Reviews

I must say that I had mixed feelings for this series when I first heard that it was announced. I still think that Star Trek itself should take some time off so that it can stew back into pop culture, but I was plesantly surprised at Broken Bow, the pilot episode. Consecutively, I've found that Star Trek series have had better and better pilots. TNG's being one of the worst that I've seen, leading to the better DS9 (albeit a bit boring), and the same with Voyager (also a bit boring, but better than the previous two), culminating with this one. It was fun to see familiar faces in a different light, like the first encounter with the Klingons and how humanity feels about the Vulcans.

The acting was standard issue for Star Trek, with a bit of scene chewing by Scott Bakula, "I'll knock you on your ASS!", and some of the familiar Vulcan non-emotional arrogant emotions. (I still think they haven't portrayed the Vulcans right since TOS.)

I think this series is set up to have some true potential, and is definately better than Voyager. Deep Space Nine is still my favorite, but it had to grow on me, I didn't like it at first. I hope this one grows on me too.

This has to be one of my favorite shows on TV right now. I just absolutely love watching these robots kick the crap out of each other! The new seasons keep getting better and better, with the current 3rd season looking to be the best yet.

For those of you that haven't seen this show yet, or just saw the spots on the Tonight Show, here's a basic breakdown.

People build some robots in varying weight classes. They then sic the robots on each other in a large cage filled with "hazzards" such as a 200 pound sledge hammer that slams down on one of the robots, or "killsaws" that spring up out of the floor. Enter laughter at the silly excitement.

Watching newcomer Mechagore carve Vlad the Impaler (the odds on favorite for the heavyweight class) into metal sushi was a trip! It goes to show, that there's all sorts of new ideas out there. I personally like the bots that are designed to kill the largest design style of robots, that being the wedges.

Personal favorites:

Lightweight: Ziggo Heavyweight: Mechagore and Mauler Superheavyweight: Toro

Now that the show is one hour long, its even more of a treat. Even if you hate machines, its a show that touches on that primal urge to break expensive stuff. (Some of the bots had over $20k put into parts/design/etc!)

This game isn't that bad for a FPS. The graphics, courtsey of the Quake III engine, are really crisp and flow really well. The game designers also noted some good features from other games, such as the alternate weapon function of Unreal Tournament, the BEST FPS IMHO. The plot revolves around you being a member of the newly created Hazzard Team. Your objective is to protect the ship from dangerous aliens. Sort of like the Starfleet Marines. I do agree with the other posters here that the beginning is truly unique and has a fresh feeling, but towards the end, especially once you invade the station, it feels more like Doom than something with some sort of intelligence or challenge. It felt nice to have all the cast members voice their characters, even Chell, a small part that appeared in 2 episodes shows up as one of the major characters in the game.

I found one mistake the designers made was making the game WAY too linear. I wish you had to pay the consiquences for your actions. Say if you disentegraged Tuvok, which I did many times to see what would happen, how the plot would then change. Maybe you could join the pirates and take over Voyager, and then try and free yourself from the forge from there. I think allowing you a little more leway of what you can do and where you can go would have spiced this game up a bit more. I also found the reactions of the bots to be really rude. If I had a weapon I wanted to disintegrate them. So if the designers are thinking of making a sequel, they should try some of the above approaches. I think that could make a very interesting game. That and ditch the Quake III engine, which is nice but not as pretty as the Unreal Tournament engine.

As for the multi-player aspects of the game, they were pretty standard fare for a FPS. You had your capture the flag, free for all, etc. Commanding the bots on your team was a bit of a hassle. It was rare that they listened to you and managed to just stand around. These are some minor flaws however. Over all this is a nice game, and definately something to add to your collection if you're a fan of first person shooters (FPS).

Heads and shoulders the best movie that Schwarzenegger has done. This is also one of my all time favourites. I've finally been able to enjoy this movie in its original format after purchasing the DVD. What can I say about this film? The cinematography is just spectacular. The other thing that just makes this movie stand out is the impressive film score by Basil Poledorious, the best film composer in the business today, better than John Williams IMHO. The music is sweeping, exciting, and haunting, starting with the minimalist sounding "The Wifeing" to the loud, complete with full orchestra and choir, "Battle of the Mounds". My personal favourite is the Orgy, which is this incredible waltz.

