Star Trek Beyond - Movie Review

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Deep Roy and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
Written by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung.
Directed by Justin Lin.

★★★

After Star Trek into Darkness turned out to be a remake of The Wrath of Khan, they wanted to be a little more original this time around. And they were. This felt like a two-hour episode of the original series, so by being more faithful to the spirit of the series, it was able to break out and tell a new story.

The Enterprise is now more than halfway through its five-year mission, and the crew is starting to feel bored. But then an opportunity comes along to explore a nebula where no one knows what's inside it, and things sound interesting. Of course once they go inside, they're attacked, the Enterprise is destroyed, and they're stranded on an unknown planet.

The movie takes its time to give everyone character moments. We've gotten to know them; now it lets us enjoy their interactions. Spock and McCoy spend a good section of the film stranded together, and their interplay was the most enjoyable part of the movie. (Karl Urban's best work yet in the role.) It also benefits from guest work by Idris Elba as the main villain Krall, and from Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service) as Jaylah, a different alien who's been stranded a long time herself.

The late, great Anton Yelchin is just part of the ensemble as Chekov, and I can't help but wish they'd given him more to do. But they had the luxury of thinking they could just do that in the next movie.

Star Trek is a likable series. It's never my #1 must-see of the year, but I'm always glad when the opportunity to see another one rolls around. Especially when it's good.

Margin Call - DVD Review

★★★½

Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgely, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci and Aasif Mandvi.
Directed by J.C. Chandor.

This does for millionaire financial analysts what Glengarry Glen Ross did for real estate.  It's not based on any one company, but it wouldn't surprise me if the execs at Lehman Bros. or AIG went through the same thing.

Early in the movie there's a scene where a supervisor Eric (Stanley Tucci) along with 80% of the other workers on his floor.  He passes off a thumbdrive to a co-worker Peter (Zachary Quinto) who opens and tries completing its formulas.  He does that evening, and he calls Eric's boss Will (Paul Bettany) to come back to the office.  Peter shows him the numbers, and Will calls his boss Sam (Kevin Spacey) who then calls other higher-up executives until finally the CEO helipcopters in.

Jeremy Irons is John Tuld, the CEO, and one of the bitings truths the movie captures is that the further up the chain, the less knowhow they actually have, the less work they actually do.  They're there because they make the "hard decisions."  Irons commands every scene he's in, and this is with an already outstanding ensemble.