Star Trek: TNG: All Good Things... (1994)

TNG's final TV outing connects directly to events in the show's pilot episode (Encounter at Farpoint), making everything that happened in the intervening seven years relevant to both stories. In order to fully appreciate the work, you absolutely must watch that pilot episode before watching AGT....
Central to the story is Capt Picard, whose consciousness is hopping between a number of fixed time periods like some kind of 24th century Billy Pilgrim. He's in almost every scene, but Patrick Stewart is up to the task, whether it be as a man full of confidence, of doubts, or seemingly bordering on senility.
A further benefit in connecting itself to the pilot is its ability to comment on TNG as a whole, in a way that's both reflective and contemplative.
It's sad to see a beloved show end production, but TNG's ending is perfect, drawing a knowing line under what's gone before whilst simultaneously looking ahead to the future. That duality is why I love re-watching AGT....

5 discontinuities out of 5

Star Trek: TNG: Chain of Command (1992)

When Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is sent on a covert mission, Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) assumes command of the Enterprise D in his stead. Jellico is an ass-hole who quickly pisses off everyone, but unlike the poorly written Lt. Cmdr Shelby in TBoBW (1990) he's given additional characterisation to make him more than just another one-note tool in a writer's arsenal.
The story has a second, more traditional villain operating in a setting that was heavily inspired by George Orwell's seminal Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) novel. It's a Cardassian named Gul Madred, played by David Warner. Warner had been in Trek twice before, as different characters, in ST V (1989) and ST VI (1991), but his role in TNG is arguably his most memorable; his scenes with an equally mesmerising Patrick Stewart are the primary reason that Chain of Command is a permanent fixture on many people's 'Best of TNG' lists.

4 lights out of 5

Star Trek: TNG: Unification (1991)

Unification's story is another political one, with the big draw being that Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) makes his first appearance in TNG's timeline, while another important character makes their last.
Spock's scenes are some of the best parts of the work, especially the ones he shares with Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Data (Brent Spiner). In the latter case, as the two converse while working side by side to achieve the same goal we're treated to an interesting 'compare and contrast' situation: the android Data has spent much of his life wanting to be more human, while the half human/vulcan Spock has spent most of his life trying not to be.
The story references TNG's Redemption (1991) and, even further back, TOS' VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), released in cinemas that same year.

3 ridiculous shoulder-pads out of 5

Star Trek: TNG: Redemption (1991)

Note: you'll lack crucial backstory for Redemption if you've not seen a few previous episodes; i.e. Reunion and Yesterday's Enterprise (Season 4).
Marking the show's 100th episode, the story sees Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) travel to Qo'noS to oversee the installation of Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) as High Council leader, but the ceremony doesn't go unchallenged. You'll hear numerous speeches about honour and treachery, often from people who have little of the former and practice the latter. But Worf (Michael Dorn) is pretty dependable, and by that I mean also that he can be depended upon to be headstrong in his unintentional narrow-mindedness, before stepping outside himself just in time to see the bigger picture, usually after having a candid chat with someone whom he either respects or hates.

3 friendly headbutts out of 5

Star Trek: TNG: The Best of Both Worlds (1990)

Responding to a distress signal on a populated planet, the Enterprise crew suspect the Borg have been present. They confer with Starfleet who send aid in the form of Borg specialist Lt. Cmdr Shelby (Elizabeth Hannah Dennehy), an officer who's never actually met a Borg. Shelby promptly makes herself a pain-in-the-ass of everyone, especially Cmdr Riker (Jonathan Frakes), in an attempt to create tension before the shit hits the fan for real.
It's essentially a war on three fronts: large scale (ship to ship); smaller scale (inside the Enterprise); and deeply personal (to retain a sense of self).
The Borg's cube ship is iconic, simple but imposing in its lack of aesthetic concerns, built solely for efficiency and functionally; and with a cube being a shape alien in the natural world it seems to scream defiance in every way.