Conan is the last descendant from a race of Atlanteans, and witnesses the slaughter of his people and family by the ruthless Thulsa Doom. He is enslaved and brought to a work camp for children. It is through years of hard labour does he bulk up and become Conan. After his master sees how large he is, he has him compete in some gladitorial combat, where he becomes victorious. He is later released, and quests to destroy Doom, who is now the leader of a religious cult. Conan meets the love of his life on his way, Valeris, and a friend, the thief/archer Subotai.

The acting is pretty standard for an Arnold movie, but not as cheesey. The scenes with James Earl Jones are really well acted, as well as the boisterous Max Von Sydow. The thing that sets this movie apart from the other films in its genre is the heart in this movie, and the fact that it really doesn't focus as much on the sorcery as it does on the setting, and trying to ground this movie in history. It has a historical feel to it, like it existed at some time, in some place. There is a mystical aspect to it, like Thulsa Doom shooting snakes as arrows.

Action wise, this is THE movie to own. The sword play is very well done, and Arnold is quite believable as a barbarian warlord. My personal favourite is the battle of the Mounds, just after Conan's prayer to Crom, where three men take out a chunk of Doom's army, especially the "surprise" that Conan delivers to Thorgrim.

Yes, there is lots of hype for this movie, but in this case I think the hype is well deserved. Unlike various other movies in this genre, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon manages to stand head and shoulders above the competition. Why? Simple, incredible acting. Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and newcomer Zhang Ziyi are incredibly gifted actors, and truly show off their acting talents. This move could have fallen flat and felt more like a videogame than a story, but it doesn't.

I can't wait for this movie to get a broader national release so that more people can experience this movie. If you have not seen this, or if you're a bit warry of seeing a movie that is in chinese with english subtitles, don't be. Visually this movie is stunning, the fight choreography is spectacular, and the love stories are well done. In most movies that I see, action and adventure in particular, the love story is thrown in as more of an afterthought to "get the girls" to come and see the movie. I found the love story in this movie to be both very interesting and touching. Another gripe that I hear people saying is that the flying and wall crawling are silly. I just want to remind them that this is a particular style in China, much like Tolkienesque fantasy that we have here in the west. I don't think it detracts from the movie but enhances its appeal.

Musically this movie is beautiful. Yoyo Ma did various cello pieces in this very traditional sounding yet maintaining the modern feel to it. I see now why they were calling Chow Yun Fat the Humphrey Bogart of Asia, and I think he is better than Bogart at conveying emotion. I think Michelle Yeoh stole the show with her performance. I've been a huge fan of hers since I first saw her in Supercop, and have followed her ever since. The other person that I'm really starting to respect is Wo Ping. The fight scenes that he set up are just spectacular. I found my jaw dropping at what I was watching on screen, and shouting and cheering the fighting. It was beautiful, graceful, and stunning. It also emphasizes the story, which is rare. Usually the fight scenes take away from a story to just show off a different type of "special effect".

So to reiterate, this is by far the best movie of 2000. I encourage everyone to see this movie, it is simply incredible. I also agree with another reviewer here, I can't wait to get this on DVD. :)

This, along with Michael Moore's TV Nation, has to be the funniest show I've ever seen on television, period. Pirating various games that have been around with improvisation troupes for years, and bringing them to a much broader audience. The games never get old, because of all the variations that the improvisers bring to them.

The players in the show, like Colin Mochare and Ryan Stiles, are familiar faces to anyone that has seen the British show in re-runs on Comedy Central. They are both impressive and incredibly talented performers and have me in stiches everytime I see them. Wayne Brady is one of the most impressive of the new talent pool. His forte is musical improvisation, and he's just incredible at it. I'm amazed everytime I see him do it. A few of the other players from the British show pop up from time to time, like Greg Proops, Chip Reed, and Josie Laurence.

