Disaster Movies - Poll Time!

[eldritchhobbit]

[Poll #1432460]


"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.”
- Douglas Adams

Comments

[mizz-history.livejournal.com]

I've been studying Diasaster Movies with my GCSE students last year. They are mostly just big, dumb fun. But they do provide some useful study about our deepest fears. And they're big, dumb fun :o)

The Day After Tomorrow, as you can see from my answers, is both brilliant and terrible :o)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I bet your students had a blast with those movies! What a great idea for the classroom.

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

Google's logo is very cool today. ;o)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

That was so clever with the moon craters! Thanks for pointing that out to me (and sorry for the delayed response).

[mackiedockie.livejournal.com]

It was a tossup between The Blob and Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, but I had to go with Steve McQueen in the end. And Krakatoa, East of Java was more spectacular than Grapes of Wrath, but Henry Fonda trumps special effects.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Talk about going down memory lane! Wasn't Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster the one with the mannequin body parts bobbing up and down in the polluted water during the credits? (I know that was one of the Godzillas, and I'm pretty sure it was the Smog Monster film.) I remember seeing that during summer matinee season at the theater when I was young, and it freaked me out. ;)

Henry Fonda trumps special effects

LOL! Well said. And great choices! Thanks for reminding me of these.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Neither of my favourite disaster films fits into your categories, really - at least I don't think so. But I'll mention them anyway, I hope that's okay.

They are:

The Towering Inferno
A Night To Remember

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad you did! Great choices! Thank you. I'm trying to refresh my memory on all of these films, and I suspect the ones hardest to classify (like these) are among the most important.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you didn't mind.

Thank you.

I think it's the far more 'real' factor about this kind of disaster film. The fact that when it comes down to it, these are the 'more likely' than alien attack, etc. And of course the Titanic did happen. If that makes any sense.

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pimping my new blog.

As for the Disaster Movie Poll, you forgot the option Shows that Hollywood writers don't know Jack about science.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

My pleasure!

Ha! Very true. My sister was a graduate student in meteorology when The Day After Tomorrow came out, and she said that she and her pals (also in the sciences) went to the late showing and heckled the movie throughout. Apparently, even the MST3K factor wasn't enough to redeem it. LOL!

[faramirgirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the b-day wish. I will get back to you on the poll.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I hope you had a great one! :)

[sneezythesquid.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I forgot about Titanic for historical and Invasion of the Body Snatchers for alien attack (And serious kudos to gbsteve for putting in my favorite horror flick, The Thing, John Carpenter flavor, that is). I'm surprised and pleased to see mjolnir1964 share my love for the much maligned Mars Attacks!, an underrated gem IMHO.

I'd like to add The Invasion to the worst list, I would have but I've tried to burn it from my memory despite my love for Ms. Kidman. I'd also like to put The Happening in the worst catagory, but I haven't seen it, so that wouldn't be fair.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, Invasion was terrible, wasn't it? I'm a huge fan of the 1956 original, and the other two remakes are both very good in different ways, but this one was an awful letdown. With the cast and budget it had, there was no excuse for that film.

The Happening may be one of the worst films I've ever seen in a theater in my life. It's two hours I'll never get back again. *mourns*

[sneezythesquid.livejournal.com]

Yea, no excuse for Invasion at all. I think I tore it a new one in my review, even with my love for Ms. Kidman.

Thankfully, as I said, I avoided The Happening, learning from the suffering reported by others.

[vyrdolak.livejournal.com]

Today's WSJ has an feature on disaster flicks.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! Many thanks!