Released: June 1982

Director: Nicholas Meyer

Rated PG

Run Time: 113 Minutes

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Genre: Science Fiction/Action

Cast:
William Shatner: Admiral James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy: Spock
DeForest Kelley: Dr. McCoy
Nichelle Nichols: Uhura
George Takei: Sulu
Walter Koenig: Chekhov
Kirstie Alley: Saavik
Ricardo Montalban: Khan
Bibi Besch: Dr. Carol Marcus
Merritt Butrick David
Paul Winfield: Terrell

Growing up as a kid in the 80s and early 90s, I was exposed to a lot of movies including Alien, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars.  I was also introduced to the wonders of Star Trek.  I don’t remember who or why, but I found Star Trek to be as nearly as compelling as Star Wars, just in a different way.  Star Trek has a tremendous legacy going back 50 years, starting with the original series that aired during the 60s.  It was unlike anything that anybody had seen before.  Not only did you have an international crew which included an African-American AND a Russian, but you also had an alien with pointy ears.  Not only did Star Trek change television as people knew it, but it also gave us a positive glimpse into what our future could hold.  That was, is and will continue to be the essence of Star Trek.  Sadly, the original series was cancelled after 3 seasons, but the show had already left its mark.  When Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, Paramount Pictures scrambled to come up with something of their to rival George Lucas’s masterpiece.  Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released to mixed reviews in 1979, despite being a success at the box-office.  For the next film, the budget was a lot smaller and Gene Roddenberry’s influence was pushed to the side.  In 1982, the first sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released.  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was critically acclaimed and is regarded as the best Star Trek film ever made.

Some time after the events of the original film, Star Trek II sees James T. Kirk promoted to admiral and Spock to Captain.  The film opens as young Vulcan Lt. Saavik as she takes the Kobayashi Maru test.  Sometime later, the USS Reliant, with Commander Chekhov and Captain Terrell, is orbiting a planet called Ceti-Alpha 6 in hopes of being able to test an experimental terra-forming torpedo called Genesis.  Exploring the planet, they come across some cargo carriers.  Realizing that these containers held the ruthless criminal known as Khan Noonien Singh and his people, Chehkov and Terrell are captured.  For those who may not know, this is not the first time that Khan has shown up in Star Trek.  The Wrath of Khan, in many ways is a sequel to the original series episode, Space Seed, where Khan attempts to hijack the Enterprise.  This film acts as a natural continuation of that episode and in the context of the films, it works very, very well.  The situation with Khan is not the only thing that’s happening here.  We see Kirk in a later stage of his life where he misses being able to command a starship.  There are a lot of themes that run concurrently throughout the film:  The passage of time, mortality and revenge.  While the film is certainly far more action-packed than its predecessor, Star Trek II still remains a true Star Trek film in every way.

Even in 1982, 12 million bucks was a very small amount to make a movie, and yet, Star Trek II managed to feel grand and epic in terms of its story and visual aesthetic.  Gone are the goofy uniforms of the previous film.  Instead we have a more militaristic Starfleet.  The uniforms are uniquely detailed and have some subtle differences and colors for each rank.  The set designs are also fairly minimalist, but it works extremely well.  The visual effects, including the Mutara Nebula are among the finest that have ever been produced by Industrial Light and Magic.  While some elements of the film have been recycled from The Motion Picture, including the departure of the Enterprise from space dock, it still feels like its own movie.

The performances on display here are some of the best in the entire franchise.  Even William Shatner gives his best performance as Kirk.  All the main characters from the previous film are here: Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, Chekhov, and Mr. Spock are all here.  Leonard Nimoy IS Spock, there’s no getting around it.  As much as I like Zachary Quinto as Spock, there can be no replacing Mr. Nimoy as the character, even three years after Mr. Nimoy’s passing, his presence in this film is absolutely phenomenal.  DeForest Kelley was as awesome as ever as the good doctor.  Everybody brings their best and the film as all the better for it.  The real showstopper of the film, though, is Ricardo Montalban reprising his role as Khan.  Every good hero needs a great villain and Khan is one of the greatest villains in cinema.  Ricardo’s charisma and intelligence really shine through with this character.

