Go Beyond!

Question: Will I like "Star Trek Beyond"?

I guess the answer is yes. If you liked those opening scenes of both the 2009 "Star Trek" movie, and its sequel, "Star Trek Into Darkness" - both of which had a "strange new worlds, strange new life forms..." original-series' flavour - then I'm sure you will find plenty of that entertainment in the new movie. I was fortunate to see "Star Trek Beyond" at the first public world preview screening, right here in Sydney, this afternoon!

The preview was followed by an amazing Q&A session with the director and cast members. While we had to sign review embargoes (scroll down), we are able to give general impressions. There was lots of footage that had not been leaked, or even hinted at, yet. My Trek pals and I were delighted by some amazing visuals and humorous quips, many of which reminded me of TOS (and also "The Next Generation's first episode, "Encounter at Farpoint").

The "Star Trek Beyond" Q&A session, hosted by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, with Justin Lin, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and John Cho at Telstra Experience Centre, Sydney, Australia.

Keep in mind that my favourite Treks are "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and the 2009 movie (almost equally), and I was a big supporter of TNG from the beginning. I didn't mind STiD at all, and my only niggle with it was that we were told, several times, that Benedict Cumberbatch was definitely not playing Khan. I probably would have loved the proposed "Phase II" series that begat TMP, too.

Also keep in mind that "Beyond" is a feature film, not a TV series, so it's only going to be as TOS as perhaps the "smaller" movies. "ST III: The Search for Spock"? Of course, fans who detested JJ's films from every angle will probably not have the patience for this one, but we don't recall seeing even one lens flare at the preview (not that they ever worried me).

Highly recommended!

A White Christmas, made to order

A White Christmas with my penpal, Olivia Lynn Bottum! This week's humidity and 40+ degrees C (aka 105 degrees F) temperatures have been enough to remind me I'm very definitely in the Southern Hemisphere this December! Thank you to all my wonderful Blogger readers and, increasingly, my Facebook Friends. Thanks for sharing your (and my) moments of triumph, joy, hilarity, irony, frustration and sadness throughout 2013. This is a great (still-newish), supportive and growing community. You make me laugh, commiserate and think deeply every day!

After the continuation of the dusting of snow from the afternoon of December 24, Christmas Day in Ann Arbor, Michigan, delighted me in that every time I looked out a window or door, lovely, feathery snow was falling. I think it fell for about three days non-stop. Delightful, and as if it were made to order.

Day 3 photos:

An Andorian sock monkey enjoys the snow while it lasts.

Olivia's Peruvian-themed Christmas tree, complete with... Peruvian Barbie.

A meeting of two traditional desserts: American pumpkin pie shares a plate with an Aussie Christmas pudding.

The vacuum packed plum pudding, from Itha's Puddings & Gourmet Foods, Sydney, traveled with me in my hand luggage and is from a 100-year old English recipe from the maker's own family.

The sock monkey cavorting with the angels. The Christmas angels were made by Reed's Mom,
Dorothy Lenz, using pine cones, acorns, milkweed pods, long wooden golf tees and pipe-cleaners!

After lunch, we investigated screening times for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", which had been running in the US since my birthday, but was about to premiere back home in Sydney. Luckily, the venue we chose had the 3D (and HFR) version of the film plus the 3D trailer for "Star Trek Into Darkness". Later, we discovered that our alternate choice of cinema venue was not running the "Star Trek" trailer. Lucky! Serendipitous!

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Andorian Sock Monkey"

And lo, it was good. But long!

To kill a mockingbird in 2012

Old and new: 1963 Sydney premiere of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and today's presentation
at the same theatre (2012), to celebrate 100 years of Universal Studios.

Yesterday, I was off to kill a mockingbird. In glorious black and white.

What a coincidence that this movie played a reprise screening. I am deep into the original novel at the moment, in preparation for a course in creative writing with author Jeni Mawter, at the Sydney Writers' Centre, Milson's Point.

The State's publicity blurb said, "Screen legend Gregory Peck stars as courageous Southern lawyer, Atticus Finch - the Academy Award-winning performance hailed by the American Film Institute as the 'Greatest Movie Hero of All Time'. Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about innocence, strength and conviction and nominated for eight Academy Awards."

And it was a great film. The little boy beside me was quaking in his seat, but watching through his hands. So much of the music was familiar, especially the suspense theme.

