Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1991 marked the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series debuting on television. The follow up television show, Star Trek: The Next Generation was then in its fourth season and going strong. Critics that tore the last film, The Final Frontier, apart demand that they start using the TNG cast in the new films going forward. The executives at Paramount disagreed however, and wanted to redeem themselves with the original cast one last time for the 25th anniversary. Paramount shows they mean business by bringing back Nicholas Meyer, who directed the critically acclaimed second film, to direct this picture, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (trailer).

Longtime nemesis of the Federation of Planets, the Klingons, suffer a devastating blow to their home world right at the beginning of the film and find out they soon must flee their home to avoid extinction and are forced to coexist with their longtime rivals. The Federation sends Kirk (William Shatner) and the Enterprise to escort the Klingon ambassador to Earth for a peace talk conference, but right away something goes terribly awry that results in Kirk and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to be taken prisoner by the Klingons. While those two attempt to find a way out of their inevitable death sentence, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) leads an investigation to uncover this conspiracy.

The plot takes a bit of set up to get going, but at least it starts with a huge energy blast right off the bat. I took this as a direct response to the negative reaction last time for The Final Frontier really toning back the special effects, and this time Paramount lets you know that right from the start they are not holding anything back. Also, The Undiscovered Country is the first film that really brings the look and feel of the updated Enterprise as seen on TNG with the original series cast. This results in a film 23 years later that still holds up on the special effects front exponentially better than all the previous films.

This film introduces Vulcan, Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall) to the Enterprise crew. I thought Robin Curtis and even Kristie Alley did better jobs donning the Vulcan ears in previous films than Cattrall who seems to be uncharacteristically emotive of the species. I do not consider myself a hardcore Trekkie by any means but by just watching mostly the films, it is pretty clear the Vulcans are suppose to be pretty straightforward and not really show much emotion in the tone of their voice which Nimoy, Curtis and Alley all clearly shown before. Cattrall appears to have thrown that logic out the window in her performance which kept nagging away at me throughout the film.

One of the primary themes of this film is the Federation overcoming their prejudices and past rivalries with the Klingons at the sudden need to save their race and integrate them into their society. This is doubly so for Kirk because he is still understandably hung up at the Klingons for killing his son back in Star Trek III. The film does a great job establishing this tension early on in one of the quintessential uneasy dinner scenes in all of sci-fi cinema. I could not help but chuckle a little as everyone grit their teeth and held back their emotions while pretending to get along.

I really like how Star Trek VI deals with how Kirk and McCoy are taken prisoner by the Klingons, and their very one-sided "trial" is definitely one of the best scenes of the entire film. While I really liked the adventures of Kirk and McCoy in Klingon world, I thought the film lost a step with Spock's investigation on the Enterprise. I think they attempted to go a little too CSI here by going overboard dissecting how the alleged crimes played out and tried to make it look like one grand masterpiece of detective work. To me it seemed more like the Enterprise crew digging through every nook and cranny for vital space suits as evidence to link to the perpetrators before Scotty (James Doohan) randomly gets up from enjoying a cup of coffee and literally yanks the not-so-hidden suits out of a vent for no inherent rhyme or reason. Maybe this passed for superb cinema detective work in 1991 before the many versions of CSI, Law & Order and NCIS hit the television waves, but this whole aspect of the film holds up terrible in 2014. Luckily, things pick up again in the final act with a thrilling back and forth dogfight and the conspiracy being foiled in grand fashion for the true perpetrators.

Like all past films I am covering, the BluRay has over two hours of previously released extra content as well as a half hour of new extras. I am not counting the commentaries in that either. I watched about a half hour each of the old commentary with Nicholas Meyer and the new one with Larry Nemecek & Steven Behr. If I had the time to spare to watch both in their entirety I would, but I did enjoy the parts I consumed as all commentators had really fascinating insight, with Meyer providing many on the set tidbits and Nemecek and Behr providing a fresh set of eyes on the near 25 year old film that originally released on the franchise's 25th anniversary.

