Customer Reviews

Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

wow.going into this movie,my expectations were pretty low.i though it would be a decent movie,but not great.well,i don't no if it's great or not,but it's pretty darn close.this one has it all.sure,there's action,and quite a bit of it.and there also plenty of excitement to go along with it.and in liberal doses of humour coupled with the high intensity and suspense factor and you have one heck of a fun film.there are also the added elements of intrigue and mystery,which the previous had little of,if any.this is also the darkest installment up to that point.i think it is also the most ambitious of the six films.for me,this movie ranked right up there with the fourth installment The Voyage Home.there are some nail biting moments here.this movie is a 4/5 for sure.

"The Undiscovered Country" was the sixth of the Star Trek movies and hit the movie screens in 1991. Like "The Wrath of Khan", this film was directed by Nicholas Meyer, and tells the story of the last mission undertaken by Captain Kirk and his crew.

The film opens in 2293, with the USS Excelsior returning home from a three-year mission charting gaseous anomalies in beta quadrant. Under the command of Captain Sulu, it monitors a devastating explosion on the Klingon moon, Praxis - one that literally tears the moon apart. As well as losing a key energy production facility, the Klingons are left with a more pressing problem : within fifty years, the Klingon homeworld would be uninhabitable due to the resulting damage to its atmosphere.

Several months later, Kirk and most of his senior staff are mysteriously called to a meeting with Starfleet's top brass. Three months away from retirement, they're a little confused as to why they have been summoned - and why Spock is, apparently, missing. The mystery is presently cleared up : they are briefed on what happened on Praxis and informed that, as a result, peace talks have opened between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Further details are then provided by the Federation's Special Envoy : Spock. Compounding Kirk's surprise at Spock's role in proceedings is his dismay that Spock's plans for the Enterprise and her crew. Spock has volunteered them, without their knowledge, to escort Gorkon (the Klingon Chancellor) to Earth for a peace conference. Obviously Kirk - having spent his career fighting Klingons and still smarting from his son's death at Klingon hands - does not approve. He is not alone in expressing his concerns - several Admirals, including Cartwright, believe it very dangerous to even consider allowing Klingons free access to Federation space. All objections, however, are brushed aside by the Commander-in-Chief and Spock's plan is given the green light. Unfortunately, mixing Kirk and Klingons can only lead to trouble - especially when both parties are threatened with peace. (Just so long as nobody lets them near the Romulan Ale....D'OH !!).

There are several well-known guest stars in the movie : Michael Dorn (Worf from TNG and DS9) appears as a Klingon Defence Attorney, while Iman appears as a shape-shifting convict. Kim Cattrall also appears playing Lt. Valeris, a new Enterprise Bridge Officer. She was sponsored through the Academy by Spock and was the first Vulcan to graduate top of her class. General Chang, one of Gorkon's aides, is a great character - probably the most entertaining in the movie. He seems to enjoy testing Kirk - someone he shares a few traits with. Both are tough old warriors who are suspicious of the peace initiative. Overall this in a hugely entertaining movie - there's plenty of action, humor and opportunities for characters to bend the rules. For me, this beats "The Wrath of Khan" as the best of the Trek movie featuring the crew of the original series.

Unlike Nemesis, which kind of left you scratching your head at how The Next Generation series of movies could go out in such an average (for TNG's high standards) bang, The Undiscovered Country closed out the original Star Trek series of movies with a BANG in 1991. This is easily the best ST movie ever, about how overmining of the Klingon moon causes a catastrophe on their planet making in uninhabitable and causing them to come to the Federation with talks of a truce. But a deep conspiracy unravels, in some ways predictable, in other ways not.......enough of my blabbering, not like you wanted to hear me tell you any more anyways, if you did I still won't spoil any more. Scenes of this movie were emulated in Next Generation movies (a certain space battle scene is emulated almost exactly in Generations, although nowhere near as well). Get it, watch it, and watch all the original Star Trek movies (except maybe the first one, unless you are INSANE for star trek). THe original movies are the best, and can be loved even if you aren't a Star Trek fan.

Over all a great movie despite the plot holes and other stuff.

