nebmac

If you're looking for a space flick offering the action and adventure of Star Wars or the optimism of Star Trek, this isn't it. Ad Astra deals with loneliness, abandonment, repressed emotions, and related (mostly unpleasant) aspects of the human experience. While these topics form the core of the story, the film presents another crucial message: Space is dangerous, and humankind may not have what it takes to survive in it.

Ad Astra takes place in the "near future" where humans have established permanent settlements on the Moon and Mars. The former feels like a cross between the California Gold Rush and the US occupation of Iraq, and the latter is a dismal collection of underground bunkers whose residents rely on videos of Earth nature scenes to maintain their mental health. Travel between these places (and Earth) is considered routine even though it's rife with threats ranging from equipment failure to lunar pirates and escaped lab animals. The inclusion of these last two has been criticized as gratuitous or pointless, but I think they're effective at showing the hostile unpredictability of life in space.

Naturally, the planet-hopping astronauts know the risks of hurtling through millions of miles of vacuum in high-tech tin cans. However, they are largely portrayed as...well, kind of inept. Or at least completely unprepared for anything out of the ordinary. When the experienced crew of a spacecraft discover a stowaway on board, they panic and end up getting themselves killed in stupid ways - one crew member is smashed to death after getting out of her seat just before a hard acceleration, and another (who went catatonic with fear when he had to land the craft manually during a previous run) forgets to put on his oxygen mask after the air is contaminated by an accidental discharge of a fire extinguisher. Even worse, a crucial long-term mission crewed (presumably) by humanity's best and brightest goes awry after part of the crew mutinies and the mission leader becomes a murderous dictator.

Brad Pitt does an excellent job portraying the main character, Major Roy McBride, who is almost like an "evil twin" of Pitt's character in Inglourious Basterds. While Lt. Aldo Raine shares an easy camaraderie with his men and bends rules as he sees fit, Maj. McBride is as withdrawn and by-the-book as they come. The reasons why he's that way are revealed at a pace that may be insufferably slow for some, but is meant allow the viewer sufficient time to really get into the character's head.

All of the above is presented with gorgeous visuals on par with the likes of Gravity and Interstellar, accompanied by an appropriately brooding score by Max Richter.

Colleen Dewhurst leads a strong ensemble cast in this tale about a children's book author who approaches the end of a successful career feeling that both she and her profession have become obsolete. That topic by itself has the potential to pack quite a punch. Add some cute kids, mix in the Twilight Zone secret ingredient, and you have a story that manages to be simultaneously heartwarming and melancholy. "There Was an Old Woman" might not be anyone's pick for best TZ episode, but the warmth and charisma of Dewhurst's performance make it worth watching.

The 1980s-era Twilight Zone has its share of cheesy episodes, but this one is the worst. A small-time criminal gets into hot water with both the local mob boss and an equally unsavory supernatural being. It's hard to care about the rest of the plot when the acting and dialogue are so cartoonishly hammy. The most disappointing part is that the story itself is quite good and could have made for a decent episode if it had been approached with a more serious tone.

"Stranger in Possum Meadows" feels like it was made by a bunch of people phoning it in on their last day before retirement. The main character is a 10ish-year-old boy named Danny, who can't seem to decide if his accent is American or Canadian. He lives with his mom/mum in what is supposed to be a remote rural area, despite the nearby high-rise building clearly seen in the establishing shot of their home. While wandering alone through the woods one day, Danny meets an unusual middle-aged man, and does pretty much the opposite of what his mother taught him. To Danny's credit, the man is not offering candy or a ride in a windowless van.

The rest of the story falls somewhere between a soap opera and an after-school special, with some perfunctory sci-fi thrown in. Steve Kanaly's performance as the mystery man makes this episode just barely watchable.

As a work of art, "Quo vadis, Aida?" is a success. The cinematography is great, the acting is good to excellent, and the dialogue is adequate (more or less). However, when it comes to historical accuracy, things get complicated. Here are two examples that may seem trivial compared to the massive real-life suffering that served as the basis for the film, but still deserve mention because they misrepresent real individuals and events.