There are a ton of old extra features worth checking out. Make sure to watch Perils of Peacemaking, a 26 minute piece relating the film's plot to the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is a very thorough 20 minute feature on the history of Klingons throughout all of Star Trek, and how their costumes evolved over the decades, and interviews with original cast members who portrayed Klingons I really dug. The biggest extra is Stories from Star Trek VI, which is a near hour long feature separated into six parts that covers a lot of big angles like bringing Nicholas Meyer back, VI being the final sendoff for the original cast and some very amusing production notes. If you can manage to squeeze it in, please do as it is quite informative and entertaining. There are a couple of new BluRay extras to check out, one is a quick interview with Tom Morga and his many anecdotes from being a lifetime Star Trek stuntman, and To Be or Not to Be touches on all the Shakespeare references in this film with a look at the ambitious people who took the time to translate Hamlet into Klingon, and yes they even include a couple of scenes too, because at this point with all the extras on here, why the hell not?

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is a nice sendoff for the original series cast, and I especially dug the final sign off in the credits as a nice farewell. While I am not as hard on The Final Frontier as others, I am definitely more content that The Undiscovered Country got to be the final film with the original cast instead. There were a couple of lulls in the middling acts that I picked apart above that dragged it down a couple notches for me, but as a whole I am ranking this as one of the better Star Trek films, but giving my highest recommendations to check out the original crew in the second and fourth films first!

Star Trek Film Ratings

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - 5.5/10
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn - 10/10
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - 7.5/10
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - 9/10
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - 6.5/10
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - 7.5/10

Running Films - Volume 2

As previously promised, here is the second part of my blog dedicated to running films just in time before June is up and our local running community ends its 2nd annual #30daysofrunning movement. Depending on how long I ramble on in this entry, I may sneak in two quick bonus reviews at the end, so here goes nothing.

First off I am covering Unbreakable: The Western States 100 (trailer). It is the first running film I have watched that covers an ultramarathon, with the 2010 Western States 100 mile race being the featured event. It highlights four of the top ranked elite runners coming into this race. This is also a trail running event, and adds a whole new dynamic to your average marathon race. Last year, I competed in a 'run as many 10k laps in 12 hours' race on a local state park trail running course, and I had to throw in the towel after four laps, which was close to 25 miles. So to see these runners do quadruple that distance over all kinds of brutal trail running terrain made it the intense watch.

I thought this was wonderfully shot, as the first act introduces you to the runners, gets you to know them and meeting up with each other the day before the race and get you into their mindset with their gameplan and what one has to do mentally and physically to prepare for this beast of a run. About a half hour in the race starts and it jumps from checkpoint to checkpoint, and four times in it breaks from the race coverage with another in depth look at one of the four featured racers as it profiles their running career and personal life. There is also a consistent check in with the race founder, Gordy Ainsleigh every few chapters who has many words of wisdom to share on his first time attempting the run.

Besides doing a tremendous job profiling all four featured runners, I think the overall race coverage was put together quite nicely. The crew constantly checks in with each runner's crew for frequent updates and how each competitor is holding up to get me really feeling for each and every runner. Things get especially intense when the competition really lights up in the final 20 miles, and my hat is off to the filmmakers for keeping me on my toes and cramming all this in under two hours. After some thought after watching this a few days ago, this gets my nod as my favorite of the six documentaries I am covering this month.

Next up is the sequel I was highly anticipating with Spirit of the Marathon II (trailer). This one focuses on several runners journey to the 2012 Rome Marathon. Like its predecessor, it highlights both one elite male and female runner, and several everyday runners on top of that. This one is paced a little differently than before. Instead of gradually starting on the near yearlong training and building up to the race in the last act, it has the race start off right at the beginning, and similar to Unbreakable, profiles each runner throughout the race and dives into their background and what lead them into running the marathon. Also like last time, it sprinkles in minor factoids about the history of the marathon in Rome and other pivotal moments of the sport throughout the film which I dug and provided a nice way to mix up the coverage.

