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Star Trek (1966–1969)
7/10
Entertaining and well thought-out
13 December 2006
Star Trek first came on TV here in Australia in 1968. I was a ten-year-old kid, and I thought it was great, but of course at that age, I missed the point of the social comment and deeper messages, and just got caught up in the fantasy. Over the years, I have re-watched most of the old episodes a few times and as an adult, I can see how well thought-out the show was, particularly when you consider much of the rest of 1960's television. Although I always liked to watch the original "Star Trek", I just can't get into the modern ones, although there is one spin off version that seems to explore the personal relationships a bit more, a concept that I find interesting. I think it's "Deep Space Nine", and I saw part of an episode of it one time, where one of the characters was talking to another about planning to spend some recreation time with the ship's resident Vulcan. The second character appeared unimpressed, and made a comment along the lines of "You know, Vulcans aren't really known for their engaging personalities".

However, some people get a little too carried away by the Star Trek phenomenon.

I found a book at a second book sale a few years ago that was a collection of articles from a magazine put out by a Trekkers organisation in the 70's. The extent that some people are into Star Trek is, frankly, disturbing.

There was a forum in the magazine in which a contributor was carrying on about how the corridors in the original Enterprise were too big to be realistic(!).

You see, when the sets were made in 1964, they had to accommodate 1960's TV cameras that were fairly bulky, so the corridor sets had to be made big enough to accommodate those large cameras. The book points that out.

This particular writer was saying that "Don't they realise that every cubic inch of air in a spacecraft has to be purified, etc, ... ..., blah blah, and space is a luxury, ... ... , blah blah, blah, ... ... , so how could they think that the designers of the Enterprise could get away with all that wasted space?"

This fellow was so-o-o indignant about that, but he accepted that they could beam each other up and down from planets, that Vulcans from another planet light-years from earth spoke in an English language that included "Thee", "Thy", and "Thou", as Vulcan's do on their own planet in the original series, or that the Enterprise could travel at speeds greater than light. He just focused on those big corridors, forgetting that 200 years ago, aluminium was a precious metal, and now we wrap our lunch in it, so that in 200 years from now, when the Enterprise is purported to exist, the technology they have may allow spaceships to have all the wasted space they want. Some people.. .. .. .
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8 Mile (2002)
5/10
Better than I would have expected
7 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I am a 49 year old father with teenage children, so I am way outside of the demographic that this movie was meant for, but I have seen it twice, the second time just last night, and I found it to be compelling and surprisingly uplifting. I have no interest in hip hop and I find some of Eminem's songs and subject matter to be offensive at times but there is no denying that he is a talented man, and he can act as well. Having said that, you have to bear in mind that he was basically playing the part of himself in this movie, but he does have a lot of presence on the screen, and a viewer like myself can sympathise with the character he is playing, not because I am a fan, (as would be the case with a lot of people), but because of his ability as an actor to move the audience and involve them in his character's world. This was a movie that made me think, and it showed a side of life that is unfamiliar to me, so if I had gained nothing else from it, those two things would have made it worth watching, but there was a lot more to it than that. In the final "rap battle", if that is the correct term, I thought it was great the way Rabbit exposed the "Free World" for the losers that they were, with wit and style. I doubt if this was the message he or the movie were trying to get across, but he showed that you can get even with someone without having to beat the sh*t out of them, as they had done to him the previous night. It is a great scene.

I don't think I'll ever be a fan of Eminem, but I hear my son playing his CD's all the time, and I have to respect his ability as a song writer and performer. I was surprised to have gained so much from a movie like this, and I will probably watch it again some time.
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