- Actor Dustin Hoffman lobbies for more reality in sci-fi movies – From Craig.
- The skull-crushing hyenas of Dragon Bone Hill
- An ode to Simon Singh – From Hughcumber who is obviously a genius.
- The six biggest dick moves in the history of science – From Chasmosaur.
- PS – Today, June 16, is Captain Picard day. (via my intensely geeky brother)
I had no idea it was Capt. Picard day. Do I have to turn in my closet geek card now? All that time memorizing episodes, wasted. *sob*
Those studies were freaky. That poor baby and the orphans, jesus.
How ironic is it that they show Dustin in a scene from Sphere in an article where he’s calling for more realism in science fiction.
In related news: Anthony Edwards calls for a more realistic movies about life in college. Check him out in Revenge of the Nerds.
The first movie that comes to mind when someone mentions bad science is Armageddon. That movie has worse physics than a Roadrunner cartoon.
I’m hoping that one of the folks Dustin Hoffman talks to is Phil Plait but I don’t see him listed on the advisory board. I do see Greg Benford, which is almost as good.
here’s hoping that Hoffman’s group makes a difference
Ok, what? Did somebody just claim that The Day After Tomorrow was more influential in changing people’s opinions on global warming than An Inconvenient Truth? WHAT?
First of all, Day After Tomorrow was a fucking terrible film. Maybe more people saw, but there’s no way it was more influential than a film whose title has become a household phrase.
And, frankly, if more people were genuinely swayed by Day After Tomorrow, then we may as well just give up trying to communicate sound science at all, because that movie was a fucking ludicrous farce, easily on the same rung of shame as The Core. Except that The Core was cheeky enough to be enjoyably bad, whereas Day After Tomorrow had a cloying earnestness (Obvious Dick Cheney Stand-In is obvious) that prevents it from attaining So Good It’s Bad status.
FEH on that movie. FEH!
I meant “So Bad It’s Good”, obviously. DAT annoys me so fucking much that I got all dyslexic.
Dear Mr Hoffman,
I believe what you are looking for is called “Science Documentary”.
Oh wait no… those have even less science. What the bleep do I know? I’m no movie maker.
Love,
Elyse Anders
PS. I hope you like what I did there.
@Joshua: I have to agree, Day After Tomorrow stank on ice. Although, it wasn’t even the science that really irritated me. It was the part where the one allegedly smart girl cuts herself badly enough to get an infection but fails to tell anyone about this until she’s dying. Of course, the only the way to save her is to go out in the freezing cold and find some pills on a Russian barge. Then the guys who go on this mission run into a bunch of wolves that escaped from the zoo… Escaped wolves, seriously? You just had a major disaster inflicted on the entire world involving massive freezing hurricanes and the worst danger you can come up with is some f’in wolves?! I’ll see your FEH and raise you a BAH! A pox on this movie, a pox, I say! … ahhh, that feels better.
Also, obvious George W. Bush stand-in is also obvious.
Problem is, it’s so hard to know for sure what will be realistic in, say, 100 years.
I was recently annoyed by the Star Trek movie, when Kirk managed to defy gravity and actually fall faster than the guy he was saving (I forget his name). I mean, I can overlook the major improbabilities like a universal translator or the amazing coincidence that intelligent life evolved so similarly on completely independent planets. But it’s just not physically possible for one guy to fall faster than another. They could have fixed it so easily too, with a simple jet-pack. If the guy playing Kirk wasn’t so gorgeous, I would have left the movie right then.
@mikespeir: I’d settle for being realistic in terms of the science 50 years ago, but most films can’t seem to even deliver that.
@catgirl: Nuh-uh! File this under “Incorrectly regarded as goofs”. ;) See, Sulu was spread-eagled, while Kirk was diving head-first. Therefore, Sulu’s terminal velocity would have been lower than Kirk’s, allowing Kirk to catch up. The same thing applies to many (but not all) of these scenarios in movies.
@Joshua: Wish I could disagree with you….
for me, captain picard will have to take a back seat to the real owner of June 16…. it’s Bloomsday.
@Joshua: backup citation: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml
The difference in speed can be quite substantial, over 100mph.
And June 16 is officially Seth day, not Picard Day. Mark it down. Tell your friends.