Warped

I was recently going through Anthony Lane's collection of New Yorker movie reviews and other essays, Nobody's Perfect.  Part of being a New Yorker critic (and being Anthony Lane) is to make sport of most commercial Hollywood product--even if well done, you still condescend to it.  This includes filling your piece with little jokes to signal you're above such fluff.

Thus at the end of his negative take on Star Trek: First Contact (the best of the Next Generation films--not saying much) he writes of the villains "...if you thought the Borg* were bad, just wait till you meet the McEnroe."

It's bad enough Lane's gag goes where many have gone before.  Worse, the same joke is made in the film--did he not notice?  Lily Sloane, played by Alfre Woodard, hears about the bad guys and says "Borg? Sounds Swedish."

The difference, I guess, is that Star Trek's version is more subtle.  When Star Trek is more subtle than you, maybe you should cut the line.

*I assume my readers know the following, but just in case: the Borg are an alien race who exist as a single, extended organism. They go around the galaxy "assimilating" other races and saying things like "resistance is futile."