Star Trek is back…and it’s damn good.
Star Trek
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoë Saldana
***1/2

Growing up, I was always more into Star Trek as a film franchise than as a TV-series.  While I sporadically watched episodes of the ’60s show, as well as spin-offs like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, I re-visited The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock dozens of times on VHS and saw every Star Trek flick from The Voyage Home on in theaters opening weekend (yes, even The Final Frontier and Insurrection—the two worst entries in the series).  Sure, the movies were essentially just longer episodes, but the best installments—i.e. the even-numbered ones—had a scope and grandeur that captured my imagination far more than the series’ steady stream of technobabble.  Naturally, my favorite films are the ones featuring the original crew, but I still found things to enjoy in some of the Next Generation‘s big-screen adventures, even their last outing, Nemesis, which brought the franchise to a screeching halt when it earned an embarrassing $43 million in its brief theatrical run.

Clearly, the time was right for a fresh take on Star Trek, but what’s funny about J.J. Abrams’ lavishly-produced reboot is how closely it sticks to the spirit—and in some cases, the letter—of the original show.  Transporting viewers back in time to James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock’s first mission aboard the starship Enterprise, the new movie is filled with nods and in-jokes that reference the ’60s Trek, from a scene in which Kirk (now played by Chris Pine) beats the supposedly-impossible Kobayashi Maru test to another that reveals how the ship’s crusty doc Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) acquired his nickname “Bones.”  But don’t worry, you don’t have to be an old-school Trekker to find these moments funny.  That’s the genius of Abrams film—it’s a blockbuster sci-fi adventure that’s been designed to reach the broadest possible audience, yet still looks and feels like Star Trek.

The other thing that distinguishes Star Trek from most big-budget summer vehicles is that the special effects-laden action sequences never overwhelm the story or characters.  That’s not to say that the numerous set-pieces aren’t terrifically executed.  The effects work in Trek stands head and shoulders above the bargain basement CGI on display in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Abrams’ roving, swooping camera lends all the chases, brawls and space battles a breathless urgency.  But unlike, say, the first Transformers movie, you can enjoy the action without losing track of the plot.  The basic storyline follows the Enterprise crew as they face off against a rogue Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) who is on a revenge mission to destroy both Vulcan and Earth.  But this isn’t the well-oiled starship we know from the original series.  Kirk and Spock (played by Heroes star Zachary Quinto) can barely stand the sight of each other, helmsmen Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho) are still learning the ropes of piloting a Federation ship and Uhura (Zoë Saldana) is carrying on a secret romance that may be getting in the way of her duties.  With all that drama happening on the bridge, it’s remarkable that these Starfleet officers are able to find the time to take on Nero.

To be perfectly honest, Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman seem to regard Nero as an afterthought as well.  Despite a spirited performance by Bana, Nero comes across as a major lightweight, particularly when compared to such classic Trek villains as Khan, the M-113 salt creature and even that humpback whale loving alien probe from The Voyage Home.  To be fair, the filmmakers have a lot of heavy lifting to do establishing the revamped versions of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew, so it’s easy to cut them some slack for falling short on the bad guy.  (Just try harder next time, okay guys?)  Besides, the new Enterprise gang turns out to be so charismatic and fun, you don’t want to spend too much time away from them anyway.  The cast is strong across the board, with the standouts being Urban’s McCoy, Simon Pegg’s Scotty and, of course, the ship’s top officers, Kirk and Spock.  Pine and Quinto accomplish the seemingly impossible task of making viewers forget about their predecessors—William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy respectively—and accept them as the new faces of these sci-fi icons.  With a cast like this manning the Enterprise, Star Trek‘s future is looking very bright indeed.

Verdict: See It

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Next Day Air
Directed by Benny Boom
Starring Donald Faison, Mike Epps, Mos Def, Wood Harris
*1/2

Not funny enough to be a comedy, not exciting enough to be an action movie and not dramatic enough to be a drama, Next Day Air is a messy and unpleasant genre mashup that needed at least two or three rewrites before shooting started.  Penned by first-time screenwriter Blair Cobbs, the sprawling, overly complicated plot begins with a perpetually stoned courier (Donald Faison) mistakenly delivering a box filled with cocaine to the wrong address.  The package is signed for by a group of small-time hustlers (Mike Epps and Wood Harris), who immediately strike a deal to sell the drugs to a local dealer (Omari Hardwick).  Meanwhile, the box’s intended recipients—a thug and his shrill girlfriend (Cisco Reyes and Yasmin Deliz)—have to explain to the Mexican kingpin (Emilio Rivera) that the 10 kilos of cocaine he mailed overnight express have gone missing.  Oh, and Mos Def turns up in two scenes as one of Faison’s fellow deliverymen, who always pockets the choicest items on his truck.

It would take a stronger filmmaking team than Cobbs and director Benny Boom (a music video helmer making his feature debut here) to keep up with the film’s large cast of characters while also controlling its abrupt tonal shifts.  As it is, virtually every scene is made up of at least three competing elements—such as, say, a broadly comic performance, some gunfire and a clumsy bit of moralizing—that don’t mesh together at all.  It’s as if Tyler Perry were directing Chris Rock in a pre-Reservoir Dogs script by Quentin Tarantino.  The low-budget production values keep getting in the way as well.  Although Next Day Air is supposed to take place in Philadelphia, a city with lots of personality, it was actually shot in a series of bland, nondescript LA locations.  Boom’s camerawork is functional at best; he doesn’t demonstrate much of an eye for shot composition and the washed-out cinematography and jagged editing seems like less of a stylistic choice than a rushed production schedule.  Some critics are suggesting that Next Day Air hearkens back to old-school blaxploitation pictures, but those movies possessed a hard-nosed attitude that offset the occassional filmmaking lapses.  This one is all posturing with no attitude.

Verdict: Skip It

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Also in Theaters

The Garden
Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy
**1/2
The story chronicled in Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s socially conscious documentary is certainly a good one: in the wake of the Rodney King riots, an abandoned lot was transformed into a community garden operated by Mexican immigrants, who grew fresh produce to feed their families.  After more than a decade working this land, these farmers were threatened with eviction when a backroom deal in the city government turned the rights for the land back to the original owner, who promptly declared he wanted the garden gone.  Instead of backing down though, the community took the fight directly to City Hall and managed to win several key battles in seemingly unwinnable war.  There are a number of fascinating issues to explore in this tale, including race, class, urban planning and government corruption.  At a slender 80 minutes though, Kennedy’s film only skims the surface, declining to pursue several fascinating story threads (such as a local activist who may have been on the take and discontent within the garden’s community of farmers) that would have yielded a richer documentary.  Perhaps the director can assemble a longer cut for DVD or even a PBS mini-series—it feels like there’s more to this story than we’re shown here.
Verdict: Rent It

Rudo y Cursi
Directed by Carlos Cuaron
Starring Gael Garcìa Bernal and Diego Luna
***
Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal reunite for the first time since Y Tu Mama También as squabbling half-brothers with dreams of making it big as pro futbol players.  Although it cloaks itself in sports movie clothing, Rudo y Cursi is actually a pointed satire of the blind pursuit of fame and the relentless corruption that permeates all levels of Mexican society. Once again, Bernal and Luna prove themselves a cinematic Dream Team, playing through the film’s occasional heavy-handedness and scoring numerous laughs.
Verdict: See It