4 magnetic resonance traces out of 5

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

The opening scene of Dir. Philip Kaufman's version of author Jack Finney's 1954 body snatchers story sets a weird tone. The subsequent move to San Francisco, to focus on the part of the world around us that many city folk take for granted and/or see but barely acknowledge is less trippy but it keeps the feeling of unease. One might expect the Noir-esque visuals, the disorientating camerawork and the eerie sound effects and music to clash, but they too function as one, supporting the feeling that things are working on a number of thematic levels, with the personal and political being the most obvious.
Kaufman captures well the foreboding notion that the central characters are being watched from off-screen by unknown eyes. There's an astonishingly creepy FX scene near the end, but the film loses momentum thereafter.

3½ cross pollinations out of 5

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)

Based on Jonathan Swift's famous Gulliver's Travels (1726) novel, the three worlds of the title refer to Gulliver's (Kerwin Mathews) own and just two others, Lilliput and Brobdingnag. If you've read the book, you'll know that it had more worlds thereafter, but the two chosen do at least keep the opposites theme that Swift's adventure relied heavily upon; likewise in their defining traits, with the Lilliputians being complicated and the Brobdingnagians naïve and simplistic. The themes of the novel are lessened but not excised and those that remain are integrated well enough, with Gulliver's observations criticising societal attitudes more often than they do specific individuals.
The things that might not be suitable for children have been altered, as has the ending, opting instead for an ambiguity that I wasn't particularly fond of.

2½ wrong rights out of 5

The Boy and the Beast (2015)

Shaken by a recent tragedy, nine-year-old runaway Ren ends up lost and alone, confused and angry on the streets of Tokyo. More than that, although maybe not aware of it at the time, he's in need of a parental figure to look up to. When he encounters Kumatetsu, a resident of the Beast Kingdom in search of a disciple to train, Ren’s hunger and curiosity get the better of him.
Dir. Mamoru Hosoda's film is a coming-of-age tale in an unusual guise, that being it's set mostly in a world that's populated by anthropomorphic beasts.
It took me a long time to warm to it, but its exploration of what constitutes 'strength' in the eyes of others and oneself, and showing how differences can be celebrated and learned from won me over eventually. If it had achieved the same in a lesser time, I'd have liked it more. As is, it felt too long.

3 dishrags out of 5

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Scientific genius Admiral Harriman Nelson's Seaview super-sub is conducting trials in the frozen Arctic when an Irwin Allen disaster situation rears its movie-plot head, forcing the admiral to change his plans. In a reversal of expectations the sub becomes one of the few places that isn't under great threat. Furthermore, it may be the one thing that's capable of saving the day!
At its best it has a jolly Saturday morning TV adventure feeling about it, but it's one that's stretched a little thin, and besides Walter Pidgeon and Peter Lorre the movie doesn't have the same calibre of actors to keep things interesting that some of Irwin's other disaster flicks have. There's a clever lure that may keep a viewer seated until the story's end, but don't get your hopes up for anything tremendously memorable, because it really isn't there.

2½ temperature readings out of 5

Battlefield Earth (2000)

aka Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000

Given BE's shitty reputation I expected bad acting or incompetent editing, but what struck me as the worst aspect was the direction! Bloody hell, the word 'amateur' doesn’t apply — it could aspire to that — it's downright atrocious. The majority of the film is shot in canted angles, which makes no rational sense, adding nothing of value to the story. If I'd not been viewing it in a 2.35:1 ratio (on DVD, bought for 10p sealed from a charity shop) I'd have thought there were shenanigans afoot because the blundering CUs make it look like an unwatchable 'zoomed-in to avoid copyright detection' video on YouTube. Oh, and yes, the editing and acting, especially Travolta, are mostly awful, too. Even the 'so bad it's good' category has standards, which BE didn't meet.

0 rat meals out of 5

N. a Pris les Dés... (1971)

aka N. Took the Dice

Music lovers will probably be familiar with the concept of a remix. Alain Robbe-Grillet did something similar with his L'éden et Après (1970) film. Constructed from outtakes, alternate and unused footage, N. a Pris les Dés... is essentially the same story but from a different character's perspective. It comments on its own design, how in scripted drama one thing follows another thing according to a set of rules. Then, equated to a dice roll, it arranges itself in a less straightforward manner. More than just a professed justification for being non-linear, it develops meaning through repetition and reinvention, unified by self-analysis and its relationship to the original film. The bizarre soundtrack helps the imagery gel, but as a narrative in its own right it may confound. As a companion to L'éden et Après, however, it's effective.

3½ stolen gazes out of 5