So a French TV network got hacked big time earlier in the day. Of the 11 channels it has, it’s regained control of one of them. Oh, and all their social media material was also hacked. Click on the link for details:
I’ve mentioned before my feelings -both good and bad- regarding the rapidly changing economy thanks to the arrival of computers and the internet.
One of the biggest negatives of the interconnectivity people/businesses have is the fact that somewhere out there might lurk very clever people with some deeply dark thoughts. And so it is that today I’m reading about hacking a major French TV network.
Will one day we read about an airplane that was hijacked electronically and forced to land (or worse!) somewhere other than its intended destination? I see the writing on the wall and know that we’re soon going to have driverless cars. But what if someone hacks into the programming that drives these vehicles? Could you picture the mass chaos?
But let’s think bigger: What if someone should hack into a city’s electric grid? Or a government’s military?
No wonder the field of cyber security is a booming one.
As a film fan, I couldn’t be happier about living in this era. Movies I’d seen many years before and hadn’t had a chance to see again are, to my delight, being released to home video. A few weeks ago, for example, the for the most part forgotten 1979 thriller Firepower (read my review here) was released and I finally, finally got a chance to see it again after having originally seen it one time in and around the date of that original release.
Sure, the film didn’t hold up that well, but I was so damn curious to see it again. For whatever reason, pieces of it stuck with me all these years and I just had to revisit the work, regardless of how it would come off to my much older self.
This week, a trio of interesting films I’ve yearned to revisit have been released to home video. The first two, Hooper and Sharkey’s Machine, are Burt Reynolds vehicles that were available before but are now, for the first time, being released to BluRay (and, I hope, are finally being presented in their proper cinematic aspect ratio). I had avoided the earlier releases of these films because people who saw these video releases said the image quality of each film was very poor, a debit I hope these BluRays correct.
The third film, the 1969 feature Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (aka Doppleganger), is a film I have the barest of memories about, having seen it (probably) on TV one day way back in the mid to late 1970’s and never again.
And yet, like Firepower, the film lingered in my mind, an itch I had to scratch and a movie I was dying to revisit.
Yesterday the BluRay was formally released and I eagerly put it into my player.
Would the film enchant or disappoint me?
As it turned out, it did a little of both.
For those familiar with their works, the names Gerry and Sylvia Anderson should set off certain memories. The one time husband and wife duo were responsible for, among others, the TV shows Thunderbirds, UFO, and Space: 1999. They are the ones behind Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (so I don’t go insane re-typing the film’s title, lets refer to it as JFSS from now on, OK?).
The plot of the film goes like this: In the near future, the European Space Agency sends an exploratory probe towards the sun but an unexpected magnetic draw shifts its position and it takes pictures of a mysterious, and surprising, object: A planet that lies directly opposite the sun!
This planet, it is found, rotates in the same orbit as our Earth but has never been seen by us because it is always opposite the Sun and therefore obscured by it.
What follows is a race to get a European spacecraft up and away to explore that mysterious planet. Eventually, the ship is sent but the mysteries of this alien world are just beginning to be uncovered.
I won’t say more (for now) because I don’t want to spoil the story. I will get into SPOILERS after the trailer, however, so for those who don’t mind a more in depth examination of the film, feel free to read on.
To conclude the non-spoiler part of this review, I’ll say the following: JFSS proved a far more positive experience to me than revisiting Firepower. The film’s effects remain quite good although the story could have been a lot more focused (I’ll get into that below). If you’re a fan of the works of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, picking up JFSS is a no-brainer. If you’re curious to see an interesting and at times even haunting sci-fi mystery/thriller, you’d do far worse than check this film out.
Alright, there was the trailer. What follows below are…
SPOILERS!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
As I mentioned above, JFSS’s story could have been a lot more focused and this is my biggest complaint against the film. And yet paradoxically let me state that while the story could have used more focus, the “extraneous” material was presented rather well. The problem was that it didn’t really need to be in the film.
Which is my long winded way of saying that this is a film that could have used a few tweaks of the screenplay.
The movie’s entire opening act, for example, involves the attempts of the head of the European Space Agency to a) find a mole (Herbert Lom in what amounts to a curious, almost non-speaking cameo) and b) use the discovery of this mole to force his reluctant allies to fund the exploration of the mysterious planet on the far side of the sun.
This part of the film was well presented but left me baffled when all was said and done. Why did we need to spend all this time on the funding of this space probe? The writer in me would have excised this entire section of the film. Why spend all that time there, time that could have been used more wisely getting our spacecraft up and into space and dealing with the movie’s central mystery?
But wait, there’s more!
