Just returned from watching the movie Secretariat.

If you’re a fan of sentimental, feel-good Capra-corn, then this is a film for you. Based on the real-life story of how a house-wife orchestrated the set of events which gave us the last Triple Crown winner, Secretariat provides a glimpse of how dreams can sometimes come true. Diane Lane does a wonderful job as Penny Tweedy, Secretariat’s owner, but John Malkovich’s performance of a quirky Lucien Laurin, the horse’s trainer, is superb. Race scenes are expertly filmed, with a few unique perspectives I don’t recall seeing in other horse racing movies (e.g., Seabiscuit, Dreamer). There is a continuity miscue, in my opinion, just after the horse’s birth, but that’s minor. Also, the personalities of several of the characters don’t seem to get a chance to develop which, I suppose, could have occurred had the movie been a bit longer.

The movie, evidently, is aimed at a Christian audience (or, at least, at a family-values audience). The opening and closing sequences, with narration from the book of Job, as well as a couple of Gospel song overdubs within the movie, works well, I think. How this will play out with moviegoers remains to be seen, but I found the film a delight, and one the entire family could enjoy.

Image – © 2009 Autumn

And, hopefully, stay there.

Now, this is funny (HT: hellinahandbasket),

…it is simply not reasonable for a 19-year old punk to be plucked off the Iowa plains, given a prized appointment to Starfleet Academy, immediately promoted above all of his upper classmates, and then immediately commissioned as not only a junior officer, but a captain — and then given command of a major vessel. This is stupid and asinine, and was only written because it makes 14-year old girls swoon.

Star Trek might attract 14-year old girls, but it should not be written with that as its primary goal.

While I thought the movie was enjoyable, to a point, I was completely annoyed with the incessant reflections on the bridge of the Enterprise, and found the video-game-like battle scenes to be tiring after, say, 10 – 15 seconds. Critics claim that the standard Star Trek series / movies are dull banter. Well – yeah – what did you expect? It’s Star Trek!