Prior to the screening of the main attraction, a b/w Cinesound newsreel from 1963 was shown. It started with the Christmas Parade of 1962, down the main street of Adelaide, then a gala day for the fire brigades, the triumphant return of the new Miss Australia to her home atate (SA), and included a festival on the Great Barrier Reef. Quote of the newsreel: "After [tennis champion] Rod Laver declares the [Great Barrier Reef] festival open, all the towns go gay."

96 in Ozploitation (volume 4)

Been looking for "Number 96: The Movie" on DVD but unable to find the double disc collector's edition? Umbrella Entertainment has now re-released Disc 1 (ie. not the docos) as part of "Ozploitation Volume 4". Included in the six-disc set are "Alvin Purple", "Alvin Rides Again", "Stork", "BMX Bandits", "Dark Age" and the short film, "Three Old Friends". $39, great value, from JB Hi-Fi. (Note that the box notes incorrectly state that Abigail stars in "Number 96: The Movie"; she does, however, feature in the "Alvin" movies.)

Umbrella's series of Ozploitation movies are derived from the feature documentary, "Not Quite Hollywood" (below left), in order to satisfy demand for the original movies after the documentary's theatrical release.



"Ozploitation Volume 1" (above right) includes "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie", "Turkey Shoot", "Harlequin", "The Naked Bunyip", "Road Games", "Night of Fear" and "Inn of the Damned".



"Ozploitation Volume 2" (above left) includes "Long Weekend", "Razorback", "Fantasm", "Fantasm Comes Again", "The Chain Reaction", "Stone", "The True Story of Eskimo Nell" and the short, "The Sparks Obituary". "Ozploitation Volume 3" (above right) includes "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own", "Les Patterson Saves the World", "Mad Dog Morgan", "Felicity", "Patrick", "Australia After Dark" and "The ABC of Love and Sex".

CBD

DAY 21

Thanks so much to Sue Tuckett and Graham "Garfield" Barnard for the kind invitation to preview "Captain America: The First Avenger" tonight at the Paramount Pictures theatrette. I wasn't expecting it to be in 3D in such an intimate venue. Excellent film - and great to see some friends from decades ago, such as Craig Walker and Quentin Saville!

I know where the wild things are

The movie of the famous Maurice Sendak children's picture book finally opened in Australia these week. I saw it tonight. It was... satisfactory. It could never rival the book, of course, but it definitely hit lots of the right chords.

I had no misconceptions. The film was going to need some "padding" because the text of the picture book is typically scant, and it was always going to be a pal shadow of the original material. The US reviews were lukewarm, but it got a great review in Thursday's Sydney newspapers and I thought it did what it needed to do. (Certainly not the disgrace of "The Magic Pudding" animated film of a few years ago, which changed things for the sake of changing them.)

"Where the Wild Things Are" certainly adds lots of new imagery, while saluting so much of the original book. Was there a sea serpent and I missed it? I always liked how he was the first indication of what Max would find when he arrived on the shore.

Beam me up, SSO!

Organ pipes and unique ceiling design of the Concert Hall,
Sydney Opera House, for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra "Star Trek" event.

This was a great event!

Because I'd made an unsuccessful attempt to secure seats for that big World Premiere of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie earlier in the year, I now receive regular emails from the Sydney Opera House for its other events. It was with great interest that I was notified of the chance to pre-order tickets for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's concert playing selections from the soundtracks of all eleven "Star Trek" movies, plus "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Transformers" and Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" from "The Planets" Suite.

Footage from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (the trip through Vejur), "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (the starship battle in the nebula), "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", and images from the Hubble Space Telescope "StarGaze" DVD, accompanied "2001" and "Mars".

A big screen showed appropriate Trek movie scenes (compiled by Daniel Saw of Active Media) to accompany each piece, and very humorous, snappy introductions from the conductor, Guy Noble. The ST material was after the intermission, and that's when Noble came out on stage in his command gold Starfleet shirt - the design from the new movie!

When acknowledging the capacity crowd, he said he suspected there were some "Star Trek" fans in the audience. Well, I did shout "Yay!" at that point, and I was in the front row (only because the choir was sitting in my originally booked box seats), but Mr Noble then pointed at me and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there's a man down here wearing pointed rubber Spock ears..."

I fully anticipated his next line: "Oh no, they're his own ears."

Well, I was considering wearing the full Andorian get-up...



The "Star Trek" movie themes, the main part of the program, included: "The Enterprise" from ST:TMP; "Main Title" of "ST II: The Wrath of Khan"; "Stealing the Enterprise" from "ST III: The Search for Spock"; "End Credits" from "ST IV: The Voyage Home", "ST V: The Final Frontier" and "ST VI: The Undiscovered Country"; "Overture" from "Generations"; "End Credits" from "First Contact" and "Insurrection"; "A New Ending" from "Nemesis" and "End Titles" from the 2009 "Star Trek" movie.

