PCP on DVD - Bel Ami

My wife loves films set in the past, especially historical romances like Pride & Prejudice.  This caused us to pick up the film Bel Ami to see if it was any good.  With a promising cast including Uma Thurman & Christina Ricci, I held out hope that the film wouldn't be a waste of 102 minutes.  Too bad my hopes were mostly dashed.

Bel Ami - 2012, rated R.  My rating: 6 out of 10.

Bel Ami is apparently a film adaptation of a famous French novel from 1885 (something I didn't know until researching for this review).  It is the story of a former soldier, Georges (Robert Pattinson), who lusts for more in his life than his low station due to his poor birth.  He decides to improve his lot in life, which he does by sleeping his way to the top, taking on a number of rich and powerful women as his mistresses, especially Ricci & Thurman.  Along the way though he is exposed as the conniving schmuck he is, a man with absolutely no morals or compassion for the women he is using.

The film itself has the great period costumes of the turn of the century, and the cast looks great in the well-crafted clothes.  Pattinson shows that he actually does have some acting talent when not weighed down by the crap that is Twilight.  Unfortunately, the film itself is just rather dull.  It is extremely hard to root for his character, you actually want to see him fail, not succeed, yet he keeps moving up in the world and becomes a bigger and bigger douche the more power he gains.  This film can be skipped by most people unless you are really a big Twihard or just love period piece films.  It wasn't the biggest waste of time I've had this year, but it really isn't anything to write home about either.

PCP in Theaters - Star Trek Into Darkness

I finally got a chance to catch a film in theaters for the first time since last December's The Hobbit. Although I haven't yet seen Iron Man 3, I wanted to see the movie that I was most looking forward to for this summer, Star Trek Into Darkness. Fortunately, I was not disappointed in the film at all.

Star Trek Into Darkness - 2013, rated PG-13.  My rating: 9 out of 10.

I've always been more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, but I was never really a fan of the original series growing up, as I grew up on Star Trek TNG and DS9. I'd seen some of the episodes of the show, but not the entire runs of the series like I had with the latter two franchises. But when JJ Abrams rebooted the original series in 2009, I fell in love with this new Star Trek universe. By having the universe be an alternate reality from the Trek-verse I grew up on, it allows for new adventures and new possibilities without damaging the canon of the universe too greatly. While there are some fanboys that will never forgive JJ for this, I personally thought it was a great idea and a brilliant way to inject new life into a franchise that had somewhat run its course.

Star Trek Into Darkness picks up 6 months after the previous film, meaning it still technically takes place in a time prior to the events of the original series, as the Enterprise has still not yet begun it's 5 year mission of deep space exploration. The film jumps right into the action, with a tense sequence set on a planet with an erupting volcano, and the crew of the Enterprise having to save a stone-age civilization from the eruption. Unfortunately, they violate the Prime Directive in the process (don't interfere with pre-warp travel species), causing Kirk to get busted back down to first officer and Admiral Pike retakes command of the Enterprise back on Earth.

While there, a bomb goes off in London at a Starfleet Office, followed up by an attack on Star Fleet HQ in San Francisco, terrorist acts perpetrated by a rogue Starfleet officer named John Harrison, played excellently by Benedict Cumberbatch. Kirk & the Enterprise are tasked by Starfleet's Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) to track down Harrison and take him out. But things are not everything that they seem, and along the way the Enterprise will face its toughest challenges ever.  I'd say more about the plot here but I don't want to get into spoilers now. At the bottom of the post I will discuss the plot in more detail, but for those that haven't seen the film yet I do not want to give anything away.

Overall though the film is a ton of fun. The reboot cast is all excellent, and each has their moment to shine, whether it's Sulu briefly taking the captain's chair and issuing a great threat against Harrison, McCoy's sarcastic quips, Uhura's badassery, Scotty's funny antics, or Chekov's heroic actions in engineering. But the core focus is as always on Spock & Kirk and their relationship, which is deepened here greatly. Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto play off each other very well, and as long as the two of them continue to star as the leads in this series, I will always be there in theaters to watch them. The action in this film is relatively non-stop as well, with a ton of great action setpieces. The quiet moments are great too, developing the relationships between the crew, and allowing Cumberbatch to use his baritone voice to great menacing effect.

Bottom line, I strongly recommend this film to all, it is a perfect summer movie - big spectacle but a big heart as well. Go forth and have fun!

After the jump --> my thoughts on the film with spoilers on the plot, so stop reading here if you don't want to know the plot twists.

PCP on DVD - Wanderlust

Some times I will pick up a film just because I like who is in the movie, without really knowing anything about the film.  In some cases, I pick up a great film that I missed.  In other cases, I pick up a dud that I wish I had missed.  Wanderlust is closer to the latter category than the former.

Wanderlust - 2012, rated R.  My rating:  6 out of 10.

I picked up Wanderlust because I like Paul Rudd a lot, and Jennifer Aniston can be good in some roles as well.  The film is the story of two New Yorkers who through a series of unfortunate events wind up spending some time living on a hippie commune.  The film has a few laughs and some heartwarming moments between Aniston and Rudd, but in general the film relies way too much on stereotypical hippie jokes, without a lot of originality.  Only the charisma of the stars as well as the great supporting cast (Justin Theroux, Malin Akerman, & Alan Alda, amongst many) save the film from being a total disaster.  As it is though, the film is only so-so, and nothing particular to write home about.