dr_phil_physics (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dr_phil_physics) wrote2014-06-19 09:46 am
dr_phil_physics) wrote2014-06-19 09:46 am
HBO 13 -- Robocop 2 -- The Day After Tomorrow
Thirteenth session: Robocop 2 (conclusion)
So watching Kane succumb at the end, tell me what is the point of having a next gen Robocop who can't talk, just makes grunts and howls, as a computer generated Lawnmower Man face on a screen leers at you with five o'clock shadow? And he's still a better character than the evil corporate honchos.
I particularly liked the CEO walking OVER a woman on the ground getting emergency medical attention.
The Day After Tomorrow
This was on cable Tuesday night, but since I knew it was coming in the rotation, I waited until Wednesday to see it in my tank.
I remember when we first saw this, I had a lot of snarky comments about the science. But this 100% oxygen summer film festival has given me some perspective. The faux meteorology in Day After Tomorrow is orders of magnitude better than the faux weather effects in The Core. Way better. Still, why do all the bad things seem to happen to big cities -- multiple killer tornados in Los Angeles, for instance. And that rapidly sinking and ultra deep freeze cold air is coming from the thin upper atmosphere. It shouldn't fall so well to the ground because of its density and the increased pressure below. At the same time, the heat capacity of cold air isn't huge. This storm shouldn't work this way.
Also, hurricanes don't form over land? Nor'easters are big cyclonic storms and the so-called winter hurricane have finally gotten Winter Storm names. So... maybe.
Don't know why Dennis Quaid thinks he can drive from DC to NYC in a pickup truck... in all that snow. In fact, given the scenes elsewhere, why wasn't the highway more drifted over? And his rescue mission takes a bite out of that poignant moment where he tells the White House to triage the North and his boss tells the Veep that Quaid's son is in Manhattan. Yeah, and he's abandoning everyone else to try to rescue that son. As opposed to, oh, doing his job.
And of course everything is a Checkhov's gun. Show wolves in the zoo? Yeah they'll get out and threaten our kids on their emergency trip to the Russian freighter parked outside the NYPL. Check. Our hero's adventure buddy of twenty years? Yeah, he'll buy it in a New Jersey shopping mall. Check. Wife or ex-wife concerned about nice little bald cancer kid on her ward? Yeah, he'll be left behind because the ambulances didn't get him. Check.
Up to just after the eye of the storm has ultra frozen everything and our intrepid high school scholars are having a quiet moment in the New York Public Library with the fireplace burning books. Next up, Field of Dreams.
----
And then the road construction traffic got really bad. The I-196 exit to College Avenue was backed up for a mile. Merging in from the far left, I wasn't able to get all the way over. So I went on to Fuller and turned around, getting off at College westbound instead of eastbound. Two lanes of jammed cars south on College towards Michigan. Except it was really one. Only when you got to Michigan, did one notice that the right turn lane was closed. Cars were bailing at the parking lot before the intersection, and then looping around. The detour sign said straight ahead. I hit the left turn signal and managed to merge left without delay. The detour wasn't well marked, but shuffling along a few narrow streets and I was around the construction area.
The skies to the west, far beyond the hospital were utter dark black. End of the world type black. People on the sidewalk in front of the hospital entrance had their cellphones out, taking pictures. The rains were just starting as I got into the wheelchair. Darla from HBO was waiting for me just inside the door. By the time was about to be slud into my tank, you could hear it pouring out there.
The Blazer was out front again on the inside of the circle. It took a moment to negotiate stepping down off the high curb and into the Blazer. I turned west instead of east and went down the hill, getting onto I-196 from Ionia/Ottawa. That turned out to be far easier than from College, where you have to merge left two lanes -- an exit lane and a Lane Ends. From Ionia, the merge lane IS the exit to US-131 North, which is what I wanted. Who knew? I don't deal with these downtown Grand Rapids exits much.
With Mrs. Dr. Phil coming in tonight from her ASEE conference in Indianapolis, I stopped at Jimmy John's in Allendale and grabbed a couple of sandwiches. Then home.
