Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Thursday Movie Picks - Storms/Adverse Weather

Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join in the fun by picking three films that fit the week's theme (this week suggested by yours truly!) and telling us about them!)

Well, they say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, and that's certainly true so far here in good ol' Manhattan - the winds have been whipping down the streets so strongly that sometimes they just push you right along your path. It's not awful but the wildly fluctuating temperatures are finally taking their toll on my body - I can just feel the cold coming on and I do NOT like it. I will be throwing everything in my arsenal at it in the hopes that it does not get worse, but I don't know... sometimes you can just tell when it's not going to go away...

BUT ANYWAY, who cares about my health (other than my mother)? We're here to talk movies!

One of the things the movies do better than any other art form is present "larger than life" events, which makes them ideal for showcasing the darkest side of Mother Nature. Unfortunately, most movies focused on such special effects-heavy adverse conditions don't have super-well-written scripts to go along with the impressive visuals, but I suppose you can't have everything.

Twister (Jan de Bont, 1996) I still remember seeing this for the first time in the local $2 second-run movie theater. I was 12. I don't remember if it was my first PG-13 movie or not, but I remember watching it in awe. Of nature, of moviemaking, of science... of just about everything on screen. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are exes and storm chasers who are flung back together for a series of mighty strong tornadoes - NOT AT ALL because they love each other, ONLY for the science! They have to get close enough to the tornado's path in order to drop a container of mini weather robots that look like metal balls. But also far enough away that they don't get sucked up into the tornado themselves. It's a dangerous game, but somebody's gotta do it, and they're both crazy enough to get right up in there to accomplish their goal - especially since there's also a rival, better-funded team lurking about. It's thrilling stuff, and the special effects still hold up - shocking for a film made twenty years ago. OH, and the name of the machine they created with all the weather robots? Dorothy. Which leads us to...

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) In which a Kansas farm girl gets knocked on the head during a tornado and proceeds to accidentally kill one woman and be manipulated by a pink-wearing bitch who travels in a bubble and a charlatan of a Mayor into murdering another in order to return home. OR MAYBE it was all a dream! Oh, I kid, I kid. Everyone alive knows The Wizard of Oz. By now, it's part of our cultural knowledge - it's seeped into our collective consciousness in a way no other film has, and with good reason: It's the simplest expression of all the possibilities of film, the perfect introduction to movies for anyone. To know it, is to love it.

The Impossible (J.A. Bayona, 2012) Ya know what? I don't care about the whitewashing. I really don't. Yes, the real family the story is based on was Spanish, not British, but when we got these amazing performances from Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and Tom Holland, I don't really care. And on a purely technical level, this film is just astonishing. The sound design is one of the best, most inventive I've heard, putting you right there in the middle of the tsunami with these characters. It's a stunning film that deserved not one bit of the backlash it received.

22 comments:

  1. I haven't seen The Wizard of Oz for the longest time! I have yet to watch The Impossible, I heard it was good.

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    1. Same on Oz, but I feel like I know it by heart. The Impossible is great.

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  2. It's a comfort to know the weather is just as pants on the other side of the pond! March is the time I tend to find myself popping fly tablets and hayfever tablets at the same time, ha! But that's enough about my own health!
    Great picks, and I can't believe I still haven't seen The Impossible :(
    - Allie

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    1. LOL I am right there with you on the self-medication, Allie!

      See The Impossible, it's REALLY good!

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  3. The Wizard of Oz is just perfect, as you said. Twister is dumb fun. Never heard of The Impossible, I don't think. Sounds interesting.

    Have to apologize to you. I had some fun at your expense on my blog today. It's all a joke, of course. You just happen to be the butt of it.

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    1. Aw man, no need to apologize! Everybody got their something. :-)

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  4. Great pick for the Wizard of Oz. I also picked The Impossible which is such a great film. Twister is just not that great even though I have watched it many a time. It's a fun flick but Hunt's character really needs counselling. Funny point...near where I live we have a 4 screen drive-in. My ex and I were coming back from camping and we noticed how "sick" the sky looked(greenish in colour). That night there was a tornado and it had taken out one of the screen at the drive-in. What was that screen showing at the time? Yup! Twister! I am not kidding!

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    1. LOL Jo in Twister really does need counseling! That is a CRAZY story!

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  5. The Wizard of Oz is a great choice for this theme. I never would've thought of that. Twister and The Impossible are also on my list.

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    1. hehehe I had a bunch of other possibilities but Oz was the only one I could think of that was like, ACTUALLY GOOD other than The Impossible.

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  6. YASSSSSS!!!!

