Is it just me, or has S Club 7 just stopped trying?

We here at ManWithPez have noticed that the American television scene has gotten a little stale of late.  There are a few sparks out there, but that’s not I’m writing about here today.  Today I’m writing about British TV genre show Misfits, airing on E4.  It’s aired two seasons, one Christmas special, and has announced a third season for later this year.  When 5 delinquents performing community service are suddenly stricken with superpowers, what do they do next?  That’s what’s facing these young twentysomethings.  Also, they’re kind of rude…but in the funniest possible way.  To me, watching this show is like watching someone who decided to fix Heroes…and did it correctly.  Granted the format isn’t quite the same, but the idea is similiar.  So, if you’ve got the ability to see it, by all means, watch Misfits, laugh at Robert Sheehan, and come back and thank me.  I’m worth it!

She tried not to, but Clara couldn't help but laugh at the "Kick Me" sign that Marty had put on Doc's back.

It may not be the best out of three, but Back to the Future III is still one hell of an entertaining film.  Why?  It eschews the problems most people had with the second one (too convoluted) to tell a kickass science fiction cowboy story about Doc Brown’s finally getting a piece of ass.  Ah well, that’s the power of love, I suspect.

At the end of Back to the Future II, you may recall, the DeLorean takes a lightning bolt in 1955, sending Doc (Christopher Lloyd) back to 1885, where he sends a long range telegram to tell Marty (Michael J. Fox)  not to come looking for him, as he’s happy.  1955 Doc and Marty do a little research and find that Doc was actually killed by one of Biff’s (Thomas Wilson) relations, Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen.  They find the DeLorean from 1885, repair it with old Doc’s instructions to get Marty back to 1985, but Marty goes back for his friend instead. 

Whereas the second film in the series embraced paradox, and stepped over the line a few times, this one flirts with it, but never quite steps over the boundary of unbelievability.  When Doc accidentally steps in and saves a school teacher named Clara (Mary Steenburgen) from falling over a cliff, he sets into motion a series of events, which, like the first film leads to an improbable way to get the flux capacitor…fluxing.

This is really Christopher Lloyd’s movie.  Marty’s story is just on the periphery here, but mostly, we’re looking at a weird science nerd love story here.  And, a strange cameo from ZZ Top.  The western setting is neat and all, but director Robert Zemeckis, like in most of his films, knows that the setting is secondary to the story, and we’re basically revisiting the best of the series, Back to the Future, with a slight twist on it.  Doc instead of Marty this time.  Wilson gives a stronger performance as Buford Tannen this time, and Mary Steenburgen is a delight as the hot schoolteacher who just wants her nerd.  Marty delivers my favorite line in the entire trilogy in this film “Doc, why do we always have to cut these things so damn close!”

Sure, the ending is a bit of weird fan service, and poor Einstein and Jennifer (Elizabeth Shue) have been hanging around with the universe changing around them unknowingly, but, this a Zemeckis film.  At least, one before Beowulf (sigh) so you know you’re headed for a happy ending…just like at a massage parlor.  With this one, just sit back and enjoy the ride.  You don’t even have to think that hard on this one…though they do get you to try with the changing name of the ravine.  Good movie, good fun, and a good way to finish things off.

I know what he looks like. He's still a badass!

The premise is simple (mostly).  HG Wells builds a working time machine.  Unknown to him, one of his dinner buddies is actually Jack the Ripper, who steals his machine.  Unfortunately for Jack, the machine has an automatic return function (NEAT!), and so, HG Wells tracks down Jack the Ripper in modern times in order to bring him to justice.  How’s that sound to you?  Cause it sounds absolutely awesome to me!  And it has ever since I was taken as a small child to see Time After Time.

With a premise like “HG Wells vs Jack the Ripper”, you’d expect something sensationalistic and over the top…but, that’s not what you get here.  Oddly enough, what the movie really appears to be about is fitting in the time you live in, or not.  John Leslie Stevenson (played by one of the finest actors ever, David Warner) is a doctor who has a penchant for hacking on prostitutes.  You know, in almost any portrayal of Jack the Ripper, it would seem that the movies want you to think that he’s an inhuman monster, when Time After Time has got the real deal figured out.  It’s much more frightening, I think, when Jack the Ripper is humanized.  You’d expect the Ripper killings from a monster…not an ordinary man. 

