Michael Gildea (mjgildea)

Jesus, this sucked. I mean, I wasn't expecting a goddamned thing out of the remake of Day of the Dead, but director Steve Miner somehow managed to deliver less than nothing. I feel like I should hunt this turd burgler down and make him keep taking me to the movies until I see one I finally like as reparation. The very few elements, nods or whatever to previous Dead movies were a fun distraction from this steaming pile but I actually had to fight myself from shutting this off and watching my DVD copy of the original Day of the Dead. The acting was terrible. Stephen Hawking could hold a gun with more credibility than Mena Suvari can even if Nick Cannon does the token wise-cracking black dude pretty well. Not a good thing, by the way. This movie's answer to Bub ("Bud") was a joke, more so than the explanation for him. The fidgety direction, the bad CGI, the awful awful zombies, the blasphemous ending and the fact that the Sex and the City movie probably qualifies as more of a remake of Romero's Day of the Dead than Miner's... "vision" all add up to create a trainwreck you can see from a mile off that should be avoided at all costs.

I've always sided with Star Wars in the Great Geek War, but this incarnation of Star Trek was pretty damn good and if it weren't for all the lameness that came after the original series I'd definitely think twice about which side I'm on. The casting was superb and despite its refusal to completely cut the cord with any and all previous Star Trek movies (hence Leonard Nimoy) I was surprised how much I liked the origin of the first (and best) Star Trek crew. Star Trek had plenty of references for the old and die-hard fans but was engaging and accessible for new fans. Good but not great, I will say it beats the hell out of all the Next Generation movies. Wait, I take that back--this was great. The fact that Abrams went back and completely changed the continuity of the Star Trek universe and left the door open to endless possibilities has me drooling for more.

Jack Nicholson is a magical combination of rambunctious and hilarious as Bad Ass in this riotous and sometimes touching movie wonderfully done by Hal Ashby. The drunken parking lot and hotel scenes are great, but the bar scene is one of my new favorite scenes ever. ("I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker! I am the motherfucking shore patrol! Give this man a beer!") My only gripe was that the ending was kind of anticlimactic and really fizzled out even though I knew how it was going to end. But still--I'm not so sure that Chinatown is my favorite Nicholson movie anymore. It's also great for some much-needed laughs.

One of the most amazing movies ever made. Not a dull moment and not a bad song. Too bad there's a sequel.