Where are the Trek films in your best movie lists?

[Maurice]

Not a one lands on my best films list. Nothing of Trek's comes within a light year of even the bottom of my best of list where Touch of Evil (the Murch recut) resides. There's nothing Trek that's in the same league as Paths of Glory or Chinatown or The Godfather...or even Blade Runner, flawed as it is.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Oh man, Blade Runner, Chinatown, and Touch of Evil...forgive me, but I thought those were three of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen. They're all supposed to be classics and I try to see as many movies with that status as I can, but they all bored me. I'd pick one of the better Star Trek movies over them any day.

I wish I could see what other people do in them, but I just can't, and I like people involved in those movies like Ridley Scott, Jack Nicholson, and Orson Welles a lot. Blade Runner has awesome production design and special effects. Definitely revolutionary and better than anything in a Star Trek movie. That's all I liked about it. Sure those movies aren't in the same league as The Godfather and Paths of Glory, but how many movies are? Not many, I'd wager.

 

[Amaris]

^ You know, I never could stand the Godfather. I can't watch it for anything.

J.

 

[trevanian]

Oh man, Blade Runner, Chinatown, and Touch of Evil...forgive me, but I thought those were three of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen. They're all supposed to be classics and I try to see as many movies with that status as I can, but they all bored me. I'd pick one of the better Star Trek movies over them any day.

I wish I could see what other people do in them, but I just can't, and I like people involved in those movies like Ridley Scott, Jack Nicholson, and Orson Welles a lot. Blade Runner has awesome production design and special effects. Definitely revolutionary and better than anything in a Star Trek movie. That's all I liked about it. Sure those movies aren't in the same league as The Godfather and Paths of Glory, but how many movies are? Not many, I'd wager.

I never heard of anybody being bored by TOUCH OF EVIL, except in massacred for the 3:30pm movie versions that have so much more cut out that it did originally.

I WOULD compare TOUCH to PATHS, because they're both magnificent. PATHS might actually be as close to perfect as movies come (so much so that I rewatch it less than any of the other movies mentioned in these two posts), but TOUCH has got such gusto (and is working off a much less interesting source novel) and joy of filmmaking.

TREK can't possibly touch down near any of these, or even within top couple hundred (and that's not even getting into foreign films I haven't seen yet.)

 

[MyCylon]

Much as I enjoy Trek, and even some of the films.

I'd have to admit that when it comes to good movies full stop, they don't rate very highly. There are films with better stories, better effects, better direction, better acting...

Even my favourite Trek movie, TWOK, would have a hard time scraping my top 100 films. I enjoy the films for continuing and adding to the Trek canon, and they can be fun, but I would never consider them classic cinema...

Am I a snob?

Where do the Trek films lie in your appreciation of cinema as a whole?

I basically feel the same way. As much as I enjoy some of the Trek films, I think they don't really stand out as particularly good movies in general.

To be honest, I don't have a clue what my all-time top 50 or let alone top 100 would be. I've never bothered to assemble such an extensive list.

But it's pretty clear to me that none of the Trek movies even comes close to joining the top 10 or even top 25, I'd say. Beyond that I really don't know.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I never heard of anybody being bored by TOUCH OF EVIL, except in massacred for the 3:30pm movie versions that have so much more cut out that it did originally.

I WOULD compare TOUCH to PATHS, because they're both magnificent. PATHS might actually be as close to perfect as movies come (so much so that I rewatch it less than any of the other movies mentioned in these two posts), but TOUCH has got such gusto (and is working off a much less interesting source novel) and joy of filmmaking.

Well to be honest, I tend to have trouble getting into film noir, even some of the ones considered the best of the genre, like "The Third Man", which I also found boring until Orson Welles showed up. I generally find watching someone run around trying to solve a mystery for a whole movie to be dull, but there are exceptions. I loved "The Maltese Falcon", for example.

I think "Paths of Glory" is the best 'anti-war' movie ever, in a subtle way without being preachy about that. I was outraged at military bureaucracy and war after that...I think it turned me off about those for life. It would be nice if a Star Trek movie could convey that key message of compassion for humanity rather than paranoia, accusation, glorification of violence, and war between people with as much power.