    The Impossible!!!!!

    I chose that one too, and agree with you 100%.

    I love that you went with The Wizard of Oz. Clever interpretation of the theme, my friend!

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    1. Why thank you, my good man! SO GLAD to see love for The Impossible today.

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  7. The Wizard of Oz is just perfect for this theme. Shame on me for not thinking about it. I haven't seen The Impossible yet, but I've read nice things about it today.

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    1. Thank you! Oz was a clever pick if I do say so myself. The Impossible is really, really good.

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  8. Congrats on picking a fun theme for us!

    Ah Twister! COW!! The effects do hold up and I think it was the last time I enjoyed Helen Hunt in a movie.

    The Wizard of Oz is a tremendous choice, kicking myself that I didn't think of it, though one of my picks comes from the same year. Speaking of Oz and Judy, and you might already be aware of this, over on The Film Experience Anne Marie is doing a series called Judy by the Numbers where she's looking at Judy Garland's movie career through musical numbers in her films...and this week it's Oz and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

    The Impossible is a heartbreaker but very gripping.

    My first pick is a cautionary tale but not in the way intended I'm sure. It's a caution of when bad movies happen to good movie viewers!

    Into the Storm (2014)-Soggy in every way movie about a mega-storm front that lays waste to a Midwest town. Like many current disaster movies this puts a group of people that the audience knows nothing about in peril and then expects them to be invested in their plight. Some good special effects but that’s about all. Starts out okay but quickly slips into absurdity.

    The Day After Tomorrow (2004)-Big, dumb but fun cautionary tale. Climatologist Dennis Quaid and his team witness a huge crack in an ice shelf and warn the world authorities that it’s a sign of a coming cataclysm but no-one’s listening. Next thing you know superstorms start forming and causing havoc and who should be stuck right smack dab in the middle of the biggest? Why Quaid’s son Jake Gyllenhaal of course! Hits its fever pitch when Quaid outruns the ice age!

    The Rains Came (1939)-In Ranchipur, India the faithless Lady Edwina Esketh (Myrna Loy) and her cruel husband Lord Esketh meet Major Rama Safti (Tyrone Power) a doctor and heir presumptive to the throne and Edwina renews her acquaintanceship with artist Tom Ransome (George Brent), a former lover. Bored she sets out to seduce the principled Safti as a distraction but finds herself falling in love. It’s high class soap opera with good performances until the seasonal rains come and then watch out! An earthquake hits during the heaviest downpour causing a dam to collapse followed by a cholera epidemic while the water keeps rising! Winner of the first Oscar given for special effects.

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    1. COW! LOL I adore that moment in Twister. I like Helen Hunt in a lot of things - have you seen The Sessions? She deserved every bit of that Oscar nomination. She always presents as so smart, which does sometimes work to her disadvantage when she has to do dumb things or play someone not so smart, but mostly she hasn't played those kinds of parts.

      I contribute to TFE and have been LOVING Anne Marie's Judy By The Numbers series!!! EVERYONE should read! I would be lying if I said reading the "Over the Rainbow" article didn't influence my pick this week. ;-)

      Into the Storm just looked terrible in every trailer so I skipped it. Not a big fan of Day After Tomorrow - i ADORE Dennis Quaid but I just can NOT with even the idea of burning books so being in the Library in sub-zero temps is just too big a nightmare for me. BUT, I kinda loved 2012, which is basically the same movie, so go figure!

      I haven't seen The Rains Came, and the only thing I knew about it was that it won that Oscar. Somehow I didn't realize Myrna Loy was in it so I must see it now - LOVE. HER.

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    2. I knew you contribute over on TFE and figured that you were aware of the Judy series but I thought I'd mention the confluence. Funny I HATED 2012 and I also hate the idea of burning the books but hey there was a whole section on tax law!

      Myrna looks a million in Rains, and is surprisingly cast as a bit of a slut. Even more surprising is that the usually very bland and stiff George Brent gives one of the best performances in the film.

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    3. George Brent? Really?!? GET OUT!!!

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  9. All great picks! I love Twister, I know why it gets a bad rap but I still love it. It might be just beacause of PSH. And YES! of course the tornado in Wizard of OZ.

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  10. Haha. Awesome pick with the Wizard of Oz. Never thought of it myself, though now you say it's kinda obvious.

    I like The Impossible and was gonna include it myself but felt it actually wasn't a "weather" event film but more disaster event film.

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    1. Yeah, I get that. When I suggested the topic I almost put "Disaster Movies" but in keeping with the thing about March I hedged my bets and went for specifically weather-related.

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