. The cast was fantastic. I had never worked spot before and it was quite an experience.

The entire show was movement and music. My wife had one side of the stage and I covered the other side. We did the best we could with only two spotlights. Huge cast. Something like 30 actors.

The show is a blast. I never grew tired of the songs during the run of the show.

Halloween Poster Illustration of the Day - Satan's Deadly Brides

Here's another poster done up for last year's Halloween party. It's an homage to all of those great 1970s "Satanic cult - Witches coven" type horror movies that were all the rage back then.

You know classics like The Devil's Rain (reviewed in a previous blog), Dracula AD 1972, The Wicker Man (original version please), Manos:The Hands of Fate and Simon King of the Witches (reviewed in a previous blog)

I did the entire artwork in pencil. I used Prismacolor pencils to colour in the picture. I like the Prismacolor brand of pencils for their flexibility and colorful richness.

Click image for full resolution and to read the witty screen credits.

Halloween Poster Illustration of the Day

Ah yes, this drawing was used for last year's Halloween party. I was asked to create a series of old style horror movie posters to help decorate the party. I created five or six posters each being a nod toward different genres of the B-horror film, such as the haunted house, sea monsters, Draculas, etc.

This poster is a tribute to the lovable Shatner-mask wearing murder machine known as Michael Myers. This Michael Myers is one wack character. The dude just won't stay dead!

He was shot up by a bunch of bullets and fell off a second story balcony but managed to escape at the end of the original Halloween.

Then he was blow'd up real good at the end of Halloween II.

But thanks to the Satanic evil known as Hollywood accountants Mr. Myers managed to come back for many more pictures.

Michael Myers was finally beheaded by Jamie Lee Curtis in fantastic H20, but somehow was brought back for the campy Resurrection. You know the movie about a reality show set in the Myers house and...um...who the really hell cares...

Any-hoo, you can't keep a good killer down. Rob Zombie successfully brought him back in the 2007 remake and bringing back again in the upcoming H2.

Click on the image to read the - dare I say - witty screen credits and to view picture at full resolution.