Read the facts about the “Star Trek” IMAX controversy here!!

Eric Melin and guest host Billy Brimblecom review the new J.J. Abrams reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise, starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. It’s part origin story, part re-do, with a lot of character and action. It also contains plenty of references to the old series, both obvious and not-so-obvious. Can it live up to the hype? We will tell you right here.

Tags: 2009, abrams, chris pine, clips, film, jj, lost, movie, preview, review, star, Star Trek, trailer, trek

J.J. Abrams, the man behind the new reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise (and the amazing new issue of Wired magazine, which is one big puzzle), gave a fascinating and entertaining TED lecture about the use of mystery and the intentional withholding of information a while back. Coming from one of the co-creators of ABC’s “Lost,” it should come as no surprise to hear this strategy. What was interesting to me, however, was hearing how George Lucas’ “Star Wars” was an influence on the man who is charged with making “Star Trek” a valuable movie franchise again.

“Look at Star Wars. You got the droids, they meet the mysterious woman, who’s that? We don’t know—mystery box. Then you meet Luke Skywalker, he gets the droids, you see the holographic image, you learn, “Oh it’s a message, she wants to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, he’s her only hope,” but who the hell is Obi-Wan Kenobi—mystery box. So then you go and he meets Ben Kenobi. Ben Kenobi is Obi-Wan Kenobi—holy shit, you know?”

Another highlight: What are stories but mystery boxes? The withholding of information intentionally—“Jaws,” “Alien,” “The Graduate”? You’ll have to hear his explanation of “The Graduate” for yourself. Watch the video.

About that , he says: “Don’t rip off the shark, rip off the character—that’s what makes it interesting.”

Having seen “Star Trek” this past weekend, I can assure you that the “mystery box,” as Abrams calls it, is alive and well and goes a long way towards building a sense of wonder in the new storyline of the Enterprsie and its crew.

Tags: Alien, graduate, influence, j.j. abrams, Jaws, magazine, mystery box, Star Trek, star wars, video, wired

To showcase how freaking cool our sitegoers are, we decided to do something different for our “Star Trek” screening contest. We asked you to send in your own homemade “Star Trek”-related videos to win tickets to the IMAX advance screening on May 6 in Kansas City. The only stipulations were that entries mentioned “Star Trek” and Scene-Stealers, and that they kept it PG-13, like the movie. One entrant, who you’ll be able to find on Page 2, took that last one particularly to heart.

We got a lot of great submissions. Congratulations to all of you! Each and every person who submitted a video has won free tickets to the IMAX screening and will receive some cool “Star Trek” memorabilia at the show. In addition, we will hold the first and second place winners’ seats in the theater, so they don’t have to get there two hours early like everyone else! Those of you who entered the drawing for tickets without submitting a video will be emailed today and notified that your passes are in the mail.

Part of the fun of doing this contest is showcasing everybody’s efforts on the site, so without further ado, here are the winners and runners-up of the Scene-Stealers 2009 “Star Trek” Contest. Great job, everybody!

The winning entry was from Trey Hock, and is a bizarre public service announcement for the Vulcan Adoption Alliance. It’s short, but it’s very funny and worth watching more than once, because it leaves you more than a little confused. Like any PSA, the acting and editing is both a little suspect. Perfect.

The second-place entry came from Hai Nguyen. Hai won gift certificates to Paisano’s Ristorante and Pachamama’s restaurant in Lawrence, KS. He made an animated video for an actual Leonard Nimoy recording of “If I Had a Hammer” that’s eerily up to date, asking the important question: “Is MC Hammer responsible for swine flu?”

RUNNERS-UP (and more to follow on next page!)

All of the other submissions get free tickets to the screening as well. Here’s one particularly funny video created by Seth Iliff and starring Trey Hock. It’s a spoof of the “Star Trek” teaser trailer where Chris Pine, as Captain Kirk, drives up to the camera purposefully on a motorcycle. Seth’s character has a different, although equally noble purpose.

