Red Letter Media has become an Internet sensation with their lengthy detailed (and scathing) “Harry Plinkett” video reviews of the Star Wars prequels and the TNG era movies. Today they released their review of the 2009 Star Trek movie and so you would expect it got ripped to shreds right? Wrong. Watch how it works out below.
Red Letter Media takes on Star Trek 2009
Red Letter Media’s past reviews of the Star Wars prequels and the TNG movies have been brutally entertaining – all voiced by the curmudgeon persona of “Harry S. Plinkett” who seems to hate everything. Their 70-minute takedown of the Phantom Menace released last December was trumpeted by Star Trek’s Damon Lindelof and Simon Pegg, appeared on dozens of movie sites and has over 2 million views on YouTube. So the review of the 2009 Star Trek movie was expected to be another flame fest, however that isn’t what happened. The 67-minute review does some good nitpicking and points out how the film was made to appeal to the "stupid masses", but the entertaining review is probably the most positive of the Red Letter Media series.
Here it is in two parts (via: www.redlettermedia.com).
[Review contains adult language]
If you haven’t seen them yet, here are links to past Star Trek reviews from Red Letter Media:
Well, who doesn’t like it?
That matters, I mean.
It was a good movie, that appealed to fans and new-fans. Job well done Bob and Court!
One should never expect bad reviews of Trek movies, but instead be shocked by their existence, in my view.
about that stripper granddaughter of his…………….
HA HA HAH!…Of Course Star Trek(2009) is GREAT!!!!!
“…kinda nice to see the old Enterprise again…”
Ha ha! Thanks, Red Letter, I needed a good laugh.
Who voiced this, Dr. Zoidberg?
And did I miss the explaination on why the review comes a mere year and a half after the release and nearly a year after the DVD?
I tend to find myself liking movies that critics hate, with a few exceptions (such as Star Trek). I do like some movies with legendary directors like Hitchcock. When it comes to Star Trek movies, I judge it on how much fun I had watching it. Does it tell a good story, does it have good special effects, and does it have good character moments. On that basis, I loved all 11 Star Trek films (though the special effects in V were lacking). Star Trek: The Motion Picture came the closest to being arty, with the long tracking shots and the general mood of the film. I really could care less what a critic thinks of any of the Star Trek films and I doubt theatre goers pay much attention. If the previews look good and if the hype is good, they’ll see it.
Crtics that sees this kinds of movies and go oh we have some space guy fighing an alian and oh look flashy thingy dude give it arest its better then Avater OK This movie actually won an acadamy aword NO STAR TREK EVER WON AN ACADAMY AWORD BEFORE!!! Yes its gonna be differint Yes its not gonna be the same like the 60s but look at the tech that they have in the 60s Star Trek and look at us now we have pretty much transfromed our world in to the 23rd century all we are missing now is Warp Drive I am not joking miltary iss testing out shild tech we have the hypspry and many more dude Star Trek 09 is differint yes but ITS STILL STAR TREK
Sorry I may be missing something here, but why a review for a movie that came out well over a year back?
For those who haven’t taken the opportunity to watch some of RLM’s reviews of other films, I highly recommend doing so. With the exception of the more adult-oriented language, the reviews are pretty much spot on. So much so that I’ve had to go back and re-evaluate my personal opinions of some of the older Trek films, among others. Good stuff. Looking forward to watching these tonight.
Well, I still don’t like the movie. If you like it, you can keep it. I don’t care.
this dude is pretty misogynistic
Vultan…you fail at life.
That guy’s voice is so damn annoying it makes it almost impossible to get through the review. Ugh! What is with that fool?
#12
You can keep your childish whining and pouting to yourself! This movie brought back the classic characters, brought back Star Trek to the mainstream, and was a whole lot of FUN!
As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen you post anything positive about anything on this site. Is there anything YOU DO LIKE? Is there anything you WILL NOT bitch about?
Wow. He actually liked something? Amazing.
Loved the movie. Hated all the scenes set in Engineering.
It was certainly a well received movie all around and it is good that Star Trek is once again on top.
12 – Hey, that’s great, Jeyl. So, do you have an opinion on this REVIEW of the movie, since that’s what’s being talked about in this thread?
Or do you just go to every thread posting your dislike of Trek 09?
I love Red Letter Media’s reviews, even though it took me a while to get used to his voice and style. It’s a CHARACTER, people–he’s acting like he has all these issues and the voice, he’s playing it up for laughs. If you don’t get the joke, that’s fine, but at least be smart enough to recognize the joke.
And if you folks will LISTEN to the reviews, you’ll hear some of the best film criticism in decades. Insightful, accurate, and sometimes almost painfully in-your-face obvious stuff we all should’ve seen.
Thanks for posting the review!!
Penguins
I’ve seen most of the Star Wars reviews of Red Letter Media. I think – beside that stuipid killer/cat/women/psycho-stuff, the reviews brought everything to the point. And I have to agree in nearly everything (despite the Dominion War thing mentioned in the second part). Star Trek was a fun movie, a good movie, but actually… it was no REAL Star Trek.
#14
Oh, thanks for the personal attack. How’s the broadband connection under that bridge, troll?
Nailed it! And the humor is back. His Episode 2 review was kind of a letdown.
