A Trekkie nerd's worst nightmare

I'm still watching the credits as I write this and I must say that I loved the new star trek movie. There's gonna be some very mad purists out there.

Spoiler alert.......









No Trekkie can complain, for the enterprise of the star trek franchise now has an alternative universe.

"Syler" was excellent as Spok. The presence of Leonard Nimoy on the film authenticated the new direction. In fact it was Leonard Nimoy as "future Spok" who gave the logical refute that no Trekkie could disagree with as to why we now have a different star trek universe to the one we have known.

The Romulans are the terrifying evil ones in this 21st reinterpretation of the 1960s classic. The movie starts out with the birth of Kirk but I'll leave some things to mystery by saving the circumstances.

Kirk as a boy driving a speeding car was a hoot, especially with "Sabotage" as the sound track.

Kirk is ever the rebel and a likable character. In fact he is far more likable than the 60s version.

The big spolier.....

The Romulans destroyed the planet Vulcan. 10,000 Vulcans survived, Spok amongst them who is now "the member of an endangered species".

And the brilliant thing is that there was no attempt by the writers to bring Vulcan back by the end of the movie. Poof, it's gone and it ain't coming back either.

Those Trekkie nerds must be pulling their hair out right now!!!!

I can't wait for the next installment.

3.5 stars.

The Bourne Ultimatum

We just finished watching the Bourne Ultimatum. (Yeah, I know, seriously behind the times here in Siberia.) This has been a magnificent series of movies. Most times sequels are very disappointing, but not in the case of this intrigue. The action and suspense are non stop. I was left still wanting more at the end. It appeared to me that this is the end of the series, but in the movie the conspirators said "If it goes south we'll hang it on Landy and just start again." So will Webb fight them another day? 4.5 stars.

My top 100 movies

I have always wanted to rate my all time favourite movies but I could not be bothered spending the time looking them all up on the internet. Then facebook came along with an application for rating movies. I have rated over 2000 movies now (many of them with a simple click of "not interested") and come up with my top 100 movies of all time.
The list is obviously not exclusive. Maybe your favourite is not in my list because I have not seen it, or because I simply think it stinks. Let me know if your favourite movie is not in the list, and if I haven't seen it I will try to.
I have reserved the 5 star movies for the absolute best. So I have probably rated the movies more harsly than some. Think of the list a bit like the top 100 singles, some have dropped down lower over time in my estimation.

Here's the list.

5 Stars
1 The Passion of the Christ
2 Braveheart
3 In the name of the Father
4 Alive
5 Dances with wolves
6 The Man without a face
7 Hotel Rwanda
8 Schindler’s List
9 Apocalypto
10 Life is Beautiful
11 Billy Elliot
12 Finding Nemo
13 Unbreakable

4.5 stars
14 Seabiscuit
15 12 Monkeys
16 Searching for Bobby Fischer
17 Jerry Maguire
18 The Castle
19 Ben Hur
20 The Sound of Music
21 Driving Miss Daisy
22 The Lord of the Rings- Fellowship of the Ring
23 Spellbound
24 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
25 William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
26 Little Miss Sunshine
27 Children of Men

4 Stars
28 Saving Private Ryan
29 The Hurricane
30 The Power of One
31 Radio
32 Ned Kelly
33 Men of Honor
34 Remember the Titans
35 The Rookie
36 The Dish
37 Wondrous Oblivion
38 Das Boot
39 The Last Samurai
40 The Matrix
41 Blade Runner
42 Minority Report
43 The Abyss
44 Fight Club
45 The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
46 The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
47 The Bourne Identity
48 Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith
49 Run Lola Run
50 Fiddler on the Roof
51 Good Bye, Lenin
52 One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
53 The Fifth Element
54 The Sixth Sense
55 Princess Mononoke
56 The Gods must be crazy
57 The Shawshank Redemption
58 Kenny
59 The Fugitive
60 The Bank
61 Contact
62 Kingdom of Heaven
63 Seven Years in Tibet
64 Bend it like Beckham
65 Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War
66 Traffic
67 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

3.5 Stars
68 Star Wars
69 The Matrix Reloaded
70 Gladiator
71 Ghost in the Shell
72 The Matrix Revolutions
73 The Aviator
74 Whale Rider
75 Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
76 Mad Max
77 Babe
78 Stargate
79 Catch Me if you Can
80 Runaway Jury
81 Field of Dreams
82 My Big Fat Greek Wedding
83 Erin Brokovich
84 Enemy at the Gates
85 Artificial Intelligence
86 I am Sam
87 The Man Who Sued God
88 Lawrence of Arabia
89 O Brother Where Art Thou
90 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
91 Napoleon Dynamite
92 World Trade Center
93 50 First Dates
94 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
95 Brother Bear
96 Bruce Almighty
97 The Incredibles
98 Shrek
99 Chicken Run
100 Edward Scissorhands

Apocalypto

I had the chance to see "Apocalypto" the other day. There are many things I could say in response to this movie. But I doubt I will articulate them all. This is because Mel Gibson was successful in making a movie that is very far removed from my western world view. It is very hard for me to place this movie in any category in my life. I am greatly appreciative for a movie that opened my eyes to a very different world and way of life.



In this sense, it was a brilliant movie. It was extremely realistic to my eyes and senses, it did not appear to be fantastic in any way at all. I liked the life of the tribe in the village. While their culture may not have been perfect and they may not have known God personally (although I have no claims in either direction), they seemed to be peace loving people.



The people who attacked them, the Mayans seemed to be terribly evil people. Mayan culture is known to be one of the most advanced cultures in history, yet their approach to spirituality was evil and sadisitic, full of bloodthirsty human sacrifices.

I recently had a discussion with an evangelical friend who I like a lot. But I felt his response to this movie was so cliche and standard, that he could not possibly have thought about it all. "There was an awful lot of nudity, in the movie." (Was there? I didn't notice anything of a sexual nature what so ever.) "Wasn't it all about idolatry?" (Well it didn't say that idolatry was good!)
We have to be careful in evangelical cultures to not view the world with blinders on. This movie was brilliantly made. Maybe too cryptic for the average evangelical, I could see plainly the points that Mel Gibson was making.



And for those that can't work it out, let me quote Mel Gibson for you:

"APOCALYPTO is an action-adventure set against the turbulent times at the end of the great Maya civilization.

I have always been fascinated by the precipitous collapse of the ancient Maya civilization and the social and spiritual reasons behind it. The more I learned about it, the more I believed it is a story that has many similarities to society today.

Apocalypto is a story about Jaguar Paw, a man whose idyllic existence is disrupted by a violent invading force. He is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression, where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his wife, family and his unwavering faith in what he believes is right, he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

In making APOCALYPTO, I hoped to compose a portrait of a society heading towards its final days, but I also wanted to include another vital concept: hope. The story of Jaguar Paw is a universal story of the spark of life that exists even in a civilization in decay. APOCALYPTO means “new beginning”, however in order to have a new beginning, something has to end… and with every ending, there is also a new beginning."