Remember that little, quirky/shimmery, musical sound in the ST II soundtrack, as the opening credits make way for the "In the 23rd century..." caption? The SSO included this sound at the beginning of their "ST II Main Title" section. At the next break, the conductor asked the audience if they'd noticed what instrument was used. No one reacted much (and my vision had been obscured by my proximity to the raised stage. They asked the musician to demonstrate... his piece of flexible, white, plastic pipe, which had been bought from a local hardware store! (I have plenty of it in my swimming pool, running the air through to my automatic pool cleaner.)



There was also a handsome collectible program, featuring synopses of each ST movie and some great photographs and trivia. Then, as we were leaving, a friend noticed these in the Opera House gift shop:


Collectible coins struck to celebrate the World Premiere
of JJ Abrams "Star Trek" movie at the Sydney Opera House.
(7th April 2009)

Renovation is now an event

Here's the George Street Cinema Complex, with marquee totally obscured by scaffolding during a renovation, but the show must go on! (It actually says, "Going to the movies is now an event" - see pic below.) Taken during my weekly Thursday night venture into Sydney CBD to buy comics and books!

Mmmmmmmmm!

Closeup on the "M" of "CINEMAXX" sign at the
Penrith Plaza Hoyts' cinema complex.

Just back from seeing "District 9", a new science fiction movie! Apartheid meets "Alien Nation" meets "Cloverfield", minus the shaky-cam. Riveting performances and SPFX! Highly recommended!

Box office gold

JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" has exited the Australian box office with ticket sales at a solid $AU16 million.

Not bad for a country with a population of 21,829,372, eh?

Today's pic:


I loved the way the street light shone through
this tree at dusk, Mulgoa Road, Penrith.

"I can hear his beard..."

What a fun night at the cinema!

I was fortunate to be invited to a preview screening of the satirical movie, "Fanboys", at the Dendy, Newtown, courtesy of this weekend's SupaNova Convention and my contest-winning friend, Karen.

Essentially, it's a very funny coming-of-age "road trip" film featuring a group of dorky, "Star Trek"-hating, basement-dwwelling, "Star Wars" trilogy-loving fanboys who have tired of the lengthy delay required until George Lucas decided to make the prequel, "Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace". They re-hatch an old high school plan to invade the Lucasfilm production ranch, and earn themselves a sneak peak at the the rough cut of the new movie.

Sadly for them, and especially for one adult fanboy they meet (who has already tattooed the up-and-coming disaster, Jar Jar Binks, on his back), the sneak preview they so desire may not answer their cravings in the ways they imagine.

Lots of crazy celebrity cameos, including William Shatner as himself (Hey, isn't he Mr No-Cameos-Ever?), and some very funny and memorable one-liners.

Sunny Smurfday

The things you find in the yard on a gorgeous, sunny Autumn Sunday...



I wonder, does a Smurf turn navy blue when he "tans"?

I scanned some new Star Trek movie tie-in stuff this morning. My overseas Trek colleagues were asking about Australian stuff:





Australian mobile advertising the "Star Trek" (2009) movie tie-in aluminium water bottle from Hoyts cinemas. Lenticular plastic movie poster drink cup and lid from the Greater Union cinemas. (There was also a matching cardboard popcorn satchel.)



Left: International packaging of Plamates' "Star Trek" (2009) movie tie-in 3.75" action figures. Note presence of belt accessory, but Uhura is not actually wearing her belt (as in US version), and there is no bonus playset piece in the package! Right: US packaging.



Left: Back of international packaging. Note there is no diagram of the separate playset. Right: Back of US packaging.

Sneaky sneak previews

Thanks to a Facebook colleague's timely heads-up while I was on vacation, I had to undertake a mission to SMS every friend I knew who possibly had access to "boutique SMS calls", since mine was blocked. One of those who sent in a newspaper competition entry on my behalf came through, and tonight my friend Karen and I saw...

... a sneak preview of JJ Abram's new "Star Trek" movie in the Sydney CBD.

Oh wow! "Star Trek" has been reborn, and it's wonderful!

So thank you John, Fleur, Leonie, Paul, Karen, Steve and Maggie, for helping me out in my hour of need. I have no way of knowing which SMS actually won the double pass, but I am thrilled that one of you has magical texting abilities!