Each runner has their unique story to tell, I was probably captivated the most by the pair of local Italian pizzeria owners and their love for the sport. Also you cannot help but feel for the runner who was running 52 marathons in 52 weeks for fundraising Pancreatic Cancer awareness. The first Spirit of the Marathon had the happy ending where both of their male and female elite runners they profile had podium finishes, and while both finish strong here, it is not quite a podium for either. I can appreciate the different approach the sequel takes pacing the structure of the film around a bit as it feels it gives equal attention to each runner's story this time around, both on and off the course. It also has another great orchestral score accompanying the feature and just under a half hour of bonus features with deleted scenes, bonus interviews and a mini short film highlighting runners fundraising for clean water in Africa.

Bonus coverage time. In the last couple of months I rented a couple movies from Netflix that circled around running. Not documentaries mind you, but actual films. The first I discovered in a recent interview with Bruce Dern in an issue of Runner's World. He was promoting his recent film Nebraska, and when going into his history of running they referenced the movie he did about running a marathon mountain trail race in 1986 called On the Edge (trailer). Bruce Dern plays Wes Holman, who is banned from running competition for speaking out against the ruling board 20 years earlier. Now he stealthily makes his return to racing, dodging officials and family and friends urging him to avoid the local acclaimed mountain race.

Dern admits in the interview the film was not a smash hit, and I can see why. Maybe it is watching it for the first time nearly 30 years after its initial release, but parts of it just do not hold up well. The way the story bounces around all over the place make it a little hard to follow the big picture on how he got barred from the sport and the internal struggles he is trying to overcome. I did enjoy the main race coverage at the end of the film for what it is worth, as fellow runners and spectators rally around Holman and interfere with race officials trying to pull him out of the race. A strong final act helps redeem a bouncy initial two acts.

Billy Crudup stars as Oregon racing legend Steve Prefountaine in this 1998 biopic, Without Limits (trailer). It starts off with various universities vying for his affection before he settles on the University of Oregon where he gets the wise tutelage of Coach Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland). The feature covers his short, but illustrious career by setting many local records and key victories to his ultimate showdown in the Munich Olympics. Prefountaine had a huge impact on the sport in America, especially in the midst of the running boom in the 1970s, and Without Limits perfectly encapsulates that here. This is shot and paced far better than On the Edge, and worth going well out of your way to check out. Unfortunately none of these films are available on Netflix streaming as of yet, but most do have the disc available for rent if you have that option.

That does it for my #30daysofrunning coverage for running movies. Hopefully I helped persuade you to check out one or two of the eight I spotlighted here. As far as a top three would go, I would have to go with Unbreakable first, then the first Spirit of the Marathon before winding down with Without Limits. I am always trying to look out for other running movies too, so if you have any to point in my direction tweet me @Gruel or email to dkulas@hotmail.com.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
21 Jump Street
Bounty Hunters
Captain America: The First Avenger
Faster
Field of Dreams
The Fighter
Ink
Running Films Part 1
Veronica Mars

For All Mankind: The Life and Career of Mick Foley

Former three time WWE champion and hardcore icon Mick Foley has his fair share of DVDs and books out already covering his career. I have read each and every one of his four, yes four memoirs and even one his fiction novels, all tremendous reads! What can I say, I am a fan of his work; I even went and saw his stand up act earlier this year and left surprisingly impressed. He has had a few DVDs released in past years, but they either consisted of primarily match collections or just focused on a small snapshot of his career. Last year, WWE finally released a documentary covering his entire career with an in depth interview with him, his family and peers, along with a hearty chunk of extra matches and bonus interview snippets. For All Mankind: The Life and Career of Mick Foley (trailer) is finally the career spanning retrospective that has been long overdue for the hardcore legend.

