FREE ENTERPRISE
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: ** out of ****
There are guys out there who grew up on Star Trek, and perhaps even lived it out in various ways. In their younger days, they fantasized about being Captain Kirk, maybe role played the part on the school playground or had a costume with the familiar yellow shirt and black pants. These folks have gotten older, and although they no longer dress the part on Halloween, the attraction to the 30+ year old phenomenon is still very much there, and still an influence. FREE ENTERPRISE is about two such young men in their late twenties, Robert (Rafer Weigel) and Mark (Eric McCormack), childhood friends who find themselves at a crossroads of sorts as they approach the big three-oh. Taking stock of their lives so far, they together attempt to sort out their lives in work, love, and Star Trek.
To me, Star Trek is a great source of entertainment. I don't revere it as the end-all of morality, like some people do, but rather view it as a nice outlook for our own future. I also believe that in order to truly enjoy Star Trek, one must be able to laugh at it, and there are so many reasons and ways to do so. A film like FREE ENTERPRISE is something for which a lot of people (including myself) have been waiting a long time. There is no doubt that this film was made for Star Trek fans because of the many references to the episodes and movies (oh, and that's Classic Trek, folks - sorry Next Generation fans). Many of the best laughs will probably be lost on non-aficionados. It's revealed, for example, that one of Mark's fantasies is to get in bed with a green woman. One might not really catch the meaning of this unless you knew that the Talosians attempted to seduce the previous captain of the Starship Enterprise, Capt. Christopher Pike, with a sexy green Orion woman in the only two-part Star Trek Episode entitled "The Menagerie", in a scene which was really from the original pilot episode entitled "The Cage", before series creator Gene Roddenberry revamped the show and replaced all of the actors except for Leonard Nimoy. Or, um, at least that's what I've been told.
However, in a possible attempt to make the film more accessible to the rest of the world, screenwriters Mark Altman and Robert Meyer Burnett (it's no coincidence that the main characters have the same names) have chosen to dilute this main comedic drive with a number of more mainstream jokes, leaving the Star Trek punch not as potent as it should be. Unfortunate, especially since the mainstream humor doesn't really click. The result is fewer belly laughs for the fans, and lukewarm jokes for everyone else. If I had my druthers, there'd be a Star Trek joke every few minutes. After all, why take on such a monolithic source of potential humor as the main drive for your film if you're not going to exploit it?
Speaking of exploitation, William Shatner, who plays himself, gets the Good Sport of the Year Award just for being in this film. One of the first scenes includes Robert and Mark browsing in a book store when they see the man who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk himself - and he's flipping through a porno mag. After he gets to know them, he attempts to enlist their help in producing a new version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which he'll play all the roles. Forget about what everyone else has said about Shatner's ego. You've got to love a man who can allow himself to be made fun of like that.
One of the interesting things about this film is that the characters do things which my friends and I - er, I mean, which I've seen other people do....from time to time. For example, Robert, Mark and their friends are going out to a special screening of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KAHN. How do they show their enthusiasm? By all shouting, "Khaaaaan!", ala Kirk when marooned in the tunnels of the Regula Moon, second stage experiment for the Genesis Project - or, um, so I'm told. The thing is, the characters are too much like regular people, who, in addition to showing their enthusiasm for Star Trek now and then, also have other interests, and showcasing these other interests strays our attention even further from the main feature. There's a big deal about going to the comics store, having a collection of Star Wars action figures, and possessing the Criterion Collection laserdisc versions of Hitchcock films. Realistic? Yes. Good for the film? No.
There are a couple of half-hearted attempts at throwing in a romance angle. Robert falls in love with a woman, but really doesn't know how to handle the emotions. Meanwhile, Shatner falls in love with the proprietor of a trendy night club/bar, and spends some of his time trying to get her attention. There's great potential here to explore how Star Trek affects the way each of these men deal with love, or how love affects their association with Star Trek. Unfortunately, the romance angle has no clear association with the topic, and is furthermore less than compelling.
Am I going too far in criticizing the film for detracting from the Star Trek jokes? Am I missing the point that the film is really about how average people relate to themselves and to each other? I don't think so. I mean, the film is called FREE ENTERPRISE, after all, and it does have William Shatner. Star Trek not only has to be the main theme, but the overriding theme, and this film simply does not deliver in this respect. It's too bad because this FREE ENTERPRISE could have filled a niche empty up until now, a true Star Trek fan parody. It really could have gone where no one had gone before. Come on, now. You know I had to say it.
Review posted June 5, 1999
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