The duplex in a recently-converted carriage house has a lot of nice features—it's contemporary in design and amenities, with a nod to the home's history (the mantle in the living room is fashioned from several of the building's old beams). But the most impressive perk, by far, is the 1,200-square-foot roof deck with a fireplace where Mr. Stewart can spend his evenings staring at the stars. Sure, it's not the same as hurtling through outer-space, but Brooklyn's uber-bourgeois neighborhood can sometimes feel rather alien, with its strange child-rearing rituals and myriad ways of making a cup of coffee.

All in all, the place looks perfect for the sleek Captain Picard—we just couldn't picture him in something fussy and Victorian—and we hope that he gets his cable problems sorted out soon, restoring his will to live. Hey, we've all been there.

The house, listed by Brown Harris Stevens brokers Libby and Maria Ryan sold at the $2.5 million ask. And while they might have sunk a lot into the remodel, owners Vanessa DiCarlo Dawson and Giles Luke Dawson made quite a profit, having bought the place for $1.3 million just a year ago. Best of all, this provides more fodder for the Park Slope Patrick Stewart tumbler.

kvelsey@observer.com

"Under no metric should Up be considered any more viable than Star Trek as a Best Picture nominee," Rosen writes. There's the critical approval it received, and the recent precedent for blockbuster nominees, and this:

When you think about it, Star Trek isn't any sillier than Up!

Sure, Star Trek featured such ridiculous things as Romulans, red matter, a time-traveling Spock and Tyler Perry in a reasonless cameo appearance. However, did everyone forget the premise of Up: that an old man uses thousands of balloons to fly his house to a distant fantasy land inhabited by talking dogs and giant, possibly gender-bending, birds?

Don't laugh: the field of nominees seems to have been expanded to 10 for the express purpose of allowing these mainstream movies into the party. However, while you've most certainly heard rumblings of an Oscar campaign for Up—Disney is already running "For Your Consideration" ads in Variety—the Oscar buzz on J.J. Abrams' Star Trek has been decidedly muted. And to that we say: why? Under no metric should Up be considered any more viable than Star Trek as a Best Picture nominee. It seems the only thing holding Star Trek back is the perception that it is somehow a less legitimate contender. Well, allow us to throw dirt in the face of that notion. The Oscar campaign for Star Trek starts right here!

The critics loved Star Trek, too!

Disney is fond of calling Up the "best reviewed movie of the year." True story! Up has a 98 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it ranks alongside The Hurt Locker as the best widely reviewed movie of 2009 thus far. But Star Trek's 95 percent rating is nothing to sneeze at either. And did you know that Star Trek actually has more positive notices than any other movie released in 2009 (260 positives reviews to Up's 241)? Whether or not critics hedged when reviewing Star Trek—many reviewers seem fond of taking the "it succeeded in what it set out to accomplish" track for summer blockbusters—is irrelevant. Couldn't you see Paramount unleashing an ad campaign calling Star Trek the "film more critics loved than anything else?" At the very least, it has the added bonus of being truthful.

It wouldn't be the first entertaining blockbuster to get a nomination!

Rocky. Jaws. The Towering Inferno. Star Wars. Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Fugitive. Gladiator. Just because The Dark Knight wasn't nominated for Best Picture doesn't actually mean that the Academy wholesale ignores beloved blockbusters. There is precedent for Star Trek to get a nomination, and not just because it was basically a rip-off of Star Wars.

When you think about it, Star Trek isn't any sillier than Up!

Sure, Star Trek featured such ridiculous things as Romulans, red matter, a time-traveling Spock and Tyler Perry in a reasonless cameo appearance. However, did everyone forget the premise of Up: that an old man uses thousands of balloons to fly his house to a distant fantasy land inhabited by talking dogs and giant, possibly gender-bending, birds? This is to take nothing away from the beauty that was Up, but more to illustrate that when it comes to Oscar movies, believability doesn't matter a whole bunch. Call us old fashioned, but championing one of these and not the other seems slightly disingenuous. Here's hoping there's room for both come nomination time.

