Tag: morgan freeman

Morgan Freeman’s Wormhole Series Starts a New Season

Posted on May 14, 2013 at 8:00 am

Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman returns to Science Channel to host the fourth installment of the Emmy® nominated Through the Wormhole series on Wednesday, June 5, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT).  Featuring nine riveting episodes, this all-new season poses thought-provoking and awe-inspiring questions spanning science, space, and humankind sure to satisfy viewers’ insatiable curiosities.  Season four’s premiere episode dives right into mystery and controversy with exploration of the charged topic, “When Does Life Begin?”

“One of the inherent characteristics of mankind is our need to understand truth and meaning.  Our drive to ask ‘how,’ ‘why’ and ‘what if’ makes us who we are – and provides the basis for Through the Wormhole,” said Freeman.  “Working on Through the Wormhole gives me the opportunity to bring together renowned physicists, cosmologists and neuroscientists to explore some of science’s greatest questions.”

Each episode boasts innovative scientific research and groundbreaking theories brought to viewers by scientists who break down the walls of today’s most compelling subjects. Every week viewers will be challenged to consider new perspectives and confronted with ideas that push the envelope of conventional television. Other questions tackled in this new season include, “Did God Create Evolution?”, “How Do Aliens Think?”, “Can Our Minds Be Hacked?”, and “Will Sex Become Extinct?”

For the first time ever, Wormhole fans will be granted exclusive access behind the scenes with Morgan Freeman and the producers of to get a glimpse of how each question is explored and explained. Find out about Freeman’s deep interest in science and the methods used to visualize and simplify complicated, often philosophical, subjects incorporating the latest discoveries from scientists in the field.  The never before seen footage will be available only at sciencechannel.com/wormhole.

Season Four will include:

Episode 1: WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

Premieres Wednesday, June 5 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

The premiere episode explores what defines the beginning of a life.  It is a debate that has raged for centuries’.  Groundbreaking evidence reveals that inside all of us are traces of cells from our relatives, blurring the lines between one life and another. Technology is now giving birth to new life forms made of surprising components—from droplets of oil in a Petri dish, to conscious robots and to a new global internet-connected life form comprised of all humanity.

Episode 2: CAN WE SURVIVE THE DEATH OF THE SUN?

Premieres Wednesday, June 12 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

The Sun holds a dark secret. Someday it will bathe us in a fiery, planetary holocaust..  Will the Sun someday, bathe us in a fiery, planetary holocaust? How will we survive the death of our star? The technology to move our entire civilization to Mars sounds like sci-fi, but it is almost within our grasp.  Reaching a second Earth across the galaxy could be possible thanks to a radical new propulsion technology from manmade black holes.

Episode 3: HOW DO ALIENS THINK?

Premieres Wednesday, June 19 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

By studying the non-humans in our midst, scientists are learning how alien minds might function. Biologists and computer scientists watch “dumb” ants form an intelligent super-organism; neuroscientists probe the mysterious brains of octopuses; and a team of researchers show that even plants behave in ways we normally only associate with animals. Meanwhile, a linguist tries to imagine advanced alien language by recreating centuries of human language evolution, a researcher teaches humans to feel an alien sense and a groundbreaking psychologist finds that super-intelligent aliens may still be ruled by emotions.

Episode 4: CAN OUR MINDS BE HACKED?

Premieres Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Our minds store our entire lives, our memories and our deepest desires and our brains are biological computers. Could brain hackers someday be able to rewrite our thoughts similar to how computer hackers hack email? For the first time, neuroscientists are translating patterns on a brain scan into specific pictures and words. They have learned how to insert ideas into people’s minds as they sleep and one pioneering MIT scientist has shown he can inject emotions, on demand, into a living brain.

Episode 5: WILL SEX BECOME EXTINCT?

Premieres Wednesday, July 3 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Every single person who has ever lived was created from the genes of one man and one woman but human sexual reproduction, unchanged for millions of years, is about to undergo a radical revolution.  Technology is on the brink of making children from two fathers, or two mothers.  Marine biologists are using mechanical wombs to birth live sharks and humans could be next. We may soon cure diseases by making children with more than two genetic parents, or even give our offspring genes from the animal kingdom.  If this is the case, will sex become extinct?

Episode 6: ARE ROBOTS THE FUTURE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION?

Premieres Wednesday, July 10 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

From our smartphones to our vacuum cleaners to our cars, we have robots that live and work beside us. We are designing these everyday objects to think for themselves giving them the power to learn to move on their own.  Is it possible that these new life forms evolve to be smarter and more capable than humans or will we choose to merge with the machines, combining the best of our world with the best of theirs?

Episode 7: IS REALITY REAL?

Premieres Wednesday, July 17 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Do we live in the “real world,” or is it all in our mind? Our perception of reality is controlled by society. We make unrealistic assessments about our own reality, thanks to “the optimism bias,” a twist of the brain that rejects negative information about ourselves. Human senses capture only a small part of nature, and new physics suggests we may be blind to entire dimensions of space or there could be less to reality than we think.

Episode 8: DO WE HAVE FREE WILL?

