They're gonna eat us for dinner!
Finding a decent kid's movie today is getting harder as our society changes. A movie, once rated R when I was a kid, is now a PG rated movie now. Here is a film that appeals to kids and adults who take the time to watch with their kids. If you have kids, and you want to watch this movie with your kids, go-ahead do it, you won't be sorry. Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson voices Captain Chuck Baker, yes a white astronaut. Most people would be comfortable if they changed his color but in this movie, color doesn't matter. Jason Long and Seann William Scott voice the other protagonist male leads. Jessica Biel voices the female protagonist lead, and Gary Oldman and John Cleese voice General Grawl and Professor Kipple respectively. The story is a reversal of a 50's sci-fi alien from space movie, with Astronaut Chuck Baker landing on "Planet 51". Science Fiction movie references abound from, "Also sprach Zarathustra" or better known as the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey," to references to "Star Wars."
This story is a straightforward parody of the 50's, "The Day the Earth Stood Still," with many inside jokes. Astronaut, Chuck Baker lands in an alien planet with 50's-esque culture. Jason Long voices Lem (a play on Lunar Excursion Module) a high-school alien who works at the local planetarium, Neera (Jessica Biel) voices Lem's love interest, and sidekick pals Skiff (Seann William Scott) and Eckle (Freddie Benedict) have their own silly sub-plots. Gary Oldman voices the supposedly evil General Grawl, only to find he is just misguided and a bumbler. Professor Kipple voiced by John Cleese parodies Sam Jaffe's Professor Jacob Barnhardt from The Day the Earth Stood Still. Fearing that this alien spaceman will make them into zombie-monsters, the plot revolves around Planet 51 natives helping the ego centered Captain Chuck Baker and his rock collecting robot sidekick ROVER back to their space ship.
The animation is extremely good, although "Planet 51" is not a Pixar movie but nobody will notice the difference. The voice characterization is acceptable; there is nothing exciting in this department, but they get the job done. The story is cute and entertaining enough to keep you entertained for an hour and a half, but I am glad the directors didn't push it. Overall, "Planet 51" is an above average film, for kids and adults who watch with their kids. Go rent "Planet 51,” watch it with your kids and point out the movie references, the pop culture references, and the music references, its all good clean fun.
Movie Data
Genre: Sci-Fi, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Year: 2009
Staring: Dwayne Johnson, Justin Long, Gary Oldman, Jessica Biel, Seann William Scott, John Cleese
Director: Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, Marcos Martínez
Producer(s): Guy Collins, Ignacio Pérez Dolset
Writer: Joe Stillman
Rating: PG
Don't look at me with that deer in the headlights gaze. You saw this a more than a decade ago.
Climate deniers say that climate change is happening but at such a slow rate that it couldn't possibly be caused by humans and our vast industrial way of life. It must be the volcanos or other stuff that they (the climate deniers) refuse to mention. Nevermind the hole in the ozone layer right above Antartica. But that's okay, we deserve what we are getting. Hell, we clamoured for it, we begged for it.
Me, I live in Arizona. I hear it is going to be 110 degrees today. But at least, it's a dry heat. However, what people don't mention (if you aren't talking to a full-time resident of Arizona - not those Snow Birds who flee the heat in March) is that there is a thing in the Arizona desert called "monsoons." Torrential rains that come in the late afternoons with thunder and lightning and maybe some sheets in little pockets around the state. Welcome for an hour or two, but like your in-laws, sometimes they overstay their welcome. It gets hot and humid and you might just get washed away while trying to cross the street. Or, if you live in Tucson your house might just flood. Good luck with that.
I am looking forward to a nice trip down to the bottom of the world where the temperature might be a bit chilly but at least it will be dry. No ice sheets, no frozen tundra like up in Canada. Oh yeah, I hear that there is a crap load of methane ready to be released into our atmosphere when the tundra thaws. Good job humans!
What I want to see for myself is the ancient ruins of early civilizations that lived before the world tilted to it's current 23 and something degree axis. I want to explore the ruined temples of the Elder gods, see the cyclopean structures that confound the mind, look into the vast emptiness of the abyss that has been covered for many a millennium and see who stares back. I want to go where the Hollow Earthers say Hitler and his like have been hiding out since WWII.
While I mourn for my hometown on the West Coast and the whole California coastline, they knew they were on shaky ground. Too busy looking in the mirror deciding where they want to dine tonight or worry about who is going to offend them next. The same goes for the East coast. Goodbye Washington DC, Atlanta, Boston, Charleston and Long Island. I can picture a tour boat just outside the flooded Manhattan skyline showing tourists the tops of the skyscrapers and be rounding the tip of Liberty's torch as if it was the tip of an iceberg.
Don't think I will mourn for those who refused to evacuate, I will. However, when dealing with human beings there will always be a percentage of them who just do stupid. It is programmed into our DNA. Just like this climate change thing. We know from science (the thing we use to explain nature without invoking a higher being when we just can't figure something out) says that without the ozone layer, all life on Earth would not exist. On the other hand, too much of a good thing is never a good thing. Just think of alcohol, ice cream, or even cheese.
Of course, there are plenty of those people -- you know who I am talking about -- who stick to their old fashion almost radical (in today's way of thinking) that things were better back then. I remember the past, it was old and dark and a pretty depressing place without my cell phone
Women knew their place in society, people not like us were not quite as good as we were (or so we thought), and who needed safety regulations - damn the government for interfering in my right to have my body hurled out through my car's windshield and into the closest tree. Who needs regulations? Why keep industrial plants from dumping their chemical waste into our rivers and lakes? Poor Iron Eyes Cody. I am sure he is turning in his grave. 