When I got up from my nap, Mrs. Dr. Phil was just coming in the door and the dark overcast of the afternoon was replaced by blue skies and sunshine.
Dr. Phil
So watching Kane succumb at the end, tell me what is the point of having a next gen Robocop who can't talk, just makes grunts and howls, as a computer generated Lawnmower Man face on a screen leers at you with five o'clock shadow? And he's still a better character than the evil corporate honchos.
I particularly liked the CEO walking OVER a woman on the ground getting emergency medical attention.
The Day After Tomorrow
This was on cable Tuesday night, but since I knew it was coming in the rotation, I waited until Wednesday to see it in my tank.
I remember when we first saw this, I had a lot of snarky comments about the science. But this 100% oxygen summer film festival has given me some perspective. The faux meteorology in Day After Tomorrow is orders of magnitude better than the faux weather effects in The Core. Way better. Still, why do all the bad things seem to happen to big cities -- multiple killer tornados in Los Angeles, for instance. And that rapidly sinking and ultra deep freeze cold air is coming from the thin upper atmosphere. It shouldn't fall so well to the ground because of its density and the increased pressure below. At the same time, the heat capacity of cold air isn't huge. This storm shouldn't work this way.
Also, hurricanes don't form over land? Nor'easters are big cyclonic storms and the so-called winter hurricane have finally gotten Winter Storm names. So... maybe.
Don't know why Dennis Quaid thinks he can drive from DC to NYC in a pickup truck... in all that snow. In fact, given the scenes elsewhere, why wasn't the highway more drifted over? And his rescue mission takes a bite out of that poignant moment where he tells the White House to triage the North and his boss tells the Veep that Quaid's son is in Manhattan. Yeah, and he's abandoning everyone else to try to rescue that son. As opposed to, oh, doing his job.
And of course everything is a Checkhov's gun. Show wolves in the zoo? Yeah they'll get out and threaten our kids on their emergency trip to the Russian freighter parked outside the NYPL. Check. Our hero's adventure buddy of twenty years? Yeah, he'll buy it in a New Jersey shopping mall. Check. Wife or ex-wife concerned about nice little bald cancer kid on her ward? Yeah, he'll be left behind because the ambulances didn't get him. Check.
Up to just after the eye of the storm has ultra frozen everything and our intrepid high school scholars are having a quiet moment in the New York Public Library with the fireplace burning books. Next up, Field of Dreams.
----
And then the road construction traffic got really bad. The I-196 exit to College Avenue was backed up for a mile. Merging in from the far left, I wasn't able to get all the way over. So I went on to Fuller and turned around, getting off at College westbound instead of eastbound. Two lanes of jammed cars south on College towards Michigan. Except it was really one. Only when you got to Michigan, did one notice that the right turn lane was closed. Cars were bailing at the parking lot before the intersection, and then looping around. The detour sign said straight ahead. I hit the left turn signal and managed to merge left without delay. The detour wasn't well marked, but shuffling along a few narrow streets and I was around the construction area.
The skies to the west, far beyond the hospital were utter dark black. End of the world type black. People on the sidewalk in front of the hospital entrance had their cellphones out, taking pictures. The rains were just starting as I got into the wheelchair. Darla from HBO was waiting for me just inside the door. By the time was about to be slud into my tank, you could hear it pouring out there.
The Blazer was out front again on the inside of the circle. It took a moment to negotiate stepping down off the high curb and into the Blazer. I turned west instead of east and went down the hill, getting onto I-196 from Ionia/Ottawa. That turned out to be far easier than from College, where you have to merge left two lanes -- an exit lane and a Lane Ends. From Ionia, the merge lane IS the exit to US-131 North, which is what I wanted. Who knew? I don't deal with these downtown Grand Rapids exits much.
With Mrs. Dr. Phil coming in tonight from her ASEE conference in Indianapolis, I stopped at Jimmy John's in Allendale and grabbed a couple of sandwiches. Then home.
When I got up from my nap, Mrs. Dr. Phil was just coming in the door and the dark overcast of the afternoon was replaced by blue skies and sunshine.
Dr. Phil