The musicians this time around on the show, like Laura Hall, are much more impressive than the British counterpart. Drew Carey is a good host, but I'm still partial to Clive Anderson's dry wit.

This is currently the best show, IMHO, on American television today. The green screen game has to be one of the best games on the new show. If you've been living under a rock, and have yet to see this show, you're missing some truly histerical entertainment. When sit-coms go the way of the dinosaur, shows like Who's Line will still be remembered as some of the most truly entertaining forms of comedic entertainment.

Star Trek Armada takes place both after the Dominion war of DS9 and Insurrection for TNG. In this game you get to play one of four races, the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Borg. The gameplay is similar to most other real time strategy games out there like Command and Conquer or Warcraft/Starcraft.

This game is top quality when it comes to its easy to use interface, highly detailed textures, and wonderful voice acting by Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Denise Crosby, and other regulars like J.G. Hertzler (Chancelor Martok from DS9).

The gameplay is quite balanced between the four races, none more powerful than the other. However there are some racial adavantages that may make one race more interesting to play than another. For example, all Klingon and Romulan ships can cloak, to Borg can assimilate an enemy ship to take it over, etc.

Graphically this game is impressive as well. While the intro movie and cut sequences are pre-rendered, all gameplay, even the beginning of the "episodes" are rendered using the game engine. I recommend a higher end system to get optimal performance with this game. I'm running an AMD K62 550, 192MB RAM, and a Voodoo 5500 AGP with 64MB RAM on the card, and the game runs like a dream.

Its about time that the Star Trek license is being used to make GOOD games for a change, with Klingon Academy and Elite Force.

This is the best of all of the Star Trek movies, including the Wrath of Khan. This has to be the best directed, best scripted, and best acted of all of the movies. Nicholas Meyer returns to direct an incredible written script. This movie is also a return to the old political days of trek. There is still the swashbuckling feeling of TOS, but with a more mature feel. This also has to be the best cast of all the movies, not counting the regulars. Christopher Plummer as General Chang was perfect as the "intelligent" bad guy. Most of the other Trek villains tend to be cardboard cutout characters, very one dimensional, but Chang has a wonderful quality to himself. I also want to note Leonard Nimoy's performance in this movie. He is incredible in this. This is a wonderful culmination of the original cast, and quite a fanfare. This has to be the best of all the Star Trek movies to date! 5 stars!

Unlike some of the other comments here, I'm going to take a different rout. I found Voyager to be a rehash of TOS and TNG, but coming off quite badly. in TOS we see true exploration of the galaxy in a rickety star ship far away from Earth. The crew is there to represent what is best in humanity, Kirk is the go getter, the emotional heart of humanity, McCoy is humanity's passion and drive, while Spock is the outsider, but his comments on humanity shows how truly human the character is. The rest of the crew are there to represent the various facets of humanity's cultural diversity.

In TNG, we get a different spin on that concept. We are now on a larger more elegant space ship, with more of a family crew, Picard the cerebral father, and everyone else his children. In TNG we see more of a diplomatic show, in an already established Federation of planets where the flagship Enterprise is patrolling around keeping the peace, while still exploring.

Voyager tries to capture these elements of each show but falls flat. Most of the plots seem to be rehashes of the previous two. Voyager's enemy is the big enemy established in TNG, the Borg. Hurtled 75 years away from the Federation, and from continuity apparently, Voyager must struggle to make it home. The only endearing characters on this show are Neelix, who is underused, the Doctor, and Janeway. Most of the other characters have fallen into "sterotypical" stock Trek characters. The wet behind the ears ensign, the Vulcan, the emotional Klingon, etc. Seven of Nine, the sexy Borg brought on to bolster ratings, turned out to be a dud, with most of the show focused on her now. She is the super character, who can solve any predicament and have the ship on course in time for supper.

