When you need to numb your brain, watch space movies!

Axel and I are both sick today. So we finally bit the bullet and watched the last space movie on the list from Christmas break. In the ISU school library, they have a glut of movies with a space theme, so being the cheap people that we are, this supply has been our source of choice for entertainment when we're tired, on a train or sick.

So, in the spirit of being sick and missing the beach party that's going on tonight, I am making myself a bit more useful and giving you a 2-3 line synopsis along with a yea or nay for watching the movies we have watched.

1. Contact - personal favourite. Jodie Foster and a bunch of other people that make you go (hey, isn't that ...?) star in one of the best space films about finding life in outer space. There's talking to aliens, a really cool tricked out machine, and existentialism, all rolled into one. Worth missing 1 night's worth of homework and a lot of sleep.

2. Apollo 13 - was a great movie until Ax re-watched it after knowing more about space stuff. It's a sophisticated pro-american guy flick. And it's a true story, even though I know they didn't really talk like that, and were not shooting their mouth off etc etc. Man, does Ax know how to kill a space film now. Worth missing a Sunday night's worth of homework.

3. Dune - oh my god...can a film get ANY cheesier than this?? I waited and waited for it to get marginally better, and it rapidly got worse. The spice, the worms, the tooth...and the soap opera thinking and pensive looks were just spectacularly awful. It was worse than the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Worth taking the CD out of the box in the library and accidentally scratching the crap our of it and then hiding the whole package in the back of the DVDs.

4. Space Cowboys - this is proof that Clint Eastwood is lucky, not brilliant. Four old farts do the predictable machismo as space cowboys. The title is trying to tell you something - it's that bad. Worth watching only if you have nothing to do in the south of france and it's too bloody cold and too bloody late to leave the house, you've read all of the books in the house, the rubik's cube has lost its spark for the day and you just wanna lie in bed and listen to bravado of Clint "make my day" eastwood.

5. Outland - wow, Sean Connery must have done something really bad that he owed the director a big favour to star in this bomb of a movie. This is basically a corrupt anti-union movie which just happens to be in space. If I write more, I'm giving this movie way too much credit in being worth writing about. Worth watching if it's minus 13 deg outside, you are so sick that your nose is raw from dabbing the snot that isn't being allowed to be blown out, and you were out until 4 in the am the night before.

So, to conclude, there really needs to be a vast improvement in space movies. Maybe a real plot that has some relevance to space and living in space, assurance that it's technically correct and assume that people who are watching aren't total idiots who aren't the lowest denomination.

Have a great weekend! Salut from Freezy Stras!