1.) Much of the material involving General Ratko Mladic and the Bosnian Serb army is based on real-life video recordings (available on YouTube) made by Mladic's own cameraman. "Quo vadis, Aida?" recreates most of these scenes faithfully, with one glaring exception. In the scene where three civilians from the UN camp are sent to negotiate with Mladic, one of them, a 40-year-old woman named Chamila, is groped by a Bosnian Serb soldier as he hikes up her skirt while searching for weapons. In contrast, the real-life video clearly shows that the real Chamila was not frisked or touched at all by any of the soldiers.

2.) As stated in the end credits, the film was "inspired by" a book written by Hasan Nuhanovic, a real-life translator at the UN base in Srebrenica. In fact, Mr. Nuhanovic was involved in the early stages of production, but withdrew due to disagreements over the fictionalized elements of the screenplay. One piece of dialogue to which Mr. Nuhanovic objects made its way into the final version of the film: After returning from the negotiations, Aida's husband, a fictional character based on Mr. Nuhanovic's late father (who took part in the real-life negotiations), has an argument with Chamila, and then says "I can't stand stupid women!" According to Mr. Nuhanovic, there is no evidence that such a dialogue took place in real life.

In the film's defense, the opening credits clearly state that it is "based on true events." Ultimately, "Quo vadis, Aida?" is worth watching, as long as you keep in mind that it's not a documentary.

This episode of The Twilight Zone is unusual in that it doesn't contain anything supernatural or otherwise inexplicable. Just hard sci-fi and a moral dilemma on par with the best that the Star Trek universe has to offer (think of Spock's warp drive scene in "Wrath of Khan"). The writers, director, and actors all deserve credit for turning a relatively simple story into a television masterpiece.

This version of "The After Hours" is much darker than the original, but any semblance of a thoughtful plot is thrown out in favor of cheap thrills. Some of these are effective, like the box full of disembodied mannequin heads with moving eyes and mouths. However, the incessant and seemingly pointless chase scenes get old quickly. This episode would work better as a psychological drama in which the main character thinks she is undergoing a mental health breakdown as a result of increasingly bizarre events during a seemingly routine shopping trip.

"Lost and Found" feels like a time-crunched writer dug up a homework assignment from a Screenwriting 101 class, shrugged, and said, "Welp, it's better than nothing."

"The World Next Door" is the biggest letdown of any Twilight Zone segment I've seen so far. It has all the ingredients of a classic - a top-notch cast (including Norm from "Cheers," damn it!), a plot that features a tantalizing alternate universe (women don't dance but they do propose marriage, technology has developed at a different rate, etc.), and splendid cinematography. What we get instead is some aimless buffoonery followed by an ending that is both confusing and anticlimactic. What a shame.

Whoever translated the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian portions of this program into English ought to be ashamed of themselves. There are so many instances where the meaning of the speakers' words is obscured or distorted. Here are just a few examples:

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Speaker: "They simply could not believe their eyes, how it could all have been filmed in the offices in which they were conferring…not conferring, in which they were talking about the heinous crimes that they want to commit."

Subtitles: "They could not believe their eyes! They had been filmed planning murder and treason."

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Speaker: "They have an ethnically pure republic, they have no territorial disputes."

Subtitles: "It was an ethnically pure republic - no Serbs."

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Speaker: "I asked him if they are aware that they chose war."

Subtitles: "I said: 'This means war'."

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Speaker: "Until then, I never in my life saw a man who was as scared as him. I think that in a period of 30 minutes, he went to the toilet 10 times. Most likely he got, uh, diarrhea or something similar."

Subtitles: "I have never seen a man so scared. He went to the toilet ten times. Perhaps it was something he had for lunch."

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Such shoddy translation might be acceptable for a Hollywood action film, but it completely ruined what could have been an excellent war documentary.

Even though it's a few years old now, this documentary is still relevant, as relations between Iran and the West (US & Western Europe) have not changed much since 2009. It works especially well as a reminder that the situation is far more complex than the two-dimensional "good vs. evil" scenario often presented by some politicians and media outlets.