I'm watching the Watchmen

I've been reading the first few chapters of the acclaimed graphic novel, "Watchmen", in preparation for seeing the new movie today. I have had conflicting reports about whether to read it all yet. Some movie reviewers are insisting that people must read the graphic novel first, in its original form, but having always had a vague idea of the premise, I've probably now read enough - up to Dr Manhattan's origin story in Chapter 4 - to have a good grounding in the whole Minuteman/Watchmen eras.

Avid comic collectors, who read the graphic novel when it first came out in twelve parts, seem to be loving the new movie, but a few friends reread the book in recent weeks, before seeing the movie, and then wished they'd gone into the cinema with vaguer memories.

So I feel I'm prepared, but not over-prepared.

Later that day...

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Ok, advice for everyone. Yes, do what I did if you don't know the story. Buy the graphic novel and read the first four of the twelve chapters. Enough to see the pre-history unfold in the film, but all the McGuffins are left intact, and the changed ending will be fresh and new no matter what. The "visual literacy" of this comic (and movie) is... astounding. And the songs in the soundtrack are perfectly chosen

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Escaping the string of high-temperature days out here in western Sydney this week, some friends and I went off to see the animated film, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa", sequel to the popular and successful "Madagascar".

Predictably, it was a clever mix of slapstick humour for the ankle-biters in the audience, and some clever parodies and homages to famous films and TV shows for the adults. Again we follow the misadventures of a lion, zebra, hippo and giraffe (and some manic penguins and a few monkeys). Last time they escaped Central Park Zoo and ended up, not in Africa but Madagascar. This time they try again for Africa.

Certain sequences were tips of the hat to films such as "West Side Story", "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Born Free", and classic TV's "The Twilight Zone" (William Shatner's oft-parodied "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode).

Voice actors Chris Rock (Marty the zebra) and Ben Stiller (Alex the lion) did a very funny promotional interview for this film on "Rove", a few months ago, and they mentioned how weird it was when their voices get dubbed into foreign languages, and yet they're still the headline stars who travel the world to discuss the film. Essentially they are promoting their names on the film poster! (Mind you, the fictional characters have inherited lots of quirky traits of all the cast. Melman the Giraffe is a close cousin to Ross of "Friends", thanks to the contributions of David Schwimmer.)

Some will say it wasn't as funny or fresh as the original, but for me it certainly pushed all the right buttons. Well worth a look. Escape... 2 the cinema.

"Good afternoon, good evening and good night"

I have often blogged about the phenomenon of eerier coincidences, but today I was convinced that, for the last two days, I've been squarely trapped in "The Truman Show".

Not only is Sydney's CBD, and many suburbs, almost littered with giant posters of a leering Jim Carrey (promoting his new movie "The Yes Man"), but I'm now convinced I'm being followed by a small Truman-esque group of professional actors and extras - or perhaps spies and Internet stalkers?

Yesterday, my housemate and I had some time to kill while waiting for his car to be returned from its regular wheel alignment. We had intended to travel into the city by train but, when we arrived at the station, the next fast country service to Central wasn't for another 48 minutes. We realised that, with travelling time in both directions, our window of opportunity for, umm, window shopping (not to mention the important stuff, like collecting two weeks' worth of my new comics, books and magazines) would be minimal, and we went to Blacktown instead.

On our train was a rather portly, visually-impaired man in his early 40s. He had long dreadlocks - and a guide dog (a typically diligent and contented labrador). Now, I did think at the time that the guy's hairstyle was distinctive. It's certainly not a common style to see on anyone over the age of about 30 in Penrith, but this guy didn't fit the mould for any number of reasons. Vive la difference, and IDIC*, and all that.

However, we passed this guy several times in the Westfield shopping centre at Blacktown, again when he was eating lunch in a restaurant and, sure enough, later that afternoon, he was on our train back home again.

But today: I went into the CBD for my second attempt to collect my standing order of comics, etc, from Kings Comics. Firstly, I had exactly 48 minutes to wait for the train. Spooky enough. When I arrived at Central station, who was coming up the ramp, presumably to catch a train? The guy with the dreadlocks and the guide dog!

Surrounded by Jim Carrey posters at every turn, I ended up passing two other people, in separate sidewalk cafes, who'd been on my train that morning. With comics in hand, I quickly hurried back to the station, where the next train wasn't due for... 48 minutes.

I think I'm going to start checking the sky over Penrith for signs of a secret entrance.

* IDIC - "Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations" - Spock of Vulcan, "Star Trek".

What's hot in 2009?

Got some Cinema Cash vouchers for Christmas?

