games | the m0vie blog

Wanted! Contestants for Irish Quiz Show!

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Darren

RTÉ is launching a new quiz show that will be recorded on September 4th as part of the network’s “format farm” season. The producers over at Vision Independent Productions got in touch with me and let me know that they are looking for contestants for Division. I’m always glad to help Irish film and television, so the full text and details are below. If you’d like to enter for a chance to win a €5,000 holiday, drop them a line at the contact details below. Or visit the website.

If you do decide to enter, best of luck!

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: division, Game show, games, Handheld TV game, Operation Transformation, Recreation, Television, trivia, Video game, Vision Independent Productions | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Star Trek V – The Final Frontier

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Darren

This August, to celebrate the upcoming release of Star Trek: Into Darkness on DVD and blu ray, we’re taking a look at the Star Trek movies featuring the original cast. Movie reviews are every Tuesday and Thursday.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is not a good movie. There’s really nothing that can be excavated from the film that might redeem it. It isn’t a misunderstood masterpiece. It isn’t an insightful diamond in the rough. It’s just a bad film, the one which forms the cornerstone of the “odd-numbered Star Trek films” curse. It’s indulgent, pretentious and narrow-minded. It tries to blend a world-weary cynicism with an ill-judged and mean-spirited sense of humour.

Despite being shorter than Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, it feels remarkably longer. It feels like a rather halfhearted attempt to recapture the spirit of the television show – oblivious to the fact that the franchise has spent the past decade moving onwards. It confuses ponderous pretension for intelligent insight.

Feeling blue…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cynicism, Cynthia Gouw, DeForest Kelley, games, james t. kirk, kirk, KLAA, Leonard McCoy, Leonard Nimoy, List of Star Trek characters, Paradise City, Recreation, Roleplaying, Scotty, spock, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, star trek: the original series, StarTrek, Television and Movies, Timothy Leary, Trekkie, Uhura, vulcan, William Shatner | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Dark Knight Returns, Part II

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Man of Steel this month, we’re going Superman mad. Check back daily for Superman-related reviews.

The Dark Knight Returns is pretty much the classic Batman story, even more than Year One from the same author. It’s the story which – for better or worse – defined a lot of what we take for granted about Batman as a character today. So it makes sense that there would be an animated adaptation. And I respect the decision to split the story across two seventy-odd minute instalments, creating a two-part movie which still runs significantly shorter than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

Adapting Miller’s story from print was always going to be a tough proposition. After all, Miller’s comic isn’t just one of the defining Batman stories, it’s a turning point in mainstream comics. Transferring it from its home medium was always going to be tough. Still, the production team working on The Dark Knight Returns, Part II acquit themselves well in offering a satisfying take on a classic tale.

It’s the Batman!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, dark knight returns, Dark Knight Rises, frank miller, games, gordon, heath ledger, joker, michael emerson, Miller | 5 Comments »

Star Trek – Season 1 (Review)

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness this month, we’ll be running through the first season of the classic Star Trek all this month. Check back daily to get ready to boldly go. It’s only logical.

That came together rather well, didn’t it? With the current success of Star Trek as a blockbuster movie franchise, it’s fun to speculate about the show possibly returning to television. Being honest, I would be nervous about that. In this cut-throat age where ratings need to solidify (or start rising) almost immediately, I wouldn’t trust the first season of a Star Trek spin-off to rope in viewers quick enough. None of the Star Trek spin-offs, from The Next Generation through to Enterprise, had what could be considered “strong” first years. Occasionally there were a few classic episodes buried in there, as with Deep Space Nine, but it always seems to take a Star Trek show some time to find its “space legs”, so to speak. Time that I am not sure it would be afforded in the current market place.

Which makes it all the more spectacular that Star Trek itself started out so phenomenally. The first year of the show (and the franchise) is not only the best first season of any Star Trek show ever, it’s also in the running for the best of the thirty seasons of television that the franchise has produced. Not bad at all, considering that it seems like nobody had any idea what exactly they were doing when they started out.