Voyager does have some virtues, but its gaping flaws, especially in continuity swallow them up. Shuttle craft being destroyed, only to be back in the next epsiode, a starship with absolutely no signs of stress after traveling for 6 years, and don't get me started on those time loop episodes. I just feel frustrated after watching this show. It makes me even more sad that Deep Space Nine is off the air, and Voyager is the only Trek on television. At least in DS9 we get continuity, complex characters, like Martok, Garak, Legget Damar, and the regulars. Each story line has reprocussions into the future story lines, in Voyager we get none of this. It tries to garner much of the action that we saw on DS9, but not to the dramatic extent of the show. In "Sacrifice of Angels" I felt goosebumps on my arms when I saw the minefield come down from in front of the Wormhole. When I saw "Scorpion" I didn't really feel anything when I saw the Borg world get destroyed.

The bottom line is that Voyager really needs to develop its characters, especially Chokatay, Belanna, and Harry Kim. It also needs to stop focusing on Seven of Nine in every episode, and look into continuity. If it can do this, it can start to pull in the fan base. I stopped watching the show halfway through this season because I found it aggrivating and a "been there done that" sort of feeling.

What doesn't this movie have. Based VERY loosely on Richard Bachman's "The Running Man", this movie is about a future where everyone is enthralled by a television gameshow called The Running Man, hosted by Family Feud's Richard Dawson playing Daimon Killian. Arnold is a wrongly framed Government worker who escapes from prision only to be captured and forced to "compete" in the Running Man gameshow.

This movie has it all, rockstar cameos like Dweezel Zappa and Mick Fleetwood as resistance fighters, down to a circumcision by a chainsaw! A+

Lines to look for:

"You cold blooded bastard, I'll tell you what I think of it, I'd live to see you eat that contract, but I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your Goddamn spine!" (Personal fave.)

"Here's Sub-Zero now PLAIN Zero!"

"What happened to Buzz-Saw?"

"Oh, he had to split."

(Tossing a flare on a gasoline soaked baddie): How about a light!

Little old lady: "I bet on Richards, that man is one mean mother f**ker!"

Definately a fun movie to watch with friends. Better than football!

Arnold at his cheesy best. The only movie he did that was cheesier, and IMHO better, was The Running Man.

High points:

Arnold: You're a funny guy Sully, that's why I'm going to kill you last.

(Later On)

Arnold: Sully, remember when I said that I would kill you last?

Sully: That's right Matrix, you promised!

Arnold: I lied! (Letting him drop into a ravine.)

Arnold: Don't disturb my friend, he's dead tired.

Bennett: (Looking and acting like Freddy Mercury on Steroids): I'm going to shoot you between the balls matrix! Arnold: (Throwing a pipe through Bennett, planting itself in a steam boiler and steam dripping out of the pipe through Bennett's chest): Let off some steam Bennett!

Also Arnold's daughter, played by Alyssa Milano, not getting freaked out by Arnold slaughtering everyone!

Body count: 86 by Arnold. (81 in the last 20 minutes of the movie, with various garden instruments like an Axe and a skill saw bade.)

-Tadd

First off, let me emphasize that as a movie year, 1999 has been on of the best in recent memory. Being John Malkovich has to be THE most original movie this past year, and one of the best overall. The basic premise is that a puppet maker, John Cusack, takes a filing job at a strange office on the 7 1/2 floor. While digging behind one of his filing cabinets he discovers a portal into actor John Malkovich's head. From that point the movie takes on a truly surrealistic direction. Eventually there are hundreds of people paying money to spend 15 minutes in John Malkovich's head, witnessing various mundane things like Taxi rides, to the more exotic, like having sex. This movie also had me asking questions, that were answered later on like, what happens if John Malkovich goes into the portal into his head. It is an intriguing journey into our more primal fantasies, essentially playing on Psychologist Jeung's collective unconsciousness, twisting it into a "collective consicousness". The movie is quite Freudian in the primal sense, yet drawing on some of the more modern behaviorist philosphies. Let's all hope that Hollywood wakes up and sees that the "blockbuster" is officially dead, and creative intelligent movies are back in full swing. John Malkovich should be nominated for Best Actor this year. If you haven't seen this movie, go see it today. Its on par with, IMHO, the best movie of the 90's, American Beauty.

