• Carey Mulligan praises “An Education” writer Nick Hornby for being objective with her character. [New York Magazine]
• Gene Simmons tapped to vocalize Del Toro’s “Wolf Man.” [Contact Music]
• Fear not, there’s hope for more “Beavis and Butt-Head” on the horizon. [Collider]
• How Sacha Baron Cohen ensnares his victims. [Daily Telegraph]
• 26 titles announced for this year’s Toronto fest. [indieWIRE]
• Anna Pickard breaks down the recent “2012” trailer. [The Guardian]
• Gina Piccalo talks to Shohreh Aghdashloo, star of “The Stoning of Soraya M.” [Los Angles Times]
• Noah Forrest joins the “Year One” dogpile. [Movie City News]
• Michael Cieply profiles “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. [New York Times]
• An antidote of sorts to last week’s slew of dad lists with good cheer: the 10 most horrible dad movies. [Premiere]
• Brad Brevet talks to “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow. [Rope of Silicon]
• Simon Pegg profiled across the pond. [The Times]
From pulse-pounding beginning to edge-of-your-seat end, J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” moves at a break-neck pace that never lets up, never misses a beat and shockingly, never loses itself in its labyrinthine story. It is a near-perfect action thrill ride that ticks off every box on the ultimate movie experience checklist and perhaps adds a few more.
Fans of Gene Roddenberry’s series may or may not be impressed by Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s re-imagining of a sacred geek mythos, but they’ll do well to understand that their beloved universe is in tact.
Despite the expectation that Gen-Y casting across the board would make for a moan-inducing CW-style prequel, the filmmakers have smartly devised a way to launch their own “B” timeline in a series that could go a million different directions from here. That their brilliant scheme makes for a stand-alone classic with something for everyone is unexpected to say the least, and exhilarating as a result.
Chris Pine stars as famed Federation Captain James Tiberius Kirk, though particulars of the story (which I dare not spoil here) put him on a different universal plane than William Shatner’s incarnation that has delighted audiences for decades. A wildcat that seemingly breaks the hell-raiser mold, Kirk is born under chaotic circumstances in the film’s initial sequence. We soon catch up to him as a youth racing through the fields of Iowa to the sounds of a then centuries-old Beastie Boys track before zipping ahead to encounter his bar-hopping mid-20s self in the form of Pine’s cock-sure stud.
Intercut with the Kirk story is the equally brief introduction of the Vulcan Spock who, as a result of being half-Vulcan, half-human, is seen as disadvantaged by a society that demands a sense of perfection. Zachary Quinto (television’s “Heroes”) takes the reins of the character, who enlists in the United Federation of Planets as one of the top minds in the corps before meeting Kirk and developing a relationship that will ultimately rest at the heart of the film.
The on-going saga of Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” seems to be one fumble after another as far as I can tell.
It makes you wonder why Brad Pitt would slum it in a screenplay this abysmal to begin with, but he’s finding himself on screen with Eli Roth of all people. Simon Pegg is a hell of a comedic commodity on some level, but he’s painfully out of place here.
Meanwhile, B.J. Novak is a heck of a writer and pulls some stellar weight on NBC’s “The Office,” but he’s quite a distracting addition to the cast, while the rumors that Adam Sandler was on deck made me want to shoot myself in the face. Twice.
And now I’m hearing that Mike Myers has been cast in this farce of an ensemble from the master of exploiting any and everything around him……eesh.
Apparently this will be a small role — nothing major. Expect Variety to reveal that bit of info later this evening, FYI.
(UPDATE, 6:00 p.m.: And on cue, the trade does just that. According to Michael Fleming, “Myers will play British Gen. Ed Fenech, a military mastermind who takes part in hatching a plot to wipe out Nazi leaders.”)
Anyway, hey — who am I to say? Maybe this is the greatest blend of “talent” ever assembled and I’m just out to lunch. Maybe this will be a full-blown masterpiece of comedic absurdity. Maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt…