While I'm on the subject of movies, I'll also recommend a new Imax 3-D movie, "Magnificent Desolation: Walking On The Moon." Tom Hanks produced and narrates the movie, which is a combination look-back at the Apollo program that put 12 men on the moon and a you-are-there adventure story with staggering images and words from the astronauts who made the trip. There's also a nice little section featuring several kids under 10, answering questions about what they know about those trips to the moon and whether they'd like to go someday -- which later leads to the movie's finale, a moon base in the future. Hanks, whose love of the space program was evident in "Apollo 13" and his HBO series "From The Earth To The Moon," treats the lunar landings with the reverence they deserve, but also knows how to keep an audience entertained.
I'm always wary of 3-D movies, having lived through the days of those ridiculous red-and-blue glasses, which have now been replaced with polarized lenses that resemble sunglasses. The projection technology has also come a long way since its low point, the horrible "Jaws 3-D," for which Dennis Quaid and Bess Armstrong must still be doing penance (it has since been converted to a 2-D version and renamed "Jaws 3," but the memory of hosting the premiere of the 3-D version haunts me to this day).Labels: movies, science