HG Wells here (Malcolm McDowell…oh yeah.) is a visionary.  Frankly I’d expect nothing less.  What surprised me about this movie so much was that when Stevenson comes to the modern world, he becomes even harder to track down.  He fits in, he disappears.  HG Wells tracks him down by focusing on just what would make him different in the modern times.  He’s actually a very successful detective in this movie.  You can tell from his ugly as sin deerstalker cap.  There’s also a love interest (HEY!  Jack the Ripper’s milling about!  There’s no time for love, Dr. Jones!) named Amy (HG Wells’s companion in real life, by the way) played by former hot nerd crush Mary Steenburgen in only her second film.  While their relationship is actually very sweet and unobtrusive, it does telegraph just who one of Jack’s victims might be.

I’ve no complaints with any of the acting in this movie, or the writing, or the editing.  There is one small thing, however.  It’s got a goddamn Corey in it!  That’s right…Corey Feldman is in the film near the beginning.  Looking for all the world like the mischievious little bastard he was in that shit McDonald’s commercial!  I’m kidding.  I think he has a three word line.  But seriously.  There’s a Corey.

Well written, a little dated (Jack stalks a disco…an honest to God disco…sigh.) and with no basis in fact whatsoever, I find this movie to be utterly entertaining, and I never miss a chance to watch it.  In fact, I think I’ll do that right now.  That is, if I can find a time machine that runs on friction (!?) with the deus ex machina of a return key!  Beautiful film that makes a strange kind of sense.  Where else would Jack the Ripper have escaped to?  Why through time, of course!

Governor! Please! She isn't even real!

In the course of most science fiction movies, the hero gets a little help from some friends.  Strictly speaking, since we are talking about science fiction, these people don’t always have to be actual, real people.  What?  You never got any help from an imaginary buddy?  Here’s a few of my favorite assistants from science fiction who might not have actually been real, but whose help was invaluable throughout film and television.

The best dayminder...ever!

10.  Virtual Girlfriend/Lyla (The 6th Day/Spider-Man 2099) – I’m going to tie these two here, because in the scheme of things, they really aren’t that important, other than eye candy.  In the case of The 6th Day, Michael Rappaport’s Virtual Girlfriend (Jennifer Gareis) was there simply so he could have sex with something, and then turn it off later (though the character did seem to have genuine affection for the thing).  In Spider-Man 2099, our main character Miguel O’Hara has a holo-agent, or holographic assistant named Lyla who appears to have quite the attitude.  She minds his calender, and, oddly his workouts, apparently.  Frankly, I just needed another character to round out the list, and I remembered Lyla.  I put Virtual Girlfriend in here, because they seem pretty closely matched (minus the mastur…I mean virtual sex.)

Such a nice hologram. The real one could use some work, though.

9.  Leah Brahms (Star Trek:  The Next Generation) – Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) designed the warp drives for the Galaxy class starships, of which, Enterprise was the first.  There was a bit of trouble in the episode “Booby Trap”, and for help, Geordi LaForge kind of recreated her in the holodeck so that she could help solve the problem.  The real problem, however is that Geordi got the hots for the hologram (something I’m certain happens a lot in the holodeck), and couldn’t reconcile her with her human counterpart who turned out to be a total bitch.  I suppose things worked out alright, as in the future in an alternate timeline, they marry and have three children together.  All primed by that one little holographic interlude…Gross.

With a name like Rimmer...you just know he's a...hologram.

8.  Arnold Judas Rimmer (Red Dwarf) -  Admittedly, I don’t know much about Red Dwarf, and I make no apologies here.  I’ve simply not been exposed to it.  I have, in my research, found that it is better to include something of which you’re uncertain than to risk the umbrage of science fiction fans…especially fans of British Sci-Fi.  Therefore, here’s Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie).  The real Arnold Rimmer was killed during a radiation leak 3 million years in the past of the show, and the ship’s only survivor was brought back from stasis.  As Rimmer was the person with the most interaction with Lister, he was brought back in holographic form.  That’s about all I know about it, but I promise you my six readers (Hi, Grandma!) that I will look further into this, because the character’s history seems so fascinating!

I ever make a ship's computer's avatar...it WILL look like this!

7.  Rommie (Andromeda) – Here’s another one I’m not much informed about…sue me.  Rommie (Lexa Doig) is the ship’s (Andromeda) avatar, a unique part of the ship’s operating AI. She is the interface between the crew and the ship, or she can operate the ship on her own. In the beginning of the series she was only shown as a screen projection or hologram until engineer Harper discovered a way to make her more corporeal.  He transfered her matrix to one of the ship’s androids so she could be a part of the crew while off of the ship as well as on ship. Despite the new body, Rommie often appeared as a hologram when interacting with people aboard the ship.  Although she acted much like the ship she represented, she, over time learned to care and respect her crew.