More than 2000 fans responded to an online survey, which was posted on Fandango.com in December. Since the Fandango Hot List is focused on next year's films, upcoming movies which do not have a 2009 release date were not included.

MOST ANTICIPATED BLOCKBUSTERS FOR 2009

According to Men:
1. "Star Trek": 23%
2. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen": 17%
3. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince": 14%
4. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine": 9%
5. "Terminator Salvation": 7%
6. "Watchmen": 7%
7. "Angels & Demons": 5%
8. "Public Enemies": 3%
9. "G.I. Joe": 3%
10. "New Moon"("Twilight" sequel): 3%.

According to Women:
1. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince": 25%
2. "New Moon"("Twilight" sequel): 15%
3. "Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen": 11%
4. "Angels & Demons": 9%
5. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine": 7%
6. "Star Trek": 6%
7. "Public Enemies": 5%
8. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian": 4%
9. "The Lovely Bones": 3%
10. "Where the Wild Things Are": 2%.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081224/law003a.html?.v=3

Star Trek, I mean Wars, no I mean Trek...

If you thought Friday afternoon's Shatner clip (sending up JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie) was good, then you may like this even more:



Re the upcoming Star Trek movie: many fans seem to be terrified of "changes to the canon" (previous live-action, screened Trek).

If one is open to the possibility that change can be good, and that such change might even be better, or at least more relevant to 21st century audiences, then "wait and see" is a sensible approach. No one can change the content of the film. It's in the can. Not "waiting and seeing" is futile, especially if the film turns out to be very good.

I recall people prejudging the rumoured death of Spock in ST II - including Roddenberry himself - but in the end it turned out pretty well, and most people who said they hated the idea still ended up enjoying ST II.

First crew shots!: JJ's Star Trek

Turn your head, close your eyes, if you don't wish to see...



Lots more pics and information here and here!

I'm loving what I'm seeing!

Captain's Log: Supplemental.

I do recall one of the interviews discussing the filming of an iconic final scene with whole main cast, finally all in their TOS-inspired uniforms, and an assurance that, by the end of the movie, even the look of the bridge may be even more familiar to older fans. (Or did I dream that?)

One of the complaints about that cast shot we've seen, that seems to be driving people crazy, is that Kirk isn't wearing the gold part of his uniform, and/or that Spock is not even in that scene. A very deliberate tease by the publicity department. Well done! It's got people talking, asking questions, worrying about "the canon", yearning for a more complete picture.

I'm expecting that maybe, just maybe, some of the stark white on the bridge set portion we've recently glimpsed might end up with a more iconic black/silver colour scheme, with maybe bright orange/red bridge rails, etc., at the movie's conclusion. But I'm not expecting it will suddenly attempt to replicate the 60s exactly.

A Star Trek Adventure

Digging through some frame grabs to illustrate the last blog post, I realised I never did anything with this set after taking them off a TV screen with a borrowed video camera.

Universal Studios' "A Star Trek Adventure" started in the early 1990s and was a main attraction in a small stadium at the Los Angeles theme park, which taught audiences a bit about how filmmaking worked in Hollywood. It replaced a similar attraction that was based on the silent era and Vaudeville (with camera tricks, a somersaulting airplane cockpit, silly pratfalls and a custard pie fight), which I had seen in 1984.

In January 1992, I travelled to the USA again and saw "A Star Trek Adventure". The action was filmed on videotape, not necessarily in order, and automatically cut together on computer with existing stock footage from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, to create a mini-movie with lots of silly moments, water stunts, and a running gag with the Klingon dialogue (one line from the Captain was translated to mean several different things). The finished video was available to buy on VHS after the show.

Traditionally, the cast for each session of "A Star Trek Adventure" was selected from attendees to the Studios' tour who rolled up very early to stand on line: the alien Preceptors, the Enterprise bridge extras, Starfleet engineers, landing party and the Klingon "puppy lizard" were all regular park visitors selected on the day. A few parts were for young children, including aome of the engineers and one to play the Klingon Captain's canine/reptilian pet (credited as the "puppy lizard"). I found out too late about the auditions, but four main Klingons were selected each session from the "studio audience".

I was excited to be one of the four men chosen. A Klingon growl-off decided who would be the Captain by measuring the applause from the audience. To my amazement, I actually won! A friend was videotaping me getting filmed so, I have the footage of me competing in the growl-off, plus the actual episode that was created.

Pretty cool, eh? It's fun to watch Kirk's distinctive ST III shirt switch back and forth with his ST II uniform. I really must learn how to upload to Youtube...