The action in The Wrath of Khan is extraordinary.  While the ground combat is pretty good, the space battles are incredible.  I would describe the space battles in Star Trek as the space equivalent of naval warfare with large battleships.  The tension comes from the fact that it’s essentially a cat-and-mouse chase that happens to have some big explosions.  The first battle with the Reliant basically renders the Enterprise immobile.  This is one of the most interesting aspects of the film, in my opinion.  Kirk got beat at his own game in the first round with Khan, and the results are pretty destructive.  The final battle is the most epic, because it is very much back-and-forth.  It’s made all the better, because both sides can’t really see anything because of the nebula.  It’s all “best-guess.”  That makes for a very intense action sequence.

Since this movie’s been out for a few decades now, I don’t think I need to tell anybody about Spock’s death.  While the opening training sequence was a bit of a “gotcha” moment, Spock’s real death towards the end of the film was one of the most heartbreaking and controversial moments in Star Trek.  You can’t just kill Spock, that’s not right.  But that’s exactly what they did, mostly because Leonard Nimoy didn’t want to play the character again.  It wasn’t until after seeing people’s reaction to the scene that Mr. Nimoy felt he made a mistake.  Honestly, it was a very ballsy move, killing a main character like that.  Every time I see it, it still kind of hits me pretty hard.  It’s not only heartbreaking, but it is also a very touching tribute to what the character stood for and why he was willing to sacrifice himself.  It is one of the greatest moments in cinema as far as I’m concerned, even though Spock comes back in the next film.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered by many to be the greatest Star Trek film ever made.  To be truthful, I tend to agree.  I loved the original film, even with all of its faults, but the second film is what really gave the franchise a new lease on life.  It re-energized the fan-base and it made people realize that you really can risks in a movie like this and have it pay off.  In my honest opinion, The Wrath of Khan stands the test of time as one of the greatest science fiction movies in modern cinema and one of the greatest sequels ever made.  It’s also one of the few films that I can’t find ANY fault with.  This film is as close to perfection as you can get.  With great performances, a riveting story, and thrilling battle sequences, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a film that is a must-own for anyone who considers themselves a movie buff.

My Final Recommendation: KHHHAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!! 10/10

Released: December 2017(Limited Release)

Director: Liam O’Donnell

Rated R

Run Time: 106 Minutes

Distributor: Vertical Entertainment

Genre: Science Fiction/Action

Cast:
Frank Grillo: Mark
Bojana Novakovic: Audrey
Jonny Weston: Trent
Callan Mulvey: Harper
Iko Uwais: Sua
Yayan Ruhian: The Chief

Back in 2010, there was a little alien invasion film called Skyline.  This movie was about a group of people stranded in a high-rise building when mysterious lights began to appear and people were inexplicably drawn to the lights and disappeared.  Turns out they were being abducted by aliens…obviously.  It was directed by special effects gurus Colin and Greg Straus.  It was a pretty goofy little sci-fi movie but it was surprisingly a good amount of fun.  It was made on a 10 million dollar budget, and it looked far more expensive than that.  The visual effects were absolutely incredible for that kind of budget.  Sadly, the film was let down by a fairly predictable story and characters that you just didn’t care about.  Given how the film ended, one would have expected a sequel, but the film’s reception and box-office intake wasn’t particularly inspiring.  In 2015, we got word that an actual follow-up to the film was indeed going to happen.  A couple of years later, we have Beyond Skyline.  So, is it better than the original film?  Let’s find out.