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Dagger of the Mind, games, Janice Rand, Leonard McCoy, NBC, Next Generation, spock, Star Trek Games, Star Trek Into Darkness, star trek: enterprise, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, Television and Movies, Trek, Where No Man Has Gone Before | 3 Comments »

Star Trek – The Return of the Archons (Review)

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Darren

It is really hard to believe that this is the first time we’ve really had one of these plots, with the Enterprise visiting an alien civilisation, meddling thoroughly and freeing the population from oppression. Of course, that’s probably because the universe seemed so vast an empty in the first few episodes. The only planets seemed to be either lifeless rocks or human colonies. From this point on, the galaxy is going to seem a whole lot busier.

Return of the Archons is a little bit like an expansion of the archetypal Star Trek plot established in What Are Little Girls Made Of? The Enterprise visits an alien world following up on the disappearance of Federation personnel. When they arrive, they discover sinister plans afoot involving evil artificial intelligences that plan on stomping out free will. Kirk promptly uses his humanity to talk the machines into destroying himself.

However, Return of the Archons deals with a whole civilisation trapped in the midst of this sinister robotic plot. Kirk and his crew aren’t strolling through an alien graveyard. This is a living, breathing society. And this is the first time that Kirk would save an entire civilisation.

Some men just want to watch the world burn…

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: action, Alaska, Archon, Book of Enoch, Chemtrail conspiracy theory, David Icke, Earth, games, gene roddenberry, james t. kirk, Kenai Alaska, kirk, Landru, Naked Time, Religion and Spirituality, Return of the Archons, sky, spock, star trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, star trek: enterprise, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, The Return of the Archons, Tic-tac-toe, Uhura, Way to Eden, Zachary Quinto | 6 Comments »

Star Trek – The Alternative Factor (Review)

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Darren

Well, here we are. The Alternative Factor. We’ve had weak episodes before. I’ll concede that shows like Court Martial and The Menagerie, Part II wouldn’t rank among my favourites of the season. However, there was always just enough there to make them interesting, if not compelling. There were good ideas, clumsily executed. There was something value to be found in watching these episodes. The Alternative Factor lacks those sorts of redemptive values, and it’s the first time on this re-watch I have actually wondered where my fifty minutes went, and lamented the fact that watching The Alternative Factor inched me ever-closer to death.

The Alternative Factor is – I’d argue – the weakest episode of a remarkably strong first season of Star Trek. While some would consider it one of the worst episodes the show ever produced, I’m reluctant to commit to that sort of certainty. After all, we still have the third season to come, and I’m hesitant to rank The Alternative Factor as that much worse than The Turnabout Intruder or The Way to Eden or And the Children Shall Lead or Spock’s Brain. Yep, there’s a lot to look forward to if I ever get around to finishing the third season of the show.

Still, the fact that The Alternative Factor might possibly not be the worst thing to happen to Star Trek in its nearly fifty years of existence is damning with faint praise. But I’m sure the episode will take whatever it can get.

It hurts!

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Alternative Factor, battlestar galactica, Benedict Cumberbatch, chris pine, Commodore, games, gene roddenberry, Hulu, J. J. Abrams, james t. kirk, John Drew Barrymore, kirk, Ricardo Montalban, Screen Actors Guild, spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek Into Darkness, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, voyager, William Shatner, Zachary Quinto | 7 Comments »

Star Trek – The Squire of Gothos (Review)

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Darren

It’s easy to see why The Squire of Gothos has become such a Star Trek touchstone. The show is iconic, but there are particular images and ideas that resonate beyond the core fanbase. Captain Pike’s wheelchair from The Menagerie is one such example, as is the fight with the Gorn from Arena. It’s amazing that Star Trek could produce so many memorable and distinctive images so quickly. Trelane might not have the same name recognition, or even the same pop culture cache, but The Squire of Gothos makes quite an impression.

Indeed, the image of a god-like being acting like a spoilt child, dressed in all manner of period military clothing is a great visual, and it’s little wonder that Roddenberry would return to that idea when he was writing Encounter at Farpoint, the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Similarly, The Squire of Gothos is one of the major influences on Futurama‘s superb parody/homage, Where No Fan Has Gone Before, right down to the wonderful “twist” ending that has been spoiled by almost half-a-century of pop culture osmosis.

