Trekkie fans everywhere will rejoice.  It was just announced that all 79 episodes of the original “captain Kirk and Spock” episodes of the cult favorite Star Trek will be digitally remastered and re-released. 

The series, when it first aired in the seventies, was actually considered a dismal failure, and only ran for a few seasons due to low viewership, but instead gained a cult following in the eighties followed by a series of popular Star Trek feature movies. 

Even the stars of the show have enjoyed a unique sense of celebrity, with the popularity of Star Trek conventions, movies and a unique brand of quirkiness enjoyed by most science fiction fans.  The series creator Gene Rodenberry, a retired policeman who has since passed on probably wouldn’t like it though. 

He reportedly was somewhat displeased with most of the Star Trek movies and had a definite, specific idea of how the show and movies should look and feel.  Treksters will get to enjoy a new looking Enterprise ship, redigitized to come up more with the times rather than look like an obvious model as it did in the original series. 

Rest assured that the originals will still also be available though, for the true Star Trek officianados whose feathers might be ruffled by any messing with the original.  The new digital remastering is aimed at the younger audience, who has more of an appreciation and affinity for sleeker, more professional looking special effects. 

There’s a new kid in town when it comes to getting movies online - but this time you don’t get the movies mailed to you, the ”Vongo” service allows you to download movies (if I remember correctly from the TV ads, it let’s you do an unlimited amount of downloads in any given month) for about $10 a month. 

I’m wondering if they’re really going to give Netflix a run for their money, or if the internet community is really savvy enough to be able to download such a large amount of movies to make this service worthwhile. 

It probably depends on the capabilities of one’s computer system, and their “know how”, since downloading entire movies can actually take a pretty long time on the older operating systems and older processors.   

They do have an edge over Netflix though, because I think Netflix only allows a certain amount of DVD rentals per month for their $10 per month price for service.  Anyone who knows much about the new Vongo service, feel free to comment!

Frailty is a great movie.  Really.  I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this movie, including Matthew Mcconaughey who I usually don’t really get into, because I usually think he’s a bit of a method actor.  Bill Paxton delivers a great performance too, as the father of the two sons we go back in time to story tell about.  Matthew Mcconaughey, we know, is one of the sons, but we’re not entirely sure which, although we are led to believe in one direction throughout the movie. 

It’s a story about perspective, about religion and faith, and the difference between true evil and true good, and the struggle in young boys with coming to terms with what they believe their dear old dad is doing - murdering innocent people that he says are “demons”.  If I tell you too much more, I might spoil it for you if you’re thinking of renting it.  Just know this, it’s a good ending, great story telling with interesting and mysterious characters.  Great acting, and good cinematography. 

Grade : A+

OK, first let me say, I’m not quite sure why Viggo Mortensen was not nominated for lead actor in this film, yet William Hurt, who played his brother and was only in the movie for a total of about ten minutes, was nominated for best supporting actor.  In my opinion he may have even overacted a tad.  Viggo was great in this movie.  So was Maria Bello as his wife.  This was a really well done movie by the director of The Fly David Cronenburg. 

It was filmed in what looked like a blue filter, and you had the sense that something terrible was going to happen throughout the whole movie, so the movie did its job.  Viggo Mortensen plays a guy, Tom Stall, who lives in a small town in Indiana.  He seems like your average, mild mannered country boy with a happy little family and farmhouse complete with a horse and old farm trucks, until one day two broke, violent thugs come into his diner weilding guns and threatening his workers and patrons.

Tom suddenly turns into the ultimate killer, blasting one of them with a hot coffee pot and grabbing one’s gun with ninja-like quickness, both of the men were dead.  The story starts there.  From there, Ed Harris, a scarred up thug from the east, comes into town, saying that Tom is actually someone named Joey.  That’s where the trouble starts.  We’re not sure if it’s truly a case of mistaken identity or if Tom Stall is really this trained killer.  I don’t want to give it away, but I highly recommend you Netflix this movie, or rent it - or heck even buy it.  I loved it.