Electric Shadow

Screen Time #37: Peter Weller in "Duke Ellington's Funeral"

This is a new addition to the "personal favorite episode" collection. Within minutes of the episode's posting, I got a guy compaining that we didn't warn about spoilers for The Iliad and The Odyssey.

As always, full shownote links can be found on the episode page. Below is a watching/reading/listening list of watch/read/listen-able things discussed in this week's show. This post is usually for general reference, but I actually think using the below as a binge playlist makes for a really solid Memorial Day Shut-In Weekend.

Peter Weller: PhD, and responsible for some out of a thousand faces

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STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS: The Bold Path

Four years ago, I saw the first public screening of JJ Abrams' Star Trek with an audience who thought they were seeing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I was thrilled, captivated, and felt that it elevated the Trek mythos to be as digestable as Star Wars in the general public's view, and did so without watering anything down.

The new Star Trek movie is rife with elements to be spoiled, from the full nature of Benedict Cumberbatch's villain John Harrison to elements from the climax and elsewhere that have antecedents in past Trek lore. In the review that follows, I do my best to spoil none of these things, but I should note that I had them all forced on me and I managed to enjoy the movie very much regardless. The "big reveal" in act two, which I will discuss in a separate post, did not have to be kept secret for me, but the gasps in the preview audience with whom I saw it may have proven me wrong.

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Daily Grab 52: Flick and Dip

JJ "Jeffrey" Abrams is the credited co-writer on 1997's wrong-guys-caught-in-the-middle-of-something comedy Gone Fishin', which stars Joe Pesci and Danny Glover. Willie Nelson is their spiritual mentor, as he should be for everyone. This is a screen capture from the Blu-ray, which can be found almost everywhere for the princely sum of $5.

Daily Grab 49: Flare for the Dramatic

About four years ago, I wrote an article that took me all night.

"I wasn't born until 1983, so I've only heard stories from friends and their parents about the summer of '77. You didn't have to be a "geek" or a "nerd" or a five year old who loves CG to go see Star Wars."

I went into work the next day without any sleep, because my wife and I were part of the first audience in North America to see the new Star Trek movie. So sue me, I liked the lens flares (and still do):

"Star Trek has never been this visually dynamic. The camera work is full of lens flares, reflections, and focus effects that really sell the atmosphere as being less steady and...overly-tidy than before. You also have a more nuts n' bolts, gaskets n' pipes styled Enterprise, where the ship feels like a labyrinthine submarine merged with an aircraft carrier. The mixture of practical and CG alien and creature effects are also fantastic, with all kinds of new stuff never seen before in the franchise in terms of design or quality."

Now JJ Abrams is apparently set to direct Star Wars: Episode 7: Revenge of a New Subtitle, and...I think he's a perfect fit.