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Welcome to the special preview of the Mars Store.
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Mars Books
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The Martian Race
by Greg Benford
At the turn of the new millennium, nearly a dozen U.S., Russian, and Japanese robot missions have been sent to Mars...all in preparation for the first humans who will walk on the Red Planet. Now science fiction master Gregory Benford, recipient of multiple honors including two Nebula Awards and the United Nations Medal in Literature, presents a powerful and realistic novel that captures the conflict, suspense, and drama of this coming adventure, and of the new century's great space challenge...THE MARTIAN RACE. For American John Axelrod, it's not about nationalism or personal fame. It's about the money: the Mars Prize, a $30 billion purse offered for the first successful manned mission to the Red Planet. When NASA becomes bogged down in politics and bureaucracy, businessman Axelrod and a conglomerate of backers seize their chance.
But for astronauts Julia; her husband, Viktor; Marc; and Raoul-Axelrod's team of ex-NASAnauts-it's not about wealth or media attention. It's about courage, discovery, and facing the unknown. It's about Mars...and staying alive. For the prize rules clearly state that the winning team can't just grab a rock and leave. Their mission will keep them on the barren planet for almost two years, a genuine opportunity for biologist Julia and the others to research, learn, adapt, and search for clues to the Red Planet's greatest mystery: Did life ever exist there?
This isn't, however, a NASA mission with backups, fail-safes, and Mission Control. The astronauts know that Axelrod has cut corners and that theirs is a high-stakes, high-risk return to the oldest rule of exploration: Succeed or die. Now four people are trapped on a frigid, alien world that can kill them in countless ways. And a time will come when-to survive-Julia, Viktor, Marc, and Raoul must embrace everything that makes them human.
And everything that will make them Martian.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, president of The Mars Society and author of The Case for Mars
"Combines a realistic Mars mission plan with a dynamic plot and a sense of wonder to produce a real page-turner. One of the finest novels about human exploration of the Red Planet ever written.
Bruce Murray, professor at California Institute of Technology and president of The Planetary Society
Cast in the fiercely anti-establishment tradition of Robert Heinlein, but evolving a twenty-first-century cooperative perspective...a great read...and thought-provoking as well.
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The Martians
by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Martians is a collection of stories, alternate histories, poems, and even the complete text of a planetary constitution based on Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars trilogy (composed of Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars). For those unfamiliar with the series, The Martians from the title are the humans who have colonized and terraformed the Red Planet over the course of several generations. While Robinson told their story at considerable length in his novels, The Martians fleshes out some of his more interesting characters and also adds depth to their world.
When it's at its best, this collection presents stand-alone stories of life, love, and work on our celestial neighbor, ranging from the tale of an expedition seeking to conquer Olympus Mons in "Green Mars" to a folksy story of friendship and baseball in "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars." Unfortunately, some of the material here can be tough going for those unfamiliar with Robinson's Mars milieu. For instance, the ending piece, "Purple Mars," is apparently an autobiographical snippet about the day Robinson finished writing the final novel. That's great stuff for someone who has been following the entire Mars saga from beginning to end, but newcomers will probably not know what to make of it.
Still, there is enough material here to interest anyone on the lookout for some good Mars stories. Although Robinson has made his name by writing fat novels that span dozens of generations and characters, in The Martians he proves that he is also adept at shorter pieces. It's a fine if somewhat uneven collection that serves to round out the Mars universe while providing some excellent reading.
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Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet
by Paul Raeburn, National Geographic Society
This visually stunning volume presents dramatic images of Mars taken over the past two decades and traces humankind's attempts to answer the question--Is there life on Mars? Publication to tie in with Mars coverage in "National Geographic". 135+ color photos, including two gatefolds. Forward by Matt Golombek, Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist
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The Mars Project (Die Mars Projekt)
by Werner Von Braun
A forward look at interplanetary space flight, based on von Braun's experience working first for the Nazis, then for the US Army, and later in charge of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Von Braun was the chief designer of the Nazi V-2 rocket, the U.S. Army's Redstone rocket that catapulted into space America's first satellite and first astronaut, and finally NASA's Saturn V moon rocket. With a new foreword by former NASA administrator Thomas O. Paine. A reprint of the 1953 U. of Illinois Press edition, itself translated from the 1952 German edition (Bechtle Verlag, Esslingen).