At least the head conforms to Brando's ego...

6.  Jor-El (Superman) – When Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sent his infant son on a magic carpet ride towards earth when his home planet of Krypton exploded, he sent a few gifts along with him.  One of this was a crystal that created a ready made Fortress of Solitude for young Kal-El.  Housed within the fortress was a crystal interface that projected a holographic representation of Jor-El for the education of his young son.  Education wasn’t always the goal, however.  He included, along with Kal-El’s mother, wishes and affection for his son, along with some advice.  It has to be an orphan’s dream…barring not knowing your parents at all.  Jor-El manages to guide his son from beyond the grave in such a fashion.

Hello little boy...you want some holographic candy?

5.  VOX 114 (The Time Machine 2002) – Imagine you’re a professor who has managed to travel through time, and one of the first things you encounter in the future is the internet.  Also, imagine that it’s a total smartass.  That’s the thinking behind VOX, (Orlando Jones) an AI librarian designed to assist people in a New York public library.  While it would seem that he’s being sarcastic when Professor Hartdegan (Guy Pearce) asks him his all important question “Why can’t I change the past?”, VOX gives him an oddly practical answer “Because one can not travel into the past.”  When Alex gets his answer later, you’d be surprised just how sensible VOX is.  Also, he’s still around in the year 800,000 and change, and gets to give his predeliction for fiction a whirl as he becomes a teacher. 

He's no Beverly Crusher...but he'll do, I guess.

4.  The Doctor (Star Trek:  Voyager) – As I’ve pointed out on ManWithPez more than once, I wasn’t a huge fan of Voyager, save a few characters.  One of these was socially inept hologram The Doctor, played by Robert Picardo.  While he was great at diagnosis…he is a computer, after all, he seemed to be fairly cold and standoffish with his patients.  More than once he tried to expand his social programming with things like dreams, or a holographic family.  It’s odd that a holographic character would get as much screentime as this one did, but, this is Star Trek, who managed to resurrect the fictional Moriarty of all people over on The Next Generation.  The Doctor was a welcome addition to Voyager however.

Not certain what's more alarming: Bakula as a boxer, or Stockwell's costume.

3.  Al (Quantum Leap) – Despite it’s title, no leaps were ever actually made (or harmed), as Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula)was actually stationary and his consciousness was moved throughout different bodies in time so that he could right certain wrongs.  Helping him was a holographic representation of his friend Al (Dean Stockwell) who carried a computer interface known as Ziggy.  In the pilot episode Sam discovers that Al isn’t actually with him when Al walks through the wing of  plane…a trick he would do several times throughout the show.  Al would relate facts about the time period Sam was in, as well tell him the probabilities that certain actions would have on changing outcomes throughout history.  He also always seemed to have a cigar and some seriously hideous clothes, but again, this is Dean Stockwell we’re talking about.

Holy shit! It's Mary Poppin's ghost!!!

2.  SELMA (Time Trax) – This one’s on the list for being a personal favorite of mine.  The Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive or SELMA (Elizabeth Alexander) is an invaluable tool to Capt. Darien Lambert (Dale Midkiff)  in his quest to capture some time travelling fugitives.  She’s actually a mainframe computer in the form of an AT&T Mastercard, but assumes a holographic form based on some of Lambert’s childhood drawing in the orphange he was raised in.  Later on, of course, we find out that she really looks like his birth mother, whom Lambert meets in his travels.  Most of the time, she takes the appearance of an English nanny (minus the child shaking, of course) While the two bicker (mostly about protocol) throughout the show, before things are over, Lambert refers to her as a friend, and even though she’s a computer, she does likewise.

She's all blue and amazing. She's like a badass smurf!

1.  Cortana (Halo) – She’s not necessarily a hologram unto herself, but when she interfaces with actual people she uses a holographic representation to do it.  This artificial intelligence actually controls the ship where we first meet Master Chief.  When the Pillar of Autumn is ordered evacuated, Master Chief is forced to take Cortana into his armor, where she takes over several functions, most importantly, communication.  While things look up for her at the end of the first Halo game, the ending of the second turns out the be a little darker, as Cortana gets left behind.  Seemingly, in the third Halo game, Master Chief makes it his mission to regather Cortana.  She has become a fan favorite for her ingenuity and unending assistance to one of video game’s, and indeed, science fiction’s best heroes.  For this reason, she makes the top of the list here. 

