"Category 7: The End of the World" - Making a very real problem silly...

[Junkdrawer]

You say you're a RW politician and you're feeling the heat on Global Warming? Not to worry: a few "The Day After Tommorrow" and "Category 7" movies will have people giggling at the very mention of the words "Global Warming":

Oh, How It Blows

Category 7 is a gale-force disaster: a damp mix of hot scientists, limp dialogue, and Shannen Doherty.


By John Leonard
Illustration by Sean McCabe (Photo credit: Courtesy of CBS)
Ten minutes into lousy weather in the nation’s capital, a worrywart exclaims, “The entire planet could be doomed sooner than we think!” This is my favorite line in Category 7: The End of the World till almost four hours later, when a boy scientist says to a girl scientist, “Please tell me you’re as smart as you are hot.” Gina Gershon, who must save the planet here, is always hot. And while it wouldn’t occur to anyone other than a TV scriptwriter to put her in charge of FEMA on the eve of an apocalyptic super-storm, she is still a big improvement on the putz who recently punted New Orleans. Nor is CBS trying to cash in on New Orleans. Instead, CBS is trying to cash in on its own previous mini-series, Category 6: Day of Destruction, a ratings smash a year ago.


A combination of global warming and mesospherics, of Doppler radar and blowhard rhetoric, electrifies the Eiffel Tower, pulverizes the pyramids, and even boinks Buffalo. But what Category 7 is really all about—besides vapor trails, political climate control, and careers twisting in the wind—is hot bodies in constant motion. Not only Gina’s, on a telephone or a computer. Equally hot is Shannen Doherty, who gave up chasing storms for tending bar and isn’t sure she wants to return no matter how much her old professor, Cameron Daddo, says he needs her. Hot, too, are Suki Kaiser as the wife of the professor and Lindy Booth as a reporter who sleeps with FBI agent Sebastian Spence—not to omit the tiresome teens who practically deserve abduction, the horny kids in the Extreme Weather Lab, and Swoosie Kurtz as the wife of a televangelist, James Brolin, so addled that his idea of a swell time is playing kite in a lightning experiment.


http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/tv/reviews/14921/

[MojoXN]

1. How fucking stupid...

BE AFRAID! THE PLANET IS GOING TO KILL YOU! BOO!

By the way, watch these hot young people screw around, before you go to church on Sunday and decry America's lack of morals.

MojoXN

[Swamp Rat]

2. ditto

What you said. :)

[afdip]

3. death by bad movies

[Ezlivin]

4. Yeah, but Shannen Doherty is HOT!

Who wants to discuss science when you are blinded by T & A?

[TalkingDog]

11. OMG, Have you actually looked above her neck!!!???

She's got one eye a good 3/4 of an inch lower on one side of her face. She looks like an Igor.

Try finding a good full face shot of her. Then tell me she's hot...uggh.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Holy shit. I thought I was the only one who noticed that.

She gives me the creeps, although her outspoken support of the GOP in the past probably didn't help any.

[Ezlivin]

35. Tongue planted firmly in cheek

Disclaimer: Previous Post was 100% Sarcasm.

:)

[Rex]

5. Reality to a RWinger

is a lot closer to a movie than real life.

[Boomer]

6. Hey, don't rain on my parade!

My partner and I have been waiting WEEKS for this film -- which promises to be a cheezy, sleazy and silly special effects bonanza for THE EARTH IS DOOMED! theme we love so much.

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

What can I say? I grew up with THEM! and GODZILLA. I'm now hardwired to die laughing at bad disaster flicks and love every stupid minute.

[MojoXN]

7. I'll take "The Day the Earth Stood Still" over this CBS drivel...

Or the classic, "Plan 9 from OUTER SPACE!" I also LOVE, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but ten again, camp is my bread and butter.

Klatuu Verata Nikto! :)

MojoXN

[Boomer]

9. Yeah, but be realistic

You aren't going to get a "Plan 9" more than once or twice in a century!

And the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is too good to count as camp -- it's in same category as the Twilight Zone and "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

So, I'll take what I can get. And this Sunday it's OHMYGAWDCATEGORY!!!! 7!!!!

[MojoXN]

10. Indeed.

I sincerely apologize for putting Invasion in the same catergory as catergory 7. Now the Twilight Zone, THERE was a good show!

MojoXN

[Boomer]

16. Twilight Zone: One of the best dramas on TV

Rod Serling had a deeply rooted sense of moral justice, and he used Twilight Zone to explore issues of ethics and philosophy in a creative way that has never been equaled.

Gene Roddenberry, although not in the same category of talent, did the same with the original Star Trek. They both recognized that fantasy and science fiction could cross social and political boundaries in ways that would never have been allowed in mainstream narratives.

Alien Nation did it even better, although it was more narrowly focused on issues of racial and sexual equality, and the SF trappings were less pervasive.

Unfortunately, these days the Sci-Fi channel and its ilk are not so high minded and SF/Fantasy has been reduced to mindless drivel: meaningless plots and painfully cliched characters. Kinda like chewing bubble gum instead of eating steak or filet mignon.

I suppose it's all part and parcel of the dumbing down of America.