With Foley having a lengthy active wrestling career from 1986 until 2000, and making many brief returns since then, it is hard to imagine any length of documentary doing his career justice. WWE did their best however, and went about a half hour longer than what they usually do on most of their documentaries by dedicating just over two hours and fifteen minutes to Mick's career. A fair amount of time is spent on Mick's early days before the ring and his unique personality that bled over into his wrestling personas. A lot more time than I anticipated is dedicated to Mick's initial years before he made it big. For the first time on a WWE home video, Mick's trainer Dominic Denucci and fellow trainee Shane Douglas are interviewed, and it is fascinating getting their perspective on Mick at this initial stage of his career.

Mick makes sure to sneak in some quick stories and WWE has plenty of footage to accompany Mick's tales jumping around from an mid-80s WWF jobber, to the AWA, WCCW before finally landing his first memorable run in WCW. This part of the feature there is some interesting insight from Mick's mentor at the time Kevin Sullivan, who I believe is also his first time getting interviewed on a WWE home video release. When the film covers his second, more prominent run in WCW, we are treated to interviews from Vader on WWE video for the first time ever! Yes, they make sure to cover in great detail how Vader ripped off part of Mick's ear!

Mick's ECW and Japan days in the mid-90s have a great chunk of time devoted to them, and we get a lot of great insight from Foley, Terry Funk, Joey Styles, Shane Douglas and Paul Heyman on how Mick delivered some of the best promos in wrestling history in that time and how he really evolved the Cactus Jack character. A lot of you probably want to know by now if the film pays any attention to his WWE career at this point, and yes probably about the last hour and a half focus on his WWE runs. Mick is candid about how trepid he was starting off as Mankind and how it got to be too much bouncing around portraying all three of his personas (Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack) for awhile in 1997 before finally settling down in his Mr. Socko days of Mankind.

They spend a lot of time on his friendship and infamous tag team with The Rock in The Rock 'n Sock Connection and his classic battles with Triple H that led to him retiring as a full time wrestler. I am glad the documentary makes sure to focus on his memorable run as commissioner in 2000, because he had a lot of classic bits that had me in stitches, and they make sure to include a bunch of them here. The final chapters of the feature bounce around on a couple big return matches against Randy Orton and Edge, his awful memories in his brief run as a Smackdown announcer, and life after wrestling for Mick with portions focusing on his charity work, rising up the ranks as an author in his memoirs, fiction and children's books and his latest endeavor as a standup comic. No mention of his two year run in TNA wrestling is referenced at all, which is a surprise as I imagined WWE does not consider them true competition and Mick would have been able to squeeze in at least some sort of mention about his time there.

There is a unique assortment of bonus matches, and WWE has been good lately of trying to avoid including repeat matches from past collections in recent releases. There are a couple of repeats here, but I understand why, and that is Mick's second ever match and debut WWF match as a jobber where the British Bulldogs beat the living shit out of him, and his classic Hell in a Cell match against Undertaker that cemented his legacy. For those two matches and an ECW match against Shane Douglas we get new alternate commentary from Mick Foley and Joey Styles that adds a new dynamic reliving those bouts. Mick has some brief introductions to some matches and why he included them like a seemingly oddball match against Keith Hart from 1990 where Mick justified its inclusion because he wanted a Cactus Jack match to be seen where he did all the ass kicking instead of being on the receiving end for a change. There is a total of 17 matches, and it is for the most part a fresh new assortment of matches I have never seen or have long forgotten about.

Now I picked up the BluRay version of this release because there is just over two hours of bonus features. First is a half hour of five Mick Foley promos, with Mick doing a brief intro to each segment and why they were included. I never saw the "Sting's Birthday Cake" promo before and I will now never forget it. After that is an hour and a half of bonus stories and other cutting room floor segments that did not make their way into the documentary. One of these is a 15 minute mini-documentary Mick did for a school project all about Dominic Denucci's training school from his time there in 1986. This is surprisingly in depth, and never really done before its time and a great bonus to check out on the BluRay. There are a ton of other great interview clips worth checking out that did not make their way into the main documentary that cover origins of the Cactus Jack character, funny traveling stories, Mick's reverence for Disneyland and so much more that make the extra $5 the BluRay versions usually go for well worth the upgrade.

