Star Trek: The Motion Picture

There are a couple of things we all think of when we think of the 1970's; psychedelic randomness and tight pants.  Star Trek: The Motion Picture does not disappoint on both counts.  We being more a Star Wars than Trek family were new to this universe and went into this movie with fresh eyes knowing little about the characters or setting.  Well I can now see the appeal of Captain Kirk; he was utterly fabulous.  The movie, not so much but was entertaining enough and has rounded out our pop culture education nicely we feel.

Captain Kirk comes out of bureaucracy to captain the Enterprise once again amidst some tension between himself and the new captain.  Despite this they shoot off into space to head off a massive threat to earth where danger and the unknown lurk.  *Spoiler Alert* they do save the day but I missed the last 20 minutes [sleeping] which kind of gives you an idea of the slowness of the proceedings.


Rating: We enjoyed this movie enough but it is quite slow and seemed longer than its 2hr 10min running time.  We wouldn't watch it again but we might try other Star Trek products.  We enjoyed Galaxy Quest (the parody) much better.

Naughty bits: This movie is as clean as Captain Kirk's tennis inspired outfit but there is a disturbing scene early on where the transporters catastrophically fail and you see the people die screaming horribly.  Not too gory but we all knew what was going on.

Snacks: Freeze Dried Icecream

Family In-quotes: "Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain."

Related Goodies:
StarTrek official site
StarTrek wiki

Star Wars Trilogy

We start with the classic of all classic movie trilogies.  Yes the Star Wars Trilogy (episodes 4, 5 and 6).  We have also shown our kids the first three but for the purposes of this post we will only talk about the originals.

I won't go into the plot as you probably already have a fair idea of what Star Wars is about but suffice enough to say that if you like space, suspense, action, comedy, a little romance and robots then you'll probably have a great time.

I recommend picking a long weekend and do this as 3 night movie marathon!

Rating: Essential Viewing.  Your pop culture education is seriously lacking my young Padawan if you miss seeing this trilogy.

Naughty bits:  She's as clean as C3PO after an oil bath but younger viewers may be a bit frightened by the Emperor or the few jumpy bits.

Snacks:  Something Chewy

Family In-quotes: We seem to use "Tell your sister... you were right" far too often.

Related Goodies:
The Star Wars Minute podcast (clean for all the family)
The TV series: Star Wars Rebels