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Reviews
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
25 years on... the saga lives on in everyone of us
The first Star Trek and the journeys of its cast ended in a disaster after just three seasons, but thanks to its fan base support and (by 1986) four great movies in their name in 1987 Paramount and Gene Roddenberry knew that the time had finally come to hand over the TV series to a new generation, hence the name. Despite the early opposition, they held on to the plan that would result in one of the best sci-fi series ever produced. Gene's hope for humans to work together for a brighter future in the cosmos finally began bearing fruit after just almost 19 years.
TOS was just a prelude to the more wider universe that this series tried so hard for many to explore, with newer planets and races to meet up (like the Borg and Ferengi) and more stories to tell, and Starfleet's traditions and its academy began to be more explored as the series moved on.
No more would be ladies nor strength count in this one. Now, wit, wisdom, courage and determination are the norm in this... the very series which at long last brought the future to a new and growing generation of viewers all over the world as the 1980s began to close. This was the first in which Star Trek's signature computer system debuted, the orange screens made their first appearance and everyone saw the famous computed controlled Holodeck and the Ten Forward bar. Above all else was a truly modern USS Enterprise (NCC-1701D)- more larger, more equipped and more grander than ever before... and its now 1000 plus crew and the people at the helm of it.
First up is Sir Patrick Stewart as the more diplomat and capable warrior Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a Anglo-French type of officer and gentleman in Starfleet that is more smarter, disciplined and better than Cpt. Kirk. Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Picard's Number One and deputy is a more capable officer who knows that he must do his job well. LeVar Burton's role as Chief Engineer LTCDR Geordi La Forge, blind but capable of doing his duties, is nicely done. Brent Spiner as CDR Data is one of the best officers, an android that truly wants to be like every human. Proving that working together regardless of race can bring victory is the lone Klingon officer, LT Worf, acted out great here by Michael Dorn, who serves as the chief security officer later on. This was the job that was first taken by LT Tasha Yar (well played by Denise Crosby) but only briefly - we all know what happened to her. Q, played here by John De Lancie, has well earned praise for his great act. Colm Meaney first started out as one of the communications officers, but later became more better as Irish Transport Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. Whoopi Goldberg as Guinian proved to be more better than her duty had provided while Michelle Forbes as Bajoran ENS Ro Laren is a more efficient one.
LTCDR (later CDR) Counselor Deanna Troi, acted well by Marina Sirtis, is one lady who inspires all who approach her, and is in fact Riker's fiancée. Dwight Schultz as LT Reginald Barclay does well in his engineering skills and abilities.
LTCDR Dr. Beverly Crusher, played great by Gates McFadden (the first lady doctor of the franchise) is the ship's chief of medicine and does a great job handling whoever comes to her for treatment. Her brief successor, CDR Dr. Katherine Pulaski (played well by Diana Muldaur), a Polish-American, proved to be a less able but more working doctor. Rounding them all is her son, child prodigy Acting Ensign (later ENS and CDT4C) Wesley Crusher - we all know Wil Wheaton acted well in this role - the acting officer who brings the experience to teens and kids of his time, and despite being the subject of opposition emerges as the hero in several occasions.
Who would remember the many guest starts who took time here like James Doohan and DeForest Kelley, both of TOS, Ronny Cox of Taps fame, Daniel Davies and so many others? And one would remember Majel Barrett Roddenberry as the voice of the computer system.. as well as Deanna's mother.
Indeed, this series became the trigger that led to ST becoming the series we truly know and love today. 25 years after its debut it has inspired so many and made thousands of people become part of its legacy. Truly, even as Gene would pass away at the time of the series turning 25 and TNG's season four, his blueprint remains in all of us who honor his everlasting vision steadfast and true and are prepared to, just as Captain Picard would tell his crew, make it so.
As the saga lives on in all of us in the next 25 years and counting, it's time to engage.
Stand by Me (1986)
Indeed, one of the best...
Labor Day Weekend of 1959 for four boys in Castle Rock, OR, would turn out to be the best weekend for them, for as news of a dead teenage boy's body found outside town would turn that into such a weekend that they will never forget.
Based on Steven King's The Body - part of his story collection Different Seasons - Stand by Me (I've watched that movie before in HBO several times) is one of the best coming of age films ever made, and one of Rob Reiner's best directed movies ever.
Told first hand by one of the boys years after that weekend, this movie is a tale of friendship and growing up that everyone should like.
