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War for the Planet of the Apes, a review by addicted2dvd

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017/United States) Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United States) Director: Writing: Length: 140 min. Video: Widescreen 2.40:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 7.1, Audio Descriptive: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Commentary

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Stars:


Plot:
In this thrilling, climactic chapter in the Planet of the Apes saga, Caesar (ANDY SERKIS) and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel (WOODY HARRELSON). But after suffering unimaginable losses, Caesar resolves to avenge his kind, pitting him against the Colonel for a final showdown that will determine the future of the planet!

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Gallery
• Digital Copy

Going into this one I expected pure action. But it does also have a decent story line to it as well. But what this film does have going for itself is all the fantastic visuals. And I am not just talking the special effects... which were great... but all the visuals. The design of the apes... the wonderful background imagery... there is a really great shot of an explosion (you will know it when you see it) that looks just amazing. Over all, the film is well worth the time put in to watch it. I would definitely recommend it.



(From What Movies I Been Watching on December 8th, 2017)

Star Trek (2009), a review by Tom

Title: Star Trek
Year: 2009
Director:
Rating: 12
Length: 127 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.40
Audio: English: Dolby Digital TrueHD, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital Surround, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Audio Descriptive: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Commentary, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Chris Pine
Zachary Quinto
Leonard Nimoy
Eric Bana
Winona Ryder

Plot:
"STAR TREK is a burst of pure filmmaking exhilaration and an irresistible invitation for fun." The cocky, renegade James Kirk (Chris Pine) and the equally youthful half-Vulcan, half-human Spock (Zachary Quinto) are among the young members of a fledging Starfleet crew, and about to launch the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. During their incredible galactic voyage of exploration and discovery, they will encounter the evil Nero (Eric Bana) whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind. With both the blockbuster-hit film and all-new special features on this two-disc Digital Copy Special Edition, you will journey behind the scenes and immerse yourself in a thrilling, action-packed Star Trek universe, as you have never experienced before!

Awards:

Scream Awards	2009	Won	Best Cameo	Winona Ryder
Scream Awards	2009	Won	Best Director	J. J. Abrams
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Ensemble
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best F/X
Scream Awards	2009	Won	Best Science Fiction Actor	Chris Pine
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Science Fiction Actor	Zachary Quinto
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Science Fiction Actress	Zoe Saldana
Scream Awards	2009	Won	Best Sci-Fi Movie
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Scream-Play	Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Supporting Actor	Leonard Nimoy
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Supporting Actor	Simon Pegg
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Best Villian	Eric Bana
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Breakout Performance-Female	Zoe Saldana
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	Breakout Performance-Male	Chris Pine
Scream Awards	2009	Won	Fight-to-the-Death Scene of the Year	"Kirk vs. Spock":
Scream Awards	2009	Nominated	The "Holy Sh%t!" Scene of the Year	"Space Dive onto Orbital Drill":
Scream Awards	2009	Won	The Ultimate Scream
Teen Choice Awards	2009	Nominated	Choice Movie - Action Adventure
Teen Choice Awards	2009	Nominated	Choice Movie Actress - Action/Adventure	Zoe Saldana
Teen Choice Awards	2009	Nominated	Choice Movie Fresh Face - Male	Chris Pine
Teen Choice Awards	2009	Nominated	Choice Movie Rumble	Kirk vs. Spock
Teen Choice Awards	2009	Nominated	Choice Movie Villain	Eric Bana
World Soundtrack Awards	2009	Nominated	Film Composer of the Year	Michael Giacchino

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Outtakes
Scene Access
Star Trek: Countdown (Comic)

When I first heard about the idea of making a Star Trek prequel movie years ago (the talk was about a Star Trek Academy movie), I was shocked that they even considered something like this. I wanted further TNG movies or DS9 movies. But after the failure of Nemesis and the new Enterprise series, I didn't want any further movies.
When then again came up the topic of a Star Trek reboot movies years later, I was all for it. Now was the right time for it.

Even though I was all for it, I was going into it was some trepidation. The trailer hadn't really convinced me yet. But I was positively surprised by the movie. They managed to make a reboot with the possibility to explore new directions, but they didn't ignore the past movies. Having Leonard Nimoy as the old Spock from the previous timeline's past in it to bridge the gap was the only move which probably could pull that off.

The new cast is perfect. The new Spock is a dead-on young Leonard Nimoy. The new Kirk has the spirit of Shatner's Kirk, but they thankfully chose to not imitade Shatner's delivery style. That would have come across as a Shatner parody instead of a new incarnation of Kirk. Simon Pegg as Scotty was alright as was the other supporting Enterprise crew. The new Bones is the one who surprised me the most. When I first saw him, I did not think that he was right for the role. He didn't look anything like DeForest Kelley. But his McCoy was dead-on.

But the movie also has its problems:
- I didn't like the "Star Wars" sequence on the Ice Planet, where Kirk is chased by a monster which in turn is caught by an even bigger monster. Also it is just too much of an coincidence, that Kirk is jettisoned to only a short walk away from where the old Spock is marooned.
- I didn't like it, that the kid Kirk is driving a vintage automobile. This scene is what bothered me most in the trailer. And the Nokia phone was the most grinchworthy moment in the entire movie.
- I didn't like it, that again the Romulans where the villains (like in Nemesis), but at least it was understandable, because we knew from TNG that the old Spock was involved with Romulans the past few years.
- Overuse of lens flare in the bridge scenes. Is the bridge supposed to be a light show, or what?

Also there are some moments, which bother me a little, but they do count as character flaws and not movie flaws: Like why did they give the charge to the redshirt guy and do not have one themselves? They didn't know who will survive the fall, so they should have planned to have backups. And am I understanding it correctly, that because of the stupidity of the redshirt, Vulcan was doomed?

A few references to past movies, that I remember now while writing the review:
- Kobayashi Maru: We learn in Star Trek 2 that Kirk is the only one ever beating the test scenario. Shatner was also eating an apple telling about it, like Chris Pine did while taking the test.
- The Vulcan school: The computers on which the kids take the tests are similar to the computer Spock did tests on in Star Trek 4
- The "friends" speech by Spock. First spoken in Star Trek 2.
- Spock also chose to not complete the Kolinahr in Star Trek 1.
- Spocks parents where first seen in the TOS episode "Journey to Babel", but were also part of Star Trek 4. His father was also in 6.
- I also got a kick out of Leonard Nimoy declaring "I am Spock" in the movie. Which is the title of his autobiography.
- Old Spock giving Scotty the formula which Scotty would have invented later himself is reminiscent of a scene in Star Trek 4.
- Nero is using the same creatures to extract information from Pike as Khan did in Star Trek 2. Would have been fun though, if we would have gotten an updated "ear-invasion" scene, instead of putting it in the mouth.
- Sulus experiance in hand-to-hand combat is of course a reference to a scene in a TOS episode, where we see Sulu fencing.

Rating:

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 22nd, 2009)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

4.12 Call of the Wild - Part 1 (1999-03-14)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Paul Gross (Writer), R.B. Carney (Writer)
Director: Steve DiMarco
Cast

(From "Due South" marathon on January 5th, 2011)