Shake, Rattle and Bore
I admit it. I watched both nights of the NBC movie-event, 10.5. I had to. You see, I’m a natural disaster freak. I love a good hurricane or blizzard. When we moved back to Boston from San Francisco, I was terribly upset that I wasn’t able to experience a major earthquake (we had 3 minor ones that I didn’t even notice since my office building was so well designed…however, Matt was able to feel one at a meeting he had in the San Francisco suburbs).
So, I was very excited about watching 10.5 on Sunday and Monday even though I had low expectations that it would be any good. I mean, every single disaster flick has the same premise. There are experts in the field (of earthquakes, fire prevention, tornadoes, etc…), one person is male and one is female and they don’t get along, their “way-out-there” research studies get dismissed as a joke by their bosses, then the disaster happens, then they get all of the support they need to help save he world, then they kiss, then a main character dies because he/she did something risky, then it ends.
Well, that’s what happened in 10.5 (and Twister and Independence day and Towering Inferno and Earthquake and Dante’s Peak and Volcano…you get the picture).
Anyway, I knew going into it that the plot would suck. What I didn’t expect was this absurd man-eating fault line. The two wost scenes were at the beginning. First, the bike messenger is riding through Seattle while an earthquake is flipping cars, tearing up buildings and ripping up the sidewalk right under him. Yet he doesn’t fall. Then, the Space needle tips over and falls in his direction. Instead of biking, oh, say to the left or right, he goes straight down the path of the falling tower. Why the hell wouldn’t he turn left and just get out of it’s way?
The second annoyance was even worse. This happy Amtrak train is choo-chooing through the northern California woods. The fault line starts to rupture….and follows the train for miles along the track. I’m not talking in the vicinity of the tracks, I’m talking the earth opens up dead center between the rails. This crack in the earth swallows the tracks right behind the train, even as the train tracks turn around corners. It’s like the fault line is hungry for diesel locomotives. Finally, the hungry seismic monster catchs up to the train and swallows it.
Oh, and what’s up with that father/daughter team (dad played by John Schneider) that drives throughout the worst-struck earthquake territory, yet never seem to feel a single shake. Entire towns were swallowed by this quake. Bridges collapsed, trees tipped over. And they didn’t notice anything was wrong until the drove up to a missing bridge a few miles ahead? How did they miss a 9.0 earthquake happening?
Okay – enough venting. On a happier note, the sun is out today and it’s a lovely spring day (upper 40’s this morning with a high in the 50’s). Because of the nice weather I was noticing my surroundings more (flowers and trees blooming, dogs playing) and decided that I may bring my camera to work someday soon and document my morning commute…so you can see what it’s like to be me. It’s all about sharing.
Besides, if there’s an earthquake, I’ll have my camera to photograph it.
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NBC, honey, NBC. CBS would NEVER do something like this.
I’ve been doing my impersonation of the daughter when she gets all upset about her mom and she said something to the effect of, “Like, I am so totally upset! Because, like, my mother — she is like in that building! Gag me with a spoon!”
i was in a catastrophic earthquake about 10 years ago in Manila. it was probably a 7 or an 8, i don’t remember. you don’t want to be anywhere close to one. 2,000 people died when two resort hotels collapsed. i was in the 8th floor of a building. the walls rocked and you can see it move 15 inches. scary as shit. i still have nightmares about it and at night, i sometimes lay awake thinking about what it would be like to have my floor disappear from under me. 9/11 really scared the shit out of me. i will never live in SF.
EEK! I definitely don’t want catastrophe! I little 4.5-er would be fine for me. And just once!
Just like my hurricanes – I prefer a level 1 or 2. I don’t need a 4.