This movie I think will go down as the worst movie in the 1990's. I had more fun at Nimphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell. The plot was more captivating, characters were better developed, and the director was much more original.

Now for the cast:

George Clooney: Worst Batman, they should have cast Arnold as Batman in this one, he would have pulled it off better, being a Kennedy has taught him something about being an aristocrat.

Chris O'Donnell: You know, I've always hated Robin, it could be played by a cool actor like Samuel L. Jackson, and I'd still hate him. They should kill him off in the next movie, worked in the comic books. BTW: Chris O'Donnell is horrible in the role.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: I can see why Patrick Stewart turned down the role. Horribly written, annoying, and not a great villian. I like Arnold, but he sucked in this movie.

Uma Thurman: I sat through this movie watching her and pitying her. You could see her struggling with such poor direction and script. The only bright point in the movie.

Alicia Silverstone: I've never liked her. She's like the supermodel actress. She looks good and crazy, but when she starts talking, she loses credibility. She should stick to Aerosmith videos.

So if you want your friends to hate you, your wife/husband to leave you, or to kill your neighbor's bushes, just play this movie for them. Trust me. I wish I could have given it a negative rating!

Star Trek Deep Space Nine has some of the most engaging plots and character development of all the series, TNG included. Deep Space Nine is more of a soap opera in space, where Captain Benjamin Sisko is a "Jesus Christ" figure for the aliens, called the Bajorns, that live outside of the wormhole, a celestial temple for god like aliens called the prophets, who exist outside of linear time. I recommend checking out syndicated programs of this series from the beginning of the series to get the full effect. I know, the first two seasons are quite boring, but it really picks up in the fourth season, when Michael Dorn, Worf for TNG, enters the show. It is at this time that an evil empire on the other side of the Wormhole, called the Dominion, try to invade the Alpha Quadrant, where the Federation is based. The final 3 seasons deal with this war buildup and the actual war itself, and devotes 10 episodes to finish off the series. Episodes to watch for: Far Beyond the Stars, In the Pale Moonlight, Trial and Tribbleations, and the Visitor, rated by TV Guide readers as THE best Star Trek episode of all of them.

The movie itself was really good. It didn't live up to all the hype surrounding it, but then again, what ever does? If you don't go in with these lofty expectations, I think you'll find the movie quite entertaining and fun.

Now I'm going to nitpick, these didn't necessarily make the movie bad, but they did suck.

1. Jar Jar Binks should be completely cut out of the movie. He's a stupid and annoying character. (For those of you who don't know, he's the fully CG character that follow Qui Jon and Obi-wan around.)

2. The little innuendo's between Anakin and Queen Amadalia were just a little too "ew ew, he's 9 and you're 17!! EW!!!"

3. Don't scientifically try to explain the force. Its just the force. (I'll let you see the movie to explain this, its a minor point, but annoying.)

4. Lightsabers should be able to cut through forcefields damnit! That's why they're such a damn cool weapon. (Once again, see the movie.)

Now parts that I REALLY enjoyed.

1. Darth Maul. All I can say, without giving anything away, is that he's bar none THE coolest character in Star Wars. Even though he has like 5 lines, his presence, and sword technique are just WAY TOO COOL. Trust me, you'll be blown away by the fights that he has, especially with the 2 jedi at once. DAMN cool!

2. Senator Palpatine/Darth Sideous. He was great as well! He did a good job conveying a certain duality, while remaining manipulative, good job!

3. R2D2: All I can say is that droid rocked out! I really liked him in the movie. I've always wanted an astromech droid, and I now want one even more. C3P0 was cool too, just because you could see these cool spinney things in his head! *grin*

4. The cameos. All I'll say about this is look for some cool things on Tatoine. Especially in the pod race, sitting on the mountains, "watching" the race. ;)

I'm going to go and try to see this movie again this coming weekend when I go home. There are just SO many things that go whizzing by, that I want to have another look-see to see what I missed.

So enjoy. Go see the movie if you can get tickets, it's well worth it!