MyPetMongoose

I did laugh a handful of times during this movie but, at the moment, I don't remember when. A totally banal and insipid comedy with labored setups and meager payoffs. Nearly every punchline is predictable and, thus, spoiled. Spoofs of "The Matrix", "The Usual Suspects", and that idiotic "Whassup?" beer commercial are just plain dull. And whenever the filmmakers run out of material they rely on their secret weapon--male genitalia!

I really have to rank this spoof below the likes of "Spy Hard", "Loaded Weapon I" and "Fatal Instinct".

There's a scene in an episode of Deep Space Nine where Chief O'Brien's newborn baby is brought to the command center of the space station and left alone for a few moments. The next shot we see is from the baby's point of view, looking up at the ceiling from O'Brien's sunken work station. Slowly, a bunch of smiling Starfleet and Bajor officers begin to crowd around to get a look at the little bundle of joy. It's such a perfectly human response that I couldn't help but be stunned by it. These weren't the dry automatons of ST:TNG, isolated in their ship and pontificating about the moral-of-the-week. These were people that lived in a real universe, with real problems and possessing real emotions, thoughts and feelings.

DS9 got real good at nailing those small human touches--the little moments of quite understanding--but it was the lengthy recurring story archs that lent the show its weight. Very rarely did the show go in for the gimmick-of-the-week mentality of the previous Trek shows. Instead of deftly dispatching a problem a week, some obstacles remain on DS9 for many seasons. Take a look at Louise Fletcher's Kai Wynn. She's a Bajoran religious leader--with substantial influence and power--who has deluded herself into thinking her quest for power is really helping Bajoran while actually bringing it to the brink of destruction. Captain Sisko, in his role of the Emissary, has to closely work with Kai Wynn but he has no easy answers in dealing with her. He can't shoot her, he can't remove her from power and he has no way to discredit her. Sisko has to live with her. Kai Wynn proves to be a thorn in Sisko's side until the end of the series.

I think Kai Wynn is a good example of the philosophy of the DS9 creators. Problems aren't solved with a timely contrivance such as a phased-tachyon emission or one of Picard's after-school special-style speeches. Characters on DS9 have to honestly deal with problems and occasionally (shockingly!) make sacrifices. Characters compromise their own codes of ethics for the good of the galaxy or their loved ones and face the ramifications of all their decisions.

Also, the characters in DS9 don't live in a vacuum as they do on the other Trek shows. There are an incredibly number of secondary characters that make DS9 seem like the only Starfleet posting occupied by more than seven people.

The creators also figured out that they could alter the tone of individual episodes to strengthen the series as a whole. The inclusion of occasional comedic and romantic episodes allows the series to really broaden its appeal.

Finally, the character interaction is written (and acted)extremely well making it one of the best ensemble series of TV. Characters evolved over seven seasons and their relationships with each other and evolved as well. The writers put the characterization first and didn't use them as mere mouthpieces for moral arguments and meaningless techno-bable as was so often the case on ST:TNG.

I was sad when DS9 ended, knowing that the future of televised sci-fi was bleak, but I guess seven seasons is enough for any series. With the original Star Trek a little too dated and corny, TNG a little too stuffy and Babylon 5 (not Trek but often compared to DS9) a little too pretentious DS9 easily ranks as the best sci-fi series ever made.

Full Contact is passable Hong Kong action film that doesn't really go anywhere. There are a few good action scenes and that's about it. Chow Yun Fat is good, but doesn't really have much to do and most of the plotting and characters are just silly. Director Ringo Lam doesn't seem so much a master of his craft, than as an eager apprentice with a bag of tricks (i.e. the way to gimmicky "bullet POV" shots). He doesn't quite have the depth or artistry of John Woo, HK's reigning action director (though, thankfully, his film's aren't nearly as shoddy as Tsui Hark's).