Screenhead

The word is that Dread-Centralspoke with John Landis last weekend and he talked bit about his upcoming movie, Burke and Hare, about a pair of 19th Century murderersselling  bodies of their victims to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection. Apparently Landis will have Simon Pegg as the lead to be either Burke or Hare. Who will be the other lead?  Do you have any suggestions?

Anyway, it’s good to see Landis back in the saddle. He’s made some awesome movies: Animal House, Three Amigos, Trading Places, An American Werewolf in London and The Blues Brothers.  I know I am going to enjoy Burke and Hare.

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I begin today’s piece with a confession, folks.  When I first heard there was going to be a Star Trek movie, rather, ANOTHER Star Trek movie, I cringed.  And then I got angry–how desperate was Hollywood that they would drag the carcass of Star Trek, a series whose quality had been steadily plummeting for years with the lone exception of Star Trek: First Contact, and only because it was so Borg-heavy that you couldn’t help but pay attention.  That and Patrick Stewart is sixteen levels of awesome.  But I digress.

Young Kirk?  I muttered derisively.  Young Spock?  How desperate is THIS?

And then I saw it.

Well, savor the flavor, folks, because I’m about to admit I was WRONG.  This movie was just plain fantastic.

The plot is, basically, what it says on the box–it’s Star Trek.  Specifically, a strange sort of prequel / alternate history featuring the Star Trek cast before they were the Star Trek cast.  This time, they’re taking the original Enterprise out on a grand tour to destroy an enemy that’s far more fearsome than anything they’ve taken on yet.  This isn’t hard because, technically, it’ll be their first enemy.  Technically.

See, this sucker is going to fracture the canon six ways from Sunday and it’s going to have the single best explanation ever.  While I was watching it, I gave a small cluck of disapproval and thought, they shouldn’t have called this Star Trek.  They should’ve given it some fig leaf to differentiate itself–Star Trek: Origins or Star Trek: Beginnings or some such.  But then, when I realized what they were doing–which I actually can’t tell you without spoilering–it made absolutely perfect sense.

I’ll tell you this much: this IS Star Trek.  Or…at the very least…A Star Trek.

Yeah.

This is why I love this movie so much.  Instead of just walking up and slapping established canon in the face and saying “Run along grandpa, this is OUR show now and this is how it all REALLY happened”, they actually created a perfect explanation for how they spawned their own Star Trek universe.  They could do sequels now, and I’d probably be there to watch, because they have made their own Star Trek out of it.  This IS Star Trek, and it coexists perfectly with the original.  In fact, it’s actually impossible to compare it to any other Star Trek installation because it is its own entity.

However, if you WERE to make that comparison, you’d find that this is the new best Star Trek movie ever.  Seriously, this beats First Contact, and for me, that’s saying a lot.  Why?  Because there’s everything here.  There’s space opera, ship battles, comedy, great performances (getting Simon Pegg to do Scotty was an absolute stroke of GENIUS) and the kind of great rip-roaring adventure that makes science fiction SCIENCE FICTION.

It’s. Just. THAT. GOOD.

It is an adrenaline rush unlike many movies I’ve seen recently.  I can’t remember the last time I left a theatre still buzzing fully an hour later.  I am STILL feeling my Trekkie, an hour later.  I may not sleep tonight.  I am writing this sucker at one in the morning Eastern Daylight Time and I am STILL feeling it.

I don’t issue wholesale blanket recommendations very often, but seriously, if you can stand science fiction even vaguely, and you want to see a really shining example of really shining science fiction, then go.  Boldly go, in fact.  Go out and see this.  It’s really too good to miss.

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After months of rumors, AICN now carries confirmation that British stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have been cast as the detective duo Thomson and Thomson in Tintin.

The pair join Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, though the main character himself remains to be cast. Steven Spielberg is directing the 3D, $135 million CG motion-capture film that will be based on the two-part “The Secret of the Unicorn” and “Red Rackham’s Treasure” books by Herge.

The Thomson twins are the comic relief in the series. They have a subplot in the above books, dealing with a kleptomaniac who has been lifting wallets from all around town.

The first installment is due out 2010.

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Above is a dodgy video of the upcoming Star Trek reboot, shown during a Quantum of Solace screening. Fans around the world have been buzzing with this new footage, especially of Chris Pine as Kirk, Heroes’s Zach Quinto as Spock, and for a split second, Simon Pegg as Scotty.

Needless to say, the footage will be removed shortly, so enjoy it while you can. It seems reboots are all the rage these days, with Bond having its highest opening ever in the US and UK, as well as The Dark Knight breaking box office records. And the reboot formula is certainly evident in JJ Abrams take on the origins of the Enterprise. Now, I’m no Trekkie, but my understanding of the show in all its incarnations was that it was rather cerebral. Sure, there were emotional bursts, but the show was more about moral dilemmas, as opposed to visceral emotional ones. Data processing and logic were the weapons of choice (with an occasional lazer fight). But here, Abrams has moved in an entirely different direction. We get race cars, fast-paced fights, and sultry sex scenes! It will be interesting to gauge the response to this footage. Will this new style turn off Trekkies, and perhaps make more money by appealing to the masses, or will this MTV-reimagining of the sci-fi show please no one by trying to please everyone? Time will tell.

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