The Iron Giant

A peculiar friendship develops after a boy (Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes) befriends a robot (Vin Diesel as the Iron Giant), who recently crash landed in the ocean, and has been living in the forest ever since.

Somehow able to avoid detection as it feasts on discarded metallic objects, it turns out it's in fact quite gentle if approached with innocent sincerity.

Not that it's been entirely unnoticed, unsubstantiated reports of its existence confound, enough to lead the F.B.I to investigate, and even move in with 'lil Hogarth.

Fortunately, a kind-hearted artist owns a bountiful scrapyard nearby (Harry Connick Jr. as _____ McCoppin), and agrees to feed the wayward colossus as they figure out a plan.

Life proceeds as routinely as ever considering the massive robot and the police presence, traditional homely bucolic beauty radiating tranquil peaceful life.

But Hogarth starts to play with a toy gun one day which the Iron Giant perceives as a threat, immediately responding with militaristic gusto since he's been designed to fight instinctively.

The artist notices that it's entirely defensive after cataclysmic disaster is thwarted, or that the Iron Giant only transforms into an imposing war machine if it senses imminent attack.

Unfortunately, around the same time the actual military learns of its existence.

And quickly sends in the troops.

And almost nukes ye olde Maine.

Aggressive and sensitive tactical trajectories bizarrely interact throughout, as the benefits of a defensive army are oddly lauded with childlike wonder.

It used to seem like we were moving towards a world without any armies whatsoever, but recent developments have highlighted the importance of cultivating strong defensive forces.

Most unfortunate considering memories composed of prevalent peaceful politics (banal though they may be), but the world's become somewhat less rational in recent years, and a defensive army therefore seems prudent.

Naturally, the defensive army shouldn't respond instinctually as does the Iron Giant, which seems like it would have been an effective deterrent, had it not been programmed to instinctually unload.

How a robot of such advanced construction is unable to tell the difference between toy and actual weapons remains a mystery, although the fact that it certainly can't effectively critiques proponents of robotic armies.

The Terminator 2 influence is strong, although the Iron Giant's only a threat when it detects potential danger, and doesn't have a mission to save someone from another Terminator, although he does save humanity from itself.

As a paranoid trigger happy solider shoots first and asks questions later.

What a strange children's film.

Wondrously tumultuous.

*Almost threw this one away. 

Knowing

Whether or not we're definitively living according to unalterable predetermined quotients, or caught within a random vortex which coincidentally conspires with in/coherency, remains to be undeniably ascertained, compelling evidence for both tempting sides as easy to come by as night following day.

But "determinism" as it's referred to in Knowing seems like the more profitable option, or at least has many more adherents manipulating facts and outcomes to make it appear so.

It's a safer bet to generally proceed according to paradigmatic guidelines, which can be slowly adjusted throughout time with enough variation to dismiss accusations of tampering.

Things may appear to possess the refreshment of novelty but in fact generally fit with a rational scheme, macroconceived to maximize profit without upsetting sociocultural structures.

Thus things often appear to be randomly orchestrating nothing in particular without taking notice, which a well-oiled slipstream then indubitably classifies as culturally applicable non-disruptive elements.

The non-disruptive elements are then historically categorized as if to appear like they're evolutionary.

Bets are made, profits generated.

If only to decipher the code.

In Knowing, a clairvoyant girl writes down the dates and GPS coordinates for 50 years worth of disasters, then locks them away in a time capsule, which is unearthed half a century later.

They're decoded by a grieving astronomer whose devout partner passed not long ago, and unfortunately there's not much time left before the entire planet is suddenly destroyed.

I'm a sucker for these kinds of narratives so I enjoyed it as they set about unravelling the mystery, bit of a drag with the catastrophic outcome not that there isn't the possibility of escape.

I was watching a nature documentary one evening where a lion caught a fledgling warthog, who was none too impressed with his predicament, and proceeded to assail the lion with cacophonous grunting.

Did that lion happen upon the warthog at random and were his delirious grunts the product of genuine distress, or had it been absolutely predetermined that that lion should catch that specific warthog on film, for others to watch?

I try to proceed randomly myself a lot of the time it's much more fun to imagine things so.

And I hold out hope for random generation.

Do Twin Peaks (the Original Series), The Prisoner, Elementary, Star Trek, and Trailer Park Boys qualify?

