nogimmicks

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has a few things en masse -- and one of those things is certainly ambition. Shatner's original story was epic in scope and concept, and I think a good amount of it winds up on the screen. The off-camera problems, however, drag this film down to mere-average standards. The injection of humor gets old and stale after a while, even with a few good bits in there, and the ending is a bit of a letdown after all the buildup. Of course, the effects are not really up to snuff, either, which also doesn't help the ending. And whomever wrote the Uhura fan dance sequence needs to be forced to watch that sequence until their eyes bleed.

But there is a lot of subtle good hiding amongst the more obvious bad. The interplay and relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy is delightful to watch, even if a bit neutered from Shatner's original vision. The campfire scenes, especially, I feel have been unfairly slammed over the years. I remember seeing the trailer for this film when I was a child, and getting the impression from the title as well as the story conceit, that this was to be the last film, the true FINAL Frontier. Examined in this light, the campfire scenes are warm and touching tributes to the characters who's adventures we have followed for so long. Its an utterly humanistic touch which helps hammer home the point that a lot of us have known all along -- that ST has always been more about the people than anything else.

Sybok is complex and robust villain, worthy of the best of the original series. He's not motivated sheerly by revenge or malice, like it seems all of the villains in the TNG films are, but instead is filled with faith about the righteousness of his cause. This lends him to be a much more interesting and magnetic character than countless other bloodthirsty bad guys. Shatner's direction is not nearly as poor as a lot of people like to think; his work is nothing spectacular but clever shots abound -- the prologue, Sybok taking the pain of McCoy and Spock, and even the Enterprise-shuttle-BOP interaction (despite the subpar effects).

I enjoyed watching this film, much more than I thought I would. Its not perfect, or even great, but I found it to be a diverting way to spend an evening, especially if you are a Trek fan. It may not make you question your place in the cosmic order, nor will it ever top Khan or TMP, but its still an enjoyable romp for Kirk and company.

A very good Bond film filled with action, locales, and fun, but unfortunately sorely lacking in certain areas. Like many Bond films, Die Another Day has its good points and its bad points -- and also like the rest of the series, the things that a good are very good, and the things that are bad are -very- bad.

First the good. The plot is excellent and worthy to the globe-hopping tradition established in the last 35 years of 007 films. Brosnan is still excellent when given good material to work with: he has really come into his own as Bond and seems to find an excellent balance between the hard-edged literary Bond and the more playful cinematic character. Graves makes a for a decent villain (even if he sometimes comes off as a weaker copy of supreme psychopath Max Zorin), and Zao is suitably menacing despite his "expensive acne." The action scenes, though overblown, are typically well done and exciting -- with the swordfight between Bond and Graves the obvious standout highlight.

Now the bad. First off, the actual script tries much too hard to be hip and trendy while still "true" to the Bondian heritage. The sexual innuendo in this film is so forced and so poor that it makes me cringe just to think about it, let alone hear it. Some of the interplay works -- mostly between Bond and Graves as well as Bond and M -- but mostly the dialogue is trite and uninteresting. The CGI effects in Die Another Day are amateurish at best, and make me long for the days of modelwork -- and competence. The shot of Jinx diving off the cliff is so poorly constructed I damn near gagged on my soda when I saw it for the first time.

Last and certainly least is Halle Berry's character of Jinx. An uninteresting, overhyped loudmouth of a character, Jinx is little more than an amalgam of other Bond girls (Major Amassova, Holly Goodhead, Wai Lin, etc.) who is given to a Flavor of the Month actress in a chance to catch lightning in a bottle. It doesn't work. She has zero charisma and almost as little depth; it takes more to be a successful character than simply posturing and shouting "Yo' momma!" and "Bitch!" at opportune moments. The fact that MGM initially wanted to spin her off into her own film is not only alien to the entire Bondian conceit (IE, the Bond girl, as well as all other Bondian trappings, exists only within the Bond film since they represent their own little world), but simply a bad, bad idea -- and I thank the cinema gods that they decided to nix that idea. The obvious ego which Ms. Berry brings to the screen kills practically any scene she is the focus of, as if you can see her holding her nose up, saying to herself, "I won an Academy Award!" Also grating is her delivery -- its just as stiff and unnatural here as it is in the two X-Men films, and that is saying something.

Now, don't be mislead. Jinx is bad enough to nearly ruin Die Another Day -- nearly. The strengths of the film are very, very strong. I don't think most Bond fans will be disappointed -- even diehards like myself. So, if you are a fan of Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, or just like a good, international espionage-cum-action film, definitely check out Die Another Day.