Still, even apart from its massive influence on pop culture, The Squire of Gothos is still a fantastic piece of television, and an example of Star Trek at its very best.

It’s hip to be squire…

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Charlie X, games, god, J. J. Abrams, kirk, Leonard McCoy, List of Star Trek characters (T–Z), Man Trap, science fiction, spock, Spoiled child, Squire of Gothos, star trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Original Series, star trek: the next generation, StarTrek, Trelane, Where No Fan Has Gone Before, Where No Man Has Gone Before | 4 Comments »

Star Trek: Early Voyages #12-15 – Futures, Parts I, II, III & IV (Review)

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Darren

We’ll be supplementing our coverage of the episodes with some additional materials – mainly novels and comics and films. This is one such entry.

As we discussed before, Star Trek: Early Voyages is about as close to a series starring Christopher Pike as we are ever likely see. A monthly comic book running for about a year-and-a-half, told by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton, the book followed the adventures of Christopher Pike’s Enterprise, a prelude to the classic Star Trek television show, filling some gaps left by The Cage and The Menagerie. However, the comic had the benefit of being told after a lot of Star Trek had aired.

First published in 1997, it hit stands after the big-screen adventures of the Kirk era had officially wrapped up in Star Trek: Generations, and long after Star Trek: The Next Generation had gone off the air. Even Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was more than half way through its run. This puts Early Voyages in an interesting place. It is set in the past, but knows how the future plays out. The epic four-part Futures storyline plays with this concept, offering us a glimpse of an imperfect future where Captain Kirk is a rogue running a cargo ship, the Klingons have annexed considerable portions of the Federation and are on the verge of war…

Oh, and Christopher Pike is happy. That’s how you know it’s a flawed universe.

“And THAT is for stealing my show!”

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Filed under: Comics, The Original Series | Tagged: Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Pike, dan abnett, games, J. J. Abrams, james t. kirk, kirk, science fiction, spock, star trek, Star Trek Games, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek Into Darkness, star trek: deep space nine, video games, Where No Man Has Gone Before | Leave a comment »

Star Trek – Court Martial (Review)

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Darren

It’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer versatility of Star Trek as a format. For a show about exploring the universe, the creators have really managed to incorporate just about any and all genres of television story. Over the franchise’s 700-episode history, there’s been a wealth of quirky episodes that explore types of stories that one might consider quite surreal for a show about a ship travelling to the stars. A court room episode might not be the most radical of these shifts, but Court Martial is still fascinating as an evolution of Star Trek as a concept, broadening the kind of stories that could be told within a Star Trek framework. After all, the fact that there’s a whole subgenre of Star Trek involving court room drama is probably rooted in this first-season adventure.

While its influence is absolutely massive, Court Martial is still a problematic episode. Despite demonstrating what writers could really do within the context of the show, Court Martial suffers because it’s really not that good.

Running rings around the prosecution…

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Ben Finney, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlie X, Court Martial, D. C. Fontana, Elisha Cook Jr, Fontana, games, Gene L. Coon, J. J. Abrams, james t. kirk, kirk, red alert, science fiction, star trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, StarTrek, Television and Movies, Television program, Where No Man Has Gone Before, William Shatner | 5 Comments »

Star Trek – Miri (Review)

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Darren

It is amazing how Star Trek manages to deftly balance the absurd with the horrific, the bizarre with the terrifying and the camp with the truly haunting. It’s something that’s really unique to the first iteration of the show, that deft ability to go completely for broke, willing to look completely ridiculous without any hint of embarrassment or modesty. Any of the spin-offs would be too conservative and too dignified to attempt anything quite as insane as Miri, with the failure of episodes like Move Along Home demonstrating that it’s impossible to replicate the freedom and the enthusiasm of the original show.

As a result, Miri is a wonderfully weird hour of television, one which is – on just about any level – incredibly wacky. And yet, despite that truly “out there” approach, it’s also a strangely compelling and engaging example of Star Trek.