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The Case for Mars
The Plan to Settle the Red Planet, and Why We Must
by Dr. Robert Zubrin - Pioneer Astronautics
President, Mars Society
Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit.
Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with illustrations, photographs, and engaging anecdotes.
The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.
Hardcover edition also available
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Managing Martians
by Donna Shirley
Mars Pathfinder Project Manager
Donna Shirley dreamed of going to Mars since she was a starstruck kid in Oklahoma, reading science fiction and staring up at the big Western sky. Managing Martians chronicles her life from flight-obsessed childhood to the realization of her dream as manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Exploration Program--the people who sent Pathfinder and the rover Sojourner to the red planet in 1997.
Shirley's story is extraordinary in its simplicity: she set her sights on what she wanted, and chased it fervently. Yet simple doesn't always mean easy, and Shirley owns up to getting sidetracked along the way, and having to work hard to get back to business. And what a business! Imagine having an expensive, delicate object you helped design strapped to a projectile hurtling toward a chunk of rock in space. The best parts of Shirley's story are the tense moments, when she struggled to maintain professional cool while under enormous stress. This book is part autobiography, part lesson to bureaucratic managers; Shirley has had to work with some temperamental folks in her lifetime of government work, and she's learned (the hard way) how to manage teams well. One gets the impression that she would have made an excellent military leader, or CEO. Mars buffs all over the world should be glad she stuck to the stars.
"Managing Martians combines my autobiography with the story of the Pathfinder mission to Mars, the building of the Sojourner microrover that was the first successful mobile vehicle on another planet (not counting the moon), and the ongoing saga of the Mars Exploration Program which is flying robotic missions to Mars every 26 months. Of interest to women, engineers and scientists (and people who wannabe), and those who like stories of hard work, suspense and success."
-- Donna Shirley
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Space & History
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Entering Space
by Dr. Robert Zubrin - Pioneer Astronautics
President, Mars Society
Humans are not native to the Earth. So posits astronautical engineer Bob Zubrin in the opening of Entering Space. We're native to just a small sliver of it, the spot where our species originated in tropical Kenya. We set out from that paradise about 50,000 years ago, north into "the teeth of the Ice Age," and all the ground we've gained since then has been thanks to our tenacity and our tools.
Zubrin reasons that it's time we cover a little more ground. Written with a boyish enthusiasm and formidable techie know-how, Entering Space urges us to realize "the feasibility, the necessity, and the promise" of becoming a space-faring civilization, of colonizing our own solar system and beyond. And Zubrin, author of the influential and widely acclaimed The Case for Mars, knows his stuff--NASA adapted his plans for near-term human exploration of Mars, and Carl Sagan gave the author no less credit: "Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue." Entering Space plots the second and third phases of humanity's course--now that we've mastered our own planet, Zubrin says we must first look to settling our solar system (beginning with Mars) and then to the galaxy beyond.
With its practicable visions of using "iceteroids" to terraform Mars and harnessing the power of the outlying gas giants ("the solar system's Persian Gulf"), Entering Space succeeds at making the fantastic seem attainable, the stuff of science fiction, science fact.
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Countdown : A History of Space Flight
by T. A. Heppenheimer
Countdown offers a technically detailed, historically rich narrative of the human quest to enter deep space. T. A. Heppenheimer, the author of several books touching on the history of aviation, traces the development of manned flight through the military rocketry programs of the pre-World War II era, writing of experiments that often ended disastrously until all the ingredients, physical and chemical, came together. Drawing on recently declassified documents, he studs his account with telling anecdotes. (In one, a Soviet crew returned from a circumnavigation of earth and touched down off course, winding up in the Ural Mountains surrounded by hungry wolves--hardly the stuff of regular astronaut training.) For space buffs, this is a highly recommended work of reference.
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Lost Moon : The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
Out of the seven Apollo expeditions to land on the moon, six of the efforts succeeded outstandingly and one failed. Lost Moon is the story of the failure and the incredible heroism of the three astronauts who brought their crippled vehicle back to earth. This account--written by Jim Lovell, commander of the mission, and his talented coauthor, Jeffrey Kluger--captures the high drama of that unique event and is told in the vernacular of the men in the sky and on the ground who masterminded this triumph of heroism, intellectual brilliance, and raw courage. A thrilling story of a thrilling episode in the history of space exploration.
