where no star trek fan may have gone before ...

There are so many branches to the Star Trek universe: novelizations, movies, re-boot film series, animated series, magazines, television series, toys, games, etc. that even the most dedicated fan, Trekkie or Trekker might have trouble keeping up. ...

Star Trek's popularity and influence was not limited to the United States. The show may have been cancelled in 1969, but the next year in England, before the series had even premiered on British television, a series of comic strips appeared in weekly television magazines. Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics, Vol. 2 is the second in a series of three volumes collecting and reprinting these comics. These compilations may offer the first time these comics may been seen and read in the U.S. The British Star Trek comics ran for five years, longer than the original show.

Fans will recognize all of their favorite characters, at least by appearance. The artists, mostly uncredited, do a good job of capturing the likeness of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, et al. While readers might blanch at seeing Kirk wear a red shirt in the first group of comics in this volume, halfway through the first captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise appears in his familiar gold shirt. Slightly more off-putting is hearing Mr. Spock frequently refer to Kirk as "Skipper" and utter such exclamations as "What the blazes?" throughout the strips. Not the cool and analytical Vulcan science officer we know and love. ...

You can read my full review on Cinema Sentries

i love the birdcage

Cinema Sentries had another fun feature posing this question:

What are your favorite movies based on plays? My choice was The Birdcage.

Dynamic duo Armand (Robin Williams) and Albert (Nathan Lane)

1996's The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Elaine May ... starts off fast and funny and never really stops. All of the acting is fabulous (how could it not be?), and much is made of the amusing fact that both sets of parents, although very different in many ways, object to the match — because they think the kids are too young to get hitched. Nathan Lane is amazing as the paranoid, emotional diva Albert, and he is matched quip for quip by an unusually restrained, but also very funny Robin Williams. The two are perfectly matched, as they battle and dance around each other.

Albert: "Whatever I am, he made me! I was adorable once, young and full of hope. And now look at me! I'm this short, fat, insecure, middle-aged thing!" 

Armand: "I made you short?"

...

You can read the rest of my post and others' picks here.

What would be your favorite film to stage adaptations?

it's a wrap: humphrey bogart film festival

I just got back from the second annual Humphrey Bogart Film Festival in Key Largo, FL, and like many of my fellow attendees, I am already looking forward to next year's festival. Attendees were treated to a series of events where they could meet and greet festival organizer and son of the actor, Stephen Bogart (host of WXEL's Bogart on Movies) and renowned film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, as well as take in a list of over twenty classic films, all celebrating the theme of "Romance."

I was lucky to be able to see some classic Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall films over the weekend: To Have and Have Not, screened outside under the moon and stars; Key Largo at the nearby Lion's Club which was transformed into Rick's Cafe Americaine; and Casablanca and The Big Sleep for the first time on a big screen. In a panel discussion hosted by Caroline Breder-Watts, film historian and host of WXEL's “Listening to Movies,” she and Bogart and Maltin and the audience engaged in a lively discussion of the diversity of Humphrey Bogart's roles throughout his long career. ...

Leonard Maltin and Stephen Bogart field questions at Sunday's brunch

... The Humphrey Bogart Film Festival is quickly becoming a tradition for film buffs and Bogie enthusiasts. As Leonard Maltin shared at the festival's closing brunch on Sunday, "Movies are meant to be a communal experience. ... they can make difference in your life. [when you see a great one it sounds] a loud gong that doesn't go away."

You can read the complete post at Cinema Sentries.