So, there’s ten.  I like holograms, I do, but I never understood people in…say…Star Trek, who wanted to nail them.  I mean, think of Quark’s holosuites in Deep Space Nine.  Can you imagine that every so often, someone had to go up there and mop up the….leavings?  UGH!

I was just looking for a picture, damn it! Now I have to go watch it again.

In the very early 80s, if I wanted to watch cable I had to go to my Grandparent’s house in the next county.  From my childhood, I remembered a scene from a movie where Superman and some hot lady were traversing a staircase to rush into each other’s arms.  My much younger self only thought…”BLECH!”.  Now that I’m (a lot) older, it’s the scene that I wait for in Somewhere In Time, the chick flick that all the men secretly like!  I usually try to avoid spoilers, but I’m afraid there are some here, so be warned.

There are several movies that cover the notion that a young man will do something absolutely stupid for a girl.  See Can’t Hardly Wait, Starship Troopers, and Jaws…okay, not that last one.   In keeping with our time travel theme this month, what does Christopher Reeve do for Jane Seymour?  That’s right…he learns how to travel through time!  So he builds this glorious, scientific machine that…Wait.  That’s not what happens at all, and perhaps why this is one of your better movies on the subject.

Richard Collier (Reeve) is a young writer whose career has just taken off.  One night, an old woman turns up and presents him with a pocketwatch and the phrase “Come back to me”.  Richard doesn’t think much of it at the time, and he becomes a bigshot playwrite whose life becomes more than a little empty.  He can’t seem to get his mind off the watch, and one day, decides to take a trip.  He stops randomly at a hotel where he learns of an actress named Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) who died the same night that his first play was produced.  In fact, she was the old woman who gave him the watch he still carries.  The hotel has a picture of her, and Richard becomes obsessed with the actress.  So much so, in fact, that he consults a professor about the possibility of time travel. (But not the possibility of paradox…Where the hell did that watch come from, anyways?)

Here’s one of the tricks of this movie.  After consulting the hotel’s old sign in log, he already knows that he’s been back in time.  So, he becomes convinced that all he needs to do is will himself back.  The professor warns him that should he encounter anything from the modern time period, he will automatically return, and will never be able to go back.  Yeah…way to telegraph, Doc!  It is through sheer act of willpower that Richard goes back in time and finds Elise.  No fancy machines or gadgets.  Of all the time travel movies out there, this is one my favorites for this very conceit.  What is science, really, when a man falls so in love with a woman that he crosses decades to get to her?

Not everything is rosy in the past, however, thanks to Elise’s manager, William Fawcett Robinson (played oh so oily by master thespian Christopher Plummer((I don’t throw that phrase around much…that’s how high I hold Christopher Plummer))) who has warned her that emotional entanglements will ruin her superstar acting career.  The harder he tries to keep the two apart, the harder they try to hookup.  Which they do, of course.  The grand sweeping staircase scene I referred to earlier has to do with Elise waiting for Richard, and his suddenly turning up after Robinson has him beaten up and left in a barn.  Elise and Richard start planning their life together…but not so fast.  You remember the professor telling Richard that if he even laid eyes on something modern, he’d come back?  Well guess what this asshole left in his pocket?  Also, he leaves his pocketwatch behind, so that, when Elise is older, she can give it back to him.  Ergh!  Heartbreak!

Am I the only one who thinks that perhaps Robinson knew more than he was letting on?  He seemed awfully knowlegable about Richard, after all.  Maybe it was just a sly performance and it’s made me paranoid.  Oh shit?  Who’s looking through my window?

I’ll admit that I cry at the movies.  A lot.  I can’t help it.  It’s just the way I’m wired.  This one gets me every time.  To have loved someone so deeply that you cross time itself, and to have it snatched away so horribly.  Ugh.  It’s messing with me even as I write this!  (ThatCostumeGirl thinks it’s funny that this movie affects men in such a way.  Or, at least, me.)  Also…It’s Jane Seymour.  Knowing I’d never tap that again would make cry every goddamn day!

So, check this one out.  It’s got something for everyone.  Hell, my kids even like this one!  Also, you can’t really go wrong with Richard Matheson as your source material.  What’s that?  I Am Legend?  Okay…you can mostly never go wrong with Richard Matheson as your source material.

Hmm...the shoes still look fake.