Set just before the abductions began in the original Skyline, Beyond Skyline follows LAPD officer Mark as he goes to pick up his estranged son, Trent from the police department.  While on the way home on the subway, the entire city comes under attack.  After trying to escape, a group of people including a blind man, Sarge, as well as Audrey, a subway driver, Mark and his son are abducted and pulled into an alien ship.  Trying to find his son, Mark runs into Jarrod, a guy from the first movie whose brain has been put into a new body.  Together, they also stumble on Jarrod’s pregnant girlfriend as she gives birth to a baby girl.  Jarrod then forces the ship to crash in the jungles of Indonesia, where Mark meets up with a couple of local outlaws.  The story here is quite interesting as the film actually overlaps the final events of the previous film.  So, yeah, this IS a genuine sequel.  Honestly, this is the kind of sequel that Independence Day: Resurgence needed to be.  Not only does Beyond Skyline address what happened in the original film, it takes the film to different areas and different locations.  It’s actually nice to see the film expand the world a bit.

Let’s talk about the visuals first.  The original film was built on 10 million dollar budget, but looked like it was made for 5 times that.  The CGI was impressive.  Beyond Skyline’s visual effects are no less impressive.  While some of the CGI later on in the film is kind of wonky, it’s still manages an impressive scale with the size of the ships.  The aliens themselves are a combination of practical suits and stilts enhanced with a bit CG.  It works quite well actually.  A lot of the visual effects are genuinely practical and some of the locations are incredibly beautiful.  The film was shot on location in California and Indonesia.  It’s really awesome to see that the movie actually goes places.

The film boasts a pretty strong cast with Frank Grillo in the lead as Mark.  Frank Grillo has been making a huge name for himself in the action film genre.  He starred alongside Liam Neeson in The Grey as well as working with and taking on Chris Evans in the last two Captain America films.  He’s pretty good at playing a bad guy as evidenced by his performance in Wolf Warrior 2.  It’s really awesome to see Grillo become an alien ass-kicker.  The supporting cast is also impressive.  Beyond Skyline also brings in two of the most well-known Indonesian martial arts actors: Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian of The Raid films.  I’ve always felt that Iko Uwais is not only a great martial artist, but a good actor as well.  I’ve been paying attention to this guy’s work since Merantau.  He’s been getting better with each and every movie that he makes.  It’s awesome to see him finally bridge the eastern and western film industries.

Unlike the first film, Beyond Skyline is a hard R-rated film and it earns it.  Aside from the large amount of f-bombs being dropped, it’s very violent.  It does not skimp on the gore.  The action is intense.  A lot of the fight scenes involving hand-to-hand combat were choreographed by Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian.  That means no wire-enhanced combat when it comes to the martial arts.  It’s about as grounded as you can get when dealing with evil space aliens.  Watching Iko take on these aliens is something to behold.  Frank Grillo can also hold his own with the action.  It’s awesome to see that actors get really down and dirty when it comes stunt-work and action sequences.  The alien sequences get kind of weird especially towards the end of the film, but I won’t spoil it here.

When I said the film was rated R, I meant it.  While the action is visceral and brutal, there are scenes that can be somewhat disturbing, especially when it involves unborn children.  It’s weird, but it’s also very unsettling.  What the aliens do to regular people is pretty gruesome, even more so than in the first film.  It’s slimy and gory and it’s really awesome to see the film not pull any punches.  While the story does take some predictable turns, it’s bolstered by a very strong cast as well as some really intense action sequences.  There are some moments when the CGI looks pretty hokey, but it’s nothing that can’t be forgiven.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised at how awesome this movie was.  I enjoyed the first film, but this one is so much better.  Not only is Beyond Skyline a more than worthy follow-up to what was otherwise a mediocre sci-fi flick, it’s also one of the best sequels in recent years.  So, do I recommend this one?  Oh, hell yes, I do.  This movie is bad-ass in every sense of the word.  Not only do you get alien action, but martial arts as well.  What’s not to like?  The film is currently available On Demand and will be available on DVD/Blu-Ray on January 16.  It’s absolutely worth the entry fee.