Staring Wil Wheaton as Gordie Lachance (and later more famous in his 3-year stint in Star Trek:The Next Generation as Wesley Crusher), the (sadly) late River Phoenix as Chris Chambers, Corey Feldman (one of the Goonies) as Teddy Duchamp and Jerry O'Connell as Vern Tessio with John Cusack and Kiefer Sutherland in other roles plus Richard Dreyfuss serving as the narrator (and the adult Gordie), this was one of the best hit movies (and teenage movies for that matter) that made 1986 one of the best. What a great adaptation it was of a Steven King work and BTW Different Seasons was the source book for two more successful adaptations of King's works in film: The Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil.
The finale somewhat mirrors what happened to the four lead actors after the movie was made, but we all know that friendships truly last forever indeed and we can always remember what it was like to had one.
To paraphrase Dreyfuss's final line: I had so many great friends when I was 12 and preparing to graduate from my school in Makati in the Philippines that I will always truly remember. Jesus, does anyone?
Bitva za Moskvu (1985)
70 years after the battle...
It has been 70 years since the Second World War began to be felt in the Soviet Union, and almost hit its great capital of Moscow.
In 1985, in time for the ruby jubilee of the final Allied victory in Europe and the 20th anniversary of Moscow's proclamation as a Hero City of the Soviet Union, the two episode movie series Battle of Moscow debuted in theaters across the USSR. Yuri Ozerov sure made Muscovites proud since he had at last made a great movie about the first days of the war, and the battles for the defense of Brest Fortress, of Kiev and of Russia's greatest city and capital, Moscow.
The first episode chronicles the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941 and of the bravery and valor shown by the Red Army in the Brest Fortess, Yelnya and Kiev. The second episode is focused on the battles for Moscow itself. The best parts of it is the November 7 parade at Red Square where Yakov Tripolski reminds us of Joseph Stalin's address to the Soviet people and armed forces telling them to fight bravery against the German fascists, how Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (acted well here by Irina Shemliova) became a heroine partisan and later posthumously became the 1st lady partisan Hero of the Soviet Union, and of the heroism of the 8th Rifle Division led by its commander Ivan Panfilov (Konstanin Stepankov) and its political commissar acted here by Aleksandr Voevodin against the German Army, and later documents the later counterattack led by General of the Army Georgy Zhukov (Mikhail Ulyanov) of the entire Red Army and Red Air Forces, composed of military academy and school cadets, cavalry forces including that of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps commanded by General Lev Dovator (Lev Pregunov), citizen partisans, regular infantry and Siberian riflemen and ski soldiers aided by fighters, interceptors, attack aircraft and bombers of the Red Air Forces and the Red Army Air Defense Forces, plus artillery and the armored and motorized infantry units.
The end scenes of part 2 of the 2nd episode with a montage of Moscow 44 years after that battle set to the movie theme song by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronranov and sung perfectly by Lev Leshchenko truly gets me every time, for this reminds us of the many lives lost in the city's defense. And speaking of the musical score, it was also great and fitting to the action (although it was mostly shot at Moscow and in Czechoslovakia, most especially the battle scenes, and some scenes were shot in Vietnam).
Indeed, 70 years have passed, but the spirit of Moscow's defenders who showed the world how to fight against the forces of fascism truly live on in our hearts. Moscow is truly indeed a Hero City of Russia and the battles for it an example of the brute force and effects of all-out war against the forces of evil.
Eternal glory to all these brave defenders of Moscow, who died for us to live in freedom and peace, and gave us a free and great world on which we stand against evil. I'll always think of them everyday and when I soon go to Moscow's Eternal Flame... I'll remember them all.
Platoon (1986)
25 years on... I'm proud it was shot in my country
The best and most accurate movie made about the Vietnam War before the Tet Offensive of 1967-68. SHOT IN THE PHILIPPINES IN 1986?
Impossible but... as a proud Filipino I would never have believe that Oliver Stone, a Vietnam veteran in the US Army and then in his upstart as a full tine film director, would choose the great lands of the Philippines and our great actors and actresses for this film to be shot in 1986, his second in a list of great works and the first in his Vietnam film series.
Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Depp, Dale Dye and others would have loved our lush landscape and our generous and warm welcomed people when they were here to film Platoon. I would have been proud of them 25 years on... but it's still the best. Shows a great portrayal of the war in the eyes of US Army soldiers who experienced the troubles and trials of fighting there.
