July 2016 - The Movie Kit

The action-packed Star Trek Beyond, the third installment in the new franchise, completely embodies the original series in tone and heart, and stands as the best effort in this reboot series to date.

The 2009 Star Trek introduced those iconic sci-fi characters – Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho) – as young upstarts joining Starfleet Command, and then cleverly skewed the timeline to create an alternate universe from the original. The 2013 follow-up, Star Trek Into Darkness, however, seemed to bite off more than it could chew with an overly convoluted plot and unnecessary throwbacks, particularly in the way they brought back Khan.

Now, with Star Trek Beyond, they’ve worked out the kinks and have delivered a solid film that is, to date, most closely attuned to the beloved 1960s series. Under the guidance of director Justin Lin (who takes over the reins from J.J. Abrams), and armed with a superb script from Simon Pegg (aka Scotty) and Doug Jung, this is an action-adventure in which the crew of the Enterprise have been on their five-year mission to keep peace in the galaxy but find themselves stranded on a remote planet where they have to stop a bad guy (with a twist to the Star Trek past) from wreaking havoc. Simple and effective.

At the recent press conference, the Enterprise crew talked about making Star Trek Beyond, the tragic loss of their comrade Anton Yelchin, and more. Here are 10 things we took away from the press day [Warning: There are some spoilers ahead]: Continue reading How to Trek: 10 Things to Know About ‘Star Trek Beyond’

Lights-Out-TMK

If you’re human, then you’ve been afraid of the dark at least one time in your life – and the latest horror film Lights Out plays right into that fear.

Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg, who, along with wife Lotta Losten, first created the Lights Out story two years ago as a short film for a competition. That film went viral on YouTube with over one million views – and naturally, Hollywood came calling.

Sandberg had to flesh out the story a bit to make his first feature film, so he centered it on Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), a young woman who realizes her little half-brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), is experiencing the same events that once tested her sanity. Rebecca works to unlock the truth behind the terror, which brings her face to face with an entity who cannot survive in the light and has an unnatural attachment to their mother, Sophie (Maria Bello).

At the recent press day, ScreenPicks sat down with stars Palmer and Bello to talk about the creepy Lights Out. Continue reading How to Interview: Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello on “Lights Out”