Final Recommendation: IT’S BLUE!!!  Oh and don’t mess with Frank Grillo, either.  That goes for you as well, space aliens! 9/10

In the past 40 or so years, movies have generally been pretty successful.  While a lot of them tend to just break even, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  But there a number of movies each year that just fail in nearly every department or fail to get off the ground.  Sometimes you can tell that a movie is just not going to work or not going to find an audience.  These are the kinds of movies that I want to talk about.  Not all of them are awful movies.  Some of them are quite enjoyable, but a good chunk of them have failed for pretty specific reasons:  Studio interference, distribution problems, bad marketing, or just lousy concepts to begin with.  There is always a reason why a movie will crash before it leaves the runway.  Now, a good chunk of the movies that I’m going to list here are fairly recent, going back at least 15 years.  The reason I chose this particular time period is because a good number of movies over the past few years have been fairly massive failures.  I’m going to start with the most recent ones.  So….let’s dive in, shall we?

The Mummy(2017)

This was a result of some REALLY stupid decision-making.  When The Mummy was announced, it was announced as the beginning of a new cinematic universe known as the “Dark Universe.”  That was the moment the movie failed.  The concept wasn’t awful, but the execution was.  You don’t announce a new cinematic universe until you are absolutely CERTAIN that the first movie is going to be a success.  I’ve said that time and time again.  Marvel knew what they were doing with Iron Man.  I’m sure they had an idea for a cinematic universe, but they kept that part under wraps until they knew that Iron Man was going to succeed.  The folks behind The Mummy didn’t take that to heart.  Besides, if you’re going to do a new cinematic universe with the Classic Monsters from Universal, you don’t start with The Mummy.  In my opinion, The Mummy was always the weakest of the classic monsters.  So, yeah, Universal and director Alex Kurtzman managed to kill the Dark Universe before it even had a chance to get off the ground.

Gods of Egypt

This one had the potential to be an Egyptian Clash of the Titans.  It’s not a bad idea, but again, the execution was sloppy.  I knew from the moment the first trailer hit, that this movie was going to fail miserably.  The blatantly obvious green-screen effects and terrible CGI animation was compounded by some highly questionable casting choices.  Whitewashing issues aside, the movie was doomed because of some seriously questionable directing, acting and possible studio interference.  Alex Proyas is generally a pretty good director, but Gods of Egypt needed a few more months on the writing board before heading into production.

Terminator: Genisys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62E4FJTwSuc

This was a movie that was doomed from the beginning because of shit marketing.  The second trailer of Terminator: Genisys spoiled a twist that could have thrown audiences for a loop.  Seriously.  It would have worked had those idiots at the marketing firm not spoiled the whole thing.  They did the same thing with the previous film, spoiling a major plot point.  Genisys was going to be a reboot of the franchise, but because of the lousy marketing, it won’t happen.  The rights are returning to James Cameron next year, and he has plans for the next film.  The next film is supposed to be a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  Genisys wasn’t a bad movie.  It had some really audacious ideas in place for the franchise.  They screwed up, royally.

Ghostbusters 2016

This is a movie that never had a chance.  Not one.  Between the years of not being able to get a third Ghostbusters film off the ground, to Bill Murray not wanting a part of it and finally to Harold Ramis passing away a few years ago, this movie was NEVER going to measure up.  The original film is one of the most beloved comedy/horror movies ever made and audiences had certain expectations for a movie like this.  Even if you don’t factor in the horrible marketing and PR screw-ups, the 2016 Ghostbusters had a huge legacy to live up to, and with everything stacked against it, it was never going to work.  I didn’t hate the film, but it was marred by questionable decisions.  Even if the film was firing on all cylinders and was one of the best comedies of the year, it still would have failed in the eyes of a lot of fans.

Independence Day: Resurgence

This was a movie that was a victim of being made and released a decade too late.  Independence Day: Resurgence was released almost 20 years to the day that the original film came out.  The original Independence Day was an awesome alien invasion flick that was peppered with fantastic performances, great visual effects and a degree of levity that made the whole experience so much fun to watch.  This follow-up fails to be anywhere near as compelling.  The effects are mostly CG, and it’s missing one of the things that made the original film so awesome: Will Smith.  Instead, the film has to ride on the shoulders of Jeff Goldblum.  He’s not a bad actor, but he can’t really carry a movie like this.  Had this movie come out back in 2006, it would have been better received, I think.  As it stands, the film ends on a cliffhanger waiting for a sequel that may not happen.