After all these years, I'll still gonna call it the best. As it was shot in the Philippines, most especially in the provinces of Cavite and Laguna, I'll gonna say it's a great Vietnam War movie to watch. Truly, I think of all the fallen and the veterans of this war whenever I watch it. The Philippines had only sent military personnel there for relief duties, but of all the countries involved both Vietnams and the US bore most of the combat losses of the war, and so many veterans suffered so much like Sheen here in the film. I'll always remember them.
Taps (1981)
30 years on.....
Even through I didn't watch this... 30 years after it debuted in theaters worldwide in 1981-82 it's still truly the military film that welcomed us into the Reagan years in the US. It was adapted from the novel Father Sky written in 1979.. but adapted for the early 80s, tackling the state of US Military academies and the people who are a great part of them. In this film... it's not about the major US military academies but the minor ones that are being given their own moment.
In this case, Bunker Hill Military Academy. (The film through was filmed in historic Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania, near the famous fields where Washington and his men took camp for the winter in 1777.) The academy, similar to the Surovov Military Schools in Russia and Belarus as a junior military college, trains middle and high school level boys academics, character and leadership skills preparing them to become part of the US Army soon as officers in the USMA in West Point, and is led by the great George Scott, a retired US Army general officer, as its Commandant. (He's to me my Gen. Patton, Ol' Blood and Guts....)
That movie reminds me of the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War... (the academy got its name from this great battle)
At the academy's graduation parade Scott shocked everyone with his announcement: by the next year, as decided by the school board the academy will be closed and the land where it is located prime real estate. No one is more surprised of this than the next year's cadet commander, Timothy Hutton, by now a Cadet Major (Scott had promoted him the night before), leader of next year's seniors and the corps of cadets (the last in its history) and mentored by the veteran commandant. He's well loved by the cadets here and is truly their leader, especially by the cadet officers under him. Also surprised by this bad news are his two fellow cadet officers and best friends, CDT CPT Tom Cruise, a elite cadet company commander (thus the red beret on his uniform) and CDT CPT Sean Penn of the cadet cavalry troop and also the executive officer of the corps. The other cadet officers, Giancarlo Esposito and Evan Handler, cadets Daniel Kimmel, John P. Narvin Jr., Brendan Ward, and others were also dismayed but as always had hope in Hutton to do something about it at once. They share the same feeling with the Commandant... that when they're still around it will not close down and continue its mandate.
At the academy prom that same night a group of town teens came to disturb the occasion outside. When two of the COs suddenly approached them then angrily followed by the other cadets, a fight broke out and suddenly Scott came out to intervene when one of the teens stole his pistol and when he had it back, it shot one of the teens by accident, killing the teen. And after being arrested, he later had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.
The result: the school board decided it would push on with the closure in a month or two. That made everyone shocked and soon the school would be a virtual fortress and its cadets, led by Hutton, Cruise and Penn... soldiers on a mission to save this piece of history for good, all at the cost of their lives.
While on the go for supplies the truck that CDT CPT Esposito drives with some of the cadets (Hutton was left behind and had told to the dean and others in the armory about his future plans to prevent the school's closure) is stalled and is attacked by the same teens that disturbed the prom but later comes back thanks to Cruise's efforts. Upon returning their weapons and positions are prepared and soon... it's in a state of siege. Soon the police surround the grounds, then the parents come in to ask their boys to give in, among them Wayne Tippit, the Army Master Sergeant who is also Tim's dad (In one occasion he tells Hutton that what they are doing is the "wrong execution of the right idea"), and soon... the Army National Guard unit led by Ronny Cox, a ANG Colonel who wants the cadets out. Soon he informs them of the commandant's demise and the cadets pay tribute to him at once but later.... things are gonna turn bad.
The film follows the rest of their actions very well. It's a well depicted and beautiful film made. It's truly the best military academy film made after over 30 years. Of course who would forget this would be Tim's first after his Oscars achievement, Tom's film no. 2 and Sean's debut performance? And also the late George Scott did well here too as the academy commandant. It's very good and it motivates me a lot.
Oh and the final scenes... when Cruise is found by Tim and Sean firing a machine gun at the Army National Guardsmen shouting "It's beautiful, man! BEAUTIFUL!" and is later shot dead with his best pal... it's tragic and shocking. One of the film's best moments. As a future US Navy NROTC student I'll gonna love it and I truly recommend watching this.
3 decades after, the memory of the cadets killed in the fight for Bunker Hill Military Academy will still be remembered, forever. They died for a good cause... and the film illustrates this in a great way.
Eternal glory be to all of them who died just like every soldier, doing the ultimate sacrifice for the defense of our freedom. I always think of them everyday. Always.