Clearly – I was stuck on an airplane with individual TV’s! So I indulged: Stardust, Star Trek Into Darkness, Parental Guidance, the Big Wedding, Legend of Sarila, and finally The Internship.
The only seriously good movie on the list was Stardust – and that’s based on the awesome performance by Michelle Pfeiffer as the wicked witch. I can’t help but feel sympathy when she tries to ‘magic’ away an age spot – and ends up with sagging breasts! I also must admit to a fondness for Robert de Niro’s “poffy” captain of the airship. Charmont to say the least.
“The internship”, my second favorite on the list, is a fairly predictable but still amusing outing by Owen Wilson – typecast as the hopeless endearing shaggy mop-man, but still a glimpse into what it must be like to do an internship at Google with a job as the high-stake prize. Having super smart kids who are struggling with the shrinking job market – their predicament is all too real. If only it was as easy as winning a soccer match, or selling a pizza place on advertising with Google.
The worst of the bunch – and that’s saying a lot because it’s hard to find something good to say about Parental Guidance, is the Star Trek mishap. Fancy visual effects aside – and managing to take down a good portion of San Francisco without ‘killing’ anyone is a pretty weird bit of story telling – the fake romance between Uhura and Spock is so decidedly off-putting and off-story that it makes the rest of the movie ignor-able. How can I believe Kirk is real when there’s this strange back-story? I’m amazed to see that Rotten Tomatoes managed to get past that bit of insanity, but I just couldn’t.
Middle of the road – and really the saving grace is the believable scenery – is the ‘cartoon’ feature – Legend of Sarila. I’ve actually traveled into Northern Quebec, Nunavik, and Greenland. And I can tell you first hand – it actually looks like that. Even the oil lamp/bowl looks exactly like items we saw the Inuit using. Yes it’s a legend – but the story it tells – and the people it portrays are real. Problems? Well – it’s too clean, it’s too simple, and Sedna – a major goddess to the Inuit – is too easy to please. But as a kid friendly introduction to a life that most of us can’t imagine trying to live – this movie does work.
As for Parental Guidance and the Big Wedding. Skip’m!
Musings and Mutterings of a Montreal Madame 
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Oh this is so cool. A star trek fan site linked to my comment about Star Trek into Darkness. I feel so – established. So part of the incrowd. Man – I’m hot! (well – ok – that’s over the top – but you get my point). Leslie
Hmm.. Yes… the romance is weird – but I think that most people forgive it because of the whole ‘this is an alternate universe’ thing. If you watch the first one, they show how an extraordinary amount of Kirk’s background has been changed in this universe, particularly with the death of his father (something invented purely for this series of films).
hahah. I didn’t assume airplane! I assumed Sundance! ( I don’t know why though – it is obviously not that season!).
xx
(ps. back in VT, safe and sound).
But it’s so wrong. I mean there’s no hint of anything between them – for us older ‘trekies’ the one certain was that Spock never was interested in Uhura. And she was never interested in him. They could have had him romancing another woman – who conveniently dies in the movie. Anyone except her! Try googling images of Uhura in Star Trek. That gal doesn’t even faintly resemble Uhura – doesn’t act like her. Nothing. Bad casting, bad story line. Completely distracting. But just my opinion.
for the record – Sundance – another film fest that I will blog – is January 17 to 26 in Park City Utah. Just saying.