Movie Night

Tonight was movie night at home. With thunder, lightning and heavy rains outside, I decided to kick back at home and just watch 3 movies I picked up at my local CD Trader store (they specialize in new and used CDs and DVDs at discounted prices) today.

The movies I picked up were The Godfather Part III (1990), Elvis On Tour (1972) and Star Trek (2009).

Star Trek



I started my movie-watching in the afternoon with J. J. Abrams' Star Trek. I missed it during its initial release last year. This is the movie in which the original crew of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Scotty, "Bones" McCoy and others were re-cast with young actors to re-boot the franchise. Leonard Nimoy appears as an elderly Ambassador Spock, who finds himself sucked into a black hole that takes him back in time when his crewmates are brought together for the first time on the USS Enterprise. It is interesting that Spock can exist twice at the same time (not to mention the time paradoxes involved). In science-fiction, if a person is transported to a time where he/she already lives, one would disappear.

This Star Trek movie was quite enjoyable. The special effects were dazzling. I am looking forward to the next installment. My grade: A.

Elvis On Tour



Last month, Elvis On Tour, the 1972 documentary of Elvis Presley's concert tours of 15 cities in April 1972 was released for the first time on Blu-Ray and DVD. I bought the DVD. I already have an earlier VHS of this movie with the original Johnny B. Goode opening. Due to copyrights issues, that opening had to be changed for this release.

Elvis On Tour is the only Elvis movie to win an award: The 1972 Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary. It effectively uses split screen montage shots of concert footage (as did 1970s Woodstock movie). Martin Scorsese supervised the montage sequences. My grade: A.

The Godfather, Part III



This 1990 movie of Mario Puzo's Corleone family did not impress me when I first saw it upon its original release. I hadn't seen it since, until today when I bought the DVD. The first two The Godfather movies are among my favorites.

I have to admit I enjoyed it a lot more this time. Al Pacino is one of my favorite actors. For some reason, the story flowed better in this viewing. Sofia Coppola's acting is still the "weakest link" of the movie, but I didn't let that bother me. She is a far better producer and director (Lost In Translation (2002)) than an actor. I actually found her to be cuter now than back in 1990. She seems to have hardly aged in 20 years since this movie to Lost In Translation (she's in the extras about the making of that movie).

Although Part III is not as good as the first two, it is a worthy wrap-up to them. My grade: B+.