After the head of the agency gets his sought after funding, we go through the next part of the film, which first involves figuring out who will fly this mission. The United States, the main backers of this mission, insist their most experienced astronaut, Colonel Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) be the senior officer on the flight. The head of the European agency agrees to the US terms and puts his right hand man (and friend) John Kane (Ian Hendry) to fly with Ross.
Having taken care of that bit of business, we then spend time following the grueling training of the relatively inexperienced Kane preparing for the flight along with some bits and pieces involving the rocky marriage of Colonel Ross.
Once again, this part of the film isn’t bad per se and is presented fairly well. However, once again the writer in me wondered why we were spending all these precious minutes of film on these issues. The Ross marriage, I suppose, did matter a little later on, but Kane’s training? Not so much. That could have easily been dispensed with and allowed more time for the space flight and the movie’s central mystery.
Anyway, once we got past all that, the film finally reached the point it probably should have forty minutes before: Liftoff and arrival to the mystery planet.
It was here where things got good and interesting and where my dim memories came roaring back. Though I said I would get into spoilers, I won’t go into many more details here and leave the mystery for you to see.
I will say this much, though: I loved the film’s use of mirrors in this part of the film and felt the ending, and especially the denouement that makes us question whether what we’ve just seen was real or the ramblings of a madman, really made the whole thing end on a troubling yet satisfying note.
Again, I recommend the film despite the overly extraneous opening elements.
A few days ago (you can read the original post here) I wrote about how the Delphi company, which has driverless car software, had initiated a cross-country trip from San Francisco to New York, effectively duplicating Horatio Nelson Jackson’s famous 1903 cross country trip that was the first made in a car.
It barely made the news then, and out of curiosity I did a search to see if the car made it to its destination. It did. Three days ago:
It amazes me that this story didn’t receive much press (at least none in the venues I usually frequent!). Granted, the car supposedly made 99% of the trip using its driverless features, so it didn’t make the entire trip using only the Delphi software, but still: It crossed 99% of the entire United States, effectively, on “auto pilot”!
Once again I can’t help but think what the future of car transport will be like.
On the one hand, using driverless cars will greatly reduce both traffic congestion and highway/road fatalities/accidents. As I noted before and given some of the smaller driverless cars such companies as Google are working on, there may come a time when people no longer even have to have a car. I envision a future where there is a small fleet of very economical to use driverless cars on the streets. You use an app on your phone to call one in, it takes you to your destination, and when you need to return home, you call one in to do that.
The other side of the coin is darker. How many jobs will be lost with the full arrival of the driverless car? Already there are several careers that will be endangered, from truck drivers to taxi/Uber drivers. What about public transportation drivers? School/Public bus drivers might become irrelevant as well.
Alas, technology moves ahead and there’s no turning back. After all, there was a time the Blacksmith had one of the most secure jobs in any town.
Before I get to the story, a brief statement: I’m a fan of director David Lynch and certainly appreciate his work and its influences (especially when it comes to Twin Peaks), but I’m not a fanatic of his works.
To me, his best all around film was Mulholland Drive (2001), and I believe part of the reason that film worked so well is because it felt as if Mr. Lynch took everything he knew and/or had worked on up to that moment and distilled the very best of it into that film (one very clever critic at the time of the film’s release stated that watching Mulholland Drive was the equivalent to buying one of those “Best of” albums from one of your favorite bands).
As for Twin Peaks, my memories of watching it when it originally aired are rather foggy. This much I recall: I didn’t watch the show religiously. Curiously enough, after seeing the show’s pilot episode I accurately guessed the central mystery (ie who had killed Laura Palmer, though I didn’t see the whole evil spirit stuff coming). Again, my memory is hazy about all things Twin Peaks (including the pilot), so for all I know it was very obvious who the killer was and my realization was nothing more than a “no shit, Sherlock” type deduction.
Having said all that, I was curious when I heard Mr. Lynch was coming back to Twin Peaks. Alas, it appears financial issues have forced Mr. Lynch out of the production:
What a bummer! Apart from seeing all those original actors in their original roles, the main reason one wanted to see a Twin Peaks revival -even for a casual fan of the series such as I- was for the chance to see what new concepts/ideas Mr. Lynch would bring to what is arguably his best known work…and now it appears he won’t be involved in it.
At least for now.
Who knows, maybe the studios and Mr. Lynch will come to some kind of agreement. One would hope so.
Having Twin Peaks return without Mr. Lynch is like having a Beatles reunion…only without half the band.
So I’m sitting before the computer in a near daze. Being in the early stages of a cold can do that to you.
