Star Trek ***

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood
Director: J.J. Abrams
Running Length: 2:06
MPAA Classification: PG-13

James Kirk (Pine) is a talented but undisciplined young man. Captain Christopher Pike (Greenwood) sees potential in him and challenges him to be greater than his father, a man who saved many in a deadly attack against a ship he was temporarily captaining. When an emergency mission calls upon the U.S.S. Enterprise, Kirk is there along with First Officer Spock (Quinto), Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Urban), Communications Officer Uhura (Saldana), and Navigators Sulu (Cho) and Chekov (Yelchin). The only one missing is Scotty (Pegg), who they will pick up along the way. They have to stop Nero (Bana) and his ship from the future from changing the past, but things don’t go as planned, and soon the future is in question.

“Star Trek” is both a re-imagining and a reboot. The look and feel of the film is like nothing ever seen before in a “Star Trek” television show or movie. That is due to director J.J. Abrams, who really does bring things up to date. Also, there is a ton of action. The storyline reboots things for future movies as well. The cast is all well chosen, echoing the original actors without imitating them. As far as movies go, this is a fun, summer movie. For die hard “Star Trek” fans though, there may be some grumbling. Some might argue that there is too much action and too little thought throughout the film. Most will have an issue with the reboot that manages to essentially erase everything ever presented on television or in the movies, and provide a weak excuse. Unlike every other time the timeline is disrupted, this time they don’t feel the need to fix it. Still, “Star Trek” brings a lot to the table, and will no doubt bring in a lot of new fans. This is worth checking out.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets **
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Ed Harris, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Greenwood
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Running Length: 2:10
MPAA Classification: PG

When treasure hunter Ben Gates (Cage) has his great-great grandfather accused of participating in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he sets out to prove the man’s innocence. That innocence lies in finding the lost City of Gold, located somewhere in the United States. On the way, he will have to get at the Queen’s desk in Buckingham Palace as well as its twin in the Oval Office, and kidnap the President of the United States (Greenwood). Fortunately, he has the help of his father (Voight), his mother (Mirren), his former girlfriend (Kruger) and his sidekick (Bartha). Meanwhile, Mitch Wilkinson (Harris) is looking to find the city first and make a name for himself.

The first “National Treasure” was enjoyable, even though it was a bit of a rip off of “The DaVinci Code”. The plot was a bit far-fetched, but one could mostly suspend disbelief. “Book of Secrets” on the other hand is over-the-top ridiculous. It asks the viewer to believe an awful lot of implausible things, and that is its downfall. Its almost as if the screenwriters decided to see how unbelievable of a story they could craft. Sure, its nice to see the characters we met in the first one back in action, but that’s not enough to make this movie work. If you must see this, wait until it is out on DVD.