It’s a bit confusing, the effects are a little dated, and the ending is just a bit of a contrived device, but Back to the Future II still ends up being one of my favorite time travel movies, simply because of the scope and breadth of the story.  Like I’ve said before, a little charm goes a long way.  And all the actors have their charm turned way up here, including Michael J. Fox, Michael J. Fox, and Michael J. Fox!

We start  our story mere seconds after the original film, but, with one small difference.  1985 Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) witnesses the events of the ending of the first film, specifically a flying DeLorean seemingly exploding in midair.  Let the time paradoxes begin!  For all this, the rest of the story is sound, except for this one minor detail (and, feminists, it’s not the mistreatment of our new Jennifer ((Elizabeth Shue)))  YOU CAN’T GO TO THE FUTURE TO MEET YOURSELF!  If you remove yourself from the time stream in 1985, you cannot go to 2015 and see how things will turn out for you.  It will seem as though you’ve simply disappeared, and your younger self turns up in the future.  That’s it!  Whew…now that that’s out of the way, I feel better for having talked it out.  Thanks!

Our story begins when Old Biff (Thomas Wilson again!  Oh, those wily casting directors!)  hijacks the DeLorean unbeknownst to Doc (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty (Michael J. Fox…who, in the future, plays old Marty, his son, and his daughter)  and heads back to November 5, 1955 (That’s right, the beginning of time travel) to deliver a sports almanac to his younger self in the hope of changing his life for the better.  Unfortunately he changes his timeline in such a way that when he returns to the future, he’s erased…much like the threat against Marty in the first film.  He also changes things in such a way that it throws all the characters from the first film’s lives into turmoil.  Doc and Marty decide to head back to 1955 to set things right.  What follows is some of the craftiest same character interaction on film. 

What makes such a thing extraordinary is that this type of special effect was already old, but given to us in such a new way in Back to the Future II that it literally changed the face of film history.  Things have improved since, but not by much.  Also, my beloved vision of the future being filled with flying cars is realized!  And realized very well.  My favorite part of this film, however, is watching Marty revisit scenes from the first film that he was already in, under threat of world ending paradox to not run into himself.  So, while we get to see scenes we’ve seen play out before, we get to see them from an all new perspective.  It really does lead to an amazing bit of storytelling, and one that ends up with Michael J. Fox taking a door to the face, that, according to my DVD, he really did, just so it would look great on film.  Which, it does.  Great and altogether fucking painful.

Elizabeth Shue is a welcome addition to the cast, and Christopher Lloyd really ups the value of his character.  Lloyd’s technobabble and pseudoscientific explanations of alternate timelines is fantastic.  Thomas F. Wilson’s multiple performances in this film threatens to outstrip Michael J. Fox’s as he plays 1985 Biff, 2015 Biff, alternate 1985 Biff, and 1955 Biff!  Marty and Doc both emerge actually more heroic and dashing than they did in the previous film, and that’s really saying something.  I’ll say this for this film.  It’s a placekeeper for the third film…which I’ll be reviewing next week. 

If you get the chance, sit down and watch them all together, and your time will not have been ill spent.  And be kind to Robert Zemeckis…He set the bar amazingly high with the fantastic Back to the Future.  While you can’t improve on perfection, you can add to it, and I think that’s what he does here.  So, see you next week for Back to the Future III!

Presenting the world's coolest pine tree killer, ever!

Or, at least it should be.  That’s right, today, in fictional history back in 1955 Doctor Emmett Brown invented the Flux Capacitor, which is what makes time travel, and one of your better science fiction films, Back to the Future, possible!

I’m not going to go into this one in great detail except to say that this is one of the best films ever!   Never mind the genre!  It’s got a great cast, cool effects, a kickass car, and the last ten minutes are, hands down, one of the best combinations of editing, music, and action to ever grace a movie screen!

Martin McFly(Michael J Fox) just wants to be seen as someone…ANYONE!  He feels a standout kind of guy, but never seems to find his way.  He’s constantly late for things, his best friend is an old quack scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), his mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) is an alcoholic, his sister’s a floozy, his brother works at Burger King, and his father George (Crispin Glover) is in eternal servitude to a high school bully that just won’t let go, Biff Tannen (Thomas Wilson).  He has a hot girlfriend, but his band just doesn’t seem to be taking off.  All of that will change (though not paradoxically) when Doc Brown converts a DeLorean into a time machine!

