What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Pacomartin

While oddball science is the premise of many sci-fi movies, I prefer ones that at least are possible in the world of physics. Moving a populated planet on a 2500 year journey to Alpha Centauri does not qualify as possible to me. You would have to average over one million miles per hour velocity

I loved Silent Running. Very underrated movie.

They attempt to explain some of your skeptical points in the movie. For one thing, I believe they go to Jupiter to slingshot around it. They also mention it taking hundreds of years to build up speed and then again to slow down. They even mention the maximum speed as some fraction of light speed, but I don't recall the exact figure. The length of the journey and desired speeds seemed reasonable to me, but I too question if it would be possible to get the earth to such a high speed. I tend to think all those rocket engines wouldn't even budge the planet out of orbit.

Quote: Wizard

They attempt to explain some of your skeptical points in the movie.

The Earth's crust is basically a thin shell covering a planet which is primarily magma. Pushing on the crust with that kind of force would push through the crust to the magma. You would basically get a bunch of volcanoes and not a moving planet.

It is 4.37 light years to Alpha Centauri, so to do travel there in 2500 years would be an average speed of 4.37/2500=0.175%* speed of light c/572 . Presuming some speed up centuries and then slow down perhaps they used a maximum speed a little higher than the average speed.

Using speed of light as 186,000 miles per second, 0.175% would be 325 miles per second (over a million miles per hour).

We had "Mrs. Robinson" on in the background. Clicked on more info, it was first shown in 1967. I guess, I am getting old. I remember very well when it came out.

Quote: petroglyph

We had "Mrs. Robinson" on in the background. Clicked on more info, it was first shown in 1967. I guess, I am getting old. I remember very well when it came out.

Coo coo ka-choo.

Quote: Wizard

Coo coo ka-choo.

Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you

Quote: Wizard

Coo coo ka-choo.

Ranked by number of domestic tickets sold


I have seen a surprising number of Dustin Hoffman's films, many of which I found very moving. The films from first two decades (age 30 to 50) from The Graduate to Rain Man are 7 of the 8 of his top ranked films. His comeback "Meet the Fockers" was irritating.

1 Dec 21, 1967 The Graduate
2 Dec 17, 1982 Tootsie
3 Dec 22, 2004 Meet the Fockers
4 Dec 16, 1988 Rain Man
5 Dec 19, 1979 Kramer Vs. Kramer
6 Apr 7, 1976 All the President's Men
7 May 25, 1969 Midnight Cowboy
8 Dec 16, 1973 Papillon
9 Jun 6, 2008 Kung Fu Panda
10 Dec 11, 1991 Hook
11 May 26, 2011 Kung Fu Panda 2
12 Dec 14, 1970 Little Big Man
13 Dec 22, 2010 Little Fockers
14 Jan 29, 2016 Kung Fu Panda 3
15 Mar 10, 1995 Outbreak
16 Oct 18, 1996 Sleepers
17 Oct 6, 1976 Marathon Man
18 Dec 25, 1997 Wag the Dog
19 Oct 17, 2003 Runaway Jury
20 Nov 12, 2004 Finding Neverland
21 Feb 13, 1998 Sphere
22 Jan 14, 2005 Racing Stripes
23 Dec 19, 2008 The Tale of Despereaux
24 Nov 10, 2006 Stranger Than Fiction
25 Oct 2, 1992 Hero
26 Nov 16, 2007 Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
27 Mar 17, 1978 Straight Time
28 May 9, 2014 Chef
29 Nov 1, 1991 Billy Bathgate
30 May 15, 1987 Ishtar
31 Feb 9, 1979 Agatha
32 Dec 15, 1989 Family Business
33 Nov 12, 1999 The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
34 Nov 7, 1997 Mad City
35 Oct 1, 2004 I Heart Huckabees

---- a very small number of tickets sold

36 Apr 25, 2003 Confidence
37 Dec 25, 2008 Last Chance Harvey
38 Sep 27, 2002 Moonlight Mile
39 Jan 14, 2011 Barney's Version
40 Apr 28, 2006 The Lost City
41 Dec 27, 2006 Perfume - The Story of a Murderer
42 Sep 13, 1996 American Buffalo
43 Mar 18, 2016 The Program

It’s interesting to me that #12 “Little Big Man” is so high on the list. Maybe it’s the halo from “Midnight Cowboy”, or a general interest in westerns at the time, but that wasn’t a very good film.

Quote: Wizard

I saw Wandering Earth on Monday. This is the first movie out of mainland China I've seen, although I've seen lots out of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The premise is the sun is expanding so mankind creates 1,000 rocket engines to move earth to a safer location. Meanwhile, people live in underground cities under these engines, except some workers who mine for fuel for the engines, in weather that is around -90 degrees.

There are all kinds of stories going on, but the main one is the earth gets near Jupiter and the rockets malfunction so the earth is on a path to fall into Jupiter if they can't get them working.

As for my review, the movie is extremely fast paced. The audience rarely has a chance to catch its breath. There are also several story lines going on, which I won't get into. The writers definitely spread themselves too thin, at least for me. If you do like it, I'm pretty sure the movie set itself up for a sequel, perhaps lots of them.

In case you're wondering, there was no overt Chinese propaganda, but when humanity discovers they are dooomed unless they all work together, they form a One Earth government, which seems to be mostly run by the Chinese as are every character except one, going by race. To be honest, in the future when this is set, I could actually buy that.

In summary, I give Wandering Earth 4 on the 0 to 10 scale.

There was a 2007 film titled “Sunshine” with a “Sun burning out, let’s reignite it” plot. I don’t recall them dealing with the stellar physics of the Sun turning into a Red Giant when it cools, but they were going to reignite it with some sort of A-bomb. Moving whole planets and re-igniting stars was done on more than one Star Trek episode too.

I don’t think the vast majority of people on Earth really appreciate just how big the Sun is.

Quote: Pacomartin

Ranked by number of domestic tickets sold
I have seen a surprising number of Dustin Hoffman's films, many of which I found very moving. The films from first two decades (age 30 to 50) from The Graduate to Rain Man are 7 of the 8 of his top ranked films. His comeback "Meet the Fockers" was irritating.

Kung Fu Panda.
I had no idea but I love it. Its real good

Quote: Ayecarumba

I don’t think the vast majority of people on Earth really appreciate just how big the Sun is.

Just think how big a Dyson sphere would be.