*Look at the Freedom Convoy. Was it random or predetermined? At first glance it seems most certainly random. But now both Trudeau Prime Ministers have used Emergency Acts.

Men with Brooms

In a fit of hopeless anguish a skip abandons his agile team, to roam the wilds of Northern Canada and Québec in a fruitless wayward daze (Paul Gross as ____ Cutter). 

But the rocks he had discarded within isolated aqueous depths, are miraculously discovered by his old school hands-on coach (James B. Douglas as Donald Foley).

Unfortunately, the act of discovery inflicts a devastating wound, otherwise known as a crise cardiaque, his surviving family forlorn and crushed.

But their genuine heartfelt grieving finds sincere communal support, and the very same itinerant skip suddenly returns from his mournful travels.

It soon becomes apparent that the desire to curl still proudly dominates, their cheeky resolute bucolic daring fortuitous insurmountable spirit.

Ashaméd young Cutter hears the call and asks his father for nimble aid (Leslie Neilsen as Gordon Cutter), the reliable team boldly reassembled to seek out unheralded victory.

Applauding damsels supply convivial radiant luminous supple backing, Cutter Jr. finding himself caught between a bonafide astronaut (Michelle Nolden as _____ Foley) and her comic sister (Molly Parker as ____ Foley).  

Like they've put the band back together they set out to resurgently compete.

Others awaiting their brave contention. 

Across the wilds of Québec and Canada.

I remember catching a Brier in my youth on TSN one frosty weekend, and I loved how every province and territory had sent a team there to compete. 

I loved how 'lil P.E.I suddenly held an equal footing with larger jurisdictions, and had the chance to potentially upset much more heavily populated provincial opponents. 

But even more so it seemed to me that many of the competitors may have come from small towns, without the wealth or social standing oft attributed to skiing (you can even play if you're overweight!).

I liked how teams perhaps from Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Gravenhurst, or Rimouski, had perhaps defeated rivals from Toronto or Vancouver to resoundingly compete for the coveted Brier.

Needless to say, I was even more enthusiastic to apply such a thought to rinks competing at the Olympics, and have always paid attention since to see if our curlers at least took out Russia and the States.

Men with Brooms comedically captures such thoughts in a raw salute to a passionate game.

If you've never watched curling, you should check it out.

There's solid competition at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (and elsewhere) as well.

Ski Patrol

A dependable crew gathers once more with the intent of facilitating safety, thoroughly concerned with bucolic camaraderie and old school resilient friendship.

Their trusty leaders are full of welcome as the new sought after season begins, the team strengthening its agile bonds with animate allied airtight adaptations. 

But trouble is brewing upon the slopes as crookedly conjured within the town, a local magnate hoping to acquire the resort's lease from the park authority.

Loveable Pops (Ray Walston) has managed the summits for decades with bold reliability, ship shape and tried and true yet still supportive of unorthodox thinking.

Mr. Maris (Martin Mull) indeed thinks he's soft because he gets along well with his staff, and mistakes trustworthy understanding for misguided glib incompetence. 

He convinces a local ski pro to cruelly engage in duplicitous sabotage, and he scandalously sets about ensuring equipment will no longer function.

Law enforcement is there to note when haywire happenstance hawks holistic, disquietingly keeping swooping track of each maladroit infraction. 

Things look grim distress piles up laidback cohesion flexed in jeopardy.

But age-old time-honoured testaments still transact with tactile turbulence. 

But such a synopsis perhaps exaggerates Ski Patrol's dire inherent conflict, without promoting the rambunctious antics festively erupting with carefree vigour.

The film may contain macromachinations which frenetically fuel financial frolics, but you can also count on extensive celebration un/ceremoniously accumulating.

Every 15 minutes or so an inspired fresh salute to improvisation, passionately serenades le joie de vivre with acrobatic lithe ir/relevancy. 

Never spent too much time myself engaged in alpine amusements, on skis in the winter anyways, didn't really start embracing winter again until recently.

But you get so much more out of the year if you remain active in January through March, and there's still so much to do, if you dress warmly, and come prepared.

It's really amazing what so many athletes get up to in the wintertime, suppose I'm more into snowshoes myself, but wow, the Winter Olympics impress.

As does ye olde Ski Patrol at times with its lack of pretension and freeflowing humour.

Liberating to be shenanigan prone.

