This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Penguins in the Penthouse
Plot Overview
Thomas “Thom” Popper, Jr. grew up with his globetrotting
dad away in exploration, but they kept in contact via
shortwave radio tuned to the fifteen meter amateur radio band.
They used self-assigned handles Tippy Toe and Bald
Eagle in the manner of CB'ers. Ham radio operator Bob Brown,
NM7M, explains radio wave propagation:
Elementary Considerations. The electromagnetic waves go up into the ionosphere and then return to earth at a great distance from where they started. ¶… that's called ionospheric reflection. ¶… hops are not always the same, say day or night or at different times of the year, or even in a course of a solar cycle. (11, 15)
The sun's radiation sets conditions favorable for skip, high sunspot numbers corresponding to worldwide propagation on the higher bands. Fifteen meters does well at solar peak, is iffy mid cycle, and peters out at the bottom of it. We're shown samples of their communication over the years: sometimes clear and sometimes staticky. We assume their handles are a double entendre, the boy's Tippy Toe corresponding to the bottom of the cycle and the dad's Bald Eagle to the top.
As an adult
Thom—pronounced Tom—(Jim Carrey) is a successful real
estate broker with a broken marriage. After fifteen years of it,
he's divorced, his wife Amanda (Carla Gugino) is starting to date
someone else, and he gets his two children every other
weekend. He has a penchant for forgetting his son Billy (Maxwell
Perry Cotton)'s birthday. He's forgotten again and when the kids
arrive, they mistake a surprise shipment of a penguin from his
father—one of two—as the gift. In appreciation
their mom allows him to take them to dinner, where he says grace.
Recall the waiter's exhortation from the movie “Evan Almighty” (2007.)
If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them the opportunity to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
In this movie Thom must exercise
patience to work things out with his wife whom he still
“likes.” He'll need courage to throw the hail-Mary pass
to get her to dump her other beau. And the cute penguins with their
needed care will give his family opportunity to show love for each
other. What he actually prays at grace, however, is,
“Please use your mighty power to stop the melting of the
polar ice caps.” Well, turning down the thermostat on
his own 3200 square foot apartment was within his actual reach.
There are longer grand solar cycles than the eleven year one. There
was even a period known as the Maunder Minimum, from
1645–1715 of a quiescent sun when there were NO sunspots.
History reveals something very peculiar about that time.
Without the solar wind in conjunction with a strong
terrestrial magnetic field to deflect cosmic rays coming from
space, those rays penetrated the atmosphere causing high altitude
ionization producing an abundance of aerosols that served as the
nuclei of condensation for cloud formation. Clouds
thus formed are brighter and longer-lived than regular clouds. That
increased Earth's albedo, the coefficient of reflection, sending
more energy back into space than usual. So during the period of the
Maunder Minimum, rivers froze over that should have been flowing,
etc. They call it the Little
Ice Age. There was a similar Dalton minimum and cooling period in
1795. Comparing the graphs, the next slump ought to be
along—brace yourself—in 2031.
Adding to a current warming effect on our whole solar system from a nearby star's nova eruption, and some undersea volcanos warming the Earth, there is man-made geoengineering manifested by chemtrails widely ignored the same way the desk man in this picture was paid off not to see the prohibited pets. There's good money to be made manipulating farm real estate, and for that matter carbon credits. Our atmosphere is 80% Nitrogen and 20% Oxygen, with a trace amount of Carbon Dioxide needed for plant photosynthesis. Gas guzzlers add but a minute amount to that at best. The man-made global warming thesis is based on 19th century science that puts the greenhouse effect as a result of heat radiation, when greenhouses stay warm by blocking convection and conduction, not radiation. The vacuum of space is the insulator that keeps the heat in. I've written more generally on the falsehood of the greenhouse gas model of manmade climate change in my review of the movie “The Martian” where he lives on Mars with an actual greenhouse.
Ideology
It's up for grabs how this romantic adventure will turn out for the highlighted couple, but that's nothing new. (Prov. 30:18-19) “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” The writer of this proverb juxtaposed three hard-to-track movements with romantic intrigue: a soaring eagle, a slithering snake, and a tossed-about ship.
“The way of an eagle in the air” is the penguin named Captain trying out his prosthetic wings from the top of a building. That's like the hail Mary pass, do or die.
“The way of a serpent upon a rock” corresponds to television images amusing the penguins of Charlie Chaplin's inimitable waddle, as in “The Great Dictator.” Mr. Popper in his penguin picture just waddles around circling his ex.
“The way of a ship in the midst
of the sea” corresponds to penguins going down the water
slide. The couple will inevitably land in something.
Production Values
“” (2011) was directed by Mark Waters. It was written by Sean Anders, John Morris and Jared Stern, loosely based on the children's book of the same name. It stars Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Ophelia Lovibond and Angela Lansbury. Carrey gave a swell interpretation of the set-upon penthouse loner. Lovibond was a riot as his assistant, an alliteration maven.
MPA rated it PG for mild rude humor and some language. The half dozen penguins in this picture are a combination of real Gentoo Penguins and CGI. They looked altogether real to me. Cinematography is routine. Editing & Art Design are choice. CG are engulfing. Runtime is 1 hour 34 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This one is made for children or the young at heart. The actors pulled off a good one, and so did the birds. Seeing it would be a good use of 1½ hours.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability for children: Suitable for children with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Brown, Robert R. The Little Pistol's Guide to HF Propagation. Copyright March, 1996. Sacramento: Worldradio Books. Print.
Evan Almighty (2007.) Dir. Tom Shadyac. USA: Universal.
bibles.n7nz.org