[MojoXN]

22. My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Original Series...

Is the one that features two warring races that inhabit the same planet. Both have 50% white skin and 50% black skin. They are at war based on whose skin is what color on which side. Mind you, this was originally broadcast in the mid-Sixties. I've never seen a more powerful method of depicting the stupidity of racism.

That having been said, Roddenberry got a little too idealistic circa "The Next Generation." I felt that the show drastically improved after his death, but that's neither here nor there.

MojoXN

[HeeBGBz]

14. Gort! Tofu, Borax, Necktie. Gort! E'TU Toranado, Nicktoons. Shit!

What was I supposed to say?

[Tactical Progressive]

27. That's Klaatu barada nikto

You just told Gort to destroy the earth!!!

Use your spell-checker next time!

[HeeBGBz]

13. Right on buddy. I want to see Washingtons mug roll down the hill

Revenge of Crazy Horse or something like that.

[ninkasi]

19. One of the best truly bad films...

"Night of the Lepus." Classic line..."Attention! Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!"

With the right choice of refreshments, this film is absolutely guaranteed to bring uncontrollable laughter, and it's one my kids and I thoroughly enjoyed watching when they were young adults.

[Boomer]

20. As a fervent DeForrest Kelley fan...

...I watched that film waaaay too many times. It was one of the few film roles he took after Star Trek ended, and I couldn't afford to be picky.

But oh lordy that was a BAD film. Even the extreme close-ups of furry bunny faces, trying to make them seem huge and threatening, only made them look furry and cute.

Out of some misplaced sense of nostalgia, I watched the film on TV, some 20 years after I'd first seen it in the theater, and was surprised to discover that I had remembered almost nothing about it, despite having seen it over a dozen times.

Of course, the advantage to having an utterly unmemorable plot is that you CAN watch it over and over again without losing brain cells or running screaming into the night.

[ninkasi]

33. It was the little twitching bunny noses

that had my kids and I rolling on the floor. And, yes, the close-ups of the bunny faces, of course. Once in awhile, if it's on the Sci-Fi channel, probably during late night reruns, one of my kids will call me and tell me not to miss it. Ah, nostalgia. We had good times, my kids and I, when they were teen-agers.

Those same kids are in their late 30s and early 40s now, and we still enjoy good times. There is nothing like having a loving family.

[mandyky]

8. I'll let you know after I see the movie

It is on CBS tonight at 9 PM ET.

[HeeBGBz]

12. Aw c'mon. I love disaster movies. Even cheesy ones.

I'll be watching, armed with a sense of humor.

[Junkdrawer]

15. The Accuweather weather guys still yuk it up over "The Day After Tomorrow"

"Global warming, oh, yeah like The Day After Tomorrow. Well, we real weather experts know"...

Just saying...

[HeeBGBz]

17. Day After Tomorrow was such a disappointment

What a waste of good special effects.

[NashVegas]

25. Day After Tomorrow Was a Hoot!

"I'm going to get my SON!"

[Boomer]

18. Oh, well, if you want FACTS...

...you shouldn't be watching TV shows.

At the risk of 1) showing my age, and 2) being pedantic, the days of clever writing that could use science-fiction plots to further metaphorical truths and explore moral dilemmas is long gone. Now it's cheese, and nothing but cheese.

Good SF and fantasy have always been allegories, not factual dramtizations. Twilight Zone did not need facts to be incredibly powerful and memorable. But take away the facts AND the good writing, and you have nothing but pretty SFX baubles.

I've given up yearning for the good old days. So now I just break out the popcorn and enjoy the pretty pictures of things blowing up or getting swept away.

[sleipnir]

21. It's got Swoozy Kurtz. She won a Tony. I bet she's proud to be in this.

Actually, she's won two of those statuettes from the American Theatre Wing. I bet she can't wait until the reviews come in for this show. Wow. After you win a Tony they sure to throw you amazing roles to play in high quality artistic projects.

Can you say "I need a few grand quick to make that down payment on my new Manhattan Condo..." I bet Swoozy sure could.

[lonestarnot]

23. Puke puke puke!

:puke:

[Lisa]

24. Ooh! "smart as you are hot" -- that's going up on our lab's quote board!

We've been collecting ludicrous quotes on scientists, from movies and TV. Adding these to the haul from "Mimic" and "The Day After Tomorrow", we may have to get a larger whiteboard.

[HeeBGBz]

28. Oooh yippee! Its on!

Facts be damned, let's break somethin!

[HeeBGBz]

29. Holy crapoly! They have poisonous frogs too.

Double trouble.

[Massacure]

30. lmao, that was probably the stupidest scene i've ever seen.

Edit: My spelling is stupid today too...

[HeeBGBz]

31. Yup. Damn frogs

The World is having a very bad day.

[Massacure]

32. Oh great, now we have locusts...

What's next? Is god going to descend from the heavens and step on New York??? :eyes:

[uppityperson]

34. We just finished watching it and it was soooo funny

what a bunch of stupid people specialeffects ideas hot bodies. :rofl:

[Boomer]

36. Too much human soap opera

Not enough science -- bad or good -- to make this really fun.

The producers obviously don't trust their own material and think they have to bolster the appeal of the end of the world with tedious interludes of humans embroiled in adulterious and incestuous engtanglements.

Just show the damn planet blowing up!