Part of the joy of paying extra for HBO channels is that you get to watch all the crap you would never have paid a dime for to see in the movie theatres.
Case in point: "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (2008), the remake of the 1951 classic. The 1951 version blows the 2008 version out of the water, even if you watch a faded, scratchy copy with the sound turned off. Seriously.
The 2008 version barely made enough, domestically, to pay for its production costs. It made nearly twice that in foreign receipts, showing that overseas audiences are much less critical of crap. The film industry was unimpressed with its performance.
I like Keanu Reeves, although I acknowledge that his acting, post-"Bill and Ted," is extremely wooden. His woodenness shines in this film. If the casting director wanted "wooden and dull," she got what she was looking for in Keanu.
I was hoping that Jennifer Connelly could save the film, but alas, no.
The real stars are the little metal locusts of which the robot Gort is comprised. Gort disintegrates into a whirling cloud of death which spreads across the countryside, eating vehicles, highway signs, buildings and people, leaving nothing behind.
Not much of a plot, really.
What made the 1951 movie a classic was the THREAT of extinction (unless man stops fighting wars), without actually carrying it out. It was more of a psychothriller in that regard. The 2008 version is a lot of CGI and not much heart or rhetorical bombast. "Stop destroying the environment or we'll kill you" doesn't really move me. Or many other viewers, apparently.
Oh well. Hopefully I didn't pay more to see it, based on my monthly HBO bill versus number of movies we actually watch (close to zero), versus what we would have wasted in the theatre on it.
1 comments:
You had me at "Keanu"
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