Suicide Squad

This is one of those bizarre cases of a movie being completely oversold to the audience.  Suicide Squad had some of the best marketing in the world, but the movie still ended up sucking.  Why?  The marketing was trying to hide the problems that were happening behind the scenes.  Between the re-shoots that were designed to bring more levity to the film and studio interference, Suicide Squad ended up collapsing in on itself.  The writing was substandard and with the exception of Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney, the acting was really poor.  The Joker’s limited presence in the film was also a major detriment, especially after he was featured so prominently in the trailers.  Suicide Squad is a perfect example of over-hyping a movie.  Of the two DC films that were released in 2016, this was the worst of the two.

Dune(1984)

Going back to the early 80s, Dune was a movie that failed to take off, for a lot of reasons.  It wasn’t because it was a bad movie, far from it.  It’s an incredible film in so many ways.  It failed because Universal Pictures wanted to condense Frank Herbert’s story into a two and a half hour film.  For a story that has so much in terms of content, there was no absolutely no way in hell that a two and a half hour film could possibly address it all.  The fans of the book were pissed at how much the film cut out and audiences were generally confused about what was going on.  This is essentially studio interference at its worst.  It’s too bad, because visually, it’s an absolutely astonishing film with an equally outstanding soundtrack.  David Lynch was not happy about what happened with the film and has distanced himself from it.  The film has developed a cult following since its initial release, but the film still just couldn’t connect with audiences.

While there are other films that never took off, these are the ones that stuck out the most for me.  Sometimes a good movie fails to find an audience in theaters, but it may find it on home video.  Other times, a bad movie deserves to not take off and ends up being forgotten.  How a film survives depends a lot on the circumstances of its release.  Sometimes movies succeed and others don’t.  It’s the nature of the business, I guess.

Released: September 2017

Director: Andy Muschietti

Rated R

Run Time: 135 Minutes

Distributor: Warner Bros/New Line

Genre: Horror

Cast:
Bill Skarsgard: Pennywise
Jaeden Lieberher: Bill Denbrough
Jeremy Ray Taylor: Ben Hanscom
Sophia Lillis: Beverly Marsh
Finn Wolfhard: Richie Tozier
Chosen Jacobs: Mike Hanlon
Wyatt Oleff: Stanley Uris
Nicholas Hamilton: Henry Bowers

Stephen King is one of the most well-known horror novelists in the world today.  He has a particularly nifty eye for detail and character development that you generally don’t see in horror novels.  That being said, his stuff can be hit-and-miss for people like me.  While you have absolute classics like Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Pet Semetary and It, he’s also given us some pretty substandard stuff like Needful Things, Desperation, and Dreamcatcher.  The one thing that a lot of these books have in common, is that they’ve mostly been adapted into either movies or TV mini-series.  Some were quite excellent like The Shining, Carrie and Pet Semetary, some adaptations were almost as bad as the book like Dreamcatcher.  That’s one of the few Stephen King books and adaptions that I can genuinely say that I hate.  One of the most interesting books that King has written and I consider to be one of his best is It.  It was a pretty grim story.  The mini-series that it was adapted into in the early 90s was a bit of a mixed bag.  In 2017, Warner Bros and New Line would take another stab at the character of Pennywise and the group known as the Losers’ Club for a new adaptation for Stephen King’s It.