Last night, while completely out of energy and dealing with a throat that’s on fire, I tried to watch some of the TV shows I’ve been DVRing for the past few weeks (in some cases, months!). And I find there are 10 episodes of Justified waiting patiently to be watched. This represents the whole of the sixth season of the show aired to date minus the season’s very first episode.
Seeing this, I couldn’t help but be somewhat surprised. Used to be that I couldn’t wait to see the latest episode of Justified. Season Two of the series, which featured Mags Bennett, was a stunner. In retrospect, that may well have been the series’ high point and one could argue that, while still good, the show hasn’t reached those dizzying heights again.
This was certainly the case, in my humble opinion, with the show’s fifth season. That season featured a relatively weak menace in the form of Daryl Crowe Jr. When the season ended and it was announced the show’s sixth season would be its final one, I felt this was, well, justified (blame the pun on the cold!).
Mind you, I have a great deal of sympathy for those who toil behind the scenes on successful shows. The fact is its difficult to sustain a show for four years, much less six. Plot lines inevitably get repeated and the surprises that may have drawn you into the show in the first place become fewer and fewer. With Justified, there was always a sense of menace and absurdity presented in equal measures. Characters could -and did!- die violent, sometimes very unexpected deaths. After a while, though, you have a core of characters you almost have to maintain, fan favorites whose unexpected end might lead to audiences revolting against the show.
Ah, you say, but what about Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead? They’ve had some very big characters die and yet people still watch them, don’t they?
Both shows most certainly have turned heads with the deaths of “big” characters, but there are still certain characters who haven’t been offed and who remain “central” to the story. With the passage of time it appears clear they’re going to hang on for quite a while. If you think about it, I suspect you’ll know who they are.
Anyway, just offering some fevered musings. I’ll catch up to Justified. I’ve invested enough time in it so far that skipping out the final season would be silly. Yet I’d be lying if I were to say I’m not ready for the show to be over.
Sometimes I miss a movie that, at best, I was only mildly interested in seeing when it originally came out. Often, I forget about this movie. Other times, my interest, though mild, remains. Though I don’t actively seek the film out, I will watch it if I get the chance.
Such was the case with 1408, a 2007 release starring John Cusack and based on a Stephen King short story. As I said, I had only a mild interest in the film and when it quickly came and went from the theaters I thought it probably wasn’t all that good. And yet it stuck with me, a little itch I had to scratch.
For the record, I like John Cusack and feel that even in some not very good movies he, nonetheless, is reliably good. And although I’m not a huge fan of the works of Stephen King, there have been some good movies made out of his stories.
So, the little itch remained.
A week or two ago the SyFy Network aired the film and I decided to record it. The movie languished in my DVR for a few weeks but yesterday I finally had a chance to see it.
Now, obviously I’m reacting to the “sanitized” TV version of the film, so therefore my opinions of what I saw should be taken with that particular grain of salt.
Nonetheless…what a disappointment.
John Cusack, for the most part, is the whole show here and he’s in good form. You sympathize with his character and root for him. This is a good thing as his character, after a few early and late sequences in the movie, is the whole show. A less sympathetic actor in this role might well have turned audiences off completely.
The story goes like this: John Cusack is author Mike Enslin, another of those Stephen King proxies. He investigates supposedly “haunted” Hotels and has carved a small niche publishing books related to his experiences at these Hotels. He’s also a cynic who doesn’t believe a thing about what he writes. To him there is no supernatural phenomena. Finally, as the film goes on it becomes clear he’s harboring some deep personal pain within.
The movie starts with his “investigation” of a Bed and Breakfast type place where the owners of the establishment are hopeful Enslin’s “investigation” will allow them to get some free publicity for their place. We then see him at a bookstore (remember those!?) signing copies of his book and answering questions from the few people who have come to see him.
Later, he returns home and finds an intriguing postcard regarding a New York hotel named The Dolphin. The postcard tells him about a room within the hotel, #1408 (natch), and he heads to the library to check up on it. He finds there have been several mysterious deaths in the room and decides that is the next place he wants to investigate.
He heads to New York and avoids his estranged wife (more hints at the pain he’s harboring within) and gets to the Hotel. Once there, he meets up with the Hotel’s manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson in what amounts to a cameo role). Olin tries to convince Enslin not to go to the room but the author will not be denied.
Finally, he reaches the room and soon all hell breaks loose.
While one can certainly admire the sheer amount of work produced by Stephen King, it’s fair to say that its a dual edged sword. On the one hand, there’s more for fans of his works to enjoy. On the other hand, there are bound to be times when, consciously or not, Mr. King repeats certain themes. In the case of 1408, the long shadow cast by The Shining winds up darkening this particular work.
The protagonist? Like in The Shining, an troubled author with family issues.