Unless the idea of watching people get murdered at an alarming rate appeals to you—no, we will not be seeing Halloween 2 or Final Destination: 3-D—the summer movie season is officially kaput. Where has the time gone? At least with the book closed we can now look back fondly on the joys Hollywood had to offer. There are usually no Oscars given to summer movies, but maybe there should be. We’d name The Hangover as the summer’s Best Picture and, of course, we’ve already found our Best Supporting Actor: Eric Bana’s scene-stealing brilliance in Funny People was so good, in fact, it should be singled out during the more traditional Oscar season, too. Here are some of our other Summer Oscars picks. 

Best Actor: Brad Pitt, Inglourious Basterds

When it comes to awards bait, most critics have singled out Christoph Waltz’s performance as Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revision as the one to watch. And with good reason: Mr. Waltz is by turns terrifying, bizarre and oddly charming as “The Jew Hunter.” However, give us good ol’ Brad Pitt instead. As Lt. Aldo Raine, head of the titular unit, Mr. Pitt appears to be having more fun than any role he’s tackled since the Ocean’s movies—and quite possibly a bit more. Sporting a pencil-thin mustache and speaking with his jaw pushed out in a manner that recalls Marlon Brando circa The Godfather, Mr. Pitt is the glue that holds Inglourious Basterds together. Some have accused the Pitt-led sections of Basterds as being the weak link, but don’t believe them: Without him, QT’s latest would be a horse of a different color.

Best Score: (Tie) Michael Giacchino, Star Trek and Up

Forget John Williams. If you’re a director in need of a blockbuster orchestral score, look no further than Michael Giacchino. The Bad Robot stalwart—who cut his teeth on Alias and Lost—was all over theaters this summer, providing the score for no less than three films: Star Trek, Up, Land of the Lost. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. With Star Trek, Mr. Giacchino combined the familiar sounds of the original Star Trek theme with the same somber bombast that he provides weekly on Lost; meanwhile, in Up, his compositions were light fluffy and wholly wistful; there was an almost European quality to their nature. In both cases, Mr. Giacchino’s scores made already great movies that much better. Maybe this year he’ll get a real Oscar too.

Best Cinematography: Eric Steelberg, (500) Days of Summer

We had major problems with the movie itself, but not even we can deny that (500) Days of Summer was a technical marvel. Director Marc Webb and his cinematographer Eric Steelberg created many memorable shots and scenes and we’d be damned if any other film looked so good over the last few months. Interestingly, Mr. Steelberg has officially become the twee cinematographer of the moment: In addition to (500) Days of Summer and his previous work on Juno, he also shot Juno director Jason Reitman’s follow up, the highly anticipated Up in the Air, starring George Clooney set for release this December.

1. Up: $44.2 million ($137.3 million total)

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got legs! Up dipped a scant 35 percent over the weekend and in the process became the first movie of the summer to maintain its No. 1 position for two straight weeks. The much-loved film appears to be in the middle of a perfect storm: With the low rate of attrition, the more expensive price of 3-D tickets, and the fact that there isn’t another animated movie hitting theaters until Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on July 1, Up is poised to become one of the biggest hits of the year.

2. The Hangover: $43.2 million ($43.2 million total)

The financial success of The Hangover feels about as surprising as the sun rising. Did anyone actually think this thing wasn’t going to make bank? The film to remember here is Wedding Crashers, which had a similar “surprise” opening back in the summer of 2005. That film got to $209 million domestic—with a smaller first weekend, mind you—because of great word of mouth. Based on the reactions we heard coming out of the theater (“That was the funniest movie since Superbad!”), expect The Hangover to perform similarly.

3. Land of the Lost: $19.5 million ($19.5 million total)

Move over, Terminator Salvation, there’s a new whipping boy in town! With a budget reportedly well past $100 million and an advertising campaign pitched just a shade north of ubiquitous, an opening under $20 million for Land of the Lost is borderline catastrophic. However, while we don’t want to sugarcoat this mess, some perspective: If you take away Talladega Nights and its $47 million opening, Mr. Ferrell’s last eight movies have averaged $23 million in their initial frame. Based on that, Land of the Lost really did what should have been expected. The fault here then lies with Universal. For some reason, the studio thought spending $100 million on a Will Ferrell comedy was a good business decision. News flash: It wasn’t.

