I honestly thought Yellowstone would be a place where I would park the car, grab my gear and enter the wilderness to set up camp and I would probably run into a couple people along one of my hikes. This is not at all what it is!!! It’s a giant tourist attraction, much like Disneyland. People wait in lines and follow specially built pathways to experience nature. Actually most people don’t experience nature there, they just take a picture of it and move on. You can buy some ice cream right next to Old Faithful geyser as you wait for it to blow. Ever major stop on the route has a nice sized gift shop. My least favorite of all was everyone’s desire to “hunt for animals”… One person drives while the other people in the car will be on the lookout. “Oooh, there’s a deer, or is than an elk, or a moose? Quick stop the car!!!” The family pours out of their car, stand in the middle of the road and shoot pictures for a couple minutes before they hop back in and look for bison and bear. It’s a real wilderness experience, that’s for sure! After my initial bit of tourist shock I was able to allow myself to enjoy the park for what it was – an amazing display of nature. But here are the movies I recommend based off the tourist industry:

Jurassic Park (1993) and Grand Tour: Disaster In Time (1992)

I’ll start the recommendation with Jurassic Park because, chances are, you’ve already seen it so why make it the last movie you watch? But, it’s probably been a while. Grab a nice summery wheat beer that you’d take with you camping and get ready to enjoy the ride! This is the best account of the tourist industry gone wrong and reminds me very much of Yellowstone. The people in the movie are dying to see dinosaurs the way Yellowstoners are dying to see a grizzly bear. But with a little bit of luck, a little bit of chaos, a little bit of survival of the fittest, and a little bit of scheming, you’re tourists won’t know what hit em.

Grand Tour: Disaster in Time is much less known but is still a wonderful flick. For this movie you should grab yourself some trail mix for your journey. Get the healthy kind though please. So, in this movie beautiful people from the future travel back in time to watch horrible natural disasters because in the future everything is perfect and they love watching things go wrong. But you can’t watch something, even if from a distance, without changing it slightly right? Tourists from the future!!! How genius is that? It’s genius.

Night of the Comet (1984) – Night of the Comet is one of those post-apocalyptic movies that remind us of how important it is to isolate yourself and surround yourself by walls of steel in order to avoid the coming plague. In this case, the plague disintegrates most people but a few unlucky ones turn to zombies. You need to avoid becoming a zombie yourself, so do what you’re told and sit at least three feet away from the other people watching the movie with you.

Black Sheep (2007) – Okay, Black Sheep aren’t swine by any stretch of the imagination, but I heard a rumor that there is no evidence that swine flu is even linked to pigs in the first place! I mean how do we know for sure? It could be the sheep for all we know. Either way, this movie will help you determine who’s a sheep, and who’s a bad sheep. It’s a bit gruesome, humorous, and gross-out but if you can get past the initial scares you just might make it to the end.

Inspired partly by my recent post about how post-apocalyptic movies should start focusing on rebuilding the world after it disintegrates. The movies I’m recommending are not exactly what I was suggesting in that post, but they have elements of people attempting to address the problems and issues that face them.

Start the night off with Panic in the Year Zero. I’m not sure whether you should get yourself some popcorn for this or a can of spam, baked beans, and canned green beans. This is a post-apocalyptic film where Los Angeles has been bombed and survivors pack up and head for the country and begin practicing a little game theory. So when it’s time to start everything over, and everyone will be fighting for survival, do you go into seclusion and try to rough it out, or do you work with a group of people, pooling resources and skills? What worldview do you develop?

The next movie for the night is The Man From Earth. For this movie you’ll need either a couple bottles of your favorite beer, or a cup of coffee or tea. Caffeine it up if you’re tired. A man was born blessed/cursed with inability to age and he claims to have been alive for 14,000 years.  He’s living in his own post-apocalypse. The apocalypse for this man happened during his first 1,000 or so years of living when he felt that there was something wrong with him. He eventually moves on, playing various roles in history where he tries his hand at having a positive effect on people’s lives. This movie takes place entirely as a conversation that this guy is having at 14,000 years with a group of his friends. No flashbacks or anything, but the conversation is great. At times it may just feel like philosophy 101 but most of the time it’s a pretty fun movie and wild idea.