One thing I found bothersome was the translation of the non-English portions. I don't speak Farsi, but I could detect some summarization and omission of the French speakers' words in the subtitles. Anything less than a complete and accurate translation is unacceptable in a production of this caliber, and for that reason, I think it deserves less than 10 stars.

For much of the episode, we're led to believe that the character we thought was the Doctor is actually the Doctor's human creator trapped in a holodeck simulation. Well, we know that can't be right or else there wouldn't be much of a series left, so it's up to writer Brannon Braga to take us to the inevitable "it was all a dream" ending in a meaningful way.

The first half is interesting enough, with increasingly bizarre twists moving the plot along nicely. Lt. Barclay's role may feel contrived, but it's still fun to see the interactions between two of the most socially awkward characters in the Trekverse. Unfortunately, the climactic scene in Engineering has too much technobabble and not enough suspense, while the ending is best summed up in one word: meh.

The episode's redeeming quality is its setup of the Doctor's quest to be accepted as a sentient being, an increasingly important theme as the series progresses. On it's own, though, "Projections" is kind of a letdown.

This one makes me squirm every time, especially because all the twists make it hard to remember what will happen when. The music, particularly the slightly distorted piano, really sets the mood. I'm not much of a Jay Chattaway fan, but he rises to the occasion here.

Now, about the ending...the "it was all just a dream" reveal doesn't ruin anything because it's obvious that Riker was suffering from delusions of some kind. However, after the shock of seeing Riker's surroundings shatter like glass, I expected his escape from the real captors to be more dramatic than a brief scuffle followed by "beam me up Scotty...I mean, no-name transporter chief du jour."

For maximum effect, watch this episode by yourself in a dark room, preferably late at night.

Maybe it's not fair to judge this episode's Trill against the ones in DS9, but Odan is clearly a prototype that needed refining before the species was reintroduced in the latter series. Most problematic is the implication that the host body becomes a mindless vehicle once the symbiont takes over. Even with the potential difficulty of shoehorning a more detailed explanation into an already busy episode, you'd think that Riker would ask some questions before volunteering so readily to have an alien parasite implanted in his abdomen.

Franc Luz is believable as Odan #1, portraying the right mix of charm and trustworthiness capable of evoking strong romantic feelings in such a short time. In contrast, Jonathan Frakes' Odan #2 is basically a mellower Riker, and his scenes with Crusher fall flat. Odan #3 is Nicole Orth-Pallavicini, whose performance contains hardly a sliver of Luz's charisma.

The episode's main idea is straightforward and needs no further comment. It's not the most compelling TNG story, but certainly far from the worst.

It starts innocently enough. Worf is having dizzy spells and his memory seems to be playing tricks on him. Dr. Crusher thinks he took one too many bat'leths to the head. Then things get weird, and Worf finds himself in a predicament that can't be solved with honor, courage, or punching someone.

The plot takes ideas from previous episodes ("Frame of Mind," "Future Imperfect," etc.) and combines them in a way that avoids feeling like a rehash. The scenes with Worf and Troi work surprisingly well, thanks in no small part to Michael Dorn's facial expressions.

Speaking of faces, Wesley Crusher makes an appearance, looking like he's aged about a decade more than the rest of the crew. Must be a tough gig being the 20-year-old Chief of Goldshirts aboard the most prestigious ship in the fleet.

The problem with episodes revolving around a Big Secret is that they usually don't pack quite the same punch on subsequent viewings. Nevertheless, this is a well-done story that provides a glimpse into the dark side of the Federation and lays the groundwork (albeit indirectly) for a deeper examination of that topic in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

One of the highlights of the episode is seeing Riker get yelled at, separately, by both Picard and the admiral. Any viewer who's ever been caught in the crossfire between their boss and the boss' boss will certainly relate.

While I'm generally not into nitpicks, this one is too good to pass up: In one scene, Riker and the admiral are discussing the Big Secret in Ten-Forward (a.k.a. the ship's bar), making sure to emphasize that nobody must find out about it...within earshot of at least a dozen people. As the kids say these days, LOL.

