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Awix (3310 KP) rated Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (1986) in Movies

Mar 26, 2019

Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (1986)

1986 | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

7.7

(26 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Fourth big-screen Trek dodges the usual 'all SF blockbusters must be action movies' pitfall and opts for some gentle social comedy instead. Alien probe is outraged by the extinction of Earth's whales and decides to wipe out civilisation; Kirk and the gang have to travel back to 1980s San Francisco to recruit some substitute cetaceans and save the day. Very possibly riding on the coat-tails of Back to the Future, but also Nick Meyer's Time After Time (Meyer wrote the middle section of the film).

Solidly structured and engagingly played: the actors know their characters backward and it's a pleasure to spend time with them. Interesting to speculate about the original version of the film, which would have co-starred Eddie Murphy (Paramount nixed the idea). Doing a lighter Trek works well here, but led to the studio insisting on comedy bits being added to future films in the series, which was arguably a big mistake. Doesn't detract from the entertainment value of Star Trek in one of its magisterial phases.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Blinded by the Light (2019) in Movies

Aug 13, 2019 (Updated Aug 13, 2019)

Blinded by the Light (2019)

2019 | Biography, Comedy, Drama

7.1

(16 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Clumsy, trite, and overlong musical coming-of-age drama. The story of an Asian teenager living in Luton in a dress-up version of the late 1980s is brought to life through the music of Bruce Springsteen (well-known as one of the great interpreters of the British Pakistani experience).

As you can probably tell, there is something slightly odd and out-of-whack about the whole premise of the movie, but it's the realisation that is really shocking. Badly-performed characters swap platitudes and re-enact virtually every movie about growing up with strict Pakistani or Muslim parents you have ever seen before, with occasional musical interludes where characters sing along, not well, with Springsteen tracks. To say the dance routines look under-rehearsed is charitable. Apparently aims to be a feel-good movie but I'm sure I felt it trying to suck the soul out of my body. 'Blinded by the Trite', more like - certainly more dross than Boss (I can keep this up all day).