The swank, spare-no-expense shin-dig last night at the historic Griffith Observatory was officially a DVD release party for one of the summer’s biggest critical and fiscal hits. But with nearly the entire Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s membership on hand, the general vibe of awards season in the air and the obvious implications of a fall DVD release for an early-year hopeful, it’s fair to say it was ostensibly a call to Oscar arms for a film that has a pretty good shot at one of this year’s 10 Best Picture slots.
Most of the “Star Trek” cast was on hand — Zachary Quinto, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, John Cho, Clifton Collins Jr. — but Leonard Nimoy and Walter Koenig were the ones causing the biggest stir, as of course they would. A specialty drink menu (Spock’s Mind Meld Mojito, Red Matter, Romulan Ale), little red matter balls in giant flower vases, telescopes trained on Jupiter, bright in the Southwest sky (including one of the big ones in the Observatory), the Observatory itself lit up by projected galactic imagery, the whole thing had a nifty, novel, interstellar vibe.
And it might pay off. After all, it only takes a little wining and dining to get the HFPA on your side, right? But seriously speaking, there are a couple of Best Picture slots that, to my mind, are up for grabs. Should the big anticipated films miss with the awards constituencies, then it’s just as well for a film like “Star Trek,” still one of the year’s best films.
And not to peddle the patter coming from the studio, but I think there is something to be said of the fact that, when screeners start arriving in the next coupe of weeks, no one is going to want to watch something tough over the holidays. With family and friends over, it makes sense to toss something like “Star Trek” into the player and revisit one of the summer’s highlights.
That’s what Paramount is certainly hoping for as we move further into the season. Everyone already feels pretty good about “Up in the Air,” and with a final print of “The Lovely Bones” having been delivered to the studio yesterday, press invites for that are expected to go out any day now (though long-lead press has already gotten a look, and there is some real passion, from what I’m hearing). Should the studio capitalize on the very real potential for Abrams’s film to slide in, well, do the math. Three nominations is a pretty strong showing.
“Star Trek” is out today on DVD and Blu-ray (though I got mine in a swag bag on the way out last night — na, na, na, boo, boo). Go pick it up and relive the excitement.
(Interesting to note: there was apparently a meteor shower around midnight last night. I wish I’d have stayed up there to get a look.)
Comments
17 responses to “‘Star Trek’ under the stars”
I’ve said it before on this site and I’ll say it again.
‘Star Trek’ is STILL my #1 of the year. Nothing has eclipsed it yet.
I think it has it all: good, dense plot; great direction; fantastic editing; charismatic performances; great cinematography, art direction, costumes, make-up, sound design, special effects, score … I could go on & on.
I can’t believe this movie is a possible Oscar nominee. My God.
Oh, but it makes for a great drinking game. Every time there’s a lens flair…you’re tanked by the time Chris Pine is chased by that snow-bug.
Star Trek did two things right. Good sound by the amazing Ben Burtt and decent visual effects! Definately noms in those two categories. That’s about it!
Otherwise, here is to popcorn and making big bucks at the box office! Yum.Yum. Munch. Munch! (But “best picture?”… Let’s not get greedy now, Star Trek!)
Boo to y’all. :-)
Why are people acting so snubbish of a perfectly entertaining film being up for a BP nod? It’s not sacrilege, it’s exactly the reason there are 10 BP nods now. Live with it and embrace the diversity.
i dont know if there will be room, seeing as word for lovely bones and nine is looking good, so thats two of the 4 not disapointing, I think Avatar is the blockbuster, and lets not forget UP is a blockbuster, its the 3rd highest grossing movie of the year, thats saying something
Such a fun movie, great time at the theater, def still on the top of my best of the list.
Curious to hear what you have heard about Bones though…
The ads are cutting into the story on Firefox, Kris.
You know you’ve got a pretty solid film on your hands when the foremost (and sometimes sole) criticism from detractors is that it has too many lens flares.
I would say my foremost criticism on Trek is its screenplay. There’s nothing wrong with the lens flares – they make sense (and make for a good drinking game, which was all that I said).
J.J. Abrams has significantly improved as a director. It’s like Mission Impossible 3 and Star Trek were directed by two different people.
…and here we go again. Since the snooty elitists won last time with The Reader getting in over The Dark Knight, they’re back to poo-poo on another well-received, critically, commercially successful film because it’s icky sci-fi.
Get those spikes out of your asses.
Would be great if instead of Avatar, Star Trek gets a nom for Best Picture. It is very unlikely but it would be thrilling.
Random story: When I was in LA in late July, I saw Clifton Collins at the Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd. I wanted to say hello (having just see Star Trek and having interesting memories with my friends about a film called “The Stoned Age” that he was in), but he looked unhappy, so we just kept walking past each other in the aisles.
Probably for the best.
Though I did meet Peter Gallagher the next day at a Sushi restaurant.
Was I the only on who actually hated Star Trek? Not just dislike, but hated?
I dozed off a few times I was so disinterested in the goings-on…I think the film is highly overrated and hope it doesn’t have the support behind it to make the Best 10.
Yes you are the only one.
Makes me wonder why Paramount’s For Your Consideration site hasn’t updated with the listing of nominees from Trek yet.