HOW WILLIAM SHATNER CHANGED THE WORLD [NR]
This Emmy nominated piece doth pose the unsettling thought that there are two kinds of people in this world — Gold-shirts and Red-shirts…and Bill Shatner knows which color shirt he’s been wearing for the last forty years. Perhaps the Emmy gold-winning “Boston Legal” ham is finally getting over “Star Trek” — the grain of sand in the pearl that is his career — by admitting to the world’s slow acclimatization of every morsel of this cancelled television series.

For the 76-year-old Priceline pitchman, this 2005 television special is kind of like the fifth stage of grief: acceptance. Captain Kirk is finally getting a chance to play Bill Shatner. Just to hear him say the words “Star Trek” without hissing or snapping molars shows much personal progress. Behold, a lightly comic documentary film that walks along side all the stuff invented on the original television show, like communicators, very small computers, an end to racism, hot aliens in mini skirts, and boldly — no, baldly — goes appropriately tangential on how it led to cell phones, advanced micro devices, iPods, and racial diversity. It is tongue-in-cheek and corny as all get-out, as we might imagine Bill’s personal take on the original series might be, but how else is Shatner supposed to cope with his 23rd century alter ego?

The lion’s share of his budget was spent licensing a tremendous amount of original series footage, cleverly positioned against Shatner’s fully developed embrace of Captain Kirk. It’s, something akin to fascinating to watch him drive out to Vasquez Rocks, where the famous “Kirk Fights Gorn On Asteroid” sequence of the “Arena” episode from 1967 was shot, and between paper mâché boulder tosses, narrating, “Did you know the man who invented the cell phone got the idea from watching ‘Star Trek’?” And off we go to meet this geek at his seven trillion dollar smart house on the to hear him tell us it’s all true — “Star Trek” really did inspire him to invent the cell phone. Cut and paste this scene dozens of times, mind-meld Tribbles and Scotty and Enterprise to SETI, NASA, and Microsoft, and you unbuckle the film’s Heisenberg compensators and are fully assimilated by the simple concept behind the movie’s title. –Mark Volpe

3 NEEDLES [NR]
War movies often contain a scene in which a general rallies his troops with a rousing speech, conveying their need to fight together or die alone. While the war against AIDS may be a different type of war, its rallying cry remains the same. This social commentary from The Event writer-director Thom Fitzgerald chronicles the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout three continents: Africa, Asia, and North America. Fitzgerald presents three separate, loosely connected stories, attempting to unify the masses under one banner, but unfortunately, his scope is a bit broad and would benefit from additional editing. Visually stunning, cinematographer Tom Harting deserves special recognition, as his panoramic shots of rural China and the coastal region of southern Africa are stirringly beautiful. The characters are intriguing – particularly veteran actors Chloë Sevigny and Lucy Liu – but their motivations are never fully realized, with a few of them quite unrealistic within the context in which they are presented. While film’s intention is clear, not until the very end does it pose the question, “In this time when all of mankind has a common enemy in this virus, why have we not joined together at last to fight it?” Unquestionably virtuous, the final product is somewhat diminished by its focus on corruption, self-interest, and greed which, as presented, begs the argument that mankind itself is its own worst enemy. –Gregory Johnson

COME EARLY MORNING [R]
Ashley Judd may have been taking it easy the last couple years, but in Kevin Smith protégé Joey Lauren Adams’s promising debut as a writer-director, she proves that she is more than just the pretty-faced strong girl she has played in so many Hollywood hits. She plays a 30-something Southern girl with a drinking problem who chooses to break from a love life consisting mostly of sneaking away in the morning. Far more subtle than Maggie Gyllenhaal’s turn in the gritty SherryBaby, Judd, thanks to some emotionally smart writing and confident direction, shows that she’s not doomed to a lifetime of, well…Lifetime. –Robert Newton

BLACK CHRISTMAS [R/NR]
Proving that there may be nothing sacred left in the world, this horror film pits a house full of scantily clad, impossibly good-looking women against a psycho dressed like Santa Claus.

BOBBY [R]
Writer-director Emilio Estevez’s critically well-regarded historical drama is a day in the life of L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel, the day in 1968 on which Presidential candidate and legacy Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.

CHARLOTTE’S WEB [G]
While it is no Babe, E.B. White’s beloved children’s book about a pig named Wilbur who finds his loving place in the sun is a teary Life Lesson bundled into a tight little 97 minute package.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD [R]
We could tell you more about this deliberately paced movie starring Matt Damon!, Robert DeNiro and Angelina Jolie — which may or may not be about the early history of the CIA — but then we’d have to kill you.

VOLVER [R]
Penélope Cruz’s Oscar-nominated performance in fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar’s rock-solid dramatic comedy is proof as to why both of them are now at the top of their respective games.