Recently Viewed
I recently watched THE TOMORROW WAR and CLARKSON’S FARM (both on Amazon Prime), and I have thoughts!
THE TOMORROW WAR: This isn’t The Iliad, but I would give it a solid B. It’s basically a cross between ALIEN, TERMINATOR, and LIVE, DIE, REPEAT. The idea is that thirty years from now, aliens called the Whitespikes almost wipe out humanity. The survivors manage to figure out time travel, and and go back in time thirty years to ask for help. People are drafted for seven days at a time to fight the war, and if they survived the experience, are automatically zapped back to their present. Admittedly, this isn’t a great way to fight a war, which is probably why humanity is losing. But the protagonist is pulled into the orbit of a scientist from the future who has a last-ditch plan to wipe out the aliens.
This is a well-done popcorn movie – an action hero shooting space monsters and setting out on a quest to save humanity. Enjoyable, especially since no new movies like this have been made for a while because of the virus.
CLARKSON’S FARM: My grandfather was a farm inspector, and before that he owned a dairy farm that he eventually sold. He would frequently lecture me on 1.) the difficulties of farm life, and 2.) how fortunate I was not to grow up on a farm. Grandpa did enjoy a good lecture, but here’s the thing – he was right. Farming is a really hard profession, the kind of thing where you can do absolutely everything right and to the best of your ability, and still get screwed because of the weather or events beyond your control.
So when I saw that Jeremy Clarkson was going to have a show where he farms for a year, I thought to myself: I gotta see this.
What resulted was a show both funny and educational about the realities of farming. Apparently Clarkson owned a 700 acre farm that he leased out to a farmer, who then retired. So Clarkson decided to farm it for a year and see what happens. He contends with the weather, rebellious sheep, water problems, vast amounts of government red tape, angry locals, insects, still more government red tape, crop prices, chicken-killing foxes, and myriad other problems, and then in the middle of all this the virus strikes. Definitely worth a watch!
So if you’re looking for something to watch over Independence Day weekend, these will serve you pretty well.
-JM