As with any Barclay episode, your enjoyment of this one depends on your ability to accept that such an intractably neurotic individual would be assigned to the most prestigious starship in the fleet. Even if the guy is a brilliant engineer, wouldn't it be more realistic for him to be working in some innocuous R&D position on, say, Earth? Wouldn't you know it, that is exactly what we eventually see him doing on Star Trek: Voyager.

Anyway, Barclay's bad transporter trip and subsequent bout of hypochondria finally push him over the edge, and he is ever-so-gently found unfit for duty by Counselor Troi. Naturally, Barclay can't leave well enough alone, so he rouses the senior staff in the middle of the night to demonstrate how not crazy he is. Fortunately for his Starfleet career and his fragile psyche, he proves that he really did see strange intestinal-looking sock puppet creatures in the transporter beam, and they turn out to be missing crew members from the damaged science ship. Super.

Long story short, it's a decent enough episode about facing one's fears, though the underlying message might have been more effective if the plot had revolved around a character who wasn't so high-strung to begin with.

"Dead Woman's Shoes": Does anyone else think this segment dates itself much more strongly than previous episodes of the series? Must be the hair. Anyway, Helen Mirren joins the parade of actors who appear in the Twilight Zone before making it big. And being Helen Mirren, she doesn't disappoint in the dual role of a socially awkward pushover mysteriously transformed into a wronged wife looking for revenge.

"Wong's Lost and Found Emporium": The main problem here is that the characters are boring. Wong is a jerk because the world is racist, Melinda is trapped in a joyless life, the old woman wants more time to make art, and the old man can't get any damn respect from his kids. Sure, it's all realistic enough, but the story would work a lot better if the characters' losses were the result of something more tangibly dramatic, such as murder of a close friend (Wong), sexual assault (Melinda), terminal illness (the old woman)...I can't think of anything for the old man, but you get the idea. Incidentally, Anna Maria Poon's portrayal of Melinda was very personable. I wonder why she didn't have a more fruitful career in Hollywood.

"If She Dies": As Jerry Seinfeld would say, what's the deeeeal with the ending? Is it Cathy, or is it Sarah in Cathy's body? It seems like the writer and/or director tried to have it both ways. The rest of the segment is nothing to write home about. On the bright side, both girls were genuinely likable.

"Ye Gods": I was pleasantly surprised when this didn't turn out to be a complete disaster, thanks largely to strong performances from Carolyn Seymour and Robert Morse. Having ancient gods masquerading as ordinary present-day people was a fascinating concept, even if it wasn't given a particularly profound treatment here.

"Act Break": Obviously played for laughs (just look at Harry's death scene). I thought it was pretty amusing, but maybe that's because I've met people in real life who are not too far removed from Maury and Harry. I also liked the music when Shakespeare shows up.

"The Burning Man": All atmosphere, no plot. Crazy old man is crazy, deserted country road is deserted, and creepy little kid is creepy. At least you can amuse yourself by thinking up hilariously inappropriate things that the kid might have whispered in Aunt Neva's ear at the end (new Internet meme, anyone?).

"Dealer's Choice": As great as it was to see so many talented actors together, this segment feels like director Wes Craven couldn't decide whether he was making a comedy or a thriller. Too bad, because it could have been a Twilight Zone masterpiece. Dan Hedaya is particularly good as the working-class New Jersey incarnation of the Devil.

"The Shadow Man" feels like a prequel to the "Goosebumps" series of children's books, and it seems to be aimed at the same audience. All the ingredients were there for a suspenseful story that would appeal to kids and adults alike, but the end result came across as a failed morality play.

"The Uncle Devil Show": Fans of "Calvin and Hobbes" might appreciate this one, though it's much more bizarre than the comic strip. There is a (very obviously presented) lesson to be learned underneath all the wackiness.

"Opening Day": I can't decide whether this is a huge flop, or a deliberate parody of bad 1980s soap operas. The standard "wife and lover conspire against husband" plot is enhanced by a twist right out of Star Trek. With better acting and more subtle directing (I'm looking at you, endless stream of fog!), it could have been a winner.

"Healer": A run-of-the-mill morality play about a man who finds redemption, loses it, then finds it again. Also contains some social commentary on the concept of religion as a business.