Theresa Kester filmed a funny quickie video about an excited father that is apparently “based on a true story.”

There’s more where these came from.

Tags: 2009, early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek, submitted, user, video

Here are some more of the winning videos from our 2009 “Star Trek” screening contest. Congrats again to the winners, and to everyone else—enjoy!

Johnathan M. Reeves put together a cool “Star Trek” tribute that uses the classic theme song and superimposes the old and new actors in the series over the top of it:

Andrew Tomb shot a self-described “awful film” for the contest, but I thought it was really funny. It may not have any budget to speak of and the actors may be reading their lines from a computer, but Andrew is the only entrant who decided to push the envelope and go PG-13 with his language.

David Fike’s video is all about how awesome Captain James T. Kirk and the rest of “Star Trek” history is. It also has some very funny inter-titles. Check it:

Nick Colby showed how easy it is to make a crappy-ass video by doing some quick impressions of popular “Star Trek” characters and filming it on a cell phone camera:

Amber Sisco interspersed her “History of Star Trek” video with memorable quotes from the movie and TV series’ characters:

Christopher Swanson may be the biggest “Star Trek” fan out of everybody. He wrote this about his epic tribute film: “Throughout its 40+ year history, Star Trek has celebrated the hope of humanity. This video is a celebration of that hope!” It looks like he’s going to be making the drive from Springfield, MO to KC for Wednesday night’s screening! Congrats to Christopher and everyone else who submitted a winning video.

Tags: 2009, early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek, submitted, user, video

This giveaway should be fun. We’re giving everyone advance notice on this because it involves shooting video!

We have 50 ‘admit-two’ passes to see the Kansas City advance screening of J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek” in glorious IMAX on May 6, 2009 at AMC Barrywoods (8101 Roanridge Rd.) at 7:30 pm. We also have one very cool “Star Trek” prize pack (including prizes to be named at a later date!). But we’re doing things a little different this time at the request of Paramount Pictures, who know that we have the coolest movie freaks on the Internet.

We want you to make a video.

It can be anything you want, as long as it has something to do with “Star Trek.”

Upload it to any user-based video site and send me the link, your name, and your address at eric@scene-stealers.com.

Some ideas to get you started:

- Recreate a favorite scene from any incarnation of the TV show or movies using yourself, friends, animation, action figures, whatever!
- Do an impression of any familiar “Star Trek” character.
- Speak Klingon.
- Describe why you deserve the prize/tickets more than anyone else.
- Create a mash-up using clips. You DON’T have to appear on camera

Rules:

- Just so we know that you’ve made this video specifically for this contest, make sure that Scene-Stealers is mentioned either out loud or onscreen in your entry and also in your text description of the video.
- Videos cannot be more than 5 minutes in length.
- Let’s keep the raunchiness to a minimum. We’re talking PG-13 here, just like the movie.
- Remember: “Star Trek” and “Scene-Stealers” in one video!

I will pick the winner personally. I’m looking for a video with that intangible “Star Trekiness.” Quality doesn’t matter. Use your cell phone (or someone else’s) if that’s all you got! Funny is always good too. The best videos will be posted on the site!

The winner (whether he/she is from Kansas City or not) will win the “Star Trek” prize pack. If the winner is local and can attend the KC screening on 5/6 at AMC Barrywoods, they get VIP passes to the screening as well. We have VIP reserved seats for 2 other runners up. The other 47 winners will be chosen at random, starting with the people who made videos.

You may enter with the form below if you’re not going to make a video and hope that less than 50 other “Star Trek” fans make them.

All entries must be received by Thurs. April 30 at noon CST. We’ll post winners on Friday May 1.

