The opening scene, an 8 minute tracking shot that references the opening tracking shot of Touch Of Evil, in which a couple of characters debate the opening tracking shot of Touch Of Evil, may be one of Altman's best jokes.

Have to see it again now that I've seen TOE.

in which a couple of characters debate the opening tracking shot of Touch Of Evil,

I think they also reference the tracking shot in Absolute Beginners there too.

I didn't really "get" The Player until I saw it a second time. But it really did improve on rewatch.

I didn't really "get" The Player until I saw it a second time. But it really did improve on rewatch.

Yeah, I think there's too much in there to get it the first time - you're to busy figuring out the thread and the people. Once you know that, you can sit back and see what Altman was trying to say.

I love that movie.

I am finding this blog so interesting. [link]

It's a blog all the little influences on Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

Finally saw Star Trek last night. I enjoyed it, and had a lot of fun. There were some very silly parts of it, all of which had JJ's fingerprints all over them. Actually, it really felt like a JJ Abrahms movie first, and a Star Trek movie second.

But I was fine with that. Frankly, as much as I have adored Trek and about half the spinoff series (liked Next Gen and DS9, hated Voyager and Enterprise), I got utterly bored with them ten years ago. If this movie had felt even a little like any previous version of Trek, I would not have been interested.

Dogs save me from Rick Berman or Brannon Braga ever being allowed anywhere near anything Trek related ever again. They never figured out how to make an actual movie, and not just an expensive episode of TV. JJ at least knows the difference between television and film.

I did get taken out of the movie a couple of times by the very Abrahms-esque "Gee, the movie has gotten kind of complicated, JJ. Can we introduce a character in this scene to give us a quick recap of what's going on, so the audience is all up to speed?" But that's mostly a nit pick, so I'll let it slide.

I thought the entire cast was excellent, especially Pine and Quinto.

I did get taken out of the movie a couple of times by the very Abrahms-esque

Yeah, but he made up for it by having that character be Leonard Nimoy. You really can't ask for a better Expositor than Future!Spock.

There was one other time he did it earlier in the movie, but I've already forgotten the specifics about it, so clearly it was a minor thing for me.

And both instances were blessedly short. JJ kept his expo tight and concise, so we didn't have to spend a lot of time on the matter. Very "KEY BULLET POINTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED, NOW BACK TO THE FUN!"

Also, JJ cleary understood that the phlebotenum is irrelevant. In that respect, he was probably the single best choice for reviving the franchise.

Looking back, it frequently seemed that Berman and Braga thought phelbotenum was the only thing that was important.