Premieres Wednesday, July 24 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

What if everything that has or will happen in the universe has already been determined and we are unable to change our inevitable destinies? Until the discovery of quantum uncertainty, physicists were convinced free will does not exist. Now neuroscientists and geneticists have stepped into the fray, arguing that free will is an illusion thanks to the genes we are born with, the automatic processes working in our brains, and the conforming pressures of society.

Episode 9: DID GOD CREATE EVOLUTION?

Premieres Wednesday, July 31 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)

Is life the product of evolution or is it thanks to the guiding hand of God?    Believers in Intelligent Design argue complex life could not have evolved randomly.  One evolutionary scientist is filling in the gaps in the fossil record by bringing extinct creatures back to life as robots.  An engineer has discovered a single pattern that appears throughout the entire universe. Is the existence of a “moral molecule” in our brains a sign that God created humanity?  Was life created by evolution, by God or both?

 

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Television

Dolphin Tale

Posted on September 22, 2011 at 6:41 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: 4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for some mild thematic elements
Profanity: Some schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Some alcohol
Violence/ Scariness: Injured human and animal characters, offscreen wartime violence, recovering human and animal amputees, discussion of parental loss and abandonment
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: September 23, 2011
Date Released to DVD: December 12, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN: B004EPZ01G

It won’t be available for sale until next week but I just can’t wait to feature this terrific film.  I have a copy to give away so if you’d like to enter, send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Dolphin in the subject line and don’t forget your address!  I’ll pick a winner December 16.  

Clearwater Florida’s star attraction Winter, the dolphin with the prosthetic tail, plays herself in a  heart-warming story that is one of the best family movies of the year.

The human characters are fictional, but Winter really did lose her tail and would not have survived without the development of a mechanical tail to allow her to swim. In this story, a nice connection is made not just between a lonely boy and the affectionate dolphin but between the two species who have to adjust to the loss of limbs and the use of mechanical replacements.

In this version, a boy named Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) has become something of a loner after his father left and his favorite cousin Kyle, a swim champion, joins the military.  He is unhappy about being sent to summer school.  All he wants to do is tinker with his remote controlled helicopter in his workshop and wait for his cousin to come home.

On the way to school one morning, he sees an injured dolphin on the beach.  He gently cuts her free and whistles to her to keep her calm until the Marine rescue team arrives.  Later, he sneaks into the aquarium where she is being cared for and meets the marine biologist in charge, Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick, Jr.) and his young daughter, Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff).  Winter responds to Sawyer so well that they let him stay and help take care of her.

Hazel and Sawyer spend hours cradling Winter gently until she starts to try to swim.  As Winter begins to get better, Sawyer starts to become a part of the community at the aquarium.  His mother (Ashley Judd) is at first frustrated and angry that he has been ditching school.  But then she realizes that he is learning far more from being with Winter at the aquarium than he could anywhere else.  When Kyle comes back injured, both he and Winter will need to find the courage to confront their challenges.  A lovably irascible doctor at Kyle’s VA facility (Morgan Freeman) thinks he can adapt the prosthetic technology they use to help the wounded veterans to give Winter a new tail.

And then just as Winter’s survival is on track, the survival of the aquarium and the marine program is at risk.

That’s a lot to handle, but writer/director Charles Martin Smith wisely keeps the focus on Sawyer and Hazel, and it is a treat to see their passion and optimism.  Gamble and Zuehlsdorff have a lovely natural chemistry and the grown-ups in the cast provide able support.  The story has a fairy tale quality, especially when it comes to saving the aquarium, and then the footage of the real-life disabled kids visiting Winter reminds us that the true story is even more magical.

 

(more…)

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3D Action/Adventure Drama DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Family Issues Inspired by a true story Stories About Kids
Red

Red

Posted on January 25, 2011 at 8:00 am

Give me Dame Helen Mirren with a semi-automatic weapon and Morgan Freeman smiling, “We’re getting the band back together,” and I will happily settle back and enjoy the popcorn.

“RED” stands for “Retired Extremely Dangerous,” and this is the designation applied to a group of former CIA and other operatives. They find it difficult to adjust to a peaceful life and are as relieved as they are energized when it turns out that they have been targeted by the same kinds of hit squads they used to run. Game on.

The graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner is a bit more grim than this high-spirited adaptation with Oscar-winners Mirren and Freeman having a literal and metaphoric blast doing just what their characters are doing — showing the young folks how it’s done.

Bruce Willis plays Frank Moses, who lives in a house with all of the personality of an airport motel and whose only pleasure is in talking to Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) the woman at the call center about why he isn’t receiving his retirement checks — which he is receiving and tearing up to give him an excuse to talk to her. Masked assassins try to take him down. Not hard to find — his is the only house on the block with no Christmas decorations. But apparently they don’t realize he is Bruce Willis so they are quickly dispatched. He grabs his go bag and is off to pick up Sarah, for her own protection of course, and, well, get the band back together to figure out who’s after them this time and what they need to do about it. That includes former MI-5 agent Victoria (Mirren), nursing home resident Joe (Freeman), and Marvin (John Malcovich), a survivor of the CIA’s LSD experiments who exemplifies the truism that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.

The sharp, witty script is expertly presented by top performers with great action scenes, a little romance, and surprise appearances by two more Oscar-winners, likely to mow down the competition at the cineplex with as much elan as they go after the bad guys.

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