Good luck. Live long and prosper!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Tags: early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek

You’ve had a week to mull over Eric’s “Director’s Cut” picks for “Top 10 Movies that Prove the Future Will Suck” so, now its my turn to dust off my previous list and make a few adjustments. Since Eric excluded the marvelous “Children of Men” from his updated list, I have also omitted it from mine, even though it certainly belongs in the mix. I also made a few necessary course corrections, including removing “Alien” from my original list and replacing it with “Serenity,” Joss Whedon’s superb feature film continuation of the television series “Firefly.” So get in touch with your big brother paranoia and strap on your pressure suits boys and girls and lets all have a stroll through the dismal future that just may come to pass.

10. Reign of Fire (2002)

Yeah that’s right, I went there. Few films justify a six-pack of cheap beer and an obscene surround sound system quite like “Reign of Fire.” I, for one, just plain love dragons, can’t help it. Now- it’s not likely dragons will soon be rediscovered after having camped out, dormant for centuries, in an English mine shaft, salivating gasoline and waiting for their chance to break free– but if they did, that future would be less than rosy. Catastrophic disaster pics are usually suspect for one reason or another, and “Reign of Fire” is no exception. I will defend it exclusively on the explosive auditory work and the aforementioned dragons.

Denton Van Zan ‘Dragon Slayer’: You see they have great vision during the day, and even better vision at night. But in the failing light, they can’t focus. Magic hour.

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

There are many arguments to be made that this film is tragically flawed, but I love it anyway. The plot device is true science fiction and actually pretty sweet. “The Voyage Home” finds our intergallactic heroes Kirk and company in modern day San Francisco - thanks in large part to the fact that “Home’s” original script was developed to co-star Trek-fan Eddie Murphy, who eventually backed out to do “The Golden Child.” On par with gritty futuristic concepts like that of “Children of Men,” “Home’s” premise is that humans have been such terrifically bad stewards of the planet Earth that we’ve managed to kill off a single species (humpback whales) who turn out to be crucial to our eventual survival. Of course, a killer premise isn’t everything and is entirely dependent of the execution, which, in this case, is lacking. Despite the heavy cheese factor, however, this remains one of my favorite of the original cast “Star Trek” pics and I stand by my claim that the story is rather clever if you can muster up a forgiving mood.

Spock: They like you very much, but they are not the hell “your” whales.
Dr. Gillian Taylor: I suppose they told you that.
Spock: The hell they did.

8. Serenity (2005)

One of my favorite things about Joss Whedon’s conception of the future in his brilliant, but short-lived western-series-in-space “Firefly” and subsequent feature film continuation “Serenity,” is that there are no aliens. Whedon has dreamed up a fate for humans in which we successfully colonize space, but haven’t made contact with any alien life. In this version of the future, the humans prove that in the space travel years, it looks like we’re going to need several languages and a whole bunch of planets to make a proper mess of things in the ‘verse.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You all wanna be looking very intently at your own belly buttons. I see a head start to rise, violence is going to ensue. Probably guessed we mean to be thieving here but what we’re after is not yours. So, let’s have no undue fussing.

7. Blade Runner (1982)

Has anyone got an accurate count on how many versions of this thing Warner Brothers has released since the advent of the DVD? Ridley Scott’s classic futuristic thriller doesn’t get less good with time, just harder to sit through. For starters, you have to decide which version best represents Scott’s definitive vision. “Blade Runner” remains easily one of Harrison Ford’s most interesting roles and a genuine science-fiction noir with indelible imagery that continues to set a standard for the sci-fi genre. A future with replicants sounds scary, sure, but better that than a future filled with nothing but Sean Young films.

Deckard: They don’t advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. Ex-killer.

6. The Matrix (1999)

Before the Wachowskis went and screwed this whole thing up with two unnecessary and extraordinarily disappointing sequels, “The Matrix” was absolutely revolutionary in its contribution to modern filmmaking. And like “Highlander” and “The Terminator,” it represented truly original storytelling in the sci-fi realm. Taken on its own in some revisionist reduction to a single film, “The Matrix” continues to stand up as one of the better movies of the genre.

Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

5. 12 Monkeys (1995)

Big Brother is watching and Terry Gilliam knows it. This film gets overlooked when people think of top-notch science-fiction films, which is a shame. Gilliam has a remarkably interesting and singular aesthetic that works beautifully in this complex and non-linear thriller about one man’s struggle to subvert a past, present, and future bio-chemical holocaust. The creepy interrogation scenes and the shots of Willis navigating snow-covered and barren cities are incredibly memorable, as are the performances of both lead actor Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Jeffery Goines.

Jeffrey Goines: You know what crazy is? Crazy is majority rules. Take germs, for example.
James Cole: Germs?
Jeffrey Goines: Uh-huh. In the eighteenth century, no such thing, nada, nothing. No one ever imagined such a thing. No sane person, anyway. Ah! Ah! Along comes this doctor, uh, uh, uh, Semmelweis, Semmelweis.

4. AI: Artificial Intelligence (2002)

If director Steven Spielberg had cast anyone other than Robin Williams for voice-work and then left the kid and the audience at the bottom of the ocean, I would have said this blend of Kubrick and Speilberg was one of the finest pieces of sci-fi ever. In spite those hobbling choices, though, there is still plenty to like about “A.I.,” and it most definitely presents an ill picture of the future and a less than triumphant end to humanity. The philosophical aspects of the story are it’s strongest elements and, years later, remain absolutely haunting.

David: What’s for dinner tonight?
Monica: You know you don’t eat.
David: Yes. But I like sitting at the table.

3. The Abyss (1989)

While Jim Cameron’s “The Abyss” wasn’t set in the future, the films big plot twist - and the majority of what was cut out of the theatrical ending - was that aliens had been observing us and decided it would be favorable to destroy us before we destroyed the planet. Next to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” I think “The Abyss” represents one of the great notions about a first contact with extraterrestrials. For an even more dramatic take on alien intervention in human affairs, pick up a copy of Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End.” Between these two science fiction masterworks, you’ll be up nights wondering who out there is watching and more than likely thinking we aren’t doing such a swell job minding the store.

Alan “Hippy” Carnes: What is all this stuff?
Ensign Monk: Fluid breathing system, we just got it. You use it when you go really deep.
Alan “Hippy” Carnes: How deep?
Ensign Monk: Deep.
Alan “Hippy” Carnes: HOW deep?
Ensign Monk: It’s classified.

2. Gattaca (1997)

While it borrows aspects of its premise rather blatantly from Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” “Gattaca” is a high watermark for the genre and one of my favorite futuristic flicks. New Zealand director Andrew Niccol (”Lord of War”) still has yet to outdo this film, his directorial debut, in which he makes masterful use of washes of color to create a highly stylized view of a genetically altered future. Stellar performances from Ethan Hawke and a then-unknown Jude Law give “Gattaca” exceptional depth and substance. As genetic engineering becomes a reality in the 21st Century, it is possible that the stratification of humans described in “Gattaca” will prove to be eerily prophetic.

Vincent: I was never more certain of how far away I was from my goal than when I was standing right beside it.

1. Minority Report (2002)

Stephen Spielberg’s vision of the not-so distant future is just what the doctor ordered to make you feel nice and queasy about where were heading. Thanks to a trio of pre-cognitive beings, law enforcement is able to launch a program that convicts and sentences people for crimes that haven’t yet been committed - now if that’s not a hot-shit foundation for a sci-fi classic, I don’t know what is. Not so surprisingly, “Minority Report” is based on a short story by the legendary novelist Phillip K. Dick (”Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” which became “Blade Runner”), and once again Spielberg does a bang-up job creating extraordinary movie magic in the form of a fascinating and believable future world.

John Anderton: Mr. Marks, by mandate of the District of Columbia Precrime Division, I’m placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marks and Donald Dubin that was to take place today, April 22 at 0800 hours and four minutes.

Tags: 12 Monkeys, AI: Artificial Intelligence, blade runner, Firefly, Gattaca, Joss Whedon, Minority Report, Reign of Fire, Serenity, Star Trek, Star Trek IV, The Abyss, The Matrix, The Voyage Home