Giving a listen now...and we just came up on the whole "you can't go from hubble orbit to ISS orbit" issue.

I read an interview with Cuaron in which he stated that after the first draft was complete, he sent it to a bunch of physicists for technical support and that was one of the biggest issues they found. They did provide him with a way to explain how to make it work, and he did write a segment which would have addressed it to make it more realistic (he didn't state how in that interview).

Ultimately it took a 10-15 min segment to make it fit and he felt it messed up the pacing and other elements. So in the end it was one of those moments where he said "We could make it work, but it would have compromised the storytelling too much."

Best commentary ever! But I'm biased so...

The point I'm about to try to make can easily be misconstrued but... did Sandra Bullock's face bother anybody else watching this movie?  The thing that took me out of this movie the most wasn't the where the science didn't hold up or where the FX didn't hold up.  What distracted me the most was her face. 

To me, Sandra Bullock's face doesn't look anything like a face one would find in nature.  She has a face that clearly has had cosmetic plastic surgery, right?  There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but her face totally looks like the face of a woman that has had very good very expensive plastic surgery.  Ryan Stone doesn't seem to me like a person who would have that. 

To be clear, I am not saying that cosmetic surgery is bad, either aesthetically or philosophically.  I am also not saying that it is unheard of for intelligent, resourceful people to also have a sense of vanity.  I'm not even saying Bullock shouldn't have been cast, because she kicked some serious butt in this role. 

It just seemed like an incongruity to me and it was an incongruity that the camera was focused on for most of the run time.  Was it just me?

Fun game:

Watching 2001 on the ISS sounds like:

watching Air Force One on Air Force One
watching World Trade Center in the Freedom Tower
watching Olympus Has Fallen, or White House Down at the White House

You guys had an awesome guest and kept the quality up (as always).

I, however, disliked the movie. Not because of the hype and everything. But, because I saw it on a tv instead of the theater. The technical achievements and 'amazing theater experience' is fine. But, listen to the podcast guys: you don't really compliment the story. And, you glazed over the 'fridge logic' that permeates most of the plot (I understand the reasons but the film would work better if she were a survivor of a desert plane crash). The Lost World deserved to be criticized for its flaws and Gravity deserves to take its lumps, also.

Lastly, I wasn't just taken out of the movie by the flaws. I was also DEEPLY disinterested in the fate of the woman who didn't want to be there. By the time she cared and wanted to live, I couldn't connect to her anymore and kind of wanted her to fail. For contrast, I'd have loved to see Clooney's character attempt the same thing (he had a sense of humor and was clearly a pretty driven guy). I also should point out I take medication for depression. I do not lack sympathy for grief. I just don't want to watch someone mope and whine for 90 minutes.

I think there is a new phenomenon you guys should watch for (if you haven't seen it already). You recall people coming out of Avatar and talking about how amazing and spiritual and world-changing it was? They had seen Dances with Blue Wolves and got brainwashed by 3D or something. The 3D gravity seems to have had a similar effect: if you watched it at home, maybe you liked it, maybe not; But, the 3D theater people went bananas! I'm curious to see if this keeps happening with 3D movies.

The fix for this movies BTW is to set it as a plane crash in a desert. That way, Sandra doesn't have any training and isn't expected to have been trained; There is no need to cheat distances/physics/logic. The problem is that Cuaron wanted to make a space movie and wanted to make a character survival movie and I don't think the mix as well as I would like.
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Remember: See if you can get your guest back for the next space/sci-fi movie!

I think there's something else already in the LaGrange point on the far side of the moon. It's the deep space.. oh I remember, its the Wilkinson Probe!  It's basically the thing that looks for evidence of the beginning of the universe by mapping the cosmic microwave background radiation.  I wonder if it will get along well with this new telescope they're sending out there.   

About "that scene", the "cliffhanger" thing... I always thought there could have been an even MORE BETTERER solution to that.

- They have speed, she's tangled up with her feet in an *elastic* band
- Band is stretching, he goes "you need to let me go, or it'll break"
- She's all "fuck you, I'm holding on"
- Band stretches... stretches... they are slowing... slowing.... nearly at a stop...
- *PLINK* - band snaps. They are still moving... inches per second... away from safety.
- ...still holding hands...
- He's all "Okay, there's only one way for you to get back to the station. Equal and opposite action, and all that"
- She's all "What?"
- He's all "I need to push you away. You go home, I go away"
- She's all "No!"
- He's all "You got abetter idea!?"
- She's all "Oh fuck...."
- He's all "Yeah, fuck"
- She's all "I push you instead!!" *tears*
- He's all "No"... and shoves her off towards the station.
- They drift apart.. painfully slowly
- She's all "YOU ASSHOLE WHY DID YOU DO THAT"
- He's all "Hey, notice how pretty the stars are out here?"
- She's all "I HATE YOU" *devestated tears*
- He's all *turns on country music*
- He slooooowwwly drifts away.
- 3 minutes later, she bumps into the side of the station - safe - sobbing.
- Country music crackles out.

/Z