The setting? Like in The Shining, a Hotel (though to be fair, most of the “action” in 1408 occurs in a single room).
The conflict? Supernatural elements in this Hotel room, not unlike the haunted presence in The Shining.
Thus as the movie progressed I couldn’t help but compare 1408 with the far superior Stanley Kubrick film version of The Shining. Despite this, the film was reasonably engaging early on.
Unfortunately, after the first series of phantom menaces, the film reaches its high water mark and never moves higher. Worse, as we near the conclusion we’re given a series of “climaxes” that are at best not very satisfying and at worse suggest the movie’s makers were straining to come up with a good end (my understanding is that the home video release features at least one more alternate unused ending!).
So, despite a good performance by John Cusack, 1408 winds up being a mess of a movie, especially in the second half. The film’s greatest sin is that its resolution undermines whatever good will it establishes beyond its similarities to The Shining.
Fascinating article by Dan Falk for Slate magazine concerning the debate over whether Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) should be more proactive in its search for alien life (ie, send out signals for alien races to receive, informing them we’re here and want to make contact) or should we be more cautious and hang back and listen for signals coming to us from potential alien races.
I have to admit that before reading this article I hadn’t given much thought to the real life implications of our race seeking to make “first contact” with an alien culture (this despite my fictional writings!). Having read the article and given both sides consideration, my feeling it is better to be cautious rather than attempt more active means of contact.
Or, as the article points out, via science fiction author David Brin:
…David Brin is an outspoken critic of Active SETI. He points to the history of our own planet, in which encounters between cultures of greatly differing technological sophistication rarely go well.
Or, to put it another way: Think about what happened to, among others, the Native Americans when the Europeans first came over. One race was more sophisticated and had better armor and weapons. Subsequently, the native Americans were at the receiving end of some very nasty experiences while this more sophisticated race took their resources for themselves.
In light of this, should we really be actively sending out signals in the hope that others races out there receive them so we can make first contact? While the pluses to this are obvious in the sense that we can perhaps become an interstellar community, the downside is considerable.
Who’s to say that any alien race we come into contact with will be enlightened and/or benevolent? In the example I mentioned above, the Europeans didn’t come over to America to share their technologies with the Native Americans. No, they used their advanced knowledge to wipe the smash the Native peoples while taking as much of their resources as they could.
What makes us think an alien race out there might not want to do exactly the same?
And what if we send out signals and the very worst case scenario turns out to happen: That the alien race nearest to us that picks up this transmission winds up being a warrior race that waits around just for such signals to appear so they can pounce on planets like ours without having to spend the time and energy looking for them?
Interesting article on Slate.com and by Ben Mathis-Lilley concerning a childhood favorite of mine, The Guinness Book of World Records, and the fact that their ties to -ie payment to attend- Corporate Sponsored Events (in this case “The Largest Champagne Toast”!) may make you question the validity of these supposed “world records”:
Like the author (and as mentioned above), as a child I was fascinated with the Guinness World Records books. Seeing photographs of the world’s tallest/shortest man/woman, of feats of endurance, of unique landmarks, of sporting events, etc. etc. genuinely held my interest and opened up my world to what lay outside its pre-internet small confines.
But time marches on and, like many other things, the internet has had an effect on the Guinness World Record Business. The books aren’t selling anywhere near as well as they used to, which isn’t that big a surprise as you can find most of the interesting facts/records online if you were to look around. In spite of all this, there is still publicity to be had surrounding a “Guinness World Record” your business is involved in and this is what lies at the article’s heart:
If businesses sponsor events and pay the Guinness people to come around to oversee them and report on their “World Record”, then is it not possible the businesses may influence -to a degree unknown- what the Guinness judges observe? Are the judges more likely to officially sanction a record even if, again in the case of the particular “Largest Champagne Toast”, they do not personally witness everyone involved in the event?
I believe part of the problem lies in the fact that some of these records are, frankly, silly. And yes, I am referring to the “World’s Largest Champagne Toast” in particular. If you have the “World’s Tallest Person”, this is an easily measurable thing. So too are things like the “World’s Longest Nails”, or the “World’s Most Expensive Car”, or the “World’s Tallest Building,” or “World’s Fastest Wo/Man”, etc. etc.
Even as I was still reading the Guinness Books, I noticed some of the records presented veered into the weird, not unlike this “World’s Largest Champagne Toast”. They were clearly silly creations made specifically for entry into that book. I suspect all those weirder records sponsored by Corporations are being done to get the word out on their product, whatever it may be.
Ah well, I guess the bottom line is that Guinness did such a good job creating a point of interest for people to focus on that its little wonder others have used it as an advertising platform.
