Rental Recs: Climate Change on DVD

Conservative shock jocks know how it works. If you say, "Al Gore invented the Internet" enough times then you'll forget that the former presidential candidate did in fact author the legislation that made sites like Film.com possible.

The same goes for global warming. Point to his jet and laugh enough, and yeah, the possibility of the Artic becoming the world's greatest Jacuzzi seems as unwieldy as the former Vice President wearing a beard with dignity.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006) was indeed a noble (and Nobel) endeavor and a finely crafted public service announcement. If you haven't seen it, you should. It'll change the way you think.

Unfortunately, the human-impact theorists became their worst enemies with the unofficial sequel, The 11th Hour (2007). Other than teenage girls, is there anyone who's not immediately suspicious of anything "presented" to them by Leonardo DiCaprio? I haven't been able to take Martin Scorsese seriously since 2002, when he revealed his Leo-crushing in Gangs of New York. Now I'm expected to listen to Jack Dawson lecture on carbon emissions and other scientific things?

This weekend, National Geographic Channel premieres Six Degrees Could Change the World (Feb. 10, 8pm EST), which from the teasers looks like a pretty damned cool (no pun intended) and high-FX-budgeted educational program about how rising temperatures would decimate the earth. The thing is, I'm too burnt out (again, no pun intended) from the last two to watch another environmental documentary.

So, for this week's recommendations, I'm putting forward a few good fictional films that'll help you decide what you think is the root cause of climate change. I've split it into to the two camps: "Scientifically Accepted Theory" and "Alternative Theory."

Scientifically Accepted Theory of Climate Change:

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Amazing special effects outshine America's favorite living gay-cowboy actor, Jake Gyllenhaal. It ain't half bad on a big screen. The good thing about the film is that the somewhat implausible plot fast-forwards the effects of global warming.

Waterworld (1995)
This Kevin Costner-as-fishman versus Dennis Hopper-as-pirate-on-a-flooded-earth flick was terribly received when it premiered. But 12 years later, it's aged into a damned fine cheese fest.

Split Second (1992)
Like all films starring Rutger Hauer, this film became an instant cult sci-fi classic. Set in a flooding London of the future, Hauer gets to swap roles with Harrison Ford and for once play the hardboiled detective out to settle the score.

Alternative Theories of Climate Change:

The X-Men Trilogy (2006)
If the wind suddenly starts blowing, if snowflakes fall from a sunny sky, if rain starts flowing upwards, and that all occurs while you happen to be breaking into a bank, then there's really only one cause of "climate change." Halle Berry.

The Rainmaker (1956) and The Rainmaker (1982)
The original film starred Burt Lancaster as a con man who tells a small town that he can make it rain, with Katherine Hepburn as his love interest. The 1982 TV remake cast Tommy Lee Jones in the part. It's not to be confused with Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker (1997), though that's good too.

The Avengers (1998)
Three classy actors see how the winds of Hollywood can change in this campy bomb of a remake. Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes take on Sean Connery's evil mastermind Sir Wynter, who, as his name implies, is blackmailing the world with climate change.

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