Today's Column: The hour of wolves

This month's column for your consideration:

Het Uur van de Wolf

And it's not even about Game of Thrones. Though I couldn't escape at least mentioning that show, since it's the first thing on most people's minds when you mention these large wild canines these days. I must admit I exaggerated my experiences with the wolf news a little, as I did my fear for the safety of my friends in that region. It's the Netherlands, what could possibly go wrong? Small country, small catastrophes. And one wolf in 150 years shouldn't exactly cause a witch hunt by mobs in panic (though on a related note, that darn eagle-owl in Purmerend nearly did). Nevertheless, I found all the upheaval in the media and the reactions of the man in the street on the subject most intriguing. And since one of my colleagues already beat me on writing another column on superhero movies this month, I'd thought I'd address this subject instead (so you know what to expect for a column next month). How much difference is there after all in between consuming large quantities of one particular television show and one particular news item over the course of a matter of days? In terms of experience, it can be very much the same thing, as I found it to be. The news might reach the same highs and lows in terms of action and drama as the show, though of course, the news isn't scripted (though the way the media brings it might be doctored to some degree).

Of course, when met with a decent amount of viewer loyalty, the series is eligible for a second season, while the news is limited to actual goings-on of any interest for any follow-ups. Seems this wolf has had his fifteen minutes of fame and the show's over. Unless the wolf acquired a taste of the beautiful and bountiful Dutch landscape and decides to return. Fat chance. Whenever I go gallivanting around in Groningen, I'm always happy to reach home again. I doubt the wolf would feel any different.

Today's Film: The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow

Rating: ***/*****, or 7/10

Probably Roland Emmerich's most typical disaster movie, delivering grandiose spectacle as catastrophe strikes and actors attempt to survive the many pixels the visual FX departments throw at them accordingly. Joining on the doomsday bandwagon of both scientists and laymen alike, Emmerich depicts the coming of a new ice age due to mankind's arrogant tampering with the planet's environment. Caused by global warming, ocean currents change and a series of super storms evolve, hitting the northern hemisphere hard, resulting in giant tornadoes levelling Los Angeles and tsunamis engulfing New York City. Things get even worse when temperatures drop rapidly and the latter town freezes over completely, leaving a boy (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his friends trapped in the city library, with his father (Dennis Quaid) setting out on a desperate trek across the frozen wasteland to come and save him. Though the prospects of global warming (or global meltdown for that matter) aren't particularly attractive in real life either, Emmerich goes all-out without really bothering with the laws of nature for realism's sake. The movie is therefore much maligned amongst the scientific community for its preposterous display of dramatic natural effects supposedly caused by global warming, but the message stands that we had better try to avoid the Earth cooling down or warming up for our own health anyway. Like any disaster movie, the true star of the film is the disaster itself which makes for a highly entertaining watch, while the human drama in-between moments of thrilling calamities is less compelling, at times even obnoxious for getting into the way of the action. Most spectacular is the flooding of New York, despite the overly digital quality of the piece. After that, the big freeze and a wolf attack upon the protagonists provide some more thrills but the best bits have come and gone, though all too brief moments of satire, like Americans crossing their southern border to get into Mexico illegally, generate a good laugh occasionally. Emmerich would find even more stuff to demolish in his disaster flick to-end-all disaster flicks 2012, as the fate of whole mankind and indeed the entire world lies in the balance: after all, the southern hemisphere got off too lightly in this film.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum

Directed by Roland Emmerich

USA: 20^th Century-Fox, 2004