This time out, the weekend movie preview is all about the Star Trek universe. All the other major studios have stayed clear of this weekend as J.J. Abrams finally premieres his sequel to his 2009 smash hit.
Star Trek Into Darkness arrives in regular 2D, as well as 3D and IMAX. A few smaller movies also open this weekend, including the return of The Squid and the Whale auteur Noah Baumbach with Frances Ha and Julianne Moore dazzles again as The English Teacher.
Star Trek Into Darkness: The crew of the Enterprise is back and in our opinion, better than ever. The gang all knows each other well, after the origins story that was Star Trek. This time out, the villain is "one of us," played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He may, or may not, be Khan... a huge figure in the Star Trek world. You won't get that kind of spoiler from our Star Trek Into Darkness review, but we do state that this is a film that is action packed and should make Trek fans and non-fans happy. It's a popcorn movie, pure and simple.
The English Teacher: Moore returns to the big screen after dazzling us as Sarah Palin in Game Change for HBO. This time out, she's the titular character in a small town high school. She has all but given up on her charges doing anything with their life with literature, when she runs into a former student who she thought the world of. He is back in town after "failing" as a Broadway playwright and the sparks fly comically and dramatically throughout. For more, check out our The English Teacher review.
Frances Ha: Greta Gerwig continues her independent movie streak after her turns in Lola Versus and Damsels in Distress as Frances, a woman who thinks she has it all figured out. Then... life happens and she realizes what our twenties are all about: Self discovery.
Through Gerwig, who teamed up with real life love Noah Baumbach to write the script, we see a side of the growing to love oneself that is rarely captured so eloquently and accurately as is seen in this film. Our Frances Ha review also finds that Baumbach has quite a hand at directing, after years of penning screenplays such as Greenberg and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
