STAR TREK BEYOND [2016]

Director Justin Lin gives Captain Kirk & Friends a fast & furious makeover for the third installment of the Kelvin timeline, Star Trek Beyond.
This time around we follow the restless Enterprise crew into uncharted space where they meet a Big Bad who's bent on destroying the federation.
It's a pretty straight forward story that feels more like an old episode of TOS, especially by dropping the heavy cynicism of the first two films and diving deeper into the search for hope in humanity.  More a character piece than story driven film, we get plenty of great moments with the cast that all share an easily watchable on-screen chemistry.  There's some unforgivable face-palmy moments but Trek's always had it's fair share of bits that easily out-dates itself best taken with a grain of salt.
It's not going to win over any folks already hissing at the series but for those already invested in this series than it's as pleasurable as Insurrection or The Search for Spock.  A welcome stand alone film treading water in a world of sequels that require knowledge of every film in the franchise.

3 big green hands out of 5

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE [2014]

Director Matt Vaughn returns to his pip-pip roots with the highly entertaining action/comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service, loosely based on Mark Millar & Dave Gibbon's comic book series of the same name.
It's the tale of a young council estate delinquent who is recruited by his mysterious upper-class uncle for a British spy organization that goes against an American eco-terrorist.  Vaughn calls back his crude, comic book ultra-violence of Kick-Ass and meshes it with his wide-eyed coming-of-age wonder of X-men: First Class then stuffs it with a suave snarkiness that's both satirical and dedicated to the '60's British spy films it's taking the piss out of.  It's pretty uneven at times but it hardly deters from the bat-shit crazy fun that's to be had especially with Colin Firth & Michael Caine having a ball doing what they do best, while Sammy Jackson is an absolute hoot as the super villain with a lisp.

3½ James Bonds, Jason Bournes & Jack Bauers out of 5