In Remembrance of Ray Manzarek

Ray Manzarek passed away Monday morning. Ray is the second member of the psychedelic-blues band, The Doors, to pass after lead singer, Jim Morrison, died in 1971. Manzarek gave The Doors its unique sound with his grandiose keyboard playing. Morrison may be the face of the band, but Ray was essential in forming the group and his mind was behind some of their biggest hits.

You may be wondering,"Why are you writing about a musician on your film review site"? The reason I felt the need to express my thoughts on Manzarek and The Doors. First, The Doors are, without a doubt, my favorite band of all time. The reason why is because their music is so theatrical. Ray and Jim were film students at UCLA together and every one of their songs is dramatic on a scale usually reserved for film. I was hooked the first time I ever heard Jim's voice or Ray dancing on the ivory. They didn't make music for music people, they made music for people who love film.

Second, some of the most memorable scenes in film use The Doors. Who could forget the first time they saw  the opening scene from "Apocalypse Now"? The whir of the helicopter rotors as napalm dropped on the jungles of Vietnam as Jim crooned the lyrics to 'The End' is chilling every time. The Doors montage during Forrest's tour in Vietnam is as memorable now as it was in 1994. Even Oliver Stone's Doors biopic, which was released to lukewarm reception, had great scenes set to Doors songs, such as the Riders on the Storm intro.

Ray Manzarek was a rock-n-roll legend. One of, if not the, greatest keyboardists in music history. It is a tragedy that he was taken by such a terrible disease such as cancer. At the end of this post there is a link to donate to the American Cancer Society. Thank you, Ray, for opening the Doors of Perception.

https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate/donateonlinenow/index

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

4/5

I'm going to start this review by stating one thing: I am not a Trekkie. I've seen a few episodes of the original series and that is it besides "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan". That being said, "Star Trek Into Darkness" is a damn fun movie. J.J. Abrams returns to the director's chair for this sequel to the 2009 reboot/alternate timeline to the aforementioned series and in great form too. Among the returning cast there are a few standouts among them. Simon Pegg is a comic gem as always and Karl Urban as Bones channels DeForest Kelley in the most perfect way. On the other hand, there are some moments that are not so great. The greatest offender being during what the writers probably believed to be the emotional high point, I can only describe what I experienced as a "cringe-laugh". It was really funny in a very bad way.

Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) has been captain of the USS Enterprise for some time at the beginning of the movie. After a failed expedition on an uncharted planet, unforgivingly reported by Spock (Zachary Quinto), Kirk is stripped of his captainship of the Enterprise. Meanwhile, a terrorist act destroys a classified Starfleet headquarters and the commanders convene to discuss the correct course of action. Kirk discovers that the culprit is John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a former Starfleet agent. After a second attack, Harrison escapes to the Klingon planet of Kronos. Kirk, and the crew of the Enterprise, must infiltrate hostile territory to bring the fugitive to justice. But is it possible that everything is not as it seems?

I have a problem when I watch a movie. No matter which one it is, I have difficulties turning my brain off for big Summer tentpoles. For some reason, though, it was never a question with this movie. As soon as I sat down in the cold theater my brain just went to sleep and let me have my fun. This movie was never meant to be analyzed. It was meant to be escapism, pure and simple, and in that it succeeds. So go, get some popcorn and Coke, and just let it take you away for two hours to the final frontier.