4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $14.3 million ($127.3 million total)

While Universal is licking their wounds from Land of the Lost, 20th Century Fox has to be thrilled with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Faced with both Lost and the second weekend of Up, the family film dropped just 40 percent and pushed its total to $127.3 million. While it isn't doing quite as well as the first Night at the Museum, the sequel has been a quiet moneymaker for three straight weeks. If a blockbuster falls in the forest and no one notices, is it still a blockbuster?

5. Star Trek: $8.4 million ($222.8 million total)

This is getting ridiculous. The fifth weekend of Star Trek dropped just 33 percent, the lowest decline in the top 10, and held off Terminator Salvation ($8.1 million/$105.4 million total) and Drag Me to Hell ($7.3 million/$28.5 million total) for fifth place at the box office. William Shatner cannot be pleased.

1. Up: $68.2 million ($68.2 million total)

Before everyone gets too excited about the $68.2 million, some cold water: Up was seriously helped by 3-D showings, which accounted for a record-setting $35 million of this total gross, a number that tops the $32.6 million that Monsters vs. Aliens accrued from 3-D venues earlier this year. Of course that money is still green, but since 3-D tickets are more expensive (at Union Square, a 3-D ticket for Up costs $16.50), the Pixar film clearly wasn’t exactly the sensation that many people might want to believe. That splash of reality aside, this is a very impressive opening and with the 3-D gimmick, Up should at least reach the $223 million that Wall*E grossed last year.

2. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $25.5 million ($105.3 million total)

Faced with the mammoth opening of Up, a 52 percent tumble for the Ben Stiller family comedy in weekend two seems reasonable. Reaching the $250 million gross of the first film is totally out of the question, but, depending on how Battle of the Smithsonian fares next week against Land of the Lost, a $175 million total could be reached. If that happens, look for Night at the Museum: Tussle in the Louvre to hit theaters in 2011.

3. Drag Me to Hell: $16.6 million ($16.6 million total)

With due respect to Sam Raimi, this is not good. Despite universally strong reviews, Drag Me to Hell couldn’t even top the opening salvos of such immortal 2009 horror entries like The Unborn ($19.8 million) and The Haunting in Connecticut ($23 million). There is hope, of course: Drag Me to Hell is likely to have great word of mouth and the month of June is devoid of major scares, so a final domestic gross of around $60 million could be possible. That being said, we assume Universal was expecting a bit more here.

4. Terminator Salvation: $16.1 million ($90.6 million total)

Is it too early to call Terminator Salvation the first flop of the year? The second weekend of the McG-directed borefest plunged 62 percent and barely held off the fourth weekend of Star Trek to finish in a disappointing fourth place. At this rate of depreciation, Terminator Salvation will be lucky to pass $110 million overall. For a film with a budget reportedly as high as $200 million—and for a franchise that is beloved—a final tally in that range will border on epic failure.

5. Star Trek: $12.8 million ($209.5 million total)

The aforementioned fourth weekend of Star Trek ebbed just 44 percent to edge out Angels & Demons ($11.2 million/$104.7 million total) for fifth place at the box office. In the process, Star Trek became the first film of 2009 to cross the $200 million dollar barrier. Proof that franchise brands are only as viable as the movies they produce does not seem to be needed.

Maybe having the geeks inherit the earth wasn’t such a good idea after all. Never before have we seen such a fringe demographic wield so much influence on filmmakers, despite not really possessing that much tangible power at all. This year, from Zack Snyder’s Watchmen to J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek, director after director has bowed down to the altar of geek. In some cases, the reverence works (see: Star Trek). But then there are other times when it does irreparable damage to the final product.

For an example of the latter scenario, look no further than the interminable Terminator Salvation. Director McG, a scourge of the fanboys if there ever was one, did all he could to satisfy the geek community—casting Christian Bale, begging James Cameron for a blessing (Mr. Cameron declined), making the film “dark and gritty,” giving birthday presents to Ain’t It Cool News head cheese Harry Knowles—and yet they almost totally rejected his final product. (Mr. Knowles’ screed against Terminator Salvation is one of the more vitriolic reviews we’ve read in quite some time.) Worse, because McG was so worried about the geeks, he ended up ignoring the rest of the audience to the detriment of his film.

(Be warned, this next paragraph is going to be chock-a-block with MAJOR spoilers.)

