The Worst Film Ever

Fantastic!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

For The Love of Spock is one of the best if not the best documentary I have had the pleasure of seeing. I grew up with Mr. Spock and I thought with Leanord Nimoy as well. I am not going to spoil this for but I really had no idea of, let me say, mutliple facets of this wonderful actor and a good man. Adam Nimoy, Leanords son, has done an outstanding job of letting us see inside his fathers life. On a personal level I found out some things about Leanord that I can commiserate with. I don't believe this will qualify as a surprise in describing a discussion Leanord was having about where the Vulcan gretting and statement came from. What took me by surprise is that after a few weeks he started seeing a significant number of people just on the street who had taken up the greeting and would sign to him. Let me end by saying this is a documentary you should not miss and we will miss you Leonard.

*Spoiler/plot- For the Love of Spock, 2016. The film's focus began as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: the Original Series, but after Leonard NImoy passed away in February 2015, his director son, Adam was ready to tell an additional private story: his personal experience growing up with Leonard Nimoy and "Mr. Spock". This documentary details the universal impact of Mr. Spock in our culture and the bumpy road of being the son of a 60's TV icon.*Special Stars- Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, JJ Abrams, George Takei and many more of the Trek crew.*Theme- Family must go on and family is important.*Trivia/location/goofs- Adam Nimoy is a TV director, entertainment lawyer, and a documentarian. He soon is becoming a Trek TV show writer. I saw this fine film when Adam Nimoy showed it a a local Hebrew temple and stayed around for questions afterwards.*Emotion- Don't look for some fannish shallow canonization of either Nimoy or Spock in this film. This is a more professional and well balanced film. A wonderful and even handed exploration of the Trek icon Mr. Spock and well themed positive film about family, forgiveness, and over coming adversity.*Based On- Adam Nimoy's tribute to his creative and talented father and his father's Trek contributions.

This film should have been entitled 'For the Love of Leonard', for, in essence, it is director Adam Nimoy's eulogy to his late father. As such, the film is drenched in the sentimentality and nostalgia of a recently bereaved son. There's a whole lot of interview footage he conducts with the much missed actor's family, friends and colleagues and, unsurprisingly, no-one has a bad word to say about his dad. What they do say is, on the whole, trite and predictable. The broad strokes of Leonard's life and career are dutifully documented and, while this may hold some interest for anyone unfamiliar with his trajectory, it offers little that fans of Star Trek won't already know. We gain absolutely no insight into his relationships with Gene Roddenberry, Paramount or, especially, the cast and crew. His fractured friendship with William Shatner is never alluded to (Shatner himself appears for about 30 seconds), and Deforest Kelley and James Doohan are barely mentioned. Of the show's directors and writers there is hardly a peep (but we do get plenty of time with his sister-in-law).But by far the film's most disappointing aspect is the treatment of the character of Spock himself, the apparent subject of the piece. Yes it covers the evolution of the ears, the nerve pinch, the Vulcan salute etc. and yes, there is some examination of his motivations, inner turmoil and the relationship with Kirk and McCoy. But there's no depth, no insight, no analysis of the growth of the character over time. Any discussion of particular scenes, episodes or films is fleeting and perfunctory. The cultural impact of Spock, and Star Trek in general, is also treated in a facile manner unrelated to any wider social context.This film works as a fairly insipid memorial to Leonard Nimoy's life and work but disappointingly fails to offer anything else of substance.

I just left a screening that featured a Q&A with its director Adam Nimoy. I appreciate that Adam was amazingly candid and honest about his relationship with his father and their history together in the Q&A and in the film. There are issues that I'm having with MY father NOW that I would feel extremely uncomfortable about revealing to anyone, let alone a huge audience. I also love that the film included frank and candid remarks from Leonard Nimoy about his life and his fellow cast members. I really wanted MORE recent interviews with Leonard. As Adam stated during the Q&A, his father was alive for only the first few months of the filming for this documentary. I'm sorry to state that it suffered as a result. There was also far too much "Big Bang Theory" material. No offense to anyone who is on that show, but I didn't really care about their opinions. So the ten(?) minutes that is devoted to them is rather painful.But aside from these flaws, it was a great way to spend the Star Trek fiftieth anniversary today. Thanks, Adam.