When the world isn't so strict and serious. 

Uptown Saturday Night

The allure of chic amenities tantalizes a bold cab driver (_____ ______ as Wardell Franklin), but he needs an earnest wingperson to attempt to gain entry into the club.

Mr. Jackson (Sidney Poitier) has reservations concerning the somewhat elevated price tag, but he also can't deny he's curious, and doesn't want to disappoint his friend.

Their clever ruse proves rather prosperous the following adventurous Saturday night, but just as they're joyfully raking it in, several thugs crookedly come a' callin'.

Disillusion lugubriously abounds but even more so the very next day, when Jackson discovers he's won the lottery, and the winning ticket's in his wallet.

While he had reservations about the club, the massive payload generates audacity, and he decides to search for the thieving no-goodniks, in the unfamiliar underground. 

Franklin comes along for the ride and after a private detective exasperates their frustration (Richard Pryor as Sharp Eye Washington), it's off to question notorious phenoms with a plan as blunt as it is distressing.

But fate rewards them for embracing daring and soon they've found a compelling lead, even found the individuals responsible, an enormous return without much of an effort.

They find themselves enabling the brokerage of a new criminal partnership for their troubles, which even leads to a game of baseball, at a local church BBQ.

Hapless celebrity serendipitous success with a lack of consideration for the resonant danger, Sidney Poitier's Uptown Saturday Night placates stilted severe stresses.

Ye olde versatile implausibility efficiently achieving herculean goals, without letting disputatious doubts defile their frank dissimulation.

Like the bumbling Inspector Clouseau or the maladroit MacGruber, Jackson and Franklin find working solutions to problems they never wished they'd had.

The absurd situations generate levity which in turn manufacture humour, as humble laidback domestic reticence embraces virile volatility.

Some of the additional plot devices contemporary audiences take for granted (security at the club, others searching for the stolen goods), may be difficult to find within the film, but there's still a pioneering sense of improvised good fortune which characteristically excels.

Probably wouldn't have gone to such lengths myself but who's to say what's to be done?

Didn't know Sidney Poitier directed so many films.

What a career.

What a lifetime. 

No Way Out

Senseless racist irrationality destructively wallowing away, after an African American doctor (Sidney Poitier as Dr. Luther Brooks) attempts to save a life, and his truly sick patient passes.

The doctor just joined the profession having recently passed a requisite exam, and even though he's confident enough to make decisions, he still seeks guidance from established professionals. 

When his patient arrived the other night Dr. Brooks didn't have much time to make the call, Mr. Biddle (Dick Paxton as Johnny Biddle) had been shot during an attempted robbery, and was desperately clinging to life.

Dr. Brooks made a call nevertheless which the patient's brother attentively witnessed (Richard Widmark), after tormenting the humble doctor because he was born with black skin.

After the patient passed, another doctor appeared in the room (Stephen McNally as Dr. Dan Wharton), and Dr. Brooks honestly stated he was confident he made the right decision, but unfortunately could have been mistaken.

The volatile brother heard their conversation and reacted with racist venom, claiming his brother was killed due to incompetence while severely critiquing Dr. Brooks's race.

The only way Dr. Brooks can prove his innocence is to have an autopsy performed on the body, but the autopsy can't be performed without the consent of the surviving brother.

Not only does he refuse to give his consent, he also calls up his thuglike friends, and gets them to plan an attack on the local black neighbourhood, the situation becoming more and more insane.

And it's all because a bright student boldly determined he would become a doctor, and put in the necessary years of hard work and study to eventually attain the role.

Racism's disastrous stubborn ignorance almost prevents his career from moving forward, as someone too blind to see anything but skin colour goes out of his way to ruin a life.

Equal opportunity for every race and any individual willing to heed the call, objective analysis isn't qualified by a doctor's ethnicity as emergency medical decisions are made.

Even after Dr. Brooks proves his innocence Mr. Biddle refuses to believe, and with the resurgence of racism in the public sphere, the mass irresponsibility is most distressing. 

No Way Out highlights the pitfalls of racism with shocking language and blunt compression, I was surprised to see this film was made in 1950, I didn't think they made such candid movies back then (when dealing with sensitive issues).

Even though I think they're incredibly irresponsible I can support an individual's right to not be vaccinated, it's their body and even if they're being passionately foolish (remember how wonderful it was when they announced they'd found a vaccine! [with additional vaccines coming later!]) we live in a democracy not a totalitarian state.  

