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.

Mission: Impossible III ***1/2

Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudip, Michelle Monaghan, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg
Director: J.J. Abrams
Running Length: 2:08
MPAA Classification: PG-13

When Owen Davian (Hoffman) captures an IMF agent (Russell) who is investigating him, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) comes out of field-retirement to rescue her. This involves some deception on the home front, as his fiancée Julia (Monaghan) does not know what he does for a living. Ethan’s old teammate Luther (Rhames) is back to help him along with Declan (Meyers) and Zhen (Q). Their somewhat successful rescue of the agent reveals that there may be a spy in the leadership of the IMF. To find that spy, they attempt to capture Davian while he is at the Vatican attending a function. Ethan quickly finds out that a job with the IMF is not very contusive to a healthy normal life.

This time around, the “Mission: Impossible” franchise is in the hands of J. J. Abrams, well known for his television shows (Felicity, Lost, Alias), but a rookie when it comes to directing movies. Abrams is up to the challenge, delivering the best M:I movie yet. Filled with the tricks “Alias” fans will recognize from TV, Abrams keeps the movie rolling from action sequence to action sequence, ratcheting up the tension until the showdown between Cruise’s Hunt and Hoffman’s Davian. And Hoffman IS the standout here. Davian is an evil, nasty man who does not make idle threats. Hoffman sinks his teeth into the role, playing his first real bad guy. This movie is worth seeing for him alone. Cruise is good as well. It is a shame that this movie will suffer from his off-screen antics.

This is the first big budget movie of the summer. It is a great popcorn movie that will not disappoint. I highly recommend this film.