The hit movie Apollo 13 is based on this book.
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A Man on the Moon
The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
by Andrew Chaikin and Tom Hanks
On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when two Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. Now the greatest event of the twentieth century is magnificently retold through the eyes and ears of the people who were there. Based on the interviews with twentythree moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, journalist Andrew Chaikin conveys every aspect of the missions with breathtaking immediacy: from the rush of liftoff, to the heartstopping lunar touchdown, to the final hurdle of reentry.
The hit miniseries From the Earth to the Moon is based on this book.
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Deke!
U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle
by Donald K. Slayton
The autobiography of one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, this is one of the best additions to the literature of the early American space effort. Slayton, who'd first flown as a World War II bomber pilot, came to the space program by a somewhat circuitous route. He was grounded in 1962 because of a heart murmur, and actually flew as an astronaut only once, in the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission. He was head of the astronaut office, however, and as such, one of the key persons involved in selecting crew, a process he describes with an insider's knowledge of detail and considerable frankness about the virtues and limitations of his colleagues. At the same time, Slayton never lost, nor will his readers miss, the sense of wonder with which space was contemplated in the days when it was a high and gallant dream.
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The Rocket and the Reich
Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era
by Michael J. Neufeld - Curator, National Air and Space Museum
The story behind one of the greatest engineering feats of World War II. The Rocket and the Reich is the paradoxical tale of the creation of a technology that would prove so valuable to Allied powers after the war but ultimately proved a failure to the Germans during it. Two 8-page photo inserts; 6 maps and diagrams.
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The Nazi Rocketeers
Dreams of Space and Crimes of War
by Dennis Piszkiewicz
At first, Wernher von Braun and his fellow German rocket scientists dreamed of exploring space, but they readily embraced the goal of creating weapons during the years of the Third Reich. After the war they encouraged the myth that described them as brilliant visionaries whose genius had been exploited by the Nazi regime. Here, Piszkiewicz tells the real story of the scientists' progression from dreaming of space travel, through the development of the V-2 ballistic missile (built under the direction of the SS using concentration camp slave labor), to the transfer of their technological legacy to the US.
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Science Fiction
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Red Mars
The Mars Trilogy, Book One
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Mars opens with a tragic murder, an event that becomes the focal point for the surviving characters and the turning point in a long intrigue that pits idealistic Mars colonists against a desperately overpopulated Earth, radical political groups of all stripes against each other, and the interests of transnational corporations against the dreams of the pioneers.
This is a vast book: a chronicle of the exploration of Mars with some of the most engaging, vivid, and human characters in recent science fiction. Robinson fantasizes brilliantly about the science of terraforming a hostile world, analyzes the socio-economic forces that propel and attempt to control real interplanetary colonization, and imagines the diverse reactions that humanity would have to the dead, red planet.
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Green Mars
The Mars Trilogy, Book Two
by Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson has earned a reputation as the master of Mars fiction, writing books that are scientific, sociological and, best yet, fantastic. Green Mars continues the story of humans settling the planet in a process called "terraforming." In Red Mars, the initial work in the trilogy, the first 100 scientists chosen to explore the planet disintegrated in disagreement--in part because of pressures from forces on Earth. Some of the scientists formed a loose network underground. Green Mars, which won the 1994 Hugo Award, follows the development of the underground and the problems endemic to forming a new society.
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Blue Mars
The Mars Trilogy, Book Three
by Kim Stanley Robinson
The final volume of a trilogy that began with Red Mars and continued with Green Mars, Blue Mars completes the story of the "First Hundred," a pioneering group of explorers who have overseen a terraforming project that has transformed Mars from a lifeless planet into a world habitable by humans. An anti-aging breakthrough has kept the First Hundred alive for three centuries and in that time, their motives, desires, and passions have evolved in ways that parallel the changes on Mars itself. Conceptually complex and daring, the publication of Blue Mars marks the completion of a modern science fiction masterpiece.