Yeah, saying I still don’t like the film is really pouty and childish compared to calling someone’s opinion out in a mean spirited way laced with profanity.
Go ahead and like the film if you want. Love it even. Support it. Say nothing was wrong with it. I won’t complain if you do because what you like and what I like are obviously two different things. So what’s the point in making a fuss about my opinion that you don’t share?
And yes. I watched his review. I still don’t like the movie.
Awesome review. It’s obvious tremendous effort went into the constructive supporting data. Very enlightening and entertaining!
I’ve seen other videos by this critic. I find them insightful, funny and disturbing — all at the same time. They are, in many ways, better cinema critiques than most of the film reviews you get these days. His extended analysis of the Star Wars prequels is great (and, again, disturbing).
#25
“Yeah, saying I still don’t like the film is really pouty and childish compared to calling someone’s opinion out in a mean spirited way laced with profanity.”
Get over yourself! Nobody laced anything with profanity. I used the word “bitch” (which is definitely not profane) as an accurate term for your “trolling”. Next time, if you don’t like what the article is about, just don’t bother with it. Its just that simple.
And by the way, the writers deserve a lot of credit for doing something most of us thought impossible: Make “Star Trek” a viable multi-blockbuster film franchise. They deserve some slack. If you have a problem with that, make your own movie and show it to us!
25 – Okay, we get it, you hate the movie. Again, what’s the point of constantly saying how much you hate it? Why come into this thread and say that, instead of–I dunno–talking about the review or saying something new?
Whether you like the film or hate it, RLM does an insightful job of reviewing the good AND bad. He points out pretty much everything I hate about the film (lots of stuff).
I really wish I knew what you meant by, “saying I still don’t like the film is really pouty and childish compared to calling someone’s opinion out in a mean spirited way laced with profanity.” Um…what? No one said you’re pouty or childish (that I know of), and I don’t see where anyone’s opinion was called out with profanity, so…what are you talking about?
I think it’s sad someone has a 90 minuets of a review devoted to a movie people have already seen many times. He should do something original with all that time he has.
#13.
He can’t help it as that’s the way he’s written.
#23.
This is surreal and I’m not just talking about the review itself. It seems half the responders here don’t know (likely because they haven’t bothered to watch it) or realize the reviewing character is a work of fiction mostly done for laughs but not so much that some satirical insights can’t be found. But not even that, if they had the slightest idea what the character represents I don’t think they’d be so quick to count his approval as another feather in 2009’s cap.
Well, at t least Lindelof and Pegg get it.
#30: Many, many people don’t understand the concept of ‘persona.’ This is why Stephen Colbert got invited to a White House dinner under Bush.
#31.
Tell me about it. I keep being amazed at how many people confuse the words of Robert Smigel for actually being William Shatner’s while trying to use them to admonish others to live in the “real” world.
Congrats to JJ, Orci, Kurtzman, and the rest of the Trek team. Hit another home run with the next one!
Er, mine should’ve been in response to #31 as well.
PS:
OVERDRIVE!
I hated ST09, personally, and will never watch it or its sequels. But I watched about 10 mins of that review and found it hilarious.
Never watch it again, that is. I did watch it once.
Leonard Nimoy and I love the new movie. A few others do not.
I’m ok with that.
#32.
Meant #33 in reply to you but the whole numbers applecart gets overturned when some step so far over bounds that their “contributions” have to be eliminated.
He already did a shorter review where a woman was raped by star trek 2009 and had her money stolen.
I thought that was an allusion to a fool and his money shall soon be parted and JJ gets his money, and that Trek fans childhood’s were raped.
Haven’t been the biggest fan of Trek09 but I will say its better than all the TNG movies.. and I loves me some TNG..
Love the new movie, but I agreed with everything the crazy guy said in the video. I think the only other thing I wish was different would have been to keep the Romulan makeup consistant with how we saw them in TNG/Nemesis. I guess we can explain it away by saying they look as they did in TOS, and that there are Romulans around with the more human appearance.
I disagree ensign joe, First Contact was infinitely better than Star Trek in Name only.
“I used the word “bitch” (which is definitely not profane) as an accurate term for your “trolling”.”
A. If you’re not talking about a female dog and you’re using it as a negative towards someone else, it’s profane.
B. If being profane was not your intent, than why didn’t you just use the word trolling instead?
45 seconds of the reviewer’s voice was all I could handle.
For some reason this Red whatever guy has become a cult thing. Why? Who knows?
@ 42 skyjedi
Have you seen the RedLetterMedia review of First Contact?
http://www.redlettermedia.com/first_contact.html
I pretty much agreed with everything he said there.. did you not?
This guy said in the review that he hated “Parallels”. His argument is now completely invalid. Besides, time travel in Trek is never consistent, and it doesn’t need to be. As long as the story is good, I don’t care what theory they use for time travel.
Red Letter Media: The greatest thing on the internet.
:D
YEA!! redlettermedia totally deserved his own post.
Truly, a man of taste (for blood).
48. I agree… best thing on the internet….
Most insightful movie analysis’ I have ever seen – the Episode I review is perfect. The TNG reviews are great as well. I can’t wait for the episode 3 review.