The film opens in Derry, Maine in 1988.  We see young Georgie Denbrough as he takes his new paper boat and plays with it in the streets as it’s raining.  When the boat flows into a drain, Georgie attempts to retrieve it when he’s confronted by a mysterious clown with yellow eyes.  After a brief conversation, the mysterious clown pulls young Georgie into the drain.  A year later, Bill Denbrough and his friends are still haunted by the disappearance of Bill’s younger brother.  As summer begins to set in, the boys learn of more disappearances, until one of the boys discovers a disturbing pattern that features a devastating event that’s been happening every 27 years in Derry.  As time goes on, the boys begin to see visions of a disturbing clown by the name of Pennywise.  Realizing that this…clown may be responsible not only for the disappearance of random children, but also Georgie as well.  The story of It is one of my personal favorites that Stephen King ever wrote.  It really didn’t pull any punches as to what happened to the kids that disappeared, but it also gave us one of the most unique and diabolical villains in modern literature: Pennywise.  This new film is essentially the first half of the actual story with Chapter II coming next year.  I can’t wait.

When one is discussing Stephen King’s It, one always has to mention the story’s primary villain, Pennywise.  The mini-series that debuted back in the early 90s featured an iconic performance by Tim Curry as the evil clown.  It was one of those performances that really lifted Mr. Curry to legendary status.  His take on the character was funny but also terrifying at the same time.  For the 2017 film, we have young Bill Skarsgard take on the iconic role.  You want to know something?  He’s really, really creepy.  Bill can do this thing with his smile that really gets under your skin.  He really steals the show as any good villain should, but Bill throws everything into his performance.  He does most of his own stunts and scares the hell out of the kids on the set.  I refuse to say which performance is better, Curry’s or Skarsgard’s.  In my opinion, they are both excellent takes on the same character.  The kids that play the…well…kids in the film are really good.  You really do believe that Bill, Richie, Mike, Eddie and Stan are the best of friends.  The acting is absolutely phenomenal.

From a visual standpoint, this is an absolutely stunning film.  The set designs are extremely large and at the same time claustrophobic.  Like-wise the city of Derry just feels like one of those old-fashioned cities that you see in some of those old movies.  The sewers are wonderfully grotesque and Pennywise’s lair is massive.  Yeah, there definitely is CGI being used in the film, but it’s really done in a way to really capture the scale of certain scenes.  The actual blood effects are mostly practical.  There’s a scene in Beverly Marsh’s bathroom that gets covered in blood when the red stuff comes out of the drain.  It’s pretty freakin’ awesome, actually.  Like-wise the costumes are very much like the clothes that came out of the late 80s.  Pennywise himself is pretty creepy.  You’ve got the make-up obviously and the red hair, but it would mean nothing if Bill Skarsgard wasn’t up for it.  Overall, the look of It was very impressive.

The film runs at a pretty good pace, despite its run-time.  If you’re at all familiar with the book or mini-series, then a lot of what you see here is going to be very familiar.  Obviously, it’s not necessarily a straight remake of the mini-series, as certain characters and situations are dealt with in different ways.  But the overall spirit and story remain intact.  There was a part in the book that was wisely left out of the mini-series and this film.  It involved Beverly Marsh and how she decided to….”connect” with the boys of the Losers’ Club.  It was very wise of the film-makers to leave that aspect of the story out of the film.  But overall, I would have to say that It is still a very compelling and really great story.  My only “gripe” is that we don’t really learn who or what Pennywise really is, although there references in the book to the character being an ancient entity from the dawn of time.  But you know what they say: A mystery once solved is never quite as interesting.

Honestly, I was really worried about how Bill Skarsgard was going to portray Pennywise, but I found myself really intrigued by his performance.  It’s very different than what Tim Curry did back in the early 90s.  Also, setting the film in the late 80s instead of the 50s makes a lot of sense.  Overall, I would have to say that the 2017 version of It is a very strong movie.  Now, if they can make Chapter II just as awesome, I’ll be in 7th Heaven.  The one thing they need to do in Chapter II is to not turn Pennywise into a fucking spider like they did in the mini-series.  If you’re going to reveal his true form, it really needs to be something big and terrifying.  But yeah, overall:  This is a damn good movie.

My final recommendation: We all float down here. 9/10