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Antarctica
by Kim Stanley Robinson
In the near future, Wade Norton has been sent to Antarctica by Senator Phil Chase to investigate rumors of environmental sabotage. He arrives on the frozen continent and immediately begins making contact with the various scientific and political factions that comprise Antarctic society. What he finds is an interesting blend of inhabitants who don't always mesh well but who all share a common love of Antarctica and a fierce devotion to their life there. He also begins to uncover layers of Antarctic culture that have been kept hidden from the rest of the world, and some of them are dangerous indeed. Things are brought to a head when the saboteurs--or "ecoteurs" as they call themselves--launch an attack designed to drive humans off the face of Antarctica. This is Kim Stanley Robinson's first book since his award-winning Mars trilogy, and while some of the themes may be familiar to seasoned Robinson readers, the book is never less than engrossing. As usual Robinson does a masterful job with the setting of his story, and anyone interested in Antarctica won't want to miss this one.
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Doomsday Book
by Connie Willis
Connie Willis labored five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.
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Children's Section
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The Adventures of Sojourner
The Mission to Mars That Thrilled the World
by Suzi Trautmann Wunsch
In "The Adventures of Sojourner", Susi Trautmann Wunsch tells the entire story: from the small team of young scientists testing a simplified, common sense technology, to the tension of blast off, to the wild bounce landing, to Sojourner's trials and tribula! tions along the rocky road of Mars, to ultimate and resounding success.
This page-turning narrative explains the intricacies of planetary exploration to a new generation of young readers. The diagrams and artists' conceptions make space technology instantly accessible. The photographs of little Sojourner tooling along the dusty, red emptiness of Mars make space travel seem not so distant at all.
"As the one who actually got to remotely drive Sojourner on Mars, I have to say that Susi has done an outstanding job of capturing the excitement of this once in a lifetime event in space exploration. She goes into great detail about how we created the rover and lander, launched and guided them over 120 million miles to Mars and finally how we landed safely and explored the surface. The numerous illustrations and photos in the book should really make the mission come alive to young readers. The primary Mars Pathfinder Rover Driver gives this book two big thumbs up!"
-- Brian Cooper - Rover operator, Mars Pathfinder mission
Named as one of the "Notable Children's Books, 1998" by the editors of Smithsonian Magazine.
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Toys & Games
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Mars 2020 Board Game
This fun game will test your knowledge of astronomical science and technology. While Mars (a big red marble) orbits the outer ring of the game board, you'll navigate the inner three orbital rings in an effort to be the first to land on Mars. To take your turn, roll the red-and-white dice. The red determines the movement of Mars, the white controls your spaceship. Landing on Mars is not easy--it's a volatile planet that is constantly on the move. And Mission Control may have some bad news regarding the malfunction of your spaceship. To fix the malfunction, correctly answer a question on a Spaceport Repair Card. Each Repair Card has two questions, one easier and one more difficult; players decide at the beginning of the game at which level to play. At either level, get ready for the trip of a lifetime! The game booklet includes information about Mars as well as a glossary of astronomy-oriented words. (Ages 8 and older)
Description:
Choose a spaceship and sign on as your favorite crew member. Then zoom around the orbital path from Earth toward Mars. You'll repair malfunctions by answering questions on space related science and technology. If all systems are "go" you'll then need to be the first to land on Mars to win! It won't be easy: Mars is a moving target, orbiting swiftly on its path.
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The Discovery Channel Destination Mars Game
Destination Mars board game by The Discovery Channel. Click for more info.
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LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.5
The Robotics Invention System is the core set in the amazingly innovative and--consider yourself warned--highly addictive Mindstorms series from LEGO. Combining the power of your PC with an onboard RCX (Robot Command Explorer) microcomputer, LEGO gives you the tools to construct thousands of sophisticated robotic inventions. But don't let the technology scare you. As always, LEGO sets can be as simple or as complex as you want. Twelve "Guided Challenges" take you through the construction of various robots, including a light-sensitive Trail Tracker and a freewheeling Acroflip. A CD-ROM graphically walks you through Mindstorms' intuitive programming system. Just build your robot, assemble its instructions on the PC, and then download to the robot's RCX through the infrared transmitter. The transmitter works through a 9-pin serial port on your PC. The 717-piece set includes the RCX and transmitter, the CD-ROM, two motors, two touch sensors, a light sensor, and a Constructopedia to give you more ideas once you've built your first few robotic pals. The Robotics Invention System requires a 90-MHz Windows 95 machine with 16 MB of RAM and 50 MB of hard-disk space. For more robot fun, check out the Mindstorms Droid Developer Kit.