Take the ending. In the film, John Connor gets stabbed through the chest by a Terminator robot and winds up on death’s door. But! Before he passes away, half-human/half-robot Marcus Wright offers Connor his own heart to save the leader of the Resistance. Cue a misplaced voice-over and the closing credits.

Never mind that this supposedly emotional decision was rendered moot by a complete lack of character development; it was also kinda boring. John Connor lives, Marcus Wright dies, and we’re back to square one: humans are trying to win the war against machines. What was the point of all this?

The theatrical ending, however, is in stark contrast to the original. In that version, Connor actually dies, and his fellow Resistance compatriots decide to take his face and graft it onto Marcus Wright’s robotic body. But then Marcus awakens, looking like John Connor, and kills everyone in the room. The machines win. Now that’s an ending! But since it so diametrically opposed the canon established during the previous movies, the geeks revolted when it was released onto the Internet just under a year ago. (Now McG says it was changed because everyone involved in the film thought that ending would have been too bleak. Yeah, right.)

We’re not saying the original ending would have totally saved Terminator Salvation from its mediocre fate, but it certainly would have been a step up. At the very least, it would have given regular moviegoers something to talk about with their friends. (“You have to see the ending!”) Instead, Terminator Salvation seems resigned to a Watchmen-like fate on the road to box office disappointment. When are directors going to learn that trying to satisfy an unsatisfiable minority isn’t going to win them any fans from the majority? At the risk of our geek bona fides, it’s time for Hollywood to start making movies for everyone again.

Perhaps all that talk of a new Terminator trilogy should be put on the backburner for now. While Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was the big winner this Memorial Day weekend, grossing $70 million over the four-day holiday to pace the field, the real box office story is the tepid response to Terminator Salvation. The Christian Bale-headed franchise reboot finished a disappointing second, with “only” $53.8 million for the weekend and just $67.1 million since opening last Thursday, grosses which were not only below expectations, but portend financial troubles to come. As we do each Tuesday, here’s a breakdown of the top five at the box office.

1. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $70 million ($70 million total)

The number to keep in mind here is seven; as in, when Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian crosses the $100 million barrier in the next two weeks, it will be the seventh $100 million grosser for Ben Stiller since 1998, and ninth if you count animated movies. By contrast, over that same time period, Brad Pitt had six such films, and Tom Cruise, eight. The simple fact is this: Ben Stiller is a huge movie star and no one seems to really notice. Battle of the Smithsonian represents the biggest live action opening of Mr. Stiller’s career and has an outside chance to be his third $200 million film before all is said and done.

2. Terminator Salvation: $53.8 million ($67.1 million total)

Each year it seems like at least one big budget spectacle gets offered to the box office gods as sacrifice for the excesses of the season. This year, that movie might well be Terminator Salvation. The highly publicized film failed to better the $72.4 million opening that the reviled Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines scored over July 4th weekend six years ago. Worse, people seem to actively dislike Terminator Salvation, as its daily grosses fell each day over the long weekend. At that rate, even topping the $107 million total gross of Watchmen seems like an iffy proposition. If we were Christian Bale, we’d be on the phone with Christopher Nolan right now trying to shore up Batman 3.

3. Star Trek: $29.4 million ($191 million total)

Star Trek is a smash. Another huge weekend puts the J.J. Abrams film within a couple of million dollars of topping Monsters vs. Aliens as the biggest hit of the year to date. And with nothing specifically tailored for the geek-set between now and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on June 24th, expect many more solid weekends to come. Scary thought: What kind of numbers will the sequel do?

4. Angels & Demons: $27.7 million ($87.8 million total)

Angels & Demons hasn’t been the runaway success that The Da Vinci Code was, but the sequel is showing solid legs mainly because it happens to be the only adult-themed movie at the box office. Also not hurting the bottom line for Sony is Angels & Demons' $200 million gross in international receipts. This will go down on their ledger as a hit.

5. Dance Flick: $13.1 million ($13.1 million total)

The Wayans Family comedy edged out the fourth weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($10.1 million/$165.3 million total) for the fifth spot at the box office, with a total that has to be considered a disappointment; their last film, Little Man, opened with $21 million on its way to $56 million total. Don’t expect anything close to that final tally here. The lesson: Audiences love CGI man-babies but not CGI baby-babies!

