EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
There are few things that get remade, revamped, remodeled or resurrected in such a way that actually makes me happy to see/visit it again. The newest take on the Star Trek franchise has made me a happy camper for sure. I blame this on several things actually...

SEVERAL THINGS
Director J.J. Abrams, popular television maestro of Alias, Felicity, Lost, and Fringe uses his talents to guide us on this Trek. P.S. - Abrams has commented that he was not a Star Trek fan prior to directing the film.

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have woven together a smart, witty, self-referencing, action story that does its best to please both old and new fans. Orci and Kurtzman have both collaborated with Abrams on previous projects. I assume the writers were fans or did a lot of homework. I have been a mild mannered Star Trek fan throughout the years. I know enough to keep up when talking to uber geeks. I repeatedly found myself impressed with the dialogue.

Not being a fan of most concert films I usually watch them with a large grain of salt. I tend to find myself let down. However, in the case of Bjork’s newest release, Voltaic, I found myself pleasantly surprised.

Voltaic has been released in various packaging. You can find it solo on CD, a CD/DVD package and a Limited Edition two CD/two DVD version as well. FANCY! I would highly recommend the Limited Edition package for the most Bjork for your buck. It contains the studio recording, the Volta mixes [featuring mixes by RATATAT, MODESELEKTOR and SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO], two concert films [Paris, France and Reykjavik, Iceland], and the Volta music videos.

In this instance I viewed the Paris, France concert. There are no pre-show/post-show scenes here. This is a straightforward documentation of the Paris, France stage performance. And for that I am not complaining in the least. The sound and vision of any Bjork video or performance is hardly ever a let down. This document stands as firmly as the rest.

OH TO DREAM...
Patti Smith: Dream Of Life falls in the realm of documentary, I suppose, but really I'd like to call it a "musical document" for the sake of this writing and my own personal flare for "adjectivery." I never would have "dreamed" I would be into a film about Patti Smith [it's true]. For whatever reason she had never really made a blip on my radar outside of her popularized "G-L-O-R-I-A."

INWARDS & INNARDS
Wandering around a room partially full of keepsakes and other remnants we find Patti Smith, a curious soul. She states that this film has been in the works for 10 years and that she will not be leaving this room until the film is completed. What follows is a series of explanations and events exploring her inner workings and outer experiences [family, death, art, friends, politics], all obvious, subtle and having an underlying strange honesty to them that seems clearly unique to her. I was impressed. She talks to us about certain objects in the room as if recreating some kind of "show and tell" experience from childhood. Books, photographs, a guitar Bob Dylan once played, her son's baby clothes, her own childhood dress, Robert Mapplethorpe's ashes, artifacts, all surrounding her as she builds a cluttered memory chamber. She brings more into the room throughout the duration. It touches the semi-sweet sadness inside.

A SUPER MOVIE WITH AN EXTRA SUPER 8 MINUTES ADDED!

MEANWHILE IN A LIVING ROOM...
I must say that I have never been much of a Superman fan. Into Batman. Superman, not so much. However, after stumbling into a friend’s living room screening of Superman: The Movie (Director's Cut) one Saturday afternoon I can definitely appreciate the super guy more than I ever have, for several reasons.

My friend has a new HD television [lucky!]. The version of Superman we were watching was on Blu-Ray Disc. It was the Director’s Cut with an added 8 minutes of footage. I had never seen the entire movie from beginning to end. It’s really one of the best superhero movies made, as far as I can tell. And Christopher Reeve is pretty darn handsome!

TALES FROM THE KRYPTON
The film opens with Superman's biological father Jor-El (Marlon Brando) banishing criminals (watch Superman II) and informing a council of his beloved planet Krypton's impending demise. So he does the only thing any decent father would do:  he loads up a spiky space pod with all the things his son will need, including the son, and jettisons him out into space for safe-keeping.

LOVE FOUND & MEMORY LOST?!

BOY MEETS GIRL
Mild-mannered, sheepish, shy Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) meets his polar opposite in wild, weirdo, eccentric Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) and romance ensues, again...

NOTE: Winslet reminds me a lot of a younger Madonna for one reason or another is this film. Perhaps it's her demeanor, eyebrows or hair, I'm not certain. However, it's something I feel in my guts.

WHAT IF...
Imagine suffering the ill effects of love lost:  a frustrated mind, a tear streamed face and a broken heart. Would you erase the events of the past relationship that left you in this current state if you could? Perhaps this would help you to get on with your life and not be distracted by those thoughts and feelings?

YOU'RE IN LUCK
Clementine has her memory of Joel erased by the dysfunctional and clumsily staffed Lacuna Corporation headed by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). Lacuna also employs Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, David Cross and Kirsten Dunst. The Lacuna team as it turns out knows its product first hand or heart for that matter [tee hee].