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LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Discovery System
The perfect primer for the downright amazing Mindstorm series from LEGO, the Robotics Discovery Set lets you create a fully equipped robotics lab right in your own home. You don't need an engineering degree to set up shop. The 387-piece kit guides you, step by step, through the construction of three autonomous, sophisticated (not to mention cute) robots: the free-roving Bug, a light-triggered Intruder Alarm, and the B Ball-playing Hoop-O-Bot. Once you've mastered building these and programming their intuitive Scout microcomputer, you can move on to the Constructopedia for tips, tricks, and ideas on what to build next. You may find you can't stop thinking of what you can create with these amazing, addictive toys. The Discovery set includes two motors, two touch sensors, and the Scout with built-in light sensor. Check out the Robotics Invention System for an even more complex set that utilizes your PC.
NO PC REQUIRED FOR THIS LEGO MINDSTORMS SET! Provides everything needed to bring your smart LEGO creations to life. Using the Scout, a LEGO microcomputer that controls your robot, you can create over 3,000 different behaviors - all at the touch of a button. The LCD Command Center allows you to create programs by choosing the commands you want simply by pushing buttons and setting them in the sequence you want. Starter models allow you to build exciting inventions such as an intruder alarm. As your skill level increases, build a Radar Runner with a robot that can drive and spin a radar dish, or build your own Battle Beetle - a super bug robot. Set includes a Scout microcomputer with built in light sensor; 387 pieces including 2 motors and 2 touch sensors; and a Constructopedia. Requires six AA batteries, which are not included. Ages 9+
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LEGO Mindstorms Droid Developer Kit
LEGO Mindstorms has created a kit that includes everything you need to make your own moving, bleeping, thinking, interacting Star Wars robot. The Droid Developer Kit is the height of robotic recreation for tinkering kids (and adults!). The kit has 657 LEGO pieces. R2-D2 and Destroyer Droid components are easily distinguishable from other building pieces, which are smaller and less detailed. But the heart of the matter is the kit's Micro Scout microcomputer. It features seven built-in programs, memory to add new programs, and facilitates the use of light-sensory and motor functions. CD-ROM software specific to the Droid Developer kit is also included with broad-based building instructions, activities, programming tips, robotics tips, and fan club and registration forms. A "Constructopedia" gives full-color, illustrated examples of the special features that can be built from the kit.
Depending on aptitude--and prior knowledge of robotics and computers--slightly older users may have a deeper appreciation of the kit. The primary objective of Mindstorms kits is to be creatively challenging, allowing the intellectual and artistic processes of Mindstormers to take full reign without any nudging from the manufacturer. For that reason, LEGO purposefully does not include a step-by-step instruction booklet.
Minimum system requirements for the Droid Developer Kit: Windows 95 or Windows 98, a 133 MHz microprocessor (such as a Pentium), 16 MB of RAM, 50 MB of disk space, a 4x CD-ROM drive, a Windows-compatible mouse, a 256-color display, and video and sound cards. You'll also need two AA batteries to operate the droid's motor.
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Video Store
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Apollo 13
NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The Apollo 13 crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995.
Formats Available:
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From the Earth to the Moon
Originally broadcast in April and May of 1998, the epic miniseries From the Earth to the Moon was HBO's most expensive production to date, with a budget of $68 million. Hosted by executive producer Tom Hanks, the miniseries tackles the daunting challenge of chronicling the entire history of NASA's Apollo space program from 1961 to 1972. For the most part, it's a rousing success. Some passages are flatly chronological, awkwardly wedging an abundance of factual detail into a routine dramatic structure. But each episode is devoted to a crucial aspect of the Apollo program. The cumulative effect is a deep and thorough appreciation of NASA's monumental achievement. With the help of a superlative cast, consistent writing, and a stable of talented directors, Hanks has shared his infectious enthusiasm for space exploration and the inspiring power of conquering the final frontier.