This is one of the better home video releases WWE has put out in recent years where they seem to be complacent in releasing more and more themed collections of matches instead of putting some serious effort into their documentaries. The documentary portion of this is up for streaming on Netflix and WWE Network. Whether you have read his memoirs or not, an in depth and thorough documentary, a fresh collection of matches and hearty chunk of must-see BluRay extras combine for me to give highest recommendations to For All Mankind: The Life and Career of Mick Foley.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Goldberg Ultimate Collection
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
RoH Supercard of Honor V
Warrior Week on WWE Network
WWE Wrestlemania 28
WWE Wrestlemania 29

Running Films - Volume 1

Last year I entered 14 running races throughout 2013. About halfway through the year I discovered two documentaries about running that were both streaming (also on disc) on Netflix, and I watched both of them twice last year and once each this year whenever a big race day approached to get me psyched up for the race. Upon the third viewing of each however I realize I needed some new running films, so I recently ordered four more online so I have a little more variety of films to watch. I watched two of the new running documentaries so far, and thought I would share my thoughts of the two I watched three times each and two of the new ones for anyone looking extra inspiration before their next race, or to just get out and run. I plan on getting to the other two before the month is up, especially since June is our local communities' month for the #30daysofrunning campaign. I did my best to run every day last year, and the campaign has a strong social media presence among our town, so check it out for all you runners and non-runners alike! Enough prefacing, on with the set of four quick write ups!

Starting off is the first running documentary I watched last year and is easily my favorite I have seen of the four I am covering today, Spirit of the Marathon (trailer). This one came out a while back in 2007, and covers six runners' (consisting of both elite and non-elite runners) yearlong journey of training and preparation to the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Along the way it interviews many running luminaries past and present and smartly sprinkles in key moments of the history of running throughout the film. I think this one is my favorite so far because it resonated with me the most when it dedicated just as much time with the non-elite athletes as it did the elites and showed how far and difficult that year was for both types of athletes.

Spirit of the Marathon covers a ton of ground from the initial training stages of going out with running groups in weekly long run sessions, trying to stick to a smart diet, overcoming and succumbing to injuries, touching on the personal lives that led each athlete to pursue running, being in the right mental state and capturing the "runner's high" and brilliantly building up to the big race day by culminating in a abbreviated highlight version of each runner's experience in the 2005 Chicago Marathon race. Just a fantastic watch from beginning to end I cannot recommend enough. The sequel just came out last year, and I am saving it for the last of the four new movies I recently ordered to watch as it covers several runner's journey to a recent marathon race in Rome. If you have not already, boot up Netflix and start streaming away to get motivated!

Next up, and also on Netflix streaming is 2009's My Run (trailer). This one all about one individual by the name of Terry Hitchcock. The documentary starts off telling the tale of Terry's marriage and him being the everyday family man until he loses his wife to breast cancer and trying to cope being a single parent. The film tells the amazing story on how he became inspired to run a marathon every day for 75 straight days from his home in the Twin Cities all the way to Atlanta in time for opening ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic games in order to raise awareness for single parent families.

Terry is 57 at the time in 1996 and not a accomplished athlete by any means, so watching him experience his journey of training and going out on his quest with his children at his side as his support system is an unbelievable watch. He has everything in his way trying to stop him, with injuries piling up, some of his children backing out along the way, awful luck weather, and trouble getting the media to give his campaign any attention at all. How he manages to overcome all these challenges and hurdles is a test of the human spirit and shows what one gutsy and admirable 57-year old man will do for his family. High recommendation to watch this one too.