 

[trevanian]

I never heard of anybody being bored by TOUCH OF EVIL, except in massacred for the 3:30pm movie versions that have so much more cut out that it did originally.

I WOULD compare TOUCH to PATHS, because they're both magnificent. PATHS might actually be as close to perfect as movies come (so much so that I rewatch it less than any of the other movies mentioned in these two posts), but TOUCH has got such gusto (and is working off a much less interesting source novel) and joy of filmmaking.

Well to be honest, I tend to have trouble getting into film noir, even some of the ones considered the best of the genre, like "The Third Man", which I also found boring until Orson Welles showed up. I generally find watching someone run around trying to solve a mystery for a whole movie to be dull, but there are exceptions. I loved "The Maltese Falcon", for example.

I think "Paths of Glory" is the best 'anti-war' movie ever, in a subtle way without being preachy about that. I was outraged at military bureaucracy and war after that...I think it turned me off about those for life. It would be nice if a Star Trek movie could convey that key message of compassion for humanity rather than paranoia, accusation, glorification of violence, and war between people with as much power.

I agree about PATHS (one of the first things I ever sold was a piece about it), and also about a lot of noir (MALTESE doesn't work for me, nor does BODY HEAT), but I don't really consider TOUCH to be in that or any other genre. It might as well take place on another planet, since you've got Mercedes McCambridge with the alternate lifestyle while a Gabor and la Dietrich also occupy the same worldlet as the odd-looking Hispanic lead character. In that sense, TOUCH is almost like a Ken Russell pic, except it is good and it isn't (to quote Welles on Russell) 'a black mark on history.'

I'd love it if a Trek movie could do the things they did on TOS, as you suggest. But I ain't holdin' my breath in anticipation, given public appetites and responses to pap.

 

[Mr. B]

Hmm... never really tried this... gets kinda tough having seen over 1,200 movies. I don't think I could fit a Trek movie in the top 10.

1. Ikiru
2. Barry Lyndon
3. Amadeus
4. 2001, A Space Odyssey
...
8. 12 Angry Men
...
12. High and Low (1963)
...
16+. Star Trek: First Contact

 

[Too Much Fun]

Holy cow. You've seen that many movies and you picked "IKIRU" as your favourite?!? Of all the choices you could make! I thought it was awful. Had some beautiful shots, but way too melodramatic. I like the rest of the choices you've listed, although I haven't seen Barry Lyndon or High and Low. High five for the First Contact love.

 

[Mr. B]

I can see why some would see Ikiru as melodramatic, but I find the film to be incredibly beautiful. In my opinion the final scene with Watanabe on the swing is the single best scene in the entire history of cinema. I'm usually quite detached emotionally from movies. No scene or movie ever (including Schindler's List and the like) has brought tears to my eyes but that final scene does every time.

 

[Maurice]

I love Ikiru, and and adore High and Low, which has a really nice twist that creates a great ethical dilemma.

The complexity of Towne's script for Chinatown still amazes me, and, if you've never seen it before or not have the big twist ruined previously, it's unlikely you'll ever see the truth coming, but it makes perfect sense when it lands.

Touch of Evil, especially Walter Murch's re-edit based on Welles' 52 page memo, is a great film, especially for a B movie. The opening scene with that minutes long tracking shot shifting back and forth between the car with the ticking bomb in the trunk and the newlyweds walking down the street alongside is brilliant not just for being a single take, but for the tension it builds.

I recently got to see Casablanca ona big screen again and I don't think I've had such a good time in a theater in a while. Such witty dialog. They really don't make 'em like they used to.

Heck there are silent films I prefer to Star Trek movies. I'll take Sherlock Jr. or Out West over the Voyage Home any day.

 

[AxelFoley]

Heston was in his prime when he made TOE, that's all you need to know to appreciate the film.

 

[Bad Atom]

None of the Trek movies will ever come close to displacing my #1 movie of all time, "Ghost Dad".