NASA's complete participation in the production lends to its total authenticity, right down to the use of NASA equipment, launch locations, and even spacecraft. The re-creation of the lunar landscape is almost as impressive as the real thing and is further enhanced by the use of helium balloons to lighten the actors playing moon-walking astronauts. (These and other backstage details are revealed in the "making of" featurette, along with a wealth of supplemental materials, on a bonus disc in the miniseries' DVD package.) With a fictional, Walter Cronkite-like TV reporter (Lane Smith) serving as the dramatic link for all 12 episodes, this ambitious production may not be a great work of art. But as a generous and definitive example of nonfiction drama, it's full of the same kind of awe, inspiration, and humanity the led to "one giant leap" in the all-too-short history of 20th-century space exploration.
Formats Available:
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Contact
Devoted astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway undertakes an emotional and
spiritual journey after receiving the message she's waited for all her
life--a mysterious signal beamed in from alien beings, who pass along
instructions for building and piloting a craft that will presumably survive
the passage from Earth to their home. While struggling to fund her
mission, Arroway also struggles with her feelings about the nature of
things, particularly after meeting a charismatic New Age believer who
questions her disbelief in God. A deliberately-paced, meditative
adaptation of the eponymous novel by Ann Druyan and "pop"
astronomer Carl Sagan, who died during production.
Academy Award Nomination: Best Sound.
Formats Available:
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Deep Impact
Exciting yarn about attempts to ward off a comet hurtling toward
Earth--and preparations to save as many people as possible if it hits.
Morgan Freeman is the rock-solid U. S. President, Robert Duvall a veteran astronaut on
a space mission to explode the comet; their authoritative presence
adds weight to this saga, while Tia Leoni seems a bit of a flyweight by
contrast as the ambitious TV newswoman who breaks the story. Super!
VHS formats are current priced for the rental market (around $100), so we recommend the DVD format.
Formats Available:
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Armageddon
The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry
Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continues
Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our
planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what
mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster
movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid- fire pacing,
and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd,
oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the
world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not
flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this
huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned
astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology,
even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more
than flashing lights and shiny gadgets.
Formats Available:
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Star Wars Trilogy - Special Edition
The complete revised Star Wars trilogy, comprising the Special Editions
of "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi." A
band of desperate freedom fighters take on Darth Vader and the evil
Galactic Empire in a test of daring, valor, and the all-encompassing
Force. Each film has been digitally remastered from the original, with
improved sound and picture quality as well as updated special effects
and additional scenes. Though purists object to the revisionist
dabbling, director George Lucas claims these versions more closely fit
his original vision.
Each film includes a behind-the-scenes look at what
went into the special effects wizardry of the new versions, as well as the theatrical teasers that were played prior to the Special Edition's release.
"Elaborate, imaginative update of Flash Gordon incredibly became one of
the most popular films of all time. It's a hip homage to B-movie ethics
and heroism in the space age, as a callow youth (Hamill) becomes an
interplanetary hero with the help of some human and robot friends.
R2D2 and C-3P0 steal the show. Won seven Oscars for various technical
achievements and John Williams' rousing score. Full title onscreen (on
re-release prints) is STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE. Followed by
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. Special Edition
released in 1997 features souped-up special effects and about 4m. of
new footage."
-- Leonard Maltin, Film Critic
Formats Available:
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2001: A Space Odyssey
When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the
proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the
maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would
virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring
experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story
"The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of
dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of
human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly
tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship
Discovery and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end,
Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's
underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the notorious,
seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and
personality than the human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The
director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien
monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what makes
2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial
space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the
film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and
outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic
special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is
nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and
perfect.
Formats Available:
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2010: The Year We Made Contact
Peter Hyams' sequel to Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking "2001: A
Space Odyssey" opens nine years later as an American team led by
space agent Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) sets out for Jupiter to find out what
happened on the 'Discovery' space ship's disastrous voyage. In order to
accomplish their mission, the Americans join forces with a group of
Soviet astronauts, even though on earth, the governments of the two
super-powers are readying themselves for all-out nuclear war. The two
crews try to overcome their differences as they seek answers to the
central questions raised in "2001": What is the meaning of the black
monolith? Why did HAL 9000 mutiny and will it do so again if
resurrected? Also starring John Lithgow, and Helen Mirren. Arthur C. Clark makes a cameo on a Washington, DC park bench.
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