The first two documentaries are about an hour and a half each, while these next two hover right around the hour mark and are much quicker watches. First up I will cover The Last Mile (trailer) which is an indy documentary that hit last year. The bottom of the DVD case has the caption "Why do we do it? Why do we run?" That is the theme of the documentary as it interviews countless elite and non elite runners. This is a nice change from Spirit of the Marathon as I found it fascinating just to find the difference in what motivates former Boston Marathon champion Amby Burfoot to put on a pair of running shoes to the many similarities I share with the everyday runners it interviews as well.

It quickly bounces around dedicating a few minutes to each runner's story and what makes them tick, and is accompanied by a fantastic score and lots of well shot B-roll footage that combine with the interviews to keep me glued in the entire hour. Obviously it is not an in depth look at just one or a small set of runners as the previous two, but it accomplishes at what it sets out to do and I would say is a great supplemental watch to the other two films above. The Last Mile is not available from Netflix through streaming or disc, and I was only able to get it off Amazon for $12.95.

Finally, we have Marathon Challenge (trailer). This originally aired on PBS in 2008. It takes 13 everyday people who once were or never were athletes and now live sedentary lives and puts them in a nine month training plan to get them into the biggest race of the year, the 2007 Boston Marathon. I like the theme of this film, but I imagine PBS could have gotten a lot more out of this by making it a mini-series or a two hour film instead of just one hour. It feels like each of the 13 individuals has their own unique story to tell, and there is barely anytime to dedicate to each one and the near-year long journey they endure, because the film is quickly jumping around to the next milestone in training.

It does get the basic points across, and I especially like the opening scenes measuring the fitness level of each person through intense testing. It is also a interesting watch showing the unfortunate downpour that transpired for the 2007 Boston Marathon and what it is like to start in the back of the pack for the world's most famous marathon race, and each runner getting their finish line moment for all their grueling months of training. Marathon Challenge is not on Netflix streaming, but they do have the disc for rent there. It is a quick, 54 minute watch, and a nice condensed version of Spirit of the Marathon but I regret to say this one is probably the one I would watch last of the four films I am covering today because it is too ambitious for the time allotted.

Hopefully I helped open your eyes to some of the running films out there. Be sure to check back here later this month as I hope to cover two more running documentaries before #30daysofrunning is up!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
21 Jump Street
Bounty Hunters
Captain America: The First Avenger
Faster
Field of Dreams
The Fighter
Ink
Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars

It was just last year when a Kickstarter campaign easily surpassed its $2 million goal to fund a budget for a movie sequel to the cult hit TV series, Veronica Mars. I missed the show during its original three season run on UPN from 2004-2007. I remember seeing a lot of promotion for it at the time, but easily wrote the commercials off as a teeny bopper detective show. Turns out that was how UPN wanted it promoted as. I found out later through many fan testimonials that inspired me to give the show a chance on DVD that it was a fresh crime drama, with smart writing and a incredibly loveable cast of characters that each had their own unique charm. Unfortunately for the show, it did not survive the UPN/WB merger into the station we now know as The CW, and the series came to a abrupt halt after only three seasons. Now seven years later since the last episode aired, we are granted closure as the fan funded movie catches us up on what all our favorite characters from Neptune, California have been up to and another new mystery for Veronica Mars to solve (trailer).

In case you missed out on the show, the series was a launch pad the career of Kristen Bell as she portrays the title character, Veronica Mars. Veronica is the son of former town sheriff, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni), who is now a private investigator after making controversial allegations about the murder suspect of Veronica's best friend and classmate, Lilly. Keith's PI career rubbed off on Veronica as he taught her the craft, and your average episode revolved around Veronica typically getting hired to solve big dilemmas among her high school peers. That initial season had a season-spanning hook where Veronica was constantly on the prowl to discover Lilly's killer, and it delivered in an awesome season finale. The following seasons also had addicting season spanning mysteries, while Veronica finished high school and went on to college.