Three cheers for Leonard Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer. After Star Trek was MUGged by the absurd ego of William Shatner with his disastrous Star Trek 5,Nimoy came up with the idea of Star Trek 6 with the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall coming down.
Nick Meyer chipped in with his ideas and brilliant direction to save Star Trek,as he did with his writing and direction in ST2 and his writing of the San Francisco scenes in ST4.
Nimoy,who had previously done so well with his directing in Star Trek 4,this time produced Star Trek 6:The Voyage Home.
Highlights of this film are - the explosion of the Klingon moon(based on Chernobyl),the assassination,the Klingon trial of Kirk and McCoy,the prison camp,the escape and the finale.
It is amazing what they did with a Star Trek 6 budget that was similar to the cheap looking Star Trek 5.
And they had the good sense to bring the brilliant ILM back to do the effects. ILM's brilliant effects make a huge difference.
Rick Berman followed Shatner's mistake of ditching ILM for the last two Trek films,will they ever learn?
ILM made a huge difference in six Star Trek films and the Peter Pan line at the end "second star to the right and on till morning" is a delight.

Nick Meyer's "Undiscovered Country" is a terrific movie which involves witty dialogue, a terrific plot, great special effects (for that day and age), a complimentary score by Cliff Eidelman, and surprisingly good acting. I was only eight when the film was released in '91, but when they special edition DVD's were released, I decided it would be best to buy just my favorites, and this one is on the list.

Why? Well, the script takes you for a good ride for close to two hours and never lets up - I mean never. There aren't many scripts that can do that. What impressed me the most is the acting. The actors aren't the same, campy, over-dramatic ones which they were claimed to be during the run of the television series. These are actors that pretty much know that this is the last movie in the franchise that made them stars, and they give down to earth and funny performances. It's almost like five grandparents and a grandma acting, with all that wisdom and wit. Shatner's performance was the greatest. This isn't the actor that released a horrible CD and is still impersonated - this is William Shatner at his best. Christopher Plummer is also incredible as the villain Chang. The trial scene is a great piece of acting for him.

True, the premise is based on the post-Cold War collapse of Russia, but isn't this how Trek was started after all? The Federation was NATO, the Klingons were Russians, and the Romulans Japanese? Roddenberry took our world, made races out of countries, and boom, we have "Star Trek." Many people who believe that "Trek" is unrealistic must do is look to our history to believe how wrong they are. Either way, this movie is a fitting sendoff that features the crew, and is what I believe right up there with the second movie as one of the best.

My Rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.

After Star Trek V, which DID stink (sorry, Bill!), the powers that be did what everyone would hope they did: hire back Nick Meyer, who directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, to do a rescue. And while this movie does not hit the high standard set by that film, it is a very respectable bit of sci-fi fun and ended the whole series on a positive note.

If Meyer can be faulted for anything, it is for trying to stuff too much, well, STUFF in one film. This movie has political intrigue, an assassination plot, a murder mystery (!), some courtroom drama (!!), a prison break (!!!), a cat-and-mouse starship battle (shades of Khan?), then caps everything off with the wrap-up of the political intruge/multiple assassination plotline you almost forgot about with all the other stuff in-between. As Meyer might have said, but as far as I know never did, "Oy, vey!"

On the upside, almost everything is well done, so the end result is a fun Star Trek movie that, much like "The Wrath of Khan," is also very accessible, even if it lacks the sheer visceral punch of that Star Trek high-water-mark. Kudos, too, for the DVD extras, which have been consistently excellent in the latest run of Paramount 2-DVD Star Trek sets.

This sixth edition of the Star Trek movie series is probably (along with Star Trek II) the best ever to hit the big screen. Nicholas Meyer also directed the Wrath of Khan and it makes sense to give him the reigns of this film as well since Star Trek II was a true classic. The plot for Star Trek VI parallels the decline and fall of the Soviet Union of the early 1990s and the film takes a page out of the current events of the time. Lots of good acting, dialog, and special effects in addition to a great supporting cast of David Warner, Christopher Plummer and Deep Space Nine's Rene Auberjonois. The plot will leaving you guessing till the very end. Also the special edition has loads of extras such as the making of the film and documentaries. A must for any Star Trek fan.

Personally I feel this was the best of the Star Trek movies, It was a good movie for both trekkies and non-trekkies with a good message and great directing.

First off, the movie it's self is rated 5 stars and no less, but this format stinks. If your gonna show it in widescreen show it in anamorphic and no less. Only rich people own HD-TV's. The average person can't afford them. SO either show it in anamorphic(I can live with the black lines if I get to see the WHOLE picture) or full screen(the reason I bought a 27" TV was to see it in 27 INCHES). Otherwise don't bother. If your wondering about it in widescreen, amazon has missrepresented this, it isn't wide screen anamorphic(as in the theater) it is 16.9 "enhanced", thier's a difference you know.