Despite the fact that I find Data’s conversations with Freud entertaining and I like seeing a Troi cake chopped up in Alice/Tom Petty fashion, this episode is annoying and ridiculous. Data’s “dream program” may open up more story inconsistencies than it is worth.
Okay, Buzz, if that is your real name, tell us about pissing on the moon.
A top notch, straight-up, direct from the source documentary. It’s terrific that this document was made. Shame that Neil Armstrong refuses to come out of hiding.
This starts out pretty good but degrades first into the ordinary and then into the absurdly far-fetched. The last reel had me slapping my forehead and then questioning the rest of the world for liking this so much. I think the nine-thousand episodes of Law and Order may have lowered our collective bar for police procedurals and anything with decent acting is considered admirable. I still say, “Meh.”
If you ever shoot me full of sodium pentathol and ask me why I watched this in its entirety when there are so many other DVDs waiting on my shelf, please jot my response down. I’m dying to know.
This starts out with a lot of energy and quick wit, but when things get so obtuse that you just can’t follow any narrative at all, the mind can’t help but wander. Even at 85 minutes, this felt very long. Still, the few scenes that do sparkle (this is, ostensibly, a tone poem about art and its relationship to warfare) are very entertaining. There is a subplot of people screaming “Oui!” and “Non!” at each other that is downright perfect. Also, there are some actual battle sequences here – with explosions! That’s pretty new to the Godard canon. People screaming about Victor Hugo, Albert Camus and socialism, well….that has its own charm, I suppose.
A terrible plasma storm causes a DS9 evacuation – leaving just a skeleton. Quark gets manipulated into letting a rebellious Trill aboard who demand’s Jadzia Dax’s belly worm. This episode really stands as an opportunity (again) to muse on the Symbiont/Host relationships of Trills. The gang bands together to save the day. Even Quark.
Crosses, double-crosses, Data dressing down Worf, a nine-foot tall Klingon smuggler, a weapon powerless against love. Ay dios mio, lots going on here.
I love episodes when the characters have to assume deep cover and pretend to be people they aren’t. You’ll see Picard and Riker pounding each other in the face in order to sell the fact that they hate each other. And then there are the secret coded messages that only Data and LaForge can string together. This is a formula that works again and again.
The Circle (led by Frank Langella!) come to take over DS9. All the non-Bajorans are supposed to have evacuated – but Sisko & co. are actually hiding up in the rafters. Sneaky manuevers allow them to save Bajor from itself. Best is Dax and Kira on a Millenium Falcon-esque ship kicking some ass.
1/2
Picard declared dead, Riker kidnapped, a Romulan-led mercenary ship up to no good. Data must put together all the clues. Oy, such troubles.
Of note: Romulan women are hot.
He drinks it up!
Very entertaining report in Variety.
Now if only I can get Leonard Nimoy to read my witty comments about Pon Faar.
This episode manages to be more than just okay for two reasons. One – the set up of Geordi interfacing with a probe on another ship, but it functioning as a virtual reality with his body (that we see) is enough of a baffling mindfucker to keep you nerdishly engrossed. It’s just very cool to watch. The other thing (and I hate to say this to poor Geordi) is that his mother dies and she stays dead. There’s a lot of death cheating on Trek. Most famously, Spock’s “remember” to Bones, but also the crew rescuing Data from Saul Rubinek when all signals pointed to him being dead. I know, Lt. Yar died, but that was six seasons ago. When it looked like Geordi was going to “find” his mother on that planet, there I was, hoping that he wouldn’t. And he didn’t. Well done team.
Part two of this epic three-parter opens with some Marx Brothers-esque comedy in Major Kira’s quarters as she prepares for a life of a retiree. On Bajor, she encounters one of those kooky orbs and gets all kooky. Odo and O’Brien learn that the Circle is being fed weapons by the Cardassians and they don’t even know it, and Kira learns that the Circle is led by Frank Langella. Frank Langella, it turns out, is in bed with that Huckabee type played by Louise Fletcher. All very heavy stuff. The Circle sends ships up to DS9 demanding all non-Bajorans leave. They think, in their own warped way, that they will be saving Bajor, but in actuality, their demands to be self sufficient will leave them in the hands of the Cardassians. But only Sisko knows! And Starfleets quotes the Prime Directive, saying there’s nothing that can be done. What will happen next???!
Visiting Lyriian ambassadors use our crew as test subjects. “Teach us more about this thing called…..love” they coulda just asked, instead of putting Picard through all sorts of trouble. Watching them piss off Worf to find out what anger is, though, is entertaining.
This what-if terror thriller hides its micro budget well. Mixing 9/11 and Katrina imagery, we are taken through the logical, probable steps of a dirty bomb attack in Los Angeles. Much of the dialogue seems forced, some of the interpersonal conflicts don’t wring true and the acting isn’t always on mark, but, still, this is a pretty decent and scary-ass entry.
I turned on this DVD bonus feature, never expecting a full-length feature film and a damned fine and insightful look into the process of making movies. Turns out these guys would have a bigger and better film on their hands next go round (Lost in La Mancha), but their full access to Gilliam from pre-production to hawking the damned thing on Letterman is full of ups and downs, terrible setbacks and dizzying triumphs. I like this movie because it shows just how much of your movie is created in the editing room. (Also, they cut on a flatbed. Awesome.) Recommended for people looking for a good journalism piece – hardly a film for everyone.
When I first saw 12 Monkeys I dug it a lot – but I thought there were major plot holes. But for whatever reason, watching it at 1 AM the other night, I was damned sure it all made absolute 100% sense. And that was before going here.
It’s a fun movie and the look is just terrific. Brad Pitt’s performance – ridiculous, sure, but if you go with it it is a blast. In fact, if anyone should cringe at one or two of those takes it should be Bruce Willis. But no matter – it is a dynamite piece of work.
DS9 opens season two strongly – with a major political kerfuffle as Bajor’s Mandela is discovered rotting away in the last Cardassian labor camp, freed by Kira and….is then discovered to just wanna be left alone, man. Too bad, ’cause Bajor’s about to collapse from a power vacuum and Frank Langella needs this dude’s help.
What will happen next? Hopefully Quark will be branded with another “Circle” emblam. First of a three-parter.