The movie picks up nine years later after Veronica finished her first year of college at Hearst. Due to another season of crime and dilemmas that follow her around, she gave up her dreams of crime solving and transferred to Stanford to pursue a lawyer career, and to also make the move and continue her relationship with Piz (Chris Lowell). She finished law school and is on the cusp of her first job when she receives a call from her old boyfriend Logan (Jason Dohring) who once again finds himself wrongfully accused for a murder he did not commit. She flies down to just hear him out, and catch up with old friends Wallace (Percy Dags III) and Mac (Tina Majorino). Naturally, she discovers some ground breaking clues and she decides to stick around a bit for one last case. To top it off, former sheriff Lamb's older brother, Dan (Jerry O'Connell) is the new sheriff of Neptune, and he is just as corrupt and incompetent as his brother.

I got to admit, it seemed a little odd for the first half hour or so of Veronica Mars. Probably intentionally so because it has been years since Veronica has visited Neptune and it takes a few exchanges between old friends before the gang gets back in their old chummy rhythm again. It only seemed appropriate that Veronica has to bail out Logan again from another jam. I apologize, but I cannot be legitimately objective about this movie in any way since I was a big fan of the show, and was glad to see this movie come to fruition. Throughout the film, every few scenes I kept getting giddy as another long forgotten recurring character came back for a scene or two, or there was some minor reference to a past location or event. It was sad to see Weevil (Francis Capra) get this treatment for the film, who was somewhat of a major player in the series and who really only has one moment with Veronica in this movie. You can tell the filmmakers tried to throw him a bone and give him a very minor subplot halfway through the film for a few scenes, but it just seems tacky and the film would have been better off without it.

Once Veronica is back in PI mode, you can tell the entire cast and crew was clicking all the way again. It was great to get that feeling of an old episode where Veronica was constantly getting herself in hot water as she kept getting closer and closer to cracking the case. For the most part, I was happy how the film wrapped up the show for most of the characters, with the exception of Weevil and Piz. For their situations I kept thinking the movie did a great job at introducing them embracing their '9 years later' characters and then to have them suddenly make some big changes later on so suddenly just did not jive 100% with me. That said, it was great to have one last mystery for the returning cast, and the way they kept sprinkling in the old recurring character cameos, and even a few big shot star cameos throughout the film is some much appreciated fan service.

There is a healthy chunk of extra features on the BluRay edition I picked up, about an hour and a half in total. I believe they are on the DVD version too. There is a four minute blooper reel, and four minutes of deleted scenes to start off with. There is a six part set of mini features that combine for 19 minutes titled More on Set Fun which is a bunch of quick off camera interviews with the cast and crew where they are up to no good when the cameras are off. The major extra to check out is a 55 minute making of special titled By the Fans. It is an in-depth look at the Kickstarter launch, and lots of well earned love from the cast and crew for the fans making this possible. There are plenty of quick snippets of quotes from Kickstarter backers too that were genuinely emotional for contributing to this and thrilled to be featured as an extra. It also dedicates a decent chunk of the special to on stage production, and the crew putting on a lot of fan appreciation events at comic-con. Definitely make sure to check this well made extra feature out.

It is damn near impossible for me to recommend this movie if you have not seen the show since its lore and history are obviously referenced throughout the film. There is a quick "previously" narrative montage in the opening credits, but that only goes so far. The series was streaming on Netflix at one point, but as of now they only have the discs available. If you dig your crime dramas, Veronica Mars is a fresh new twist on the genre, even if the show is a decade old at this point. If you have watched the show I can only imagine you already own the movie and have watched it multiple times at this point.

This is the newest movie I own in my 'backlog' I am covering. I bought it when it was a new release a few weeks back, but made sure it sat on the shelf against my better judgment to let it just barely qualify as a 'backlog' eligible. ;) Yes I just winked in here. Deal with it. :D Ok, I am out of here.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
21 Jump Street
Bounty Hunters
Captain America: The First Avenger
Faster
Field of Dreams
The Fighter
Ink