The Creation of the Humanoids (1962) and Primer (2004)

Welcome to the 3rd installation of the Double Feature Recommendation. You can consider this post either an assignment or a recommendation. Click here to see more double feature recommendations.

The reason I paired these movies is because both use conversation and dialog to address human needs. Both deal with the question what is a human, and what is the importance of that terminology.

First, you should watch The Creation of the Humanoids while you are eating your dinner. Your dinner should be some kind of comfort-food, home cooking, or whatever makes you feel human. Potatoes, mac and cheese, etc. In Creation there is barely a story, or what there is of a story is of less relevance; the movie mostly focuses on the internal struggle and the external politics of accepting people who are 94% human and 6% robot. There is plenty of great subject matter that is still applicable to today’s timing and lots of great dialog about what is a human, what is not a human, and how should an individual/group treat someone who is not like them.

Primer, similarly is very conversation focused. Watch this movie last while eating some kind of coffee ice cream, or something that is not crunch or loud. In Primer, the two characters discuss in detail, very nerdy things the entire time about what they’ve done and what they are doing. Don’t get hung up on this. It DOES have more of a story, however, you will get totally and completely lost if you’ve never seen it before. That is the point however. Because these two guys are going back in time, they are essentially creating duplicates of themselves and we become confused as to which one is the original person. But does that even matter? Is the original person the most important? Why and why not? The conversation in this movie takes place in our head, the movie allows us to think, which is very nice.

The Blob (1958) and The Host (2006)

Please remember that you can consider this either an assignment or a recommendation, whichever floats your boat. For other Double Feature recommendations, click here.

The other day a person ringing up my groceries told me that there is a lot of formaldehyde that goes into the making of newer t-shirts. “Just ring up my groceries” is what I was initially thinking but then I decided to tell her about the Korean creature/monster movie The Host. Afterwards she said, “Oh is it kind of like The Blob?” I said yes, but any connoisseur knows that the Blob came from outer space while the creature in The Host was a direct result (or so we think) of large quantities of formaldehyde being poured down a sink. These are distinctions that, while seemingly little, are the framework for two entirely different sub-genres. Anyway…

The more I thought about the conversation, the more I thought that pairing the two together would be fantastic. You should start your night with The Blob, and a large heaping portion of an ice cream that you would not normally buy. The movie will seem a bit cheesy, with well-behaved teenagers and ultra friendly policemen working together to destroy this blob that has attacked their town, but you will see the classic story in all it’s gory…I mean glory. Haha. After this, put in The Host and grab another scoop of ice cream. PLEASE set the subtitles on because this is a Korean film. DO NOT watch it dubbed, that’s the worst thing you could do…trust me. So, in this one you will watch a family working together to defeat their enemy (both the monster and the corrupted people). The monster is quite fantastic and believable, the special effects are good, and the movie is a bit dark, so be prepared for some fun.

Tell me what you think!

The Lathe of Heaven (1980) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

These are both oldies but goodies. You should first watch The Lathe of Heaven, where George Orr’s dreams become a reality. A scientist tries to control the dreams so that he can make a name for himself and help solve all the worlds problems. Then after a short bathroom break and a refill of your popcorn, you should watch The Day The Earth Stood Still. This is one of the all-time classic sci fi movies. A man from outer space and his indestructible robot come to earth and everyone on the planet thinks that he is going to be evil. Instead, all he wants to do is relay a message to earthlings concerning the future of their planet. Will the earthlings listen?

The reason I paired these two movies together is for their different approaches in warning people about their actions. Both movies promote peace, but from two drastically different approaches. I think that both movies bring up the topic of pride quite nicely as well. What can we learn from this? If nothing, the movies will certainly be entertaining to watch regardless.