1. Angels & Demons: $48 million ($48 million total)

Basically, the perception of this number depends on whether or not you’re an optimist. For those of you who are: Angels & Demons is the second biggest opening of Tom Hanks’ illustrious career (behind only The Da Vinci Code) and will quite possibly be one of the five biggest worldwide grossers of the year. For those of you who aren’t: Angels & Demons opened almost $30 million lower than its predecessor and only managed to procure the sixth best opening weekend of 2009, lagging behind such luminaries as Watchmen and Fast & Furious. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

2. Star Trek: $43 million ($147.6 million total)

Legs alert! The beloved franchise reboot eased only 43 percent in weekend number two, putting it in the same company as Batman Begins, which performed similarly during its second weekend in 2005. If Star Trek can make it through Memorial Day without taking a major plunge, there’s an outside chance it can hit $300 million overall. The first real hit of 2009 is upon us.

3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine: $14.8 million ($151.1 million total)

After a disastrous, Watchmen-like drop last weekend, X-Men Origins: Wolverine stabilized somewhat, shedding only 44 percent of its audience to place third. Despite the better news, though, it appears that Wolverine will top out before it can pass the $200 million barrier. After such a gigantic opening, that has to sting 20th Century Fox just a little bit.

4. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: $6.8 million ($40 million total)

Another weekend, another small decline. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past will wind up ranking as one of Matthew McConaughey’s lowest-grossing romantic comedies, but after opening with such a thud, clearly the film has connected with the audience on some level—this is the second straight week with a decline under 35 percent. Since the box office is so male-dominated right now—the top three films barely have one female lead combined—it’s no wonder this is holding up so well.

5. Obsessed: $4.6 million ($62.5 million total)

Obsessed edged out 17 Again ($3.4 million/$58.3 million) and Monsters vs. Aliens ($3 million/$190 million) for the fifth spot at the box office, pushing its overall gross to nearly $63 million. Further proof that people will see anything in the movie theater is not needed.

Frankly, we weren’t that surprised by any of this. Mr. Abrams has said, many a time, that he was never a big fan of Star Trek. But, Star Wars? The guy loves it! And, in lieu of getting the rights from 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm to re-create his beloved film (expect this to happen around the same time Wanda Sykes and Rush Limbaugh go out for drinks together), it seems that Mr. Abrams jumped at the chance to visit a galaxy far, far away, any way he could. Still not convinced? Take a look at these three key scenes from Star Wars and how they compare to the Star Trek. (And there are more where these came from.) Beware though: spoilers afoot!

“No, Alderaan is peaceful, you can't possibly …”

In Star Wars: Led by Darth Vader, the Empire captures Princess Leia and threatens to destroy her home planet, Alderaan, unless she gives up the location of the Rebel base. Princess Leia acquiesces to their demands, but they blow up Alderaan anyway, forcing her to watch.

In Star Trek: Romulan baddie Nero holds Future Spock responsible for letting Romulus get destroyed by a supernova … 100 years in the future (don't worry about being confused; it barely makes any sense in the movie). After Nero captures Spock, he banishes our favorite Vulcan to an ice planet (itself a rip-off of the ice planet, Hoth, from Empire Strikes Back) and makes him watch as Vulcan gets sucked into a black hole.

 “Obi-Wan? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time … a long time …”

In Star Wars: On Tatooine, Luke goes off half-cocked looking for answers to a mysterious distress call from Princess Leia and gets attacked by some Tusken Raiders. All is almost lost until a mysteriously cloaked figure comes to the rescue: It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In Star Trek: Kirk, himself banished to the aforementioned Faux-Hoth, is about to get eaten by a giant monster (that’s straight out of Cloverfield, p.s.), until a cloaked figure comes to the rescue: It’s Future Spock, saving the day, Obi-Wan style!

“Great shot kid, that was one in a million!”

In Star Wars: Just as Luke’s fighter is about to get blown away by Darth Vader, prodigal son Han Solo returns in the Millennium Falcon, fires some photon torpedoes, and saves the day.

In Star Trek: Just as Spock’s fighter is about to get blown away by a bunch of Romulan missiles, the Enterprise comes out of hyperspace, fires some photon torpedoes, and … well, you can probably figure out what happens next.