"Children's Zoo": A simple modern-day fairy tale revolving around a cute little girl who gets the chance to write her own happy ending. Some of the adult actors were kind of hammy, but it's watchable. The music is nice.

"Kentucky Rye": Jeffrey DeMunn has the perfect face to play the alcoholic weasel salesman who is the main character in this segment. His fate becomes pretty obvious partway through, but it was still fascinating to see how the story would get there. Philip Bruns is also great as the creepy bartender.

"Examination Day": Around the two-minute mark, I was reminded of the Star Trek meme that starts with "Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet." In this case, Ensign Ricky is an overly enthusiastic 12-year-old who thinks his upcoming government-mandated IQ exam is the best thing since sliced bread. The plot had potential, but director Paul Lynch blew it by revealing his hand too early.

"A Message from Charity" is a tender story about two young people who share a friendship (and perhaps more) despite a time gap of nearly 300 years. The main characters are likable, the acting is good, and the New England Puritan speech (or a believable approximation) is a nice touch. It was also a treat to see Robert Duncan McNeill and James Cromwell before they made it big. Definitely the main attraction in this episode, "A Message from Charity" is worth every minute of its longish running time.

"Little Boy Lost": An elegy for a future that will never exist, this tale has the same emotional impact as the original series' "Walking Distance." Scott Grimes gives an outstanding performance as a mysteriously endearing boy who shows up in a career-driven photographer's life just as she's trying to figure out what to do with it. If you're prone to crying at TV shows, get the Kleenex ready. The tenderly lyrical score by Robert Drasnin also helps set the mood.

"Wish Bank:" Two unimaginative women from a 1980s after school special wander into the Twilight Zone, where they apparently find nothing better to do than visiting a rummage sale. The more adventurous one discovers an object that transports her to a mysterious business office. After some pointless hijinks involving bureaucratic hurdles and bad customer service, she presses the reset button, rejoins her companion, and the two go on their merry way. The end.

"Nightcrawlers": Here is where the series finally gets dark! Much of Rod Serling's work was influenced by his traumatic experiences during World War II, and if he'd lived long enough, he might have written something similar to this disturbing take on the Vietnam War and PTSD. Director William Friedkin creates a very vivid atmosphere that will make you squirm in your seat.

"Wordplay": I wanted to like this one. I really did. Unfortunately, its fatal flaw lies in the attempt to portray a real-life medical condition as some type of sci-fi/fantasy phenomenon. A middle-aged man gradually develops a language processing disorder and starts to freak out. In the real world, someone would have rushed the guy to a hospital, but since nobody in this corner of the Twilight Zone seems to know anything about strokes or brain tumors, his wife and co-workers just let him run around until he's ready to calm down. Ironically enough, the climax of the narrative does happen in a hospital, but it's not the main character who gets poked and prodded by doctors.

"Dreams for Sale" reminded me of Philip K. Dick's works that deal with altered perceptions of reality and dystopian visions of the future. Like "Wordplay," we start with a character who shows symptoms of some neurological disorder, only this time, the narrative is backed up by a good sci-fi premise. By far the best segment of this episode.

"Chameleon": A forgettable story involving a shape-shifting alien that hitches a ride to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle. Interesting concept, but the execution was just too dull.

"Shatterday": Like the original Twilight Zone's "Where Is Everybody?", this segment seems low-key for a series opener. Unlike "Where Is Everybody?", there's no real payoff here. It was fun to see Bruce Willis in a battle of wits with Bruce Willis, but I wonder if the story itself would be enough to hold the viewer's interest if the lead actor hadn't gone on to become a big movie star.

"A Little Peace and Quiet": I remember being shocked at the end when I saw it on TV back in the 90s. The ending is no less powerful in 2016. The buildup is handled well, with subtle hints dropped in snippets of TV and radio newscasts that initially seem to be little more than background noise. The characters are kind of an enigma, though. As caricatures of a typical suburban family, they're spot on - the mom is oblivious to the world outside her immediate surroundings, the dad is a bumbling schmuck, and the kids are little brats. I'm just not sure if that was the intended effect.