George Takei Movies

A young man on his way up hitches his wagon to a middle-aged star on his way down in a comedy from writer and director Sean McGinly. Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) is a guy in his early twenties who has dropped out of law school and is pondering his next move. Troy has an interest in working in the entertainment business, and when he learns that a "celebrity performer" is looking for a personal assistant, Troy thinks he's found the ideal entry-level position. Troy soon discovers he's landed a job as a glorified gofer for Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a once-famous mentalist who appeared on The Tonight Show 61 times during Johnny Carson's reign as host. However, Howard hasn't been doing much lately, and he's hired Troy and new publicist Valerie (Emily Blunt) as he grooms himself for a comeback. While Troy is fascinated with Howard's creaky but still effective act, his boss has enough personal quirks and absurd demands to give anyone second thoughts about working with him for long. One thing that keeps Troy on the road with Buck is Valerie, who wastes no time in showing her sexual interest in him; however, Valerie is also the only one who harbors no illusions about Howard's prospects for a return to fame, and she isn't afraid to tell him about it. The Great Buck Howard also features Tom Hanks as Troy's father; as it happens, he's also Colin Hanks' real life dad. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Trained to kill but determined to cheer their school's team to the championship game, three lethal cheerleading ninjas must put down their pom poms and pick up their katanas when their sensei is abducted by the mob. April, Courtney, and Monica may just be college freshmen, but they can take out an army of ninja assassins with the skill of an ancient master. Schooled in the ancient martial arts by the esteemed Sensei Hiroshi (George Takei), these three beauties spend their days in the classroom and their nights in the strip club - where they work the poles to pay for their college tuition. Then one day, Sensei Hiroshi is abducted and their lives are suddenly turned upside down. Now, in order to rescue their master, April, Courtney, and Monica will have to summon the skills he once taught them and take on a virtual army of mob assassins. With a nosy cop closing in on one side and suspicious parents asking questions on the other, these girls will have to work overtime in order to keep anyone from finding out what kind of destruction they're truly capable of. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Asian-American Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye hosts, and the Japanese-American actor George Takei (Star Trek) serves as narrator, in Going for Broke, a documentary that provides an incredibly rare glimpse of an unusual corner of World War II: those Japanese men who fought hatred, prejudice and discrimination after Pearl Harbor to fight for the US military in the second world war. Going for Broke honors this group of extraordinarily brave and patriotic men. By coupling archival footage and harrowing interviews with Japanese-American veterans, the film examines exactly how these individuals managed to cope and cling to their beliefs in American ideals, overcoming the bigotry that threatened to destroy any lingering optimism that they possessed. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In this pilot film for the Batman Beyond television series (which aired as a two-part episode), Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) has become too old for super heroics and has hung up his bat suit for good. However, a young man named Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle) wants to avenge the death of his father, which he believes was caused by the new head of Wayne Industries. After he does a bit of digging, McGinnis discovers Bruce Wayne's long-held secret and takes Bruce's suit out of mothballs to become the new Batman, with a new complement of high-tech gadgets at his disposal. Boasting a futuristic look inspired by Japanese anime, Batman Beyond also features appearances from Stockard Channing as the new Commissioner Gordon and Teri Garr as Mary McGinnis, Terry's mom. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Walter Isaacson's book Kissinger: A Biography served as the basis for this made-for-television movie about the famed political leader. Beau Bridges stars as President Richard Nixon and Ron Silver portrays Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security advisor. The adaptation shows how Kissinger worked to try and end the Vietnam crisis while Nixon maneuvered to keep his political image strong until election time. Bridges was nominated for an Emmy for his lead performance. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