One aspect of this film I like is that functionally, it works.  There’s time changing in the past, but you don’t really run into any paradoxes like you will with the sequel (more on that later).  They took the time to make a really cool looking time machine as well, as I believe in the original script, the time machine is a refrigerator.  Michael J. Fox plays Marty as a likable everyman who is thrust into an unbelievable situation, and managed to turn the character into one of popular media’s best of all time!  Christopher Lloyd here turns in his best perfomance ever(though I am a fan of his Professor Plum) and almost steals the entire show!  Crispin Glover is likeably weird(for once), and Lea Thompson…well, that one’s a little strange for me, as young Lorraine bears a more than striking resemblance to my grandmother when she was that age.

This movie has a great story whose plot never stops moving, once Marty accidentally replaces his father at a crucial moment.  To save his, and his entire family’s existence, he has to set things right, which turns out harder to do than advertised thanks to Biff and Marty’s own parent’s strange teenage quirks (which, oddly enough, aren’t far removed from his own.)  But, for me, the highlight of this movie is the last action scene where Marty has to race a bolt of lightning (1.21 JIGAWATTS?!  GREAT SCOTT!) to get back to 1985.  Switching between Marty’s and Doc Brown’s troubles in this scene is nothing short of genius, and still, to this day, and several dozen viewings, has me on the edge of my seat and ready to cheer the outcome, or hate the loss!

I can’t say much about this movie that hasn’t been said already.  It is my favorite science fiction film ever, contains my favorite movie hero of all time (Honestly, Marty gets hardship after hardship and always comes out on top, because, after all, as Doc Brown says in the sequel “We must succeed.”)  It’s filled with amazing quotes and action scenes, has a fulfilling, if ambiguous ending, and definitely leaves you wanting more.  Which we will get around to this month, now that I’ve announced why so many time travel movie reviews in November.

So, remember November 5th, 1955 and keep it holy!  Also, you will need to hit 88mph to get to the next review, Future Boy!

The All Morlock version of Westside Story (When you're a Morlock, you're a Morlock all the way!)

I’m a huge fan of time travel movies, as you’ll discover if you hang around this site this month.  Why this month?  That will become apparent in the next movie review.  For now (heh), however, let’s kick off with one of the first and the best, 1960s The Time Machine.

I like my movies to be entertaining, and on occasion, a little charm will go a long way with me.  This movie has both traits in abundance.  Mostly through the performance of Rod Taylor, no matter how much he happens to resemble a very serious Robin Williams.  George (Taylor) builds himself one of the coolest time machines ever, and shows it off to his buddies, one of whom, named Filby (played by Mr. Ed’s Alan Young) warns him that is not up to man to tamper with such things.  He agrees to meet his friends at his house in one week, the date being New Year’s 1899, after he’s tooled around the space-time void for a bit.  George, though warned by Filby that perhaps he’s making a mistake, takes the machine for a stroll anyways.

And, what a stroll.  Using the mannequin across the street as a device to show how much time has passed by the ever changing women’s fashion is a masterstroke, but this movie takes very few missteps.  Then again, it shows 1966 as a skyscraper covered Metropolis that will soon fall to an atomic war.  Also, this is where George meets up with Filby’s son a second time after he meets him as an infant before his travels and again in World War I.  Myself, after viewing three world wars, would have hung it up and headed back for the house. (Then again, George never leaves his house.  His machine moves through time, not space, so he is stationary throughout.)  George however, keeps pressing the issue because he desperately wants to know if mankind can ever get over itself and stop killing one another.

As lava encases the time machine while it’s travelling, George must keep going to escape being entombed in rock, and the machine takes him to the far flung future of the year 800,000 and some odd.  Here’s where it starts to get interesting, as George is introduced to the peace loving, though incredibly stupid, Eloi.  As George watches one of them almost drown because they don’t possess the ability to save one another, he’s flung into despair again.  It only gets worse when he discovers that the Eloi have a purpose, and that purpose points straight at the other inhabitants of the future, the Morlocks.  Now, to keep from giving anything away (though, come on, the movie’s 49 years old at this point) I won’t tell you what the purpose is, but, it’s horrible, and if you’ve not seen this movie, you really, really should.

It’s a classic piece of science fiction, in it’s best vein, and that’s thoughtful.  Though you’re watching a film that’s almost 50 years old, it still has the ability to break your heart a little, and certainly to make you think.  Not so much that you won’t be entertained.  Also, this movie has one kickass film score!  Check it out!

Also, the Morlocks are some of the most frightening things ever created!  I still have nightmares about them!

So, read a book (this book, actually!), stay smart…make certain your children stay smart, and everything, according to HG Wells and George Pal will be just fine.