But if their protests start waving the confederate flag and they start preventing local businesses from operating, while irritating local residents, I simply cannot support them: I can't support freedom as it promotes slavery. 

Notting Hill

Relaxed and calm a modest income something to do throughout the day, friends and family puttering close by refined chillaxed communal orchestration.

An amazing guy so easygoing so generally tolerant of diverse personality, capable of providing well-reasoned advice or simply listening with enthused sympathy.

No partner to speak of unfortunately his passivity perhaps sounding alarms, elaborate dreaming jocose imagination unaccustomed to the practical life.

But Notting Hill isn't actively critical of well-meaning culture and sublime compassion, William Thacker (Hugh Grant) isn't hiding a body in his basement nor is he consumed by some monstrous fetish.

In fact he's a genuine nice guy inhabiting a world that doesn't find this frightening, such an odd state of mature affairs wherein which the lighthearted aren't considered maniacal. 

How it goes at times, however, look for the signs, be prepared to move on, and if time passes and the familiar patterns don't reemerge, you know you've found something solid, durable.

William is surprised one afternoon when a startling lass takes a shine to his bookshop, they find themselves out on what is known as a date, and even seem to be enjoying each other's company (Julia Roberts as Anna Scott).

But she's a film star, a rather famous one at that, who's managed to avoid the paparazzi in London, as they amicably mosey throughout Notting Hill congenially disposed to romantic endeavours. 

Nevertheless, after Mr. Thacker's less discreet flatmate (Rhys Ifans as Spike) discovers _______ happens to be spending the night, he has something to discuss at the pub and the press come hounding the very next morn.

Uncertain as to why they've appeared Anna instinctually senses ambitious wrongdoing.

She's also rather shocked and embarrassed. 

World's collide, what can he do?

It's a light thought provoking illustration of convivial paradigmatic in/compatibility, practical realities spoiling the fun while patiently building rapports unprecedented. 

So long since I've seen Julia Roberts laugh universally celebrating something quirky (prefer it to Streep or Hepburn).

I loved Hugh Grant's line, "this is a very strange reality to be faced with".

The classic Anglo/American synthesis. 

Such interrelations are underexplored. 

The Impossible

A family travels to Thailand for some much needed rest and relaxation, having barely sat down by the pool when a massive tsunami strikes.

Imagine one second you're seductively chillin' laidback at ease upon dry land, the next you're submerged underwater then gasping for breath as a wild river rages.

With no idea what happened to your family you frenetically cling to life, and try to orient your disillusioned vision with impassioned intense concentration.

Maria (Naomi Watts) suddenly hears a son close by (Tom Holland as Lucas), the two wildly braving the current to warmly embrace, the aftermath grim the once concrete environment aqueously scoured by peeps searching for loved ones.

Maria's husband (Ewan McGregor) has managed to find their other two growing boys, and even though all signs point to futility, he keeps searching for the rest of his family.

Maria's leg's been badly injured but she's found a bed in a local hospital, lil Lucas struggling to deal with the tidal wave of anxious depressing emotions.

As expediency raves and triage torments a family refuses to give up hope.

Cosmic forces of conciliatory daring encouraging bold rectified good fortune.

There seems to be a universal instinct that compassionately unites people when disaster strikes, the sudden emphasis on mutual survival electrifying prominent communal initiatives. 

Facilitating specifics within the chaos may prove generally disenchanting, but with patience and hearty reserve working solutions slowly materialize. 

A lot of hospital staff was thoroughly overwhelmed by the pandemic over two years ago, and they're still holding the stern front lines with resilient pluck and coherent balance.

In the face of the dispiriting fifth wave they've had to dig deep and reflexively accommodate, another round of logistic mayhem rapidly proceeding with disproportionate stress.

Since unvaccinated people are more likely to end up in hospitals should omicron unfortunately infect them, doesn't it make sense that they should seek vaccination in order to prevent chaos in our hospitals again?

By seeking vaccination, you're helping your community smoothly move through mournful wave after wave, and decreasing the stress on tens of thousands of workers who have been going above and beyond for years now.

Who knows how many boosters it will take before the virus disappears?

But without vaccination you're making things worse when new contagious variants suddenly arise.