What do you get when you combine a Western with a Science Fiction film? You might get this shoot'em up in space. It is set in the distant town of Oblivion (it was actually filmed in Romania). Though it's a high tech town, it has the feel of an old fashioned Western outpost from the 1800's. The town is being terrorized by the snakelike, power-mad Redeye who is also out for the contents of local mines. He shoots the sheriff and disarms Stell Barr, his cyborg deputy. Enter Zack Stone, son of the late Sheriff Stone. Zack is of a rare breed, the empaths. Because he feels the pain of others, he walks a path of non-violence. Can he remain pacifistic in the face of Redeye's terrifying reign? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Navy SEAL gets himself tossed into a seething Filipino prison after his attempts to stop a gang rape fail and he is accused of killing the girl. This low-budget martial arts actioner chronicles his struggle to survive and escape the hellish jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In 1945, a tribunal was held to investigate atrocities committed by the Japanese upon Australian soldiers during World War II. At an internment camp, 1100 Australian soldiers were tortured and killed by the Japanese, with only 300 survivors. This horrible event was not known until a terrible discovery of decapitated corpses was made at a grisly site on Ambon Island in Indonesia after the war. Stephen Wallace directed this courtroom drama based on the incident and follows the intrepid investigator who uncovers the truth behind the missing Australian soldiers. Bryan Brown plays Captain Cooper, the prosecutor of the case, in which 91 Japanese officers and soldiers are accused of murdering the Australian prisoners-of-war. The chief defendants are camp commander Takahashi (George Takei) and Captain Ikeuchi (Tetsu Watanabe). Takahashi denies knowing anything about the atrocities, as does Ikeuchi. Nevertheless, Cooper presses on to undercover the truth. But standing in his way is the American delegation, led by Major Beckett (Terry O'Quinn). They don't want a case to go forward that would reflect badly on the Japanese high command, since General MacArthur wants to reinstate many of the Japanese officers in a new postwar Japanese order. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This poorly received sequel to the classic 1957 movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, is also based on a true story, as told in the book by Joan & Clay Blair, Jr. This story begins where the previous one left off, with the blowing up of the marvelous bridge. Here, the Australian POWs are rounded up to be shipped by rail and sea to Japan to serve as slave laborers. They have many harrowing experiences and near-escapes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) concludes the story arc begun with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but on a wholly new, different, and upbeat note. As the movie opens, months have elapsed since the events in Star Trek III; Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scott (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) are marooned in self-imposed exile on Vulcan, along with the resurrected and regenerated Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed). While Spock tries to sort out the Vulcan and human halves of his resurrected psyche, the others prepare to return to Earth to face a brace of charges by the Klingon Empire and Star Fleet over events on Genesis. Taking off in their commandeered, jerry-rigged Klingon ship, they head to Earth, not knowing that a new crisis could destroy their home world -- a huge, immensely powerful alien probe has entered the galaxy and established a position near Earth, disabling every vehicle and installation in its path with its energy and communication output, and has ionized the entire atmosphere and started vaporizing the oceans, leaving the planet only hours to survive.

Spock determines that the probe is sending out signals to another intelligent terrestrial life form, humpbacked whales, which no longer exist. Using the gravity slingshot time-warp effect (established early in the original series) to travel back into Earth's 20th century, Kirk and company land in 1980s San Francisco to try and bring humpbacked whales to the 23rd century, to respond to the probe. Thus starts a surprisingly breezy, light-hearted, yet serious odyssey through the past (comparable to the best work of the original series), as the crew learns to deal with exact-change buses, angry drivers, punk-rock enthusiasts and other elements of '80s life, and Kirk tries to persuade a scientist (Catherine Hicks) of his good intentions for two whales in captivity. The screenplay, co-authored by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett (from a story by Nimoy and Bennett), is the cleverest and most sophisticated of all the Star Trek movie screenplays, recalling some of the elements of Meyer's earlier time-travel movie Time After Time and also anticipating the feel and tone of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (which would be on the air not quite a year later). Nimoy's direction offers a combination of brisk pacing and a deep love of the characters and the actors, as well as a serious appreciation of the humorous aspects of the script, and Shatner gives his best performance of any of the movies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide