Amazon.com video review:
Widely considered the best movie in the "classic Trek"
series of feature films, Star Trek IV returns to one of the
favorite themes of the original TV series--time travel--to bring Kirk,
Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov from the 23rd century to
present-day San Francisco. In their own time, the Starfleet heroes
encounter an alien probe emitting a mysterious message--a message
delivered in the song of the now-extinct Earth species of humpback
whales. Failure to respond to the probe will result in Earth's
destruction, so Kirk and company time-travel to 20th-century Earth--in
their captured Klingon starship--to transport a humpback whale to the
future in an effort to peacefully communicate with the alien
probe. The plot sounds somewhat absurd in description, but as executed
by returning director Leonard Nimoy, this turned out to be a
crowd-pleasing adventure, filled with humor and lively interaction
among the favorite Star Trek characters. Catherine Hicks (from TV's
7th Heaven) plays the 20th-century whale expert who is finally
convinced of Kirk's and Spock's benevolent intentions. With ample
comedy taken from the clash of future heroes with 20th-century urban
realities, Star Trek IV was a box-office smash, satisfying
mainstream audiences and hardcore Trek fans alike. --Jeff
Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Jumping on to the end-of-the-century bandwagon a little early,
Paramount Pictures released 10 of their top films in one 10-pack, the
Millennium Collection, in 1998. All the films are presented in their
widescreen editions; one, Breakfast at
Tiffany's, is offered in this format for the first time. The
set includes 5 Best Picture Oscar winners and films that took home an
additional 33 Academy Awards. All the tapes are available to buy
individually. The pack, with a handsome mosaic of faces from the
movies, also features collector gift cards (a movie version of
baseball cards) and a commemorative booklet detailing the productions
of all 10 films. The collection is oddly weighted toward the last 25
years, offering only one film from the 1950s and one from the
1960s. Your taste in current cinema will define the value of the
set. Besides Tiffany's, one of Audrey Hepburn's finest films,
the collection contains: The Ten Commandments
with Charlton Heston, Grease with John
Travolta, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and
The Godfather,
the funny, whale-saving Star Trek IV--The Voyage
Home, Tom Cruise's hit Top Gun, the smash
hit Ghost with
Demi Moore, Mel Gibson's Celt fest Braveheart, and Forrest Gump with
Tom Hanks. --Doug Thomas
